Skull of Corruption
The Skull of Corruption is Vaermina’s signature artifact. It is an incredible staff that creates a duplicate, or “clone”, of whomever it is cast upon. This clone then attacks the original at the behest of the caster. Legends say that the staff has a mind of its own, and can feed on the memories of those around it.
The Hero of Daggerfall received the Skull from Vaermina as a reward for killing an “innocent” lich. The Last Dragonborn was also offered the Skull in return for venturing into a tower that manifested the nightmares of a man who stole Vaermina’s orb. The Last Dragonborn of Skyrim is given the option to claim the Skull as a reward for stopping a priest of Mara from destroying it.
There is a story about the Thieves Guild Master and the skull that is probably fiction, but highly amusing. The Master used the skull on her enemy, creating a clone of him to fight. After defeating the original, the clever duplicate snatched the Skull from the Master and used it on her. Although the cloned enemy could not directly attack the Master, it could use the Skull to create a duplicate Master. The two clones jointly ruled the Thieves Guild for years.
Stats
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Damage | 1d6+1 (1d8+1) |
| Hand | 1.5 |
| Range | 2m |
| Qualities | Concussive, Magic, Duplication |
| ENC | 2 |
Special Qualities
Duplication (Cast): Target being within 50 meters must make an opposed Willpower test against the source character. On failure a doppelganger appears within 5 meters of them: it retains every feature of the target but is a slave to the will of the staff’s wielder and loses any Luck it may have. It is always hostile to the target. A given character may use the staff to create and command a number of doppelgangers equal to his Willpower bonus (though never more than one for a given target). Any beyond this are out of his control, and are hostile to everyone.