2023 Advent Calendar Christmas Bonus! The Naughty List (Magic Item Monday)

The Naughty List

Wondrous item, legendary

As an action, you can write a creature's true name on this list. That creature must succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or its alignment becomes evil, and you are protected from it as if by a protection from evil and good spell. You can use a bonus action to cast Command (DC 15) on a creature on the list, filling its mind with guilt. The command can be more than one word, but must be to perform a good deed, such as giving away a possession, sitting in time-out, or apologizing for naughty behavior. Once a creature on the list has atoned 3 times, its name disappears from the list, and its alignment becomes good.

A powerful item befitting a mighty quest. According to legend, the List was created by the trickster saint Nikolas of Aventia, to aid in his resistance efforts against the Draconian Empire. After the fall of the Empire, it passed into the hands of a nunnery on the Cambrian coasts (led by the famed mystic & chanticleer Hildegard von Blitzen), who used it in their questionable attempts to convert the northeast duchies to the worship of the Moon Queen. The List was possessed in later years by the dwarven warlord Sinterklaas, buried in his death hoard alongside his eleven silver chalices and three golden horses, where it disappears from official records. Rumors place it in the hands of various cults, philosophical sects, and would-be kings, all with different ideas of what Good and Evil mean. The most credible include the Heralds of the Silver Star, an eastern cult of monotheistic nomads, and the Polar Elves, who use it as a component of their glacial legal proceedings, not to convert but to judge.

When you acquire the List, it already includes 5+1d10 names. Most of them are long dead, put there by its previous owners and largely lost to history, but 1d3 of them are true names of demons, each CR 6+1d12, and one is the true name of an angel. They were in various stages of being forced to atone when they killed their captors, escaped, or the project was abandoned.