Magical Item: The Horn of Souls

If you've been following my table top Cormyr Campaign, you're probably aware of the fact that the party is now in search of a supposed merchant's stolen wares.  The "merchant" is paying the party 1,000 gold to return his goods, which were stolen by the Rogues of Tilverton.  Within his wares, lies a piece of an artifact with great power.  It is for this reason the "merchant" has hired the PC's to find and retrieve his "wares."  Here's a rundown of what this powerful item actually is.

The Horn of Souls

The horn of souls is a black curved horn about 7 inches in length.  Within it rests part of the essence of Myrkul, the former God of the Dead.  It is one of four horns which, when combined with the silver Circlet of Shadow, makes up the Crown of Horns, an artifact of devastating power.

At first glance, the Horn of Souls looks to be some form of semi-precious element like obsidian, but in truth, the horn is not of the prime material plane.  It is the horn of a demon.  While the power of the Horn of Souls is great, it comes with a serious price to its user.

Powers: Speak with Dead, as the spell, once per day.  If used as a weapon, it deals 1d4+1 damage, which is transferred to the weilder.  If used in this manner against undead creatures, however, it will restore hit points equal to the damage rolled to the creature.  It is treated as a magical +1 weapon if used in combat.  If wielded by a priest of Myrkul it grants the cleric, as well as all clerics of the dead god within a 50' radius, the ability to cast spells.

Once any of the horn's abilities have been used, it is forever bound to the wielder.  It thirts for the souls of the living, and each day the weilder must somehow use it in this fashion or he/she will be plagued with nightmares resulting in -1 to all attack rolls and saving throws.  In addition, each day the wielder does not use the horn to restore life force, he/she loses 1 point of Constitution, which is cumulative.  Constitution loss is not permanent, and will be replaced only by using the horn as a weapon.  In addition to draining life force, it will restore the same amount of Constitution lost as damage rolled.  If the wielder's Constitution becomes 0, however, he/she will be turned into a wight.

There is no way to destroy the item through non-magical means.  It must either be destroyed using a Wish, or thrown back into the negative material plane.

An Identify spell will only reveal this as a +1 magical weapon.