The Cenotaph's Guide
More than a weapon, I think it's a key. If we should unlock whatever's sealed or not, I'm not sure yet.The Guide is a rod of Thought-Metal with flattened, almost sharp, edges and encased in gold, found in the deepest reaches of the Cenotaph. Among the bones of an ancient civilization, of dusty bones and shattered skulls, the Guide remains pristine, untouched by the passing ages - save in places where the metal has grown outwards, curling into unnatural, grasping tendrils around the runes.
When found, the bones and skulls around the Guide showed the same taint, click-clacking in the dark as the bones grew and collapsed again, making the ancient corpses dance in the dark.
All these signs point to powerful Artifice, the first and perhaps only ever made of the iridescent thought-metal, but its function is unknown. The most reliable arcane test, hit someone with it, has produced no greater result than a bruise or a headache, at least in the waking world.
Within dreams, the Guide is a great focus of will for any Dream-Eater who wields it, amplifying their ability to conjure things out of dream-stuff while in slumber. In the world of dreams, it is a shining light, a bright bolt of lighting grasped in one hand. It is a light which draws the Spirits from which the artifact draws its power and bleeds for the ichor that fuels it - attention best avoided.
Whenever used, the Guide bleeds a prismatic oil that drips upwards in defiance of gravity. Things hit by the oil grow short, coiling extrusions of the same matter they touched, whether it is stone or flesh. These mutant strands harden quickly and turn brittle, usually collapsing under their own weight; painfully so if made of flesh or bone.
The Cenotaph An ancient tomb the size of a city, the Cenotaph is the final resting place of those who once called Patala home. Their names and stories have been lost to the dark, with only fragments of their cuneiform script deciphered - warnings all, of a gate that must remained close. The Guide was wrested from the heart of the Cenotaph by desperate explorers, looking for anything help them in the battle against Patala's many horrors. Read More About The Cenotaph
"The most reliable arcane test, hit someone with it" XD XD this is the best test indeed XD This guide seems very ominous... And it's running out of ichor and so of power!!! O_O That must have been the guide that helped th engineering from the cenotaph article when he was surrounded by shrikes then. So the ichor comes from spirits? Do we need to urgently go catch a few? XD
Sort of! Ichor comes from Spirits - it's their blood, or essence. Thaumaturgy pierces the veil to leech it from them, like ticks! But most spirits are too vast and alien to really notice; a lot of the time, humans are like a mosquito on a blue whale. It needs to be recharged, before it runs dry and they can't use it to do PLOT STUFF :D
Creator of Araea, Megacorpolis, and many others.