MAGIC ITEM CREATION

With the exceptions of scrivenery and alchemy, the manufacture of magic items is largely a lost science in Hyperborea. During the long-lasting reign of the true Hyperboreans, before the realm was excised from Earth, dweomercræft was widespread. Indeed, history tells of an age when every Hyperborean sorcerer wielded his own magical wand, ring, and blade as commonly as the Atlantean wielded his laser pistol and other devices of technology (the secrets of which were said to be the product of connexions with alien beings). Then the Green Death swept across the realm, and the world moved on.

Glancing back further still, during the æons that preceded man’s rise from the lowly depths of apedom, one must consider the reign of the snake-men, dweomercræfters and toxicologists of astonishing capacity. Indeed, many enchantments wielded by the gaunt, pale-skinned, Hyperborean sorcerer-kings were a consequence of research and experimentation into artefacts of that bygone age of reptilian rule. Likewise not to be disregarded are the dwarfs of Underborea, N.B.: As evinced in the preceding text, the creation of magical armour, weapons, and other items is not, short of divine or otherworldly assistance, the purview of player characters in this “dying earth” milieu. Should Franz decide to allow the creation of such items, he must devise a method that he deems fair, including availability and cost of materials, time of research, chance of failure, and so on. Dwarves are a race of cruel, misshapen humanoids whose proclivities are abominable. These loathsome spawn of Ymir are responsible for the proliferation of a great many magical weapons and armours found across the realm. Still do the dwarfs forge, but sadly, these arts scarcely are understood by the barbaric races of man risen to power in the aftermath of the Green Death. Lastly, consider too the earliest æons of Earth, when the planet was a steaming rock with roiling seas of green. Eldritch races such as the elder things, fish-men, Great Race, and mi-go roamed the young planet, exploiting the world for its resources and pursuing unfathomable objectives. Too, their artefacts are sprinkled throughout Hyperborea, though their alien technology defies comprehension by man—even Atlanteans. Presently, in an age when the swollen, scarlet sun burns the last of its fuel, and the glimmering stars fade to dust, much is lost. But as dreaming Kthulhu stirs and the Great Old Ones rise from their ages-long slumber, strange and otherworldly devices weird and magical begin to surface, and ever is man too curious an ape to let them alone…

All magical or enchanted items can only truly be discerned as such until the use of Detect Magic or Identify Spells (or other means of detecting magic) or a attempt to Attune with them, should they require attunement, succeeds. Until such a time they are considered mundane items.