Back to Magik Artifacts | Back to Main Page

This human sized artifact is of extremely dense leaded crystal. Its AC as such is AC3. It is all that remains of the Dark Mage Lutas Vaul who chose one day to contest a point with a denizen of one of the lower Hells. It has the following “powers”, useable by any of the magik using kind:

A mana battery; it stores up to 50 total raw mana points. All mana points stored must be used, then the skull will recharge which takes it one full 25 hour day.

Allows the owner to scry any area he has knowledge of, up to 50 miles away. Note this knowledge does not have to be first hand, but can be “read about”, etc.

It can “teach” the magik spells it permanently holds within its depths, at a cost of 5 mana points per spell, per level, to the user. These spells are: Michbeth’s Spell of Detecting Gates and Other Magik Portals, Bastabahr’s Ritual of Ruthlessness, Dreomund’s Shatter Hand Spell, Ahn-Dee’s Spell of the Black Sleep, Aura of Command, Skarkhonen’s Ritual of the Lesser Gates, Darvohl’s Ritual of the Hand of Doom (or The Shadow Assassin), Hadaag’s Horror (or The Hand of Herakles), Khurluu’s Call of the Hell Spawn, and Xudd’s Terrible Terminator Spell.

An Hypnotic effect causing the subject of the skull’s gaze to save vs magik at –4 or become subject to subtle, well worded suggestion/influence. Note also that this effect is constant and can even affect the “owner” of the skull if he should be or become unwary. This power too is well hidden (as below) by Magik Lie and Masked Magik, with only a 10% chance of discovery by a probing mage.

GM Special Note: You will note the nature of the spells the skull can and will “teach”; most of them have the potential for harm coming either to the skull itself or to the casting mage. This is due to the cursed nature of the artifact (hidden by a magik lie overlaid with a magik “mask”, both of OP20). The skull’s powers are all driven by the trapped sentience of Lutas Vaul himself! He is cursed to remain in this form until the skull is destroyed by the “owner’s” magik or until freed by his “owner’s” death or demise while being used!! Said owner will then have his sentience trapped within the confines of the skull to serve as Lutas has for lo these many millennia. Be creative and have fun with this one!