EDRulebook: 17 Magical Treasures

Keep that gleam in your eye, boy. Treasure such as I have seen gleams even more. See what I have seen, and you too will risk death to hold it, to call it yours.
-- Garlthik One-Eye, Ork Thief The world of Earthdawn is filled with fantastic magical treasures. These treasures are precious not only for their uniqueness, but because they hold within them the history of Barsaive. These treasures hold the key to the past, and allow the heroes of today to become the legends of tomorrow.

The quest for magical treasure is an important Earthdawn adventure goal. Though the characters will often seek out and destroy Horrors that remain in their world, the search for magical weapons to use against the Horrors is an equally important goal. The characters’ heroic status makes them perfect candidates for researching and learning about magical items, and through these items rediscovering the history of Barsaive and its people. This section provides specific rules for using thread magic to learn about and use magical weapons and items. Players and Gamemasters may find it useful to reread the explanation of thread magic in Workings of Magic. That information, together with Using the Treasures, below, allows characters to successfully research magical items and power them with magic—continuously activating more of each item’s unique powers and properties. We have left much of the information about individual items vague enough to allow the gamemaster to flesh out the details as appropriate to his group of players and current campaign.

THE NATURE OF TREASURE

Most of the treasures described here are one-of-a-kind items. These items never appear on the open market; they must be found, not bought. For this reason, your characters will never find just any old magic battle-axe. Instead, they might discover Lorm’s Axe, once wielded by Lorm the troll, and used by him to blood the Horror that claimed Kaer Jalendale. Lorm’s Axe, like all treasures, has a history. The events that compose an item’s history are a part of what makes the item unique. Each item’s magical abilities also make it unique. It is unlikely that another magical battle-axe in all the world has the same powers as Lorm’s Axe. By carefully creating descriptions of their history and abilities, all treasures in Earthdawn can be made individual and distinctive.

USING THE TREASURES

Characters must have the Thread Weaving talent to use the magical treasures described below. Using this talent, a character must create a thread and attach it to the item, as explained in Workings of Magic. Without the thread to power these items with magical energy, these treasures often appear rather ordinary. Once powered, however, the items become extraordinary.

PATTERN KNOWLEDGE

All magical treasures have a history integral to their properties. Without the knowledge of this history, a character is wasting his time attaching a thread to the item. He ends up pouring magical energy into the wrong places; the item continues to function as an ordinary example of that item. Through studying an item’s history, a character can learn the Pattern Knowledge of the item, which represents the events of its history and its True Pattern. Pattern Knowledge includes the item’s name and the significant events in its history. Learning this knowledge allows the character to bring the item’s magic alive and make it work for him.

An item’s Pattern Knowledge is made up several parts, known as Key Knowledges. An item may have any number of Key Knowledges. In order to learn the complete Pattern Knowledge of an item, a character must learn all the item’s Key Knowledges. Most items have Key Knowledges at various thread ranks, and the character must learn the knowledge at each rank before he can increase the thread to that rank. For example, a character must learn the Rank 3 Key Knowledge before he can increase his item thread to Rank 3. See the Workings of Magic section for more information regarding Pattern Knowledge and Key Knowledges.

KEY KNOWLEDGES

Characters can learn an item’s Key Knowledges through special talents such as Weapon History or Item History and by researching legends, libraries, tavern lore, and other sources to find the information they need. The Key Knowledges of the treasures described in this section can only be obtained through research and adventuring.

Each Key Knowledge of magical items has two distinct elements: the general type of information the Key Knowledge represents, called Test Knowledge, and the specific details of that information, called Research Knowledge.

The Test Knowledge of a Key Knowledge is the general information that can be learned only by making an Item or Weapon History Test. Test Knowledge tells the character what Key Knowledge he needs to discover in order to use the item. For example:

The Name of the fire elemental that helped to forge Kegel’s Sword.
The Name of the mountain that produced the iron ore used to forge Kegel’s Sword.
The last event in which Kegel’s Sword was wielded.

The Research Knowledge of a Key Knowledge represents the specifics of the Test Knowledge that can be learned only through research or adventuring. For example:

The Name of the fire elemental that helped forge Kegel’s Sword is Nogul.
The ore used to forge Kegel’s Sword came from Mount Frost, in the Thunder Peaks
Kegel’s Sword was last used in the Battle of Fornn during the last days of the Theran War, when Kegel used it to kill General Timyo, leader of the Theran forces.

LEARNING KEY KNOWLEDGES

In order to learn Key Knowledges, characters must first learn the Test Knowledges by making Item History or Weapon History tests.

A character can learn only a limited amount of information with each use of the Item History and Weapon History talents. A character can only learn item Key Knowledges of thread ranks equal to his or her rank in item/Weapon History.

Thom Hammerblade has a Rank 3 Weapon History talent. After finding a spell sword, he spends a week studying it, then makes his Weapon History Test. He gets an Extraordinary success, which should allow him to learn four Key Knowledges. Because he has only a Weapon History Rank 3, he only learns the Key Knowledges up to Thread Rank 3.

First Key Knowledge

The first Key Knowledge of an item is always listed at Thread Rank 1. This Key Knowledge contains the information that will give the character a starting place from which to learn the rest of the item’s Key Knowledges. This first Key Knowledge always contains the following:

Test Knowledge:
1. How many thread ranks the item has
2. Whether or not the item has any Deeds associated with it
Research Knowledge:
3. The Name of the item

A successful Item/Weapon History Test reveals the number of thread ranks the item has, and whether or not the character can perform a Deed in order to attach a thread to the item or increase the rank of a thread. The character must learn the Name of the item through research and adventuring.

Research Knowledge

The Key Knowledges given in the treasure descriptions are the Test Knowledges for each item. A character learns these using the Item/Weapon History talent and/or through research. Once a character learns the Test Knowledge, he can then decide how to find the Research Knowledge.

The Research Knowledge must be learned through either research or adventuring. Characters cannot use the Item/Weapon History talent to learn this information. The characters must obtain it by researching legends, seeking lost kaers or citadels, finding historical tomes that contain the information they need, and so on. Exactly how this takes place in the game is up to the gamemaster.

When a gamemaster introduces a magical treasure into his game, he must determine the Research Knowledges of each of its Key Knowledges. Each Research Knowledge can serve as the objective of a short adventure, and these adventures may make up a campaign to fully understand a weapon and wield it at its fullest power—probably to kill that pesky Horror that keeps getting in the characters’ way. The gamemaster can set up such adventures in any way he finds appropriate, but the following guidelines may also be helpful.

Creating Key Knowledges

Finding the Research Knowledge of a Key Knowledge should require effort on the part of the characters seeking the knowledge. The characters should not get something for nothing. For example, a character should have to undertake a journey of some distance to find a tome that has the information he seeks, rather than merely walking to the nearest collection of books and flipping through the pages for a few minutes. Once he arrives at his destination, he might also have to persuade the caretaker of the collection to allow him to look through the tome. To accomplish that, he may have to agree to do a favor (see Favors, of Gamemastering Earthdawn).
The character must understand how the Key Knowledge fits into the history of the item. If, for example, a character must learn the Name of the jungle that produced the wood used to create a staff, it isn’t enough for him to guess the name of the jungle, even if he manages to guess correctly. The character may research different kinds of wood to pinpoint the type used to make the staff, in the process learning about where different types of trees grow, then discovering important stands or forests of those trees. Through this process, he will understand the significance of the wood used to make the staff.
Make finding the Research Knowledge a challenge, but don’t make it impossible. For example, asking a character to learn whether the person who created an item was left- or right-handed is probably an impossible task. Another impossible task might be to learn the Name of an elemental or other powerful entity. If the gamemaster wants to use information of this type as Research Knowledges, he or she must take care to create a way for the characters to obtain it through clever roleplaying or unusual plans of action. The key is to create information that is difficult, but not impossible, to obtain.
The risk or cost of obtaining the information must be worth the new ability of the item. For example, having to enter the lair of a dragon to earn the Key Knowledge for a Rank 2 Thread is probably too high a cost. A good guideline is to base the Legend Point award for the adventure on the number of Legend Points it takes to purchase the next thread rank. For example, if it costs 2,100 Legend Points to purchase the next thread rank for an item, the adventure to obtain the Key Knowledge should award the character approximately that many Legend Points.

The table below lists typical Key Knowledges for items, with a suggested thread rank for each. The gamemaster can alter both the Key Knowledges and the Thread ranks as needed or desired. These suggestions may not match the Key Knowledges and ranks for the magical treasures described in this section.

KEY KNOWLEDGE TABLE

Key Knowledge Thread Rank	Type of Knowledge
1	The Name of the item
2–3	The Name of the person who created the item or the item’s specific magical abilities
4–5	The source of the material from which the item was constructed or the Name of the creature that aided in the item’s construction
6–7	The Name of the last known owner/wielder of the item
8+	The last known event in which the item was used

Learning Magical Effects

When a character weaves a thread to a magical item, the item’s powers become available to him. The exact effect discovered is determined by the rank of the thread the character weaves. When a character learns the Test Knowledge of an item’s Key Knowledge, he also learns the type of magical effect granted at that thread rank. For example, the character might know that, “The sword will inflict even greater damage than normal on those struck by it.” When a character learns the Research Knowledge of a Key Knowledge by adventuring, he learns the specific effect. In the case of the sword, the Research Knowledge would tell the character that at Thread Rank 3, the sword increases its Damage step by +3.

A character may also research the legend of an item to gain general knowledge of what abilities have been attributed to the item during its history. Information gained in this way is rarely completely accurate, for legends often exaggerate events in favor of heroes.

Me’gana is researching the legend of Kegel’s Sword. In a book contained in the Throal Library, she learns that during a battle, “a bolt of flame leapt from the blade’s tip.” Now Me’gana knows that the sword has some kind of flame ability, though perhaps not exactly the one described in the legend.

WEAVING THREADS TO AN ITEM

Once a character learns the Research Knowledge of the item’s Key Knowledge, he may weave a thread to the item. Characters weave threads by spending Legend Points and then using the Thread Weaving talent to attach the thread to the item. Additional thread ranks also are purchased by spending Legend Points.

The Legend Point cost for the thread rank is determined by the item and provided in each item’s description. For example, the cost for a Rank 1 thread for a Counterspell Staff is 200 Legend Points. The cost for a Rank 5 thread for Nioku’s Bow is 3,400 Legend Points!

The Difficulty Number for attaching the thread to the item with the Thread Weaving talent is determined by the rank of the thread being woven. For more information on attaching threads to an item, see Thread Magic, in the Workings of Magic section.

Deeds

Some treasures allow characters to perform Deeds in order to earn Legend Points to weave threads to items. This Deed usually relates to the history of the item, requiring a character to undertake a task similar to a task for which the item was once used, or else complete a task left undone by a former wielder of the item.

Any Deeds of a magical item must be learned in the same way as Key Knowledges; a Deed listed at a thread rank is the Key Knowledge for that thread rank. When a character makes the Item or Weapon History Test, he learns that the Key Knowledge for a thread rank is a Deed, and the nature and objective of the Deed. Performing the Deed provides the Research Knowledge.

Performing the Deeds associated with an item is not always mandatory. In some cases, the Deed must be performed in order for the character to increase the item’s thread rank. In some cases, the character makes the choice. However, the character always earns Legend Points for completing the Deed.

Any Legend Points earned by performing a Deed must be used to increase the thread rank of the magic item. Until the character increases the item’s thread rank to its maximum, the player cannot use any excess Legend Points earned by performing a Deed for any other purpose. Once the character increases the item’s thread rank to its maximum, he can use excess Deed Legend Points to increase his character’s talents or other abilities.

Before undertaking a Deed, a character must have learned all the Key Knowledges for thread ranks up to and including the thread rank at which the Deed is listed. If a Deed is listed at Thread Rank 4, then the character must have learned all Key Knowledges from Thread Ranks 1 through 4 before trying the Deed.

CUSTOMIZING TREASURES

The treasures listed in this section represent a small percentage of the magical items in the world of Earthdawn, a sampling of the treasures to be found during a campaign. Though the gamemaster can use them exactly as described, we encourage the gamemaster to customize the items to suit his or her campaign. To that end, we offer the following suggestions.

Our first suggestion: yes, customize! Tinker with the items. Change the Key Knowledge descriptions, the Deeds, even the effects of the items to suit events and characters from your campaign. Most players will enjoy finding truly mysterious treasure and then unraveling that mystery. Customizing the treasures also lets you tie them into events and to characters that already mean something to your players. A treasure is not just an item of power, it is a link to the past. Using treasures to tie characters to the history of your campaign helps make the world more real for them.

Our second suggestion: resist the urge to make the items more powerful. By giving them more effects, or increasing the step of the effects they have, you could inadvertently create an item that will unbalance your game. The items have been created with an eye toward game balance. Many are quite powerful as they stand.

CREATING NEW TREASURES

The following section describes 18 treasures. Though this amount should last any gaming group a while, most gamemasters will want to create their own unique magical treasures.

Go right ahead. Use the items given here as a model. But first, a word of caution: make the treasures truly unusual rather than simply powerful. If you absolutely cannot resist creating an item more powerful than those described here, extend the thread ranks beyond that of any item listed. For example, if a player needs to weave a Rank 12 thread before getting the “kill dragon” power of a magical sword, you have some time to see how the item works and consider changes you might want to make before your campaign goes up in a puff of magical smoke.

If you create an item that turns out to be too powerful, the best way to deal with it is to just say: oops! Explain to the players that the treasure is out of game balance. Take it away from the characters, modify it, then let them have it back. If the item is simply too grossly unbalanced to fix, swallow hard and remove the item from play. You will be spending too much time running Earthdawn to let one magical treasure ruin the game for you.