Appearance. A mostly-opaque glass jar with a wide rim (with a lid), covered in symbols. Perception DC 15 notices there are creatures alive and wriggling inside of it.

Origin. In the First Age, when the powers of the world were not yet settled, and Fiends and Goddesses and Great Winds and Unrealized Music from the hearts of stars all struggled in the creation of Order itself, Ebliss, the Great Old One of the Bright Reach (Dark Heart of the Sky, Mind of the Bridge) incubated a tendril of It’s dying glory in the heart of a Solar—a creature of the highest heavens of this reality. Though unable to come to our world Itself, it would spawn Its blessings and curses into our dimension through cruel incubation inside our most glorious beings.

The angel died, and its dying brought on thousand years of rage from the heavens. From its decomposing body, worm-like creatures gnawed their way out and devoured the carcass over centuries. In the Second Age, a cult to the Mind of the Bridge came to the desert where the great sun-bleached skeleton of the Solar lay and collected the last remaining worm. They fashioned a home for it, the Jar, and it has passed through the hands of one witch or warlock to the next ever since. The Worms are a true and perverse horror from the greatest of those Beings that scream from beyond stars. Attunement requires feeding the jar a drop of one’s own blood, Ebliss’s blessings come at a cost and the cost is Its knowing so deeply as to know your taste. You should consider the extent to which a Great Old One (or Its servants) would notice or care about that drop of blood, so meager a gesture lost in the noise of the universe. It may come with some risk, but it is unlikely to attract too baleful an eye (though, “unlikely” doesn’t mean “impossible”).

System. The jar itself demands a Charisma Save DC 15 the first time it is touched in a given day. While keeping it in a box would help the posessor to move it about without counting as a “touch,” cloth would not. Failure brings Madness.

This Madness takes the form of how many times during the day the DM may choose an Action for the possessor. If a Warlock, then one time (at some point during the day), the DM may take over one Action to do anything they want so long as it is an activity the character could normally perform (saying things, running, dropping items, being distracted, even casting a spell could count). If the possessor is any other kind of arcane caster, then the DM may take over two Actions that day. For all others, the DM may take over three Actions that day. Consider that this insanity need not always be detrimental, but it should always feel nerve-wracking—it is the loss of rational control. For example, madness could take the form of forcing the character to run away from something out of a self-preserving fear—in a situation where that may well save their life. Or, it could take the form of a paranoia that forces them to be unusually scrutinous and skeptical of a calm crowded market (potentially Advantaging their Perception). There are 1d2 handfuls of worms inside the jar, when opened initially. Ingesting a handful of worms removes curses, poisons, diseases, Frightened conditions, and the effects of being Charmed. The ingestor heals for 1 hit point, as well.

The ingestor must make a Constitution Save DC 15 at the end of any turn after chewing and swallowing the handful of worms. On a failure, they feel a rising nausea and vomit bad blood and pus until the end of their next turn, yielding 1 Exhaustion afterward (though the worms still “work”). While experiencing this nausea they may otherwise act as normal, but may not move. Forcing the worms into someone’s mouth, against their will. may require an opposed Athletics vs. Acrobatics check. The jar never permanently runs out. It replenishes 1 handful every 24 hours to a maximum of 2.