Mace of the Iron Crown (Patreon)

Weapon (mace), very rare (requires attunement)

This dark iron mace is topped with a ring of menacing spikes. You gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.

Whenever you hit a humanoid with this weapon for the first time, an illusory circlet appears atop its head. The circlet has a single spike at its forefront when it appears. Each time you hit that creature with the mace, another spike appears on the circlet. Once the third spike appears, that creature must make a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature becomes confused. On a successful save, the creature isn't confused, but must make the saving throw again the first time each turn that another spike appears on the crown. A creature automatically succeeds if it is immune to being charmed.

At the start of each of its turns, a confused creature has a 50 percent chance to be overcome with temporary madness. A creature overcome by this madness considers its allies to be enemies until the start of its next turn; it's friendly to you and your companions for the duration or until you harm it.

The crown vanishes and the effect ends after 1 minute or after the third time the creature has either succeeded on the saving throw or hasn't become maddened at the start of its turn; the creature is then immune to this effect for the next 24 hours.

Caldan was fighting his enemies. He knew them to be his enemies, but, for fleeting moments, their faces seemed familiar, and friendly. At others, their faces were plagued with looks of agony and betrayal. Deep beneath his terror, something stirred. But he had to keep fighting—that was always certain—to destroy the familiarity that mocked his fracturing mind….

When the madness lifted, the echoes of familiarity were resolved into the lifeless forms of his fellow soldiers. Many, he realized, had been felled by wounds that he himself had caused.

And beside him, where his friends ought to have stood, was the queen he'd sworn to dethrone. An iron crown was set above her haughty face, with an equally jagged mace held loosely in her hand. Her expression was one of mingled triumph and… admiration?

Few in later years knew that Caldan—loyal dog to the crown—was once the queen's foe, and fewer still could understand the guilt and anguish that kept him at her side.