Abraxus Stone

Description

The most common form for one an abraxus stone is a silver or gold band set with a white oval stone, usually inscribed with a crimson or emerald Cavul rune. They are also crafted in the form of amulets, medallions and bracelets, but regardless of form are usually composed of silver metal.

The use of these protective amulets dates back to the kingdom the Navarr call ancient Terunael. In the aftermath of that kingdom's fall, many of these rings were made to help the early Navarr fight against the Vallorn creatures. The rarest of these rings were bands of pure Ilium set with pale gemstones and inscribed with runes; any one of these artefacts would be a gift beyond price to the Navarr.

Not all abraxus stones are rings. One of the first rings made by the Navarr was used as the basis for a beautiful amulet, given as a gift of friendship to the first of the Highborn navigators, Atuman; a single perfect white stone hung from an Ilium chain, delicately crafted to suggest links of interlocking Imperial Roseweald flowers. As part of the negotiations surrounding the giving of the Tear of Peace, the Highborn agreed to allow the Navarr to travel through their lands. It disappeared following the assassination of Permion the Lawmaker, and while some stories suggest the First Empress wore the chain around the neck, as with the other rings it's whereabouts today are unknown

These rings are obviously of especial use to warriors who must fight magicians, assassins, eastern orcs or vallorn-beasts. They are useless to those who do not already possess a store of inner fortitude; the abraxus stone does not give on protection from poison so much as enhance the body's natural defences against deadly venom.

Rules

• Form: Jewellry (Talisman)
• Effect: When hits are restored to you by any means then you are also cured of the VENOM status if you were affected. This item will not work if the purify spell would fail to remove the VENOM effect for any reason.
• Materials: Crafting an abraxus stone requires twelve measures of beggar's lye, nine measures of weltsilver and seven ingots of tempest jade. It takes one month to make one of these items.

One of these items is, of course, the central device in the famous Marcher play, "Twelve Pigs". The Stone is inadvertently mixed in with the feed for a herd of swine on their way to market, and the penniless protagonist must scour the countryside trying to find the pig which has eaten it in order to secure his fortune. Despite the fact that the hero has to spend a good deal of time on hands and knees combing through pig-faeces, the play was originally regarded as a parable on Prosperity, and many in the Marches were outraged to discover that the League playhouses were playing it as a farce.