All That Glitters
It’s Gold Week here at Necromancers of the Northwest and, while it would have been really easy to simply make a bunch of magic items out of gold, I figure everyone’s kind of sick of golden armor, shields, and swords. So instead why not buy some magic gold? Magical coins, gold bars, and even a nugget of raw magical potential await, so check it out.
GILDED DOOM PRICE 306,000 gp
Slot none; CL 17th; Weight 5 lbs.
Aura strong abjuration
This hideous and hateful trap appears as a golden nugget, about the size of an adult human’s fist. Upon initial examination, it appears to be rough and featureless; close inspection, however, reveals the presence of a tiny eldritch rune that triggers the nugget’s dangerous magic.
Any creature who touches the gilded doom without first speaking a command word must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 23) or be transformed into pure gold. A creature transformed in this way is effectively petrified, except that he is turned into gold rather than stone, giving him hardness 5. Additionally, owing to the fact that the transformed creature is not actually made of stone, he cannot be freed from this petrification by a stone to flesh spell, but must be freed either with a special command word, or by use of a freedom spell. Destroying the gilded doom ends this effect on all creatures that have been transformed into gold by the trap. A creature that has been turned into gold in this way can be identified as not being a true statue with a DC 25 Perception check, and can generally be sold for market value. A Medium-sized creature has a market value of 1,000 gp, and the value doubles for every size category larger than Medium the transformed creature is, and is reduced by half for every size category smaller than Medium.
Create Wondrous Item, wish
SUMMONER’S COIN PRICE 850 gp (lesser), 3,400 gp (standard), 7,750 gp (greater)
Slot none; CL 17th; Weight —
Aura strong transmutation
These large golden coins are perfectly round and shine with a supernatural light, clearly marking them as magical. While accepted as legal tender in most places, the coins are far more valuable for their magical natures or as collection items. Each coin comes with a monster minted on the “heads” side and an arcane rune on the “tails” side.
When thrown into the air, these magical coins bang and pop before vanishing in a flash of golden light, producing a powerful monster made of pure gold to serve the coin’s tosser for 1 minute. A lesser summoner’s coin produces any creature that could be produced by summon monster III; a standard summoner’s coin produces any monster which could be summoned with summon monster VI; and a greater summoner’s coin summons any monster which could be summoned with summon monster XI. The creatures summoned by this spell appear as perfect replicas of the actual creature, but are made of solid gold, which has some effects on the summoned creature. A creature summoned by one of these coins gains DR 5/—, and its natural attacks are treated as one size category larger for the purposes of determining damage. However, these golden creatures are incapable of speech, and therefore are unable to cast spells with verbal components (though they may still use spell-like abilities).
Create Wondrous Item, summon monster III, summon monster VI, Summon monster IX
TRACEABLE TRADE BAR PRICE 1,200 gp
Slot none; CL 9th; Weight 10 lbs.
Aura moderate divination
This 10-lb. bar of high purity gold is exceptionally valuable, and comes marked with appropriate trade stamps and indications of quality, such that it can be redeemed in almost any market for a price of 1,000 gp. The gold bar, however, is laced with a powerful enchantment which allows it to be traced.
Each of these golden bars is magically paired with a small glass lens. As a standard action, a creature can whisper a command word to the lens in order to conjure a map of the 1,000 square mile radius surrounding the bar, which appears when you look through the lens, with a flashing red dot indicating the bar’s location on the map. A second command word causes the lens to fill with a vision of the area in a 10-foot radius around the gold bar, as though with the spell clairvoyance. The traceable trade bar allows the lens holder to see, but not hear, the goings on in the immediate area surrounding the golden bar. This tracking magic ceases to function if the bar and the lens are ever on different planes of existence.
Create Wondrous Item, scrying