Figurine Overview

Figurines are miniature golems that most adventurers would mistake for figurines of wondrous power. They are weaker than full-sized golems, but each kind has its own deadly gifts. Every known figurine comes from a single jungle realm of the misty dread realm, and their materials and subjects reflect that land.

Spirits of the dread realm animate them, binding them to it as all its golems are bound. Carried beyond its misty borders, they become mere ornaments.

The realm's gem cutters, potters and ivory workers, working in its three cities, have long been masters of intricate miniatures. Their statuettes, ornaments and jewelry show tigers, monkeys, insects and other jungle life and stand for luck, strength, wisdom or some hoped-for event. Families sometimes give them to temples as offerings.

Legend says the first living figurines were made by a scholar named Ravesh Mandakar of the realm's great university. With local craftsmen he built several free-standing figures and tried to fill them with power. He succeeded, but the magic he called on was forbidden to mankind, and within a week his creations killed him.

Word of his work spread, and other scholars copied it, producing several varieties. Their notes were carefully kept in the university's archives, but every scholar who made a figurine is now dead, killed by what they made.

Five kinds are known: crystal, porcelain, ivory, ceramic and obsidian. Each has its own powers, but all share certain traits. Their enchantments make them hard to damage, so only +1 or better weapons can hit them. Being nonliving, they are immune to poison, disease, paralysis and similar effects, and to magic that targets the mind or life force, such as sleep, finger of death, hold or charm.

All are vulnerable to dispel magic. If the caster's level equals that of the figurine's creator, it must save vs. death magic or collapse, seeming dead and showing no aura to detection magic, then revive after as many turns as the caster has levels. If the caster outranks the creator, a failed save vs. death magic destroys it outright.

Making a figurine is just as exacting and draining as making a full-sized golem. Each is a magic item and an artwork at once, demanding loving care to house its animating spirit. Because the work is so obsessive, every month of it calls for a dark powers check that fails 5% of the time.

The maker needs the right crafting skill, such as potter, gem cutter or ivory carver, and some way to cast the needed spells. Proxies can handle either job, but they must be closely supervised to prevent mistakes. Crafting takes one month of dedicated labor, followed by a full month of animating rituals; any interruption means starting over. Scrolls, devices or the maker's own casting can supply the spells, and each type's entry lists the spells and materials it requires.

Like other golems, figurines loathe all living things and obey only through their creator's will. There is a 10% chance each month that one breaks free, and the creator's death frees it instantly, even if he is later brought back, as does his escape from the dread realm. A freed figurine always tries to kill its old master and become its own creature.

A clever one may hide its freedom, letting its maker grow complacent before it strikes. Free figurines sometimes let others claim them and serve a while, but in time they turn on these new masters too.

Full instructions for each type are recorded in rare tomes called manuals of figurines. The realm's leading sages insist only one copy of each exists, locked away in the great university, yet copies are said to turn up in other domains now and then, and some suspect the originals were stolen long ago and the university's copies are fakes.