Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Ornum Dec 05, 2003 23:20:05	Well, when my group and I first picked up the Planescape setting, I was looking for a way to introduce the setting to the characters from my campaign world to the planes. Well, I came across a little info while studying for biology at the time. It seemed that the human skull is comprised of 22 serperate, interconnected bones. I then came up with an idea and since I no longer have any of this written anywhere, I'm going to try and recall this from memory, so here goes. Once, several hundred years ago, there was a wizard of great power that traveled the planes. His studies eventually led him to master the art of planar travel, so much so that he was eventually able to activate gates to other planes at will, without the use of a spell. After his death, an evil wizard robbed the grave and took his skull, using it in magical experiments that, due to spells casted and the magic that the skull itself already contained, the skull became a portal key that could activate any portal to any of the planes when willed to do so by the possesser. Also, the when taken apart, the seperate pieces activated portals to the 16 outer planes (but not the outlands), the 4 elemental planes, the negative and the positive energy planes. The skull also offered protection from the environmental hazards of the planes to the possesser. This wizard used this skull to create an army of evil creatures from across the planes that threatened the entire world, so a group of heroes was sent to stop him. During the battle, the skull was accidentally struck and the resulting magical explosion leveled the mage, the heroes, and the army. The skull wasn't destroyed, however. Instead, the individual pieces were scattered across the lands and lost to the sands of time. This was the rumor that the characters uncovered, and not the real truth however. In actuallity, the skull was never taken by an evil mage, it was the ORIGINAL plane-hopping mage. He had become a lich, so that he would have the ability to take as much time as he needed to learn how to travel the planes at will, and eventually became a demilich. The "explosion" was in fact what occurred when the heroes from the past attacked the planar enhanced version of the demilich with a minor artifact. The resulting mix of magical forces destroyed the hero's artifact and caused the explosion that didn't destroy the skull, but merely scattered it. Of course, the PC's didn't know this, as the only sources of info they could find were in ancient tombs and such, and all said there were two seperate mages. They didn't find out the truth until they eventually found each piece of the skull and reformed it, causing the demilich to come back to "unlife". It was then that the demilich told them the truth. After the explosion, the disembodied spirit of the wizard roamed the world for a few centuries, until it started find others to temporarily inhabit and write a fictious history, in hopes that someone would search for the pieces and put the skull back together so he could return to full power. The PC's were able to defeat and permanently destroy him, but out of six characters, I think only two survived. The cool thing was that when I came up with the idea, I wrote TSR about it for some help in placing some of the pieces, and someone (I can't remember who) actually wrote me back, giving me suggestions on where to put them! Anyway, I just thought that I would share that item, and I hope some of you actually take the time to read this overly long post.
#2 zombiegleemax Dec 08, 2003 13:10:58	Good work Ornum! I once created several artifacts for my old campaign world, but unfortunately, none of them were actually used.