Magic artefacts are items that have been infused with permanent magic, ready to be used by anyone who knows how. Unlike one-use magic enchantments (see Enchantments), magic artefacts are permanent.
Artefacts have charges and triggers.
The magic stored and released in artefacts is for all intents and purposes a spell, except that it requires no roll and never causes mana burnout. But it can, for example, be resisted or stopped with countermagic.
The magic inside an artefact is used whenever the trigger condition is true. This trigger is defined when creating the artefact (see below) and can never be changed.
The trigger can be environmental, such as "when hit" for a magic armour, or intentional such as the wielder of a sword pressing a gem on its hilt to activate the magic. It can be reading some lines from a magic tome or stepping on a specific spot for a magic trap.
Note that only the correct action is required. Artefacts can be triggered without the person doing so intending to.
Whenever the artefact is activated and it has at least one charge remaining, one charge is used up and the magic effect stored inside of it happens.
| Effect | Required Magical |
|---|---|
| Limited | 2 |
| Standard | 3 |
| Great | 4 |
| Extreme | 5 |
It is possible to create magic artefacts as a player character. Doing so is a Downtime Activities > Long-Term Project. You need focus, planning and magic to create a magic artefact, so to advance an artefact long-term project, you roll the lower of your mental and magical ability.
You are limited by your magical ability in what artefacts you can create, according to the table on the right. For example, if you want to create a wand of fireballs and your magical is 3, then your fireballs are a harm spell with standard effect, causing moderate harm to one target or (your choice) lesser harm to an area.
How long the creation of an artefact takes depends on its power and charges. Multiply the required magical of the spell effect with the number of charges your artefact should have. The result is the number of boxes for the long-term project.
You decide to give your small wand of fireballs 2 charges. To create it, you need to complete a long-term project with 2x3 = 6 boxes.
You can create artefacts with multiple spells inside of them. Simply create it with the first spell first, then add the others as independent long-term projects.
What makes artefacts permanent is that their magic recharges over time.
All magic artefacts owned by players regain all their charges during downtime, and one charge during an Tension > Interlude.
For other artefacts, assume that they regain about one charge per day.
Magic artefacts can be destroyed by magic or by the artefact itself being physically destroyed. A magic weapon smashed to pieces will loose its magic, as will a magic tome that is thrown into a fire.
Artefacts will become inactive but retain their magic when damaged, as long as it is repairable damage. If a magic sword can be reforged, its magic will return, as long as the reforged sword is made of all the original pieces and only the original pieces.