Phlogiston Rod

Full Item Description
Manufacted exclusively by the enchanters of the Ordo Ignon, each Phlogiston Rod is nearly identical to all of the others produced. It is composed of a two foot long shaft of red alloyed iron and capped with a Bhuj type head. The Bhuj type head is characterized by having six faceted panels made of a durable crystal and with associated mace like flanges. The closest comparison is to a scaled down version of a footman’s morningstar or mace.

The crystal panels in the head of the rod are generally cut from red tassite or red xanthanite. This elemental resonance along with the firestone placed inside the head of the rod grant it it’s impressive fire manipulation powers.

History
Magic was a very common thing during the days of the Old World and as such magic tools and weapons were very common. The Phlogiston Rod was one such tool of that time. The demand for resources during the Empire was vast and entire forests were leveled to fuel it’s hunger for finished metals and fired glasses and porcelains. It was during the middle era of the Empire that the first fire rods appeared. These were more often than not primitive devices, little more than destructive fire spells cast into rods and staves. They were hard to control and were often more dangerous than the normal means of harnessing the power of fire. Other attempts were made, from chaining fire elementals to exotic devices to harness the ambient fire of the sun.

It was considered an accident when the first Phlogiston Rod was created. A rather craft minded enchanter had sought to create a sort of rod of light and improvising with a burnt-out Fire Rod and a Bhuj-type head inspired by a strange fusion of paper lantern and mace head, created the first Rod. Initially the item was intended to be a heating lamp to keep travelers warm and illuminated. A bit of experimenting later discovered that the new rod had the ability to affect the fire properties of mundane materials. With the Rod, a smithy could induce stone to burn rather than using wood, or a kilnmeister could use the rod to cause a piece of unset pottery to burn, effectively curing itself without fuel.

The Rod design was copied and within a decade, the Empire sponsored a guild for the manufacting of these rods. This eased the clear cutting of the forests as well as increasing the ability of the various industrial crafts to improve the quantity and quality of the goods they produced. While never really decreasing in price, the rod became common, even most small villages having a rod or two in their holdings.

The Rod as a Weapon
It is not known who began using the Rod as a weapon, but most accounts would give that person a special place in the nether realms. A Rod ignites the naturally occuring phlogiston in whatever it is used against, and while humans do not have much of the essential fire in their bodies, they have enough. A victim of a rod suffers from internal burns and blood loss from blood vessels and veins bursting. Continual application of the rod can reduce a body to ashes, but given the high water content, this is a rather slow procedure and one that will take 2 to 5 applications to fully kill/cook the victim. Use of the Rod as a weapon was quickly condemned by the Empire as being cruel and inhumane, even by their rather loose standards.

The Fate of the Rods
Most of the Rods were lost or destroyed during the Nightmare War and the dark years that followed. Those few that remain linger as unexplored treasures locking in roal vaults, sit in arcane laboratories or remain hidden in cellars where the current occupant has no knowledge of the tool that was left by their ancestors and forgotten.

Magic/Cursed Properties

All flammable materials contain phlogiston (derived noun form of the Greek phlogistos, meaning flammable), a substance without color, odor, taste, or weight that is liberated in burning. Once burned, the “dephlogisticated” substance was held to be in its “true” form, the calx.

Calx is a residual substance, sometimes in the form of a fine powder, that is left when a metal or mineral combusts or is calcinated due to heat.

A rod can be used to control existing flames, from artistic changes such as flame-sculpting to more practical applications such as increasing heat being produced or causing a very steady and even burn for delicate workings. It can also be used to ignite flammable items, generally simply touching the exposed head of the Rod to the item to be burned. Non-flammable items, such as stone, metal, or the like can be ignited with a rod, though this takes effort (expend a charge, a willpower point, spell point, whatever). Metal burns hot and quickly, while stone burns not as hot but can sustain ignition for a very long time.

The rod can be used to combat elementals, as it is capable of causing severe injuries to most common elementals. Fire Elementals are particularly vulnerable to this Rod as it literally causes their essence to cannibalize itself. While seemingly suicidal, a Rod can be used to ‘detonate’ a fire elemental.