June gaming element challenge – Keys of Power: Ardoris

Item Type: Artifact

Orange, with a hint of flame to it, this key is yet a grand mystery in many ways. Some sketches of it give an alternate title to it of the Beacon, though any tale that explains what it does or what the appellation means is either rare or lost. Given its coloration and some of the illustrations, scholars assume that is related somehow to fire and flame. The truth of the matter, however, remains unknown.

June gaming element challenge – Keys of Power: Curare

Item Type: Artifact

The key is the green of the leaves of high summer, their depth and purity. It is a key crafted to be used by a healer of no small skill—it seems to me that if there were a key that could possibly counter the Gatekeeper’s Key, it might be this, though I could be overstating its power. It is for certain the Key of Healing, once held by the legendary Naria, Mistress of the Houses of Healing at the Basilica del Mare, who was said to be able to work miracles.

June gaming element challenge – Keys of Power: Canticle

Item Type: Artifact

This key is more blue than Libraes is, though not quite truly blue—an indigo color, if you will. The tales woven of this key seem to indicate that it enables the bearer to read minds. After some discussion with experts in the field, it seems more feasible that it enables the use to read minds more easily with already extant gifts.

June gaming element challenge – Keys of Power: Optio Herois

Item type: Artifact

The golden key is another powerful, potentially dangerous key.  It is said that many a tragic figure was amongst the ill-fated bearers of this key, a key of heroes.  Scholars have not been able to document any confirmed bearer, rumored or otherwise, that lived to see grandchildren. Even as it is a key of heroes, it also seems to be some kind of key of Tragedy.  It seems that this key may possibly be able to grant the bearer the ability to do great, even impossible things, but it seems as with all things there is a price exacted—the scales, after all, must balance in the end.

June gaming element challenge – Keys of Power: The Engineer’s Key

Item Type: Artifact

This light gray key almost looks like steel, though it’s far lighter.  It is a key of skills, seeming to unlock the talents of those already gifted in the mechanical arts. Stories have the few suspected bearers of this key building the first steam engines and designing great structures that have stood against the very worst storms and disasters large and small. It is an artifact of great power and responsibility, for once the technological genie is out of the bottle, how does one control it?

June gaming element challenge – Keys of Power: Libraes

Item Type: Artifact

This key is made of a vibrant Imperial purple gemstone in a simple, almost delicate design. It is unadorned except for the wheel-shaped ring at the end of the key. Libraes is said to be the key of balance, of centering, and of wise counsel. Legends say that when the counsel of past carriers of this key was not heeded, the end result was disastrous.

June gaming element challenge – Keys of Power: The Key of Hope

Item Type: Artifact

The Key of Hope is a bright white moonstone key with an opalescent effect to it.  This key is most mysterious; those who have studied it have been wholly unable to divine its powers while it has been in their possession–though admittedly, scholars have rarely been able to study it.  It is in fact held in trust for the scion of a particular line and is safely secured at Santrellis for the time being.  The Key of Hope, like the Gatekeeper’s Key, has been passed down within a particular family line, though this passage can be traced for twice as long at least as the inheritance of the Gatekeeper’s Key.