This black cloth hood is made of coarse fabric. Two eyeholes have been crudely cut to allow its wearer to see, and it is secured at the neck with a piece of rope tied in the style of a noose.

Death and destruction have accompanied the former wearers of an executioner’s hood. Those who know of this item’s dark history are terrified to look upon one. While wearing an executioner’s hood, you can attempt a coup de grace attack as a standard action rather than a full-round action if you are chaotic evil, neutral evil, or chaotic neutral.

Relic Power: If you have established the proper divine connection, each time you make a successful coup de grace attempt, you gain a +1 morale bonus on melee attack rolls and damage rolls and 1 temporary hit point per level. These benefits last for 5 minutes and stack to a maximum of a +5 bonus and 5 temporary hit points per level.
To use the relic power, you must worship Erythnul and either sacrifice a 5th-level divine spell slot or have the True Believer feat and at least 9 HD.

Lore: Legend holds that a high priest of Erythnul created the original three executioner’s hoods and distributed them to followers in large cities, who wore them to terrify the local citizens (Knowledge [religion] DC 20).
One executioner’s hood was worn by a ruler named Xeric IV, who publicly executed every member of his own extended family two centuries ago. Since then, the three hoods have been scattered across the globe by tides of war and conquest (Knowledge [religion] DC 20).

Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, Sanctify Relic, bear’s endurance.
Cost to Create: 3,000 gp, 240 XP, 6 days.