Crown of Blackened Ice (Day 9 of Magic Item March, a 31-day series of homebrewed magic items)
(Image source: Paul Canavan, Icewind Dale - Wizards of the Coast; image description: A duergar, Xardorok Sunblight, with a long full white beard stands next to a waist-high triangular spire of chardalyn, a black crystalline material. His right hand and forearm are covered in a gauntlet of chardalyn, and he wears a jagged crown made of chardalyn. He is wearing a combination of metal shoulder armor and hides/furs.)
Wondrous item (very rare, requires attunement)
You have resistance to cold damage while wearing this crown.
When you successfully save against a spell of 5th level or lower, you may use your reaction to absorb the spell into the crown. If you absorb a spell in this way, no targets suffer negative effects of the spell, even if they would occur on a successful saving throw. While a spell is absorbed by the crown, you are treated as though you are concentrating on a spell. If you fail a concentration check or are incapacitated, the spell is released targeting you and you immediately fail the associated saving throw. As an action, you may release the spell absorbed by the crown, choosing new targets and using the original spell save DC. The crown may have only one spell absorbed at a time.
Until I, Xardorok Sunblight, set my sights on this pathetic land of Icewind Dale, no one was daring enough to properly utilize chardalyn! Everyone said, “It’s dangerous.” “No one knows where it comes from.” “It whispers strange things in your mind and makes you evil.” Well all I know is that it’s powerful, and I’m gathering as much of it as I can to take over this frigid land! I’ve already had a gauntlet made out of the stuff and soon I’ll have my crown as well, and I would have had it sooner if my smiths didn’t keep dying mysteriously with their eyes turned into blackened pits and frostbite all over their limbs. It’s no matter to me, I’ll just keep fetching new ones up from my ancestral holdings until they get the damn thing done. Now I wonder if it’s possible to make something bigger out of chardalyn…
-Excerpt from the diary of Xardorok Sunblight, translated from Dwarvish
Have you read Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden? Because if not, well, just go read that. There’s not much else to add here. Except that Xardorok’s crown is magic now.
