Occult artifact suggestions

Discussion about the occult and arcana in general. (Don't call it "magic" if you want to be taken seriously by scholars.)
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nobody
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Occult artifact suggestions

Post by nobody »

I was thinking about occult artifacts lately and wanted to share my ideas.

Based on quivering bowstrings, I wanted to think about what the equivalent for melee weapons would be and came up with the following:
- A vial of watery blue liquid - when tipped or turned upside down, it appears to move faster than it should within the vial. When applied to a bladed weapon (does pierce, slash, or hack damage) it would do the thing (decrease RT, add a reroll, increase damage?).
- A vial of thick gray liquid - it feels heavier than it should and shaking the vial gives your hand a strange feeling and it is a little difficult to stop shaking it. When applied to a weapon that does bludgeon, crush, or puncture damage it would do the thing.
- For either of the above, if a weapon crosses types (like pierce and puncture) it would increase the relative frequency of getting the buffed damage type. These are both intended to be use-it-or-lose-it items like quivering bowstrings (they expire after a while whether used or not, there are only so many of them that exist in the game at once). These could also be replaced with bands or ribbons or something that get tied to weapons, but I liked the idea of oils applied to weapons because mechanics are already in place for that due to netherbane oil.


I keep reading about this weird bug where an item is duplicated but still linked to itself and every time I think, that would be an amazing occult artifact. So here are three versions of that which I think would be really fun occult artifacts:
- Paired tomes - these would need to be long lasting to be meaningful, but it would be really cool to be able to open up your copy and see that someone else had written in it and write responses.
- Paired writing slates - basically the same as above, but because the text is far more temporary maybe have it produce some noticable effect when someone writes on it (you feel a slightly cold feeling eminate from your backpack, you feel a mild jostling feeling in your satchel, etc). This would be incredibly useful for discrete communication over large or short distances. This one should probably be a use-it-or-lose-it type of item like quivering bowstrings, and when the effect ends both slates become mundane writing slates.
- Paired pouch - a belt pouch that exists in more than one place. A fun tool for a thief to sell to other people if the bag looks rather mundane, or a life saving tool to give to your most trusted physicker for when you have a desperate need for unguent or bandages if the bags are well marked. A slate placed in it would be similar to a paired writing slate above.

I think the slate seems like the most believable object to exist in universe, though a pair of linked tomes could have great RP potential with the right characters or character/GM. The bag seems too versatile and also feels too close to the no teleportation / instant travel established in universe, and would also be the most problematic if it just died like quivering bowstrings.
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Rias
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Re: Occult artifact suggestions

Post by Rias »

While I'm picky about what will work with the lore when it comes to the occult, I love suggestions! There are some good ones here, and I'd love to see more.
<Rias> PUT ON PANTS
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Ephemeralis
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Re: Occult artifact suggestions

Post by Ephemeralis »

Thought I'd toss out a few more blindly:

- A vial of anomalum suspension - can be applied to any dyeable item like an ordinary dye, causing that colour to inherit the tint of the wearer's current aura. Successive applications of the suspension on the same object allow it to glow, increasing each time in potency until it shines brightly like a torch in essentially a passive distyr-type effect. Glowing anomalum-dyed clothing does passively draw energy from its wearer to power the glow.

- Prismatic crystal shards - these small shards can be attuned to and temporarily grant short-term (3-12 hours or less maybe) access to a special ESP channel colour identical to the person who first used it. Attuning draws energy from the shards and eventually makes them useless, but can be used in a pinch to establish a longer-term IC communication solution between two people. However, the items are small and easy to steal, and the unstable attunement makes a person's ESP artefact glow more brightly, potentially even revealing the colour of the channel they're speaking to beneath their clothing to an especially observant eye.

- A set of gnarled bone prayer beads - holding these beads in hand causes them to steadily draw the holder's sanity in exchange for increasing the regeneration rate of any wounds they might have. This effect amplifies in both potency AND sanity cost the longer the beads are held for in one sitting, and something horrible happens if you are a little bit less than sane and have the effect strong enough on you.

- A blackened seeing glass - wearing this over your eye allows you to faintly visualize flows of ambient nether in your surroundings, letting you detect the presence of nether wells like you were channeling sorcery. In addition, you also gain an extra 10% chance to hit a targeted limb (or another offensive bonus) when fighting nethrim. People with strong affinities to sorcery also show signs of contamination when viewed while wearing the glass. Sufficiently high quantities of nether or overuse of the glass may cause it to shatter, potentially dealing grevious damage to the wearer's eye.

- A refilling ink pot - acts as an ordinary vessel of ink, with the exception that text written by said ink lasts only a short amount of time, fading anywhere from 1-3 hours after being read as the ink dissipates into motes and somehow makes its way back to the pot. Excellent for people with a taste for subterfuge. Can be used when writing a board post of any kind to cause it to automatically unpost itself after a set time delay after it is first read. The pot eventually drains itself of ink entirely as its magic fades over the course of a while. People sufficiently trained in Arcana can also have a chance to spot the peculiar properties of the ink when reading things written in it.

- A pitted metal mattock - mining with this tool is significantly faster and easier than normal, but once someone starts using it, they cannot stop until they actively pass out from exhaustion. In addition, the arcanery behind the tool has a chance to draw aggressive earthen constructs from the rock, making it nearly suicidal to use alone. Once damaged, it cannot be repaired by any means. The earthen constructs/elementals might also have a low chance to drop fairly rare metal ores and gems.

- A mirror-faceted gemstone - having this gemstone on your person slowly attunes it to you over time, causing it to take on the hue of your aura. When held and fully charged, it can be used to access the ESP network only a few times (1-3 transmissions) before the charge fades as a kind of emergency backup. Beware though, since its attunement to your aura does not fade if it leaves your person for at least a day, meaning an intrepid thief could potentially plant this in one of your containers and steal it back after it bears your attunement, using it to imitate you on the ESP network. The gemstone can only be charged so many times, after that it turns grey and inert.

- A book of forbidden knowledge - this tome can be filled with your most recent memories (experience) at a considerable risk to your overall sanity. Depending on what type of book it is, subsequently studying it will grant a temporary bonus to a specific skill even if you do not know anything it (or access to an ability) in essence allowing you to hit levels and perform things that may not ordinarily be accessible to you. However, every time that skill (or ability) is made use of, your sanity is drained all the more. Hitting low sanity or bottoming out will cause the tome to be 'paranoia-bound' to you, making it unable to be removed from your person and steadily consuming your energy and sanity, until you eventually die (though this does take a few hours of real time). When you die, the book returns to the loot table, this time attuned to one of your abilities or one of your highest skills at random.
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