Joshua Blackletter wanted to know- “These rocks
have been lying on a ley line a couple of kilometers down since the earth
cooled. What will carrying them around do to adventurers?”
For some reason I read ‘these’ as ‘three’ and
created three rocks. Oh well.
Spark
The oldest. Shaped like the blade of a primitive
hand axe, fits neatly into the palm. Unnervingly sharp. Almost impossible to
attach to any haft. Obsidian, black volcanic glass. Spark can be ground against
any other stone to create sparks and a fire from those sparks will always catch
and be very very difficult to put out.
Spark’s intent is blunt but its effects are
subtle. It usually hits when thrown. If cast at a policeman, general, king or
pope it will always knock their headgear off. Spark will be ignored if you are
searched for weapons. Spark wants to cut chains and smash locks, to shatter
spears and cut blunt notches in expensive swords. A rogue and a vandal.
Optimistic. Can erase despair in the user with unplanned blows. The greater the
status difference between the holder and the target the more damage spark will
do. (This only counts attacking higher status targets.)
Spark reflects the stars when held against the sky
at night, but not these constellations. Your arm swings when you hold it. You
begin to hum. People ask you why you smile. You find yourself unable to bow or
salute.
Tide
Sea-smoothed. As thick as a Banana at the centre
and as wide as a dinner plate. Oval. The bands of 37 sedimentary compressions
lie painted across the stone in parallel lines. They range from autumn-leaf red
to gold to green to grey and black and white.
Tide is calm and inevitable, untroubled by any particular change. Has
continuity of self.
If you die possessing Tide, the next person to
pick it up will be almost identical in ability, experience and inner nature.
Though different in outward seeming. They will value the same things and make
similar plans.
Tide is a point of continuity in a hostile
universe. Things around it can change, but only so far. Necessary evolution.
The holder can never gain or lose more than half the hit points they last
gained or lost. Planar or monster summoning’s will only bring in creatures
thematically correct for the environment or situation they are summoned for. No
characteristic loss or increase and no supernatural extra-normal effects will
touch holder. Or will be lessened if inevitable.
Tides holder will tend to pontificate about
perfectly obvious things and to wear flat shoes, if they didn’t before.
Xen
This one looks weird. Veins and liquid swirls of
changing metallic hues ripple randomly though what looks like iron ore. The
swirls are irregular and violent with no arranging pattern or originating
point. Each pseudo-metal scatters shiny metallic rainbows. Xen is always an
irregular shape, uncomfortable in the hand. When in your pack it sticks
persistently into your back however you carry it. When in your pocket Xen
always makes an unsightly lump. -1 CHA.
Xen rests uncomfortably in the world. One tap will
open any lock for which the key is irrevocably lost. Xen gradually warps any
straight lines slightly off true, bad for rapiers and books of geometry, no
effect on sabres and wool.
Xen bleeds green pigment and if used to make a
rubbing from an inscription, will translate the data into a code decipherable
only by the holder of the stone, so long as they tell no-one else the meaning.
Works on any language. This ability takes d4 weeks to recharge if lost.
If a message is written, wrapped around Xen and
passed or thrown to someone, it will be readable for the intended recipient and
no-one else. If you throw this message through a window, it will hit the
intended recipient in the head and no-one else. (Always non-lethal). If you
throw Xen into a flock of birds, it will always hit one. If thrown blindly over
one shoulder, Xen will hit the person you least expect to be there, wherever
‘there’ is. If you throw Xen under any other circumstances, it will miss, if
you are lucky. If not it will boomerang back and get you right in the eye.
Possessing Xen turns one eye green, or read if eye
was green already.
This is fantastic. I am going to put these in one of my games.
ReplyDelete