Relics & Artefacts

"Every relic has a maker. Every maker had a reason. Neither survives in the form they intended."

These are not items found in markets or traded across counters. They were made for specific, often desperate, sometimes incomprehensible purposes — and those purposes are baked into the metal, the bone, the binding. They carry the weight of what they cost to make. Some of that weight transfers to whoever carries them next.

Weapons
Veintap
Edged Weapon — 1HCursed RelicBirn Clan Forge

A short blade of slate-grey iron that Birn clan smiths produced during the later stages of their corruption. The metal was quenched in Titan-Blood rather than water. It holds an edge that does not dull and cuts through armour with the efficiency of something that has been waiting for this specific moment.

Effect: +2 to all melee To-Hit rolls. On any hit that fully penetrates the target's WM, deal +1d10 bonus wounds.

Cost: The wielder's skin takes on the ashen pallor of Titan-Blood exposure. After 30 days: -1 to all Charisma tests. After 60 days: -1 to Willpower. This cannot be reversed while the blade is carried.
Three Veintap blades are recorded in Kel Thurum's confiscated property ledgers. The entry notes where two were locked. The third entry says only: "lost in transfer."
The Weight of What Was Owed
Blunt Weapon — 2H MaulOath-Bound RelicThalasien Martial Tradition

A Thalasien weapon bonded through ritual to the concept of a specific unpaid debt. It was forged to settle a grievance so old the original parties are long dead. The debt it carries is not known to its current holder. The weapon remembers.

Effect: On a Natural 10 To-Hit, the target must surpass Willpower TN 8 + Resist bonus or be knocked Prone and Stunned for 1 turn — the weight of the blow is not entirely physical.

Passive: +2 wounds on every hit against any target who has broken an oath or made a false contract. The wielder knows when this bonus is active. They do not know why.

Marrow-Song
Ranged — ShortbowShamanic RelicUnknown Tribal Origin

A bow strung with something that is not quite gut and not quite wire. When an arrow is loosed, those within 10ft of the target hear a sound they cannot describe — not pain, not music. Something between the two that the body recognises before the mind does.

Effect (Shaman 1+ required): On each hit, enemies within 10ft of the target must surpass Willpower TN 6 + Resist bonus or become Shaken for 1 turn.

Without Shaman: Standard shortbow with +1 To-Hit. The resonance effect is silent.

The Sixteenth Nail
Piercing — DaggerChurch Relic — Provenance DisputedRadiant Compact

The Compact's records show fifteen holy relics recovered from the Founding Wars. This is not one of them. The blade is plain iron, unadorned, cold even in warm rooms. It was not made to look holy. It was made to work.

Effect: Against Daemonic creatures and any target carrying an active Corruption condition — deals double wounds. Against all other targets — standard dagger, no enhancement.

The Church will pay well for its recovery. They will not say from whom they are recovering it.
Frequency Splinter
Edged — ShortswordVraxxal SalvageBattlefield Recovered

A blade reverse-engineered from an Vraxxal Warrior's forelimb by a Kel Thurum artificer who survived the encounter long enough to finish the work. The edge carries residual bone-frequency that disrupts Construct cohesion.

Effect: Against Vraxxal and Construct-type enemies — +2d10 additional wounds. Against all other targets — standard damage. The frequency is species-specific.

The artificer's workshop notes end mid-sentence. The blade was found on the workbench beside them.
Thalasien Long-Reed
Ranged — LongbowElven MasterworkThalasien Armoury

A longbow of silver-grain wood grown in Thalasien's upper courts, strung once and never restrung. Elves made these for specific archers with specific purposes. The bow remembers the archer who first bent it and fights the adjustment for anyone who follows.

Effect: +2 To-Hit, +1d10 wounds. Range increased by 30ft beyond standard longbow.

Attunement: For the first 7 days of use, the bow imposes -1 To-Hit as it resists the new archer. After 7 days, the bonus applies as normal. The bow does not forget its first owner. It simply accepts the current one.
The Confessor's Blade
Edged Weapon — 1H SwordDevotion-Bound RelicRadiant Compact — Founding Era

A sword whose provenance the Church records with unusual specificity — eleven previous holders, names intact, dates of acquisition and loss all noted — up to the twelfth entry, which is blank. It was made to be wielded by someone with genuine faith, not ceremonial faith. It knows the difference and it will not pretend otherwise.

Standard: Functions as a +2 sword in any hand.

Devotion 3+ required for full effect: Creates a protective aura in a 5ft radius — all allies within range gain +2 Wound Mitigation against spells and blessings and +1 to all Willpower tests. On a confirmed hit against Daemonic creatures, the Undead, or those carrying Corruption — deals Normal + melee bonus + Light-Soul skill points as wounds.

The Church's record of this weapon ends with the twelfth entry blank. The sword is not listed as lost. It is listed as "dispersed to purpose." No further notation.
🛡 Armour & Shields
The Patient Coat
Medium ArmourDruidic RelicHalfling Craftsmanship — Pre-History

Mail woven from something that grows rather than being smithed. It tightens under stress and loosens at rest, adjusting to the wearer with the attentiveness of something alive. It was made by people who understood that patience is the most effective armour available to those who cannot afford heavier options.

Base WM: 3. No Agility penalty.

Stillness: When the wearer has not moved for a full round, WM increases to 5. When Prone, WM increases to 6.

Birn Plate
Heavy Armour — Full PlateCorrupted RelicBirn Clan — Late Period

Full plate of ashen iron with engravings that serve no decorative purpose — they are load-bearing formulae for something the wearer will not understand without Titan-Blood in their ancestry. The armour adjusts. The armour improves. The armour has opinions.

WM: 6. No Agility penalty. Immune to Bleeding condition.

Cost: The wearer cannot benefit from Devotion blessings or Shaman spirit effects while wearing this armour. The plate is philosophically opposed to both traditions and the rejection is not metaphorical.
Only four complete sets are known to exist. Kel Thurum holds two in a sealed vault. The other two are unaccounted for.
The Speaking Shield
ShieldOath-BoundThalasien — Third Age

A shield with a face pressed into the inside of the boss — not decorative, pressed from the inside outward by something that wanted out. The face has no name attached to it in any catalogue.

Passive: +2 Defence.

Once per encounter — free action: Ask the shield a yes/no question. It answers. It is not always right. It has never declined to answer.

Ash-Walker Cloak
Light Armour — CloakPyreborn RelicAshlands Origin

A cloak of woven ash-fibre treated with Titan-Blood mineral runoff. It does not burn. It does not conduct cold. It absorbs heat and releases it slowly, maintaining the wearer at a stable temperature regardless of environment.

WM: 1 vs fire and heat damage only. Immunity to environmental heat and cold damage. The wearer is never visibly affected by temperature.

Passive: +1 to Stealth in ash, dust, or smoke environments — the cloak disperses the wearer's outline.

Trinkets & Accessories
Half-Frequency Ring
Jewelry — RingVraxxal SalvageUnknown Artificer

A ring of bone and copper wire recovered from an Vraxxal Crypt Priest's communication array. The artificer understood what it detected. They appear not to have understood what it also broadcast.

Passive: Sense active Vraxxal within 60ft — a vibration in the jaw that intensifies with proximity.

Cost: The ring broadcasts the wearer's precise location to any Vraxxal within 60ft. The artificer's notes describe this as a feature.
The Compact's Silence
AmuletChurch Relic — Standard IssueRadiant Compact

A plain iron disc on a plain iron chain. The Church distributes these to inquisitors without explanation. It was not made to look like a relic.

Passive: Immune to magical compulsion, Charm, and Dominate effects.

Cost: The wearer also cannot compel, charm, or dominate others while wearing it. The Church considers this acceptable. The reason it was made this way has not been recorded.
Grudge-Stone
Trinket — Pocket StoneDwarven RelicKel Thurum — Clan Unknown

A smooth stone, palm-sized, that grows warm when held near whoever wronged its original owner. The original grievance is not known. The stone has transferred its focus seventeen recorded times. The warmth is patient.

Passive: +1 to all rolls made directly against the target the stone has identified. The holder knows who. They do not always know why.

Scholar's Debt
Focus — TomeWizardly RelicUnknown — Possibly Pre-Thalasien

A book with marginalia in seven different hands, none of them the author's. The primary text shifts. The marginalia is permanent and sometimes directly relevant to what the reader was thinking about before they opened it.

Passive: +1 to all Knowledge and Evaluate tests.

Once per session: Find marginalia that answers a question the holder has not yet asked aloud. The GM determines accuracy.

One annotator signed their name in a script that post-dates the book's binding by at least four centuries.
The Warm Coal
TrinketPyreborn RelicAshlands Tradition

A piece of coal from the Titan-Blood veins that does not cool. It can ignite flammable material by touch. The holder is immune to cold environmental damage.

Active (1 AP): Press to a wound — heals 1d10 wounds from the cauterising heat and immediately applies the Bleeding condition. The Bleeding is not a side effect. It is how this works.

Thalasien Memory-Glass
Trinket — LensElven RelicThalasien — Academic Tradition

A monocle-sized lens ground from a material that records what it has observed. Gazing through it at any location shows the last significant event that occurred there — as defined by the glass, not the user. The definition is Elven. Elves find different things significant.

Once per day: Observe the most recent significant event that occurred in the current location (within 50ft). Duration 1 minute. The GM determines what qualifies as significant.

Passive: +1 to Perception tests while worn.

The Unspent Word
Trinket — Focus PearlWizardly RelicOrigin: Thalasien Academic Tradition

A pearl of pale amber that holds a casting in suspension — a spell that was never released, preserved at the moment of invocation by a Wizardry technique that the Thalasien academic records describe as "inadvisable but documented." The original caster is not known. The spell they were holding when they stopped is also not known.

Effect: Once per day, the holder may cast any one spell from their known discipline without it counting as memorised for that day — the Unspent Word absorbs the memory slot. The spell must be cast within 1 hour of the pearl being activated or the slot is lost.

Passive (Wizardry only): When casting a spell already known, the TN is reduced by 1. When casting a non-memorised spell, the standard TN penalty is waived entirely.

The suspension technique that created this pearl was considered theoretical until the pearl was found. The academic who documented it never published. Their work was found in the pearl's carrying case.
The Mirror Covenant
Jewelry — RingArcane RelicOrigin: Unknown — Pre-Third Age

A ring of mirrored metal that was created during a conflict whose nature the surviving records decline to specify — only that it ended when one side ran out of spells to cast and the other ran out of interest. The ring reflects. It was made to reflect. It has been reflecting for a very long time and has developed opinions about what it will and will not turn back.

Effect: When a spell targets the wearer directly (excluding AoE and Touch spells), the wearer rolls 1d10 + 2 against the caster's To-Hit result.

Equal result: The spell is dispelled — it affects no one.
Wearer higher by 1+: The spell is turned back upon the original caster immediately, using the caster's own stats as the new target.

The ring does not distinguish between hostile spells and beneficial ones. It reflects what is cast at the wearer. The wearer should communicate this to allies before combat begins.

Consumables
Pale Weald Extract
Consumable — Vial ×3Blight Elf MaterialThe Pale Weald

A dark liquid harvested from flora in the Blight Elves' territory. They trade these occasionally. They set the price. They do not explain all properties.

Application (1 AP): Applied to a blade before combat — the next three hits apply the Poisoned condition. Target loses 1d6 wounds per turn for 3 turns. May surpass Willpower TN 7 + Resist bonus each turn to end the effect.

Mildly addictive to Humans, Halflings, and Dwarves. The Blight Elves are aware of this.
Veilwater
Consumable — Vial ×1Shamanic PreparationOrigin: Nomadic Traditions

A colourless liquid prepared through a Shamanic process that makes the drinker difficult for spirits and magical perception to locate. The Vraxxal's frequency-sense does not work on someone who has drunk Veilwater. Neither does scrying, magical tracking, or spirit-detection for 4 hours.

Effect: Immune to magical detection, scrying, and spirit-sensing for 4 hours after drinking. Does not affect mundane tracking or physical detection.

Note: Produces vivid, specific, accurate dreams about events that have not yet occurred. These are a side effect. They are considered unreliable by most Shaman traditions. Most.

Kel Thurum Forge-Tonic
Consumable — Flask ×1Dwarven AlchemicalKel Thurum Manufacture

A deep red liquid that smells of hot iron and tastes of something the body recognises as fuel. Dwarven forge-workers drink these before extended shifts. They are not strictly safe for non-Dwarves but they are strictly effective.

Effect: For 1 hour — +2 to all Physique-based tests, +4 maximum wounds, immune to the Fatigued condition. After the hour ends: -1 to all tests for 2 hours as the body repays the debt. Non-Dwarves must surpass Physique TN 5 or also gain the Stunned condition for 1 turn when the effect ends.

Legendary Artefacts
Legendary
Vraxxal artifact Shard
Artefact — FragmentVraxxal Cosmic RelicThe Death Priest's Weapon

A secondary fragment of the Death Priest's original artefact. Palm-sized, obsidian-black, permanently warm, emitting a frequency audible only to those with Shaman 3+ and to Vraxxal themselves. It feels purposeful in the hand. It is.

Passive: +3 to all Shaman To-Cast rolls. Sense Vraxxal within 500ft — location, number, approximate intent.

Once per session: Attempt communication with any sensed Vraxxal. They will respond. Their perspective is accurate and not human.

Restriction: Broadcasts the holder's location to every Vraxxal within one mile as a distress beacon. After 24 continuous hours of ownership, surpass Willpower TN 12 + Resist bonus to willingly set it down. Retried once per day.
The largest fragment was stolen from SunsReach. There are three pieces total. The third has not been located. The Vraxxal's behaviour suggests they know where it is.
Legendary
The Annulment
Edged Weapon — GreatswordAnti-Magic Forged RelicPre-Church — Origin Suppressed

A great blade of dull iron that absorbs magical enhancement rather than carrying it. Attempts to enchant it fail. It was not made to be powerful in the conventional sense. It was made to make magic not work near whoever held it.

Passive: Magical buffs on the wielder suppressed while drawn. Spells targeting the wielder suffer -2 to the caster's TN (harder to cast). Standard damage: 2d10 + melee bonus wounds.

On confirmed hit vs spellcaster: Target surpasses their Discipline skill points as a TN or loses their next casting action — the Annulment severs the moment of invocation.

The Church has twice dispatched parties to recover this weapon. Both returned without it. One party returned without being able to explain where they had spent the previous six days.
Legendary
Voice of Kel Thurum
Blunt Weapon — WarhammerCivic RelicKel Thurum — First Founding

The founding hammer of the first tier of Kel Thurum. It drove the stakes that established the mountain's civic claim. It has not left the mountain in any surviving record. Its presence outside the mountain means something has gone very wrong.

Passive: +3 To-Hit. 3d10 + melee bonus wounds.

Defender's Claim: While fighting to defend something explicitly claimed aloud before the encounter — +5 WM and +2 to all Willpower tests for the duration. The claim must be genuine. The hammer knows the difference.

Kel Thurum will send people to recover this. Not as a threat — as a civic obligation. Its absence is a legal irregularity the council finds deeply uncomfortable.
Legendary
The Reclaimer
Blunt Weapon — MaceDevotion-Bound Legendary RelicOrigin: Radiant Compact — Founding Wars

A mace of iron and scripture — the text is not decorative, it is structural, and scholars who have studied it disagree on whether it is a prayer or a binding. It was made during the Founding Wars for a specific purpose: ending things that should not have survived as long as they did. It has not stopped.

Passive: +1 To-Hit against all targets.

Against creatures of Daemonic origin, the Undead, or those carrying active Corruption: On a successful hit, the target must surpass Willpower TN equal to the wielder's Devotion skill + Resist bonus or suffer 2d10 × 2 + melee bonus wounds in addition to the normal hit wounds.

Against the Undead specifically: A failed Willpower test also triggers the full effects of Turn Undead on that target immediately, as though cast at the wielder's Devotion skill level.

The Reclaimer has no recorded owner who died peacefully. The Church tracks it carefully and assigns it only to those whose purpose aligns with the weapon's — which is to say, those who do not expect to use it only once.
Legendary
The Annotated Heresy
Focus — TomeWizardly Legendary RelicOrigin: Disputed — Church Records Redacted

A waterproof, iron-locked tome that was twice condemned by the Radiant Compact and twice recovered before burning. The Church's objection is not theological — it is proprietary. The book records 47 spells in a hand that predates Thalasien's academic tradition, annotated by someone who understood them better than whoever wrote them. Possessing it makes the Church uncomfortable in a way they will not specify.

Capacity: Holds up to 47 spells in its pages. Spells recorded within it count as memorised for the owner at all times — they do not occupy the owner's standard memorisation slots.

Passive: +1 to all Willpower tests while the book is in the owner's possession.

When casting from the book directly (wielded in off-hand): Known spells have their TN reduced by 1. Non-memorised spells incur no TN penalty for being unmemorised.

Note: The Church wants this book. They will offer to buy it. If the offer is declined, they will not press the matter immediately. Immediately.
The annotations are in a different hand from the main text. The annotator signed their work once, in the margin of the final spell. The signature matches no known scholar in any archive — including archives that predate the book's binding.