Deck of Many Dooms

The Deck of Many Dooms is the unknown cursed counterpart of the Deck of Many Things. As its partner, the deck consists of 22 ivory plaques cased in an ebony box. If an ‘Identify’ spell is cast it will be identified as a Deck of Many Things. Like its partner, a character must state how many cards they will draw from the deck. This is irrelevant, as only the first draw designates what doom will be received.

As well as randomly determining a character’s doom, the DM should roll two six sided die to determine the number marked on the card, which doubles as the number of day’s until the doom appears and claims the character’s life. If a 12 is rolled there is a 15% chance that the card actually displays a 13, and the doom kills the character within six turns.

If ‘Augury’ is cast on a character that has been doomed, the curse will pronounce itself as such, but this will never reveal how the character will die. A ‘Remove Curse’ spell will only remove the doom if the caster is greater then 11th level. If the character is inside of a pocket dimension such as that as a Bag of Holding or that created by ‘Rope Trick’ he will die seemingly without cause. When a character is killed by a dooming cause by the Deck of Many Dooms the character’s soul is consumed by the deck to restore its magical energy that was lost. The character can not be resurrected and does not progress to an afterlife.

Until the doom kills the character, they can not die. He heals at twice the normal rate, and can not fall below -5 hit points. If they falls into a bottom less pit, lava, or is in some way irreversibly lost, the doom will follow him into his afterlife.

card name; the doom; image on the card

1. The Knife; the PC will be assassinated or otherwise stabbed in the dark; a bloody knife.
2. The Arcane’; the PC will be killed by a spell; a arcane rune(‘death’ if it can be read)
3. The Flame; the PC will be burned to death; a fire
4. The Hunger; the PC will starve to death; bread covered with worms
5. The Accident; the PC will be killed by some extremely twisted state of circumstance, such as a case of mistaken identity or the landing of a spelljammer helm; a ladder
6. The Divine; some deity decided that the character must die to accomplish its goals; a common or ancient holy symbol
7. The Beast; some monstrous animal will rip the PC’s neck out; a wolf’s bloody maw
8. The Drowning; the PC will die drowning; a bucket of water
9. The Poison; the character will be poisoned, accidentally or purposefully; a vial of green bubbling fluid
10. The Demonic; a demon will take the character’s life, why?; a grinning red, horned face
11. The Combat; the character will die in combat like any other; a sword and an ax
12. The Treason; the PC will be betrayed by a friend; the face of a beloved friend(not necessarily the one who will kill the PC)
13. The Pitiful; the PC will be killed by the lowest class of society; a peasant with a pitchfork
14. The Sacrifice; the character will be put in a situation where he must sacrifice his life or let a friend or innocent die, at this point he will lose control of his body and apparently sacrifice himself for the other; a knight taking a crossbow bolt for a friend
15. The Disease; the character will contract a horrid disease and die; a leper
16. The Self; when alone the PC will kill himself, during this time he can’t control his body but he can still scream; a mirror
17. The Heretic; when the time comes every character will perceive the PC as a witch/warlock/whaterverelseyouburn, then burn them; a witch being burned
18. The Maidens; the PC will be mobbed by a large number of bizarrely bewitched women; several women in various states of undress
19. The Mercenary; the PC will be killed by a paid professional; a large thug in armor with an enormous weapon
20. The Insanity; the PC will go insane, and in turn either kill their self or provoke a superstitious villager to do so; priests wearing white, holding rope
21. The Disappearance; the PC will disappear without a trace (their soul isn’t eaten, instead it and its body escape to an alternate realm. the deck draws power from the displacement rather then the soul in this case); the dimension the character is destined to vanish to
22. <blank>; the character dies instantly; a skull (this card is always marked with a ’13’)