Artifacts and Relics


The Phoenix Feather
Crown of the Shadow King
Eye of Balor

Crown of the Shadow King

In the Age of Revelation, a time when learning and peace were strongest, a duke who practiced the art of illusion pleaded to Baras to grant him power. Baras, his powers waning during this time, agreed and gave the illusionist a point of his own crown, which the duke affixed to his.
Alliances that took centuries to build were destroyed as acts of blatant betrayal took place. Using the crown, the duke slew the elven princess of Welshar with the illusions of dwarven warriors. The human king of Dykla was slain by what appeared to be elven magic. After several apparent betrayals, the races and the nations of the world split into various warring factions heralding the start of the Age of Fear.
With the powers of the crown, the duke easily conquered many of the disunited people, building a vast empire of darkness. He taxed the people ruthlessly, hoarding pile upon pile of treasures. The duke (now an emperor) was eventually killed by a more powerful rival, who was himself slain in turn. A long line of tyrant shadow kings emerged each mightier than the last.
In the year 347, St. Celastine of Edar triumphed over the last shadow king, binding him in the depths of his midnight black castle with the power of his god. Raising a plea to the heavens, Celastine begged that the crown be hidden from the eyes of men.
The god answered that he could not take it to his own realm in the outer planes for it could corrupt even him, but obligingly ripped the castle from it's foundations and hid it somewhere on earth. Rumours of the castle's locations persist, some saying it resides beneath the sea or a mountain range, others say it exists above the clouds, or in a land on the edge of the world.

Minor Powers
Darkness 15' radius at will
Shadow Magic once/day
Demi-Shadow Magic/once per day
Shades once/day
Shadow Door once/day

Major Powers
 Shadow walk at will
Summon and control 3-5 shadows once/day
Shadow Double once/day

Dangers

The artifact gradually turns the wearer to an alignment of NE and causes him to lust after material treasures, eventually> causing it to become his main goal. All who see the item covet it as well, this want is so powerful that each time something sees the item, there is a 10% chance that the thing will go mad with desire for it, causing it to forget every other goal than posessing the item. The artifact has a 5% cumulative chance per use of the item to turn the wearer to turn into a 10 HD shadow with 95 hp.
Weaknesses
The item can only be removed with a remove curse spell, and the wearer can only overcome his desire for the item with a heal and a full wish spell. To destroy the item a character must travel to the Planar Castle of Fealty or Edar (gods in my world) in the outer realms and convince him to hold it in his inner sanctum for 10 years. During this time all guardsmen, knights, judges or other persons of the law that the characters meet will be corrupt.

The Phoenix Feather

This artifact is a feather escapulated inside a red crystal set into a golden bracer. This artifact absorbs energy and allows the wielder to re-use it. The energy can come from normal sources such as the sun or normal fire, but the artifact can be more easily recharged with magical energy. Enough energy can be stored inside the Phoenix Feather to cause 400 points of damage.
This energy is automatically gathered from harmful spells cast on the individual. It absorbs the damage that the spell would have caused and converts it into stored energy. Eg. A lightning bolt cast at the wearer would have caused 20 points of damage. The artifact absorbs the lightning bolt and adds 20 points to the amount already stored. If the harmful spell would not have caused direct damage (eg. sleep, power word, Stun) then it absorbs 5 points per level of the spell. A conscious effort must be made to absorb a beneficial spell or a spell that does not affect the wearer of the artifact (eg. light).

Major Powers
This artifact allows the wearer to release the stored energy in a fiery torrent. The user of the Phoenix feather can release as little and as much as he wants at one time. He can also release it in a strait line, in a spray, or in a circular radius. There is a limit, however for it cannot cause 200 points of damage in an unlimited area of space. The formula for the bracer is:

Area=                       points stored                   
                ----------------------------------------
                  points of damage wanted to inflict

Thus if you wanted to cause 10 points of damage to everyone
and you had 200 points stored you can spread the flame to a 20'
area. If you only wanted to cause 1 point of damage you could
spread the flame to a 200' area.
The Artifact also gives complete immunity to magical and
normal fire.

Minor Powers
Flame Wings brings into existence a set of wings with a 15' foot wingspan. They allow the individual to fly at a movement rate of 15 (B). The wings also cause 3d6 points of flame damage and use up 18 points per round.
Faerie fire 0 points
Pyrotechnics uses 10 points per use
Wall of fire uses 30 points per round
Automatic success to learn fire-based spells

Dangers
Cannot be removed from individual
Water and Ice Based Attacks do triple damage
Animals will flee individual (fear of fire)
Automatic failure to learn water or cold based spells

Since the bracer sears itself to the skin when it is first put on, it is very difficult to remove. To remove the bracer one must cast a remove curse and a wish spell. To destroy the artifact it must be buried a mile down in the ice pits of the abyss.