Magical Artifact Idea, THE VINDICTIVE TROPHY CAPE
This magical artifact appears on first glance to be a handsome cape of tanned hides, made of many smaller hides (noticeably, of many different shades of mammalian hair, indicating this leather was sourced from a very large number of hunts), all fused into a single large piece and joined by an unusual metal that is oddly organic.
This metal is very slowly moving on its own. It constantly bubbles and shifts, similar to a pot of boiling water in extremely slow motion, and this is mildly hypnotic to watch; the precise color of the metal is hard to determine, as its substance blends into the leather hides it binds together and it can be hard to tell where one ends and the other begins, but when under the light of the moon the metal becomes a vibrant silver, and studies suggest the metal is made of a magically potent variety of silver.
The leathers making up the cape have hair on the outside, and some effort has gone into permanently preserving them.
Upon closer inspection, the 'hides' are quite clearly scalps. Moreover, they are human scalps, removed with a great deal of care, presumably after the targets they were taken from had been killed, as it is difficult to imagine anyone remaining still long enough in such a circumstance to be removed, and they are large enough that removing them would have been fatal. They have been cut extremely neatly, and have traces of certain magically potent preservatives they were presumably stored in.
This gruesome trophy is nonetheless comfortable to wear; the scalps have the sleek, polished feeling of high-quality leather and those who have agreed to test it remark that they feel a strange sensation of righteous fury when wearing it, feeling inexplicably pleased to hoist these trophies. The hair has additionally been treated to have a texture more similar to fur or feathers, presumably for the comfort of the wearer, though some research into the item suggests it may be a very deliberate attempt at dehumanization, implying that the targets were to be treated no differently than beasts. As a secondary note, the cape renders the wearer comfortable in all environments; the wearer feels pleasantly chilly in even the most extreme heat, and comfortable warm in forbiddingly frigid environments, though this enchantment apparently does not apply to areas of constant hazard such as a volcano, as Quick-Step Joe can attest to. Please offer a complimentary moment of silence for him, as he adjusts to the circumstances that have forced him to take on the nickname of Robot-Legs Joe.
The scalps are mostly unadorned, and individually unremarkable, with two exceptions. The first is that they appear uncannily similar to one another despite coming from at least two dozen individuals, none of whom apparently looked much alike; unless certain magic is activated through the cape, they all seem to be a single leather piece distinguished only by the metal that binds them together, and it is unclear if this is an additional enchantment or very skillful leatherworking that produces this illusion. The second is that each scalp has a short sentence written upon it. This sentence includes a name, a date of death (presumably when the original target was killed and their scalp harvested to make this artifact) and a list of deeds. The horrific tone of these crimes would indicate each target slain to make this artifact were among the most cruel and heartless individuals that have existed in recent history. Several are identified as important figures in the trafficking of sapient life in the slave trades, while others are apparently serial killers who were never caught until the unknown creator of this artifact slew them, and still others were prominent tyrants, operators of profit-focused organizations that trapped their employees in inescapable legal quandaries to extort them, and similar modern evils.
The fully power of the cape is so far undetermined. Doubtless a skillful user might learn additional powers. The following abilities have been well-documented.
Firstly, the 'donators' killed to make the cape were invariably all people of high position, status and power, and the cape allows the wearer to draw upon that. When this power is invoked, the wearer causes anyone who sees them and is not aware of their identity to immediately view them as a superior of a relevant organization or hierarchy related to both the viewer and the area, even if it should be impossible for such a superior to be there. This magic is potent enough to overcome most mundane security methods, as even ordinary locks and sophisticated fingerprint readers and security gates are fooled by this magic. This power is instantly deactivated should the wearer act in an overtly hostile manner, though even this has some flexibility; as it draws on the actions and natures of cruel and impulsive people, the wearer may keep this magic intact provided they do so in a way consistent with the way the people it draws power from would have acted; so they may harm subordinates in the organization or use its assets freely without being noticed, though actively harming the organization as a whole or those of equal or greater ranking will break the magic.
The second power draws on the great wealth those people once held, and have somehow been metaphysically tied to the cape. By drawing one's arms into the cape, the user may bring out a token that functions as a universal tool for drawing money. This may be a card acceptable at most banks, an apparently limitless spending certificate, a signet ring bearing the authority of any of the cape's scalps, or sufficiently large wads of money. This is a very anomalous power as the wealth they held dried up ages ago or was expended elsewhere, and it is believed this money is drawn from private caches and nest eggs the individuals the cape was made from that was not strictly part of any larger organizations they commanded.
There is a noticeable limit to this second power, and it clearly is not a source of wealth; the money IS coming from somewhere, perhaps a private hoard somewhere, and once the wealth of a specific individual now part of the cape is expended, the scalp of that individual turns to ash, leaving a small hole in the cape that gradually repairs itself but renders that individual no longer relevant for the cape's powers. The disguise qualities of the cape will no longer apply to any organization they once commanded, at the very least. It is believed that the cape's effective lifespan being linked to the expending of wealth likely means that in some metaphysical way, the forging of this artifact tied the wealth of its targets to their very fates, as they defined themselves by wealth in life. To fully expend one is to end the other.
This in turn leads to certain unpleasant implications, which leads to the third known power of the artifact. Should a wearer be fatally injured, they may automatically and freely allow one of the scalps to take the killing wound instead, transferring the damage to them. The wearer returns to health as the wounds simply dissolve, and one of the scalps is disintegrated. As with the second power, the resulting hole will eventually heal itself, losing access to the particular benefits that scalp afforded. This does technically render the wearer functionally unkillable while the cape is worn, at least as long as there are scapegoat scalps to take the blow, and there seems to be no limit to what sort of injuries it may deflect. Immersion in magma, being shot directly in the face with a cannon powerful enough to destroy entire mountain ranges and being stabbed in the shin by the Shin-Stabbing Goblin have all had the exact same response; a single scalp disintegrates, and the wearer is completely unharmed.
However, given that this particular power seems to be based on the magical principle of causing another to take the damage instead, and that these scalps are destroyed to take the brunt of that impact, it has been suggested they are still alive in some respect. Silently screaming, their consciousnesses permanently sealed into a blind and wordless solitude forever, existing only as a source of power until something happens to very abruptly end them.
It is clear that they have no capacity for awareness. There have been a few attempts to telepathically communicate with them, and another with the use of emotional sensations and mental images. Neither was successful and the parties involved remarked that it felt like touching something that was empty. If they are in any way conscious, they are likely long past the point of being able to comprehend anything but the suffering they are doomed towards.
Accordingly, it must be noted that any individual endeavoring to use this artifact must be able and willing to use an artifact that was made with the body parts of dead sapient beings, whose souls are contained within them, and who are actively being tormented. At the same time, it is known that every single individual that was killed to make this artifact was among the most evil and horrifically depraved beings in recent history, and so the artifact tends to lend itself towards people of uncompromising moral character as well as an extremely vicious and merciless sense of vengeance.
As a side note, any individual who is of the same level of malice as those who were made into the cape will, if they attempt to wear the cape, will most likely end up as another scalp upon it.
