Shards of a world's soul (P.E.A.C.H) [Archive] - Wizards Community

Shards of a world's soul (P.E.A.C.H) [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
molten_dragon
12-05-07, 04:14 PM I came up with this idea for a campaign in the shower the other day. I wrote it down and came up with some history, and rules for the major items that the campaign is dependent on. What do you think, both of the crunch and the fluff? Thanks for your opinions.

History
Three hundred and fifty years ago in an iron mine in the town of Delving Water, a team of miners made a discovery. They had been digging out a new shaft to follow a vein of iron deeper into the earth when they broke through a wall into a huge natural cavern. They began exploring it but soon realized that it went much deeper into the earth than they had originally estimated. It took over a month of exploring before a group finally reached the bottom of the cave system, and what they found there would re-shape the world.

At the bottom of the lowest point of the cave, they found a wall of dark reddish-purple crystal. Even in the dark depths of the cave, it seemed to glitter with reflected light. Excited with the discovery and thinking they would soon be very wealthy, they broke off some pieces of the crystal and took it with them back to the surface. The crystals were examined to determine what they were worth, but no one had ever seen anything like them before. Eventually, they were sent to a magical sage to determine what type of stone they were. After months of magical testing he finally made an amazing discovery. The stones could hold a living being’s soul.

Over the next few years, more was learned about exactly what this could be used for. They could hold the soul of a dead creature to allow it to return to life later, or even hold the soul of a dead creature and use it to power a construct, allowing a form of eternal life. But most importantly, they could be used to power magical items, and all of this was possible without harming the soul itself. When the abilities of the stones became public knowledge, demand for them skyrocketed. Eventually, the stones were found in other mines and became available for nearly everyone. After a few years people began calling them Soul Shards.

In the three hundred fifty years since the discovery of Soul Shards, they have completely changed life for nearly everyone. Common people have much more access to magic than they ever did before, which has lead to a much more unified and enlightened society. People live longer and happier than they have ever been before.

That is all about to come to an end though. Recently, something odd has been happening. Animals are going mad and attacking people for no reason. The weather has been bizarre, with snow in the middle of the summer, and enormous powerful storms hitting coastlines. Land that had always been fertile has started to go fallow, and some has even become barren desert over the course of a few months.

The PCs will eventually find out that this is being caused by the Soul Shard mining. The huge crystals that the Soul Shards are being cut from are actually the living heart and soul of the planet. The pieces being cut off are slowly killing it, and nature is responding to this. The planet will regenerate over time, but the mining of Soul Shards must stop immediately in order to prevent the problem from growing worse. When the PCs bring the problem to the king, he sees the truth of what they are saying and for the good of his kingdom passes a law prohibiting any future mining of Soul Shards.

Unfortunately, the common people of the kingdom have become used to having magic at their fingertips and see the law as the king and nobles trying to take away their power and repress them again. The problems begin when the town of Delving Water (which has become a large city whose economy is dependent on Soul Shard mining) in the east refuses to obey the law. The common people living nearest to Delving Water agree. It is clear that things will soon devolve into civil war between those loyal to the king in the West, and those who agree with Delving Water in the East unless something is done to prevent it.

The PCs must either pick a side to support in the war (both sides have some valid points) or do something to try to prevent it altogether.

Abilities of Soul Shards

Leech Life
Soul Shards may be used to power a magical item by siphoning off a small bit of the character’s soul each day. This is a process that requires three steps.

First, the item must be prepared with the correct magical properties. The item must be of masterwork quality, and cannot already be magically enchanted (either using a Soul Shard or through the standard method. The required spells must be cast at the time (i.e. magic fang and fireball for a +1 flaming weapon). Essentially, a magic item is being created with no power source (like a radio with no batteries), so it does not function yet. This process takes 8 hours.

Second, a Soul Shard must be linked to the item. This is done in an arcane ritual that takes a full 24 hours and requires 100 gp in material components.

Finally, the Soul Shard must be attuned to the person who will be using it. This requires a separate arcane ritual which lasts 12 hours and requires 200 gp in material components. The creature to which the Soul Shard is being attuned must be willing, otherwise the ritual automatically fails.

After these steps are complete, the item begins functioning as normal. On that day and every day afterwards, the character to which the item is linked loses a number of experience points equal to the market value of the magical enhancements to the item divided by 250. For example, a character with an attuned +1 flaming longsword would lose 32 experience points per day (8000/250). If a character’s experience points ever go below 0 in this manner, he dies. In order to prevent such things, a character can un-attune himself from the item in a process requiring 10 minutes of concentration and a DC 20 Will Save. If the character fails the save, he can attempt it again in 24 hours. The item immediately becomes non-magical when this happens, and the attuning ritual must be completed again before the item will function again.

These items are only magical when used by the person they are attuned to, if someone else tries to use them, they are simply a masterwork item. Someone who finds a Life Leech item may attempt to re-attune it to themselves, but this requires an opposed will check if the person it is currently attuned to is still alive.

Store Soul
Soul Shards may also be used to store the souls of deceased creatures. When a creature dies, its soul may choose to either move on to the afterlife, or inhabit a nearby Soul Shard. This choice must be made within 1 minute and the soul shard must be within 200 feet. A Soul Shard which is currently storing a soul glows with a dark reddish purple light. The light is brighter the more powerful the soul being stored is. A creature’s soul may be stored in the Soul Shard indefinitely (although the creature may eventually choose to leave the Soul Shard and pass on). A soul being stored this way has a rudimentary understanding of what is happening to the shard although time seems to pass much faster for a soul stored this way. Soul Shards which are currently storing a soul can be used for several things.

Restore Life
A dead creature’s soul can be placed back into a body to return it to life. This must be the creature’s own body (or a clone of it). Any wounds the creature sustained to kill it must also be repaired (or at least enough of them that the creature won’t immediately die again). Essentially this means that the creature returns to life with the same number of hit points as it had when it died. If that total is still below -10, the creature does not return to life. If the body has been dead for a long time and has decayed, that damage must also be repaired before the creature can be brought back to life.

Power Construct
A Soul Shard which is storing a creature’s soul can also be used to power a construct. When this happens, the creature inside the Soul Shard gains control of the construct and uses it as their new body. This essentially can grant a creature eternal life if nothing else kills it. This is a 2 step process.

First, the construct is prepared. Its body is created as normally and has the same costs listed in the Monster Manual. However, it does not require any other gold or experience points since it is not being animated in this step.

Second, the Soul Shard is placed inside the construct and a link is created between the two to power the construct. This is done in an arcane ritual which requires 24 hours to complete. It costs 1000 gp in material components. This process also drains 1 level or hit die from the creature whose soul is stored in the Soul Shard. The construct must have hit dice less than or equal to the level (or hit dice) of the creature whose soul is in the Soul Shard or the ritual fails. This does not include the level lost in the process. For example, a Soul Shard stores the soul of a 5th level fighter. His body was destroyed, but he wants to return to life. He could choose to take over the body of a construct with 5 or less hit dice, and in the process, he would lose one level, becoming a 4th level fighter.

When this happens, the creature takes the living construct type. It loses its own strength and dexterity scores, and gains the scores of the construct. It keeps its mental ability scores and constitution score. It gains any extraordinary abilities based on the physical form of the construct (number of limbs, presence or absence of wings, etc.) and loses any based on its own physical form. It retains its own skills and feats, as well as class abilities.

Power Spell
Stored Souls can be used instead of part of or the entire experience component in a spell. The soul must be willing to do this. If this ability is used, the spell drains experience points from the stored soul instead of the caster of the spell. The transfer is not completely efficient though, so the soul loses twice as many experience points as the spell normally requires.

Craft Magic Item
Stored Souls can be used as the power source of a permanent magic item (not charged or single use items). The process for doing this is similar to creating a Life Leeching item with a few differences. First, the item does not need to be attuned to a particular person; it can be used equally by anyone. Second, the item does not leech experience points from its user. It is powered by the soul stored in the shard. A soul can power a magic item with a gold piece value equal to the level (or hit dice) of the stored creature squared times 500 gold pieces. For example, the soul of a 4th level wizard could power an item with a value of up to 8000 gold pieces.
Anuvrix
12-05-07, 04:49 PM Nice work!

One question:

What if one were to use a larger peice? would it have a greater effect?
What if one were to fashion an entire weapon out of one, and attune no soul to it, could some one make it able to feed off of it's own exp, and make it forcibly pull the souls of those it kills (if the one slain has a soulstone, i bet it isnt closer than inside of them[ you never specified that the person decides which stone to enter] so if the killed thinks that he doesnt want to die, when he tries to enter a stone, he ends up in the sword)?

In this way, one could create an extremely powerful sword with the only stipulation that he has to kill some stuff every now and then. (probably not too hard for a PC who adventures often)

Could any peice of equipment be made from the stone? Could one wear an entire suit of such equipment? what if one were to use the method above to enhance multiple items?
molten_dragon
12-09-07, 09:11 PM Still hoping for some more feedback on this, so I'm giving it a bump.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
molten_dragon 12-05-07, 04:14 PM	I came up with this idea for a campaign in the shower the other day. I wrote it down and came up with some history, and rules for the major items that the campaign is dependent on. What do you think, both of the crunch and the fluff? Thanks for your opinions. History Three hundred and fifty years ago in an iron mine in the town of Delving Water, a team of miners made a discovery. They had been digging out a new shaft to follow a vein of iron deeper into the earth when they broke through a wall into a huge natural cavern. They began exploring it but soon realized that it went much deeper into the earth than they had originally estimated. It took over a month of exploring before a group finally reached the bottom of the cave system, and what they found there would re-shape the world. At the bottom of the lowest point of the cave, they found a wall of dark reddish-purple crystal. Even in the dark depths of the cave, it seemed to glitter with reflected light. Excited with the discovery and thinking they would soon be very wealthy, they broke off some pieces of the crystal and took it with them back to the surface. The crystals were examined to determine what they were worth, but no one had ever seen anything like them before. Eventually, they were sent to a magical sage to determine what type of stone they were. After months of magical testing he finally made an amazing discovery. The stones could hold a living being’s soul. Over the next few years, more was learned about exactly what this could be used for. They could hold the soul of a dead creature to allow it to return to life later, or even hold the soul of a dead creature and use it to power a construct, allowing a form of eternal life. But most importantly, they could be used to power magical items, and all of this was possible without harming the soul itself. When the abilities of the stones became public knowledge, demand for them skyrocketed. Eventually, the stones were found in other mines and became available for nearly everyone. After a few years people began calling them Soul Shards. In the three hundred fifty years since the discovery of Soul Shards, they have completely changed life for nearly everyone. Common people have much more access to magic than they ever did before, which has lead to a much more unified and enlightened society. People live longer and happier than they have ever been before. That is all about to come to an end though. Recently, something odd has been happening. Animals are going mad and attacking people for no reason. The weather has been bizarre, with snow in the middle of the summer, and enormous powerful storms hitting coastlines. Land that had always been fertile has started to go fallow, and some has even become barren desert over the course of a few months. The PCs will eventually find out that this is being caused by the Soul Shard mining. The huge crystals that the Soul Shards are being cut from are actually the living heart and soul of the planet. The pieces being cut off are slowly killing it, and nature is responding to this. The planet will regenerate over time, but the mining of Soul Shards must stop immediately in order to prevent the problem from growing worse. When the PCs bring the problem to the king, he sees the truth of what they are saying and for the good of his kingdom passes a law prohibiting any future mining of Soul Shards. Unfortunately, the common people of the kingdom have become used to having magic at their fingertips and see the law as the king and nobles trying to take away their power and repress them again. The problems begin when the town of Delving Water (which has become a large city whose economy is dependent on Soul Shard mining) in the east refuses to obey the law. The common people living nearest to Delving Water agree. It is clear that things will soon devolve into civil war between those loyal to the king in the West, and those who agree with Delving Water in the East unless something is done to prevent it. The PCs must either pick a side to support in the war (both sides have some valid points) or do something to try to prevent it altogether. Abilities of Soul Shards Leech Life Soul Shards may be used to power a magical item by siphoning off a small bit of the character’s soul each day. This is a process that requires three steps. First, the item must be prepared with the correct magical properties. The item must be of masterwork quality, and cannot already be magically enchanted (either using a Soul Shard or through the standard method. The required spells must be cast at the time (i.e. magic fang and fireball for a +1 flaming weapon). Essentially, a magic item is being created with no power source (like a radio with no batteries), so it does not function yet. This process takes 8 hours. Second, a Soul Shard must be linked to the item. This is done in an arcane ritual that takes a full 24 hours and requires 100 gp in material components. Finally, the Soul Shard must be attuned to the person who will be using it. This requires a separate arcane ritual which lasts 12 hours and requires 200 gp in material components. The creature to which the Soul Shard is being attuned must be willing, otherwise the ritual automatically fails. After these steps are complete, the item begins functioning as normal. On that day and every day afterwards, the character to which the item is linked loses a number of experience points equal to the market value of the magical enhancements to the item divided by 250. For example, a character with an attuned +1 flaming longsword would lose 32 experience points per day (8000/250). If a character’s experience points ever go below 0 in this manner, he dies. In order to prevent such things, a character can un-attune himself from the item in a process requiring 10 minutes of concentration and a DC 20 Will Save. If the character fails the save, he can attempt it again in 24 hours. The item immediately becomes non-magical when this happens, and the attuning ritual must be completed again before the item will function again. These items are only magical when used by the person they are attuned to, if someone else tries to use them, they are simply a masterwork item. Someone who finds a Life Leech item may attempt to re-attune it to themselves, but this requires an opposed will check if the person it is currently attuned to is still alive. Store Soul Soul Shards may also be used to store the souls of deceased creatures. When a creature dies, its soul may choose to either move on to the afterlife, or inhabit a nearby Soul Shard. This choice must be made within 1 minute and the soul shard must be within 200 feet. A Soul Shard which is currently storing a soul glows with a dark reddish purple light. The light is brighter the more powerful the soul being stored is. A creature’s soul may be stored in the Soul Shard indefinitely (although the creature may eventually choose to leave the Soul Shard and pass on). A soul being stored this way has a rudimentary understanding of what is happening to the shard although time seems to pass much faster for a soul stored this way. Soul Shards which are currently storing a soul can be used for several things. Restore Life A dead creature’s soul can be placed back into a body to return it to life. This must be the creature’s own body (or a clone of it). Any wounds the creature sustained to kill it must also be repaired (or at least enough of them that the creature won’t immediately die again). Essentially this means that the creature returns to life with the same number of hit points as it had when it died. If that total is still below -10, the creature does not return to life. If the body has been dead for a long time and has decayed, that damage must also be repaired before the creature can be brought back to life. Power Construct A Soul Shard which is storing a creature’s soul can also be used to power a construct. When this happens, the creature inside the Soul Shard gains control of the construct and uses it as their new body. This essentially can grant a creature eternal life if nothing else kills it. This is a 2 step process. First, the construct is prepared. Its body is created as normally and has the same costs listed in the Monster Manual. However, it does not require any other gold or experience points since it is not being animated in this step. Second, the Soul Shard is placed inside the construct and a link is created between the two to power the construct. This is done in an arcane ritual which requires 24 hours to complete. It costs 1000 gp in material components. This process also drains 1 level or hit die from the creature whose soul is stored in the Soul Shard. The construct must have hit dice less than or equal to the level (or hit dice) of the creature whose soul is in the Soul Shard or the ritual fails. This does not include the level lost in the process. For example, a Soul Shard stores the soul of a 5th level fighter. His body was destroyed, but he wants to return to life. He could choose to take over the body of a construct with 5 or less hit dice, and in the process, he would lose one level, becoming a 4th level fighter. When this happens, the creature takes the living construct type. It loses its own strength and dexterity scores, and gains the scores of the construct. It keeps its mental ability scores and constitution score. It gains any extraordinary abilities based on the physical form of the construct (number of limbs, presence or absence of wings, etc.) and loses any based on its own physical form. It retains its own skills and feats, as well as class abilities. Power Spell Stored Souls can be used instead of part of or the entire experience component in a spell. The soul must be willing to do this. If this ability is used, the spell drains experience points from the stored soul instead of the caster of the spell. The transfer is not completely efficient though, so the soul loses twice as many experience points as the spell normally requires. Craft Magic Item Stored Souls can be used as the power source of a permanent magic item (not charged or single use items). The process for doing this is similar to creating a Life Leeching item with a few differences. First, the item does not need to be attuned to a particular person; it can be used equally by anyone. Second, the item does not leech experience points from its user. It is powered by the soul stored in the shard. A soul can power a magic item with a gold piece value equal to the level (or hit dice) of the stored creature squared times 500 gold pieces. For example, the soul of a 4th level wizard could power an item with a value of up to 8000 gold pieces.
Anuvrix 12-05-07, 04:49 PM	Nice work! One question: What if one were to use a larger peice? would it have a greater effect? What if one were to fashion an entire weapon out of one, and attune no soul to it, could some one make it able to feed off of it's own exp, and make it forcibly pull the souls of those it kills (if the one slain has a soulstone, i bet it isnt closer than inside of them[ you never specified that the person decides which stone to enter] so if the killed thinks that he doesnt want to die, when he tries to enter a stone, he ends up in the sword)? In this way, one could create an extremely powerful sword with the only stipulation that he has to kill some stuff every now and then. (probably not too hard for a PC who adventures often) Could any peice of equipment be made from the stone? Could one wear an entire suit of such equipment? what if one were to use the method above to enhance multiple items?
molten_dragon 12-09-07, 09:11 PM	Still hoping for some more feedback on this, so I'm giving it a bump.