originally posted by Pennarin
The Bold proper names in the item descriptions mean that the characters in question appear in Faces of Athas (well, it will in the future :D).
Major Artifact Descriptions
These new major artifacts replace those found in Chapter 7 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
Animus Circlet
Animus Circlet: This minor artifact is an ivory and white onyx circlet worn around the neck, with a bronze clasp and hinge. Created by the sorceress Amiska half a King’s Age ago, the circlet was given as a gift to the Veiled Alliance of Tyr. The artifact vanished with its wearer a few years afterward in suspicious circumstances. The organization considers them lost.
The wearer was in fact intercepted by the Order, informed by the city’s local member on the nature of a strange new psionic creation in the hands of the Alliance. Comprised of psionic purists, the Order protects the dogmatic truth of learning and growing into one’s own psionic power with zeal, often hunting down psionic abominations and destroying or putting away psion or sorcerer’s foul inventions, which was the case for the Animus Circlet. The preserver’s body was disposed of and the circlet spirited away in the vaults of the Order, never to see the light of day.
For those who put on the circlet, all psionic classes become favored classes. Also, if for a reason or another the wearer has a penalty to XP while advancing in a psionic class, it sees its penalty erased as long as experience is gained while the circlet is in its possession. The penalty to XP is not lifted if advancing in a psionic prestige class.
Strong psychometabolism; ML 20th; Weight 1 lb.
Korgunard’s Annulus
This item is based off of descriptions found on pages 66-67 of Dragon Magazine #284.
Korgunard’s Annulus: Known simply as Korgunard’s Annulus, this device is a solid round bar of silver two feet in length whose extremities nearly join in a closed circle. On its surface are carved intricate flowing figures of mythical beings part human, part cloud. This is the only artifact that Korgunard ever crafted, using an ancient relic of the time of the Great Pantheon, a gift from Oronis. The object had been unearthed long ago from the elven ruins open which Oronis’ city was built. Since the death of Korgunard, the Annulus as been in the hands of a brown elf named Xaymon, a preserver apprentice of Korgunard, now on the run from Hamanu’s forces, hiding in the avangion’s secret retreat.
Wielding the Annulus by its middle reveals its properties to a user without the taint of defilement. At its most basic it is a spellbook of spells meant to rejuvenate nature and reinforce it. The spells are divine in nature, but count as arcane for the owner. The spells cannot be learned but can be prepared as with any arcane spell using the Annulus as a spellbook, by holding it and concentrating. It contains the following spells: create water, nurturing seeds, plant renewal, purify food and drink and rejuvenate.
Arguably its greatest power is insight. Someone who has owned the Annulus for a year starts to occasionally and inexplicably gain flashes of insight about past, present, and future events when dreaming (a character immune to sleep might gain the flashes if it concentrates in calm for an hour). This ability cannot be controlled and serves as a plot device.
Ultimately, the artifact is meant to facilitate the transition into an avangion. Oronis, unwilling to give a copy of the metamorphosis spell to any other student after the death of Nerad, was convinced by Korgunard to inscribe the spell into the item that would later become the Annulus. Any good-aligned owner of the Annulus, provided he meets the spell’s requirements, can at any time initiate the casting of the [insert name of the first avangion metamorphosis spell] spell, requiring the artifact as a spell focus. But the knowledge of the spell is not imparted on the owner, and as such can’t be learned or copied to another medium.
Overwhelming divination, transmutation and psychometabolism; CL 20th; ML 20th; Weight 10 lb.
Veiling Amulet
Veiling Amulet: This unique item is a piece of copper cut into the shape of Farcluun’s personal arcane mark and attached to a bandoleer. Farcluun created the Amulet as an attempt to hide himself from the eyes of the Sorcerer-Monarchs and the Order.
With a mental command it can shroud the wearer in a glamour that functions exactly like the permanent image spell; the nature of the glamour can be changed as a free action once per round. Spells and powers able to see through illusions, such as true seeing, do not reveal the glamour.
Furthermore the artifact hides the alignment and level of the wearer as per the power aura alteration; the apparent level of the wearer can be made higher by a number equal to one-half the wearer’s character level (rounded down) or lowered as many levels as desired. The auras of items, or of permanent powers or spells on the wearer’s person, Amulet included, can also be masked if so desired. Emanations such as abilities or spells that generate auras, like an arch defiler’s tainted aura, are blocked.
The subject is also under the protection of a mindblank effect.
Metafaculty can pierce the protective quality of the Amulet but only if the character attempting to obtain information from the wearer succeeds at a caster or manifester level check against a DC of 11 + the item’s caster or manifester level (as appropriate), or the wearer’s if its higher.
Overwhelming illusion and clairsentience; CL 20th; ML 20th.
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