Gate of Ivory (Item 2)
Appearance
The ivory gate is a single composite piece, made of dentine and covered by a thick layer of enamel; in essence, it is one large tooth or perhaps tusk. The base is eight feet across, four feet to either side and made up of six 'legs' upon which it crouches - like a crab. The gateway is a nearly perfect oval from its base where it fuses seamlessly with its legs, to the top of its arch. The oval gateway is six feet wide and ten feet from the base to the top of the gate's arch. The gateway is ancient and yellowed by time, much like ivory and there are pale carvings of ideographs over the entirety of its surface.
Background: According to legend, this gate first appeared three thousand years ago and has had a wide variety of owners and uses; sadly, this gate has a decidedly addictive quality and historically, they usually come to a bad end. It is mention in the works of Homer, specifically the Odyssey. It has regularly disappeared, only to resurface elsewhere centuries later.
Current Events: In the autumn of 211 C.E., a hermetic sorcerer was able to fully analyze the gate, with a ritual rumored to have been created by Hermes Trismegistus.
Parameters
- The ritual to create this gate, was cast approximately 4000 B.C.E.
- The ritual to create this gate is rank eight of Koldunic sorcery.
- The ritual is called ‘Gate of Ivory'.
- The common identity of the caster is Triglav, childe of the Tzimisce Ancient.
- The gate is also a body-relic of the Tzimisce Methuselah Triglav.
- Those who use this gate may become 'attuned' to its emanations over time, which can grant mastery over dreams. But excessive use of the item can lead to an addiction or dependence upon this gate, other subsidiary derangements can also occur as the user becomes more estranged from reality.
- On occasion the gate spawns nightmares of epic proportions that tend to linger and enter the dreams of mortals and undead alike.
- Failures in using the gate have no extra penalties, but botching a roll related to any of its primary powers will result in an automatic derangement - as the nightmare spawned is too horrifying for the user to accept.
- Those who are in the process of using the gate, may not be surprised by an ambush.
Primary Powers
- The user may scry dreams that have already been dreamed. (Perception + Dream = A variable difficulty.) Difficulty may vary from 3 (last night) to 9 (millennia ago), multiple successes may be needed depending on how many millennia into the past the subject is scrying.
- The user may scry the dreams of another as they occur. (Perception + Dream = 6.) Each success allows the user to view another dream.
- The user may send another dreams or nightmares.(Manipulation + Dream = Difficulty varies.) Simple dreams are difficulty 3, while intricately detailed dreams that can be mistaken for reality are difficulty 9.
- Entering the dreams of another being personally and making it real require the expenditure of a willpower.
Secondary Powers
- While in proximity to this gate, an individual who has used it may clearly and consistently recall his or her dreams.
- Those in proximity to the gate, consistently dream and have especially vivid dreams.
- While in proximity to this gate, the user gains near mastery over his or her dreams.
- Those who use the gate often and are in proximity, may determine if someone within line of sight has dreamed recently and of what that dream consisted.
- While in proximity to the gate, the user may divine the meaning of another person's dreams, but that individual must be within sight of the gate or the subject of a dream scrying.
- Those who carry objects into the dream with them, may leave those objects there to be retrieved later.
- While touching the gate, the user may determine the deepest desire of a person who is within line of sight or is subject to a dream scrying.
Quotation
- "Two gates the silent house of Sleep adorn;"
- "Of polish'd ivory this, that of transparent horn:"
- "True visions thro' transparent horn arise;"
- "Thro' polish'd ivory pass deluding lies."
- - Virgil, The Aeneid
