Tapestry of Midnight - suggestions of stats wanted for minor artifact

[smetzger]

So, I am going to run The Fall of Graymalkin Academy out of Dungeon #140.
Premise is a mage academy has been overrun with 3 evil factions (Drow, aboleth, and Rackshasa) all trying to get into the vault that has the Tapestry of Midnight. But... the adventure does not give any stats or abilities for this item.

Background
This is a single player game. Theme is The Expendables. Characters are...
Kobold Druid
Drow Dread Necromancer
Githzerai Unchained Monk
Hobgoblin Mystic Theurge
Troll Barbarian

Looking for a minor artifact appropriate for evil characters around level 8. Any ideas?

[Emperor Tippy]

Artifact appropriate for level 8? https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/artifacts.htm#minorArtifactDescriptions

Artifacts, by their very nature, are supposed to be magical items of incredible power. They really aren't supposed to be anything approaching "balanced" for an ECL 8 character.

That being said, it would help if you provided some more details about the Tapestry. I mean it could be a portal to a private demiplane where regardless of how long someone spends inside they exit the midnight after they entered without having aged (but still having gained any natural healing, etc. as if the time had passed). And maybe it can be used as a basically limitless portable hole with a bag of holding feature so that anyone touching the Tapestry can simply pull out whatever they want that is stored inside.

[smetzger]

That being said, it would help if you provided some more details about the Tapestry.

There are no details about the tapestry given. Just the name, it is the prize possession of a Mages Academy, several evil factions are after it, and the good guys will reward the PCs with 10,000gp for its return. But if the party is evil, they won't return it.

[Thurbane]

Off the top of my head:

Phantasmal Killer effect can be activated to effect anyone viewing the tapestry.
Create Undead if draped over a body.
Attack as a Rug of Smothering. Apparently these don't exist in 3E - maybe a modified Broom of Attack

[Emperor Tippy]

There are no details about the tapestry given. Just the name, it is the prize possession of a Mages Academy, several evil factions are after it, and the good guys will reward the PCs with 10,000gp for its return. But if the party is evil, they won't return it.

And what do you, as the DM, want?

Do you want the PC(s) to return it? If so then simply make it effectively worthless to them with the Mages Academy offering the best GP reward for the time investment.

Do you want to create some inter-party conflict? Then make it something that is really good for multiple party members but that bonds to one person at a time and can't be rebonded without the permanent death of its current master.

Hmm, someone who writes their True Name in their own blood bonds with the Tapestry. Upon their death they can step out of the Tapestry as if True Resurrections was cast on them. If you attempt to bond with the Tapestry when it is already bound, you and the previous master are forced into a one on one duel with the losers soul destroyed. The "traditional" way to replace the current master is to destroy or capture their soul, then bond with the Tapestry. Doing so will make the trapped soul unable to show up for the duel and be declared the loser by default and thus soul destroyed.

[smetzger]

Doh... I found the description in a sidebar...

10 ft long 8 ft tall, weighs 300lbs. Ripples and shifting shadows flow along the fabric, and the surrounding air feels chill. Once per say, the owner may create and command a Shadow. The Tapestry allows the owner to control up to shadows at a time. If the owner exceeds this number, newly created shadows fall under his control, while excess shadows from previous uses become uncontrolled. Uncontrolled shadows attack the tapestry owner.
Strong Necromancy; CL 17th; Prerequisites Craft Wondrous Item, create greater undead, command undead, market price 58,960gp

Yup - it didn't say how many Shadows. I am thinking 3 would be a good number.

I'll have to think if I want to allow the full affects of this...

[Emperor Tippy]

Doh... I found the description in a sidebar...

10 ft long 8 ft tall, weighs 300lbs. Ripples and shifting shadows flow along the fabric, and the surrounding air feels chill. Once per say, the owner may create and command a Shadow. The Tapestry allows the owner to control up to shadows at a time. If the owner exceeds this number, newly created shadows fall under his control, while excess shadows from previous uses become uncontrolled. Uncontrolled shadows attack the tapestry owner.
Strong Necromancy; CL 17th; Prerequisites Craft Wondrous Item, create greater undead, command undead, market price 58,960gp

Yup - it didn't say how many Shadows. I am thinking 3 would be a good number.

I'll have to think if I want to allow the full affects of this...

I thought it was supposed to be an artifact? That's just a regular old magical item. As for the number of Shadows, it should be 22. Create Greater Undead inherits from Animate Dead and that says you can control up to 4 HD per CL. Shadows have 3 HD.

And why is the Mages Academy only offering 10,000 GP to recover a magical item with a sale price of 29,480 GP? I mean that is basically a third of the sale price.

[Saintheart]

And why is the Mages Academy only offering 10,000 GP to recover a magical item with a sale price of 29,480 GP? I mean that is basically a third of the sale price.

... because the Mage's Academy doubles as the Used Car Dealer Academy?

[Beni-Kujaku]

I thought it was supposed to be an artifact? That's just a regular old magical item. As for the number of Shadows, it should be 22. Create Greater Undead inherits from Animate Dead and that says you can control up to 4 HD per CL. Shadows have 3 HD.

And why is the Mages Academy only offering 10,000 GP to recover a magical item with a sale price of 29,480 GP? I mean that is basically a third of the sale price.

One way to give it some sort of minor artifact-like power would be to just make the number of shadows unlimited, and make them under the control of whoever writes their truename on the parchment like you said. That makes a real army of shadows, and gives it the McGuffinery an artifact requires ("We can't defeat this army of shadows, but if we send a random group of four adventurers to write the truename of the king on a specific tapestry in the villain's camp...").

And about the 10,000gp, of course they wouldn't pay the whole market value if they could just craft another one for this price. 10,000gp is pretty reasonable, considering this is a nigh-unsellable item in most worlds (even more so if it is supposed to be an artifact, few people will have the money to buy it, and even less would really buy it since having control over an army of shadows isn't really useful for most people, except maybe high level adventurers, but those fight enemies that can deal with shadows easily and don't have the time to create a lot of them.) You can compare it with the price that people proposed when negociating with thieves for their good to be brought back. (This article https://www.jstor.org/stable/3548868 says that in Israel around 1997, there were lots of such negociations, and the offered price was no more than 10% of the market value of the stolen good).

[Jack_Simth]

I thought it was supposed to be an artifact? That's just a regular old magical item. As for the number of Shadows, it should be 22. Create Greater Undead inherits from Animate Dead and that says you can control up to 4 HD per CL. Shadows have 3 HD.

And why is the Mages Academy only offering 10,000 GP to recover a magical item with a sale price of 29,480 GP? I mean that is basically a third of the sale price.
If they were offering enough to cover the crafting costs, then they could just make a new one.

That said: If there's no duration on the control, then it's worth significantly more. Especially as shadows make copies of themselves from their victims....

[Zanos]

I thought it was supposed to be an artifact? That's just a regular old magical item. As for the number of Shadows, it should be 22. Create Greater Undead inherits from Animate Dead and that says you can control up to 4 HD per CL. Shadows have 3 HD.
The Create Undead spells don't inherit, and specifically produce uncontrolled undead. You can't command a shadow without rebuking or kinda controlling it with the Command Undead spell, which effectively charms.

And incorporeal creatures are pretty strong strategically, even if they're of middling value to adventurers. A handful of shadows could clear out any number of creatures that don't have magic weapons or offensive spells.


If they were offering enough to cover the crafting costs, then they could just make a new one.
They would still save on the time and XP it would cost to craft it. It's also possible the guy who had the ability to make it is toast, or they simply don't want Evil creatures to get their hands on their peasant killer factory, in which case making a copy isn't that helpful.

If you want something returned by mercenaries you should probably offer more than they can get by selling it to a pawn shop.