The Dark Lantern

Many years ago, when the bare-handed fighting style of Chien-Do was still young there was a potent and well learned monk. He was skilled in the new way and sought to tach others to follow the path of spiritual harmony that the part of the Mirrored Fist. Unlikoe many of the other monks who were learning the arts of the fists and feet, this monk was blind.

After years of failing to train any other students he came upon a revelation. The students could never overcome the fact of their sight, a burden he did not suffer from. Enlightened, he sought out a master artificer. The two men worked for several weeks before producing the Dark Lantern.

The Lantern resembles an ornate hanging lantern crafted of thick wrought silver. Louvers of white bone line the sides, shutting in the magic. The lantern was hung in the center of the monk's training hall, suspended from the centermost rafter. Using the power of Chien-Do he could open and close the lantern, wherever it was so long as he was in the same room.

He began teaching others the path, using the lantern to guide them away from the lies and counterfeits of the light and world of the visual. A few became masters of the reflective art. They tutored under the radiance of the lantern, learning to close their eyes and know the world through the sound of air, and the feeling of living essence all around them.

The art no longer exists, as catastrophy struck. None of the Chien-Do masters survived and the art perished with them. Being blind, the monk never commited his knowledge to a permanent form. All that remains are the legends of the all-seeing yet blind monk and his lantern that devoured the light.

Magical Properties:

The Lantern contains a distilled and purified fragment of night. When the louvers are opened, the area surrounding the lantern is filled with a supernatural darkness, an absence of all light. Any forms of vision fail within the boundaries of the lantern, infravision and low light are useless. In this state of visual deprivation, the mind is more recpetive to the esoteric teachings of the now dead martial art.

Those who are blind find a bonus. When the light fades, their preception of the world increases ten-fold. While not succeptible to sensory overload, they are able to percieve the outlines and contours of physical objects and the aural images of those around them. Supposedly the monks would blind themselves to gain this sensitivity, and hone their skills to retain this power once they left the area of the lantern.

To the common adventurer, this is a silver lamp that makes darkness.