Lux Staff

Appearance:

The Lux Staff is a relatively simple magic staff. It is approximately six and a half feet long and made of a smooth tapered grey wood. It has a brass capped foot, and the head of the staff is a sphere of translucent stone shaped into a sphere. The most common stone used is red spinel, a readily occurring material in Lionguard.

Usage:

The Lux Staff is a basic magic staff of minimal enchantment and it's main purpose is to function as a non-flammable light source. Once activated by a user with suitable skill (any magi, cleric, or class with the ability to use magical items) the stone head flares to life, producing a stead supply of light. As most use a red spinel head, they produce a red light that is easier on eyes straining in darkness and able to cut through mist and most vapors. The red light also is less attractive to insects and other creatures specifically drawn to light.

As a non-flammable light source, Lux Staves can be used in places where an open flame would be a problem, such as in swamps or mines where there might be explosive gases. Likewise, the light is magical, and cannot be blown out by a strong wind. As a magic item, it can last as long as there are magic users who can donate a charge to activating the staff, rather than being reliant on stores of oil, requiring fire starting tools, or being a disposable wad of oil soaked rags on a stick.

Finally and as a measure of last resort, the Lux Staff is considered a magic weapon in terms of creatures that can only be harmed by magic weapons. The staff is not made for combat, and it only inflicts minimal damage, a critical hit also breaks the staff.

Creation:

The Lux Staff is a creation of Lionguard, the City of Protagonists (insert your own Gondor, or other lawful good bastion of light city) during it's generational struggle with neighboring Gothmor, the Land that is Too Dark (insert your own Mordor or other wasteland of shadow and flame). Heroes and Adventurers-Upon-Return found the constant darkness and danger of Gothmor more than they could handle, and required something more reliable and more safe than open flame for facing the darkness and the dark creatures that dwelt there. The Wizard's Guild of Lionguard, the Order of the Golden Roar, produced the first of these staves for well known guildsmen and for the warrior clerics of the Temple of the Sun.

The staff is created from a length of lindon wood that has been treated and dried. It is capped with matching brass caps at the head and foot, and a stone sphere, roughly three inches in diameter, is sent with the staff to the enchanter. In the possession of the enchanter, the staff is dedicated to the God of Light, and the spell Create Light is bonded to it. Creating a staff takes approximately a week's work, after the wood is aged for a year or more. These is a steady production of these staves, with the bulk being purchased by nobility and the clergy, both for personal use, and for loaning out to would be heroes and adventurers-upon-return in service to a noble or the church. The rest are in the hands of the Golden Manes, the guardians of Lionguard, or the various guild houses.

Greater Lux Staff

The Greater Lux Staff functions as a magic staff, adding to the potency of spells used by the bearer. It produces a stronger light, and can project a searing ray of light that cause physical injury to corporeal foes, and can disrupt ghosts and undead as if they were hit by a clerical turning ability of comparable level. These ghost blasting staves are solely in the possession of the Temple of the Sun.