Magic Item: The Oracle Crown

The Oracle Crown

A crown in the form of a coiled python with its head raised, mouth open and forked tongue pushed out. It will detect for divination magic if its magic resistance is overcome (see below) and appears to be made from jadeite (although it is even harder) with ruby eyes and a polished haematite tongue. As with all powerful items, it is much harder to damage than a normal sculpture would be.

When worn, the crown possesses the wearer and the spirit of the python speaks through their mouth.

The crown will answer questions in sets of 7:

• One question will be answered with 100% chance of veracity.
• One question will be answered with 5/6 chance of veracity.
• One question will be answered with 4/6 chance of veracity.
• One question will be answered with 3/6 chance of veracity.
• One question will be answered with 2/6 chance of veracity.
• One question will be answered with 1/6 chance of veracity.
• One question will be answered with no chance of veracity.

All questions will be answered; the crown will only say “unknown” if that is the correct answer and it is telling the truth or if it is lying and “unknown” is the most misleading answer the DM can think of.

The wearer has no way of knowing what order these levels of veracity will appear and the DM should secretly record the order. Once seven questions have been answered, the DM should generate a new order for the next seven (shuffle six numerical playing cards and a joker to get a new order). After the seventh question is asked in a sequence, no further questions may be asked for seven days.

The crown fits human-sized heads and will not work for non-humans; it will flex slightly to grip the wearer’s head and can not be removed until at least one question has been asked without doing 1d4 damage to the user. While wearing the crown, the user is in a trance state and unable to take any action except to answer questions or, once they have done that, remove the crown.

Wearing the crown boosts a psionic’s ability score by 100 points (50 strength, 50 defense) but has no effect on a non-psionic. Using the crown counts as using a psionic power for various purposes.

The crown has a magic resistance of 56% and this will apply even against a wish or similar spell used to determine the level of veracity of answers, whether to questions already asked or previously asked.

The crown will detect as Chaotic.

Other names: The Crown of Python, The Crown of Fortune, the Snake Crown (not to be confused with the Serpent Crown) etc.

xp: 5000
gp: 12000