Elder Sign (Minor Artifact)

Slot none; CL 20th; Weight 10 lbs.; Aura strong abjuration

DESCRIPTION

This stone tablet bears a carving in the shape of a twig with five branches. There are only a limited number of Elder Signs in existence, so each time one of these artifacts is destroyed, the universe loses one of the few things that can reliably keep cosmic horrors at bay—and inevitable doom draws closer.

A creature holding an Elder Sign can cast banishment, forbiddance, and greater dispel magic at will by reciting occult mantras, though all three effects work only against creatures and magic related to the Elder Mythos, including any of the following creatures (and other cosmic horror-related creatures, at the GM’s discretion):

Bhole, colour out of space, deep one, deep one elder, denizen of Leng, elder thing, flying polyp, gug, hound of Tindalos, Leng ghoul, Leng spider, mi-go, nightgaunt, ratling, shantak, shoggoth, spawn of Yog-Sothoth, star-spawn of Cthulhu, voonith, wendigo, and yithian.

Casting forbiddance this way doesn’t require a costly material component, but if the same Elder Sign is used to cast forbiddance again, the artifact’s connection to a previous location warded by the spell is severed, ending the first spell’s effects immediately. Casting banishment on one of the listed creatures works even if the creature isn’t extraplanar; in that case, it sends the creature to the place on the Material Plane from which it originated.

An Elder Sign can also banish a Great Old One (no save), but doing so causes the artifact to be consumed in a bright flame.

DESTRUCTION

Elder Signs are immune to damage, and the only certain way to destroy one of these artifacts is to banish a Great Old One with it.