The Bad Penny takes the form of a golden coin of no particular distinguishing attributes from a regular gold piece.
A character who posesses the Bad Penny becomes compelled to pay off their dues. The Bad Penny is always tied to a king, a duke, a landed knight or some other noble who has the authority to collect taxes. This noble is most commonly the closest one in proximity to where the Penny is found.
The character who adds this coin to the rest of their coins becomes cursed by a haunting urge to calculate all their untaxed earnings, divide them by 10 and pay this amount as their tax to the noble the Bad Penny is tied to. Any earnings the character has taxed to any individual with the authority to collect taxes before obtaining the Bad Penny are not subject to this calculation.
If the character ignores this urge, they suffer 1 level of exhaustion every month until they either give in or die. This exhaustion can not be alleviated by any means other than the Wish spell, which will remove the current level of exhaustion but will not prevent the exhaustion from building up again next month and the months thereafter.
The Bad Penny can not be a part of the earnings paid to the tied authority. Once the tax is paid, the charater no longer suffers the urge and no longer builds up any exhaustion, so long as they do not earn more untaxed earnings. They may, as long as they do not suffer the urge, trade the Bad Penny as a normal gold piece, in exchange for goods and services, thus pushing it along to the next taxpayer. The penny can not be gotten rid of in any other way.
The spell Remove Curse allows the caster to attempt a DC 18 Wisdom check. On a success, the urge the Bad Penny produces is lifted from its bearer for 10 minutes, during which they may trade it with someone as per its intended use, thus getting rid of it.
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