The Abandoned Ring is a plain stone ring, with barely discernible carvings, which represent the circles of the Nine Hells. No one knows of the true origin of the ring, and it is made from an unknown zoic material.
The rings gives the wearer the possibility to obligate the rulers of the Nine Hells to fulfill an errand, depending on the ruler. After fulfilling the errand, the carving of the apropriate circle vanishes from the ring. When found, the ring has d8+1 carvings remaining.
Naturally, this kind of intervention causes a definite disproportion from the rulers side. Thus, when the character used all 9 errands, his soul would leave his body, and transported to Asmodeus, who can decide regarding his fate (DM-s choice). This feature of the ring can only be discerned by casting the spell Identify, and making an Arcana skill check against a DC of 25. Furthermore, the caster has to be able to read and speak the abyssal language.
Circle 1. Tiamat: summoning a Chain Devil to fight on Your side for 1 day, or until it is killed, or banished.
Circle 2. Dispater: locate an object, person or monster, regardless of any magical srcying defenses.
Circle 3. Mammon: give the wearer one of the following: 66.600 gold, one powerful magic item of his choice (provided the character is familiar with the item and it's features), or 5.000 XP points.
Circle 4. Belial: make the weare immune to fire damage, and the ability to cast Fiery Weapon as a bonus action, once per short rest (+1d6 fire damage / 5 character levels to the wielded weapon)
Circle 5. Gruumsh: summon an army of orc soldiers, remainingon the side of the wearer, and following his instructions for 24 Hours, or until they are killed (100 Orcs, one Orc War Chief and one Eye of Gruumsh)
Circle 6. Moloch: kill one opponent. The target can be anywhere on the continent. The target must make a Constitution and a Wisdom save, both against a DC 22. If one of the save fails, the target is killed, and his soul goes to the 6. circle of Hell, as a slave of Moloch.
Circle 7. Baalzebul: +2 persistent bonus on two abilities of Your choice. There is no cap for the ability raised thsi way.
Circle 8. Mephistopheles: resurrect the character once, using true resurrection. This feature can be used as a reaction, once You suffer damage, that would otherwise kill You.
Circle 9. Asmodeus: cast Wish spell
Notes: Contacting a devil
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Posted Aug 10, 2018Why are some of the Rulers of the Nine Layers left out and replaced with others?
And how come there's no downside other than losing your soul after using all nine? Why not have to do something to earn the favor? Do you only lose your should if you use all nine? what if you forgo the final one?
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Posted Aug 10, 2018Hi SC!
First of all, thank You for Your remarks! You are absolutely right about the things mentioned, the stuff is a bit shaggy, i have to admit.
It was my first magic item, and as such, it was a slapdash. With some time and elaboration it would have been much more cleared out.
The rulers were changed, to better fit the favors described. I know...
You are right about the part, having to do something to earn the favors, but i thought, it's an artifact let's give it an "artifact-y" power. Unbalanced, for sure
Yep, You only lose your soul after all 9 favors are used, so if you manage to indentify all of the rings abilities and forgo the final one, You get an overpowered artifact, with no backlash, so that's a bit lame, i know.
I will try to fine tune it, will let You know about the outcome.
Sorry bout that, and thanks again for Your comment.
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Posted Aug 20, 2018I upvoted the ring because i like the idea and concept.
but there are tons of stuff you should refine in it...
heres what i dislike about it.
- asmodeus giving a wish and mammon able to give a ring of three wishes makes the user able to make up to 4 wishes. even worse, he could simply ask for a ring of three wishes and then wish for more rings, which gives him infinity wishes.
- the wishes granted by asmodeus could simply be the last thing used to escape the ring itself. aka "i wish my soul was always mine and never someone else" thus breaking your ring entirely and leaving your player with way too much powers.
- Asmodeus would never give out such powers to someone just for its soul. he's much much more intelligent then that.
- Instant kill someone should never be given to any players whatsoever. this is way way too strong an ability to give any players, even if just once. not to mention thats not how soul gaining works. deevils dont just instant kill someone and gain their soul. that would be against anything the nine hells have to deal with. including the fact that the ruby rod in asmodeus possession would just outright kill moloch for doing that.
- An army or orcs that stays until they are dead... yeah, giving that to players makes them literally too strong. they could take over a country with that army. at much higher level its less of a problem but at lower level where this ring could be used, its a huge problem.
- you talk about Abyssal but this is a ring of nine hells... those two realms are completely different and literally at war to each others lore wise. the abyss (where demons speaks abyssal) is a chaotic place where demons just dont care for their words or their promises, they just care for themselves and their own entertainments. while the nine hells (devils who speaks infernals) are orderly and hierarchal in their ways. they hold tight to promises and their words are of utmost important.
aside form those... heres what i love and what i would change...
- I love the ability of tiamat, but would change the chain devil to an actual dragon or dragon like powers.
- i love the dispater ability.
- i love mammon, but would add the folowing to the item requirement... it cannot be an artefact nor a legendary item.
- i love the idea of belial, but honestly, much like tiamat, belial is a master of illusions, no a master of flaming things. i'd give something related to illlusions.
- Gruumsh ability should be about powers of magics, abilities that gives strength to someone. gruumsh is all about powers, not about armies.
- I love baal, but i'd give a small transformation to the physique as well as the 2 stats. to show the humility. or something angelic depending on what time you take his lore.
- i love that you use mephistopheles, but i think you missunderstand his title "lord of no mercy" he would never ressurect a player. but your flame stuff in belial would fit him perfectly ! thats totally him.
- i love the idea that asmodeus is in there and that someone could choose, but at that point i'd just say, the person in contract for the ring, has to wait and use that ability for last. i mean, not granting a wish, i would find soemthing grand like summoning a pit fiend or something. but it would need to be the very last charge you can use and if there are still other charges you cannot use that one. this gives the ring more senses as to why your soul goes to asmodeus.
so thats it for that... couple other adjustments that i thought of, but they all depends on which time you take the lore. like in recent time, dispater is not the ruler of dis, it is titivilus who sucessfully charmed dispater and became his most trusted ally. titivilus while not recognised as an arch-devil like dispater, is still the one giving the orders saying things like "dispater wants this and that to happen" while the arch-devil never said anything of the sort. basically by controlling dispater, titivilus controls the layer.
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Posted Aug 24, 2018DnDPaladin, thanks for Your detailed run-down!
Wow, i feel dragged and recognized at the same time!
It's my first magic item, it was hastly put together, on the basis of the idea, and as such it is completely chaotic. You are right about the flaws, and things that need refinement, i will do it sometime, and let You know about it.
Once again, thank You for taking time "disenchating" the artifact (well, it had a pretty low DC, You have to admit) :)
Have a nice day!
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Posted Aug 28, 2018Why do they have to speak Abyssal? That's the demons' language, not the devils'. It should be Infernal. Also, what if they just use one or two of the rings and then pass it on to someone else? And why are the current leaders of the Nine Hells not used? Gruumsh is a god, not a devil.
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Posted Feb 20, 2019Im a bit confused at gruumsh's presence. isn't he in Acheron and not the nine hells?
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Posted Feb 21, 2019Hi mrllamacorn3, Gruumsh, god of slaughter, chief god of the orcs, once had a realm in the Nine Hells and other Lower planes before relocating his family to the Iron Fortress in the astral dominion of Nishrek.
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Posted Feb 21, 2019ok, cool.
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Posted Aug 15, 2019You should update this because Layer1's ruler is now Zariel,Layer4has2rulers and they are Belial and Fierna,Layer5's ruler is now Levistus and was never Gruumsh and Layer6's ruler is now Glasya!
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Posted Jun 24, 2020It should require Infernal, not Abyssal.
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Posted Sep 1, 2020Aside from what others have said here, I think it would be cool if each circle powered up the next circle, so you'd have to use circle 1 in order to unlock circle 2. That would give players the incentive to use all of the circles, instead of just cherry picking the ones that they like the most.
I know that this item is a couple of years old but an update the the rules and lore would be great. This item has a huge potential to be a great story telling tool.
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Posted Mar 22, 2021I love this magic item so much. Sure it could be fine tuned a bit, but it really is amazing. It totally deserves all the upvotes.
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Posted Mar 24, 2021Thank you PrinceParsival!
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Posted Jul 17, 2021I had only read the first part and was blown away by how good it so take my like and I shall go now
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Posted Jul 19, 2021Thanks man!
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Posted Aug 6, 2021Maybe you become another engraving on the ring...
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Posted Oct 24, 2021Cool ring
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Posted Dec 22, 2021Awesome item. One thing others have mentioned: the language you know should be Infernal (devil/Nine Hells) rather than Abyssal (demon/Abyss).
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Posted Apr 8, 2022@seniorciticenz
it says it all. the favors part of the ring is discernable easily. leading any greedy person that finds it to probably wantonly use favors. only by 1) casting identify on the ring and 2) passing a steep dc 25 check to discern that you have your soul yanked upon depleting the circles favors of which you only have 1d8+1.
so you could acquire the ring with 2 circles that aren't particularly useful. or god tier ones like the last two. in which case its the temptation that will ultimately lead to your soul being taken if you don't fully understand what happens WHEN you deplete them "I'm going to die" "I could use it here" "I need to use it" which is a great way for an item intertwined with devil's power to work. through temptation and mortal greed.
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Posted Sep 5, 2022Hi, so are the abilities used in order or do you choose? i assume they're used in order, but i wanted to ask just in case.