PROLATE SPHEROID OF ADVANCE
Magical Item
This curious magical artifact has an origin and original purpose steeped in lost ancient wizardry, but its odd construction is just as puzzling; it consists of a treated pig’s bladder pumped full of alchemical gases to a point of firm inflation and sealed with mastic and pitch after being installed within a durable four-panel sewn cover of grain cowhide. The outer layer of the spheroid is stitched shut with several coarse laces of rawhide cordage and marked with arcane script and white circumferential markings.
The spheroid is just over 11 inches long, just under 7 inches across at its widest point, and just over 14 inches along its surface from one bluntly pointed end to the other. It weighs just under a pound.
The spheroid has several modes of employment.
If an adventurer tucks the spheroid in the crook of one arm and extends a free hand fully forward as an action during a turn, that individual cannot be grappled (except on an opponent’s roll of a natural 20 during an opposed STR check) during subsequent movement as long as no other actions are taken and the position both of the carried spheroid and the opposite free hand are maintained.
If an adventurer places the spheroid on the ground, leans over to grasp it in the palm of one hand, chants a verbal incantation, and snatches it up while returning to a standing position, that individual can throw the spheroid at a NEAR target enemy creature as a ranged weapon attack with an EASY DEX roll (or a FAR range target with a normal DEX roll). Movement (up to NEAR distance, unless otherwise prohibited) on the caster’s turn can occur at any time before, after, or concurrently with the ranged attack, including between the snatch and the throw (provided the caster doesn’t become grappled/restrained/incapacitated or fall prone during the movement). If the target creature beats the caster’s roll by 3+ on an opposing DEX roll (or rolls a natural 20), the spheroid is intercepted, and it disappears harmlessly from the target’s grasp as returns magically to the original caster’s hand; however, on any other result, the spheroid will impact the target creature, doing D6 magical weapon (bludgeoning) damage before apparating back to the caster; additionally, failing an opposed STR check, the target creature struck will be knocked to the ground prone (unless it more than one category of size larger than the caster), taking an additional D6 nonmagical damage from the impact. Any target in susceptible to only four ranged attacks from the spheroid each day; after that, it passes completely through the target with no interaction effect (and the target cannot touch the spheroid or pick it up). Conversely, if the caster misses the Initial EASY DEX roll, other creatures CLOSE to the target (friends or foes of the caster) may make an attempt to intercept it (technically DEX roll) and only on a natural 20 will recover the spheroid permanently and become its new caster. On a missed range attack not otherwise intercepted, the spheroid apparatus back to the caster as previously described as soon as it hits the ground or otherwise comes to rest; it will do this only three times on consecutive missed throws, remaining at rest in situ on the fourth, allowing for anyone to scramble for its recovery. (Any successful use of the spheroid resets this counter.)
Four times per day the spheroid can be used to breach a door or structure (or do damage to with no roll, doing 2D6 magical damage. This ability (like the spheroid’s others) recharges at sunrise.
Finally, after the caster says the incantation, snatches the spheroid from the ground, and stands upright with it in one hand, the caster can opt for alternative employment of the spheroid in one of two forms after first pointing to the ground and tracing the free hand’s index finger through the air to indicate a line on the ground that intersect’s the sphere’s original position and bisects the encounter area into forward and rearward areas. This division manifests itself as an actual magical glow on the ground extending in opposite directions from the spheroid’s original point of contact to NEAR distance in either direction.
Then, at first option, as long as the caster does not advance into the forward area, that individual can hand (no rolls, CLOSE range) or toss (EASY DEX rolls, NEAR range) the spheroid to any ally also in the reward area. That ally, who must also have remained behind the glowing line in the rearward area since the incantation was spoken, will then be able to use the spheroid’s magic to advance on that ally’s next turn. Any missed DEX rolls during a handoff/lateral pitch result in a fumble. On a fumble, the spheroid hits the ground and returns magically to the caster’s hand at the end of the turn. The caster and his allies can only fumble the spheroid three times before they make a successful handoff or lateral toss; on the fourth fumble, instead of apparating back to the caster’s hand, the spheroid will come to rest and remain in position for anyone to claim and use.
As an alternative mode of employment after scribing the glowing line on the ground that designates the forward and rearward areas, the caster can opt to throw the spheroid anywhere beyond NEAR distance to an ally at FAR range in the forward area on the other side of the glowing line. The caster and the ally much each make a successful DEX roll to complete the throw successfully with the ally catching the spheroid. Any CLOSE-range opponent adjacent to the ally in the forward area can make an opposed DEX roll; if that opponent beats the ally’s roll by 3+ and also meets or exceeds the encounter target, the opponent intercepts and catches the spheroid instead of the ally and becomes the new owner and caster of the spheroid! Otherwise, if the caster and/or ally miss a DEX roll and no opponent succeeds, the spheroid hits the ground and either apparates to return to the caster or comes to rest as a fumble (as described above).
When the caster’s ally successfully receives the spheroid by means of either a handoff/lateral toss or a completed throw, that ally is imbued with magic for additional movement and effects on that ally’s next turn.
The ally who receives the spheroid by means of a handoff/toss in the rearward area can move FAR distance as if it were NEAR and still take a combat or non-combat action, and once across the glowing line into the forward area, grapple attempts against that ally only succeed on a roll of a natural 20, while all of the ally’s DEX checks related to movement only fail on a roll of a natural 1 (until the start of the ally’s following turn as long as the spheroid is carried).
Alternatively, upon a successful reception of the thrown spheroid from the caster in the rearward area across the glowing to an ally in the forward area, on the ally’s next turn the same movement bonus, protections, and enhancements are granted, and the ally gains an additional magical slam attack; as long as the ally opts to move in a straight line toward a targeted opponent on the ally’s chosen path, the ally must succeed on a HARD DEX roll or suffer D12 ultimate (bludgeoning) damage and be knocked prone as the ally succeeds in trampling. Multiple opponents on the same straight line may be targeted with this trampling attack by the ally, and movement is only attested by a successful grapple on a roll of a natural 20, ending the ally’s run. The spheroid must be carried continuously for the ally to maintain these magical abilities, and they persist until the start of that ally’s subsequent turn.
Notes:
- Happy Super Bowl…
- see what else is on top of The Loot Pile.