The Dark One’s Dice
After Humpabulup the Lanky Devourer was slain, the people busted into the once-impregnable fortress of the Dark Summoner Kiddeth. He was bound, dragged into the local hamlet, and burned at the stake as was fitting one of his villainy. During the next new moon his surviving manservant retrieved his body from it’s hidden, unsanctified grave.
There is a gap in the story here, but the skeleton next appeared in the hands of a small troupe of ogres. Finding the bones too moldy to their pallets, they carved them into dice instead. Counting being too slow, they used letters instead of pips/dots on the dice. They would use the skull as a cup to shake up the dice before rolling.
After a group of sellswords slew the ogre menace in a mighty battle they found the skull, drenched in blood from the conflict, the dice still inside it, floating in red ogre blood…. spelling out W-E-L-L-H-E-L-L-O-T-H-E-R-E
When you hold the Dark Skull in your lap, pour a quart of your own blood into it straight from a vein, and cast the dice therein, ask a question and roll + CON.
On a 10+ the dice will spell out a truly helpful message or answer. Anyone acting on it takes +1 forward.
On a 7-9 the dice will spell out something true but manipulative, or a technical truth lacking an important bit of information. Anyone acting on it takes +1 forward.
On a miss you drop the skull, scattering the dice and blood, and pass out for a short time. Take a debility (GM’s choice) when you awaken.
The dice refuse any question about who or what they are. They do know, or can discover, most secrets of the mortal and supernatural realms.