Siel'zar
In the depths of a forgotten dungeon lies a staff containing immense power - and a cold, calculating mind, seeking to rule the cosmos...
Long ago, a powerful staff was created; the creator gifted the king with it, and begged that it be locked away... The kind obliged, sealing the staf Siel'zar in the darkest catacombs of his castle's dungeon, surrounded by barrier both mundane and mystical.
The kingdom has long since fallen, the the dungeon has long since been forgotten. Originally, the staff was meerly a powerful tool; however, over centuries of time, the enchantments have grown, wraping into a strange, alien awareness. The staff feeds upon the lifeforce of the creatures around it and the ambient magic in the area it influences, growing stronger with each sip of energy.
Now, it seeks to surpass the gods themselves, and to this end it uses the power it contains to slowly influence the dungeon it resides within - creating a loyal kingdom of followers in the creatures who have been infused with the staff's power, and shaping the dungeon itself into a stronghold.
Soon, it may stake a claim of the surface world, and expand from there - becoming a greater threat with each tree, bird, and deer that falls to it's influence, always riveted on the goal of becoming the Ultimate Force.
It appears to be a simple oak staff, decorated heavily with silver and platinum, with a seven-fingered talon atop it, clutching a blood-red ruby carved to resmble an eye. When the mind within the staff is awake and active, the gem flickers erratically, as if a distant lightning storm plays aound within the gem.
It remains trapped within the dungeon, the bottom half of it locked in stone warded to the strength of mithril by the kingdom's long-since-dead archmage.
Magical Properties:
This staff is not meant to fall into the hands of players, but rather to be a villain in and of itself.
It has access to all wizard spell of level five and below, with the skill of a wizard of twentieth level.
It projects a field around it, perhaps six or seven hundred yards wide; any creature which spends a year regularly bathed in the field will be changed, their mind enhanced and their will bent to loyalty to the mind in the staff - and they carry a limited-range version of the field with them, allowing the staff to send minions forth to infuse others and make them part of the staff's growing army. It also feeds on the life energy of those it controls, sipping just enough to make it stronger, wthout bringing any real harm to the servants.
It can also cast a force wall, impervious and nigh impossible to breach save by an archmage or a god, and often uses this to keep creatures it wishes to make serve it trapped within the field's radius.
It can also directly control those who serve it, but prefers to leave them to their new intelligence, which is often a feral kind, as most of those who serve it are animals raised to awareness.
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? Responses (11)
Sounds like somebody needs a way to breech the wall first to even get to it.
Beyond that detail, I like the idea. The staff may be able to sense something outside the wall and may let the players enter so it can delay them and even provide them with safe areas to recover in untill it can work it's influence over them as well.
It projects the wall at will; unless it feels it has a need to keep something in or out, things can pass freely in and out, all the way down to where the staff itself is. Granted, this is something like five or six levels of dungeons, filled with all kinds of low-to-mid intelligence creatures which may well seek to keep adventurers away.
Might have to change the creation of it a little bit. I like it overall though. But why would a wizard create such an item and then have it hidden away? Perhaps (s)he just wanted to see if it could be done. Plausible, but unlikely.
What was the original purpose of it. It is alluded that it was a tool, but what kind of tool, for what purpose, and why wasn't it used when the kingdom started failing? Just some curiosity I have. Powerful weapons need a good history, and I like this item and want the history.
Remind me not to adopt a familiar in those caves...
I wonder, what would happen if somehow (surely not by chance), the staff was broken?
The staff's creation as it is wasn't intentional. The wizard who made it had a knack for creating items that weren't quite 'right'.
The staff is no exception. When he realized that the staff wasa greater danger than he'd intended. I had the power to gradually charm and change those within the area of power around it; originally this charm was for whoever held it, but since developing an awareness it has changed to alleigance to the staff itself.
As for why it wasn't used - the kingdom, I think, was likely overrun - quite possibly by a marauding tribe from the wastelands; by the time they realized the staff's power would be useful, the archmage was dead, and without his powe, the staff was sealed solidly into the stone.
Breaking the staff - if it could be managed - would be interesting, as the entire population of the dungeon would suddenly be free-willed, and quite a bit smarter than mere beasts; there'd also likely be an explosion of incredible force, as all the energy that staff contains explodes outward again. However, to destroy it truly, you'd have to destroy the gem - and that's likely to take something akin to a volcano's heart with a dwarven hammer.
So, it isn't made to be carried around, but is instead meant to be villain?
Okay. It is realy powerfull right? It is not meant to fall into the players hands. It is a creature of its own will. It seems a little to powerfull but whatever floats your boat man.
(maybe the creatures that are under its control were to somehow get out of the dungeon the mind control would be severed, just a thought.)
It's meant to be an item /or/ a villain, actually. It might concievably think of a way to free itself, and end up in the hands of someone resistant to the charm power it holds. Or it might get a body built for itself somehow.
As for severing the mind control - if you run it in your game, be my guest. However, the purpose of the staff's power is that each creature makes it a little more powerful, and extends the range of the main charm a little farther. It's not even so much a mind control as a tendency to influence them into certain patterns. Guiding generation after generation of enhanced creature towards the ultimate goal of becoming a true god...
Yes...
...a coming god that creates its own race to worship him.
And if he/she/it gets a body, what about the staff? Is it destroyed in the creation? Or is it part of his body?
Most probably, it will stay as it is, and may be one of the few waknesses a deity may have.