Necrotic ring

The necrotic ring is a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards. It was released at Ebon Gate 2019, as a prize from the Arena of the Abyss. The ring is charged by defeating undead in the Arena, and may randomly reanimate slain foe throughout the year, if charges remain. The number of charges can be determined through loresinging.

Across the surface of the ring, spots of ochre and brown stains radiate from tiny crystalline structures embedded in the bone.  Ichor green motes and shadows lurk within the crystals, living inclusions that alternately lighten and darken the calcification along the ring's edges.  A faint pulse, deep and bone-jarring, accompanies the flickering, beating like a necrotic heart.

Charges

CHARGES	MESSAGE
0-999	Using your thumb, you touch the underside of a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards that rests on your finger and feel a dull ache of pain.
1000-2999	Using your thumb, you touch the underside of a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards that rests on your finger and feel an irritating sting of pain.
3000-?	Using your thumb, you touch the underside of a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards that rests on your finger and feel a pulsating stab of pain.

Verbs

VERB	FIRST	THIRD
WEAR	Grimacing with pain, you slowly slip a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards onto your finger, and the flesh surrounding it immediately begins to rot.	Grimacing with pain, XXXXX slowly slips a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards onto her finger, and the flesh surrounding it immediately begins to rot.
REMOVE	Though the pain blinds you as you remove a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards, your finger miraculously returns to its previous unblemished state.	Pain darkens XXXXX's expression as she pulls a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards free of her finger.
COVER (show or hide unique feature)	You cover a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards that rests upon your partially rotted hand, hiding it from sight. You uncover a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards that rests upon your partially rotted hand, revealing it for all to see.	XXXX uncovers a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards that rests upon her partially rotted hand and reveals it for all to see. In feature line: Gangrenous flesh lays open to expose the blackened bone of her ring finger where a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards rests. Sickly green necrosis spreads to the back of her hand and wrist, while blistering sores ooze along her arm. XXXXX covers a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards that rests upon her partially rotted hand and hides it from sight.
CLENCH	Pain lances through your hand, its source the smooth bone ring that rests against your exposed bone. To combat the pulsating feeling, you clench your hand into a tight fist and grit your teeth.	XXXXX grits her teeth as she fashions her hand into a fist, her smooth bone ring standing out prominently against her exposed bone knuckles.
PROD (turn on and off)	You prod your smooth bone ring, prompting it to respond with a sharp pain. You prod your smooth bone ring, prompting it to respond with a cold stillness.	n/a
PULL	Shifting it slightly, you pull a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards away from a newly exposed nerve against your knuckle.	Shifting it slightly, XXXXX pulls a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards further up her finger and away from the exposed bone of her knuckle.
TOUCH	Using your thumb, you touch the underside of a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards that rests on your finger and feel a faint pulse of pain.	Using her thumb, XXXXX touches the underside of a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards that rests on her finger and shifts it around.
TWIST	Wringing your hands, you cause gangrenous rot to transfer from your smooth bone ring-sheathed finger to the opposite hand.	Wringing her hands, XXXXX causes gangrenous rot to transfer from around her smooth bone ring-sheathed finger to the opposite hand.
WAVE	You wave your hand through the air, your smooth bone ring flashing in the ambient light. Moments later, the air is laden with the heavy, putrescent scent of decay.	Ambient light flashes off of a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards upon XXXXX's hand as she waves. Moments later, the air is laden with a heavy, putrescent scent of decay.

In Action

After death, the creature may randomly be reanimated into a ghostly version of itself. The resulting undead is still a foe, and will attack the adventurer all over again.

You loose a ghastly, keening wail!
Your spellsong is ready.
You weave another verse into your harmony, directing the sound of your voice at an Ithzir champion.
  CS: +494 - TD: +400 + CvA: -10 + d100: +45 == +129
  Warding failed!
  An Ithzir champion reels under the force of the sonic vibrations!
  Sound waves disrupt for 53 damage!
   ... 50 points of damage!
   The Ithzir champion's eye explodes shattering the skull into a thousand pieces.

Excruciating pain lances through your hand as the smooth bone ring on your disfigured finger is awakened!  Necrotic energy, in the form of an ichor green haze, erupts from your ring and encircles an Ithzir champion, strangling its lifeless remains until a ghostly Ithzir champion is squeezed into existence!

The champion's face hardens in concentration, and she starts moving faster than seems possible.
A ghostly Ithzir champion's eyes narrow in focus as she attacks.
A ghostly Ithzir champion swings a jagged steel flamberge at you!
  AS: +450 vs DS: +590 with AvD: +42 + 60 + d40 roll: +7 = -31
   A clean miss.

Loresong

As you sing, you feel a faint resonating vibration from the smooth bone ring in your hand, and you learn something about it...
This is a small item, under a pound.  In your best estimation, it's worth about 1,000,000 silvers.

As you sing, you feel a faint resonating vibration from the smooth bone ring in your hand, and you learn something about it...
You sense a faint aura of magic surrounding the ring.  From the pitch of the vibration you determine that the purpose of the ring is as a piece of jewelry.

As you sing, you feel a faint resonating vibration from the smooth bone ring in your hand...
Powerful magic pulses from the smooth bone ring.  When worn, it has a chance to summon an undead creature from a recently slain creature.  It has NNN charges.  It is currently attuned to XXXXXX.

Eclipsing your mind's eye with shadows and the faint flicker of burning candles, the history of a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards comes to you slowly.  Vague outlines in the murk solidify into drawn chalk designs upon a smooth stone floor, the arcane twists and curves illuminated by thirteen fitfully burning votives.  Steady and rhythmic, the repeated words of a chant punctuate the air, though their meaning and the source is unclear.  Gradually, a sanguine ribbon of light rises out of the haze of candlelight and takes its time expanding.  It grows in size and shape to form a hazy portal and, at the moment of its completion, a demonic being steps forth from its depths.  Screeching into the cold stone of the summoning chamber, the grotesque monstrosity begins to move, but the vision grows fuzzy and fades away.

As if waking from a nearly forgotten dream, the cold ring in your hand begins to vibrate, and instantly a vision forms within your mind.  Chaos reigns supreme in an enclosed chamber as a demonic being bashes at the arcane bindings of the summoning circle that traps it in place.  Robed figures rush forward to redraw chalk lines, while others raise their hands and begin to chant in an effort to fortify the bindings.  Two figures are untouched by the turmoil around them, their eyes locked across the distance that separates them.  Framed in the haze of the portal, an ophidian-eyed woman plunges her spear into the heart of the demonic beast, a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards flashing on her hand in the candlelight.  Beyond, amid the tumultuous activities of his followers, a violet-eyed man watches.  Without breaking eye contact, she steps back into the portal and with a wave of her hand, closes it.  The chamber and your mind's eye are thrown into darkness.

As your voice touches upon a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards, a vision unfolds within your mind's eye.  A tortured landscape of shifting sands stretches before you, while above, the burned atmosphere is rife with sanguine light and a thin blanket of grey, tumbling clouds.  Enormous bones, the remains of some forgotten beast, create shadows ahead, their edges shimmering from the heat and arid climate.  Confidence, hunger, and a fierce determination fill you as you prowl toward the shadows with purposeful intent.  You stop upon the edge of the pooling darkness, your eyes scanning its depth, and with a sudden, blindingly fast movement, you stab with your spear into the darkness.  Writhing in agony, a serpentine beast formed of tentacles, mist, and talons falls to the ground at your feet.  Before its death throes can finish, you place your hand upon its muck-covered chest and intone a few short words.  A smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards that rests on your finger ripples with necrotic energy and draws the last visages of life out of the demon beneath your touch.  As the light fades from the orbs of its many eyes, you see your own ophidian-like eyes reflected in their depths.  Like the snuffing of a candle, the vision disappears.

A vision unfolds within your mind's eye as your voice touches upon a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards.  The arid air fills your mouth with the taste of dust and salt as you sit perched in the sand upon the half-buried skull of some enormous, forgotten beast.  You pull the tentacle off a dead demon at your feet and bring it to your lips, the inky blood nourishing you for the moment.  As you feast, your gaze falls upon five mirrors resting upon the ground.  Though they face the sky, the reflection in each is not that of a bruised, angry red sky, but instead of a man with violet eyes.  You begin to realize that you are watching him at various times, though you are unable to determine their relation to your own time.  In one image, he obsessively combs through texts for some obscure piece of knowledge, and in another, he commissions a ship, while in a third, he stands over a map of an ocean while conferring with scraps of parchment.  In each, you notice a rough sketch yourself and come to realize he is searching for you.  Slowly, the vision fades.

As the song of a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards entwines with your own, a vision blossoms within your mind's eye.  You find yourself seated, your elbows propped upon your knees, and your eyes focused upon mirrors laying in the dark sand.  Twilight begins to darken the sanguine sky as you watch a violet-eyed man draw the lines of a summoning circle upon the deck of a ship.  You feel a small smile creep across your face, the sensation of it almost as alien as the land in which you find yourself.  You wave your hand over the small mirrors, their centers immediately darkening to black, and gaze over your shoulder.  An army of skeletons in tattered robes, some humanoid, some not, stands motionless under your gaze.  Running your thumb against the underside of a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards on your finger, they suddenly lurch into motion and begin to march as your vision fades.

Anticipation seeps from a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards in your hand as your voice touches upon it, and soon your mind's eye is filled with the vision of a tortured landscape beneath a hazy, sanguine sky.  A ripple appears in the air before you, its edges widening with every breath you take of acrid air.  Thunder, not born of the world you stand in, fills the air with its ominous warning just as the ripple abruptly expands to create a portal that leads to the deck of a ship at sea.  Flicking your fingers, a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards resting against the bony appendage, you order an army of skeletons through and watch as they collide with arcane magics of a summoning circle.  The magical resistance that they face is short-lived, and between one heartbeat and the next, they shred the barrier and swarm the crew.  Waiting for you, a violet-eyed man stands at the forecastle, and as you move to cross the distance that separates you, a blinding flash of lightning explodes the floorboards.  Water, salty and bitter, rushes against your dry skin, and with but a blink, you find that the vision has evaporated.

As your voice touches upon a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards, a high-pitched ringing sound fills your ears, the noise effectively muting all other sounds.  Your lungs begin to burn with the need for air, but before you risk taking a breath, you open your eyes and are immediately greeted with the sting of saltwater.  Above your position within the water, moonlight illuminates the shattered remains of a boat, its possessions, and the lifeless forms of the two armies that battled on its decks as they plummet towards you and the bottom of the ocean.  In a state of panic, you splay your fingers wide, a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards on your finger flashing in the silvery light, and begin to draw energy from the dead as they pass you.  Ethereal spirits rise out of the corpses and surge towards you, their tortured screams lost in the water.  Your ring pulses with an energy that eases the burning in your lungs as it absorbs each one.  You swim towards the surface with frantic movements, your attention split between capturing souls and maneuvering through the debris that sinks past you.  A lancing pain nearly blinds you as a dark shape moves through the water by your left side, and its teeth are the last thing you see before your vision darkens.

Tumbling and turning, water rushes in around your vision as you sing to a smooth bone ring pierced by tiny crystal shards, though your attempt to garners no new information.  You begin to feel the weight of it sucking you down, but just as quickly as the sensation was upon you, it has left.