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Minor artifacts are not necessarily unique items, Instead, they are psionic items that no longer can be made, at least by common mortal means.
This monastic tome describes ancient techniques of mental focus and is highly prized by psionic practitioners. If a psionic character who is not evil studies the work during one week of solitary contemplation, he gains 17 bonus power points and experience points sufficient to place him halfway into the next level of experience. Those who use their powers for evil are punished for their impertinence, losing 5d6 × 1,000 XP for defiling the book. In addition, an evil reader must make an immediate DC 15 Will save or become permanently confused as if affected by the insanity power. Only psychic chirurgery or similarly extreme measures can restore sanity.
The minds of nonpsionic beings are too clouded to benefit from the secrets of this book. To anyone without psionic aptitude, the book’s pages appear to contain nothing but elaborate patterns and drawings of mysterious beings. Once it is read, the book vanishes into the Astral Plane to an unknown destination. Even if it is found again, the same character cannot benefit twice from perusing its contents.
Strong telepathy; ML 20th; Weight 3 lb.
Major artifacts are unique items—only one of each such item exists. They are difficult to find and dangerous to handle, but once found, are often even more difficult to destroy. A major psionic artifact has only a single, specific means of destruction.
This artifact is the ultimate psionic nullifier. Forged to keep enemies of vast psionic power at bay, the Annulus is an artifact that any psionic being should fear. It has been forgotten in the modern age, and merely finding it would precipitate a great upheaval across the planes.
The Annulus is a 1-foot-diameter ring of silvery material. Tiny slots, antennae, spheres, and other intricate projections decorate the exterior of the hoop; however, two smoothed lengths of the ring provide an adequate surface for grasping the item.
The Annulus has several powers, all of which require a wielder to tightly grasp the ring with at least one hand. When it is first grasped, knowledge of the artifact’s powers immediately flood the wielder’s mind. The wielder can access all powers of the Annulus at manifester level 20th.
The primary power of the Annulus, however, is psionic nullification. Once per year, the wielder can trigger this effect as a special action requiring 10 rounds of continuous concentration to complete. The wielder specifies a target or targets within a 100-foot radius, ranging from a specific psionic individual or item to a group of psionic beings that share the same philosophy. The nullification effect is accompanied by blasts of light, heat, and sound from the Annulus. Nonpsionic creatures and items are unaffected, as are nontargeted beings, but any psionic target—regardless of any protection it may possess—disintegrates in a terrific explosion. Nothing is left but floating dust.
It is relatively easy to nullify a single target or a small group of targets, but nullifying a more powerful being (such as a demigod or greater entity) or another major artifact taxes the Annulus to its limits. If it is used to nullify such a target, the artifact succeeds but is destroyed in the process and cannot be retrieved by any means.
An elaborate crystalline psicrown etched with strange designs, this exceptional psicrown is so invested with power that it is considered an artifact.
The power points in the Psicrown of the Crystal Mind can be used to manifest any of the following powers at manifester level 20th (or at the wearer’s manifester level if it is higher than 20th).
The wearer of the Psicrown of the Crystal Mind also gains power resistance equal to 10 + his manifester level.
The Psicrown of the Crystal Mind has 1,000 power points when discovered. Anyone who dons the crown instantly knows the number of power points it has at the current time. The crown recharges itself, gaining back 1 power point per day if it currently has fewer than 1,000 points.
As a special one-time use of the psicrown, the wearer can channel all the remaining charges in the psicrown into an uncontrolled burst of energy. The wearer triggers this use as a standard action. All within 20 feet of the wearer take hit points of damage equal to half the power points left in the crown (Reflex DC 18 half). The wearer inhabits a tiny eye of calm at the center of the destruction and is unharmed, but the psicrown is reduced to a burned-out cinder.
