Shards of the Storm

1. Shards of the Storm

   #1

   Some time ago, I posted up the Shards of the Storm. In essence, they are fragments of a goddess's essense, containing a piece of the driven fury of the concept of the Storm. Much of their purpose, from a GMing point of view, is to provide a common thread for items of power.
   
   So? So, so far I have only been able to come up with two not-weapon items to make out of these, and I'd like to see what better minds than mine can do with them.

2. A thought... or two

   #2

   A gift.... Someone game the an enchanted sickle to the head druid. That item allows the owner to cause wild growth and direct that growth (green hands, rolling boils of vines and flowers, etc.
   
   The Dark Mirror of Thallon: Imbuned by a Chaos Shard allows one to view anywhere and anywhen in the world. You will see the truth. In addition to what you requested to see, it shows you what you "need to" see. These scenes are often painful and hurtful, often driving the viewers to extreme actions to prevent what they saw from happening (the over reaction often being worse than the event seen).

3. Shards of the Storm

   #3

   The M'buto Carving Knife
   When you enter the lands of the Grali’Mukata in the M’buto Jungle, you can hear a strange whisper on the wind. It is rumoured that a great Shaman lives there, in a hut filled with odd, lifelike statuettes. For those bearing gifts and offering a human sacrifice there are favours to be gained, abilities to be had. But the cost is high and your dreams will be different; filled with the apparitions of strange fiends and even stranger screams. All of them cursing you to eternal damnation but fear not; the voices hold no power over you in their current state.
   
   History:
   In the Great Jungle of M'buto, the son of a fisherman once found an oddly shaped shard on the bank of the great river Kiro. He marvelled at the shard, for it was a thing of colossal beauty and was made of an alien material. It had the shape of a knife, so the young boy made a handle for it and decided he would use it as a carving knife. The boy was fond of carving, and his statuettes could be traded to the village merchants in exchange for both salt and meat.
   
   As the young boy sat down with a piece of Krathyan Hardwood, he easily shaped the material, an impressing feat as the wood was known to be extremely hard to carve. As he carved, he felt angry and disappointed. Somehow he could not express what he truly wanted, so he threw the small statuettes in the river, even though they were masterpieces, easily the best he had ever made. He could not perceive them as such and their flaws seemed to shout in his face, each statuette a mockery of his abilities and skill, it even felt like he was less a man for his "feeble efforts".
   
   The hours went and his anger grew into a wild rage. As his father came home with the catch of the day, the boy had become maddened with rage and was ranting loud, cursing profanely. His savagery was brutal, animalistic, and the father tried to calm his son. Not realizing what he was doing, the son plunged the knife into his father's stomach. As realization slowly dawned upon him, the young boy fled in terror, feebly clutching the blood dripping small blade, unable to let it go.
   
   In the forest he huddled crying, he was scared and confused. Subconsciously his hands began to work a piece of hardwood and as the blood soaked blade cut through the wood, the young man had visions and strange dreams. It was as if his father was screaming from a distance far away. He could not hear the words, but they were pleading and desperate. Around him it was as if the jungle was whispering and suddenly rain gently began to fall.
   
   Awakened from his strange dream, the boy stared at the small totem statuette he had carved; it was a small scorpion, the sign of betrayal, and it was incredibly lifelike. As he stared at it, it seemed to slowly shift in and out of focus and it was studying him as if it was trying to discern who he was and what he wanted…
   
   Abilities:
   The knife can be used as a weapon, although not a particularly powerful one. It can carve anything, but unless fed blood, any kind will do, it will distort the perceptions of the user, making him believe his carvings are worthless. In addition the knife will influence the user, making him less and less sane. Only through the spilling of blood can the knife be sated and the wielder knows peace.
   
   Blood also invokes a second ability; binding a soul to an inanimate object. The bound souls will be prevented from entering the afterlife and will fuel the magic of the carving, which will gain powers based on the emotions and visions of the user as he carves the item.

4. Shards of the Storm

   #4

   Only two non-weapon items? Egads. This has all the potential you want it to have. For instance, lets talk about an amulet of detection. With a shard fragment you might be able to sense the chaotic movement of the wind. Not only could you predict weather patterns in an instant, but you could also sense the lack of wind in certain places (such as the area inside of a tree which obviously has no wind inside). This means that you can sense anybody outdoors, especially since the shard itself would call winds to form around you.
   
   Or howabout detecting the inner storm or rage of an individual. The ability to sense inner conflict, or rage in a person. Any emotion linked to storms. This could be loosely considered a truth-sense.
   
   What about a chaos amulet. It could randomize magical effects of an area. An opponent wizard casts a lightning bolt, and instead, he finds his whole staff frozen in a block of ice. That would be mighty useful for a fighter.
   
   Howabout using it for transportation. Maybe just a large disk of light steel that would direct a strong gust of wind towards the center. You flip the bottom in the direction opposite of where you want to go, and now you are flying towards your destination. And something like that could cause lightning strikes to the disk during flight, or any other manner of effects. It would be even more effective underwater.
   
   What about a power source. You could turn the shard into a lightning rod in order to power some kind of magical device. The device could do anything from making a magical barrier, to creating Golems, to recharging wands or staves. Or you could direct wind into a field of wind-mills.
   
   Howabout planeshifting. A large shard ingrained into a suit of armor or clothing might give you the ability to become an elemental (wind, water, lightning(is there such a thing as a storm elemental) for a period of time. A wind elemental is immune to all non-magical attacks. Talk about useful.
   
   And maybe you could have the weilders of the opposing blade shards drawn to kill eachother. They might be able to sense a shard of the opposing blade many many leagues off. That is always an interesting plot scenario.
   
   Anyway, those are just some ideas for you to work out.
   
   -Nobody

5. Shards of the Storm

   #5

   Here's a non-weapon that integrates a bit of technomancy in its design:
   
   Shard Roulette
   
   This is a gambling table that is absolutely proof against cheating. The result of a spin is completely random, as it is fueled by pure chaos. The table also comes complete with a working light set, powered by the same ambient electricity that makes lightning strikes possible. Any attempts to control, or even favour, a certain result will fail. Any mystic spell will drain into the device, any psionic attempt will backlash, etc. Even trying to physically pick up the ball while it's in motion will result in a terrible shock. However, as the device feeds not only on ambient electricity (as well as any magics used to attempt to cheat or otherwise favour a particular odd), but also feeds off of the raw chaos itself. This has a subtle effect on all local probabilities. For example, dice in a craps game will roll 7's more often. This is a subtle effect, and is not likely to be noticed by even an observant gambler, but does give the slight "house advantage" a greater effect. The area of effect is increased the more the Shard Roulette is played. Thus for a casino, this game has a definate three-fold advantage--not only is it guaranteed to be cheat-proof, but it reduces the likelihood of cheating anywhere nearby (at least of the energetic/magical variety), and subtlely increases the house's take as the odds of probability flatten nearby.

6. Re: Shards of the Storm

   #6

   I am bumping this to the front so everyone can find it easier.

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