Timeless Threats: Relic

Introduction

Many fantasy worlds contain magic items that provide a small boost to combat or other common tasks, or carry extra items, or otherwise provide an incremental benefit (or curse) for the wielder.

A Relic is another thing altogether. Relics bend reality around them. Being imbued with sentience and power by a god, devil, or sheer antiquity, a Relic can sway the hearts and minds of an entire kingdom, break the known laws of nature and magic, or bear a blessing (or curse) coveted (or shunned) by all thinking beings.

A Relic may be as powerful as King Arthur’s sword or the Holy Grail, or as insidious as the Rheingold. It may be a force for good or for evil; its bearer may become the founder of a new age or the destroyer of worlds.

Appearance

An Relic resembles an extremely well-crafted object suitable for its purpose: a sword, a cup, a rod, a jewel, etc. It may show signs of its age, e.g. a patina or an archaic style, but remains as whole and functional as if newly formed.

Tactics

Artifacts seek to accomplish their Purpose. To that end, they seek to find ideal wielders and escape less worthy wielders.

For their part, wielders of Relics grow attached to the Relic, sometimes even dangerously obsessed with it. They feel lost without it, and will move heaven and earth to get it back. Only the most stout-hearted wielder will voluntarily yield a Relic to a more worthy owner.

Relic-Wielding Characters

Extra Dice Needed: d100 (percentile dice), 1d6

The Referee should usually create an initial Relic-Wielder as an ideal candidate to possess the Relic in question: a warrior for a Relic of conquest, a healer for a Relic of healing, a missionary for a Relic of proselytizing.

If the Referee prefers, the Relic wielder could be an unsuitable candidate due to a lack of ambition or an excess of willpower. It may be ready to slip from its current owner’s grasp, perhaps into a player character’s.

Relics

All Relics have the following characteristics:

• Name: The most common name for the Relic.

• Renown: Renown is rated as a qualitative measure:

  • Unearthly – the Relic behaves like nothing of this World.

  • Fantastic (default) – the Relic has powers that belong in the realm of fantasy.

  • Epic – the Relic’s powers belong in an epic poem told and retold for decades to come.

  • Legendary – the Relic’s influence is the stuff of legends that persist for centuries.

  • Mythic – the Relic’s might forms myths that endure for millennia.

  Renown reflects the scope of the Relic’s Purpose and Powers.

• Purpose: The goal or task a Relic seeks to accomplish.

• Lore: Optionally, legends about the Relic in its World.

• Powers: The powers a Relic uses to achieve its goal. Referees should remember that a Relic can manipulate fate and narrative; instead of giving concrete powers specific to the Host System, think about how its powers might affect people, cultures, religions, or nations.

• System: Abilities specific to the Host System, both as an ordinary item (e.g. weapon damage, armor value) and special, tactical abilities that flow from the Powers listed above (e.g. healing all damage when drunk from).

• Current Owner: The name of the current wielder of the Relic.

• Control: The amount of control the current wielder has over the Relic. Randomly generate a number using 3d6×5% or (2d10-1)×5%, or simply pick a number.

The Relic Sheet

The Relic Sheet comes in two sizes, a quarter-sheet and a half-sheet. The half-sheet features more space for writing out a Relic’s Purpose, Lore, Powers, and System effects, plus space for multiple owners as the Relic passes from one to the next.

Special Abilities

Renown

The Renown of a Relic influences the scope and scale of a Relic’s powers.

Unearthly: Little different from a “normal” magic item, although its abilities may operate in the realm of narrative rather than game mechanics.

Fantastic: (default) A magic item from a fantasy story or fairy tale, with as much or more narrative power as it has mechanical advantages and disadvantages.

Epic: A magic item from an epic fantasy series which can uplift or topple an entire kingdom.

Legendary: An object that can change a great many lives over several generations, perhaps because people will fight over it.

Mythic: An object that can shape nations, histories, perhaps the entire world.

These labels are of course vague, and subject to Referee interpretation. Nevertheless, the Renown of an object should inform the scope of its Major Powers.

Purpose

A Relic’s purpose reflects its form. If it is a weapon, it was meant to slay someone or something. Armor was meant to protect someone, or endow them with physical abilities. A crown denotes kingship or knowledge. And so on.

Each Relic needs a clear purpose which informs its behavior, and determines the kind of wielder it seeks out.

Control

While few if any Relics can speak, they possess an awareness of their surroundings and an intelligence at least comparable to a human being. They also possess strong wills that attempt to force or trick their wielders into fulfilling the Relic’s Purpose, if the wielders’ goals do not align with the Relic’s.

The Control score reflects the contest of wills between the Relic and its current owner. Unlike that of a Time Gem, the Control score between the Relic and its owner waxes and wanes as the owner subjugates the Relic or the Relic gets its way.

Whenever the wielder makes the Relic do something against its Purpose, make a Control check by rolling percentile dice. If the dice are at or below the Control score, the wielder has won and the Relic must use its power for the wielder; if above, the Relic has won and refuses to use its power. If the dice show doubles, the winner of the struggle has scored a major victory: add 1d6 points to the Control score if the wielder won, or subtract 1d6 points if the Relic won. The score cannot rise past 99% or drop past 1%

Minor Powers

Relics have a number of minor powers, which may include but are not limited to the following:

• Entrance a candidate wielder so that they pick the Relic from a group of similar items.

• Resize themselves to fit their wielder perfectly, as if made for them.

• Slip from their owner’s grasp or control, often at a crucial moment, and become lost until they find their way to a new owner.

• Conceal their magical or divine nature from those unable to wield them properly.

• Become stuck in stone or even simply too heavy to lift until the right wielder comes along.

Major Powers

The major powers of a Relic should flow from its form, its Purpose, and any Lore surrounding it. The cup of a famous religious healer likely has a healing or purifying function. The ring of an evil magician may confer a measure of its master’s power … or guide the wielder to resurrect said master.

When devising Relics, remember their concrete, mechanical powers matter less than the symbolism to the people of their world. Excalibur may have been a magical weapon, yet the Arthurian Legends speak less about its concrete properties than its symbolism as the sword of the King of the Britons.

A Relic’s narrative consequences or potential uses may render it overpowered. That is to be expected. It is, after all, a Relic, the center of a series of legends and myths, not a mere tool. Long after the individual wielders die and turn to dust, the Relic and its lore will live on.

Example Relics

All Relics have stats for Shadowdark. Converting them to other systems should be fairly simple.

The Sword of Saint Artemisia

A steel blade with superficial scratches but a keen blade that can cut through silk, with an ornate, jewel-encrusted hilt added by later owners. No force in the Known World can break it.

Renown: Mythic

Purpose: To defend the weak against their oppressors.

Lore: Saint Artemisia used this sword in her battle against the Dark Empire. It is said it even wounded the Dark Emperor himself. It was lost when she fell during the Second Battle of Andorthal, but recently recovered from a Morvanian merchant for an undisclosed sum by Saint Theodora.

Powers: Saint Artemisia’s preternatural charisma clings to the Relic. One who wields it will attract like-minded followers of Saint Terragnis, ready to fight alongside them. (And, alas, a few hangers-on and fair-weather allies.) The exact numbers depend on the wielder’s fame and reputation, which will surely grow if the wielder truly follows in Saint Artemisia’s footsteps.

However, the sword will balk at any acts of oppression against the defenseless. It is a weapon made to strike at oppressors, not become one. It will first lose its magic bonus, then turn in its owners hands, wounding them. If the owner still does not get the message, it will disappear when needed most, leaving the former owner defenseless.

System: +3 magic Longsword (1d8), decapitates on a natural 20. You must be a Lawful worshiper of Saint Terragnis to benefit from this Relic.

Current User: Blessed Theodora of Arcium, 58%

The Chalice of Saint Pythia

An ordinary-seeming bronze cup with no signs of age. No force in the Known World can scratch or dent it.

Renown: Legendary

Purpose: To cure the sick and drive out evil.

Lore: Saint Pythia drove out evil with her Purifying Light; she was one of the Four Heroes who slew the Dark Emperor. This was the Chalice she later used to comfort the plague victims of Erudor. It has been lost for centuries since.

Powers:

1. The Chalice repels all evil beings, who cannot bear the sight of it let alone its touch.

2. When filled with pure water, the waters of the Chalice become a potent panacea for all injuries or other ills, and protects anyone cured from evil for a day. Water must be drunk or poured directly from the Chalice; if decanted into another container they lose their potency.

3. The Owner may not benefit from the waters of the Chalice, but it must have an owner to produce healing water. Like Saint Pythia, someone must forfeit their own health to serve as Chalice-bearer.

4. If the chalice is not used for some time, its healing powers seep into the air, earth, and ground water of the site where it rests. Those areas show lower levels of disease, higher rates of healing, and far fewer monster and demon attacks than other regions.

System:

1. Chaotic beings must make a DC 20 Wisdom save to approach the Chalice. Touching it or anyone holding it does 1d6 damage to such beings; armor and other resistances do not reduce or eliminate this damage.

2. Pure water from the Chalice restores all your hit points, and cures all diseases, poison, or curses. You are also under a Protection From Evil spell (Shadowdark p. 68) for the next 24 hours. You may only claim this protection if you are wounded, diseased, poisoned, or cursed.

The Staff of Saint Kallista

A simple but well-made wooden traveler’s staff, slightly crooked. Despite these flaws and being made of wood, no weapon or other force has yet broken it.

Renown: Unearthly

Purpose: To guide and defend the wielder on their journeys.

Lore: Saint Kallista used this staff on her travels to convert the heathen peoples to the faith of Saint Terragnis. While carrying this staff she never got lost and never encountered trouble until the heathens killed and ate her. After that the staff was lost.

Powers: The staff carries remnants of Kallista’s extraordinary charm. Everyone they meet while holding the staff treats them as a friend, or at least not a threat. Other circumstances arrange themselves to protect the wielder from harm, although inconvenience is a hazard of all travel.

In addition, while holding this staff a traveler never loses their way, although they may find themselves taking a different route from the route they intended, and having encounters they could never have anticipated.

System:

• +3 magic Staff (1d4).

• You begin each session with a Luck token while you own this staff.

• While holding this staff, anyone you speak to behaves as if under a Charm Person spell (Shadowdark p. 56).

The Ring of the Necromancer

A silver ring with a single amethyst jewel; the jewel’s flaw makes it look like an unblinking eye.

Renown: Epic

Purpose: To revive the Necromancer and raise an army of undead.

Lore: Mortigaunt, an infamous Necromancer, once raised an army of the undead. As Saint Terragnis slew him, he vowed to return again.

Powers: The ring allows the wielder to raise lesser undead and command greater undead. However, the more the wielder uses the ring, the more they begin to look and think like Mortigaunt.

Each time the wielder raises or befriends undead, the wielder’s Control score drops by 1d6 points. When their Control score reaches 1%, Mortigaunt’s spirit will possess the wielder, and he will begin his reign of terror again.

Conversely, if the wielder refuses to use the ring, their Control score rises. When Control reaches 85% or more, the ring slips away, and any undead within sight attack the wielder.

System: The wielder may cast Animate Dead (Shadowdark p 54) even if not a wizard. Undead raised by the ring will not crumble to dust as long as they stay within 1 mile of the ring.

In addition, any undead who see the ring must make a DC 15 CHA check or consider the wielder an ally. Less intelligent undead will follow the wielder’s orders; more intelligent undead will consider the wielder’s requests.

Mortigaunt’s Spirit

A gaunt, sickly looking man, almost indistinguishable from a corpse.

AC 10, HP 54, ATK possess, MV near, S +0, D +0, C +0, I +4, W +0, Ch +5, AL C, LV 12

Animate Dead. As the spell (p. 54), but with no spell check, and animated dead do not crumble to dust within one mile of Mortigaunt. Any who pass that distance have until dawn to return.

Command Undead. An undead creature who hears Mortigaunt’s vessel must make a DC 15 check or do Mortigaunt’s bidding.

Parasite. While possessing another’s body, Mortigaunt uses the wearer’s STR, DEX, CON, AC, and attacks, but his own INT, WIS, CHA, HP, and the powers in this entry.

Possess. Wearer of the ring only. Contested CHA check. If Mortigaunt wins, he inhabits wearer’s body and controls it indefinitely. Wearer gets one opportunity to win a CHA check per day. Ring can only be removed by amputation or a Wish spell, and any attempt at either provokes another CHA check.

Protection from Good. All attacks and spell casting from lawful beings against Mortigaunt’s vessel are at Disadvantage.