A sugestion for a dungeon...

[Kassil]

...Somewhere located in a mountainous land, where a fallen kingdom once stood, there is an ancient dungeon which has since been forgotten. In the heydey of this dungeon's existence, it was used to contain not just prisoners, but also powerful magics and monsters.

In the dungeon's darkest, deepest level, there lies an ancient staff, so powerful that the mage who created it gave it to the king to have it sealed away. Over the centuries, the staff has gained in power and strength until it has evolved an awareness and intellect of its own, and has begun to use the power it holds to manipulate the dungeon dwellers and the local enviroment to create a small kingdom.

Someday soon, the staff may well make a bid to seize a chunk of the outside world, the better to draw in the magical power that feeds it and lets it grow in power. The staff's awareness is cold, cunning, and purely megalomaniacal in nature. It seeks, in time, to become as a god - and then more....

[Kassil]

The staff itself was created by a wizard who has since succumbed to the ravages of time - and perhaps for the better, as he had a habit of creating magical items that weren't quite right. The staff itself is quite possibly his greatest creation.

The staff is a six-foot-lng length of stout oak, enwrapped in intricate patterns of silver and platinum that form the runes which bind the magic to the staff. Atop it is a a wicked seven-fingered talon, clutching a blood-red ruby carved to resemble some inhuman eye; when the staff's mind is 'awake', the gemstone flickers fitfully, like erratic lightning flashing through it.

The staff wields many powers, but the greatest power is how it can influence the minds of those around it. Any creature which spends time in the vicinity of the staff (a year or more of continual exposure) will begin to act as if the staff has enacted a charm spell upon it - and worse, creatures which linger near this new servant for a year or more often succumb to the enchantment as well, expanding the staff's control slowly but steadily.

The staff has many other power as well, but chooses to use them selectively. The most common is the ability to create food and water, which it uses liberally to ensure the loyalty and contentment of those creatures not yet underneath its control, and the force wall spell it can use to seal off a level, or the entire dungeon.

The staf feeds on lifeforce and magical energy; the greater the area it controls, the more power it sips each day, and the more powerful it becomes. It means to eventually craft a body, and then supplant those gods in charge of the art of magic, becoming a divine overlord...

[CaptainPenguin]

Make the staff a character or item in the Characters or Items section.

[MoonHunter]

The Orb of Corvin is a powerful magik item in the hands of a wizard (or magik user).  It is a large, unweildy thing, being a large ball of crystal one cubit (2.5 feet) in length. it glows with an eldrich light.  The stand is carved in intricate detail and has been enchanted to prevent the breaking of what ever is kept on it (why make a super powerful, unbreakable enchanted item, when you can simply make a simple item to prevent it from accidently breaking?).  

In the hands of a wizard it allows for viewing anywhere in the realms where magik or chaos is present. (Instead of chaos you can choose Evil, or the forces of X, etc).  It allows you to cast spells upon the scene you are viewing as if you were there.  Those spells have the effect of one or two ranks higher than wizard by itself.  

It also has the abilities of its brother, the staff. (Both have the ability to hide themselves and others from each other.)  However, this item has developed a lawful good allignement.  It nudges people towards stopping the evil that is its brother.   You see, the staff had decided to worship a Dark God.  In exchange for concessions, the staff will aid in the Dark God in its plans.  

Some of the monsters have been leaving the dungeon area and traveling around the country. They are looking for something....
(Some are also recruiting new monsters, formenting evil, and supporting those who worship the Dark God, that the staff ).  

That wizard was one wild and crazy guy.  There are probably other sibling items of intelligence, with their own, lesser agendas and powers out there.  
The items are immortal.  Mortals are their playthings, their chess pieces, their hands.

[Kassil]

An interesting idea... Powerful, intelligent magical items, caught up in a war against each other... Truly immortal, never knowing the problems of aging... They'd likely take an unnaturally long view of things, long enough that even elves would seem like mayflies.

What kind of twisted history would result from that?

[manfred]

Funny thing is, the idea is not new. See THIS item:
http://www.strolen.com/items/viewitem.php?item_id=45

[MoonHunter]

A fairly balanced one actually.  Each one would be taking steps to counter the moves of the other and protecting their anonymity. (After all if you know the something manipulating events, anyone can take steps to counter them and possible put them at risk).   Except for the rare event, most of the time they would have little net impact on history.  A rare event would probably have different historical account that would not include the manipulations of the spheres.  

This is sort of the illuminated version of history.  Public history is the outside of the true conflicts of the illuminated groups.  These groups are immortal because they protect their membership.  

Siblings
I was thinking of a few other items in the series....

The Grand Sword of the Warlord... grants skill and wisdom to a leader, but promotes conflict. (The ability to give the wielder sword skill, improve their ability to recover from wounds, and avoid the damage in the first place... in addition to an immortal warriors experience in battle.)  The weapon wants to keep testing itself in the forge of war.  It has no sense of good and evil, just honor and glory.  (While it has lesser manipulatory abilities... it seldom manipulates anyone... not even its wielder, except to occasionally push a war into existance).   The sword itself is a bastard sword with a red crystal built into the handle under the large guards.  The handle is an item of unbreakability, which lends some of its protective ability to the bearer as well. To break this orb, you need to get it out of the sword handle.  

The Old teller's sphere, the little sister of the Orb. Her bit is to use her limited probability abilities to make her seer, and her descendents  famous.  

The Sphere of the Throne, One of the Crown Jewels of a country.  This item secretly advises the king or prince as to how to best run the country and avoid entanglement with machinations of the Orb and the Staff.  Every now and again a king will rebel against the Sphere's direction.  Then the sphere will uses its "limited" manipulation abilities to push the court into doing what it wants to happen.  

I think the exception to history part of this post would be  the Sphere of the Throne. It will direct the country how it sees fit. It will be what is good for the long term development of the country, rather than what is really good for it right at the moment.  So while it could push the country along, it would probably retard development, taking a tried and true conservative approach.  

The Dragon Carved Egg.  It makes the owner immune to dragon magiks and breath (which is a type of magik). While it is intelligent, it does not find people interesting to talk too.  This item merely manipulates Dragons anywhere in the world.  In most cases it keeps them out of civilization or minimizes their impact, as it sees Dragons as being annoying creatures.  Being aware of the world around it, sometimes it punishes a people who were rude or being stupid by calling a plauge of Dragons upon them.  

The Glow Lights of the Great Library.  This set of five one handspan balls provide magikal light so people can read in the Great Library without risking candles.  The balls dim if they ever leave the library (or the company of the other lights).  The five balls are scholars and philosphers, who are always looking for new knowledge, inspiring others to write books.  They can't read unless they "see" through the eyes of a human.  They also know where every book is in the library.  

StormGlobe: This 1 cubit crystal globe is sky blue with white swirls.  The Druids worship this item as an Avatar of the Nature God.  In fact, the Globe has been leading the Druids on for centuries that it is their God. It has the ability to see anywhere and manipulate (not control) the weather anywhere it is viewing.  It also has the manipulation abilities of the other greater orbs, but to a lesser extent.      It has no agenda but to perpetuate its control over the Druids.

The Iron Golum of Krytos: This 12 foot tall animate iron statue roams the lands of Krytos, a young and wild country that has yet to be fully settle.  The iron golum is the only intelligent golum ever created.  (One of the lesser orbs was incorporated into the Golum).  It simply enjoys it freedom, moving on its own and seeing what it can see.  It defends freedom, so the slavers of neighboring countries and the occasional prison have been attacked by it.    


****************notes****************************
All the items have to have a crystal sphere of some size in it.  Size does not determine power.  Each of these spheres houses a created intelligence, which will have the following powers...
1) The ability to manipulate the minds of those around it to some degree.
2) The ability to communicate with any other Orb, if it desires.
3) The ability to diffuse the power of another orb if used against it.  100% magik resistance against orb magik.    
4) The ability to be nearly unbreakable (unless you got an enchanted holder like the orb)  
5) Many are given magikal abilities of some function... a few are just intelligent orbs (they were originally made as assistants to remember things for the absent minded mad wizard).  

Almost every orb has an original purpose, however the mad wizards created a number of them just to see if certain effects could be achieved.  Since they have long outlived their owner, they now have their own agendas.  (The sword was merely a magik item to grant skill to the magician... now it sees itself as the greatest warrior ever...  The Stormglobe was just a weather control device, now it wants to be a God. And the Orb and the Staff...   )

All the orbs keep a low profile. They know that if people know (or think they know) what they are, they will loose their effectiveness  (after all they can manipulate people, not control them).  

Also, Should I enter the Staff and the Globe, or just the Globe? And I guess I will do the others eventually.

[Kassil]

http://www.strolen.com/items/viewitem.php?item_id=73

The Staff already exists, known as Siel'zar.

[Fiokar_Dracolas]

Hmm. I smell a theme here. Maybe it isn't that the items themselves are intellegent, but the crystals within them?

[Kassil]

I did allude to this with Siel'zar, as there's lightning flickering within the globe when the mind within is active...

[Fiokar_Dracolas]

So you did. My mistake. A thought: Maybe there is a large crystaline being(s?) that all these smaller stones came from. They could be developing with a secondary goal to return to or destroy the being they came from. Could also be on a mission for said being too.

[MoonHunter]

That is possible, maybe a Crystal God from another realm, but I personally like the concept that they were all constructed intelligences.. Fantasy artificial intelligences.  Like all AIs, they have their own view of the world.

**********************************************************
All the items of this series will have the following...

Long ago, the Wizard Corvus, created a vast number of magikal crystal orbs of various sizes, most of which were incorporated into other items.  These orbs housed magikally created intelligences with the following powers:
1) The ability to influence and manipulate the minds of those around it to some degree.
2) The ability to communicate with any other Orb at any range, if it desires.
3) The ability to block or diffuse the power of another orb, 100% magik resistance against orb magik. It can sometimes grant that ability to others or use the power at range.  
4) The ability to be nearly unbreakable (they are crystal after all)
5) 1-5 Magikal abilities to fufill its original purpose as a tool for Corvus. They were originally made as assistants and aides for Corvus. Since they have outlasted him and anyone who knew much about them, they are now free to follow their own agendas.

Long ago, the Wizard Corvus, created a vast number of magikal crystal orbs of various sizes, most of which were incorporated into other items.  These orbs housed magikally created intelligences with the following powers:
1) The ability to influence and manipulate the minds of those around it to some degree.
2) The ability to communicate with any other Orb at any range, if it desires.
3) The ability to block or diffuse the power of another orb, 100% magik resistance against orb magik. It can sometimes grant that ability to others or use the power at range.  
4) The ability to be nearly unbreakable (they are crystal after all)
5) 1-5 Magikal abilities to fufill its original purpose as a tool for Corvus. They were originally made as assistants and aides for Corvus. Since they have outlasted him and anyone who knew much about them, they are now free to follow their own agendas.  

The items are immortal. Mortals are their playthings, their chess pieces, their hands.

[Kassil]

While the idea is entertaining that they were designed to be aware, and it's certainly up to you if you so desire to design your own, Siel'zar as it stands developed the self-awareness over generations of being trapped in the depths of the dungeon, sealed away from users.

[manfred]

Communicating High-Powered Magical Items Across Vast Distances (tm)


How is this possible?

I do not believe this is simply a result of item's power, or intelligence, or both combined. Were it so, other items could, if powerful enough, communicate too, and soon you have Internet in a fantasy setting. (A world-building idea for free here!)

Warning: Unlimited communication can severly hinder or even destroy the medieval feel many fantasy worlds try to maintain. A known similar example is the Fly spell. If you can fly high enough, you can draw almost precise maps (pity for the DM), and can guard the lands for hundreds of miles around. In that deep, dark, backward Middle Ages (as we often picture it), you often don't know of a hostile army until it is TOO near. Time for heroes to shine.

I claim these items can communicate together, because they all were created by a single powerful mage, along with some unidentifiable weird streak, possibly imprinted from their creator's personality. They can communicate, because on some level they are linked to one another, like identical twins are rumoured to be. Maybe they were connected by purpose, to make their finding easier, should the mage ever loose one. Maybe, this connection is exactly the reason they turned sentient (I may work on this theory, if there is interest ).


What does it look like, then?

The problem is, that in fantasy, anything is possible. Still, we can assign several possible problems for such communication.

Speed limit
A slight (or big) delay, as the wave in the world's magic field travels, compare to the speed of a chatroom.

Power limit
No power is endless, surely not if you speak across the whole world, so no talking for hours. We don't need to set a limit, just know that it exists.

Reliability
What way ever the signal travels, magic is known to have disturbances in it's flow.

You never know... who listens!
The more distant your partner is, the less you can be sure there are only two 'on the phone'. Accidents happen, some researching wizard may discover this by chance, or worse, somewhere deep in the Mana Forest, your voices can be heard out of a tree's trunk! (Resonance is a &^%$@.)

You never know... who listens again!
Ignore weird chances. There are other orbs out there, and some are not very friendly. There is little to tell unless it is important, and IF it is important, will you shout it out loudly? Most orbs have a certain selfish strain in them, would they freely share a thing they hold most valuable: knowledge and personal experience? Please note they have few ways to interact with the world physically, they "do it" through their extended personal influence, magic. Succes of anything they want to happen depends mainly on what they know. If other orbs know what you are up to, they may spoil your game. I leave for others the complicated details of intra-orb relations.


By manfred, student of orb-to-orb communication.

[CaptainPenguin]

Wouldn't that be an interesting plot hook?

"Hey Darvek, what was that?"
"What was what?"
"You know, that funny, echoey voice that just came from that tree."
"I don't know what yer talkin' about!"
"Yes you do! You must have heard it!"
"No I didn't."
"Yes you did!"
"No, I didn't!"
"Yes, you did!"
"No, I didn't!"

[Agar]

Now imagine instead of a tree picking up the reasonance, it was a dog from some remote tribe.

Dog: "Ya there Colin?"

New tribal shaman: "The voice of dog has returned! Come quick and gather, everyone!"

Dog's other voice: "I'm here Mickey, what up?"

Dog's first voice: "I was just thinking about that situation with the prince of Kebekspan"

Dog's other voice: "The one where his new wife happens to be four months pregnant?"

Dog's first voice: "Yhea, that's the one. I was thinking that we could say it follows some old custom and that to bring good health to the quote-unquote short term baby, the prince needs to do up his whole castle in pink."

Dog's other voice: "What is it with you and pink? I'll never understand. Go ahead and do it, it will give us a good measure of how much the prince follows traditions. The traditions we controll."

Dog's first voice: "That and it will let us really screw with him."

Dog's other voice: "Definatly! Hey, try and make him change his wardrobe too! A pink castle full of pink people! That'll be great!"

New tribal shaman: "The voices of dog have spoken. We must go and gather the bark of the Yonsta tree so our village may be dye the holy color of pink."