Items · Tools · Non-Magical
Levy Sys Mk III Thaumaflare
With bright light and 5 minutes burn time, this is required equipment for any cave-diver worth his salt.
Appearance
A wooden palm-sized rod, about .3 meters long. Activated by sharply tapping it against a solid surface. Once activated, the entire surface gives off an extremely bright white light.
The Spiel
Ever been in a cave before? No? Well let me tell you, the one thing you don't want is to be stuck in that all-encompassing dark. Yes yes, you've got a Cogtorch, and you've got plenty of regular torches, but what exactly do you plan to do when you're staring down a deep dark pit that your light doesn't completely illuminate, hmm? Do you plan to just toss a burning torch across a chasm to light the way while you're climbing across? That's a recipe for disaster, not least because it might go out from being tossed.
And what if you need to shed some light on the underwater rivers that cause so much trouble for cavers, eh? Surely you don't think a torch can burn underwater, and anyone with a Cogtorch surely knows they don't work when wet either. So how're you going to light up the water? Why with one of our amazing Thaumaflares, of course! Thanks to our superior-quality engineering and thaumaturgy, we can do all this and more!
Our Mark III's are brighter than any torch, and give off a clear green-white light for maximum illumination of an area. Effective distance of illumination is 10 meters, more than enough for all but the largest of caverns and tunnels. We talk about burn time, but they don't really burn, they merely put out light, so you don't even have to worry about scorching your hand while holding it, nor will it go out from an unfortunate gust of wind. These are the perfect device for temporary lighting.
The Tech Specs
Approximately 10000 lumens of light; a 10 meter radius of good visibility (definitely brighter than a standard adventurer torch). Slightly less than 5 minutes of burn time, so they're good for temporary remote illumination, such as throwing across a chasm to light up the other side. Light this bright will definitely ruin anyone's night-vision, and if used properly could even temporarily blind an assailant in the dark. Powered by a small Ether capsule.
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I want one of these.
Ok...
How many come in a pack? Are they rechargeable or are they one shot specials? Useful and good to have, but maybe a tad beige, rather like the roadside kit in the trunk.
The mechanism I have in mind for them would be sigils carved into the tube, which are then activated/powered by the ether capsule once it's broken open. So theoretically they could be recharged, but my intent was that they're small, they're cheap, and they're one-shot. You light one up and toss it where needed, just like an actual flare.
Cost and amount are negotiable. XD Honestly, that's left up to the GM; how much light do you want your players to have available?
As for being 'beige', yeah, they are. Honestly, I was thinking that they're pretty much a fantasy port of the real thing. It's a device that's proved useful to us over the past few decades, surely they'd come up with something similar in a magical society. A nice bit of fluff to add to the world, and even gives a bit of utility to the players too.
I like these posts that give depth and details to little items. Things like this don't make your game or your plot but they make the world richer. Also the more detail an item has the more a PC can take to manipulating it and problem solving with it.
A steampunk (or magitech) gliwstick. Anyone up for a fantasy rave?