Saturday, April 21, 2012

12 Ways to Craft a Magical Artifact


1 - The shirt must be woven by women from six different nations in turn, and never may they lay eyes on one another or the power is lost.
2 - The cloak must be pieced together from the mustaches of twelve kings sent in tribute to the wearer.
3 - The sword must be forged in the fire of a dragon's breath, and cooled in his life's blood while it still pours from his body.
4 - The armour must be forged by the dwarves from metals freely given to them by the elves.
5 - The helm must be made by those who trust the wearer with their lives; should he lose their trust, the magic will fail, but should they die trusting then the power will remain eternally.
6 - The spear must be made by those it was designed to slay; and those who make it must die by it before it can be wielded.
7 - The gem must be swallowed by an owlbear and then cut from its stomach.
8 - The dark idol must be made by one who has faith in god, but to complete the process, the faith must be broken utterly.
9 - The shield must be hung in the sky above the highest mountains and held there for three days.
10 - The sword must be dissolved in the lava pits of Phoenix Mountain, and like the phoenix, it will rise anew when the volcano erupts.
11 - The dagger must not see the light of sun nor flame while it is being forged.
12 - The scroll must be written by an illiterate under the guidance of a blind man.

The first two entries are from Arrow-Odd, although the mustache cloak in that saga doesn't appear to have any magical properties, it's just to show everyone how awesome you are. Interestingly, Arrow-Odd's magic arrows gain their properties simply by virtue of having been made by dwarves. Sometimes I feel a bit sad about how dwarves and elves have gone from being rare and inscrutable spirits to basically humans with pointy ears or short legs.

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