Those with a guilty conscience often seek the aid of gods and spirits of the underworld. Many priests can seek a direct audience with their agents of their deity. A few priests, like Kemuel, have come to mistrust the deities they serve pushing them to seek answers from other spirits. Those who are not priests and yet seek otherworldly guidance, look to strange devices to make contact.
Peribrachion Of Time
These bracers are intricately designed with various mystic symbols on one bracer, and a picture on the other. The picture is believed to be a work of art depicting the futility of attempting to control people and events. Aside from the artistry of the design, there is nothing that makes these bracers appear extraordinary.
Worn by a wizard or priest familiar with their operation, however, these bracers allow the wearer to look into the recent past or near future. Specifically, the wearer is able to project himself in time and space up to seven days. The destination must be a place that the wearer has visited, not necessarily within the past seven days. After using the bracers a few times, the wearer is able to travel in space without traveling in time. While visiting a different time and space, the wearer’s body stays in his own time. He is only an observer with no ability to alter the events he sees. He is also unseen by anyone else. Only the most powerful mediums or wizards could detect his presence.
To use the bracers, the wearer must be seated and looking into a bowl of clean water. He must concentrate on when and where he would like to visit for thirty minutes. If interrupted, the wearer must start over. Any trip taken by using the bracers must last at least an hour but can as long as the wearer can physically withstand. Any attempt to travel for less than an hour will be unsuccessful. Lengthy journeys risk the wearer connection between the wearer’s soul and body.
The user controls when and where he will project, however, he does not control when and where he will return. If the wearer spends two hours in a different time, he will arrive back in his body two hours after he began the journey.
The result of using this device causes physical and mental harm to the wearer. The longer the trip, the more harm the wearer will feel. Extended trips risk killing the wearer’s body thereby causing the soul to wander forever.
Duchala Plates by Rob Torno
The Duchala Plates
The Duchala Plates are a set of talking boards created by spiritualist to contact the spirits of the underworld or agents of the gods. Each plate has a slightly different design, but share some common features. Duchala plates are made of one solid piece of one-inch thick hardwood. The average size is two feet by three feet, but others come in various sizes.Each plate is covered in letters, numbers, symbols, and a few simple words. In the center of the board is a small metal bowl. It is believed that there is a Duchala plate for every known language, including a few in the languages of the gods, themselves.
A duchala plate will help users foretell events in the future. To use the duchala plate, a user writes a question on a piece of parchment. The parchment is then burned in a small bowl in the middle of the board. As the question burns, the user lightly touches a basket with an attached quill. The basket will travel around the plate, spelling out the answer with the quill, one letter at a time. It will move only as long as the question burns, the longest known answer comprised of one hundred twenty letters.
Duchala plates covered in various symbols or written in languages that do not have an alphabet operate the same. However, the answer usually interpreted in a fashion similar to a tarot card reading.
Tazladah Kura by Rob Torno
The Tazladah Kura
This very large talking sphere is a variation of the duchala plates. Mystic symbols cover the surface of the sphere. There is a recession on the top designed for a small silver bowl. Each symbol is inscribed on a raised button. The average tazladah kura is covered with seventy-eight runes, but the number ranges from fifty-two to one hundred eight. When a button containing a symbol is pushed a click signifies that it has been locked on. It takes some effort to push a button, it cannot be depressed casually or by accident. Once a button is depressed, it will stay that way until a lever at the base resets all the buttons.
Use of the tazladah kura is similar to the duchala plates. The user writes a question on a piece of parchment. This parchment is placed in the bowl atop the sphere and set on fire. While it burns, the user enters a trance-like state. Unconsciously, the users’ hands cross the surface of the sphere pushing buttons. The trance lasts as long as the question burns in the bowl. When the parchment has been consumed, the user will awake from the trance with no ill effects.
Each symbol has a unique meaning, something akin to tarot cards. The user is then left to interpret the resulting symbols. Meaning is assigned to the individual sign, and where in the sequence of signs it appeared. If a symbol is considered a bad omen, it will change color to a blood red color after it has been pressed.
Construction of the item appears to mechanical. It is not clear from examining the outside whether or not it is driven by clockwork, steam power, or some other mechanical power source. Spiritualists insist that the spheres are hollow and that there is no power source save the spirits that provide cryptic answers.
Alchemical Rose
It is customary in some parts of the world to exchange roses for good luck after a large business deal has concluded. It is there where the first alchemical rose appeared. It was apparently given by the benefactor of a largely one-way deal. The victim would gain great power from the deal, but at a great cost. The benefactor was more than happy to oblige, but he also bears no risk at all.
As a part of the bargain for power, our tragic figure is left with a rose. When the rose becomes gilded, says the power broker, once the bargain is complete. You will keep my gift with no further obligation to me.
In fact, the rose essentially functions as a reflection of our villain’s thoughts. If they are happy and joyful, the rose will shine a variety of reds, pinks, and yellows. If his thoughts are dark and brooding, the rose may be purple, black, or even begin to wither. The rose is just another reminder that he made a deal with the devil and there is no hope of escape.
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