Archives of Nethys
ProvarionVehicle 20
Unique Gargantuan Artifact DivineSource The Dead God's Hand pg. 146
The Provarion is an astounding work of magical engineering known as an ether ship. These vessels were highly valued in ancient Azlant for their capability of traveling between planes. The most famous ether ship was an immense vessel called King Xeros of Old Azlant, but other smaller ether ships like the Provarion existed as well. The exact capabilities of each ether ship varied, but they were similar in many ways to those of the Provarion.
The Provarion functions fully well as a sailing ship even without any of its magical abilities. The fact that, as an ether ship, the Provarion is highly resistant to destruction certainly gave it an advantage to those who would ply dangerous waters, but such protection wouldn’t have protected the ship from being swamped, capsized, or dragged to the bottom of the sea by rogue waves, powerful storms, or immense sea monsters. Other ether ships met such fates, but the Provarion’s destiny was to be buried below Absalom in the Sanctum of Aroden.
As with all ether ships, the Provarion’s magical abilities cannot be activated unless three smaller artifacts—a cubic helm, a set of ether sails, and a phase spike—are installed in the ship. (The supernaturally light ether sails are still 10 Bulk, the 15-foot-long phase spike is 8 Bulk, and the missing cubic helm is 2 Bulk.) In the Provarion’s case, two of these artifacts can be found on deck, but the third, a cubic helm, is missing (page 135). These three items are interchangeable between ether ships, so one could, in theory, salvage replacements from other ether ships—if such ships could even be found in the first place. These three artifacts have no function on their own and must be installed in an ether ship like the Provarion to grant the following activations.
Activate—Into the Great Beyond 10 minutes (concentrate, manipulate); Requirements The Provarion is outfitted with ether sails and a cubic helm, and Plot Course has been used to prepare for the journey; Frequency once per day; Effect By concentrating on the cubic helm and spending 10 minutes adjusting and rotating the artifact at the ship’s aftercastle, the Provarion casts interplanar teleport to your specifications, transporting it and every creature on board to a planar destination on the plane to which the ether sails are plotted toward. This includes anything Huge or smaller clinging to the ship’s sides, or any creature located in the air amid the ship’s rigging or located above the deck but below its highest mast. If the ship isn’t flying at the time, it appears on the closest body of liquid capable of supporting it within 1d20 × 25 miles of your destination—or if no such body of liquid is available, it becomes beached on the ground. The ship’s ether sails function as the planar key for the destination plane.
Activate—Plot Course 10 minutes (concentrate, manipulate, move); Requirements The Provarion is outfitted with ether sails; Effect You spend 10 minutes moving among the ship’s rigging and sails, making minute adjustments to their positioning so that they’re in the precise orientation to allow passage to another plane. As you Plot Course, you select which plane the sails are directed toward, choosing from any of the planes, with the exception of the Dimension of Time. To travel to the Dimension of Time or other planes not listed here, you must also have a planar key for the destination plane, which must be affixed to the Provarion’s mast as part of this activation.
Activate—Soar Above [three-actions] (concentrate, manipulate) Requirements The Provarion is outfitted with ether sails and a phase spike, and you are stationed at the Provarion’s wheel; Effect You command the ether sails to fill with magic and lift the Provarion into the air, granting the ship a magical fly Speed of 40 feet. This effect ends as soon as you land on something capable of supporting the Provarion (liquid or otherwise). The Provarion continues its forward speed and course if you don’t continue to direct its flight with Soar Above, but each round it does so, its altitude decreases by a distance equal to the distance it traveled on the previous round. If Provarion is commanded via Soar Above to slow to a stop, it can remain afloat indefinitely (barring being dashed about by weather, other vessels, or immense flying creatures).
Destruction The Provarion can be destroyed if it is used to sail into the heart of the Maelstrom and is then used to travel to Creation’s Forge—doing so reduces the ship to raw soulstuff and scatters any incidental items and creatures on board across the Great Beyond, with the exception of the ship’s cubic helm, ether sails, and phase spike: these artifacts are destroyed as well alongside the Provarion.
Space 75 feet long, 20 feet wide, 25 feet high
Crew 1 pilot, 8 crew; Passengers 10
Piloting Check Sailing Lore (DC 26), Diplomacy (DC 28), or Intimidation (DC 28)
AC 23; Fort +18
Hardness 15, HP 150 (BT 75); Immunities critical hits, object immunities, precision damage
Speed swim 40 feet (wind)
Collision 6d10 (DC 26)
Sluggish This vehicle must move twice its length for each 90-degree turn it makes.
Shelyn's Corner
×Classic Feel
Classic Feel
Classic Feel
The classic look for the Archives of Nethys.
| Table |
| Data |
| More Data |
Book Feel
Book Feel
Book Feel
An alternative feel, based on the Rulebooks.
| Table |
| Data |
| More Data |
Round Feel
Round Feel
Round Feel
A rounded, modern look for the archives.
| Table |
| Data |
| More Data |
Slim Feel
Slim Feel
Slim Feel
A variant of the Round feel, more compact.
| Table |
| Data |
| More Data |