AD&D - Talisman of Pure Good... A Crack Opens, Evil Falls
Some magic items in AD&D deal damage. Some boost your saves. Some help you fly or charm or hide.
This one opens the earth and drops your enemies into it.
The Talisman of Pure Good is not subtle. It is not balanced. It does not care about your armor class or your saving throws (well…). If you are an evil cleric and a high priest points this thing at you... a flaming crack opens at your feet and you fall forever.
That is not flavor text. That is the effect.
The talisman has seven charges. No recharge. No mercy. It works only for good-aligned Clerics. If the wielder is not pure in thought and deed, the target gets a saving throw. If they are truly pure... the target just goes down.
Gone.
Straight to the center of the world.
If a Cleric touches this item of neutral alignment, they take 7 to 28 points of damage. If they are evil, it jumps to 12 to 48. Non-clerics are unaffected. This is not a general-purpose smiting tool. This is divine justice, aimed at the people who abuse divine power.
The DM has final say in the campaign, but how do you judge pure of ‘thought and deed’ in the campaign?
So how do you use this in a game?
Easy. You build a story around it.
A high priest disappears. The talisman goes missing. Maybe someone is pretending to be worthy and fails when it matters. Maybe a villain is trying to corrupt a cleric to steal it. Or maybe the party sees it used once and suddenly realizes that alignment matters again.
This is not a sword. It is a statement.
The talisman says there are lines you do not cross. If you do... and the gods are watching... the ground opens. And you fall.
