Megan's Charm of Persuasion

Princess Megan Colomon was a beautiful blue-eyed, golden-haired girl who also had a clever brain.Her father had paid for her to be educated by the best teachers in Colomansland, and she had enjoyed learning what they had to teach. When she reached the age of twenty-three Earl Rufus of the small but prosperous city-state of Callahan saw her at a diplomatic meeting advising her father and fell deeply in love with her. He asked King Coloman if he could have her hand in marriage and offered a very good inducement-for the next ten years he would halve the trade-tolls for merchants and traders of Colomansland that needed to travel through the passes of the Callahan mountains.

King Coloman turned him down flat as it was common knowledge that the women of Callahan were treated badly, often like slaves, by their husbands.

Earl Rufus threatened to cut the passes and cause serious economic trouble to Colomansland if he were turned down.

King Coloman begged his daughter to agree to marry the Earl, but she refused. "Why should I go to a place where I will be at best thought of as inferior, and at worse end up as little better then the Earl's personal sex slave?"

The King got his Royal Wizard to create a magical item, from a piece of beautiful amber, and so Megan's Amulet of
Persuasion was created, and the King told his daughter that it would make sure that her wishes were respected.

It did. Using it the Countess Callhan, as she was known, became very influential, getting the Earl to make new laws that,in theory at least, made life a lot better for women.
Angry nobles plotted to have her assassinated but she managed to persuade the assassin to leave her alone. However, the amulet was not meant to be used in this way.Already it had, after the first use, been draining her mind in relatively small ways. First she had forgotten about minor matters, then she had lost her powers of spellcasting, then of reading and writing.After this, she regressed to the mental level of a seven year old child.

A noble stole the amulet, not knowing it's magic power, and the Countess was sent to the Royal Playroom. She did not mind-she was happy to play with her toys as if she were a small girl. The noble found his suggestions were taken into account but, when he found that he too was having his brain slowly damaged in the same way, he guessed it was the amulet and only used it's power when he felt he really needed to.

Decades passed and a great Red Dragon threatened the city. Knowing it would damage his brain forever but wanting to save the city-state and his family, the noble used the amulet to persuade the Dragon to leave the city alone. But the cost was great-he was left with the mental capacity of a three year old child.The citizens were happy that he had saved their city, so he joined the Countess in the Playroom and was taken out with her for walks. The noble's son threw the amulet into a mountain stream but it did not sink was washed up on the bank, sooner or later to fall into the hands of somebody else...

Magical Properties:

The amulet is not cursed as such. It's function is to make sure that someone wearing this amulet will be able to persuade a person or being to do what he/she wants.The drawback is that it drains the wearers knowledge if used too often. Wizards will forget spells, fighters will forget combat skills, ect. Continued use will, in the end, lower the user's brainpower to that of a small child.

The harder it would be to persuade someone/something to do something, the more brain damage it will create. (If a bribe is also offered, the mental damage will be lowered as the affected subject would not be so against the idea.)
Eg If used on a bouncer to let a group of PC's into a crowded bar, with a bribe being used as well,and no witnesses, the mental damage would be slight (perhaps a point off a PC's knowledge stats if stats are used in the game.)

If however the bar manager is watching and the bouncer would lose his job for letting the PC's in, the spell would still work but the amulet wearer would suffer severe mental damage.

If used on something really powerful like a dragon or a lich, it will work most of the time if the request is reasonable, but the wearer would be reduced to the level of a three year old child.

Slight mental damage can heal itself after a couple of days but severe mental damage will be almost permanent-the affected person might make it to the mental level of a ten year old if he/she is lucky.