Sentinel Stone

Crime and Punishment
Author Keith Baker
Series Campaign Style
Publisher Atlas Games
Publish date 2003

A sentinel stone is a magical device that’s used to enforce the law in mystically advanced societies. A small gemstone is set with a thin triangular plate of silver or gold. This plate is one and a half inches on a side, and covered with mystical sigils. To activate the stone, you must place it directly against the skin of your target’s skull and speak a lengthy incantation; this takes a full minute, so the target must either be restrained, unconscious, or a willing participant in the process. Once the incantation is completed, the stone fuses to the victim’s skull; it cannot be physically removed without killing the victim.

When you activate the stone, you describe a course of action that the victim must follow. This must be reasonably specific. Acceptable commands would include ‘Never tell a lie,’ ‘Never harm a human,’ or ‘Leave this land as quickly as possible and never return.’ Unacceptable commands would be things like ‘Be a better person’ or ‘Fly to the moon.’

Each stone is tuned to a specific ability score; if the victim disobeys the mandate of the stone, he suffers one point of temporary ability score damage. This effect cannot lower an ability score below 1, and the damage is recovered at the standard rate of 1 point per day. If the stone is set to a specific action ‘ such as ‘Never harm a human’ – the victim takes a point of ability score damage each turn that he performs the prohibited action. If the action is more general – like ‘Leave the land as quickly as possible’ or ‘Locate the Orb of Gorac and return it to me’ – the victim takes one point of ability damage for every hour that he intentionally deviates from the directed course of action, not counting reasonable pauses for rest and meals.

A sentinel stone does have one positive side effect; the victim receives a +2 bonus to all Will saves and an additional +2 to saves against mind-altering effects, as the stone protects the victim from outside influences.

There are a number of ways to remove a sentinel stone. A lesser wish, miracle, or wish will remove the stone. Alternately, if the power of the stone is temporarily deactivated with dispel magic or greater dispel, a heal spell will allow the caster to remove the stone. Regardless of the method used, once a stone is removed it will immediately dissolve.

Strong enchantment; CL 12th; Create Wondrous Item, geas/quest; Price 75,000 gp