Pale Crowns of Fire

Facing to the northern clime,
Thrice he traced the Runic rhyme;
Thrice pronounced, in accents dread,
The thrilling verse that wakes the dead,
Till from out the hollow ground
Slowly breathed a sullen sound.

The Nekros Archanis

In the misty reaches beyond Chalcis there is said to be an island that is ruled by the Dead Kings, the Nekros Archanis. Only seen in shafts of moonlight on a foggy night, their island Keep glows with malice and the flicker of pale fires on the battlements.

In Chalcis this story is told of the Dead Kings...: Long ago the Dead Kings where mere necromancers, ruling a small empire of detritus and rot. They would descend on their foes under the cover of Wyrfog to harvest the living for their own lifeless ranks and petty squabbles between each other.

But after a hundred years of living in fear of the Dead Kings the wise mages of Chalcis had discovered the secret to calling the winds to their biding, dispelling the Wyrfog of their undead foes. And there was a reprieve from their dread reevings, and the living could repel them when they did come.

But the Nekros Archanis would not be foiled. They unleashed a new terror on the land weapons of pale fire to use their foe's Sun against them. Their blades only grew in dread with the light of the Sun, and none were safe from their cold grasp. And for another hundred years of darkness the Nekros Archanis' rule spread and grew in dark splendor.

In this desperate hour the living people of Chalcis struck a deal with the Spirit of the Moon. For a year and a day they built a magnificent temple to the Spirit of the Moon on the peak of the Mons Lunae while singing the Moon's praises. After this year of Praise, a year and a day were spent pouring barrel after barrel of wine over the Altar to the Moon in its new temple to appease its thirst. After this year of Revelry, a year and a day past and with each high-tide 29 innocents, one for each day in the lunar cycle, were bound bellow the high-tide mark to be sacrificed to the Moon.

The terms of the deal fulfilled the Spirit of the Moon banished the Nekros Archanis to another Realm. The deal was not finished though, for a father released his young daughter on the last night of the ritual to save her from drowning, and so their domain intersects with ours on foggy and moonlit nights and then they are able to still haunt the lives of the living.

You can enter one of their Towers of the Moon if you wish traveler, and you can barter with them for their Pale Fire. They accept many payments, especially blood and favors in the lands of the living. But be cautious, for the Nekros Archanis are always looking for weakness in the veil between their Realm and ours, and many souls have been the unwitting servants of their machinations twords their freedom...

Pale Fire

If you find the Dead Kings perhaps they will give you a weapon of Pale Fire. Even though they ask for no payment, the price is high. In order to wield a weapon of Pale Fire you must step foot into the Realm of Undeath, or else it will surely kill you.

Pale fire does not emit light, it reflects it. As the light around them increases in intensity they too grow bright, so the brightest flame of Pale Fire is in the light of a bright sunny day.

Light Intensity	Effect
No Light	No Effect
Dim Light	1d6 Necrotic Damage
Bright Light	2d6 Necrotic Damage+ Life Steal
Dim Sun	1d10 Necrotic Damage
Full Sun	2d10 Necrotic Damage+ Life Steal

Life Steal: A weapon with this property heals the wielder when the get a critical hit with it, dealing an extra 2d8 necrotic damage and healing them for the same amount.

Weapons of Pale Fire must be wielded by creatures of the Undead Type. If wielded by a living creature they must make a Constitution save (DC 16) every morning at dawn or take 1d6 Constitution damage for and receive no healing benefit from anything other than magical healing. If their Constitution reaches 0, they die and rise as an Undead compelled to serve the Nekros Archanis.

So give your Undead BBEG a weapon of Pale Fire. It will pose the dilemma of fighting it in the Darkness or the Light, and give some nice cursed loot to the PCs!