Jack7
First Post
This thread is for the detailing of Unusual or Unique Items in your Games, Settings, or Worlds. List items that you think might interest others.
Below is my entry. It is from my setting and is also used for other purposes (other than game purposes), but I created it first as a game device/item. See this Setting for background on the terms used.
Your entries can be as detailed as you like, or as simple as you like. Feel free to list any interesting or unique items that you have created as a DM or that you have used or encountered as a player.
The Illükaluel Tapestry - Found in the partially buried ruins of the ancient fortification at Kathemtorold this mammoth tapestry (measuring nearly 200 hundred feet long, by 15 feet wide) was said to have once stretched in a continuous loop around the main part of the great banquet hall, nearly completely encircling the Great Room.
It told, in illuminated form, the entire recorded history of the Eldeven Folk of Kitharia, from the time if its construction until the time of its completion. (Though rumors persist that the tapestry was never actually completed, just abandoned, and that seers had helped guide the makers in weave and loom so as to actually interlace prophecies of events yet to occur into the body of the tapestry.)
The tapestry itself is immensely beautiful and seems to resist age, stain, and wear. The colors are resilient and it seems as if it must have been crafted by enchantment, for the threads used appear to be spun silk, gold, silver, and of several unknown materials which produce almost translucent, glowing colors of blue, green, orange, red, yellow, white, and even gray and black. Many believe the tapestry to be a relic, or artifact, or perhaps both.
The tapestry can be read as a continuous Historical Chronicle, or even as a geographical map. There are also illuminated borders which contain writings in an unknown tongue, and which have letters and symbols woven into the edges and even the fringes which look like famous historical figures of the past.
If Eldeven music is played while looking at the tapestry then it is often said to "speak" or "sing" although in an unknown language. It is said that concealed within the tapestry itself are many "secret hoards."
Near the center of the tapestry is the Gyrgean Maze, a complex geometrical figure that is supposedly an exact image replica of the real Gyrgean Maze (whose exact location is now lost), but the Tapestry Maze is supposedly also the key to the real Maze.
Seven hundred and thirty years before the Common Era the makers of the tapestry were faced with attack from an unrecorded enemy, but whom most believe to have been the Senseir and their allies, the Tardeek (True Giants). The Senseir marched in great force upon Kathemtorold expecting to overwhelm the Eldeven folk living there. But the people who had created the Illükaluel Tapestry were no-where to be found. They had simply vanished from the Earth.
Kathemtorold was sacked and much of it razed to the ground, all except the ancient fortification of Rimerkýpt, whose Great Hall housed, even by that time, the ancient tapestry. It is said, by tradition never recorded but passed down by remembered and recited witness, that Rimerkýpt was not razed because when the Senseir and the Giants entered the Great Hall and viewed the tapestry an immense doom fell upon both people, such that the Giants fled and abandoned their alliance, and the Senseir marched home in despair, to pass into history, all of their former power and glory broken within a century.
Regardless of the truth, that part of the country of Kitharia has never again been invaded by foreign enemy, not from that day until the present. The tapestry currently is kept in the Encirled Hurldel of Talkirna, one of the few Great Treasures of Kitharia that does not reside at the Great Vaults beneath the Capital at Samarkand. However the tapestry is kept carefully folded and locked away, and never viewed by any.
The Truth about the Tapestry of Illükaluel as recounted by the ancient Seerage of Aksutolê - The tapestry was actually created and woven long before the Eldeven peoples had ever claimed the land of Kitharia for their own. The tapestry was actually believed created by the H'alel and later presented to the Sidelh as a gift, though whether the gift was meant as a blessing, or a curse, none really know.
When the Senseir and the Giants marched upon Kathemtorold the Eldevens who guarded the tapestry were said to have simply laid it upon the ground and walked across it, disappearing from the world. When the Senseir and the Giants reached the Great Hall the tapestry was said to be moving, as if a living, writhing thing, and was speaking ominously in a language unknown to any but the Giants, who recognized their doom in the words. The Giants explained to the Senseir that their fall was imminent and fled, and it is said few ever returned home. The Senseir tried to take the tapestry but many died as a result and none of their craft or magic could move or affect it. They returned from their war against the Eldevens beaten and heartless, soon to fall into desolation and thereafter were mostly forgotten.
What the Tapestry can Do - The Tapestry, if trodden upon, and if the proper ritual is employed (the rituals involved are written in the secret writings along the borders) can transport any person or group of persons to any spot or location found upon the tapestry. But it can do more than this. It can also move the user forwards or backwards in time to any point Chronicled in the weavings of the Tapestry, including to meetings with famous historical figures depicted on the tapestry, and to events that have yet to occur in the world. The only spot the tapestry will not transport one to is the Gyrgean Maze, although there are several clues upon the tapestry, both linguistic and graphic, as to the real location of the Maze and what it really is.
Use of the tapestry ages the user 7 years for each use, regardless of whether the user moves forwards or backwards in time, and each time the tapestry is used a "new doom" becomes fixed to the user's fate.
However each use of the tapestry to "move upon or through it" instantly heals all "wounds, diseases, or infirmities" the user may be suffering, including the removal of old scars or chronic injuries. It is even said that to walk upon the tapestry is to regrow lost limbs and to regain lost eyesight or hearing.
The tapestry can also impose a "Quest" upon the user, called the Illüdromel. The Illüdromel usually involves either assuring that some event in the past happens as it should have, or the changing of some event in the future that is depicted on the tapestry but has yet to occur. If the future event is changed then the "weavings" on the tapestry change as well, to reflect the new "future to come."
Each time someone uses the tapestry as a means of transport it is said that new threads are woven into the design.
Horrific nightmares often follow the use of the tapestry and sometimes the user suffers what is called the Illükaluan Bane.
The Bane is a form of madness in which one forgets one's real identity and begins to associate one's self with certain historical or famous figures depicted in the images of the tapestry. As far as is known contraction of the Bane leads to eventual "total madness," which is incurable, and ultimately lethal.
There are many other stories and rumors associated with the Illükaluel Tapestry. (Such as that it is a unique and powerful scrying device, or that the H'alel still use the tapestry to spy upon or interfere with the world...) But no one knows exactly which stories are true and which are merely conjecture.
Below is my entry. It is from my setting and is also used for other purposes (other than game purposes), but I created it first as a game device/item. See this Setting for background on the terms used.
Your entries can be as detailed as you like, or as simple as you like. Feel free to list any interesting or unique items that you have created as a DM or that you have used or encountered as a player.
The Illükaluel Tapestry - Found in the partially buried ruins of the ancient fortification at Kathemtorold this mammoth tapestry (measuring nearly 200 hundred feet long, by 15 feet wide) was said to have once stretched in a continuous loop around the main part of the great banquet hall, nearly completely encircling the Great Room.
It told, in illuminated form, the entire recorded history of the Eldeven Folk of Kitharia, from the time if its construction until the time of its completion. (Though rumors persist that the tapestry was never actually completed, just abandoned, and that seers had helped guide the makers in weave and loom so as to actually interlace prophecies of events yet to occur into the body of the tapestry.)
The tapestry itself is immensely beautiful and seems to resist age, stain, and wear. The colors are resilient and it seems as if it must have been crafted by enchantment, for the threads used appear to be spun silk, gold, silver, and of several unknown materials which produce almost translucent, glowing colors of blue, green, orange, red, yellow, white, and even gray and black. Many believe the tapestry to be a relic, or artifact, or perhaps both.
The tapestry can be read as a continuous Historical Chronicle, or even as a geographical map. There are also illuminated borders which contain writings in an unknown tongue, and which have letters and symbols woven into the edges and even the fringes which look like famous historical figures of the past.
If Eldeven music is played while looking at the tapestry then it is often said to "speak" or "sing" although in an unknown language. It is said that concealed within the tapestry itself are many "secret hoards."
Near the center of the tapestry is the Gyrgean Maze, a complex geometrical figure that is supposedly an exact image replica of the real Gyrgean Maze (whose exact location is now lost), but the Tapestry Maze is supposedly also the key to the real Maze.
Seven hundred and thirty years before the Common Era the makers of the tapestry were faced with attack from an unrecorded enemy, but whom most believe to have been the Senseir and their allies, the Tardeek (True Giants). The Senseir marched in great force upon Kathemtorold expecting to overwhelm the Eldeven folk living there. But the people who had created the Illükaluel Tapestry were no-where to be found. They had simply vanished from the Earth.
Kathemtorold was sacked and much of it razed to the ground, all except the ancient fortification of Rimerkýpt, whose Great Hall housed, even by that time, the ancient tapestry. It is said, by tradition never recorded but passed down by remembered and recited witness, that Rimerkýpt was not razed because when the Senseir and the Giants entered the Great Hall and viewed the tapestry an immense doom fell upon both people, such that the Giants fled and abandoned their alliance, and the Senseir marched home in despair, to pass into history, all of their former power and glory broken within a century.
Regardless of the truth, that part of the country of Kitharia has never again been invaded by foreign enemy, not from that day until the present. The tapestry currently is kept in the Encirled Hurldel of Talkirna, one of the few Great Treasures of Kitharia that does not reside at the Great Vaults beneath the Capital at Samarkand. However the tapestry is kept carefully folded and locked away, and never viewed by any.
The Truth about the Tapestry of Illükaluel as recounted by the ancient Seerage of Aksutolê - The tapestry was actually created and woven long before the Eldeven peoples had ever claimed the land of Kitharia for their own. The tapestry was actually believed created by the H'alel and later presented to the Sidelh as a gift, though whether the gift was meant as a blessing, or a curse, none really know.
When the Senseir and the Giants marched upon Kathemtorold the Eldevens who guarded the tapestry were said to have simply laid it upon the ground and walked across it, disappearing from the world. When the Senseir and the Giants reached the Great Hall the tapestry was said to be moving, as if a living, writhing thing, and was speaking ominously in a language unknown to any but the Giants, who recognized their doom in the words. The Giants explained to the Senseir that their fall was imminent and fled, and it is said few ever returned home. The Senseir tried to take the tapestry but many died as a result and none of their craft or magic could move or affect it. They returned from their war against the Eldevens beaten and heartless, soon to fall into desolation and thereafter were mostly forgotten.
What the Tapestry can Do - The Tapestry, if trodden upon, and if the proper ritual is employed (the rituals involved are written in the secret writings along the borders) can transport any person or group of persons to any spot or location found upon the tapestry. But it can do more than this. It can also move the user forwards or backwards in time to any point Chronicled in the weavings of the Tapestry, including to meetings with famous historical figures depicted on the tapestry, and to events that have yet to occur in the world. The only spot the tapestry will not transport one to is the Gyrgean Maze, although there are several clues upon the tapestry, both linguistic and graphic, as to the real location of the Maze and what it really is.
Use of the tapestry ages the user 7 years for each use, regardless of whether the user moves forwards or backwards in time, and each time the tapestry is used a "new doom" becomes fixed to the user's fate.
However each use of the tapestry to "move upon or through it" instantly heals all "wounds, diseases, or infirmities" the user may be suffering, including the removal of old scars or chronic injuries. It is even said that to walk upon the tapestry is to regrow lost limbs and to regain lost eyesight or hearing.
The tapestry can also impose a "Quest" upon the user, called the Illüdromel. The Illüdromel usually involves either assuring that some event in the past happens as it should have, or the changing of some event in the future that is depicted on the tapestry but has yet to occur. If the future event is changed then the "weavings" on the tapestry change as well, to reflect the new "future to come."
Each time someone uses the tapestry as a means of transport it is said that new threads are woven into the design.
Horrific nightmares often follow the use of the tapestry and sometimes the user suffers what is called the Illükaluan Bane.
The Bane is a form of madness in which one forgets one's real identity and begins to associate one's self with certain historical or famous figures depicted in the images of the tapestry. As far as is known contraction of the Bane leads to eventual "total madness," which is incurable, and ultimately lethal.
There are many other stories and rumors associated with the Illükaluel Tapestry. (Such as that it is a unique and powerful scrying device, or that the H'alel still use the tapestry to spy upon or interfere with the world...) But no one knows exactly which stories are true and which are merely conjecture.
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