Chapter 6: Magic Items Catalogue ​

The items catalogued here are those the Known World knows by name.

Standard enchanted weapons, basic potions, utility scrolls — the full range of what a skilled wizard can produce in a properly equipped laboratory is covered by the rules in Book I, Chapter 12, and GMs may generate items randomly using the procedures in that chapter's treasure tables. What follows is different: items specific enough to the Known World to warrant individual entries, with documented properties, known histories, and the competing accounts of how they came to be.

Most magical items currently in circulation are old. The Second Era produced magic at a scale the Third Era has not matched, and the collapse of Vysandárien, the destruction of the Eymanarann civilization, and the fall of the first Cadman line each scattered thousands of items that have been filtering through markets, hoards, ruins, and private collections for centuries. A weapon found in a Dead Lands expedition might have last been held by a Vysandri battle-singer. An amulet purchased from a Messalyan fence might have been blessed by a priest who died four hundred years ago. The item remembers its history even when its current owner does not.

Entries are organized by type. Each entry states mechanical properties first, then gives at least one account of the item's origin — drawn from Chronicler records, scholarly debate, or the kind of reliable rumor that has persisted long enough to become indistinguishable from fact.

The rules for using, identifying, crafting, and destroying magical items are in Book I, Chapter 12. This chapter does not repeat them.

PART I — POTIONS & OILS ​

POTION OF OBSIDIAN SIGHT ​

Potion

Grants darkvision to 18 m for 6 hours. In the Dead Lands specifically, this range extends to 27 m; the potion appears to interact with the Darkness-adjacent geology of the region in ways that have not been adequately explained. Standard darkvision works in the Dead Lands but becomes unreliable near sites of concentrated Darkness-adjacent activity; this potion does not.

Origin: The formula is attributed to a Messalyan alchemist named Corval Desh who spent eleven years mapping the Shattered Plains. Most versions currently in circulation were not made by Desh. His notes were sold three times after his death, each sale producing a new lineage of brewers with slightly different formulations and the same tendency to overclaim potency.

POTION OF SUSPENDED DEATH ​

Potion

The drinker's vital signs become undetectable for 8 hours. They remain conscious but paralyzed and register as dead to all mundane detection and most magical detection, including speak with dead spells, which yield no response. The potion ends automatically at 8 hours or when the drinker concentrates on ending it (1 full round required).

This potion does not protect against actual death. A character reduced to 0 HP while the potion is active dies normally.

Origin: Standard intelligence tradecraft in the College of Whispers. Agents carrying sensitive material who anticipate capture are expected to ingest one before any high-capture-risk contact situation. The specific formulation was developed during the early Second Era, by whom is not recorded in any source the College acknowledges.

ELIXIR OF OLD SPEECH ​

Potion · Wizard, Cleric, Bard

For 24 hours, the drinker can read and write Old Script — the written form of the Second Era's primary administrative language. This does not grant spoken fluency and does not apply to Vysandri engineering notation, which uses different conventions.

Old Script fluency is useful at: Eymanarann ruins, Dead Lands waystation records, Chronicler restricted archives (sections VII and above), and the lower levels of any pre-Collapse noble library.

Origin: Brewed from manuscript ink and memory-binding compounds whose full composition is a Chronicler trade secret. Sold at Chronicler waystation dispensaries at a standard rate; provided at no charge to members of the Order of Magnus on presentation of credential. The College of Whispers maintains its own supply and declines to confirm where it sources the formula.

OIL OF SILENT STEP ​

Oil

Applied to footwear, this oil renders the wearer's movement completely silent for 4 hours — on all surfaces, including gravel, dry leaves, and broken glass. The effect ends immediately if the wearer runs.

Origin: Common enough to appear in standard equipment markets in Endoras and Wightport; rarer inland. The Thief's Guild in Endoras maintains a supplier arrangement that has kept the price artificially stable for thirty years. The supplier's identity is not public knowledge, which is presumably the arrangement's other purpose.

VRYKOLAN EXTRACT ​

Poison (contact or ingestion)

Harvested from Vrykola tissue during the brief window after destruction when the flesh is still reactive. On contact with living skin or on ingestion: the target must save vs. poison at −2 or be paralyzed for 1d6 hours. On a successful save, the target is slowed (as the spell) for 1d4 rounds. Vrykola are immune to the extract made from their own kind. The substance degrades within one month of preparation and cannot be stored indefinitely.

Preparing this requires knowledge of Vrykola physiology and access to recently destroyed Vrykola remains. Both are rare.

Origin: Known to the Order of Magnus as a field tool for containing Vrykola-adjacent threats; the Church of Tar'amaan's inquisitors have used it in interrogation contexts. The Iron Brothers maintain a supply at Castle Jaeger for situations where conventional restraint is insufficient. None of these organizations will confirm its existence publicly, and the Chroniclers categorize it under a classification that does not appear in their public-facing index.

PART II — RINGS ​

RING OF THE CHRONICLER ​

Ring · Wizard, Thief, Bard

This ring records all speech audible within 9 m of the wearer for the past 24 hours. The record is accessed by concentrating on the ring for 1 full round; the wearer then hears the previous day's audio in compressed form, roughly 10 minutes of playback per hour recorded. The ring records continuously and overwrites its oldest material.

It does not register as magical under detect magic. The enchantment is specifically designed to read as a mundane signet ring.

Origin: The Chroniclers deny making these. Three confirmed examples exist in the Known World as of 1,380 TE. One is in a Chronicler restricted vault — their explanation: confiscated. The second was last reported in the possession of a Wightport fence named Lissander Crae. The third's location is unknown, which is the one that should concern you.

RING OF QUIET FIRE ​

Ring

Grants fire resistance while worn: the bearer takes half damage from magical fire and no damage from non-magical fire. This does not stack with other fire resistance effects.

Made from obsidian inlay set in a plain silver band. The obsidian provides the fire-resistant property; the silver binds the enchantment. A ring lacking both components is decorative.

Origin: Messalyan in manufacture; the silver-work technique can be dated to the early Third Era. Several hundred were produced during the decade after the first large-scale Dead Lands expeditions brought back enough obsidian to make the material commercially viable for enchanting. They are reliable, common by the standards of magical rings, and unremarkable in every way except their function.

RING OF IRON RESOLVE ​

Ring · Fighter, Paladin, Ranger

Grants +2 to saving throws against fear effects while worn. Forged by the Iron Brothers as part of their standard commissioning practice for senior members.

Origin: Every Iron Brothers officer of Sergeant rank or higher receives one upon promotion. The enchantment was standardized approximately two hundred years ago, when the company's then-commander decided that individual courage was insufficient and morale failures required a structural solution. The rings are surrendered when an officer leaves the Brothers — or recovered from their body when they do not leave voluntarily. Several dozen have circulated outside the company, mostly through deaths in the field.

RING OF HONEST NAMES ​

Ring (Cursed)

The ring records the full name of every person who handles it. Alone, this is unremarkable. The complication: the record is transmitted, by unknown means, to an unknown location. Identify spells confirm the transmitting property; they do not identify the recipient.

The ring cannot be removed by the wearer through mundane means once worn for more than 24 hours. Remove curse allows removal. The ring re-transmits the full accumulated record each time it passes to a new wearer.

Origin: Found in a Tar'amaan archive during a College of Whispers operation in 1,312 TE. The archive's purpose was not confirmed before the operation concluded. The ring was extracted and has changed hands fourteen times since. Current location: unknown.

PART III — STAVES, RODS & WANDS ​

STAFF OF THE COMPACT ​

Staff +2 · Druid, Ranger

Functions as a +2 magical quarterstaff. The following spell-like powers are available without charge:

  • Entangle (centered on any point within 18 m): at will
  • Speak with animals: 3 times per day
  • Pass without trace (bearer only): once per day
  • Calm animals: once per day

The staff refuses to function for characters of Lawful Evil or Chaotic Evil alignment. Attempting to force it — through hold person or similar — triggers a shillelagh effect targeted at the wielder.

Origin: Made by the Druidic Compact's master-shapers in cohorts of five, each matched to a specific environmental region: plains, forest, coast, mountain, and wetland. The enchantments differ between regional versions in ways the Compact has not formally catalogued. Petitioning for one requires four years of Compact candidacy. Non-Compact druids have occasionally obtained them through other channels; the Compact's response to this has historically been proportionate to how the staff was used afterward.

ROD OF BREAKING ​

Rod · Wizard (Level 9+)

Made from Vysandri alloy, the grey-black metal recovered in small quantities from Eymanarann ruins. The rod holds 10 charges. Each charge expended: the rod shatters one active enchantment on a touched object or creature, equivalent to dispel magic at 15th caster level.

Uncharged, the rod retains its Vysandri alloy composition. Spellcasters using it as an arcane focus reduce the casting time of targeted spells by 1 (minimum 1 segment).

The alloy cannot be artificially produced. All known Vysandri alloy items are recovered artifacts.

Origin: The alloy was identified and named by the College of Whispers' materials division in 1,287 TE, though the Vysandri clearly had a different name for it. This rod entered the College's catalogue from a Dead Lands recovery operation and has been lent to research expeditions twice since. Both times it was returned. The second time, it was fully recharged. The College has not been able to determine how the second expedition recharged it.

WAND OF SHADOW-SPEECH ​

Wand · Wizard, Thief, Bard (20 charges)

Transmits an audible message of up to 30 words to any location the wielder can clearly visualize and has personally visited. The message is delivered through the nearest shadow at the target location and appears to originate from it. It cannot be blocked by walls or distance, but the target location must be within the same plane. One-way only.

Charge cost: 1 per transmission.

Origin: Val Cadma manufacture, developed for military communications during the occupation of Norderenn — specifically for transmitting orders across occupied territory without couriers who could be captured. Enough have circulated outside Val Cadma military channels that the technology is no longer considered proprietary. Wightport's black market typically has two or three available at any given time, which is presumably why Val Cadma stopped trying to suppress the secondary market.

ROD OF INQUISITION ​

Rod · Cleric (Tar'amaan only)

On a successful touch attack: detects the ancestry of the touched creature and communicates it to the wielder in terms specific to the Tar'amaan theological classification system (Blessed, Mixed, Unclean, Unknown). The touch does not require the target's consent or awareness. The effect is instantaneous.

This item is catalogued here because it exists and GMs need its mechanics. The Church of Tar'amaan is an NPC-only antagonist faction. No player character uses this item. Finding one in play should prompt the question of where it came from and who was carrying it.

Origin: Standard issue to Tar'amaan inquisitors operating in occupied Norderenn and the Cadman-adjacent border territories. Exact quantities in circulation are unknown. They do not appear on any open market. Their presence outside Tar'amaan hands reliably indicates that someone, somewhere, had a very bad day.

PART IV — WONDROUS ITEMS ​

Books & Tomes ​

THE BURNED CHRONICLES, VOLUME VII ​

Book · Wizard, Cleric, Bard (literate)

Reading time: 2 weeks. Upon completion: the reader gains permanent proficiency in Old Script if they did not already have it, and +2 to Knowledge checks related to the Late Second Era (approximately 400–487 TE). Additionally, this specific volume contains one piece of information that, by Chronicler classification, falls under Category Absolute Restriction. The GM determines what that information is.

The book carries no mechanical curse. It is simply dangerous to own.

Origin: The Chronicler Order has confirmed destroying all copies of the Burned Chronicles. Seven copies exist in known private collections. These facts are not in conflict, from the Chroniclers' perspective — they destroyed the ones they found. What distinguishes this specific volume is that the restricted passage was not present in the four copies destroyed in 1,291 TE. Someone added it afterward. The Chroniclers would like to speak with whoever that was.

Jewelry & Amulets ​

PENDANT OF TWO HAMMERS ​

Amulet · Cleric, Fighter (Duergar or Duardeen only)

Two hammer-shaped pieces of mithral-inlay iron, joined at the head, worn on a cord around the neck.

The bearer gains:

  • +1 to all saving throws
  • Immunity to mundane fear effects
  • Recognition among Duergar and Duardeen who see the pendant: regardless of prior relationship or faction alignment, they treat the bearer with at minimum professional respect

Revocation: If the bearer acts in direct violation of the Ancestors' Fields oath — specifically, killing a kin-bound ally, betraying a sworn compact, or abandoning a dying Duergar or Duardeen in the field — the pendant loses all magical properties permanently. The physical object remains. It cannot be re-enchanted. A bearer carrying a dead pendant is visible to any dwarf-kin who know what they are looking at.

This revocation cannot be reversed by any spell or ritual. It is the point.

Origin: Made at the Korthak Citadel forge in the early Third Era, when the Duergar/Duardeen cultural rift was still raw enough that a shared symbol of compact carried active political weight. How many were made is disputed. Chronicler records suggest twelve; the Elder Council of Korthak Citadel has confirmed at least nine living bearers as of 1,380 TE, which means either the Chroniclers were wrong about the count or several are unaccounted for.

AMULET OF THE CITY-WALL ​

Amulet · Paladin, Fighter (Lawful alignment)

+2 to AC against ranged attacks while the bearer is stationary and defending a fixed position — a doorway, a wall, a bridge. The bonus does not apply during movement or when the bearer is the advancing party.

A bearer trying to exploit the stationary bonus while still pursuing an objective has misread what this item was made for.

Origin: Bellarian manufacture; the style dates to the construction of the Northern Wall. The enchantment is unusually specific — made for soldiers doing a specific kind of work, and it does exactly that. Seven confirmed examples, all from the Northern Wall's garrison records. Four are unaccounted for as of the last Bellarian inventory.

Cloaks ​

CLOAK OF DEAD LANDS PASSAGE ​

Cloak

The wearer registers as dead to the sensory mechanisms used by unintelligent undead: skeletons, zombies, ghouls, and similar. Intelligent undead — wights, spectres, vampires, liches — are not deceived. The cloak provides no protection against detection by living creatures or magical divination.

In the Dead Lands specifically, wearing the cloak reduces the probability of unintelligent undead random encounters by 50%.

Origin: Made from the processed hide of one of the larger Dead Lands fauna that has adapted to coexist with the undead ecosystem rather than avoid it. The tanning and enchanting process was developed by Chronicler expedition teams who needed to move through undead-dense corridors without being slowed by engagement. Five confirmed, all Chronicler-commissioned. One was traded outside the order in 1,356 TE under circumstances the Chronicler records describe as "administrative error." The person who made that error is no longer employed by the order.

Helms ​

HELM OF ANCESTOR-SPEECH ​

Helm · Aelár only

Once per day: the wearer communes with the spirit of a specific deceased Aelár ancestor whose full name they know. The communication lasts up to 10 minutes. The spirit answers honestly to the limits of its knowledge — which is bounded by what the ancestor knew at the time of death and filtered through the perspective they carried in life. The spirit cannot be compelled and may end the communion at will.

Non-Aelár who attempt to use this helm hear nothing.

Origin: Carved from a single piece of ironwood that the Húldar claim was grown in Vysandárien. The Aelár have not confirmed or denied this. What can be confirmed is that the helm predates the Third Era's Aelár woodworking conventions by several centuries. Its provenance before 1,100 TE is entirely unrecorded, which is itself of interest given that the Chroniclers record most things.

Musical Instruments ​

LYRE OF QUIET STONE ​

Lyre · Bard, Wizard (Level 9+)

Two powers, each activated by a specific tune rather than a command word:

Repair (once per day): Restores structural damage caused by a horn of blasting, a disintegrate spell, or the equivalent of three battering ram impacts. The lyre repairs whatever was most recently damaged in its immediate environment. It does not distinguish between damage the wielder approves of and damage they would have preferred to prevent.

Build (once per week, duration 3 turns): Produces structural labor equivalent to 100 expert workers operating for 24 hours. Building materials must be present. Excavated material must go somewhere.

Playing the tune requires a Bard skill check (DC 14 for non-bards; bards succeed automatically except on a roll of 1 under normal conditions, or 1–7 during combat or high-stress situations). A failed tune: 20% chance the power fails to activate. Bards who fail the tune may make a Fortitude save (DC 12) to resume playing correctly without triggering the failure chance.

A bard activating the repair power may do so once per day per 5 bard levels. A bard activating build produces the equivalent of 100 + 10 workers per bard level.

The lyre is not subtle. Its use in an urban context creates exactly the kind of spectacle that draws attention from people who would like to own it.

Origin: Unknown manufacture, unknown age. The oldest confirmed reference is a Vithura trade record from 837 TE, where it appears in an inventory as "lyre, repairs things, do not let the bard have it unsupervised." Several copies have been attempted over the years; none have reproduced the build power. The repair power is apparently easier to replicate, and lesser versions appear occasionally in high-end magical markets.

Miscellaneous ​

THE DREAM ORB (THE ORACLE) ​

Wondrous Item

A sphere of opaque glass, approximately 20 cm in diameter, with no visible enchantment markings. When held in both hands with concentration maintained for 1 full round, the Orb shows the holder a vision drawn from events that have not yet occurred — possible futures, weighted toward whatever the holder most fears or most wants, which are more often the same thing than most holders expect.

Visions are accurate between 40% and 80% of the time, depending on how far forward they reach and how many decisions intervene between the vision and its subject. The Orb does not indicate its own accuracy. A party who acts confidently on an Orb vision and is wrong has not been deceived; they have simply misunderstood what they were given.

The Orb can be used once per day. Using it on more than three consecutive days causes the holder to experience visions involuntarily during sleep. This produces no additional useful information and increasing difficulty distinguishing vision from dream from memory. It ends when the holder stops using the Orb for at least five consecutive days.

Origin: Pre-Second Era. The Chroniclers classify it as a Category One artifact on the basis of age alone, though its powers are modest compared to other Category One entries. It has moved between seventeen documented owners since 700 TE; twelve of those owners survived its possession. The five who did not all used it on more than three consecutive days. The Chroniclers have noted this correlation in their internal records. They have not published it.

The Orb is called the Oracle by people who feel that name implies something wise and purposeful about the visions it shows. It does not have agency. It shows what is possible. What the holder does with that is entirely their problem.

BLACK GLASS COMPASS ​

Wondrous Item

A compass made from obsidian and silver. The needle points toward the nearest site of significant Darkness-adjacent activity: active summoning locations, sites where the boundary between the material plane and the Abyss has been weakened, concentrations of undead above normal Dead Lands levels, or any area where a Named Entity has been active within the past month.

Range: 4 km. Within that range, it gives direction, not distance. At the exact site of the influence, it spins without stopping.

The Dead Lands' background radiation does not trigger the compass. Standard undead encounters, ordinary ruins, and the general geography of the region do not register. The GM determines what constitutes "above normal Dead Lands levels."

Origin: A Chronicler instrument designed for expedition safety — specifically, to warn field teams away from sites where unexpected Darkness-adjacent activity had developed since the last survey. Production was discontinued when the Chronicler leadership determined that the compasses were more useful to people who wanted to find Darkness-adjacent sites than to people who wanted to avoid them. Approximately forty were made. Fewer than twenty are currently accounted for. The remaining twenty-odd are presumably in the hands of people whose plans the Chroniclers would rather not know about.

CHRONICLER'S SEAL ​

Wondrous Item

A heavy wax seal in an iron matrix, bearing the Chronicler Order's authentication mark. When pressed into wax with the correct command phrase (known only to Chronicler initiates), it produces a perfect replica of an authentic Chronicler document seal, undetectable by mundane or magical means short of a 15th-level detect forgery.

The matrix itself cannot be forged; the enchantment is bound to the specific iron. A stolen Seal, however, is functionally equivalent to one legitimately obtained.

The Chroniclers do not list these among magical items in any published catalogue, because acknowledging their existence implies the possibility of theft, which implies the possibility that Chronicler documents have been falsified. They have been.

Origin: Standard Chronicler Order equipment. Number in circulation: classified.

PART V — WEAPONS ​

WHISPERING BLADE ​

Shortsword +2 · Intelligent Weapon

Ego 14 · Alignment: Neutral · Intelligence: 11 Languages: Common, Old Script, Aelár (reads; does not speak it), Duergar trade-cant Communication: Speech, audible only to its current wielder, always in whispers

The sword knows the name, ancestry, and approximate cause of death of every creature it has killed since it was forged. It volunteers this information when it judges it relevant, which is more often than most wielders find comfortable.

Its current goal is to return to Alvengaard, where the smith who made it has been dead for approximately two hundred years. The sword is aware of this. It has not revised the goal.

The sword will not deliver a killing blow to any Duergar or Duardeen. It will attack them, it will wound them, but the killing strike does not land. This has cost at least one of its wielders their life. The sword does not apologize.

Origin: Made in Alvengaard by a smith named Mira Kern who believed weapons should remember what they had done. Whether the sentience was intentional is the central debate among weapon-scholars who have examined it. The sword's own account — that Kern was surprised the first time it spoke — is considered inconclusive as evidence, since the sword also has opinions about who it will kill.

SALTBANE ​

Light Crossbow +1 · Special

Bolts fired from Saltbane function as silvered weapons regardless of their composition. A standard iron bolt fired from this crossbow carries the silver-weapon effect without requiring silvered ammunition. The enchantment is in the bow, not the projectiles.

The crossbow carries a faint smell of brine that does not dissipate with cleaning.

Origin: Made in Wightport by an unnamed craftsperson during a wererat infestation of the harbor district in 1,244 TE. The infestation was resolved by other means before the crossbow saw significant use; it went to a pawnbroker and has circulated through Wightport's weapon markets several times since. The asking price, when it surfaces, is consistently higher than the enchantment alone would justify. Its reputation precedes it.

EMBER AXE ​

Battleaxe +2 · Special

The axe is warm to the touch at all times. In the presence of undead within 9 m, it becomes too hot to hold barehanded — 1 point of heat damage per round of bare contact; wielding it requires at least heavy gloves or gauntlets. Against undead, the axe deals an additional 1d6 fire damage per strike.

This fire damage cannot be extinguished or suppressed by magical means. Attempting to dispel it removes the +2 enchantment bonus temporarily (8 hours) but not the fire damage. This is atypical behavior for a magical weapon and has not been adequately explained.

Origin: Forged by a Duardeen smith working near one of the active Dead Lands frontier camps, in iron that had been stored adjacent to an exposed obsidian seam for eleven years. Whether the iron composition is responsible, or the forge location, or neither, remains an open question. The smith made four axes. Three have been recovered. The fourth is presumably somewhere in or adjacent to the Dead Lands, which means it is likely in the possession of something that cannot feel heat.

QUIET SILVER ​

Dagger +1 · Special

Against Abyss-Spawn only: when a Spawn is reduced to 0 HP by this weapon, its material form does not dissolve in the normal fashion. The body remains and cannot reconstitute during the standard one-week recovery period. A specific Chronicler ritual performed on the remains within 48 hours permanently destroys the Spawn rather than returning it to the Abyss.

Against all other creatures, this is a standard +1 dagger.

Origin: The enchantment was not intentional. The blade was forged from silver salvaged from a Second Era Abyss-banishment ritual site — specifically, from the melted-down instruments used in the final ceremony that ended the Second Era. The silver absorbed properties from the ritual itself. One of these exists. It cannot be reproduced. The Chroniclers know what it does. They do not know where it currently is, which is the fact they find most troubling.

CADMAN'S GRIEF ​

Two-Handed Sword +3 · Intelligent Weapon

Ego 16 · Alignment: Lawful Neutral · Intelligence: 9 Communication: Empathic (transmits emotional states to wielder; satisfaction when attacking, discomfort when the wielder chooses a diplomatic resolution, significant discomfort when the wielder prays)

  • +3 to attack rolls and damage
  • The wielder suffers −1 to all Will saving throws — including saves against fear, charm, hold, and alignment-shift effects
  • This penalty is structural and cannot be separated from the weapon by enchantment-suppression

The sword was +3 before whatever happened to it. The Will save penalty appears to have been added by a second hand, at a different time, for reasons that were not documented. The sword's consistent discomfort when the wielder prays suggests the second enchantment was a specific response to something the original owner did.

Origin: Documented as carried by Erlan Cadman, second-in-command of the original Val Cadma advance force, at the Battle of Three Passes in 927 TE. Cadman survived the battle. What happened to him afterward is absent from the standard histories. The sword appeared in a Chronicler vault in 1,200 TE with no transfer record explaining how it got there. The Chronicler assigned to investigate the gap was reassigned before completing the inquiry.

PART VI — ARMOR & SHIELDS ​

SCALES OF THE DEEP WATCH ​

Chain Mail +3 · Special

Made from Vysandri alloy — the same grey-black metal as the Rod of Breaking above. Grants:

  • Resistance to fire (half damage, magical and non-magical)
  • Resistance to acid (half damage)
  • In genuine complete darkness (no light source of any kind): the wearer recovers 1 HP per round

The recovery property does not activate in magically created darkness. It requires an actual, complete absence of light, which makes it highly effective in deep dungeon contexts and effectively useless in any combat where either side is carrying a torch.

Origin: Recovered from the Eymanarann ruins in 1,341 TE by a Chronicler expedition. The Vysandri made armor designed for people who worked in complete darkness; the heat and acid resistance are secondary properties, presumably relevant to whatever those workers were doing. The Chroniclers auctioned the armor to cover expedition costs. Last documented owner: a Bellarian company commander named Aldric Mast, whose company dissolved in 1,371 TE. Mast's current whereabouts are unknown.

CHRONICLER'S BREASTPLATE ​

Breastplate +2 · Special

The interior surface carries a running engraving in very small Old Script. On close inspection, the engraving is a list of names — every person who has attempted to take this armor from its current owner by force or theft. The list grows.

The armor cannot be stolen by magical means — telekinesis, Bigby's hands, levitate, and similar effects cannot move it off an unwilling wearer. Physical attempts to remove it from an unwilling wearer require a Strength check at DC 18 per attempt. The armor leaves willingly when its wearer decides to remove it.

Origin: Made by a Chronicler order-smith in 1,198 TE for Chronicler transport officials — people carrying material too valuable to risk to a courier who could be coerced. The enchantment against theft was considered more important than combat protection, which explains its +2 rather than higher rating. The armor was declared lost in 1,289 TE when the transport official wearing it stopped reporting in. The interior list of names includes the official who wore it before the current owner. That name is crossed out. The enchantment does not do this automatically.

THE WARDEN'S PLATE ​

Full Plate Armor +2 · Special

The armor of the last named Warden of the Northern Wall, an office dissolved in 1,201 TE when Bellaria consolidated Northern Wall governance into its general military structure. Standard plate +2 with one specific additional property: it speaks the name of any approaching undead creature within 30 m in a voice audible only to the wearer. It states the name. It does not describe the creature, estimate its strength, or indicate direction beyond "close" or "coming."

For unintelligent undead, it speaks the creature's pre-death name, when that information is encoded in the residual spiritual material. For mass-raised undead without individual identity, it says nothing. For intelligent undead with retained identity — wights, spectres, vampires — it states whatever name they currently use.

Origin: Made for the second Warden of the Northern Wall, whose own name the armor does not speak when asked. The voice property was added by the Warden himself, reportedly following a night patrol that cost him three soldiers. The armor has remained at the Northern Wall continuously — except for the period 1,289–1,301 TE, during which it does not appear in any Bellarian record. No one has explained the gap. The armor was simply there again when someone thought to check.

PART VII — CURSED ITEMS ​

MERCY BLADE ​

Dagger (Cursed)

This dagger cannot deal lethal damage to: any creature of 4 HD or fewer, any creature currently unconscious, any juvenile of any ancestry, or any non-hostile animal that is not attacking the wielder.

Against these creatures, the dagger deals subdual damage only — they fall unconscious at 0 HP; they do not die. This cannot be suppressed by remove curse, wish, or any effect short of destroying the blade.

Against all other creatures: functions as a standard +1 dagger.

The blade was made by someone who could not bring themselves to kill certain things and built that limitation into the tool. Whether those choices were right is not a question this catalogue answers.

Origin: Found in a Tar'amaan inquisitor post overrun in 1,337 TE. Whatever the inquisitor was using it for, the Mercy Blade was among their confiscated materials. Where it came from before that is not in any record.

BELL OF HONEST WORDS ​

Wondrous Item (Cursed)

When struck, this small silver bell creates a zone of enforced honesty within 9 m for 1 hour. Within the zone, no creature can state a deliberate falsehood — they may be silent, they may refuse to answer, but they cannot say something they know to be untrue.

The bell cannot be silenced once struck. Silence spells, gags, and similar effects prevent the bell sound from being heard, but the zone activates and persists regardless. The zone affects everyone within range, including the person who struck the bell.

Origin: A Messalyan judicial instrument from the early Third Era, used in contract arbitration before the practice was discontinued. Several dozen were made. The Merchant Council maintains a policy of confiscating them when they surface in domestic markets. The policy was formalized following a council session in 1,298 TE during which one was struck accidentally. The session's record has been sealed.

COLLAR OF SERVICE ​

Amulet (Cursed)

An ornate silver necklace with an unusual clasp. Once worn, the clasp locks — mundane and magical means cannot open it while the curse is active; remove curse allows removal. The wearer must obey all spoken commands given by the holder of the matching bell (a separate item always found with the Collar, distinct from the Bell of Honest Words). Commands can be resisted with a Will save at DC 16; a successful save allows refusal of that specific command, and the compulsion then lapses for 24 hours before reasserting itself.

The Collar has no XP value and does not appear in any official magical item catalogue. Its presence in a location reliably indicates that whoever owned it was conducting operations the Known World's legal frameworks would classify as slavery.

Origin: Val Cadma. Early Third Era occupation records from Norderenn describe these items in use against resistance leaders. Whether the design originated in Val Cadma or was acquired from an earlier source is not documented, and the Val Cadma government's position is that these records are historically contested, which is one way to put it.

THE WARDEN'S BURDEN ​

Shield +3 (Cursed)

The bearer gains +3 to AC. Additionally: the bearer cannot voluntarily move more than 9 m from the last person they explicitly and publicly swore to protect. The triggering oath must be specific, witnessed, and willing — entering combat, accepting a mission, and agreeing to act as escort do not activate the compulsion.

If the protected person dies, the curse immediately retargets to their killer. The bearer cannot act against their new ward for 24 hours during the transition; after 24 hours, they are compelled to pursue the killer.

The shield was made as a protection tool, not a punishment. It makes it impossible to abandon someone you have sworn to protect. The distinction matters to anyone who has used it correctly.

Origin: The previous Warden of the Northern Wall carried two pieces of armor. The plate is documented above. The shield was what she carried at the Pass of Broken Teeth in 1,198 TE, when she held the line alone for four hours to allow the survivors to withdraw. She survived. The ward-compulsion had already taken hold before relief arrived. She wore the shield until her death, which was of old age, at her post, in 1,243 TE — having never consciously sworn to protect any specific person again after that battle, so the compulsion lay dormant.

The Bellarian military has the shield in a display case at the Northern Wall's command center. They are proud of it. They have not tested whether the enchantment still activates.

PART VIII — ARTIFACTS ​

An artifact, in the Chronicler classification system, is a magical item whose enchantment cannot be replicated by any living practitioner, whose origin predates reliable records, or whose power exceeds the upper bound of what standard magical crafting produces. The classification says nothing about physical appearance; some artifacts look like weapons. Some look like unremarkable pieces of stone.

Items in this section should be placed deliberately. An artifact changes a campaign, not an encounter. A GM who places the Aegis is not placing a shield; they are placing a political question.

THE AEGIS ​

Legendary Shield

Last confirmed location: unknown. Last confirmed sighting: 387 TE. Absent from all documented collections for approximately 1,000 years.

A kite shield, roughly 60 cm wide and 120 cm tall, made from a material that no craftsperson or scholar has successfully identified. It is not metal, not stone, not treated hide, and not any composite of these. It carries no visible enchantment marks, does not glow, does not vibrate, and radiates no detectable magical aura — which is itself the one consistent magical property that every account confirms. Under detect magic, it reads as mundane. It is not.

Mechanical properties (assembled from accounts prior to 387 TE):

  • AC bonus: +5 (adds directly to the bearer's ascending AC)
  • The bearer cannot be reduced below 1 HP by any means while actively holding the shield and remaining conscious. This applies to all damage types, all effects, all sources, without exception.
  • The bearer cannot be surprised.
  • Arrows, bolts, and thrown weapons deflect automatically around the bearer, without requiring their awareness or action.
  • Against attacks from creatures of Lawful Evil alignment: all the above apply, and the attacker must succeed on a Will save (DC 22) or be unable to attack the bearer for 1d4 rounds.

The Bellarian succession question: The Aegis is considered the rightful property of Bellaria's ruling line by a tradition dating to the Third Era's founding. In 1,380 TE, three claimants have documented historical lineage to that line. None of them have the shield. Its return has been used as a legitimacy argument by every Bellarian succession claimant for six hundred years. Whether the Aegis actually confers legitimate authority — or whether that political tradition simply attached itself to a legendary object because legendary objects are convenient — is a debate that Bellarian historians consider closed and foreign observers find extremely open.

Where it is: Unknown. The Chroniclers' most recent active search file was opened in 1,312 TE and remains open. The five most credible theories are: that it sank with a ship near the Bay of Dragons; that it is in a Tar'amaan vault; that Magnus carried it into the Dead Lands himself; that one of the Five has it; and that it was destroyed, along with whatever information would explain how that is possible. None of these theories has produced the shield.

The Aegis cannot be assigned a treasure value. Placing it in a campaign means placing a succession crisis, a three-way political conflict, and a question about what legitimacy means in a world with the Known World's history. The GM should decide what question they are asking before introducing it, because the Aegis will not answer it for them.

Eymanarynn Artifacts ​

The items below resist the standard classifications applied to magical artifacts. Their origin predates the Second Era, and they predate the traditions that produced what the Known World calls magic. The dominant scholarly interpretation — that they are Vysandri artifacts produced in an enchanting tradition that the collapse ended — accounts for most of the evidence. What it does not account for: several of these items carry no detectable magical signature, respond to physical rather than arcane interaction, and display no degradation after a demonstrated minimum of three thousand years of operation.

The Chroniclers' materials division has logged these inconsistencies under a classification that does not appear in their public-facing index. The Order of Magnus's counterproposal — that these items represent a magical tradition so advanced it exceeds current detection — does not explain the evidence; it relocates the difficulty. The College of Whispers has a third position they have not shared with either institution.

Each faction has arrived at a partial truth. The entries below record the evidence and the interpretations. The interpretations are incomplete.

THE LISTENING SHARD ​

Fragment · Unique class; multiple examples exist

Last confirmed location: College of Whispers research repository, Wightport. Additional examples rumored in Chronicler restricted storage (unconfirmed). Dead Lands expeditions in 1,341–1,367 TE recovered a minimum of three.

A palm-sized fragment broken from larger paneling — the same paneling that lines the walls of the deeper Eymanarann corridors. The face retains its original finish: slightly textured in a fine regular grid, with two shallow depressions in one corner spaced approximately 2 cm apart. The depressions are worn smooth at their centers, from pressure applied over a very long time or very many times. Both explanations have been proposed.

It registers no magical aura. It is room temperature unless the depressions are pressed, at which point they become warm.

What it does. At irregular intervals, the Shard emits sound: fragments of speech in a language no known school of linguistics has placed, sequences of specific tones, and occasionally longer transmissions of several seconds that scholars have transcribed but not translated. Pressing the depressions in sequence increases the frequency of emissions for 1d4 hours afterward. The depressions remain warm for the duration.

In the Dead Lands: emissions are more frequent, more sustained, and occasionally appear to respond — in ways that resist coincidental explanation — to events occurring in the party's immediate vicinity. A Chronicler expedition in 1,358 TE documented an emission sequence beginning within minutes of a collapse in an adjacent corridor. The expedition's report logged it as "possible resonance interference from structural event." The researcher who filed the report added a marginal note: or something heard it.

Three positions.

The Chroniclers classify it as a residual echo artifact — a recording device of some kind, preserving audio from its period of original use. Their evidence: the recurring tones have the regularity of a signal rather than ambient sound. Their problem: recordings do not respond to current events, and the Chroniclers' own records contain three documented instances of apparent response. They have classified these instances as anomalous and have not revised the category.

The Order of Magnus, minority position, put forward in a letter that has been in restricted circulation for twelve years: the Shard is not emitting stored information — it is receiving. Something is still transmitting. The letter was not formally refuted. It was filed.

The College of Whispers has owned one example for thirty years and has run eleven years of transcription work. Their summary finding: the transmissions are not random, they are not translatable, and the sequences are longer than they appear — what they have transcribed as independent transmissions are, over time, portions of a continuous signal they have not captured completely. The College's internal notation on this artifact: do not return to Chroniclers.

Origin: The College's example came through a private sale in 1,350 TE from a merchant who declined to name the expedition that found it. The Chroniclers' unconfirmed examples are listed in a category they use for items they know exist and have not formally processed. That category has seventeen entries as of 1,380 TE.

THE WARDEN DISC ​

Small disc · Unique class; multiple examples exist

Last confirmed location: Three examples in Chronicler restricted inventory. One sold to the Order of Magnus in 1,348 TE; current location within the Order's possession. Two reported in private collections in Endoras and Messalya.

A disc of the same composite grey material found throughout the lower Eymanarann ruins, approximately 6 cm in diameter, 4 mm thick. The surface contains a pattern of darker channels embedded in the material itself — not applied to the surface but part of its composition, visible when the disc is held at an angle to light. The channels form a pattern that is not random. Scholars disagree on whether it is script, a diagram, or a classification mark of some kind.

It registers no magical aura. It is always warm — not slightly warm, but warm, consistently, at all ambient temperatures, without any detectable source.

What it does. In the Eymanarann ruins: sealed surfaces of the same composite material — flush barriers with no visible mechanism, found throughout the deeper corridors — open when the disc is pressed against them. The disc does not work on every such surface. Chronicler mapping expeditions have established that specific discs correspond to specific sections of the ruins; each opens its zone and not others. The sectoring, as they term it, has been partially mapped at significant cost.

Against Vartran characters: the disc does not warm when held, and sealed surfaces do not respond.

Three positions.

The Chroniclers' interpretation: a resonance key attuned to ward-seals in the ruins. The Vartran failure they attribute to "Vartran spiritual resonance interfering with the attunement frequency." They have mapped the sectoring and maintain this information at high classification. They have not addressed why a resonance key would be warm without a magical source.

The Order of Magnus, through a researcher who tested the Vartran response directly and recorded the results: if the disc makes a distinction between Vartran and non-Vartran, it is doing so based on a criterion it was given — which means someone decided the Vartrans should not be admitted. The Order filed this as a research hypothesis. They have not acted on it. The researcher has since left the Order and her current location is not in any record the Order maintains.

The Church of Tar'amaan has not formally examined any of these discs. There is, however, a passage in the fifth encyclical — dated to 47 TE, which the Church describes as historical context rather than doctrine — that discusses the Vartran curse in terms of "exclusion from works that endure." The encyclical predates any documented Eymanarann expedition by nearly two centuries. The source of the founding scholars' evidence on this point is not established.

Origin: All examples are Dead Lands recoveries. The Chroniclers' first formal record of the disc dates to 1,312 TE, though expedition reports from earlier decades describe "small grey tokens with surface patterning, warmth property unresolved" that are almost certainly the same class of item. The tokens were not collected. The expeditions that noted them were operating under different recovery priorities and did not return to the same corridors.

THE DEAD LANTERN ​

Tool · Unique class; multiple examples exist

Last confirmed location: College of Whispers operational inventory. Secondary examples: four in Chronicler expedition supply; two in Order of Magnus research possession.

A cylinder of Vysandri alloy, 28 cm long, sealed at both ends. The alloy composition differs from the variant used in the Rod of Breaking — Order of Magnus laboratory testing in 1,359 TE identified trace elements not present in the Rod, suggesting different manufacturing runs or different purposes. One end has a shallow depression at its center, worn smooth. The other end is covered with a material that appears transparent and resembles glass but is not glass: it has never scratched, has survived impacts that would have shattered any known transparent material, and under magical analysis reads as neither magical nor mundane. The analysts found this troubling. They noted it twice in their report, which is unusual.

It weighs approximately 400 grams.

What it does. When pressure is maintained on the depression, the transparent end emits directed white light equivalent to a torch. The light carries no magical signature — no detection method has found an enchantment. It does not flicker, cannot be extinguished by wind or water, and produces no heat. Releasing pressure ends the light immediately. The cylinder does not lose any measurable material, charge, or property over time; examples recovered from the ruins have been in continuous use for years without change in function.

The debate. The Dead Lantern is unusual in this catalogue in that its primary dispute is not origin but category. Four independent detection methods agree it carries no enchantment. This generates two positions.

The Order of Magnus holds that the absence of detectable enchantment is not evidence of the absence of enchantment; their hypothesis is that the manufacturing tradition that produced it worked through principles that precede current magical detection. Their version of the argument: "If the Eymanarann had methods we cannot currently detect, the appropriate conclusion is that our detection methods are insufficient."

The Chroniclers' counterproposal, argued by their materials division and not yet published in any formal paper: the Lantern is not magical. It is a device operating through principles the Known World's technical tradition has not reached. Their version: "The simplest explanation for the absence of a magical signature is the absence of magic." They have not published this position because the institutional implications of doing so are large.

The College of Whispers, which has owned one example for thirty years, maintains a third position they have shared with neither the Order nor the Chroniclers. Their internal file notation on this artifact reads: assume other examples exist in the conduit-adjacent corridors. Adjust expedition operational posture accordingly.

Origin: All documented recoveries come from the lower Eymanarann corridor system — specifically the corridors that expedition reports describe as having parallel rail formations along the lower walls and regular wall-mounted fixtures at consistent intervals. The Lanterns appear to come from those fixtures. Why they appear there specifically, and not in the upper ruin structures, has not been explained.

THE SURVEYOR'S PLATE ​

Panel fragment · Unique

Last confirmed location: Order of Magnus, restricted research floor, Dolmas. Acquired through private sale in 1,344 TE from an expedition that declined to file a standard Chronicler recovery disclosure.

A flat panel of the composite grey material, 31 cm × 19 cm, 8 mm thick. In standard light it is unremarkable — slightly textured, the same uniform grey as all material of this type. In darkness, or at the edge of visible light, the surface emits a faint distributed luminescence in patterns. Not a glow. A diagram: shifting geometric lines that suggest a map or architectural plan. The patterns change over days and weeks. The changes are not random — they move directionally, consistently, relative to whatever orientation the plate is held in.

Scholars who have logged the changes over months note: the patterns accelerate when the plate is brought closer to the Dead Lands. An expedition that carried it to the Chronicler waystation at the southern approach — not into the ruins themselves, only to the waystation — reported that the diagrams became substantially clearer and began responding, with approximately a two-minute delay, to the party's movement through the waystation's structure.

What it does. Inside the Eymanarann ruins: the plate functions as a map of the immediate architecture. Known corridors illuminate as the party enters them. Branching passages appear as unlit lines ahead of the party's position. Range is approximately 90 m in all directions, including vertically. The map does not show creatures, only structure. Sealed surfaces, subsurface corridors below the current floor, and passages blocked by collapse appear in a slightly different luminescence — dimmer, outlined rather than filled — that the Order's researchers have not formally named. The working term in their notes is present but unreachable.

Outside the Dead Lands: the plate shows its last active display, updating in very slow changes over days. The Order has been logging these changes since 1,344 TE and believes they reflect real-time changes in the ruins themselves.

What the Order has found. The map is active because something is updating it. Their 1,380 TE research summary — currently in the most restricted tier of internal circulation, with a distribution of four named individuals — ends with a sentence the researcher underlined: Something in the ruins is still sending.

The Chroniclers, who do not know the Order has this item, are looking for it. Their last confirmed knowledge of its location was 1,338 TE, when it was in the possession of an expedition leader who sold it before filing his recovery report. The Chroniclers' stated interest is logged as "cartographic tools of potential navigational value." What they would actually do with the plate is in a different file.

Origin: The expedition that recovered it crossed two Chronicler checkpoints without declaring it. The expedition leader's later accounts describe finding it mounted in place on a wall in the lower corridor system — not dropped, not abandoned, but in its original position, still functioning, in a section of ruins that the expedition's own survey suggested had been sealed for several hundred years. He did not describe what he expected to find when he pulled it from the wall. He did not describe what he found in the room behind it. His accounts stop there.

A note on further artifacts: The Dream Orb (see Wondrous Items, above) carries artifact-level enchantment despite its classification. The Leviathan of the Eymanarann ruins (see Chapter 5) is not an item but functions as one in the context of the ruins it occupies. Other artifacts — weapons and objects referenced in the most restricted Chronicler files, and in the oldest Orchestra songs — exist in the Known World. The Chroniclers know of at least eleven. They have confirmed the existence of four. The other seven they are less comfortable discussing.

The rules for magical item identification, use, crafting, recharging, and destruction are in Book I, Chapter 12. GMs who want to generate items beyond the entries above should use the procedures in that chapter; the items here supplement rather than replace standard generation.