Watchmaker's
Pride- This looks like an anachronistic pocket watch
from our Victorian era. It has no numbers and the hands have stopped at
noon/midnight. Nonetheless, if the user looks at the watch, he will
intuitively know the exact time to the second, as long as the watch face
is in view. When a user first picks up the watch, he immediately detects
this ability, and he is sure that it is the only ability in the watch.
(I can just imagine the conversation a warrior has with a wizard,
"No! I am sure that the watch only has this power! I don't
care who you are, just trust me on this... RIBBIT.") Ha, ha. Stupid
end user.
The watch can turn time back or forward as far as an hour, and in
addition, the user can stop time for himself (and only one person can be
considered the user, people) for that long. The user effectively
teleports to the new time. I.e. standing in the place where a huge
battle occurs and zooming forward, the user will not catch an arrow that
passed through his old position. On a successful intelligence check, the
user can control where he emerges from the watch's effects based on his
initial location, up to 2 feet per digit by which he made his
Intelligence check. (So a character with an intelligence of 15 who
rolled a 7 could modify his final location by 16 feet [15-7=8. 8x2=16])
The Skull of Mirrors- A somewhat stylized
overlarge sculpture of a skull made of solid glass. The inside of the
Skull is coated in silver, which is then covered over in a thinner layer
of glass. (i.e. this is hypoallergenic for lycanthropes) The skull
hinges from the midline on the left temple and magically fits as a
helmet on the head of any humanoid wearer. The skull has a set of eyes
in it made of an unknown material. The eyes have been observed to be
several different colors, but so far no pattern has been detected.
When worn into battle, the skull grants, depending on the specificity
of the combat system used, a +2 bonus to overall AC, or a +5 bonus to
head AC, as applicable. When the user looks any opponent in the eyes and
whisper a command word, the opponent must save vs. paralysis or go blind
for 1d6 turns. If the victim fails with a 1, then the blindness is
permanent. The most effective powers of the skull come into play in
non-combat situations. (although the wearer can invoke the
blindness power out of combat, why would he want to? That's not very
nice!) The wearer possesses permanent true seeing and ESP, while wearing
the Skull. In addition, his awareness is heightened so that any attempt
to backstab fails as does any attempt to pickpocket without notice. In
addition, anyone who looks at the wearer of the skull has ESP in regards
to thoughts directed at or about said onlooker, and is instantly aware
when the wearer attempts to pickpocket or backstab him. In addtion,
the wearer's unusual visage causes discomfort in all types of people,
resulting in a -3 reaction penalty. For similar reasons, any enemies
suffer a -2 morale penalty when facing the wearer in combat.
Song of Pariah- This magical staff is believed to have been designed
by a wizard who had awful body odor. Its winding, knobby shaft is made
from sweet-smelling cedar and measures out at 6 feet. (Our system of
math is based around the number 10, but I defy convention. Metric system
can kiss my patookus.) The top of the shaft blends into a head of
petrified roses in a crescent shape. Inside this crescent is a sphere of
chrysoberyl which can never be tarnished. This sphere emanates a warm
yellow glow when the staff is activated.
The Song of Pariah is the saving grace of crotchety wizards
everywhere. When the command word is spoken by anyone in speaking range
of the staff, a beautiful, dulcet tone is heard in the minds of everyone
within normal hearing range of the staff's owner. Upon hearing this
tone, all characters make a save vs. spells or consider the caster a
dear, dear friend-- a notch above the effects of a charm spell. Unlike a
charm spell, the staff also affects the wielder, albeit in a diminished
way. As long as the Song is active, the caster considers his relations
with affected people to be amicable. The effects of the Song are active
as long as the staff itself is activated, although affected people need
not necessarily be in range of the power for it to work once they have
been won over. Anyone speaking the command word in range can
activate/deactivate the staff. The staff only considers distance, not
actual sound travel, so the effect does pass through barriers. As for
the actual range of the power, DMs, use common sense. I would use
something in the area of 10-30 ft, depending on the average speaking
voice of your character.
Uther- Uther looks like a rusty longsword made of black steel.
But, as with most things with a cool description, it is not just a
typical longsword. Many have searched for Uther over the ages, but
scholars are fairly certain that the sword can never be found on
purpose. It is usually mixed in the a heap of fantastic treasure or a
high-quality armory. The owner rarely understands what he has. Uther
is, in fact, the last avatar of an ancient barbarian god forced by
circumstances to remain in this form forever. The sword is fully
sentient and capable of communication with any intelligent beings,
although it is reluctant to speak with any individuals except long time
owners.
Due to its unusual origins, it is impossible to say exactly what
Uther is capable of. Here, only the powers observed in use are listed.
Whenever Uther strikes an opponent, (as a +2 sword) the sword
delivers normal longsword damage + the level/ Hit Dice of the
opponent. (whichever is applicable) In addition, Uther is the bane
of any magically active opponents: Whenever Uther is near a magic user
with malevolent intent toward its wielder, the weapon will telepathically impart
knowledge of the hostile magic user's memorized spells into its
wielder's mind. Besides the obvious benefits of knowing the character's
memorized spells, this can be a useful early warning device if the owner
understands the properties of the sword. If the owner is talking with a
benevolent mage who want the party's aid, and Uther starts to ream off a laundry list of spells, then the owner ought to know that
something is not right. In addition, Uther will impart to its owner
knowledge of the properties of
any enchanted items on the person of any hostile being. (or the
abilities any hostile object with magical properties-- like a pissed off
intelligent weapon) It is important to note that this is a combat
sensitive and protective ability. Uther cannot be pointed at a pile of
rings and expected to inform the user of their properties-- although the
sword is sentient and does like some owners more than others...
Uther cannot be wielded by anyone with a THAC0 higher than 15,
nor any character with spells memorized. Uther is a god in weapon form,
and certainly has more abilities related to balancing out the
battlefield, and they are almost certainly all tied to its own peculiar
set of values.
There are legends of a savage, murderous hill giant wielding a large
battle-axe named Uther, and in some cities there have been tales of a
horribly efficient assassin who allegedly struck with a black blade he,
too, called Uther. This
has led some scholars to believe Uther to be capable of shape change,
but the only times it has been studied have been when the weapon was in
sword form.
Black Flame- Not to be confused with the ill-fated homosexual
predecessor of Shaft, ("He's one bad muthuh... Oh Thtop it!")
This torture chamber looks like an obsidian sarcophagus roughly 6 and a
half feet tall and about three feet thick. It is hinged on one
side, although it looks like a big chunk obsidian when it is in use. All
openings are sealed.
The potential user steps inside the chamber and utters a command word
to close the sarcophagus tightly. At that point, the chamber is sealed
for a day, and the character begins to endure excruciating pain, as much
as can be felt outside the Lower Planes. The character suffers this
agony for one day from the point he uttered the command word then make a
saving throw vs. death. Regardless of whether he succeeds or fails, the character
takes 5d6 points of damage. If he fails his save, he loses half that
amount in permanent hit points. If he survives, then his armor class
lowers by one point. (i.e. he gets a +1 bonus to AC) He can continue to suffer the pain for another day,
sacrifice the HP again, and possibly lower his AC, risking death, or he
can say the command word and end all the suffering. If the character is
killed in the chamber, he is dead irrevocably. Nothing short of a wish
will bring him back, and even then he will be a physically inept
specimen and will never rise above 1 HP,
1 STR, and 1 CON.
The Black Flame can be used only one time per character's existence.
Resurrection, reincarnation, raise dead, or whatever, the chamber is
only usable once per character. All magical resistance, regeneration,
etc. is nullified. All clothing/armor/weaponry is preserved through the
ordeal.
Magebane- This rare, insidious dust is usually kept in a normal herb
bag and comes in three different varieties. It does show up to someone detecting
magic, but is otherwise as innocuous as any other pile of dust. Once
the dust finds its way into
the mage's bloodstream, all varieties of magebane are extremely lethal. In case you haven't inferred it yet, the
resultant disease only affects non-specialist wizards: mages. (except
for the last variant. See below) This has
led many people to conclude that magebane the brainchild of some sick
necromancer. The disease is passed on via contact with the magebane
dust. The mage does not get a save. It is most often passed on through
food or a helpful potion. All forms of the mature virus are extremely
contagious, although the methods of transport may vary. Few are willing
to risk exposure to study the effects.
The first variety of magebane virus is relatively simple to cure, although
as lethal as the rest if left untreated. In some ways, it is the most
malevolent form because it is the most insidious version of the magebane
virus. Nothing but a slight cough gives away the diseases presence. The
mage develops a
fever on the last day, then dies. If detect magic is cast
on the mage, he will glow, but other than that, nothing is unusual about
him. The mage will lose 1 permanent HP per day until he drops to 0. Once
at 0 HP, the wizard maintains his fever until he receives some sort of
wound which would decrease his HP. At this point he finally dies. Most
of the time, the death is attributed to the wound sustained, not to some
sort of secondary agent. This version of the magebane disease is easily removed with a remove
curse spell, and the HPs can be regained with a restoration
spell. Resurrection and Raise Dead work normally, although
until he receives a remove curse spell and a restoration,
the wizard will continue to suffer the effects of the spell after he is raised.
The second observed type of magebane is less subtle, but much harder
to heal. The mage will lose 1 permanent HP/level every day. (so a 7th
level wizard would lose 7 permanent HP every day he was infected) During the process
the infected person will become increasingly sick, starting with a
slight fever, progressing to coughing up black blood on his final day.
This version will kill the wizard once he has reached 0 HP. This variant
can only be healed via a heal spell. (or some higher version like
wish) A second heal or a restoration
will restore the lost hit points.
For those who have heard of magebane, it is the third variant that
makes their souls quiver. The third and last observed variant on the
magebane virus is a rapacious, malevolent, and incapacitatingly
painful disease. The wizard loses 2 permanent hit points per level per day.
(So the 7th level wizard above would lose 14 permanent HP each day of
infection) From
the first day he contracts the virus, the mage is violently ill and mostly insane. He
contracts with
wild muscle spasms and releases strange, impossibly powerful wild magic
blasts in seizures throughout the day. By the second day of infection (if he lives
that long) he is coughing up blood and is completely blind and deaf, as
well as rendered mute by the clenched sphincter muscles in his throat.
The wizard constantly shakes at this point because he exists in one
continual, body-wide spasm. And for every extra day, it's downhill from
that point. He can only be cured by means
of a wish, and the lost HPs require another wish to be
restored. Oh, and by the way, this version doesn't give a damn about
specialization wild magic, or what. Have magic in mind? You will
die.
With the exception of the first magebane variant, people who have died from magebane infection cannot be raised,
resurrected, or reincarnated. The highly contagious nature of the virus
cannot be stressed enough; even touching a speck of the dust is 99.999%
likely to start the virus going in the victims bloodstream. The effects
and HP loss begin the next day.
Pale Hammer- This is a large sledgehammer with an ivory shaft
and an opal head. It is covered from handle to head in intricate
carvings and runes. The carvings appear to be of various faces in
changing stages of excruciating anger. The runes are, well, runic in
appearance. These runes contain the command word, (and can only be read
via read magic) and they also explain the strength increase power
of the hammer, although the other effects are ostensibly missing.
When the command word is uttered, the wielder grows in mass and
height by 400%, and his Hit Points triple. His skin thickens such that his armor class lowers to
-12. His body fat vanishes and his muscle mass increases exponentially.
His Strength stat exceeds the
Strength table. On a 1-25 scale, this character has about a 50 or 60. More on
that later. His Con rises to 20, although he gains the ability to
regenerate 1 HP/ round. The character also gains 100% resistance to
normal fire, ice, heat, and cold, 50% resistance to magical fire, cold,
ice, and heat, and 10% resistance to acid. His Intelligence sinks to 3,
and his Wisdom and Charisma sink to 1. His Dexterity either remains the
same or sinks to 7, whichever is lower. The character also goes berserk
and thinks about little besides inflicting as much damage as possible on
everything he sees. The character immediately reverts to his normal form
when he loses the hammer, or when whenever some sort of magic nullifying
effect is successfully directed at the hammer. The character also has a
supernatural and irrational desire to hold on to the hammer more than
its own life. DMs, bring this into play however you want.
The character's weight limit is 50 tons, and he has no increase in
"To Hit." He hits unless he rolls a 1. This is an aspect of
sheer strength and speed of punch delivery, not enchantment. If you have
a better plan, use it. The character cannot wield a weapon effectively.
Any weapon except the most profoundly powerful artifacts (like Uther
above), would shatter when wielded by such a powerful character, and any
damage granted by them would be overshadowed by the sheer power
delivering every blow. In the same vein, granting an increase to damage dealing potential
would be arbitrary and pointless.
This character could lift a relatively large building with little
effort. He can exert enough force to compensate for the pull of gravity
on a 50 ton object. If such a force were exerted over another character,
Hit Points would not apply. The only relevant number would be the amount
of doggy bags needed to collect the pieces. Combat is not an option with
this character. The goal of all involved characters suddenly becomes an
issue of containment instead of an issue of combat related defeat. The
character DOES have an armor class, and he still has hit points, so it
is not impossible to take him down, per se, but who in their right mind
would want to risk angering this thing by shooting stuff at it?
I would not recommend giving this to PCs in a serious game unless you
are confident in the players' role playing abilities and everyone in the
group is looking for a challenge. This is a campaign piece, not a nifty
magical item, so be careful where it is inserted.
Vipers' Crucifix- A bronze medallion shaped in the shape of a crucifix
made of entwined vipers with fangs instead of heads.
This medallion allows a wizard/priest to cast a spell without losing
it from his memory/ daily spell allotment, (as applicable) but he
suffers damage equal to twice the level of the spell cast for each spell
cast in this way. There are instances of Crucifixes shattering when used
too many times in a given day, but no recognizable pattern has been
detected. If a character takes enough damage to reduce his HP total to 0
or lower, then he goes into a coma until he is able to heal through
normal or supernatural methods. This item does not work with any kind of
beneficial restorative magic.
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