Obsidium

Obsidium is a special form of obsidian which is sometimes lumped in with the Island Stones, Lakium and Vridium, due to its properties mirroring theirs in terms of its magical influences. Obsidium is only found on Sanctuary and it is visually indistinguishably to obsidian however it is much less brittle and can be combined with steel to form a silvery black/dark grey alloy for weapons and armour. It's mostly used a magical focus, but is surprisingly durable and armour made from it helps protect from light and ray-based attacks.

Properties

Material Characteristics

Visually indistinguishable from obsidian in its natural form but when combined with steel to form a metallic alloy it can be either black or dark grey.

Physical & Chemical Properties

Other than for appearance, Obsidium is mostly used as a magical shortcut, as an item made mostly from Obsidium can be substituted in place of any focus to a spell with the earth or fire descriptor, provided that the value of the original focus is equal to 1000 gold x the weight of the Obsidium armour/weapon. Similarly, it allows its user to ignore the material components for such spells as if they had the Eschew Materials feat.
Items made from Obsidium have HP/inch 30, Hardness 15 and armour or shields made from Obsidium also helps protect from light and ray attacks, giving the wearer a circumstance bonus on saving throws against such attacks/effects and/or as a circumstance bonus to their AC against such attacks/effects. This bonus is +1 for light armour or light shields, +2 for medium armour or heavy shields, and +3 for heavy armour or tower shields, although a character wearing Obsidium armour and wielding an Obsidium shield only gains the higher bonus rather than combining them.

Geology & Geography

Obsidium is only found on Sanctuary, specifically in and around volcanoes, although due to looking exactly like obsidian it can be very frustrating to find.

Origin & Source

Typically found alongside obsidian, but not always.

Value

TBC

Rarity

Very rare, partly because it can only be found in or near volcanoes on Sanctuary but mostly because even there one typically ends up collecting far more obsiain than obsidium, as the two are visually identical.