Ring of Semutkheti
The Ring of Semutkheti is a cursed magical item that was forged sometime during the Third Age of Tel. It was included as a funerary good in the coffin of the Apophian sorcerer Semutkheti. Constructed from a silvery alloy, the ring was crafted into the shape of a serpent eating his own tail.
History
Currently, nothing is known about the history of this ring prior to its discovery by the Eknoi mage, Teleptyon Marathonos, and his companions during their exploration of the Tomb of the Djeti in 114 PR. Upon opening the lid of Semutkheti's sarcophagus, Teleptyon saw that the ring emitted an aura of magic. He attempted to remove the ring from the finger of the long-dead Apophian, but in his haste, he snapped off the finger from the mummified corpse. Teleptyon then removed the ring from the desiccated finger and, greedy to exploit its power, placed it on his own finger. After he slide the ring down his finger, he felt a twinge of pain as it tightened so as that it could not be removed physically.
While Teleptyon struggled in vain to slide the ring off of his finger, he observed with a combination of horror and fascination that his ring finger was transforming into a serpentine form before his very eyes; the skin became green and scaly as the fingernail grew and bifurcated into two fangs that dripped a potent venom. Fearing that the rest of his body might be altered in the same manner, Teleptyon eventually released a sigh of relief when he realized that the effect had not spread beyond his ring finger. Acknowledging that his snake-cursed finger does provide some benefit when it comes to self-defense, Teleptyon still searches libraries of the arcane in hopes that he might find a way to remove this ring, or at the very least, control its power.
In 115 AR, Teleptyon traded the ring, along with his finger, to the Cloistered One, in exchange for arcane knowledge. Thus, ownership of the ring passed from him to his master.
