Mourningsteel War Banner (Patreon)

Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)

This war standard is adorned with a tattered, bloodied banner of an army long lost to time. The standard is 6 feet tall and weighs 7 pounds, but can be collapsed down to 3 feet tall or extended up to its full length by using a bonus action. While the banner is on your person, you have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

The standard has 3 charges and regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn. While holding the extended standard, you can use an action to speak its command word and plant it on the ground in an unoccupied space within your reach. While the standard is within your reach, you can use an action to remove it. Alternatively, another creature that can reach the standard can use an action to make a DC 25 Strength (Athletics) check, removing it on a success. While the standard remains there, the space becomes difficult terrain.

As part of the action to plant the standard, you can expend any number of its charges to magically summon one animated armor for each expended charge. When you do, the armors each appear in an unoccupied space that you can see within 20 feet of the standard. A summoned armor remains for 1 hour, until it drops to 0 hit points, or until the standard is removed. The armor vanishes when the effect ends.

The summoned creatures 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 animated armors' statistics.

"We live, we march. We fight, we die.

Death‘s no comfort but it’s a well dressed lie.

We rise, we sway. We serve, we fall.

Death’s no comfort but we'll answer the call."

—Marching chant from the Battle of Bahrun