Alternia Comics

This is one of the first artifacts I came up with for Mystic Frontiers.

"Nothing insulates us like space. Nothing keeps us safe like proper timing."

These were the observations of Mastrax, the legendary master of arcane magic who walked on Ifrai in the early days of the Gordainean age. He made them watching his close friend, the Lady Ardencia Ardolahn, in battle. He noticed that although the warrior could withstand mighty blows on her shield, doing so took expert timing. He also saw that the moments she was best able to strike back were when she managed to avoid an attack entirely.

Thus, Mastrax set out to create this shield. Made from an alloy of Mithril and Adamantite by a secret formula lost now to the ages, this heavy shield is a long, broad oval with an hourglass embossed in the center and stars all around it. It is a +5 Shield of Dancing, but that is only the beginning of its power. Once every four rounds as a free action, the wielder can Blink as per the spell. For a total of 2 minutes (20 rounds) every day, the wielder can displace his image as a displacer beast does; these rounds need not be consecutive, and may be declared as an immediate action any time during a round. Three times a day as a move-equivalent action, the wielder can turn back the effects of the last round on himself, negating any damage and other effects, whether harmful or benefitial, that occured since the beginning of his previous turn. The wielder can use the Teleport spell and the Timestop spell twice each every day. Finally, once a day for 10 consecutive rounds, the wielder can cause a time shift around himself, making it apear to all senses as if he were still where he was standing the preveious round. Nothing short of divine intervention (which doesn't HAPPEN much in Mystic Frontiers) can reveal the wielder's true location, because according to any detection method, whether divine, arcane, or natural, the wielder is doing what he was doing exactly six seconds ago. Thus, during this time, the wielder gains attacker's benefits as if invisible, does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and since no spellcaster can successfully target him, any spell that requires the caster to do so fails. Even magic missiles fail, though an area of effect spell will still affect the wielder normally if his REAL self is within that area of effect (for example, if a sorcerer targets a fireball on the wielder's image, and the wielder did not move far enough to be outside that fireball's radius). For clarity's sake, all the shield's other powers are available to the wielder, including Blink, though using the Displacement ability provides no added benefits.

Lady Ardencia used this shield to protect the fledgling kingdom of Kagnar her entire life. She finally died in battle against the would-be demigod Fe'ankoth - or so it seemed. When Fe'ankoth struck the final blow, Ardencia unlocked some deeper version of the time-reversing power the shield posessed and actually turned back the effects of the last ten minutes on her body. Thus, as Fe'ankoth stepped over her broken form to attack those performing the ritual that would banish see him banished, Lady Ardencia stood and turned to face him once more. During this second battle, the effect of the shield kept her exactly as she was when she arose, forestalling the effects of every deadly strike and every foul spell until some other time. Then, the ritual finished and the demon king banished, the effect remained in place long enough for Ardencia to say farewell to her friends. When it faded, each and every wound she had sustained in the last two battles of her life, the wounds she had "forestalled until it was convenient," as one of her friends wrote later, came back to her all at once. Her broken but victorious form was returned for burial to her home in Eresthesca, Kagnar's capital, and she remains one of Kagnar's greatest and most legendary heroes.

The shield itself disappeared when the effect faded, so no one knows if the shield could do it again, or even if the shield still exists. Some legends say Lady Ardencia's spirit became one with the powerful artifact and that it guards Eresthesca, making the the walls as impenetrable as time itself. Others say that this final battle left the shield drained not only of its power but its substance, and that it exists no more. Even so, stories abound of which dank dungeon it lies in, now, or of which hero or villain now carries it.