Soulbinder's Packed Ring

Soulbinder's Packed Ring

Soulbinder's Ring · Soulbinder Ring · Soulbinder's Pack Ring · the soul ring · Maelis's ring

Item

Status Active First seen s07 Last seen s16 Type Wondrous item, very rare (homebrew variant) Attunement Required (Caelumn, attuned s7) Holder Caelumn Origin Looted from Maelis Dirn, session 7

The Soulbinder’s Packed Ring is a very rare wondrous item with a bespoke tweak by Maelis Dirn, looted from her remains in session 7 and identified by The Broker on the spot (“a very, very rare piece of magical equipment called a soulbinder ring. and by the looks of it, Maylis has put her own personal twist on it” — ^[1]. Caelumn attuned it during the long rest after Terry passed it to him on the basis that “it needs to be someone with spell slot progression.” The ring stores the soul of a creature reduced to 0 HP at the moment of binding, expending a spell slot; the slot must be at least the creature’s CR + 2 for a guaranteed bind, with reduced odds at lower slots and an automatic fizzle below CR ^[3], reaffirmed ^[7]. A bound soul can later be summoned as a CR-equivalent ally for five rounds. As of session 16, the ring contains Maelis Dirn’s own soul (bound s7) — Maelis’s personal twist appears to be that her ring holds her own backup.

Overview

The Soulbinder’s Packed Ring is the campaign’s most fiddly homebrew item — a wondrous-item variant on a published D&D-Beyond entry that the DM had to manually add to the party’s inventory because it was not in any of Terry’s rule sources ^[6], “Soulbinders pack ring. Sorry.”). It was looted from Maelis Dirn’s remains at the close of the s6/s7 Titan-and-Maelis fight and identified at once by The Broker:

“Oh, it is refreshing to see someone that doesn’t know what this is. Yes, this right here is a very, very rare piece of magical equipment called a soulbinder ring. and by the looks of it, Maylis has put her own personal twist on it.” — The Broker, ^[1]

Terry handled the ring initially, declined attunement, and passed it to Caelumn on the basis that “it needs to be someone with spell slot progression”; Caelumn attuned over the long rest.

Mechanics

Confirmed across s7, s9, and s11 rulings:

• Bind: when a creature is reduced to 0 HP, the wielder may expend a spell slot to bind its soul into the ring. The slot must be at least the creature’s CR + 2 for a guaranteed bind; lower slots produce a percentage chance; slots lower than the creature’s CR auto-fizzle ^[3] + ^[7] reaffirm).
• Capacity: at least two souls — the ring has held both Maelis and an owlbear simultaneously (s11 onwards).
• Summon: a bound soul can be expended to summon a CR-equivalent ally for five rounds. The summoned ally is destructible (the s13 owlbear-soul Bubba Walker engagement saw the summoned owlbear torn apart in three rounds, expending the soul).
• Maelis’s personal twist: the Broker flagged this in s7 but did not specify. The s7 ring’s holding of Maelis’s own soul is an open hint at what she did to it.

Bind log

Status as of session 16

Carried by Caelumn, attuned. Currently holds Maelis Dirn’s soul (s7) and nothing else. The owlbear slot is empty. Caelumn has not attempted to bind a soul since s13.

Open questions

• What is Maelis’s personal twist? Does the ring give the wielder access to bound souls’ knowledge or memories, not just summons?
• Can Maelis’s soul be summoned and questioned about the Duskwatch ledger / Silent Intake / Bella / the Aurelian conspiracy, or would summoning her risk a hostile re-instantiation?
• The ring is described as “Maelis’s personal twist” on a base item — does that mean any bound soul has agency in summons, or only Maelis’s?

See also

• Caelumn
• Maelis Dirn
• The Broker
• The Warrens

References

1. ^ Session 7, line 740 — Identified by the Broker; flagged as having Maelis's "personal twist".
2. ^ Session 7, line 986-995 — DM adds the homebrew item to D&D Beyond inventory; Caelumn takes it for attunement.
3. ^ Session 9, line 755-765 — Bind-mechanics ruling — slot must equal CR + 2 for guaranteed bind.
4. ^ Session 11, line 1568-1572 — Owlbear soul bound at fourth-level slot vs CR ~3 owlbear (success).
5. ^ Session 13 — Owlbear soul expended attacking Bubba Walker; torn apart in three rounds.
6. ^ Session 7, line 982-995 — Inline citation.
7. ^ Session 11, line 1568-1571 — Inline citation.