The old tavern smelled of stale ale and rotting wood. A man in a dark cloak entered, his eyes scanning the room. Around his neck, the light caught on a silver chain adorned with teeth. I knew it instantly: the chain of command.
They said the chain could make hardened warriors drop their blades with a whisper. And there were rumors of its past wearers; the most famous being a bard who used it for cheap parlor tricks at hypnosis shows, making wide-eyed drunks cluck like chickens. There were darker tales too. One of a warlord who used the chain to command a horde of goblins. When I saw the man wearing it now, I couldn’t help but wonder if he had such grim ambitions.
A drunk by the bar slurred something about the cloaked figure’s mother, and I winced. The man touched the silver chain. His voice cut through the tavern like a knife. “Kneel,” he said, and the drunk’s knees buckled before he even had time to curse. Everyone went silent, eyes wide, watching as the drunk collapsed, not in pain but in sudden submission.
What happens when a tool like that falls into hands it shouldn’t? I remembered hearing that some towns had given chains to their guards to calm brawls before they turned into riots. But magic like that warps purpose; what begins as a tool to keep peace often ends as a weapon for control. The cloaked man turned and for a moment our eyes met. There was steel there, but a weariness as well. Then, as quietly as he had come, he was gone and the tavern was glad of it.
Chain of Command
Wondrous Item, Uncommon (Requires Attunement)
This necklace has 5 charges. As an action, you can expend 1 or more charges to cast the command spell (spell DC 13). For 1 charge, you cast the 1st-level version of the spell. You can increase the spell slot level by one for each additional charge you expend.
As a bonus action, you can expend a charge to issue a command to an ally within 30 feet of yourself that can see or hear you. That ally can use its reaction to either move up to half of its speed or make an attack with a weapon or unarmed strike.
The necklace regains 1d4+1 expended charges daily at dawn.
Check out last week’s item: the bug-out bag.
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