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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Muhol's Boxes

Muhol, known as Muhol the Mad, devoted his life to the study of alternate planes and dimensions of existence. When he vanished without a trace many years ago, most believed he was a victim of his own obsession, having either slipped into an alternate reality or brought something to his own plane of existence that was unhappy with the situation.

Muhol's Boxes are a collection odd little artifacts. Each box is a perfect six inch cube of lightweight, brightly stained metal (blue, yellow and red boxes are known to exist). Each box is featureless except for a small triangular keyhole in one side. There are twelve numbers inscribed in a ring around the keyhole. A single key, made of matching material, exists for each box. The triangular keyhole forms a sort of pointer, clicking into position as it matches each inscribed number. The interior of the box is lined with a soft black material, similar to felt, but impervious to alteration or damage. The walls of the box appear to be a quarter-inch thick, though the keys are over three inches long.

Muhol's Boxes (and the keys) radiate Legendary alteration and protection magic and Good divination magic. Concentrating on a box or key will give the owner a faint sense of the location of the missing part of the pair. The boxes are impervious to mundane damage or magical effects short of Legendary power.

To open a box, the appropriate key must be inserted in the lock and turned a full rotation in either direction. To close the box simply close the lid with the key removed. The key can be inserted, turned and removed freely, so long as the pointer is aligned to one of the twelve inscribed numbers.

Each of Muhol's Boxes is linked to the others. They are attuned to each other via the numbers around the keyhole. Placing an item within a box and closing the lid instantly transports it to another box according to the following rules:
  • The destination keyhole must be aligned to the same number.
  • The destination box must be closed and empty.
If no appropriate target box exists nothing happens to the item. If more than one box matches the criteria the destination is chosen at random.

Clearly owning two or more Muhol's Boxes could be quite useful. The problem with them is, no one knows exactly how many there are and who (or what) possesses them.

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