This narrow scroll is fashioned from translucent vellum that seems to ripple like skin beneath still water. Its edges are bound in black thread, and its crimson ink rearranges itself whenever the scroll is viewed from a different angle. The final line is written in a dozen scripts at once, all spelling the reader's own name. When unrolled, the parchment whispers in the voice of whoever stands closest to it.
Single Use
The scroll is consumed when its magic is activated. Reading the scroll requires an action and a creature with an Intelligence score of at least 13 can decipher its script.
Sovereign Possession
When you read the scroll, choose one creature you can see within 60 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 19 Charisma saving throw or become possessed by you for up to 1 hour. A willing creature can choose to fail this saving throw. This effect can target any creature, regardless of its creature type, unless it is protected by an effect that prevents possession or body takeover.
Control of the Host
While possessing the target, your body becomes incapacitated and cannot be targeted or affected by anything except effects that end possession. You retain your Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, alignment, personality, memories, and proficiencies, but you use the possessed creature's Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, hit points, Hit Dice, natural armor, movement modes, senses, and any special traits that are purely physical. You otherwise retain your own class features, spellcasting, and proficiencies, but you cannot use the host's legendary actions, lair actions, or any class features it possesses. You can speak through the host and control its body, though you cannot force it to use a feature you do not understand.
Host Resistance
At the end of each of the possessed creature's turns, it can repeat the Charisma saving throw, ending the possession on a success. The possession also ends if the host drops to 0 hit points, if you choose to end it as a bonus action, or if you lose concentration on the effect as though concentrating on a spell.
Return of the Soul
When the possession ends, you return to the space nearest your body. If your body is more than 1 mile away, you instead return to the nearest unoccupied space within 60 feet of the host and take 4d10 psychic damage. If no such space exists, you return to the nearest unoccupied space.
Soul Severance
If the host dies while possessed, you must make a DC 19 Charisma saving throw. On a failure, you take 10d10 psychic damage and gain one level of exhaustion before returning to your body. On a success, you return safely but take 5d10 psychic damage. A creature that succeeds on its saving throw against this scroll is immune to this scroll's possession effect for 24 hours.
Lore
The Scroll of Sovereign Possession was created by the exiled archmage Veyrath, who believed identity was merely a prison imposed by flesh. He inscribed the first version using ink mixed with the memories of a murdered king, a dragon, and an angel. The scroll does not merely cloud a victim's mind; it displaces the reader's spirit and seats it behind the eyes of another being.
History
Veyrath used the scroll to infiltrate courts, command monsters, and briefly inhabit the body of an ancient bronze dragon. The dragon's mind resisted him for only minutes, but those minutes were enough to destroy Veyrath's tower. The surviving scroll was later recovered from the dragon's hoard, sealed inside a leaden reliquary surrounded by the names of every creature Veyrath had possessed.
