The Barrier Isle Lantern

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Uncommon Requires Attunement Wondrous Item
Weight 2 lbs
Cost 600 gp at source, purchased directly from the glass-blowing family on the outermost Barrier Isle -- and only to buyers they approve of. On the open market: 400-800 gp depending on whether the buyer understands what they have. A party equipping a Nexus expedition who understands the Wanderer Ward specifically would pay upward of 2,000 gp.

Magical Properties

Uncommon. A hooded lantern made by the fishing communities of the Barrier Isles, whose light has properties that function specifically within the region approaching the Nexus.

The Barrier Isle Lantern looks like any well-made fishing lantern -- hooded iron construction, hook for hanging, glass panels that are slightly thicker than standard to withstand coastal weather. The glass is the tell: it is pale green rather than clear, and in ordinary use this simply gives the light a faint greenish cast that is useful for night fishing and unremarkable otherwise. Past the Thinning, the green light behaves differently from ordinary light. The Barrier Isle communities have known this for generations. They do not discuss it with outsiders, not because it is a secret exactly, but because it is the kind of knowledge that feels like it belongs to the people who live with it.

The lanterns are made by a specific family of glass-blowers on the outermost inhabited island, using a glass formula that includes sand from the Thinning's edge. The family does not advertise this. They produce perhaps twenty lanterns a year. They will sell to outsiders who come to them respectfully and ask directly. They will not sell to outsiders who send representatives or attempt to replicate the glass formula.

Properties

  • True Light: Within the Nexus's sphere of influence (the region past the Thinning and anywhere Nexus Wanderers have been reported), the lantern's light reveals distances and spatial relationships accurately, ignoring the Nexus's distortion effects. Within the lantern's 30-foot bright radius, distances are what they appear to be.
  • Wanderer Ward: Nexus Wanderers cannot approach within 10 feet of the lantern's light source while it is lit. They are not harmed by this ward -- they simply will not enter the radius. A Wanderer that was within 10 feet when the lantern is lit moves to the edge of the radius and stops.
  • Navigation: While holding the lantern within 100 miles of the Nexus, you cannot become lost by nonmagical means and have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to navigate.
  • Fuel: The lantern burns ordinary oil but consumes it at half the normal rate within the Nexus's sphere of influence, as though the green light is more efficient in the environment it was made for.