UnCon: War of the Worlds - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

UnCon: War of the Worlds

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
ORC_Paradox
Sep 18, 2005 21:43:29 This competition is multi layered and is taking place across the cosmos.

It is run in four phases. The first phase runs until Thursday. This is where people post their entries. On Thursday, nomination phase will take place where people may nominate threads to move to the next round. The top entries (Three to five, depending on the number of entries) will be up on a poll to be voted on as Friday's phase. The votes will end Friday night.

The final entries will be put up against each other in one final poll against the top entries from the other world entries on Saturday. Woo hoo! You're not just setting up the best entry for your area, but against the other areas as well!

Here's what you'll be making:

A mace.

Not just any mace, but one that represents this world. We need to see the back story of the mace, the powers of the mace, the material it's made of, and it's current location/owner. Be as creative and descriptive as possible. The challenge is to present the mace as part of your chosen game world, but be clearly explained to folks who may or may not know anything about the world. Folks will be voting on your entry based on coolness factor and adaptability to any game world, even with the rich history. What this means is we don't need a detailed description of every war in the game world, or all the details of the game world. But enough of the flavor of the game world should be apparent in the mace's description.
#2
zombiegleemax
Sep 21, 2005 15:07:23 This Masterwork Cold Iron Mace is typical of those used by the Tempesti inquistion in their crusade against the fey. It has no additional special ablities or powers over it's Cold Iron status.

There is much dispute about what Cold Iron actually is - the consensus is that it is metoric iron which has never seen the heat of the forge yet has been reshaped through other methods.

This mace has been handed down from Preacher to Preacher in the village of Brigadow for generations, Cold Iron being rarer than an elven wizard - which are pretty rare, thanks to the efforts of the inquistion and which tend to be the inquisitions second choice of target after elf sorcerers. The Priest at that Temple of Belenus tend to be one of the two types of Inquisitors: Elf-Slayer or Fey-Slayer. Birgadow is generally considered the capital of Tepest by outsiders, although nothing so formal exsists. It is also the location of the head of the Inquistion. The church of Belanus is run from the impossibly distant land of Nidalia and edicts rarely reach the Tepesti branch, the inquistion fill that role in the interim and there rules aren't subject to overruling. The current Preacher at the Brigadow church of Belanus is Conner O'Cormack, an Elf-Slayer inquisitor. The mace was origianlly crafter 200 years ago by the then preacher Cormack O'Donahan who used a "Polymorph Any Object" spell to achieve the desired effect.

Conner O'Cormack
LN Human Ranger1/Cleric5
Str: 15
Dex: 17
Con: 12
Int: 7
Wis: 13 (12 +1 level)
Cha: 14
Feats: Dodge (1st Human Bonus), Persuasive (1st), Lightning Reflexes (3rd), Iron Will (6th)
Skills: Intimidate 2.5 Ranks (5 Points), Knowledge (Religion) 5 Ranks (5 Points)
Equipment: Mace of the Inquistor, Flail +1, Crossbow, 20 Bolts, Holy Symbol of Belanus, Leather Armor, Warhourse and Military Saddle
Attacks: Melee Bonus +6, Ranged Bonus +7
Primary Weapons Attacks: +7 (Flail), +6 (Mace) or +7 (Crossbow) - The Mace is used only against opponents believed to require Cold Iron weapons to hit including all Fey, Elves and Half-Elves
Other Information
Hit Points 24, Initiative +3, Saves (F/R/W) 6/5/6, Armor Class 15, Touch 13, Flat Footed 12
Special Attacks: Cleric Spells, Turn Undead, Greater Turning (Sun Domain)
Special Qualities: +1 Caster Level for Law Spells (Law Domain), Track, Wild Empathy
Favored Enemy: Humanoid (Elf)
Domains: Sun, Law
Conner Channels Positive Energy Spontaniously
Spells: Per Day 5, 4+1, 2+1, 1+1, Prepared 0: Detect Magic x3, Inflict Minor Wounds x2, 1st: Bane x2, Doom x2, Protection from Chaos (Domain), 2nd: Align Weapon (Law) x2, Calm Emotions (Domain), 3rd: Bestow Curse, Magic Circle Against Chaos (Domain)

In other worlds Conner would be a general Cleric of the Law and the Sun adopted into the temple of the Sun god, in this the Sun god Belenus even still grants him spells since his bidding is being done. Conner blames Elves, especially Sithican elves from the west, for the appearance of the monsterous Shadow Rift on the borders of Tepest and the hoards of dark fey that issue forth. He has made it his job to exterminate all the elves and to whip the general populance of Tepest into an elf killing frenzy where he will have popular support for his holy war on Sithicus.

Okay so it might not represnt the world as well as it could, but there aren't that many other entries for Ravenloft.
#3
zombiegleemax
Sep 22, 2005 10:56:56 Though known as a simple footman’s weapon, the mace has long been used as a symbol for rule. Kings and Emperors have long used ornate scepters to demonstrate their supremacy. Gilded in gold and jewels, the humble cudgel becomes a symbol of power. And for power, men would sacrifice their very souls.

The mace Schneekugel is a two-foot-long cudgel made of black steel and tarnished silver. The grip is bound in ancient leather, highlighted by frayed golden trim and capped at each end by silver. The pommel of the grip is shaped like the parapet of a castle. The shaft of the mace is inscribed with a spiral carving, not unlike a ribbon or a road, wrapped around the haft of the weapon.
The head of the mace is a glass globe stronger than tempered steel. To the casual observer, this globe appears to be white, like a massive pearl. However, those who look closely see that the globe is in fact filled with a clear liquid, with millions of tiny white particles suspended within. As the mace is moved, these particles ebb and flow, like a raging blizzard within the mace head.
Those who gaze within the depths of the mace will see beyond the tiny blizzard, into the black depths within. Indeed, it is said that there is more space within the head than such a small globe should hold. Some say that if one stares far enough into the black, one can even see the silhouette of a tower inside of the globe.

The grim legend of Schneekugel begins in a land far away, in a kingdom obscured by the mists. In that land the mace was the royal scepter of an ancient king. As the king aged, his two sons competed to be named his heir. The older brother, Ymir was the stronger and braver of the two, yet the younger Amar was cleverer and more charming. While Ymir rode out into the world, waging war for his father’s nation, the younger Amar stayed with the dying monarch and comforted him in his time of need. So it was that Ymir was far away when the king appointed the younger Amar his heir, and died.
Furious with losing the throne, Ymir began immediately to plot. He raised a force of brigands and bandits and fell upon his homeland. The war was horrible; fields were scourged, villages razed, and thousands were killed. Plague and starvation scoured the kingdom of life, and eventually Ymir laid siege to the castle his own father had built. The siege was long and hard on both sides, but in the first days of winter, Ymir’s men penetrated the castle. In the ferocious melee, Ymir found and slew his own brother and pried the scepter from his lifeless hands.
In the aftermath of the battle. Ymir surveyed his kingdom. From the tower of the castle, he saw the carnage and ruination he had visited on his homeland. The once prosperous nation was a blighted, burnt corpse of its former glory. Disgusted with what he saw, he wished for snowstorm to hide the hideous landscape. Little did he know that some dark thing would heed his call. Great grey clouds rolled across the sky, and a gentle snow began to fall. The wind became cold, and still the snow fell, for days, weeks and months. One by one, Ymir’s men died, until only he was left, alone in the freezing ruins of his castle.
Alone and dying of frost, the usurper dragged himself to the highest tower. There he cursed his fate and swore that he would sooner die than rule such a benighted realm. As his life ebbed out of his frost-bitten body, he cast his scepter towards the sky, where it was carried by the winds into the world beyond.
Little did he realize, that it was too late.
Bound to the land by his act of evil, he could neither escape his throne, nor could he die. He rose from death as a hideous wight, trapped within his own the frozen carcass. Just as he was risen as a parody of life, so too were his subjects. From the gutted ruins of his castle, Ymir rules a land of eternal winter, where the walking dead labor without end and hideous specters torment their dark lord.

The scepter, for its part, was carried into the world beyond. The mace fantastic power to whomsoever holds it, yet all who gaze upon the mace covet it. Should someone die while holding the mace, he or she is drained of their soul. This specter is drawn into the frozen kingdom of Schneekugel, where they are made slave to the wight-lord Ymir. There they labor to unbury the dark lord’s domain, even as the snow continues to fall.
#4
malus_black
Sep 22, 2005 15:09:55 The Heartblood Mace

The infamous Heartblood Mace is unassuming in its appearance. While longer and slimmer than an ordinary mace, it is made from simple steel, now darkened with more nefarious things than mere age. Its grip is bound in leather, replaced many times throughout its grim history, and its pommel is engraved with the now faded symbol of the goddess Ezra – a longsword superimposed on a shield and adorned with a sprig of belladonna. Its head, however, gives most viewers a start. Not because of its design, which is a simple and modest as the rest of the mace – a mere six steel leaves welded to a heavy steel barrel – but the old stains of dried blood which cover it. The curious ask why a weapon of a good faith is so desecrated, and they are told the story of the Heartblood Mace.

It begun in the year 690 of the Barovian Calendar, years before the religion’s Great Schism, and the faithful were united and optimistic. One of these was Daniele Santo, an erstwhile farmer who had a divine revelation and chose to join the church as a knight of his newfound goddess. He and the other knights were given armour, and shields, and weapons, and Daniele chose as his weapon a mace. The mace. At the time it was merely a well-crafted weapon, with no eerie powers. This would soon change.

In 692, Daniele was sent to a faraway hamlet after the church received a cry for help from the local anchorite – a priest of Ezra. The tale of how, through much hardship and at great cost, Daniele uncovered a dark and sinister web of conspiracy and lies, is a story for another time. But at this web’s heart was that most terrible of the children of the night, a vampire, and Daniele would have to face him sooner or later. And he was filled with gnawing doubt.

As he sat alone in the church as the sun peeked over the horizon, heralding his inevitable confrontation with the monster, something spoke to him. Afterwards, Daniele could never quite explain what it was, saying only it was as though the shadows of the room had joined together to form a shape made from darkness itself. And it spoke to the doubtful knight in sly, silken tones. “You fear to face the vampire,” it said. “And you do right in that, for it is an opponent beyond you. But I can give you victory, or at least the means with which to achieve it.” Suspicious, for Daniele had heard tales of fiends, those foul beings of shadow and dark spirits who bargained with the souls of mortals, he asked how this could be done. “’Tis easy, little knight. Look upon your mace. Can you face the vampire with naught but steel? No. But soak the mace’s head in heartblood, and it shall be the vampire’s undoing.” “And what, pray,” answered Daniele, “will be the payment for such a favour?” “Naught but what you would freely give me,” answered the shadow-being, and faded away.

Daniele emerged unscathed from his battle with the vampire, although his innocent soul had been deeply marred. He never spoke of how he had won, and never of the shadow-being’s deal, until his dying day, which, alas, came far too swiftly. Slowly, Daniele lost trust in himself and his goddess. Slowly, all he trusted in was the mace. The mace, and the heartblood that gave him victory again and again. But pride is a deadly thing, and so is fear, and more and more blood was spilled to ensure certain victory. And in the end there was little left but the fear, and the hate, and the dried blood which marred the once-fair mace. Falling to madness, Daniele killed two of the most devout priests of the church in the belief that their blood would cleanse the world of evil forever. When the other knights found him, they had no choice but to strike the wretch down, and with his dying words, bubbling with blood, he told his killers the truth of what happened that night in the church. And so passed Daniele Santo, corrupted and lost to the darkness.

The mace did not, however, and it has passed through many hands in the passing of time. Some have withstood the lure of its power, some have not, and the mace itself remains, now and forever, a weapon for good, or for evil, depending on the heart of its wielder.

Game Mechanics

The Heartblood Mace is for all purposes treated as a masterwork mace, though magic inspection reveals a faint necromantic aura. The mace’s true powers are first unlocked by soaking the head in the fresh heartblood of a living creature, which takes 1 full round per Hit Dice of the creature sacrificed. The creature cannot simply be bled, it must die for the powers to be unlocked. If the creature sacrificed has less than 5 Hit Dice, the mace is treated as a +1 mace for the duration of the effect. For each 5 Hit Dice of the creature, the mace gains another +1 enhancement bonus. If the heartblood of an ettin, a 10 Hit Dice creature, were poured over the head, the mace would gain a +2 enhancement bonus. The character performing this ritual may instead opt to add special qualities to the mace. By forgoing the additional bonuses, the mace can gain either the vicious or the bane(creature type sacrificed) special qualities. These abilities stack. For example, by sacrificing a 20 Hit Dice purple worm, the mace might become a +2 vicious bane(magical beast) weapon, or a simple +4 weapon. The effects wear off at -1 per hour after the ritual is performed, and in the order the effects were added. In the above example, if the effects were added as they are written, it would be a +2 vicious mace after 1 hour, a +2 mace after 2 hours, a +1 mace after 3 hours, and a normal masterwork mace again after 4 hours. Only then can the ritual again be undertaken. The effects, though not the bloodstains, can also be removed by submerging it in holy water for 1 minute per effect. Creature with 2 or less Intelligence count for only half of their Hit Dice (so a Roc, an 18 Hit Dice creature) would count as a 9 Hit Dice creature for the purposes of the ritual).
#5
ORC_Paradox
Sep 25, 2005 9:34:44 http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=508286

Final Round

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 ORC_Paradox Sep 18, 2005 21:43:29	This competition is multi layered and is taking place across the cosmos. It is run in four phases. The first phase runs until Thursday. This is where people post their entries. On Thursday, nomination phase will take place where people may nominate threads to move to the next round. The top entries (Three to five, depending on the number of entries) will be up on a poll to be voted on as Friday's phase. The votes will end Friday night. The final entries will be put up against each other in one final poll against the top entries from the other world entries on Saturday. Woo hoo! You're not just setting up the best entry for your area, but against the other areas as well! Here's what you'll be making: A mace. Not just any mace, but one that represents this world. We need to see the back story of the mace, the powers of the mace, the material it's made of, and it's current location/owner. Be as creative and descriptive as possible. The challenge is to present the mace as part of your chosen game world, but be clearly explained to folks who may or may not know anything about the world. Folks will be voting on your entry based on coolness factor and adaptability to any game world, even with the rich history. What this means is we don't need a detailed description of every war in the game world, or all the details of the game world. But enough of the flavor of the game world should be apparent in the mace's description.
#2 zombiegleemax Sep 21, 2005 15:07:23	This Masterwork Cold Iron Mace is typical of those used by the Tempesti inquistion in their crusade against the fey. It has no additional special ablities or powers over it's Cold Iron status. There is much dispute about what Cold Iron actually is - the consensus is that it is metoric iron which has never seen the heat of the forge yet has been reshaped through other methods. This mace has been handed down from Preacher to Preacher in the village of Brigadow for generations, Cold Iron being rarer than an elven wizard - which are pretty rare, thanks to the efforts of the inquistion and which tend to be the inquisitions second choice of target after elf sorcerers. The Priest at that Temple of Belenus tend to be one of the two types of Inquisitors: Elf-Slayer or Fey-Slayer. Birgadow is generally considered the capital of Tepest by outsiders, although nothing so formal exsists. It is also the location of the head of the Inquistion. The church of Belanus is run from the impossibly distant land of Nidalia and edicts rarely reach the Tepesti branch, the inquistion fill that role in the interim and there rules aren't subject to overruling. The current Preacher at the Brigadow church of Belanus is Conner O'Cormack, an Elf-Slayer inquisitor. The mace was origianlly crafter 200 years ago by the then preacher Cormack O'Donahan who used a "Polymorph Any Object" spell to achieve the desired effect. Conner O'Cormack LN Human Ranger1/Cleric5 Str: 15 Dex: 17 Con: 12 Int: 7 Wis: 13 (12 +1 level) Cha: 14 Feats: Dodge (1st Human Bonus), Persuasive (1st), Lightning Reflexes (3rd), Iron Will (6th) Skills: Intimidate 2.5 Ranks (5 Points), Knowledge (Religion) 5 Ranks (5 Points) Equipment: Mace of the Inquistor, Flail +1, Crossbow, 20 Bolts, Holy Symbol of Belanus, Leather Armor, Warhourse and Military Saddle Attacks: Melee Bonus +6, Ranged Bonus +7 Primary Weapons Attacks: +7 (Flail), +6 (Mace) or +7 (Crossbow) - The Mace is used only against opponents believed to require Cold Iron weapons to hit including all Fey, Elves and Half-Elves Other Information Hit Points 24, Initiative +3, Saves (F/R/W) 6/5/6, Armor Class 15, Touch 13, Flat Footed 12 Special Attacks: Cleric Spells, Turn Undead, Greater Turning (Sun Domain) Special Qualities: +1 Caster Level for Law Spells (Law Domain), Track, Wild Empathy Favored Enemy: Humanoid (Elf) Domains: Sun, Law Conner Channels Positive Energy Spontaniously Spells: Per Day 5, 4+1, 2+1, 1+1, Prepared 0: Detect Magic x3, Inflict Minor Wounds x2, 1st: Bane x2, Doom x2, Protection from Chaos (Domain), 2nd: Align Weapon (Law) x2, Calm Emotions (Domain), 3rd: Bestow Curse, Magic Circle Against Chaos (Domain) In other worlds Conner would be a general Cleric of the Law and the Sun adopted into the temple of the Sun god, in this the Sun god Belenus even still grants him spells since his bidding is being done. Conner blames Elves, especially Sithican elves from the west, for the appearance of the monsterous Shadow Rift on the borders of Tepest and the hoards of dark fey that issue forth. He has made it his job to exterminate all the elves and to whip the general populance of Tepest into an elf killing frenzy where he will have popular support for his holy war on Sithicus. Okay so it might not represnt the world as well as it could, but there aren't that many other entries for Ravenloft.
#3 zombiegleemax Sep 22, 2005 10:56:56	Though known as a simple footman’s weapon, the mace has long been used as a symbol for rule. Kings and Emperors have long used ornate scepters to demonstrate their supremacy. Gilded in gold and jewels, the humble cudgel becomes a symbol of power. And for power, men would sacrifice their very souls. The mace Schneekugel is a two-foot-long cudgel made of black steel and tarnished silver. The grip is bound in ancient leather, highlighted by frayed golden trim and capped at each end by silver. The pommel of the grip is shaped like the parapet of a castle. The shaft of the mace is inscribed with a spiral carving, not unlike a ribbon or a road, wrapped around the haft of the weapon. The head of the mace is a glass globe stronger than tempered steel. To the casual observer, this globe appears to be white, like a massive pearl. However, those who look closely see that the globe is in fact filled with a clear liquid, with millions of tiny white particles suspended within. As the mace is moved, these particles ebb and flow, like a raging blizzard within the mace head. Those who gaze within the depths of the mace will see beyond the tiny blizzard, into the black depths within. Indeed, it is said that there is more space within the head than such a small globe should hold. Some say that if one stares far enough into the black, one can even see the silhouette of a tower inside of the globe. The grim legend of Schneekugel begins in a land far away, in a kingdom obscured by the mists. In that land the mace was the royal scepter of an ancient king. As the king aged, his two sons competed to be named his heir. The older brother, Ymir was the stronger and braver of the two, yet the younger Amar was cleverer and more charming. While Ymir rode out into the world, waging war for his father’s nation, the younger Amar stayed with the dying monarch and comforted him in his time of need. So it was that Ymir was far away when the king appointed the younger Amar his heir, and died. Furious with losing the throne, Ymir began immediately to plot. He raised a force of brigands and bandits and fell upon his homeland. The war was horrible; fields were scourged, villages razed, and thousands were killed. Plague and starvation scoured the kingdom of life, and eventually Ymir laid siege to the castle his own father had built. The siege was long and hard on both sides, but in the first days of winter, Ymir’s men penetrated the castle. In the ferocious melee, Ymir found and slew his own brother and pried the scepter from his lifeless hands. In the aftermath of the battle. Ymir surveyed his kingdom. From the tower of the castle, he saw the carnage and ruination he had visited on his homeland. The once prosperous nation was a blighted, burnt corpse of its former glory. Disgusted with what he saw, he wished for snowstorm to hide the hideous landscape. Little did he know that some dark thing would heed his call. Great grey clouds rolled across the sky, and a gentle snow began to fall. The wind became cold, and still the snow fell, for days, weeks and months. One by one, Ymir’s men died, until only he was left, alone in the freezing ruins of his castle. Alone and dying of frost, the usurper dragged himself to the highest tower. There he cursed his fate and swore that he would sooner die than rule such a benighted realm. As his life ebbed out of his frost-bitten body, he cast his scepter towards the sky, where it was carried by the winds into the world beyond. Little did he realize, that it was too late. Bound to the land by his act of evil, he could neither escape his throne, nor could he die. He rose from death as a hideous wight, trapped within his own the frozen carcass. Just as he was risen as a parody of life, so too were his subjects. From the gutted ruins of his castle, Ymir rules a land of eternal winter, where the walking dead labor without end and hideous specters torment their dark lord. The scepter, for its part, was carried into the world beyond. The mace fantastic power to whomsoever holds it, yet all who gaze upon the mace covet it. Should someone die while holding the mace, he or she is drained of their soul. This specter is drawn into the frozen kingdom of Schneekugel, where they are made slave to the wight-lord Ymir. There they labor to unbury the dark lord’s domain, even as the snow continues to fall.
#4 malus_black Sep 22, 2005 15:09:55	The Heartblood Mace The infamous Heartblood Mace is unassuming in its appearance. While longer and slimmer than an ordinary mace, it is made from simple steel, now darkened with more nefarious things than mere age. Its grip is bound in leather, replaced many times throughout its grim history, and its pommel is engraved with the now faded symbol of the goddess Ezra – a longsword superimposed on a shield and adorned with a sprig of belladonna. Its head, however, gives most viewers a start. Not because of its design, which is a simple and modest as the rest of the mace – a mere six steel leaves welded to a heavy steel barrel – but the old stains of dried blood which cover it. The curious ask why a weapon of a good faith is so desecrated, and they are told the story of the Heartblood Mace. It begun in the year 690 of the Barovian Calendar, years before the religion’s Great Schism, and the faithful were united and optimistic. One of these was Daniele Santo, an erstwhile farmer who had a divine revelation and chose to join the church as a knight of his newfound goddess. He and the other knights were given armour, and shields, and weapons, and Daniele chose as his weapon a mace. The mace. At the time it was merely a well-crafted weapon, with no eerie powers. This would soon change. In 692, Daniele was sent to a faraway hamlet after the church received a cry for help from the local anchorite – a priest of Ezra. The tale of how, through much hardship and at great cost, Daniele uncovered a dark and sinister web of conspiracy and lies, is a story for another time. But at this web’s heart was that most terrible of the children of the night, a vampire, and Daniele would have to face him sooner or later. And he was filled with gnawing doubt. As he sat alone in the church as the sun peeked over the horizon, heralding his inevitable confrontation with the monster, something spoke to him. Afterwards, Daniele could never quite explain what it was, saying only it was as though the shadows of the room had joined together to form a shape made from darkness itself. And it spoke to the doubtful knight in sly, silken tones. “You fear to face the vampire,” it said. “And you do right in that, for it is an opponent beyond you. But I can give you victory, or at least the means with which to achieve it.” Suspicious, for Daniele had heard tales of fiends, those foul beings of shadow and dark spirits who bargained with the souls of mortals, he asked how this could be done. “’Tis easy, little knight. Look upon your mace. Can you face the vampire with naught but steel? No. But soak the mace’s head in heartblood, and it shall be the vampire’s undoing.” “And what, pray,” answered Daniele, “will be the payment for such a favour?” “Naught but what you would freely give me,” answered the shadow-being, and faded away. Daniele emerged unscathed from his battle with the vampire, although his innocent soul had been deeply marred. He never spoke of how he had won, and never of the shadow-being’s deal, until his dying day, which, alas, came far too swiftly. Slowly, Daniele lost trust in himself and his goddess. Slowly, all he trusted in was the mace. The mace, and the heartblood that gave him victory again and again. But pride is a deadly thing, and so is fear, and more and more blood was spilled to ensure certain victory. And in the end there was little left but the fear, and the hate, and the dried blood which marred the once-fair mace. Falling to madness, Daniele killed two of the most devout priests of the church in the belief that their blood would cleanse the world of evil forever. When the other knights found him, they had no choice but to strike the wretch down, and with his dying words, bubbling with blood, he told his killers the truth of what happened that night in the church. And so passed Daniele Santo, corrupted and lost to the darkness. The mace did not, however, and it has passed through many hands in the passing of time. Some have withstood the lure of its power, some have not, and the mace itself remains, now and forever, a weapon for good, or for evil, depending on the heart of its wielder. Game Mechanics The Heartblood Mace is for all purposes treated as a masterwork mace, though magic inspection reveals a faint necromantic aura. The mace’s true powers are first unlocked by soaking the head in the fresh heartblood of a living creature, which takes 1 full round per Hit Dice of the creature sacrificed. The creature cannot simply be bled, it must die for the powers to be unlocked. If the creature sacrificed has less than 5 Hit Dice, the mace is treated as a +1 mace for the duration of the effect. For each 5 Hit Dice of the creature, the mace gains another +1 enhancement bonus. If the heartblood of an ettin, a 10 Hit Dice creature, were poured over the head, the mace would gain a +2 enhancement bonus. The character performing this ritual may instead opt to add special qualities to the mace. By forgoing the additional bonuses, the mace can gain either the vicious or the bane(creature type sacrificed) special qualities. These abilities stack. For example, by sacrificing a 20 Hit Dice purple worm, the mace might become a +2 vicious bane(magical beast) weapon, or a simple +4 weapon. The effects wear off at -1 per hour after the ritual is performed, and in the order the effects were added. In the above example, if the effects were added as they are written, it would be a +2 vicious mace after 1 hour, a +2 mace after 2 hours, a +1 mace after 3 hours, and a normal masterwork mace again after 4 hours. Only then can the ritual again be undertaken. The effects, though not the bloodstains, can also be removed by submerging it in holy water for 1 minute per effect. Creature with 2 or less Intelligence count for only half of their Hit Dice (so a Roc, an 18 Hit Dice creature) would count as a 9 Hit Dice creature for the purposes of the ritual).
#5 ORC_Paradox Sep 25, 2005 9:34:44	http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=508286 Final Round