Not all artifacts are created whole-cloth by gods and mythic artisans. Some of them grow into their roles after spending centuries as powerful (but non-artifact) magic items forged, wielded, and made famous by legendary heroes. When these items are handed down after their original wielder has passed on, remnants of that heroic past can build within them. As memories, stories, and myths spread about those who once bore these powerful objects, the items themselves absorb some of that storied legacy. For these rare items, ascension to the status of artifact might be but a new hero away.

In “The Secret of Deathstalk Tower,” the PCs were gifted several heroic treasures of Kyonin, rewards granted to them by Queen Telandia in thanks for their recent heroics, but also to ensure these legendary items helped turn the tide of the conflict in Kyonin’s favor. These treasures were all on the cusp of becoming heroic artifacts, and at the end of this adventure’s first chapter, the PCs’ own legacies, combined with boons from the gods, are enough to elevate the items across that legendary threshold of power.

Personalizing the Artifacts

Artifact versions of the Anima Robe, Fiendbreaker, the Guiding Star Orb, Slithermaw’s Bane, Soulcutter, and Wintershot are presented in their respective links, but the process of transforming these items into artifacts comes with a bit of personalization. After all, it’s as much the PCs’ legacy as the ancient heroes’ that influences the transformation.

Each PC should bond with one heroic artifact. If none of these artifacts appeal to a player, or if an artifact’s story appeals to a PC but doesn’t provide game mechanics they can use effectively, consider adjusting the item as needed.

Since these heroic artifacts will be significant elements for the PCs, you should share the rules and options for each potential artifact with the players beforehand, so they can choose the item and set ofoptions that best fit their characters and play styles.

Edicts and Anathema

All six artifacts are focused on Kyonin’s safety and protection. They impart the following edicts and anathema on the wielder. If they’re violated, the artifact reverts to its non-artifact form until the wielder atones, either through the use of the atone ritual, or through a short side quest or influence encounter of your own design.

Edicts kill Treerazer, protect elven lives, push back Tanglebriar’s boundaries

Anathema aid Treerazer, willingly betray Kyonin.

Shared Features

Every one of these heroic artifacts has the unique, apex, artifact, and invested traits. It gains these traits if it doesn’t have them already. Each artifact’s specific powers are detailed on the following four pages, but when they first become artifacts, each player must make several choices to personalize the artifact to their character’s needs and desires.

Note that normally staves and weapons don’t need to be invested, but Fiendbreaker, Soulcutter, and Wintershot are exceptions to this rule. They provide their constant benefits as long as the item remains invested and is carried or stowed by a character; they need not be held in a hand or wielded as a weapon in combat in order to grant these benefits. If you drop an invested staff or weapon, are disarmed of it, or otherwise release it from being held or stowed, you continue to benefit from its invested qualities until the end of your next turn—if you reclaim the staff or weapon before the end of your next turn, then your investment continues uninterrupted. If you fail to reclaim the item by this point, it’s no longer invested until you repeat the process by Interacting with the item, taking the normal steps to invest the item.

Choose Apex Attribute

Each heroic artifact is a powerful apex item, but the apex bonuses granted by these artifacts are more powerful than most. As with all apex items, a PC can only benefit from one apex item at a time.

When your character creates the artifact, choose one attribute modifier. When you invest the artifact, you either increase that attribute modifier by 2 or increase it to +5, whichever would give you a higher value. Once you make this selection, you can’t change it later.

Choose Heroic Skill

Each heroic artifact also bolsters one skill of your choice. When your character creates the artifact, choose one of the three skills listed for the artifact. As long as the artifact is invested by you, it grants you a +4 item bonus to checks with that skill.

Heroic Recovery

Finally, each heroic artifact has 1 Recovery Point; this point replenishes once per day when its invested partner does their daily preparations. When the artifact’s partner’s dying value would reach an amount sufficient to kill them (usually 4), the artifact spends its Recovery Point, and the partner instead increases their doomed value by 1 and stabilizes at 0 Hit Points.