Departed Helm (Patreon)

Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)

You have resistance to necrotic damage while wearing this helmet. Skeletons and creatures with a challenge rating of 5 or lower with "skeleton" or "skeletal" in the name are also indifferent toward you while you wear it. Such a creature won't attack you unless you threaten or harm them, or unless they're commanded to do so by a creature controlling them. In addition, you can also use an action to determine how long ago a corpse or creature you're touching died or was turned into an undead.

When determining the time of death or turning to undeath of a corpse or creature, the accuracy depends on the recency of the event. If the event happened within the last 24 hours, you know the exact minute when it occurred. Otherwise, you know only the hour (within 7 days), day (within 30 days), week (within 6 months), month (within 1 year), year (within 10 years), decade (within 100 years), or century for any time longer.

The investigator paced alongside the skeletal battalion, their inattention allowing him close enough to carefully tap each. Glances from empty sockets quickly turned to disinterest as their skulls were reflected in his helm's dull metal, and he mumbled,

"5 months, 3 years, 60 years… 400 years, wow. And, 23 days. Only one in the right time frame, so you're coming with me. Someone paid a lot to get you back, kid."

Pulling a blackened coin from his pouch, he flicked it towards the skeleton's shadow and withdrew, still untroubled by the cohort. Once he'd pulled the kid out of the dead march, his part of the job would be done.