Ep. 34: Bringing the Magic; Artificats of the Multiverse

In the exact same boat here! Every time they bring up magic I think about how awesome those cards look and how I want a pack. Then, I just don't buy them...

I think it was MagicMark's first episode, where all the guys bought a pack and had to make a campaign based on some of the cards therein. I'm still tempted to do that one of these days, though it's probably the closest I'll ever come to playing Magic again. I was into it back around 4th edition/Ice Age. Probably sank $500 into it, and sold my collection for $100. I just price checked those sets and was surprised to see their value hasn't substantially increased, so at least I'm not kicking myself in the butt for selling.

Artifacts don't feature heavily in my home brew setting, though the PCs are actively seeking the components of one.

A brief history: The gods of Sheth draw their power from mortal consciousness. Simple observation of lakes, rivers and oceans gives the goddess of water a trickle (heehee) of power, for instance. About a hundred years ago, a cabal of wizards experimented on humans in an attempt to grant themselves a similar ability that would bind a mortal's soul to their own, channeling that power into themselves. They completed the experiment, but the subjects turned that power onto their creators and killed them, along with all traces of the procedure. The subjects escaped, and began binding mortal souls to themselves in secrecy. Their powers grew at a fantastic rate, eventually earning them the moniker "godlings."

The godlings usurped the thrones of Shensedai and Oscader, two of five kingdoms in the empire of Demein Zaer, and declared war against the rest of the empire. They used their considerable power to turn their peasant armies into monstrous humanoids (orcs, goblins, trolls, etc. did not exist prior to this time). Between their immense magical power and their formidable horde, the other kingdoms stood little chance.

The wizards of those other kingdoms devised the "mage bomb." They gathered the vast majority of enchanted items and transfered their magical energy into 20 power cores, attached it to a detonator, and exploded it on the capital city of the godlings. The effect was akin to a large nuclear device, and annihilated every living thing in a 10 mile radius, including the majority of the godlings. The monstrous horde scattered, and the remaining godlings went into hiding.

Little did the creators of the mage bomb know, the device was not destroyed, it merely released its energy, and had been absorbing abyssal energy from the tear in space-time it created. An expedition explored the ruins where the bomb was dropped, and they eventually did discover this fact. The expedition members dismantled the bomb, and hid each of the cores in a separate, secret location across the continent.

One of the expedition members was a common ally to all the PCs, and was murdered recently. They learned that he was certain someone knew about the cores, and was trying to collect them. Now the PCs are racing to gather them before this mysterious murderer, and searching for a way to permanently destroy them before they are put to evil use.