TEXT: F
  rom the Travelogue of Aluseba Half-Helm
  :
  Twelve winters ago, in the time that Trangusk sat in
  the place of the Great Shaman, I beheld the infamous
  Black Amulet.  It is a small pouch, made of ancient
  leather, blackened and cracked by age and decay.  It
  have never seen its contents, nor do I even know if they
  might be retrieved at all.  I can tell you what has been
  placed within the container.  For to gain the powers
  that the Black Amulet promises, you must first put in it
  a personal relic — a piece of nail, trimed from your fin-
  ger or toe; a lock of your hair; or a bit of your own skin.
  Then you wear the amulet around your neck on its
  leather string.
  It was worn by a proud warrior of the steppe
  named Yuriko.  He claimed that he had received it as
  an inheritance from his dying father, and his father had
  won it from a monstrous goblin chieftain in the eastern
  swamps.  Where that goblin had acquired it, who can
  say?
  I asked a shaman what the legends of the Black
  Amulet were.  She told me that a crafty spirit of the
  swamps, named Inuruk, created it for his favorite
  human, a warrior whose name has perhaps justly been
  forgotten.  Inuruk gave the amulet much power to aid
  his favorite, and through it the warrior became the
  most powerful man in his village.  As tends to be the
  way of mortals, this man became overly proud, and he
  boasted not only that he had become the greatest war-
  rior ever of the tribe, but that he had done  so through
  his own skills.  Inuruk was offended to have been for-
  gotten in the boasts of his former favorite; never was he
  credited for the power of the amulet, which had actual-
  ly won the warrior his stature.
  Clever Inuruk made an example of the warrior, by
  secretly changing the powers of the amulet.  He made
  the man so dependent upon the amulet that without it
  the mighty warrior was as a youngster who has just
  entered his manhood; even the powers that the amulet
  had granted were wryly twisted.  The amulet caused
  people to see the bearer as much greater than he was,
  and the bearer to perceive himself as being just so great
  as well.  Reality intruded quite harshly: While facing a
  terrible monster from the sea, the arrogant man discov-
  ered that he was not so strong as he had thought, and
  that most of the power he had thought the amulet had
  granted him was but a delusion.  Upon his death the
  people of his village awakened to the knowledge that
  they, too, had been deceived, and it was necessary that
  they summon the courage to drive away the sea mon-
  ster themselves.  They did so, and the villagers’ cooper-
  ation stands as an example for all the generations that
  have followed.    Perhaps it is appropriate athat the
  warrior’s name has been forgotten, while his story
  endures as a testimony against the perils of pride.
  The Black Amulet also remains; or at least there
  was this Black Amulet carried by Yuriko.  Yuriko
  claimed it gave him great powers.  He had been a
  mediocre warrior, but once given the amulet by his
  father, he rose to prominence in his clan, and his
  adventures and cleverness became the stuff of stories up
  and down the seacoast.
  Yuriko absolutely refused ever to part with the
  amulet, even for a moment.  He wore it proudly, day
  and night, even unto his death — a rather foolhardy
  death, I might add.  He had come west, seeking adven-
  ture in these lands, for he had heard tales of evils to
  destroy and treasures to win.  He strode to a hobgoblin
  camp one day, expecting to challenge and slay their
  best fighter — or, if need be, to destroy their wicked
  tribe singlehandedly.
  Since his body (without the amulet) was found in
  the garbage left when the hobgoblins moved on, I must
  conclude that Yuriko overestimated his own prowess.
  And what could be a more likely cause for his overcon-
  fidence than the legendary Black Amulet?
  Yuriko was much mourned by his clan, which sent
  men to collect the remains and return them to the east
  for burial.  I accompanied them, to investigate  further
  the history of the amulet he had praised so highly.  The
  shaman of Yuriko’s clan insists that the Black Amulet is
  no longer an evil thing, because Yuriko’s father fulfilled
  the legend of earning Inuruk’s respect in order that the
  Black Amulet’s beneficent powers be restored.  I remain
  unconvinced.
  A New Major Artifact 
  by John Nephew
  The Black Amulet
  A
  t
  l
  a
  s
   
  G
  a
  m
  e
  s
   
  P
  r
  e
  s
  e
  n
  t
  s
  W 
  W 
  W 
  . 
  A 
  t 
  l 
  a 
  S 
  - 
  G 
  a 
  m 
  e 
  s 
  . 
  C 
  O 
  M
  
  G
  ame Information: 
  The Black Amulet
  is indeed a powerful relic, but an
  accursed one.  When the swamp spirit,
  Inuruk, created it, he gave it power by trap-
  ping within an evil spirit whom he had
  defeated.  The amulet took the power of this
  evil spirit and used it to give strength and skill
  to its mortal bearer.  When Inuruk’s human
  favorite failed to accord the spirit proper
  respect and honor, however, he changed the
  amulet, twisting its nature to the man’s disad-
  vantage.  This nature remains in place today,
  and is as follows.
  As  Aluseba explained, the amulet’s pow-
  ers and effects are gained by placing it within
  a personal relic.  This binds the user’s soul to
  the amulet, somewhat like a magic jar spell.
  This bond is so strong that the wearer is pro-
  tected from any sort of possession.  The nega-
  tive side, however, is that if the body is slain,
  the soul is pulled into the amulet forever, pre-
  venting the use of any spell such as raise
  dead, resurrection, or reincarnation.
  Nothing short of the will of a deity or the
  destruction of the amulet, not even a wish,
  can counteract this event.
  This bonding also makes the bearer very
  dependent upon the amulet, which must be
  worn around his neck or be similarly
  attached to his person.  If it is removed, all
  benefits (except the protection from posses-
  sion) are lost, and in addition the character
  functions only as a first level character in his
  class(es) in all respects.  The character’s for-
  mer skills and benefits (as well as any experi-
  ence gained in the interim) are regained
  instantly if the amulet is again worn.
  Besides its disadvantages, the amulet does
  confer some benefits, though not as many as
  observers perceive.  It seems that all of the
  bearer’s ability scores are elevated to godlike
  stature; in fact, they are each raised by two
  points, but cannot be so raised above 18.
  Though the ability score benefit and pro-
  tection from possession are the amulet’s only
  beneficent powers, the bearer also perceives
  benefits to his combat skills.  All his attacks
  appear to do maximum damage, all wounds
  suffered seem only half as bad as they would
  be (and really are).
  Since the amulet contains the soul of
  every past user, and none have ever been
  released, one can only speculate as to what
  would happen if the amulet were destroyed.
  Most shamans are inclined to believe that the
  many souls gathered over the amulet’s cen-
  turies would be released.  What powers might
  such a multitude have?  Optimists say they
  would all be free at last to rest in peace.
  Perhaps they would be loosed upon the world
  as tortured ghosts; decayed bodies that had
  been subjected to unsuccessful attempts at
  raising the dead might become suddenly
  reanimated by a returned spirit.  In any case,
  no one is eager to find out.  Perhaps it is just
  as well that the relic has so far proven inde-
  structable.  Legend states that to be
  destroyed, the Black Amulet must be first
  placed within the skull of its spirit creator,
  Inuruk.
  Legend also states that Inuruk retains the
  power to restore the amulet to its original
  condition, in which its now-delusionary
  effects were real, but he has not yet found a
  person worthy, honorable and humble
  enough to bear it.
  'd20 System' and the 'd20 System' logo are Trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast and are used according to
  the terms of the d20 System License version 1.0.  A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com.
  ©2000 John A. Nephew. The game rules description in the red-outlined box, above, are published as Open Game
  Content under the Open Game License, version 1.0, and may be reproduced according to its terms, which are
  appended to this document.  The remainder of this document and its product identity may be freely reproduced, as an
  unaltered whole, for personal use only. The following are hereby labeled as “product identity” as defined under the
  Open Game License: Aluseba, the Black Amulet, Inuruk.  Atlas Games is a trademark of John Nephew; the Atlas
  Games logo is a trademark of John Nephew and Trident, Inc.
  
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  15 COPYRIGHT NOTICE
  Open Game License v 1.0
  Copyright 2000, Wizards of
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  System Rules Document
  Copyright 2000, Wizards of
  the Coast, Inc.; A u t h o r s
  Jonathan Tweet, Monte
  Cook, 
  Skip 
  Wi l l i a m s ,
  based on original material
  by E. Gary Gygax and
  Dave Arneson. 
  The 
  Black 
  A m u l e t ,
  Copyright 2000, John A .
  Nephew.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Nyambe/Nyambe - The Black Amulet.pdf