Jason Bulmahn Director of Games |
Relics of War Week 4 Contest Winners
Greetings from the GameMastery laboratory. Week 4 of the Relics of War “Design an Item” contest is now closed, which means the release of the set now only a few weeks away. This week, the item was a noble unicorn’s horn. We seem to always get a number of great submissions for this contest and this week was no exception. In the end, however, we had to pick one to receive the coveted display box of Relics of War cards. This week, Lordofthenerf’s entry of the “Heart of Vengeance” stands out from all the rest (may Uni rest in peace). Lordofthenerf will receive 1 display box of Relics of War booster packs when the set releases in later this month.
We have another honorable mention this week to give out. Agamon the Dark’s item “Enchantica’s Wand” made for a fun read and had some good mechanics to go along with it. On behalf of the contest team, I would like to thank all of this week’s participants and I look forward to seeing all of your entries for week 5. For our final week of the contest, we thought we would post up one of the more evil items from the set, the Mask.
All of the entries for the previous weeks can be found on our messageboards at www.paizo.com, along with the submission and discussion threads for week 5.
Jason Bulmahn
Item Card Lead Designer
WEEK 4 Winner – Lordofthenerf
Heart of Vengeance
A Minor Artifact for Dungeons & Dragons
The story of this artifact is really the story of a group of young heroes (a ranger, an acrobat, a barbarian, a thief, a cavalier and an apprentice wizard), who were unwittingly summoned to a magical world from their mundane one through the power of the benevolent Master of the Dungeon.
He gifted them with vastly powerful magical items to aid in their return home, being careful not to tell them that there were there by his will. Whilst their first concern was to return home it soon became apparent that the Master’s arch enemy, a powerful half-breed demon, would not allow them to leave with the items they carried.
Not all the creatures they met in the magical world were so dangerous. On their first quest, they met a baby unicorn who took an immediate liking to the boy barbarian. In fact, the two soon became inseparable.
Many times they came close to finding their way home, however the intervention of the half-demon prevented their return. Finally, frustrated by their repeated failures, the ranger hatched a desperate plan to confront and slay their enemy and his shadow demon minion.
The plan was to lure their enemy into the lair of a five headed chromatic dragon, hoping to weaken him – despite the protestations of the cowardly cavalier. History records that they faced him there, though the fate of the heroes remains unknown.
Whether they returned home or perished, not even the Master of the Dungeon could say. However, rumours persist that the baby unicorn’s horn carries their power and fighting spirit, after having been driven into the heart of the half-demon for whom it was named.
The tragedy is that the half-demon was in truth the son of the Master and that the heroes were brought there to redeem him. His fate also remains in question.
The Heart has seven major powers – one supposedly from each of the heroes and from the unicorn. The Acrobat grants the bearer +10 competence bonus to Jump and Tumble checks. By drawing a circle with the point of the Heart, the bearer can call upon the power of the Wizard to draw items out of a pocket dimension, replicating the effects of both a rust-coloured Bag of Tricks and a Robe of Useful Items (where the patches replace themselves each week).
Each of the following powers can be employed twice per day.
• The Thief: greater invisibility
• The Ranger: empowered flame arrow (enchants arrows to do arcane damage)
• The Cavalier: wall of force (dimensions specified by the bearer).
• The Unicorn: teleport (bearer only)
The final, most devastating power can be employed once per week.
• The Barbarian: earthquake
Strong Conjuration, Evocation, Transmutation. CL: 18th Weight: 2lbs
WEEK 4 Honorable Mention – Agamon the Dark
Enchantica'a Wand (Mutants & Masterminds 2E)
Andrea Mahnos was a selfish and mischievous 12-year-old brat that continually got herself into trouble. One day, on a class trip to Freedom City's Hunter Museum of Natural History, she managed to sneak away from her group to get a closer look at one of the prize show pieces, a real unicorn horn.
Little did Andrea know the horn was subtly calling her, drawing her to it, for she was actually a distant descendant of the Greek goddess, Circe, to whom the horn once belonged. Touching it before the museum guards cold stop her, the horn transformed her into the visage of the goddess herself and transferred to her its great magical powers. And with great power came great abuse of power.
Using her new magic, Andrea decided she could do whatever she wanted, and so did just that. Though Andrea retained her own mind in her new form, the horn made her even more malevolent and cruel than normal, and her spree caused a lot of damage and some harm to innocents. But, it wasn't long before the hero Daedalus, who had donated the horn to the museum, discovered what had happened and confronted Andrea, who now called herself 'Enchantica'.
Though her power was formidable, Enchantica proved to be no match for Daedalus. She was sentenced to spend time at Freedom City's youth correctional institute for her crimes, but has escaped from there no less than 4 times in the last 18 months, due to her uncanny ability to gain access to her 'wand'.
Enchantica's wand is the source of all of her powers, and if it is taken from her, she loses access to those powers, as well as her adult 'goddess' form, though she can still manipulate it as though she has the wand's ESP and Telekinesis power (usable only on the wand) if it lies within a 5-mile radius of her.
Enchantica's Wand (Cost: 37 points)
Device +12 (3 pt/rk, disarmable) {power feat: Restricted (Bloodline of Circe Only)}
Flight +4
Force Field +12
Magic +15
-Animate Objects +10
-Blast (Fire) +15
-Concealment +15
-ESP (Visual/Audio) +15
-Illusion (All Senses) +7 {power feat: Progression x2 (25 ft Radius)}
-Mind Control +15
-Morph (Humanoids Only) +15
-Obscure (Visual/Audio) +15
-Snare +15
-Telekinesis +15
-Teleport +10 {extras: Accurate}