Ankh of Anointment
Added 2024-09-04 15:56:09 +0000 UTCPotion, rare
The oil within this ankh-shaped vial is rich with the smell of clove and myrrh. You can use an action to pour the entirety of the vial over a Medium or smaller creature or object. For the next hour, that target is under the effects of the protection from evil and good spell (no concentration required), and it regains the maximum number of hit points possible from any healing. An undead that hits a target under the effects of this oil with a melee attack immediately takes 1d8 radiant damage.
The oil feels warm to the touch, and magically evaporates once the ankh is finished being poured.
It shouldn't have been the neophyte's duty. The church elders had thought that Wanderwold was far too north, far too small, and far too forgotten to be targeted by the lich's hordes. So the town's defenders joined the frontlines, and she was left alone. And, young in age and faith, alone she was left to watch the undead lurch over the hills.
But youth doesn't force folly; she gathered with the town's old and infirm—at least those too weak to flee—in the vintner's cellar, and shut its cramped stone door tight.
Nor does youth force impiety; in that darkness she spoke her order's rites, anointing the door with the oils of sacred ceremonies, speaking words of comfort over those in her care.
And her words never faltered, even as the door began to shake and the cellar to echo with heavy blows. But with each impact the blows slackened, the echoes quieted, and terror gave way to hope. Then, eventually, it all gave way to silence.
The neophyte pushed the door open to a field, only threatened by dust.
—An early account of Saint Melle of the Wold
