Armour of the Pure

After the taking of Vandersil, Queen Yocasta was displeased by the way a minority of some of her soldiers behaved, stealing things from civilians, beating unarmed people and apparently raping as well. So she ordered one of her court wizards to come up with a suit of armour that would have the triple effect of increasing morale, imposing good behaviour and helping them in battle, and a prototype Suit of Purity was invented.

It was impressive to look upon, and was made of specially hardened steel covered with white laquer to make it waterproof and to make it stand out, the gloves being black and a blue plume being attacked to the helmet. . It came with it's own weapons, one a wooden club with an iron head that could be left off if it was to be used for routine police work or put on to quell riots. It also came with a short-sword; both were chained to the armor as well as in their scabbards to prevent theft or accidental dropping in the heat of battle.

The armour had a spell placed upon it to increase the morale of the wearer and lower the morale of his foes, but this came to be a major problem, as in tests people could sense the wearer of the armour from up to sixty feet away, meaning ambushes and indeed any attempt to do something secret when wearing it was well and truely thwarted. Moreover, in battle tests the weapons seemed to act well below par, except when they were tested on a couple of unfortunate criminals from the local prison.

Rather then throw it out, Queen Yocasta, knowing because her spies had told her that one of her junior officers was friendly with people on the fringes of organized crime and was selling off spare military equipment to them, arranged for the armour to end up in his hands. Not knowing of the spells cast upon it, he sold it to a fence who in turn sold it to a notorious bandit who wore it when he did his next big bank robbery.

Which caused the armour to in effect, act as an alarm and point him out to a city guard patrol in the next street. When he and his men came out of the bank with a chest full of gold, they were at once captured at crossbow-point and thrown into the city gaol to await trial. Knowing that such a trick could not work twice, the Queen at first gave it to a general to wear during important military reviews and parades. When the effect of the armour caused him to outshine her, she made him donate it to the Temple of Inana.

*****

When using it against truely evil foes, it is impressive-in game terms the weapons do double damage whilst the armour halves any damage inflicted on the wearer. However, against most foes the weapons do normal or perhaps +1 damage, whlist against *good* foes the weapons do half the damage they would do.

Also, the armor whilst being worn will increase the wearer's morale (a big bonus in any morale check) but have the same effect as a police siren...a siren stuck in the 'On' position. (When not being warn it does not have this effect but takes up a lot of space in backpacks or bags.) This means that stealth is impossible whilst wearing it...thieves, city guards, undead, and anyone else the PCs are after or are trying to hide from will sense the wearer from sixty feet away and either flee, fight, or lure the PCs into an ambush.