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====== The Ten Artifacts of Aurén Ilay ======

At the end of the second age, the [[ainagûl]] was a man named Aurén Ilay. During
his lifetime, the [[Dark Mage]] was waging a relentless war against the major
nations of the land.  Ilay took it upon himself to stop the [[Dark Mage]], and
so constructed ten magic items of incredible power.  The first few of these were
modified items that he had made previously, and so represented an element of
chaos because they were not designed for the specific purpose as the others.

Once the ten were completed, Ilay awaited the opportunity to use them. His good
friend, the elven king Tauláuren I, volunteered to fight the [[Dark Mage]], and
so when Ilay sensed that the [[Dark Mage]] was weakened after his battle with
[[Gruumsh]], he sent Tauláuren.  Unfortunately, Tauláuren was helpless because
the [[Dark Mage]] possessed the [[gem of Corellon]].  Ilay, in desperation,
teleported in and imprisoned the [[Dark Mage]] with the [[Demon Dagger]].

Ironically, this imprisonment saved the [[Dark Mage]]'s life when, a few minutes
later, [[Gruumsh]] sent an asteroid crashing into the castle, sinking the land
in a sixty mile radius into the sea.  A few months later, after the chaos had
been brought under control by the gods, [[Corellon]] raised the [[Dark Mage]]'s
castle and retrieved the ten artifacts.  [[Corellon]], knowing the artifacts
usefulness, distributed the ten to various deserving mortals after the
holocaust.

Many centuries later, the wizard [[Sardul]] was chased out of his job as King's
wizard in [[Backbone]] ([[fall_of_edric|another story]]), and built a castle on
the ruins of one of Aurén Ilay's many castles.  Here, he discovered some notes
to the ten items. [[Sardul]] became obsessed with the artifacts and began using
all of his power to learn their fate.  Convinced they still existed, he enlisted
the aid of the wizard [[Melchar]], whose power was to see the past in an
object((Psionic Object Reading)). Between the years 1031 and 1033, [[Melchar]]
retrieved all ten missing items and assembled them at his castle.

Guided by a vision from [[Corellon]], the elven king Lari Dahln led a small
raiding party to recover the ten artifacts from [[Melchar]].  With powerful
spells and skilled warriors, the king succeeded in killing [[Melchar]] and
retrieving the ten. However, [[Melchar]] knew of the soul-absorbing powers of
the ten and so donned them before he was killed.  When the king's soldiers
killed him, his soul became dormant inside the artifacts.

Lari Dahln, again led by a vision from [[Corellon]], then instructed the ten most
worthy of his soldiers to take the artifacts and conceal them.  With the
artifacts separated, [[Melchar]] was prevented from releasing himself and so was
imprisoned within the ten.

The whole operation was never traced back to [[Sardul]], and so the wizard was able
to track down the ten warriors and curse them all to do his bidding, not Lari
Dahln's.  However, [[Sardul]] was afraid that he would be discovered by Edric's
worldwatch spell, and so did not gather the ten together immediately. [[Corellon]],
though, felt that now was not the time for the ten to be recovered, and so
erased [[Sardul]]'s memory of the ten's locations and placed cryptic clues so that
eventually they could be found again.

In the year 1090, [[Melchar]]'s grand-daughter Elarion stumbled across the first
clue, but was killed by the Good Party before she could follow up on the clue.
The Good party then gathered the artifacts and gave them to Edric, who needed
them to exorcize the soul of [[Sardul]] from his mind.  After he was done with
them, Edric devoted his energies to destroying the artifacts, reasoning that the
chaos element was too unstable for safe use.  At the time of his death, only the
Gem of Zandra, the Tiara of Queen Zosia, and the Helm of Demarest survived.

Later, Pelham gathered these three in order to use their power to release
[[Sardul]] and reshape him into a female -- as a way of impressing and
intimidating the [[council|council of wizards]].

^ Aurén Ilay's Ten Artifacts ^ created (Age II) ^
| The Ring of the Dragon | 1888 |
| The Cloak of Aidan | 1928, April |
| The Sword of Dana | 1928, March |
| The Ring of Hildreth | 1927, September |
| The Clasp of Erland | 1916 | 
| The Helm of Demarest | 1927, October | 
| The Gem of Zandra | 1927, June |
| The Robe of Shadworth | 1929, February |
| The Tiara of Queen Zosia | 1928, November |
| The Dagger of Larinday\\ //(aka "The Demon Dagger")// | 1928, June |

==== The Gem of Zandra ====

This blue-white diamond measures a full inch long and is about a half inch wide.
It is imbedded in the palm of its wielder after a period of assimilation that is
generally one week.  Once in place, it cannot be removed unless a limited wish
or better is used (or upon the character's death).  It will not graft itself to
a wielder who is not of the good alignment.

It glows with a dim, inward light that is barely enough to illuminate the
wielder's palm (though it could be used to read a sheet of paper in the dark --
slowly).  The wielder is also given an aura of positive energy which will
register strongly on a know alignment or a detect good spell (an increase in
intensity, not of actual alignment).  This aura gives the person a slight
invulnerability to energy draining.  For every level normally drained, the
person may save vs. poison to avoid the loss (this is in addition to any other
saves, etc.)

Further, the wielder may send forth a burst of positive energy once per day
which, will disrupt undead unless they make a successful save vs. wands at -2.
This may be directed at only one undead, however the blast will effectively turn
all undead viewing it as if by a fourth level cleric.

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