Behelit

This pretty bauble finds itself in hands of your party.

How is it used and who uses it?

No one.

Our party is hopeful and generally good people.

My sorceress who is actually a strange "metaphysical atrocity" uses it as a paperweight

It's been a long time since I watched berserk, what it do?

Opens the gate which bridges the astral world with the material one.
You sacrifice something (mostly someone) dear to you and in return become an apostle. Basically a powerful demon.
The one in the picture is a crimson behelit though, it's a bit stronger. All behelits are predestined. If
one was fated for you it will always find you. If it wasn't you will lose it or it will be taken from you.
Even 39 volumes later it's not clear why they exist and what's the end game really

>Hopeful.
There you go, when your hopes come crashing down, when you are at your lowest point. Ole' bechie is there for you.

Kids who get into berserk will be finishing the last chapter when they turn 60.

DtD.

My character uses it, becomes the strongest Chosen of Tzeentch.

...I'm pretty sure that he's obliged to try to use it.

Seeing as I basically have dropped a lemarchand box in the lap of my players this is pretty much what is happening right now, since berserk has been heavily influenced by hellraiser.
Shit's cool, though they are extremely weary after a scholar who was tasked with finding out more about the box has killed himself and now most of them want to throw it into a volcano.

Each one is tied by destiny to a specific person so much so that even if they lose it or have it stolen it will always return to their possession.

At the lowest point in the persons life, where all hope is gone and the owner enters true despair the facial features of the behelit will align into a proper face and scream.

This summons a collection of demi-gods/demons and they offer a choice. Power and immortality but at a severe price.

Their price is the sacrifice of those most important to the owner of the bauble. This price must be paid willingly, not compelled magically.

This power and immortality allows them to turn into demonic beasts called Apostles but their human forms all have some kind of beastly countenance.

Most behelits are gray, green or yellow. The Crimson Behelit only appears to certain people, those destined by Fate to become the next member of the collection of Demi-Gods that oversee the creation of new Apostles, the Godhand.

Each person that has used a Crimson Behelit has been seen and implied to have sacrificed large amounts of people, from an army of several hundred men to possibly an entire kingdoms worth.

The antagonist of Berserk, Griffith, sacrificed his entire army of blindly loyal soldiers to fuel his transformation into the Godhand Femto after he had been tortured for weeks, all his tendons cut with his tongue and genitals removed.

With his new demonic form regenerated he then made his best friend, the series protagonist Guts, watch him rape Gut's girlfriend(?) and his former second in command, Casca. Casca was pregnant with Guts child at that point and this caused her to go soft in the head and miscarry but the fetus "survived". Then through a convoluted series of events involving an Apostle shaped like a Behelit eats the ghostly fetus mutant that had protected his mother for years from demons and evil spirits, becomes the body for a resurrected Griffith into the real world

I thought only the crimson one really is always finding it's way to it's fated person and signifies the ones to become godhand.
The other behelits always seemed like they are just a way to commune with godhand, seeing as the skelleton knight has a fucking sword made out of them and guts seems to have gathered a few that have been used by others

It's an underdark campaign, so everyone is pretty edgy.

The wizard would be the most likely candidate. He's a drow, and he has already consorted with devils for more power.

The wood elf ranger might, he isn't very attached to the party and if he thought it would help his clan he might. Unless the required sacrifice was his clan, in which case he wouldn't

The cave-native cannibal probably wouldn't, he has a sense of honor, though his self preservation instinct is also pretty strong.

The cleric wouldn't for obvious reasons.

Yeah the Skull Knight turns the behelits of those he had slain into hsi sword, I think as safekeeping so they don't pass onto a new possible Apostle like some twisted Green Lantern ring. Though I think Guts' is his specifically, the gray one

The way I see it, when you use a behelit it doesn't disappear. The ones skelebro and Guts have are/were already used.
That's mostly obvious at the beginning when Guts defeats the snake dude and takes his behelit even though the dude already made a pact obviously.
Only the crimson ones disappear probably.
So maybe the normal ones aren't destined, not sure now that I think about it.

Sounds like if your party finds one it doesn't really matter what _they'd_ do with it.

My character though? He's a very very old high elven magician. There are lots of things and a few people dear to him that he'd definitely not want to sacrifice.

Which I guess makes them the best example of the dearest things to yourself to sacrifice... So great potential for falling victim to a Behelit. Would bring a new and almost alien experience to the ever jovial elf. Guilt, regret and bad memories he probably can't rid with his elven trances and memory editing. It would make him a very powerful being though.

If that is really his and it hasn't activated yet... oh boy, how much lower must it go for that to happen

It has to be a person you care for deeply.

The drow wizard most likely has nobody he cares for deeply. The Ranger would have to sacrifice his clan. The cannibal might be able to.

The cleric is the perfect type of person who wound use it. Not able to save everyone or watches someone die, is forsaken by his god trying to get them back through dark forces because reasons and it still fails, abandoned by party and enters complete despair. *behelit screams*

It can be used once a day to change the wearers appearance completely. It takes an entire day for the effects to wear off. While appearing to be made from a large carved Ruby, it feels like flesh when touched, and many swear they can also feel a heartbeat.

>it's not clear why they exist and what's the end game really
To givea reason for humanity's suffering.

Presumably he'll be left crippled and possibly betrayed by Casca in front of Griffth and offered a choice. Become an apostle or die unable to fulfill his revenge. He'll be forced to decide whether to sacrifice his new friends and Casca to fight Griffth or to go the way of the Count. Preferably he'd find a third option involving Deus Ex Loliwitch if she hasn't been raped to death by then, as is Berserk tradition. Also should he accept he'll probably end up exactly like The Skull Knight. Forever chasing Griffith but now just another pawn of fate, unable to ever actually hurt him.

the more it's used, the more likely the user becomes violently schizophrenic* and suffers penalties to intelligence and wisdom checks. Behelit do not keep their original purpose from berserk in my setting

*I am fully aware that people with schizophrenia are not inherently dangerous, and in fact are more likely to be victims of violence themselves

Here's an alternative functionality for the behelit that's a bit more trpg friendly.

Before a long rest, the user can spill a bit of his own blood on the behelit to activate it's magical effect.
It grants a peaceful sound sleep with 200% health point regeneration and full removal of exhaustion and similar effect.
Anyone else resting in 30ft of the behelit has severe nightmares, poor sleep, and moral (or similar depending on the system) penalties for the next day.
If there's no one around the behelit except the wielder, it doesn't work.

TLDR: they are what vorpal blades are made of

Good point about the cleric, being abandoned by his goddess (which is probably actually going to happen if he keeps accepting the rest of the party's less than moral actions) could definitely put him over the edge.

Now that I think about it the elf probably wouldn't even activate it. When he went down there he already accepted his death and he hasn't become attached to anything, so he basically has nothing to lose. Did a behelit ever activate when the sacrifices weren't right there?

The cannibal is unambitious and has already lost everything he truly valued so he's out.

The drow might still be a candidate. He recently pledged himself to a matron, and he's very ambitious. So far he's been reasonably dedicated to her service, if that develops any more she might be an acceptable sacrifice, which he would do in a heartbeat were he plunged into the pits of despair.

I'll probably actually include a behelit like object now, it definitely fits with the tone of the campaign.

>shadowrun
probobly the gay elf adept sells it to buy more cocain

>To give a reason for humanity's suffering

To give a fake reason. It seems to me that in the world of Berserk, everyone except Guts cries about their suffering, yet he is the only one who goes out and does something actual about it, and doesn't say 'well that's life'.

The demons and 'god' of Berserk are just keeping up the farce of treating pain and malice as something metaphysical, rather than happening for set and definite explicable reasons.

Which ties in nicely with the behelits, considering that they only activate when you become delusional with loss.

I remember an old thread where someone storytimed how a character in the party had a Behelit from early on in the adventuring and when the BBEG trounced the party and left the character the only one standing and not bleeding out the Behelit activated. He sacrificed the party, used his Apostle form to kill the BBEG and that was game.

The next game the Apostle shows up as the BBEG

So how many /v/ermin are apostles?

iirc it always comes back to the one who found it.

The elf has just found a way for infinite cocaine money.

But to activate the Behelit you must sacrifice what's dearest to you...
So the elf would need to sacrifice the cocaine to get cocaine (or is it "novacoke" in Shadowrun?)

Now depending on yield of the sacrifice that's either useless or totally awesome exploit for infinite cocaine.

Nah, it would just somehow be at hand when at their lowest point.

A job gone bad, the party captured or killed by rabid insect spirits and the elf is alone, trapped in a supply room of the cults warehouse. Injured and bleeding out, possibly poisoned they stumble and knock over a crate of contraband and there, among the scattered bags of cocaine and cash, is the behelit. As the beasts bash down the door the face on the gray gem shifts until it makes a proper face and screams.

>after he had been tortured for weeks
It was a full year

>Opens the gate which bridges the astral world with the material one.

Last fantsy character I played could do that without fancy stone being a wizard (both meanings)

oh ya, that's even worse

well if its not ment for him it will be a one time deal, but if it is we might just have a cocain apostol on our hands

Encased into 1m3 of concrete, loaded onto a fishing boat, and thrown into the North Atlantic.
I would personally burn all written records mentioning the device behind my own house.

well its a magick item that binds to the person who is ment for it, so im guessing even if you get rid of it, it will just teleport to the place where you will need it most

I can only imagine this character. He even works as a shadowrun character with a few tweaks.

Powerful psionic or spellcaster who gets a supercharge of power from doing Tony Montana amounts of cocaine

DC did it first

Can't you just apply hammer?

GET OUT OF MY HEAD, CHARLES

hammers don't work underwater, you dipshit

Sure they do with enough force.

Mantis shrimp is pretty famous for its biological "hammer" that breaks tough seashells thze shrimp eats and anything that would like to eat the shrimp via cavitation effect.

Hopefully, above the bindee, with the block of concrete still attacked to it.

Didn't one guy actually eat one?

It's going to find its way back to whoever's fated to have it eventually, you're going to an awful lot of trouble for nothing

Berserk would be a pretty amazing campaign setting as long as the GM forgo the tradition of making 50% of the side characters rapists.

You mean making 90% of main characters rape victims?

Um...

Those lips look like they'd be good at sucking dick.

The bard would probably stick his dick in it.

Oh, so I'm being railroaded. I slap the GM and leave for a better game.

The Makashi duelist already betrayed the other players, the party's/his master, and my player character's force sensitive kid brother to the Empire. Just because he was promised a lightsaber crystal and Inquisitor training.
The behlit would have been used after my marauder stabbed the life out of him with a concealed vibroknife, and before his corpse was tossed from the hijacked Imperial Lamda Shuttle mid flight. I have no idea what people he'd sacrifice to the God Hand, because we were clearly not that important to him.

It winds up getting lost somewhere, to be acquired later by the true owner.
Just because the fucker always finds its way into the destined user's hands doesn't mean it won't take the scenic route.

>I post in "What if?" threads purely for the sake of being a contrarian cunt

"Ohh look, some Yozi Artifact, thats adorable."

I then proceed to use it as a paperweight, because those demons are way too late on that whole "Lowest point in your whole life" bit.

You could also feasibly use it in a Sorcerous Working.

The wizard tries to grab it, but the monk(actually a cleric, just uses his fists) does his best at pitching it into the void

You got Berserk mixed up with Drakengard, lad.

Nobody. We'll all get killed, and it will be taken by someone worthy.