620_17668_DraconomiconA.qxd 9/8/03 11:15 AM Page 84
CHAPTER 2:
A DM’S GUIDE TO DRAGONS
LAIR WARDS Lair wards are a special kind of wondrous item that dragons often use to protect their lairs and hoards. They are identical to certain kinds of wondrous architecture used in humanoid-built strongholds and dungeons, as detailed in the Stronghold Builder’s Guidebook. Essentially, lair wards are immobile (or practically immobile) magic items, and they follow all the normal rules for the use of magic items. See the Stronghold Builder’s Guidebook for information on creating these items and determining the market price for new items. Most lair wards affect an area defined as a “single cavern.” This need not be an actual cavern; such an effect wards an area of approximately 400 square feet. Disabling a Lair Ward: As a stationary magic item, a lair ward is essentially identical to a magic trap (even though some have beneficial rather than harmful effects). A character with the trapfinding ability (including rogues and characters affected by a find traps spell) can use Search to find lair wards and Disable Device to deactivate them. The DC for both checks is 25 + the spell level of the highest-level spell used in the lair ward’s construction. A successful Disable Device check suppresses the ward’s magical properties for 1d4 rounds, just as if the character had cast dispel magic on it. If the character beats the DC by 10 or more, she suppresses its magical properties for 1d4 minutes instead. Black Luminary: This 3-foot-wide steel half-orb sheds darkness in a 20-foot radius around itself. Not even creatures who can normally see in the dark can see through it, and it cancels out any normal light, as well as magical light of 1st level or lower. If magical light of 2nd level (such as continual flame) is brought into or cast in the area, it and the black luminary cancel each other out until the light spell expires or is removed from the area. Higher-level light spells, such as the daylight spell, are unaffected by a black luminary’s darkness. The orb has a shutter that enables a person standing beneath a ceiling-mounted black luminary to conceal or reveal the item (and the resulting darkness) with a move action. Faint evocation; CL 3rd; Craft Wondrous Item, darkness; Price 6,000 gp. Black Luminary, Pitch: This 4-foot-wide steel half-orb sheds deeper darkness in a 60-foot radius around itself. Not even creatures that can normally see in the dark can see in this darkness, and it cancels out any normal light as well as any magical light of 2nd level or lower. If a daylight spell is brought into or cast in the area, it and the pitch black luminary cancel each other out until the light spell expires or is removed from the area. The orb has a shutter that enables a person standing beneath a ceiling-mounted pitch black luminary to conceal or reveal the item (and the resulting darkness) with a move action. Faint evocation; CL 5th; Craft Wondrous Item, deeper darkness; Price 15,000 gp.
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Bright Luminary: This 4-foot-wide steel half-orb sheds daylight in a 60-foot radius around itself. Creatures affected by normal daylight are affected by a bright luminary as well. If magical darkness is brought into or cast in the area, it and the bright luminary cancel each other out until the magical darkness expires or is removed from the area. The orb has a shutter that enables a person standing beneath a ceiling-mounted bright luminary to conceal or reveal the item with a move action. Faint evocation; CL 5th; Craft Wondrous Item, daylight; Price 15,000 gp. Cavern of the Earthbound: Within the walls of this cavern, the fly spell does not function. Characters who are flying when they enter the cavern float to the ground as if the spell’s duration had expired. When they leave the cavern, any fly spells whose durations have not expired return to normal efficacy. Moderate abjuration; CL 7th; Craft Wondrous Item, spell immunity; Price 14,000 gp. Cloudgathering Orb: This 4-foot-wide crystal orb keeps the weather nasty (thunderstorms in spring, torrential rain in summer, sleet in autumn, and blizzards in winter) around a lair for a 2-mile radius. Anyone attempting to magically alter the weather in this area must make an opposed caster level check against the cloudgathering orb’s power to succeed. See pages 93–95 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide for information on weather effects. Moderate transmutation; CL 11th; Craft Wondrous Item, control weather; Price 33,000 gp. Cavern of Babble: Anyone who enters this cavern must make a DC 14 Will save or have any words that she speaks come out as unintelligible gibberish. The exact nature of the transmuted sounds is determined by the creator of this magic item at the time of creation. This effect makes it impossible for anyone in the cavern to communicate verbally with anyone else. Additionally, it prevents a spellcaster from casting a spell that requires a verbal component. Faint transmutation; CL 5th; Craft Wondrous Item, sculpt sound; Price 7,500 gp. Cavern of Silence: All sounds made within this cavern are negated (as if by a silence spell). Making a DC 13 Will save allows a character to speak normally (including casting spells with vocal components), though other sounds remain dampened. This property doesn’t affect sounds created outside this cavern. Faint illusion; CL 3rd; Craft Wondrous Item, silence; Price 3,000 gp. Hurricane’s Eye: This 5-foot-wide crystal orb maintains hurricane-force winds (see page 95 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide) around the outside of the lair at all times. The eye of the hurricane (the safe, calm part) is a cylinder with a diameter of up to 80 feet. If the lair is larger than this, multiple orbs can be linked together by overlapping the eyes. Any section that is surrounded by eyes on all sides automatically becomes a part of the eye, turning the whole
