This flail is a fragment of Halean the Dawnbearer, bestowed upon a worthy champion chosen by the God of Sun and Life. The spiked head illuminates a simple path for Halean and his followers: repel the dark, attend the wounded, and cultivate the weak. The weapon judges not its wielder's true intentions as long as these tenets are followed.
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Aubade Core
Weapon (flail), artifact (requires attunement)
To attune to this flail, you must spend the duration of the attunement period basking in direct sunlight without interruption. If you are not a follower of Halean or his principles, you must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw to attune to the flail. On a failed save, you take 4d8 radiant damage.
Envoy. The flail grants the following benefits while you are Halean's Envoy:
Herald. The flail grants the following additional benefits while you are Halean's Herald:
Champion. The flail grants the following additional benefits while you are Halean's Champion:
Destroying the Flail. To destroy Aubade Core, each piece of it must be sanded down by oathean sand, a material warped by the intense arcana of the lost city of Oathea. After a month of continual grinding, the flail finally succumbs and disintegrates into golden dust.
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DESIGN COMMENTARY
I just love floating pieces. I've done it for Chaos Blade which looked awesome. It's also something I hope to experiment more with as a subtle celestial design language. Black/Gold is also a super pleasing combination. Mechanically it's about as strong as other artifacts + their Major/Minor Beneficial Properties (artifacts have no power ceiling tbh).
This compendium is a small crossover for the Gods and is shaping up to form a somewhat connected supersetting. Halean was first mentioned by Xan Rockman as an off-hand flavor comment; the destroy requirement references bits from the Desert Compendium!