This artifact is a polished obsidian egg-shaped orb about the size of a small kank weighing around 170 pounds. Its surface is flawless, and its blackness absolute, darker than the deepest obsidian. Through its glassy skin can be seen an occasional streak of scarlet, often vanishing one instant and reappearing again in a different location. The lens radiates intense heat upon its surface, a direct result of its incredible power...
History
The Dark Lens is an ancient artifact thought to have been created by Rajaat as the Time of Magic was coming to an end. The evil sorcerer fashioned the Dark Lens as a focus for his power, amplifying his magic and psionic energies to unheard of levels. By using the Dark Lens Rajaat created other powerful artifacts—such as Silencer, Scorcher, and Scourge. Rajaat used the Dark Lens to give his 15 Champions their incredible powers.
As the Cleansing Wars were ending and the champions discovered the true nature of their master’s schemes, the disciples of Rajaat took the Dark Lens and used its power to imprison their master in a place called the Hollow. Shortly after Rajaat was entombed, the Dark Lens was stolen by two dwarves named Jor’orsh and Sa’ram.
These dwarves were self-proclaimed protectors of Athas, taking the Dark Lens from the Pristine Tower to the Estuary of the Forked Tongue and secluding it on the isle of Mytilene. There they created a safeguard for the Dark Lens in the form of a crystal pit, which proved deadly to any who attempted to retrieve the artifact. Years later Jor’orsh and Sa’ram perished while defending the Dark Lens from evil giants. Soon after, they arose as banshee, and used their new powers to guard the Dark Lens from the eyes of the Dragon and the rest of Rajaat’s champions.
Decades later, two clans of giants settled on Mytilene. Instead of driving them from the island, the spirits of the two dwarves appeared before the creatures and proclaimed the Dark Lens a powerful artifact to be revered and worshiped. The dull-witted giants believed the words of the banshees, and became guardians of what they referred to as “the Obsidian Oracle.” It was here the Dark Lens remained until being recovered by Tithian of Tyr and Agis of Asticles.
With the Dark Lens in his possession, Tithian asked Borys, then later Rajaat, to use the artifact to transform him into a sorcerer-king. Following the final battle which saw Rajaat returned to his prison and the death of the Dragon as well as several sorcerer-kings, Sadira of Tyr cast the Dark Lens into the lava of the Ring of Fire. The sorceress placed powerful wards around the Ring of Fire to alert her to anyone attempting to free Rajaat or retrieve the Dark Lens.
Campaign Uses
The Dark Lens is an item of great power, one a DM may not wish to have in their campaign. With the power of the Dark Lens a psion would have their power increased immensely, unbalancing a campaign. On the other hand, it may be that a DM could present a group of adventurers with a terrible problem, one whose only solution would be in retrieving the Dark Lens from its fie prison. The need for an item as powerful as the Dark Lens could be fighting the forces of a sorcerer-king, the return of Rajaat, or the onset of some new evil force on Athas. Regardless, an item of such power as the Dark Lens should not fall into the hands of someone who would use it for their own selfish purposes, like Tithian.
Abilities
To invoke the powers of the Dark Lens, a character must come into contact with the artifact and make a Use Psionic Device check (DC 30). Failure to do so deal 1d10 points of fire damage to the character.
The Dark Lens has 500 power points when discovered. The wielder instantly knows the number of power points it has at the current time. The artifact recharges itself, gaining back all power points after 24 hours. The wielder can access all powers of the Dark Lens at manifester level 20th (or at the wielder’s manifester level if it is higher than 20th).
The Lens bestows a constant mind blank, protection from evil and good effects on its wielder. Additionally, the wielder of the Lens can trigger, as a standard action, astral construct (3/day) as though the wielder rolled a 30 on his Craft (sculpting) check and metamorphosis (3/day).
The Dark Lens can draw spells or spell-like abilities into itself. The magic absorbed must be a single-target spell or a ray directed at the character possessing the Dark Lens. The artifact then nullifies the spell’s effect and converts it to 5 power points per spell level, adding to its power point reserve. He can instantly detect a spell’s level as the Dark Lens absorbs that spell’s energy. The user of the lens must declare this intent after the spell is cast, and it requires a Concentration check (CD 15 + spell level) to perform.
The Lens also allows the wielder access at will to any psionic power that witnessed or intently studied. A minimal amount study and a successful Psicraft check is needed to duplicate most psionic powers with the Dark Lens. The time of research and the DC of the check is up to the DM, but a minimum of one week per power level and a DC 15 + power level is suggested.
The Dark Lens is also a focus for magical power. Arcane spells cast with the aid of the lens are greatly improved. The wielder can cast up to three spells per day that are improved as though using the Empower Spell, Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Maximize Spell, and Widen Spell feats (when applicable).
The Dark Lens is extremely powerful, maybe the most powerful artifact ever created on Athas, and its uses aren’t limited to ones listed here. The DM may allow a character after several weeks of dedicated studies to make a Psicraft/Spellcraft check to discover new abilities or uses. The DM has a final say on the DC of those checks and the extent of the abilities that may be discovered.
The incredible power of the Dark Lens is intoxicating to anyone using the device. Each time a creature uses the artifact, it must make a Will save (DC 10 + number of previous saves) or the wielder will develop a form of megalomania, convinced that the power of the lens makes them invincible. Characters with this insanity will do whatever they can to keep from being separated from the artifact. Eventually, the character becomes dependent upon the device, and it is the DM’s choice as to whether or not the character takes a path toward world domination similar to that of Tithian of Tyr.
Suggested Means of Destruction
• Unknown. The Dark Lens is tied so closely with the fate of Athas and the sorcerer-kings that it may not be possible to destroy the item until either the sorcerer-kings achieve a final victory, or are cast from the face of Athas.
So this is my first draft on it. I based my version pro PAoA and from PP. Feedback is very much appreciated.
More emphasis should be put on the mysterious origin of the Lens, for some sources point to it predating Rajaat, or that Rajaat does not claim he made it.
The Lens was not inside the crystal pit, but apparently powered it. When the giants of the island gain periodic lease of the Lens, they put it in a cavern near the pit. No one knows where it lays when another tribe wrestles it from them.
You should mention that once the dwarves became banshees they were able to put a mighty curse on the Lens, which rendered it invisible and unknowable to all servants of Rajaat, and tied it to their own existence; as long as the banshees still walk Athas the Lens would be undetectable by the Champions, and no Champion could ever learn of its location (spies and messengers simply die before revealing the location).
(Dunno how the Lens were protected from discovery before the dwarves turned into banshees and laid their curse, maybe the nearby crystal pit had some effect of hiding it, or the dwarves had already become banshees by the time the Champions realized the Lens was gone from the Tower...after all, no Champion visited the Tower for the 100 years following the teft due to the Dragon's 100 years rampage.)
The Dark Lens is extremely powerful, maybe the most powerful artifact ever created on Athas, and its uses aren’t limited to ones listed here. The DM may allow a character after several weeks of dedicated studies to make a Psicraft/Spellcraft check to discover new abilities or uses. The DM has a final say on the DC of those checks and the extent of the abilities that may be discovered.
Nice! I see you added the same to the Psionatrix. Very cool.
(Dunno how the Lens were protected from discovery before the dwarves turned into banshees and laid their curse, maybe the nearby crystal pit had some effect of hiding it, or the dwarves had already become banshees by the time the Champions realized the Lens was gone from the Tower...after all, no Champion visited the Tower for the 100 years following the teft due to the Dragon's 100 years rampage.)
Tithian says to Andropinis about a curse that kills everyone trying to reveal the location of the lens, due to some poweful wards, something like their brains dripping from their ears...
The same ward would probably work as a epic nondetection spell.
I will try to make a mechanic for it.
The curse only took effect when the person tried to tell the SK or and agent of the SKs where it was IIRC.
What happened was that if anyone were to somehow tell an SK where the lens was, they'd die. Odds are it works even over several degrees of separation, in a divinatory sort of way; if Bob the Porter tries to tell a templar where the lens is, he's fine, and if that templar never says anything to his king then he's fine as well, but if Bob tries to write down the location on a piece of paper his brain probably melts since that'd allow for the information to get to the SK in any number of ways. Similarly, if that templar were to, say, have a contingent spell on him that automatically "forwarded" the information on to the SK, then the moment Bob tried to tell him the location Bob's brain would melt. And, if that templar were to stumble upon the lens himself, a fraction of a second before he saw it his brain would melt regardless of whether he knew that the contingent spell was on him or not.
I need to stop thinking about stuff like this.
In the part you quoted I mentionned that we don't know how the dwarves hid the Lens prior to their deaths, since its only after their deaths that they gained the power to curse it, hence protect it. I suggest a 100-years hiatus on the part of the Champions due to the Dragon's rampage, which would have given enough time to the dwarves to die and become banshees.
The Dark Lens
'nuff
I like what you did with this, but just two questions;
1. What would be the effects of casting Epic spells thru the len's? Would it give a enhancment bonus to your Spellcraft check? Maybe + 50 like the tower in DAIII?
2. When the lens was in the Steeple of Crystals what kind of effects does everyone think the lens would have on the Steeple? Unmake the effects of the mutations? Enable the user to make the polymorph powers of the len permanent? Change the race, and add or remove powers to a target creature? Like with the Champions, or choose which mutations would effect a target creature or make new ones?
Thanks...
Since their energies are so powerful, there isn't a limit of what can be done with them, check the text about discovering new abilities. I think you could probably do all those things you said.
Epic isn't quite my territory (yet), but I think the Lens would give a slightly minor bonus, say +40 and when using both something around +100, or even +120.
Since their energies are so powerful, there isn't a limit of what can be done with them, check the text about discovering new abilities. I think you could probably do all those things you said.
Thanks...
And while were on the topic... which giants were Dregoth killing if J&S were the first giants?
Hmmm...
And while were on the topic... which giants were Dregoth killing if J&S were the first giants?
Holy hell...I hadn't even thought of that.
*sigh*
Why'd you have to go and say it?
...on second thought, there were lion-headed giants back in the Green Age, so perhaps that's who Dregoth was going after. I think that the giants from the Last Sea region are also stated as having been around since the CWs (not positive on that, but I recall there being something 'different' about their history).
Not to nitpik... but for the record... Dregoth was the SK giving pursuit to the giants (Not Daskinor... he was huntin' gobbo's).
And while were on the topic... which giants were Dregoth killing if J&S were the first giants?
Hmmm...
That's one of the discrepancies in the setting. The rules books say he was the Champion against Giants. The Giants that J&S were around were not exactly known for their intelligence (well, the beastheads were, but they had help it seems), and once again, like almost everything else in this setting, did not have written history, especially going back 2,000+ years. So... what the Giants said would be from a very subjective viewpoint, J&S could even be considered as it coming from a subjective viewpoint (maybe they didn't know there were other Giants out there), so I'd rule that the odds are, they really aren't the first Giants.
thoughts??
Oh, the article up above, mentions other powers... what other powers did you have in mind??? and outta curiosity, why did you decide only 3/day for the spell enhancement feats? And why not include Heighten?
But the Giants were not cleansed by him so they were still around, and they were made intelligent by the Lens(they became stupid after the lens was stolen). They may not have remembered their history before Jo'orsh & Sa'ram because J&S weren't the first giants / or they just revered J&S as the first because they were their new leaders who made their race intelligent and defensible against the SK's or anyone else ie. the Giants continually hassle the coastal cities and Balic.
I mean honestly J&S couldn't have been pregnant or cloned themselves - well it just doesn't fit as well.
There were many giants, intelligent lot they were, before the Rebellion. Some of them were lion-headed.
One idea that was developped in the Giant Inconsistency thread was that there was many types of giants in the Green Age - desert (plains?), silt (sea?), etc - and that one type found a way to become lion-headed. All were equally decimated by Dregoth. Later, the crystal device near the Lens on the giants' island allowed those giants to become animal-headed as well. With the appearance of J&S those silt giants were indoctrinated into a new cult of personality around J&S. In the centuries and millenia that followed, the verbal tradition of those giants mutated until it held J&S as the mythological fathers of their race.
I like that story as it fits all the details and parallels how stories change over time to become more pleasing to those that tell them.
Ok ok, let's consider the old collected information once more.
There were many giants, intelligent lot they were, before the Rebellion. Some of them were lion-headed.
One idea that was developped in the Giant Inconsistency thread was that there was many types of giants in the Green Age - desert (plains?), silt (sea?), etc - and that one type found a way to become lion-headed. All were equally decimated by Dregoth. Later, the crystal device near the Lens on the giants' island allowed those giants to become animal-headed as well. With the appearance of J&S those silt giants were indoctrinated into a new cult of personality around J&S. In the centuries and millenia that followed, the verbal tradition of those giants mutated until it held J&S as the mythological fathers of their race.
I like that story as it fits all the details and parallels how stories change over time to become more pleasing to those that tell them.
I generally like that take on it all, and it has basically been the view I've had about Athasian Giants since the thread was made.