(Artifact) A not-quite-so-Artifactly Artifact...

[King Cael]

The Chronicle Scrolls

"Knowledge is Power. Therefore, Power is Knowledge. Does Knowledge fuel Power?"
"Is the sky blue?"

About four hundred years before the Grand War, an old mage, on his deathbed, decided to give the world one last gift. He took his most prized possession, his Spellbook, and poured in his Knowledge, Wisdom, and Hope. Such a use of power not only killed him, but it infused his spirit into the tome. Since this was during "The Golden Age of Adventuring", the book was "found" by the local thieves guild and later sold for rum and bread.

It passed owners until it came into the hands of Michael Johnson the Dungeon Master, who used it to build a dungeon for a group of adventurers.






The Chronicle Scrolls, Except probally the Staff of the Magi, is the most useful item a wizard can possess. It has several powers.

The Chronicle: Once per day, the holder of this book can tell anything about a certain person. In order for this power to activate, you must have a piece of that person (hair, fingernail, ect.) and you must say his/her name. This power can tell the age, history, likes/dislikes, and enemies of this person. This power only works on humanoids, undead, or outsiders.

The Catalouger: If you find a creature that you don't know about, this is the best ability. Three times a day, If you look at a creature, and say "Help", this book flips open and shows a page descibing the creature, showing the name of the creature, what kind of creature (undead, abberation, ect.), and one of its abilities.

The Identifier: If an item is placed on a book page, the page shows a text that tells you what it is, what it can do, how to use it, who made it, and if it is magical or not. This ability does not work on artifacts.

The Blank: At the back of the book are 100 blank pages. A wizard can use this as a Spellbook. One unique ability is that, if a spell scroll is placed at the back of the book, and you say "Knowledge is power", that spell is added to the erased from the scroll, and placed on one of the pages, as if you copied it. When found, this spellbook already contains 2D6 levels of spells.

The Mapper: What is known about the book is that the back has a map of the world on it. What most don't know is that the gem on the map shows where you are on the map. By studying the map, you may learn the words to zoom in, zoom out, and show underground. This ability only works on the Material or Ethereal plane. When you switch to a any other, It instead shows a picture of a dragon with a ruby eye.
CL 28th.


(My first posted creation)

[Glooble Glistencrist]

Definately a major artifact. But a useful one. I could definately see using this in a campaign. I frequently piss off players by refusing to give them the kind of information this would allow them to access.

[Dragonmuncher]

Only thing is the 40 blank pages. If I remember correctly, higher level spells use more pages- 9th level is 9 pages, 5th is 5, and so on.

40 pages isn't a lot, especially for any wizard high enough level to actually have an artifact like this.

I'd suggest either upping the page limit, or adding a Geomancer-like ability (I think it's the Geomancer, anyway)- every spell is only one page long.

[Saeveo]

Perhaps you could change the map so that it alters its focus according to the current needs of the user. Otherwise it wouldn't be much use, say, on the planes, or if the user were underground.

[Fizban]

Geometer is what you're thinking of. I'd give it something like this:

Blank Pages: the back of the book has 40 blank pages on which a wizard can scribe spells. The catch is, after being scribed the spell is condensed into it's title. It can later be read by focsing on it and speaking the phrase "Knowledge is Power". Also, if a scroll is layed out over one of the pages and the phrase "Power is Knowledge" is spoken, the spell is erased from the scroll and instantly scribed into the book just like any other spell.

[Eighth_Seraph]

That's an interesting way of putting it, but maybe it would also be good to specify that the book condenses a spell into a single full page, so that the it can hold a total of forty new spells.

Maybe, since this WAS once a mage's spellbook, it should come with a few spells already inscribed? Maybe with some form of lock that requires some specific action or ritual, kind of like legacy weapons, in order to prevent a PC wizard getting his hands on a custom 9th level spell too early on.

[King Cael]

Thanks for the help and Ideas

[mikeejimbo]

It sounds like a very useful item, but it also seems to bear a strong resemblance to a Pokédex to me...

[Eighth_Seraph]

Ouch. Don't insult Cael like that, even if it's true. Such things should never be said.

[Halcyon_Dax]

I really actually like this item alot, It could definately see some use in one of my campaigns.


LoL, Pokedex.

[mikeejimbo]

Ouch. Don't insult Cael like that, even if it's true. Such things should never be said.

I apologize, I should have kept my dirty thoughts to myself.