Each orb is about two inches in diameter. You throw it down and it creates a ball of smoke thick enough to obscure one human body for 2d4 rounds. Spells that affect or create breezes can disappate the smoke in 1d3 rounds. Orbs are found either singly or a pouch containing four. An alchemist can make one of these in about four hours.
By Glenn Robb
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Soul Bender
This ring is indeed well named. Made from jet black metal, twisted so much that it resembles a badly woven piece of rope and set with two small rubies, Soul Bender allows its wearer to control the hearts and minds of other people. The truth of the ring's forging is lost to history, but the most believed version suggests that the ring was created for an Anuirean regent (differing accounts place him as the ruler of Diemed, Alamie and Osoerde but no-one knows for sure) by his court wizard, over 1000 years ago. The regent was plagued by continually feuding nobles and their skirmishes where threatening to tear his realm apart. Desperate for something to get his nobles back under control, the regent begged his court wizard to come up with a solution. Soul Bender was the unknown wizard's answer to the kings plea.
Using the ring, the regent gained control of his nobles, making them stop their feuding. He used the ring for the remainder of his reign but it was never passed to his heir, despite the huge effort he extended to find the ring. The earliest actual documented account of Soul Bender is after the fall of the Anuirean Empire, when the regent of Avanil used the ring to unite a number of lesser regents behind him in an attempt to seize the Iron Throne shortly after Michael Roele's death. This particular grab for the throne was one of the primary catalysts in the Avanil-Boeruine conflict. Avanil's regent was killed in a battle against Boeruine's forces and Soul Bender was lost again.
Although the ring has been absent from sages' accounts for 500 years now, it has been in the possession of a number of adventuring bands and petty bandit lords as well as lying in treasure hordes on numerous occasions. Mern found Soul Bender lying in an apparently abandoned gnoll lair in the hills of central Ghoere where he had holed up to hide from Ghoeran patrols. He has since used it to help him achieve the tasks the Cold Rider has set him.
Soul Bender functions similarly to a ring of human influence as described in the DMG, with some important differences. Firstly, Soul Bender does not effect the wearer's Charisma as detailed in the DMG. Secondly, someone who has received enough exposure to the ring's effects actually begins to mimic the owner of Soul Bender's behaviour and will eventually fall under the control of the ring's owner. This control is as per the charm person spell but the victim receives no Intelligence checks to escape the control. Other ways of breaking the charm work normally. A person must spend at least an hour of every other day in close proximity to both the ring and ring's owner for about a year before falling under the thrall of Soul Bender's owner. Lastly, all the powers of the ring only work on full humans (and not humanoids as well as per the description in the DMG).
By ? (Don't seem to have address. Mail me if this is your work)
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The Tree of the Sielwode is an incredible piece of jewelry. It is a two inch long brooch in the shape of an apple tree. The setting of the brooch is finely wrought gold and silver. The trunk of the tree is .5 inches long and .25 inches wide. The trunk is delicately carved and appears to be actually covered in bark. At the widest part of the treetop, the brooch is 1.25 inches wide. The treetop is set with 12 gems: 4 diamonds, 1/8 of an inch in diameter; 4 rubies, 1/8 of an inch in diameter; and 8 emeralds, 4 1/8 of an inch in diameter and 4 3/16 of an inch in diameter. The value of the stones alone would be a king's ransom.
If a detect magic is cast upon the brooch, it will radiate an aura of magic. The brooch functions as a ring of wizardry, doubling the number of first and second level spells that a mage may cast. This affect applies not only conventional, but also to battle spells. This affect does not apply to realm spells as they draw their energy from the mebhaighl of the land, not solely on the caster's ability to memorize spells.
Yet, the Tree of the Sielwode holds a secret. The eight emeralds in the brooch are actually sielshegh gems of Reynir, the god of the forrests. The elves wisely kept the discovery of these gems a secret. The size of these gems put them in the classification of a knight. Altogether, this brooch grants a scion of Reynir an additional 10 points of bloodline strength. An elven mage, Darochinn of the Sielwode, comissioned this extravagent peice of jewelry shortly after the destruction of Mount Desimaar. The brooch was lost in battle over 300 years ago.
While the monetary value of this brooch is astronomical, its value to a scion of Reynir is incalculable. These sielshegh stones may be the only ones to have been produced at Desimaar. If the existence of this brooch became public knowledge, several scions would tear apart all of Cerillia to find it.
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Whisper's Hide
This is Rashad's most prized possession. It appears to be a beautifully made cloak made of the highest quality black velvet. Closer inspection of the garment, however, reveals that the outside of the cloak is covered in very fine, half-inch log black hairs. The inside of the cloak has a rough, leathery feel. It automatically resizes to fit any size M humanoid who puts it on.
The cloak was crafted from the skin of a fairly weak awnsheghlien known as Whisper. The creature's origins are unknown, but it had numerous powers that allowed it to make itself almost invisible in any sort of shadow and when in darkness (or near darkness), it gained the power of flight. Whisper had a very short career as an awnsheghlien, usually working as a paid assassin for a number of Khinasi regents.
When Aftane began to lose its garrisons in what was once Djira (now known as the Black Spear Tribes) to organised gnoll forces, the regent hired Whisper to find the unknown person behind the gnoll's efforts and to kill him (or her). Unfortunately for Whisper, the gnoll's leader was el-Sheighül, a very powerful wizard and one of the Lost (a group of undead wizards taught their twisted magics by none other than Azrai himself). Needless to say, Whisper was no match for el-Sheighül.
After the brief battle, the undead sorcerer removed a large portion of the awnsheghlien's skin and fashioned it into a cloak. Through various enchantments, he gave the cloak numerous powers that allowed gave its wearer powers similar to those possessed by Whisper. El-Sheighül then gave the cloak, now called Whisper's Hide, to one of his most valuable agents, a skilled thief named Chalina in order to aid her in her work of spying the regents of southern Khinasi. Despite the cloak's powers, Chalina was caught by the Red Kings of Aftane just over seven years ago and the cloak was seized by Bedoureg, the wizardly arm of the Red Kings. He subsequently lost it to a particularly clever thief who was able to substitute a fake cloak for the real one. It was some days before Bedoureg noticed the theft, which gave the unknown thief time to escape to Ariya, where both the cloak and its new owner dropped out of sight.
No more was heard of Whisper's Hide until Rashad found it in the treasure room of one of Ariya's minor nobles. When he tried the darkly attractive cloak on, it re-sized to fit him, so Rashad took the cloak with him, hoping to find out if the cloak had any other magical abilities. With the help of Ariya's most powerful wizard (Khalil el-Arrasi, cousin to the realm's regent), Rashad discovered all the cloak's abilities as well as its history. It is worth noting that Khalil desired the cloak for his own, but Rashad was able to avoid a clever trap laid by the ambitious wizard that he hoped would deliver the powerful cloak into his hands. Rashad has had the cloak ever since.
In game terms, Whisper's Hide has all the abilities of a cloak of the bat with the added power of allowing the wearer to use clairaudience once per day, for up to one turn at a time. The cloak's clairaudience ability differs from the spell of the same name in one important respect - it can only target a locale the wearer of the cloak can see (this excludes locations seen through scrying devices or by spells). Also, when the cloak's flying power is used, the cloak actually takes the form of a pair of large bat wings that the wearer must hold extended for the power to continue to function.
By ? (Don't seem to have address. Mail me if this is your work)
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