7 Magical Crowns

1-Crown of the Demon

The Crown of the Demon is beautiful to look at, and was made on the orders of one of the Dukes of the Nine Hells for his beloved Duchess. Studded with Gems of the Underworld it gives a demon who wears it great powers, but said cursed gemstones were never meant for humans to wear or even come too close to for very long. Even if not worn the malign effects of the stones radiates out for several feet in every direction. Magic will be corrupted, wounds will not heal properly, PCs will lose their self control and honor, and the longer they keep the Crown the worse the negative consequences will be.

Gaming Plot Idea- The PCs have slain the demonic Big Bad and taken his or her crown, but to get rich from it they must take it to an underworld dealer who will pay them well for their loot. But can they survive the ill effects of the crown long enough to get it changed into money?

2-Electoral Crown

The kingdom of Aerkenstone is a monarchy , but it is a monarchy which a difference is that once every five years the monarch must wear this crown in front of a huge public nighttime meeting of all the royalty, nobility and gentry of the capital. If he or she is popular, the emeralds light up and the monarch goes back to ruling for another five years. If he or she is only slightly unpopular the citrines light up and the monarch goes back to ruling for another five years. But if he or she is very unpopular the rubies light up and a new monarch is chosen, ideally from the royal family, but if they are all too young, too old, or too ill, from one of the upper nobility.

Gaming Plot idea- The current monarch has hired the PCs through intermediaries to steal the Crown as part of a plot he has to rule until his death, but it will not be easy to  steal it from the royal guards and booby traps and alarms that protect it. If the PCs are successful then it is likely that the monarch will try and double cross them and have them murdered rather then pay what was agreed.

3-Crown of Mind Swapping

In the country of Crystopulus, every time a monarch is close to death the prince or princess is given this crown to wear and it swaps their minds into the mind of a member of the middle class who has been chosen by one of the Royal Orders of knighthood to wear a similar crown. The idea is that the new King will know how the average person is doing and make things better for them rather then being totally out of touch, and very few people know this secret. If the royal prince or princess found out they were going to be swapped with someone far below them in status, the leaders of the Order responsible would be executed on the spot for High Treason.

Gaming Plot Idea 

Disaster! The mirror crown has been stolen on the orders of the extremely unpleasant ruler of a nearby kingdom and the Order cannot directly try and get it back so they have hired the PCs to do so as it would be an absolute disaster for the entire continent if the evil ruler takes over Crystopulus, which is the superpower of the world. But it will not be easy to get it, and the Order might well double cross the PCs and try to kill them to keep the secret of the Crown of Mind Swapping.

4-Crown of the Bomb

A replica crown of the country of ( insert name of country here) the Crown of the Bomb has been rigged magically to explode and remove the head of the new monarch at his or her coronation. Somebody has to steal the genuine crown and replace it with the explosive fake and the PCs are given the job. It can be played in “real time “- take too long and the crown explodes, killing a PC and ruining the mission.

5-Crown of the Antimagus

In the early years of Vallermoore there were a large number of wicked witches and malevolent mages, and a prophet of one of the religions of Vallermoore created this crown of iron set with obsidian and cast in effect an antispell upon it. Magic cast on or against the wearer of this crown vanishes into it. Fireballs, lightning bolts, curses, are absorbed. Magically raised Undead collapse back into death before getting anywhere near the wearer. But no positive magic or magical potions can affect the wearer either, and he or she cannot cast magic ever again.

The prophet slew many of the evil magic users, only to fall victim to an entirely non magical disease, the Red Rot, that could have been cured with ease if diagnosed early enough, using healing magic. Within a year, he died a painful death when his skin rotted off his body.

6-Crown of the Dreamer

This crown is made of cloth of silver and is designed to be worn whilst sleeping. It enables the wearer to go into the dream world for several hours and any treasures that they gain in the dream world during that time will appear with him or her when they wake up, but nightmares can easily turn deadly, as the wearers of such crowns cannot wake up from them for several hours and if they are killed in the nightmares or lose their crowns either in the dream or real worlds when sleeping they never wake up at all.

7-Crown of the Princess

In times of old, pretenders to the throne of Kuboloth who failed in their attempts to take the throne were either executed or blinded, but as times changed, the rulers grew a little more merciful. The pretender, on being found guilty, would be forcibly dressed in the ornate court robes and crown of a royal princess, tied to a well padded throne and over a few hours would be magically turned into a healthy and beautiful young woman and then adopted as a royal daughter and enchanted to keep her under control and make her do what her new father told her before untying her.

Sooner or later she would be married off to a foreign king or prince in an arranged marriage, that could range all the way from the couple genuinely falling in love to one with no pleasure on either side in it. If the couple did end up in love, then she could have a certain amount of soft power.

Even if she could break the spells that keep her as a docile daughter, no woman, however legitimate her birth may be, is allowed to rule Kuboloth as Queen, as neither the royal family nor the nobles and gentry nor the smallfolk would accept it.

Gaming Plot Ideas 

-Queen Yocasta of Vallermoore really wants to get her hands on that crown and has hired the PCs to break into the royal palace and steal it for her.

-The PCs are hired to break into the royal palace and rescue a pretender before he ends up turned into a princess. It can be done in “real time” with only a certain amount of time to set him free.