OSR Commentary On The Most Unholy of Unholies - The Wand of Orcus..

 Eldritch Wizardry is iconic because it introduces some of the most dangerous and harrowing artifacts ever to appear in role playing. And I'm not just saying this lightly. The section of artifact within Eldritch Wizard makes it very clear how dangerous they are just to be around them; "This section is devoted to a number of Artifacts and Relics of tremendous power. It is set up so that only the Dungeonmaster will know what these items can actually do, the players will only have "rumors" to go on. Each item is described and a list of "suggested" powers is given, but in the back of this section is a series of tables which the referee can use to change the powers that are "suggested" under each artifact. The Dungeonmaster should feel free to add new items to the tables or to change them, but he should be careful to make sure that new or changed items are placed on the appropriate table. The abilities of all artifacts and relics must be determined by trial and error, by the players, and usually their effects are permanent and irreversible (due to the extreme strength of the magic used to create them)." 

 It is both unlawful and evil to give a relic to a non-player character because there may be danger involved. Non-player characters who are given artifacts to try out will, upon learning how to use them, attempt to dominate or destroy their masters/employers. All artifacts and relics are one-of-a-kind. It is usually very difficult to destroy them (after all most of them have been around for thousands of years), and any one who attempts to take apart an artifact for any reasons usually dies as a result. The owners of artifacts eventually become greedy, possessive and secretive, first solely in respect to the treasured item, then with regard to all possessions." The artifact that's playing a central role in our current mini campaign is the infamous Wand of Orcus. Now our version of the evil wand has a malevolent intelligence that will corrupt anyone foolish enough to mess with it. According to the Eldritch Wizardry entry the wand is highly dangerous; " \The Wand of Orcus is a rod of obsidian topped by a skull. When used by any other than Orcus himself, the wand has a 50% chance of annihilating any creature, except types such as Princes, High Devils, Saints, Godlings, etc., merely by touch, but subjects the user to one of the effects from TABLE III each time this is tried. In addition, the wand confers on its user three powers for TABLE I. Suggested Powers: Actual powers: TABLE I: IP, IU,;" 

For the cult of Orcus within our campaign there is no other artifact that has the same aura of unholiness and horror about that matters as the Wand of Orcus. In the current C&C campaign the Wand of Orcus is number one on the most dangerous & nasty weapons that has the entire Chaos cult within our campaign seeking out the PC's.  For our Castles & Crusades rpg campaign we're pulling from the older resources. The reason is simple not a lot of the players have access to the OD&D books for the lore. For our Troll Lords Game The Tomb of the Unclean has everything about Orcus on tap and the wand is beginning to pull all of the strings together.