Celegian Magic Items

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Celegian Magic Items

This list is preliminary at best, and is mainly comprised of "non combat" type items. More wil be forthcoming! :-)

Crystal of Knowledge

These magical crystals are eminently useful to scholars, mages, and sages of all sorts. Their power is simple yet profound. If they are placed upon a written work, be it a book, stack of notes, scroll, stone tablet, etc., and allowed to sit undisturbed for one turn, the crystal will absorb the writing and retain it within itself.

The original document is not harmed in any way, but the copy is exact, the crystal will not translate any language. Crystals will not absorb any kind of magical messages or writing, and any type of protective spell will stop their action. Beyond that restriction, a crystal will hold several thousand books before being exhausted.

If a crystal is placed upon a blank sheet of paper and left for one turn, it will activate once again, and will cause to appear upon the blank paper any document it contains, upon the command of it's owner.

The owner may command the crystal to display as many pages as desired, one at a time, and the writing will magically scamper about on the blank page to become whatever is needed. Most owners of large crystals prepare a list of the contents and place it within the crystal so they can keep track of whatever they have in it.

An empty Crystal is valued at about 1 gold. Wisdom's of Teb especially prize these items, and the price a Crystal will command is almost totally dependent upon the knowledge within it.

Manastones

Manastones are more powerful and arcane versions of the simple knowledge crystals, and are a simpler and more durable form of the magical scroll, designed to be used by those with very little magical aptitude. A manastone is usually a small rock crystal or a highly polished pebble of some interesting mineral, although it does not need to be extremely valuable.

A spell is cast into the stone and locked there in the making of the stone(the Scribe Scroll Feat is used for this.) Runes are placed on the stone denoting what the spell is and what command words activate it.

Nearly any spell or scroll effect can be placed into a manastone, and all manastones can be used by any character.

Typically, defensive or person affecting manastones are hand held, while offensive manastones are often hurled or shoot out spontaneously to deliver their dweomers. Manastones are both less useful than scrolls in some ways and more useful in others.

Manastones never contain more than one spell, and often only one use of that spell. Manastone magics are condensed so that the spells contained within cannot be transcribed into a mages memory or spell books. However, a manastone can be used by any character, and they are much more durable than scrolls. Manastones are fairly common in the Empire, and many illegal ones have made their way into use by the less savory elements of society.

In game terms, any time a scroll is rolled as a treasure result, there is a 66% chance that it will be a manastone instead. Check as normal for the spell type and level, but there will only be one kind of spell, regardless of the number indicated. There is often only one use of the spell, but for every spell on the scroll above five, there will be an additional use of the manastone spell.

Water Stones

Water stones are very simple but extremely handy magic rocks. If a water stone is kept wet, it continually oozes a fine seepage of fresh clear water. A water stone will produce between three quarts and ten quarts of water per day, enough to keep the average man alive and healthy. If water stones are stored or used close together, they stop working, so people who own more than one have to be careful with them. In general, if more than four water stones occupy a single 5 foot square for more than a few days, they all stop working and have to be replaced.

These stones are made in droves for use by the military, which issues them to troops in the field. They are typically carried in a canteen, and as long as there is any water in the canteen the stone will continually make more. Many troopers take the stones out of their canteens and keep them in their mouths instead, which means that they get all the water they need, don't have to keep drinking all the time, and don't have to carry the weight of a continually full canteen all day.

Water stones are readily available to civilians as well, and typically cost about three hundred dagits.

Light Crystals

A light crystal is a simple rock that has an illumination dweomer cast upon it. They are by far the most common magic item in the empire, and can be purchased almost anywhere.

The typical light crystal is a piece of quartz weighing a few ounces, and can be purchased for 100 dagits or less. Typically, the enchantment is such that if the stone is turned right side up it lights, and if it is turned upside down the light ceases, but versions can be made that are always on, activate by a command word, activate by gesture, and several other variants.

A Light Crystal provides bright light within 20 feet and shadowy light within 40 feet. Brighter and dimmer versions can be obtained, and the cost goes up rapidly, with each doubling of radius increasing the cost eight-fold.

One of the most lucrative trades to get into, if you can find an open contract, is to get a job working as a street lighter for a city or town. A large town will often have a series of stone columns about ten feet high, upon which they will pay a mage to cast spells and thus provide a source of illumination to reduce crime and make the streets safer.

A light crystal does not last forever, and usually must be renewed every few years. In a few of the largest cities, an entire staff of Lamplighters are employed constantly in renewing the cities light spells. Many mages make a little extra spending money by whipping up a few light crystals.

Example Crystals Bright Light Radius Shadowy Light Radius Weight of Stone Cost 10 feet 10 feet nil 5 gold 20 feet 40 feet .5 lb 10 gold 40 feet 60 feet 1 lb 80 gold 80 feet 120 feet 5 lb 640 gold 160 feet 240 feet 25 lb 5000 gold 300 feet 500 feet 150 lb 40,000 gold

Gathering Baskets

A simple and highly valued magical item, gathering baskets are common and unremarked in the Empire. Their use is simple. A person must be holding them and must use their innate magical power to activate the item. The gathering basket will then act as a gather spell for a number of hours equal to the intelligence of the user.

Most gathering baskets have a restriction, that they will only work on one set of items. Common restrictions include only on grains, only on fruits, only on insects, only on gravel or sand, and so on. If they have no restriction, they are much more expensive. Costs typically run from a 100 gold for a heavily restricted Basket up to a few thousand gold for one with few restrictions. A heavily restricted basket example would be one that only collects picked strawberries. A less restricted basket might collect strawberies (in which case they could be still attached to the plants). An even less restricted basket might collect berries. Even less would be a basket to collect fruits. Even less than that would be a basket that collects fruits and nuts. Etc.

Portable Fires

The second most common magical item in the Empire are these handy devices, portable fires.

A portable fire is a swath of sturdy cloth which has been treated with elemental fire. The pieces of cloth are hot on one side, and cool on the other. Most of them have a border sewn onto them as well, in order to ease handling. By regulating the amount and intensity of the fire embedded in the cloth, the temperature of the cloth may be finely controlled.

The temperature range available range from cloth which is barely warm ( often used in clothing) to cloth which is blindingly white hot (used by smiths for smelting and forging steel and dweomermetals).

Some typical costs and sizes available follow:

USAGE Temp Degrees F Cost/Square Foot Clothing, Blankets 80 50 gold Hot compress, Warming food 150 30 gold Cooking, Boiling water 250 20gold Baking,Braising,etc. 450 40 gold Drying Silk,Setting Dyes,Curing Leather 800 80 gold Firing Pottery, Smelting, Quenching Metal 2000 100 gold Forging Iron, Baking Lime, Glassmaking 5000 300 gold Alchemy, Magical Forge, boiling iron, etc. 8000+ 500 gold

As can be seen from the chart, the more expensive portable fires are very hot, indeed. Fortunately ( or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint) the hotter the portable fire is, the less stable it is.

The coolest sorts radiate their gentle warmth no matter how roughly they are handled, and can thus be used in blankets and clothing. The warmer, household types (150 to 250 degrees) must be kept still (such as wrapped around a pot) or moved only slowly (carrying the pot to the table). The hottest household fires (450 degrees) must be kept still or they will quench. Fires used in light craftwork ( 800 to 2000 degrees) are so finicky they must be used on a solid stable surface, such as a stone table or a sand bed. The very hottest sorts used by smiths and alchemists (5000 degrees and up) are so delicate that they must be used inside specially constructed enclosures, as nearly any vibration, or even a stray breeze, will cause them to quench instantly.

Portable fires only emit their heat in one direction, and the backside of the cloth remains room temperature. They are completely fireproof, but provide no prtection if worn.

Once an object is heated by a portable fire it is as hot as if heated by mundane means. If a portable fire is disturbed excessively the elemental fire flickers and "quenches", or stops producing heat. The temperature of the portable fire immediately falls to the surrounding temperature, but objects already heated cool normally.

All portable fires may also be quenched by folding them up, so that their hot surfaces are turned in upon one another. Once quenched, to activate a portable fire is very simple: you unfold it. After being unfolded it takes anywhere from several seconds ( for a 150 degree fire) to several minutest for very hot fires) to begin working again.

Blood Goblet

Blood Goblets are useful items indeed, but few priests of Good deities wish to have them around, since their powers often come with a dark price. Blood Goblets have different powers of healing and curing depending upon the beverage they are filled with. To activate their power, a Blood Goblet must be completely filled with a drink and then the entire draft must be consumed in one round by one person. The following powers are activated by the following drinks.

Water: Drinking a Blood Goblet full of water will cure the drinker of 2d8 +2 points of damage, once per day. Any water, even brackish, will work, as long as it is fresh. The draft will taste clean and delicious. If the power does not work, or if the drinker is not damaged, the water is clean, but flat and unappetizing. The Blood Goblet will cure as many people per day as drink from it, but only one time per day for each of them. This power will always provide safe drinking water from relatively fresh water, providing a useful side benefit.

Milk: Drinking a Goblet full of milk will restore an experience level that the drinker has lost, and the milk will be chilled and delicious. If the drinker has not lost a level the milk will be spoiled. The drinker must make a fortitude save versus a DC of 25. If this save is successful, they are nauseated and unable to adventure for one full day, being semi-comatose. If the save is failed, they lose two levels and are nauseated as above. The DC to heal the negative levels is 30. These levels will not be restored by the power of the Goblet if they become permanent.

Ale: Drinking a Goblet full of ale will restore one lost characteristic point. This power will not work more than once per character, per lowered characteristic. The ale will be cool, delicious, and potently alcoholic, so that the drinker will be intoxicated and at a minus one penalty to all rolls for one hour after drinking. If the drinker has not lost a characteristic point, they make a Fortitude save vs a DC of 30. Failing means they lose 1-6 points from a randomly chosen stat., and the character is intoxicated as above. Making the save means they are only intoxicated.

Wine: Drinking a Goblet full of wine has varying effects. If the Blood Goblet has cured or healed fewer than three times since the last draught of wine was drunk, the wine will be extremely delicious and powerfully intoxicating, with the drinker thoroughly drunk and at a minus four on all actions for three hours. If the Blood Goblet has cured or healed four times or more since the last draught of wine was drunk, then the wine is still delicious, but is actually a powerful poison. If a Fortitude save versus DC 40 is failed, the drinker dies instantly. If the save is successful, the drinker suffers 12d8's of hit point and 4d6's of Constitution damage, which may kill them anyway. If a Blood Goblet has killed with its poison, then the final power of the device is powered.

Liquor: Filling the Blood Goblet with liquor and drinking it will do nothing except get you very drunk, since that is a lot of liquor. Unless, that is, the Blood Goblet has slain someone with a dose of poisoned wine. If the Blood Goblet has taken a life with its poison, then its final power is activated. The next time it is filled with liquor, the Blood Goblet will true resurrect one creature. This power is unique because no roll for resurrection survival is required for the person being returned to life, the time limit for the person being dead is one thousand years, and the Goblet will even return someone who has failed a standard resurrection survival roll, has died of old age, or is otherwise considered unrevivable. In this way the Blood Goblet can be used to take a life and then bring one back. Please note that the Goblet will not resurrect the person slain by the poison of the Goblet.

It is easy to see why these devices are viewed with trepidation by most good characters, since the temptation their last two powers represent is a seductive one. Even worse, the current "poison state" of a Goblet cannot be determined by any means available to mortals, so drinking milk, ale, or wine from a Blood Goblet you have just found is fraught with peril.

Perhaps most insidiously, the possibility of recalling a deceased loved one at the expense of poisoning someone to death has corrupted far more people than will ever be known.

These items come in many varieties and appearances, ranging from mundane cups of wood to elaborate and obviously magical gold and jewel crusted pieces of great value. One constant aspect is the reddish tint the item will have, but this may be faint or inobvious.

A Blood Goblet is typically sold for 95,500 gold pieces.

Ring of Rogue Skillfulness

Since before the Nightmare Wars, the rogues across Celegia have known the value of their skills. In 57024 CR, the master rogue Nethalimus commissioned the first Ring of Rogue Skillfullness. These rings empower a collection of rogue specific skills, with a few limitations:

1) all skills must be defined at item creation. additional skills can not be added at a later date. 2) the skill enhancement type is classified as Competence. 3) a maximum of 9 rogue class skills can be enhanced by the ring (normal cost rules for multiple similar abilities on a magic apply) 4) while the skills themselves must be set at creation, the enhancement value may be increase (up to lvl 30) at later dates 5) the enhancement value is set to the ring, and applies to all the skills of the ring evenly. you can not adjust skill levels individually. 6) the wearer can not gain more enhancement value than they have ranks with the skill. 7) limitations 3-6 gain the creator a 25% discount on cost

One example might look like:

Tommy's Ring of Rogue Skillfulness This Ring gives +15 enhancements (competence) to Bluff, Diplomacy, Disable Trap, Listen, Open Lock, Search, Sense Motive, Spot, Tumble. The enhancement is limited to no more than the skill rank the wearer has with the specific skill. cost 88,594 gp