Aether Song

The Kalni, a race of truly diminutive fairies, travel between worlds on the search of exceptional places where they can build their hives, collecting small quantities of mineral and gluing them together with spells.

Unfortunately for them, a large hive will sparkle and attract attention, because it looks like a precious gem - the precise crystalline structure is intended to enhance the psychic emanations of the dwellers to guide those lost in the voids home, and softening up local space.

A young noble, Tihonel Creine, once wandered the lands on his quest for knighthood when he discovered, glued to a branch, a truly intriguing thig - like a snail's shell, but a vivid red, almost as if made of rubies...he rejoiced, and claimed it as his own.

The fairies decided to go along for a ride - there was little they could do to stop a man clad in iron, as that was bane to their powers, and even the blood in his veins might have been too great for them to overcome.

The noble returned home after fulfilling his quest, and was knighted. Then, considering the stone a sign of good luck, he had set it in a ring.

Years passed, and Tihonel took up the responsibilities of ruling his lands from his ageing father. The bandits and outlaws hiding in the mountains, chased up there by the military prowess of the old lord, saw this as their chance and began raiding distant settlements for loot and slaves, or just out of spite. Soon, the young lord set out to battle the criminals. For three long winter months he pursued them, burned their camps, hunted them with all his might, and finally, with the first rays of the spring sun, he had their last band cornered...and then, they walked into an ambush, stones falling from the cliffs, and the desperate outlaws charging from all side, vicious like the cornered rats they were.

The ambush was fought back - the gorge was littered with uniformed bodies and ones clad in furs and battered steel. Amongst the corpses, the last faithful soldier leaned bleeding againgst the severy wounded lord, their last foe at their feet, and blood flowed, also over the ring. The iron in the blood killed all the fairies, drowning and dissolving them, though their tiny corpses remained, still emanating a call, but now mixed with the blood of the lord and one of his faithful, and the ring changed.
Soon, the lord's court wizard found his wounded liege, leading a cohort to rescue him, brought there by a call he could not identify...

Over the years, lots of uprooted advanturers, confused mages and lost children seemed to stray into the young lord's domain - indeed, so many wizards who fumbled up their teleportation or gate spells turned up there that Tihonel opened an academy for them, and still today, the duchy of Creine is both the most popululated and most cosmopolitan in those parts, led by a duke whose friends appear always on time, and whom you can surely find if your intentios are good...

Magical Properties:

The ring's effects are subtle, yet not weak...
1, anyone loyal to the wearer will have an easier time using scrying spells to find him.

2, any wizard teleporting towards the wearer who has seen the ring and is not outright hostile to the wearer will find it far easier. Anyone who has taken the time to analyze the ring though will be able to use this benefit regardless of his feelings towards the owner...

3, items and people lost between the planes will tend to appear in the wearer's vicinity - which may or may not be good.

4, those who have lost what was keeping them somewhere - homes, relations, work ... will tend to stray towards the location of the ring - refugees, burnt-out adventurers, unemployed mercs...

5, friends and loved ones will be able to intuit the general direction of the wearer, and gain a feeling of his situation, e.g. in need, sad, happy, sleeping, ... only very broad and general.