Heartless Cage Pendant (Patreon)

Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement)

This metal ribcage pendant has 12 pairs of ribs that contain a single, roughly-hewn ruby that rattles around inside. The pendant has 1d4 +8 charges when found. When a charge is expended, a pair of the pendant's ribs magically rust.

While wearing this pendant, you can use your reaction to expend 1 of the pendant's charges when a hostile creature that you can see within 30 feet of you is reduced to 0 hit points, causing the target to immediately die before any magical effects or traits can either restore it to life or prevent it from falling to 0 hit points. When you do, you gain 2d6 + 25 temporary hit points, and that creature cannot be restored to life by any spell of 5th-level or lower. A creature is immune to this effect if it has legendary actions.

When you expend the pendant's last charge, the ribcage shatters and releases the ruby inside. When it does, the ruby crackles with necrotic energy and summons 12 skeletons that appear in unoccupied spaces that you can see within 60 feet of you. The summoned skeletons are friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a group, which have their own turns. They obey any verbal commands that you issue to them (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to them, they defend themselves from hostile creatures, but otherwise take no actions. The GM has the skeletons' statistics.

A skeleton disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or after 24 hours.

Once the ribcage shatters and the ruby summons the skeletons, the pendant and gemstone crumble into ashes and are destroyed.

"No! Please! I have a family!"

"So do I. And it looks like you'll be joining them. For a while."