The Sealing Stone of Elysor

The Sealing Stone is a sphere of pale grey-green stone approximately the size of a closed fist, perfectly smooth, with a faint internal luminescence that is not light exactly -- more like the memory of light, visible only in near-darkness and only to those who know to look for it. It is not warm like the Heartwood Circlet. It is room temperature, always, regardless of how long it has been held.

It was shaped from stone taken from the base of the Life Tree -- the deepest root-stone, exposed only during the tree's occasional deep seasonal shifts, never cut or quarried but found already shaped by the tree's growth over thousands of years. Its preparation for its current purpose took forty years. Aelindrath was not the Sun King when that preparation began. He was Sun King by the time it was complete, which he regards as having been arranged rather than coincidental, though by whom or what he has never stated.

The sealing of the Reaches was enacted through the Stone on a specific night, in a specific ceremony, with the full Sun Court present. What the ceremony required of Aelindrath is not recorded in any document accessible to outsiders. What it produced is documented: the Reaches' borders closed, the Wild Elf patrols intensified, and the Stone went into the Sun Court's keeping rather than Aelindrath's personal possession. The distinction between these two things is significant in Halvaen governance. An object in the Sun Court's keeping belongs to the office, not the officeholder. Aelindrath could not take it with him if he left.

The seal it enacted is still active. The Stone is the mechanism that sustains it.

Properties

• The Active Seal: While the Stone exists and is maintained in the Sun Court's keeping, the borders of the Elysor Reaches are sealed by a persistent magical effect. Non-Halvaen creatures attempting to enter the Reaches' forest boundary without explicit sanction from the Sun Court must succeed on a DC 23 Wisdom saving throw or become turned around and exit the forest by the most direct route, with no memory of attempting to enter. This effect resets each time a creature exits.
• Border Sense: The attuned holder always knows when a creature has entered or attempted to enter the Reaches' sealed boundary, and can perceive the approximate nature (number, general power level) of any group attempting entry.
• Unsealing: The sealing can be lifted entirely by the attuned holder as an action, requiring a DC 25 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, the attempt fails and cannot be made again for 30 days. On a success, the sealing is lifted permanently and cannot be re-enacted without a year-long ceremony and access to the Life Tree's root-stone. This is not a reversible decision.
• The Cost of Sealing: The attuned holder ages at twice the normal rate for their race while the Stone is in their possession and the seal is active. For Aelindrath, whose natural lifespan does not end through aging, this property is theoretical. For any shorter-lived creature who somehow came to hold it, it would not be.