Beware The Fate If You Wear a Ravenous Robe

Magic is everywhere in the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons. Schools studying magic and beasts are just as common as learning sums and spelling. Not all magic is equal. Sometimes truly sinister things are made by the mages of the world, and disguised as the most innocuous and everyday things.

The clothes and garments people and characters wear truly defines them. It makes up a part of their personality and it’s taken entirely at face value. In D&D rugs can come to life and attack, but this isn’t sinister enough for me.

Seems like something anyone would want to wear - Image by AliExpress

Ravenous Robes

A particularly devilish individual can infuse any garment with dark magical energy, turning it into Ravenous Robes. As part of the creation of the item, the clothes need to have a detailed embroidery of a beast. Some manner of aggressive, usually carnivorous creature decorates the piece. The first, and most common items like this depict dragons, and most people who know of the existence of an item like it hold dragon decorated clothes with some unease.

Ravenous Robes Stats Generated with Homebrewery

The clothes have a very steep curse on them, which aren’t apparent on first time donning them. For the first months or years that the wearer has a set of Ravenous Robes. The curse will take effect the more often a character wears other clothes. The curse makes the robes jealous. As the Ravenous Robes are put on again, the wearer will start take damage. Some may want to take the clothes off again, but the fear makes you want to put them back on. The damage dealt becomes greater and greater until eventually the creature within the garment fully consumes the wearer.

This curse is particularly ancient. It was reserved as a capital punishment for those in a magical society when it was first introduced, but as time wore on, the means to making this curse became more widespread and known and its strength lessened. Vindictive mages often sent garbs like this out of spite and revenge. They wouldn’t instantly kill as the first Ravenous Robes would, but would maim and injure more and more severely as time wore on.

Now we want to hear from you. Would your players and NPCs put something like this on unwittingly? What gruesome fate would befall the wearer if they couldn’t stay away? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, they write about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out themselves. On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree.