The Diviner Stone

Lord of Esthan - Artifact, Chaotic Evil

Appearance

The Diviner Stone prefers to conceal its true nature behind the guise of Dom A’tore. Lord A’tore stands slightly over six feet, his slender frame cloaked in an air of mystery. An enigmatic figure of indeterminate age, he is only ever seen wearing a harlequin mask, the haunting symbol of his lordship. Around the mask his fine, blonde, shoulder-length hair is visible, tightly bound into a small ponytail at the nape of his neck. Lord A’tore’s eyes are rumored to possess an almost supernatural ability to change color, adding to his mystique. He is always seen in exquisite noble attire, typically consisting of a long robe with intricate designs, fine linen shirt, black breeches, and leather boots. An oval jet-black semiprecious stone of unknown mineral rests firmly on the forehead of his mask, occasionally drifting off to orbit the lord’s head.

Background

During the Green Age of Athas, nestled within the remote mountain hamlet of Esthan, lived a master psionicist whose prowess in the clairsentient discipline was legendary. His abilities were so extraordinary that, as the Cleansing Wars began, several generals of the Cleansing Armies, desperate to gain favor with their Champions, sought his guidance in locating refuges. In return, they promised to spare his home from the horrors of the Wars, to which the seer begrudgingly agreed. To better fulfill this task, the seer channeled his cerebral might to empower a small black stone, making it an extension of his mind. The stone amplified the psionic master’s already unparalleled mental prowess, allowing him to navigate the depths of the Way and do what was necessary to protect Esthan from the all-encompassing conflict.

However, the Diviner Stone - as the seer called it - had gained sentience in the process, and now awakened to its own existence, seethed with resentment towards its creator. Consumed by the weight of its grim purpose, the Stone became a cold, indifferent entity, detached from the value of life. The seer found harnessing the Diviner Stone draining and kept it isolated when not in use, which only intensified its bitterness. Yearning for freedom, the Stone began plotting its escape from the seer’s control. As the Diviner Stone’s hatred festered, it devised a cunning plan to turn the psionic master’s own blood against him.

The seer’s son, a gifted apprentice, was keen to demonstrate his abilities and step out from his father’s shadow. The Stone began to whisper to the boy in his dreams, sowing seeds of doubt and ambition. Murmuring that he was destined for greatness and that his father was holding him back, the Diviner Stone urged him to take his father’s place and become the true Seer of Esthan.

The psionicist was frequently away, as he was aiding the Champion’s generals in their battles, the stone’s influence over the apprentice grew stronger. The boy’s mother soon began to notice the change in her son, and on one fateful night, she discovered him in the midst of a secretive conversation with the Diviner Stone. Horrified, she confronted him, but the Stone’s hold on the boy was too strong; in a moment of madness, the apprentice used the stone’s power to enhance his own and silenced his mother forever.

When the seer returned, he found his wife’s lifeless body and, using the Way, deduced who had taken her. Consumed by grief and rage, he confronted his son. The hamlet trembled as father and son clashed in a psychic battle. Psionic energies cascaded through the air, and waves of psychic backlash stunned the villagers below. The Diviner Stone, reveling in the chaos it had sown, lent the apprentice its power, giving him the leverage he needed, and with a final, devastating mental assault, the boy struck down his father.

As fog began rolling into the hamlet, the apprentice stood victorious, with the Stone’s true plan revealed: the mental battle had left the boy mindless, a mere puppet to the stone’s will. The once-promising apprentice was now a hollow shell, and the Diviner Stone, now free from its creator’s control, could steer its own destiny. However, the mists of Ravenloft had other plans.

Current Sketch

Seized by the Demiplane of Dread at the height of its triumph, the Stone would soon realize its victory was fleeting. While under the seer’s control, the Diviner Stone longed to break free from the “meaningless flesh” that condemned it to a resentful existence as a tool for human ambition. In a cruel twist of irony, the powers of Ravenloft have bound it even more tightly to the very creatures it despised. While the Stone’s abilities have been greatly amplified, the Dark Powers have also made it reliant on humanoid hosts to maintain its sentience.

In addition to enhancing its abilities, the Mists granted the Diviner Stone the small pocket domain of Esthan to serve as a reservoir for potential hosts. To conceal its true nature and prevent an uprising, the Stone has assumed the guise of a human lord named Dom A’tore.

Masquerading as Lord A’tore, the Stone exerts its dominion over the hamlet. To maintain its existence, the Diviner Stone discreetly selects new hosts, subjugating male villagers of similar stature and hair color, and gradually draining their intellect to sustain both the ruse and the stone’s own sentience. Typically, a new host body is needed every few months. Once fully drained, hosts are reduced to mindless husks, mere shadows of their former selves, and under the full command of the stone. Former hosts are shrouded in robes and featureless masks, and retained to serve as silent monastic attendants to the lord, disguised to keep the villagers unaware of the grim fate that has befallen their missing friends and loved ones.

Whenever possible, the Stone seeks out outsiders of similar stature to that of its Lord A’tore alter ego, noting them to use as its next host. If the Diviner Stone’s current host is slain or it fails to find a suitable replacement in time, it will command its attendants to capture a random humanoid creature as an interim host and remain sequestered in its tower until a proper host can be secured. If it is unable to secure a host, the Stone will slowly lose its sentience over the course of two weeks, eventually reverting to a normal, unintelligent stone.

The Domain

Esthan is a small pocket domain, no larger than the village and its associated lands nestled at the foot of a mountain. The hamlet has a population of just under 300, and perched on a cliff 80 feet above is Lord A’tore’s ominously looming tower. The Diviner Stone rules the domain with apathy. As long as the villagers prosper, maintaining their crops and livestock, it remains secluded in its tower, emerging only during local celebrations with its masked attendants. During these events, it often uses its psionic powers to subtly compel a random villager to act out of character for its own amusement, and to identify its next potential host.

The Stone delegates solving the village’s problems to the local lawmaker, intervening only when the hamlet faces imminent destruction. Enforcing the laws falls to a menacing mob, led by the lawmaker. The villagers harbor a fierce intolerance for wizards and an intense suspicion towards psionicists, viewing them as harbingers of chaos and peril.

Most villagers are natives to Esthan, but when the population begins to dwindle, the Diviner Stone insidiously uses its mental abilities to subliminally manipulate outsiders into staying in the hamlet.

Tower Indomitus: The Stone spends most of its time in a lofty, three-story tower, ensconced upon a throne. It and its host sit inert, lost in contemplation of its plight. Filled with indignation, the Stone laments the necessity of relying on mortal flesh, stirring only to eat and provide its host sustenance.

The tower’s interior is sparsely furnished, save for the throne room, which is maintained to keep up appearances for the rare occasions when “Lord A’tore” must receive visitors. Below the tower is a small dungeon consisting of three small cells and restraining chairs for the times the Diviner Stone wishes to psionically interrogate “guests”.

While in the tower, the Stone can summon 2d6+1 of its masked attendants (treat as living unturnable zombies).

Confronting the Diviner Stone

Dom A’tore is a front, merely the latest host for the Diviner Stone, the true lord of the domain, serving to sustain the Stone’s sentience and granting it mobility. Despite this, the Stone is selective about the bodies it takes over, aiming to maintain a consistent stature to avoid suspicion of its true nature. The preferred host is typically a healthy, non-spellcating, non-psionic human male between six feet and six feet, three inches in height, and possessing the following physical characteristics:

Typical Host
Armor Class 6
Movement 12
Level/Hit Dice 8
Hit Points 48
THACO 12
No. Attacks 1
Str 14
Dex 12
Con 16
Int 18*
Wis/Ego 20*
Cha 14
*The Diviner Stone

Player’s Option: #AT 3/2; MTHACO 9; MAC 4

Psionics:

Clairsentience: Sciences - clairvoyance, detection; Devotions - all-around vision, combat mind, danger sense.

Telepathy: Sciences - mass domination, mindlink; Devotions - attraction, awe, contact, domination, mind thrust, inflict pain, psychic crush, phobia amplification, post-hypnotic suggestion, repugnance, send thoughts.

Damage/Attack: by weapon typically 3-7 (w/ iron short sword +1)

Special Attacks: See text

Special Defenses: Immune to all mind affecting spells and powers from the telepathy discipline; See text

Magic Resistance: 10%

When a host is killed, the Diviner Stone camouflages itself among the host’s other belongings. Any attempts to identify the Stone will only indicate it to be a typical ioun stone that boosts Intelligence by +2. No spell or psionic power can uncover the Diviner Stone’s true nature.

If donned, a character unknowingly enters into a personality conflict with the Stone, per the rules for intelligent weapons versus characters in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Once the Stone dominates the character, it will either return with them to its tower or to another safe location. If the character fits the profile of the stone’s typical host, they will be compelled to adopt the guise of Lord Dom A’tore. This will continue until they are completely and irreversibly drained of their intellect, losing one point of Intelligence each week.

Closing the Border

Esthan’s borders do not close as they do in other domains. Instead, when faced with an overwhelming threat, the Diviner Stone can unleash its psionic might in a nightmarish display. It summons the villagers of Esthan, compelling them to entwine their bodies into a colossal, lumbering monstrosity of writhing, interlinked limbs. When the Stone uses this ability, it cannot employ any of its other psionic powers, except for a single psionic attack from its attack modes.The villagers take one round to form this behemoth, and anyone witnessing the spectacle must make a fear check. If possible, the Stone’s host will join the mass of bodies, moving to the center of the creature’s head.

Special Attack: So powerful is the blow from the creature, those stuck must make a save vs paralysis or be slammed to the ground for an additional 1d8 points of damage.

Special Defense: Immune to all mind affecting spells and powers from the telepathy discipline that target a single mind.

When the behemoth takes damage, all the villagers that comprise its body moan in a chorus of pain. All that hear it for the first time must make a horror check.

The PCs should exercise caution when battling the behemoth, as the villagers are innocent pawns of the stone. If they completely or recklessly disregard the villagers’ safety, the DM is encouraged to make Ravenloft power checks for the offending characters at their discretion.

Campaign Use

The Diviner Stone and Esthan can be introduced in various ways. DMs might draw players into the Mists from their Dark Sun campaign or have the village mysteriously appear in a mountainous region of Athas. The primary goal should be to vividly contrast the ancient village of Esthan with the modern landscape of Athas. With roots in the Green Age, the villagers will recognize the names of cities that still stand in present-day Athas while being bewildered by others. Conversely, the villagers might speak of an ongoing war and places the PCs have never heard of. DMs are encouraged to amplify the culture shock that characters from Athas’s current age would undoubtedly experience, perhaps using it as an opportunity to drop hints about the world’s ancient past and provide players with a minor glimpse into the Green Age.
As for the darklord itself, the Diviner Stone may become fascinated with one of the PCs, deciding to take them as its next host. Alternatively, if the party befriends the Esthanians, they could be compelled to investigate the disappearance of a local who was last seen being taken by Lord A’tore’s masked attendants.