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“The new recruits can often be found staring at the relics in awe, whispering the stories they've heard since they were children to one another. Holy, they call them—and make no mistake, they are holy, but not in the way that people wish it. Every one of these trinkets is a tombstone, a memorial to a war so brutal that the mere act of surviving it made you a hero. Every bloodstained scrap of iron that lies behind glass or locked in a safe is all that remains of thousands of soldiers who died in the mud so that a few lucky souls could be hailed as legends. People look at our relics and speak of courage and glory, but not a one of them was worth the price we paid in people. Can you imagine what we could have had, if they'd lived instead? The art, the progress, the families they would have made?”
— Jaqualine Cairr, Knight of Lastwall
Allies
Umble and Thoot
Nosoi and Vanth Psychopomps
One is a Vanth named Thoot, a looming skeletal humanoid with large wings and a metallic jackal mask for a head. Thoot doesn't speak, communicating with hand gestures and unsettling gazes. A Nosoi named Umble rides on Thoot's shoulder. Umble appears to be a black raven wearing a porcelain mask. Unlike Thoot, she is extremely chatty—even making up impressive-sounding words when she can't find the right one—and greets the PCs with self-interested excitement.
Custodians over a small valley of the dead within the Boneyard, the people of Roslar's Coffer fall under their jurisdiction. While not well thought of by their supervisor, Mictena, they nevertheless attend to their duties to the best of their - admittedly limited - abilities with all the enthusiasm they can muster.
While they do not understand the condition of the Survivors of Roslar's Coffer, they sympathize with their plight, and will do everything in their power to help them get home to the land of the living.
Artifacts
Lady's Mercy
Boons of the Lady of Graves, these tokens are rarely given by Pharasma and only to those chosen in service of the boneyard. More often, these enter circulation after being plundered from her treasury with the thieves mistaking them for common coins, unaware of the curse they bring upon themselves for such theft.
When taken by a creature, these coins bind to their souls, and can only be removed, sold, or traded with beings capable of engaging in the soul trade. If a creature ends their turn at 0hp or less but are not slain, they flip a coin. If heads, the coin takes effect, but if tails, the coin does not take effect in this instance. If a creature has multiple coins bound to their soul, only one coin is flipped per turn.
When a coin takes effect, if the creature possessing the coin is worthy of it, they are immediately restored to 1hp. If they are unworthy, their body is consumed, as via destruction. After a coin is used, it crumbles to dust.
Destruction: These coins can only be destroyed by using them, by the personal touch of the Lady of Grave's or one of her usher's, or by the destruction of the Boneyard itself.
Cloak of Passage
A Boon of Barzahk, the Passage, these patchwork traveling cloaks are worn by those who have walked the Dead Roads with the Usher of Mortal Souls.
These cloaks grant the wearer a resistance bonus to saving throws as Cloaks of Resistance, with a bonus equal to 1 plus the creatures experience as decided by the GM (typically 1/4 HD, or advancing by 1 for every completed book in an adventure path) with a maximum bonus of +5
These cloaks are soul-bonded magical items, vanishing when removed and manifesting when the soul-bonded creature moves at least 5 feet. This item may be freely selected by a character with the arcane bond or implements abilities, or a similar effects, without any of the associated costs of changing a bonded item. For the purposes of bonded armor, this item counts as light or unarmed armor with no armor bonus, armor check penalty, or maximum dexterity.
When a creature wearing the cloak of passage is subjected to a magical effect that sends them to a random plane, they are always sent to the Dead Roads in the Boneyard. Similarly, when such a creature is subjected to a teleportation effect, they always arrive on a suitable surface, and never take damage from being shunted to an appropriate space, though this protection does not extend to other passengers of such spells.
These cloaks may be worn by creatures while in a corporeal or incorporeal form, though they may not be worn by undead and provide no benefit to creatures who are neither alive nor dead. While wearing one of these cloaks, any effect that prevents incorporeal creatures from passing, through, such as a ghost-gate or anti-magic field also prevents the wearer from passing through unless they first remove the cloak.
Destruction: This cloak crumbles to ash if the creature it is soul-bonded with becomes undead.
Relics and Storied Magical Items
Each relic was once a typical magic item that played a central role in a massively important event, increasing dramatically in potency as it drew power from its shaping of fate. Occupying a space somewhere between artifacts and magical items, relics are powered by Zeitgeist, using their storied history to enhance their powers, but as relics fade into obscurity and stories cease to be told, they wane in both power and potency. Typically, to restore a Relic to its full majesty, it must be used to accomplish a number of triumphs as stories are told of it anew. However, certain relics may be reawakened to its former glory by being used to fight the same evils they once faced by one who is worthy of it.
Roslar's Armor
The personal armor of the heroic paladin Ervin Roslar, this mithral breastplate is emblazoned with a red-winged rapier, the symbol of Arazni. Tiny runes etched along the collar read "Faithfulness always to the Red Crusader."
This mithral breastplate has no enhancement bonus and seemingly no magical properties, save that it still has a lingering magical aura. This armor counts as a holy symbol of Arazni for the purpose of acting as a divine focus.
Worthiness Task: Unknown
Thoot's Reaper
Every Vanth carries a distinctive adamantine scythe as both a weapon and a symbol of its duty. This particular scythe belongs to a oft-silent one named Thoot, though its powers are not fully manifest in those not in service to the boneyard.
This Adamantine Scythe has no enhancement bonus and seemingly no magical properties, save that it still has a lingering magical aura. This weapon counts as a holy symbol of Pharasma for the purpose of acting as a divine focus.
Worthiness Task: Unknown
Storied Magical Items
Crypt Rod
Candy-stripped like a barber pole, this rod was utilized by the Tooth Fairy Matriarch of the Palace of Teeth to find graves and tombs to plunder for the last organ to fade to time - teeth.
This 3-foot-long iron rod has a flanged, conical head and strikes as a +1 light mace. On command when held in hand, the rod points in the direction of the closest grave, tomb, or cairn within 500 feet. If the wielder concentrates on a specific type or subtype of creature, the rod identifies only gravesites that hold the remains of that type of creature. The rod can search for the remains of a specific individual if the wielder carries an item that the individual owned in life.
Cryptstone Weapons
These odd-looking weapons were gifted to the Survivors of Roslar's Coffer by a psychopomp friend, carrying with them the otherworldly powers of the Boneyard.
Cryptstone is a dense gray stone scavenged from the mausoleums of the Graveyard of Souls in the Boneyard. While cryptstone may appear ancient and pitted, the supernatural essence of the Boneyard has infused it with power over the eons. A weapon made of cryptstone grants a +1 bonus on weapon damage rolls against undead creatures; this damage is multiplied on a critical hit. Additionally, any nonmagical weapon made of cryptstone affects incorporeal undead as if it were a magic weapon, and weapons made of cryptstone that have the disruption special ability increase the DC of that ability by +1.
Nine-Eves Key
The Nine-Eaves key grants its bearer magical access to both doors and enchantments.
This small iron key has the number 9 and a right triangle engraved upon it. While the Nine-Eaves key is held, the bearer can use open/close at will, but only to open, not to close. Once per day as a standard action, the bearer can touch the Nine-Eaves key to a magic item. For the following 24 hours, all Use Magic Device skill checks to use or activate the touched magic item gain a +4 insight bonus.