The Time Key
To beings such as the Keepers, time is more than just a sequence of events. Time is entropy. Time is fire and we simple things are the kindling and the ash.
The Keepers were beings able to flitter between an existence of mortality and eternity with ease. Time, as we may know it, is a concept that was lost to them a long while ago. It became less about a sequence of events laid out end to end as a consequences and actions the further along the path of enlightenment they walked. Instead, time became a measure of decay vs. creation. As the force gravity pulls a falling man to the earth, time was seen as a force as well. And Just like the falling man fighting to avoid the crash, time was a force that needed to be fought against for it threatened to wither away their progress in helping younger races attain enlightenment as well. And, much like gravity, it seemed an inevitable end that none of their hopefuls could avoid.
When the Golden God began work on his designs for the path life should follow the Keepers debated among themselves the merit of such a being. To many of them the Golden God was as close to enlightenment as any other creature has achieved aside themselves. It thrilled them to potentially have another among their ranks, to finally not be alone anymore. Most Keepers chose to escape their loneliness in the pursuit of studying the fundamental laws of reality. Guiding individual races toward enlightenment seemed inglorious and doomed to failure. However; for many of them regardless of the cycle of defeat the effort had generated they were still utterly dedicated to it. And that group had a very different opinion on the Golden God. They saw him as the living embodiment of the very force they struggled against. If given his way this god would lead all life toward eternal stasis, locked within his supposed "grand work" forever. There would be no change. No evolution. No enlightenment. Nothing but order everlasting.
The last of the Keepers who had not left for whatever lies beyond our reality relocated to their island home on world rich with living things and with the greatest possibility for nurturing a species to eventually join them. This also happened to be the birth world of the Golden God, and the one he returned to enact his grand upon. The Keepers here, having returned to mortal form to abide the laws of their kind, were caught completely by surprise when the God's tyranny was turned upon them. The Keepers had long moved beyond such things as violence, anger, and pride. To directly attack each other was an unthinkable notion. When these remaining Keepers criticized the Golden God's design and accused him of misusing the powers of the enlightenment taught to him by one of their own kind they learned how far their foe was truly being one of them. The Golden God saw the mortal forms they'd adopted in order to nudge civilizations along as symbol of their weakness. He believed no mortal thing could judge a being such as he. Living things either had a place in his design or must die for the sake of its progress. The few remaining Keepers no longer had a place in his plan.
The Keeper who created the Time Key is said to have been the absolute last of their kind to fade away. They considered it their purpose and their burden, to be the final one. To be the last. To bear witness. With the six keys laying before them, they looked up at the burning sky and Golden God as he hurled a final massive rock from the heavens to sunder their home. With a final thought they defied the tyranny of time and cast themselves into the last key before scattered them across the islands. Time would not win this battle. Others will find the keys, unlock the Eternity Door turn back the clock the Golden God has set in motion. And with hope... one day... join the others beyond.
Game Statistics
While holding the Time Key in a free hand or wearing it as an amulet you have Resistance to Fire Damage.
The Key has 10 charges. While holding it, you can use an action to expend 1 or more of its charges to cast one of the following spells from it, using your spell save DC+2: Absorb Elements (1 charge), Create Bonfire(1 charge), Produce Flame(1 charge), Elemental Bane (2 charges), Immolation (4 charges), Investiture of Flame( 4 charges), Haste or Slow (4 charges), Time Ravage (10 charges)
The Time Key regains 1D6+1 charges per day at dawn.
The Time Key cannot be damaged by any known means of normal or magical damage.
Manufacturing process
The Time Key was created by one of the Keepers, an expert in matters of time, entropy, and flame. They gave both their mortal life and eternal essence to create the key. The process to make such items is lost with them
Significance
The Time Key was the last to be made. Its maker was the witness to the end of their civilization but, with hope, the one to set in motion the undoing of the Golden God's plans and laying the path for another race to join their people beyond the edge of our reality
Item type
Magical
Current Location
Subtype / Model
Rarity
This is a unique item. There is only one in existence
Raw materials & Components
The key is made of Dolomite or possibly Limestone. The gemstone that forms the sand drop in the hour glass symbol is Red Beryl
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