Friday, November 5, 2010

Item: Compass of Finding

The compass of finding was created by the explorers of the humans near Calabay. Thar Darkstone loved exploring but after getting lost in a snowstorm, he set to working on a compass.

He consulted the dwarves, the masters of stone, who showed him the powers of the lodestone. He was impressed by the stone, but wanted more.

Thar consulted the mages as how to find a specific item, not just north. The mages he consulted took over six years to solve his problem but came up with a novel idea. There were spells to locate objects or places but it required a piece of the object, something similar to the object, or something from the place. But it was a s short distance spell.

The mages modified the spell to find locations in addition to north, but it has to be a place the compass has been. Becaues of this, most compasses are shipped in mass to all the nearby major cities to get a person started. The words "Lead me to (place), good lodestone, so I may be safe," must be spoken over it. This must be done every hour or otherwise it resets to finding north. If the compass doesn't know the location it will spin three times before stopping on north. This works on land or sea and most travelers in the present time carries one of them.

The compasses are made by the Finder's Guild's apprentices in cooperation with the Mage Guild. They are fairly inexpensive, less then a ducat in most cases.

For your campaign you could throw one in which leads to a famous ruin. Perhaps they find it in a treasure horde and are chased by some person or group which wants to find the ruin.
Monday: Vandalar Vandez

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