Apocalypse Box (Major Artifact)

Slot none; CL 25th; Weight 2 lbs.; Aura overwhelming conjuration and necromancy

DESCRIPTION

This small, innocuous, black wooden box appears randomly throughout the multiverse, drawn to great heroes, greedy rulers, and desperate (and often morally ambiguous) mortals.

The Apocalypse Box appears subtly, sometimes as a dusty old box on a shelf or a forgotten heirloom in a grandparent’s attic. A creature looking upon the Apocalypse Box is struck with a sensation of nearly overwhelming avarice, and must succeed at a DC 30 Will save or be compelled to touch the box. This is a mind-affecting compulsion effect. If a creature touches the Apocalypse Box, she must succeed at another DC 30 Will save or fall under the box’s curse. Cursed creatures are compelled to use any available means—including fleeing from or murdering friends and loved ones—to keep the box out of the hands of others. This curse can’t be broken until the cursed creature dies or the box is destroyed. Additionally, if the cursed creature moves more than 10 feet away from the box, she immediately takes 1d4 points of Wisdom damage plus 1d4 points of Wisdom damage each subsequent day until she and the Apocalypse Box are reunited.

Only a creature bearing the Apocalypse Box’s curse can open it. Once per day, the cursed creature can open the box and draw forth a single item her heart desires. The item must be non-magical, weigh no more than 50 pounds, and be worth no more than 50,000 gp, but is otherwise limited only by the parameters of the wish spell. A mythic character can expend two uses of mythic power to draw forth a second such item each day.

Each time the Apocalypse Box is opened, there is a 50% chance that instead of granting a wish, the box summons a number of horrific monsters that immediately attack anyone in sight and remain to wreak havoc on the Material Plane for 1 week before returning to their plane of origin. Roll on Table : Apocalypse Box Monsters to determine the monsters that appear.

The Apocalypse Box is quite tenacious in its desire for someone to open it. Each day, the cursed creature must succeed at a Will save or be compelled to open it. This is a mind-affecting compulsion effect. The save DC is initially 20, but increases by 2 each subsequent day the box isn’t opened until the cursed creature fails the Will save, at which point she opens the box and the save DC resets to 20.

Table: Apocalypse Box Monsters (Major Artifact)
1d6 Monsters Summoned
1 Daemonic apocalypse: 1d4+1 olethrodaemons
2 Demonic invasion: 1 balor and 2d6 glabrezus
3 Infernal assault: 1 pit fiend and 2d6 barbed devils
4 Oni domination: 1 void yaiB3 and 2d6 fiendish cloud giants
5 Qlippoth infestation: 1 iathavos and 2d6 nyogoths
6 Unspeakable visitation: 1d4+3 shoggoths

DESTRUCTION

The Apocalypse Box can be destroyed by being crushed under the claw of an ancient gold dragon after a creature cursed by the box defeats three groups of Apocalypse Box monsters in a single day.

The act of crushing the box immediately slays the gold dragon, who can’t be returned to life short of divine intervention.

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