As Sir Uthman lay dying, after a long and not allways well-behaved life, his wife placed onto his finger a Ring of Heaven, to ensure that if his soul was indeed dammed, the demons could not take it and instead it would enjoy the blessings of it's own personal heaven for eternity.
Full Item Description
The Ring of Heaven is a ring of gold with a single crystal stone set into it, and runes carved into the ring.
History
Before he turned to the dark side, the famed sorcerer Sir Edmund Verney created many fine inventions, and one of these was the Ring of Heaven. There were many who feared, rightly or otherwise, ending up in The Hell of Dry Bones or other such nasty places. Sir Edmund created a ring that, when placed on the finger of someone who was dying or had just died, sucked the soul into the ring, where a mini-heaven had been created by magic, a form of virtual reality where the soul could spend all eternity in its own personal heaven.
Thus those who greatly feared going to hell after death could be spared such a fate and their relations would know that their deceased family member would not suffer in the afterlife.
Magic/Cursed Properties
When it is used as it is supposed to be used, by being placed on the finger of a dying or freshly dead person, his or her soul will be sucked into the ring and find itself in a realm where it can shape things as it pleases. In effect it will become a god within the ring, able to imagine and *create* anything it wants for itself, and live an afterlife of pure pleasure for eternity.
Should the ring be stolen by grave-robbers, and removed from the dead finger, first the soul will be forced out of its comfort zone and into its own dead body, warping the soul and making it extremely angry in the process, particularly if its body has decayed for a while.
Assuming the robber has vanquished the undead thing, putting the ring on would be one of the stupidest things he or she ever did.
First, the ring was never made for living people to wear, and will firmly fix itself to the finger whilst sucking the soul of the new wearer into itself. Trying to pull the ring off wont work, whilst casting a magic spell on the ring causes it to pull in the souls not only of the caster but anyone nearby.
Second, inside the ring everything is now decaying, just as in the Regression plot, first going back in time and then crumbling into dust. This is made worse by demonic things (created by the bad feelings of the original soul as it was pulled out.) Time is warped in here to the extent that five minutes outside are like an hour within the ring.
Every hour of ring-time, things go back centuries (so if the game was set in a world with 20th century tech, for example, it will be 18th century within an hour, 16th century an hour later and so on. If the person or persons do not manage to escape from the ring within a few hours of ring-time, their bodies will die whilst the ring-world turns into their personal Hell.
There are two ways to escape this fate. Either someone on the outside must cut off the finger with the ring on it, and the soul or souls will (assuming their bodies are still alive) go back to their own body or bodies. Or the person or people trapped must find their way before the time runs out to the highest point in the ring-world, whilst fending off attacks from demonic beings on the way, when they must jump off it. Doing so (seemingly committing suicide) will get the soul or souls out of the ring and back where they belong and the ring will fall off the finger.
This ring is designed for those thoughtless adventures who think that the first thing to do when they encounter a ring is to put it on at once, without finding out just what kind of ring it is before they put it on.
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Also in
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- William and Eleanor Piven Cheka Man
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This article links to 3
- Regression Iain linked by Cheka Man
- Sir Edmund Verney Cheka Man linked by Cheka Man
- The Hell of Dry Bones Scrasamax linked by Cheka Man
Links to this article 5
- 30 Items Found Within a Coffin Alongside Cheka Man linked by Cheka Man
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Cheka, this is a nice piece indeed. I like the mechanics, I like the trap for graverobbers and greedy careless owners. A solid post indeed. If it had a little more backstory, I'd be delighted.
Keep it up!
I can see this as a nice guarantor against tomb robbing among wealthy wizards and the like. Like Echo, I too would like to hear a bit more story to go with the fantastic mechanics. Are there any examples of this happening to a grave robber or the like?
I am impressed cheka, this has healthy doses of awesome and win. Expect an HoH when it is eligible
As long as nobody has a belief in re-incarnation, a great item.
Of course, after they vanquish the "undead" the soul is now free as either a tortured ghost/ spirit OR sucked into the appropriate spiritual real estate. So, it is a delaying tactic.
Smart robber leave alone, but then again that excludes most PCs and most robbers for that matter.
This one has potential... not one for meddling with afterlife existence too easily, you could have fun with it!
Oh, and: if there is any sort of balance in the universe, you can bet demons and their like will be attracted to the ring like moths.
Now, if one wants balance:
Ring of Hell
As with ring of Heaven, but the soul is put through a grotesque hell populated by his own imagination and guilt.
Ring of Limbo
As with ring of Heaven, but the soul is stuck without any stimulation whatsoever and could be corrupted by madness if left there too long.
First the idea of personal heaven is interesting one. Can you be in heaven when isolated? There is something that strikes me as so very hedonistic about a heaven where there is no commune with the divine and no reunion with your loved. Now if this ring may provide the experience of being united with the divine and your loved ones does that diminish the value of this heaven? Or do we take the tact that there is no memory in heaven?
Where do souls belong?
Anyway tons of potential, written in a very coarse and site specific style, but communicative.