The Virednith

Full Item Description
The Virednith is a pillar of an unidentifiable material roughly seven and a half feet tall and a 13 inches in diameter. The surface is smooth as glass and black. Geomantic patterns cover the entire surface of the object, these lines, loops and whorls serve to capture ambient magical essence and channel it into the interior of the Virednith. Halfway up the body of the Virednith is a black ring that is not physically connected to the central pillar, but it has hand holds enough that four men can lift the ring. Moving the ring moves the Virednith itself, and this was obviously created as a means of transportation.

The substance of the pillar and the ring defy attempts at identification. The material is not metal, glass, stone or any other terrestrial material. It cannot be harmed by any amount of heat, cold, cannot be shattered, scratched, chiseled or in any other way affected. Another oddity, the Virednith will always remain standing vertical, without any visible means of support. Attempts to tip it over meet with the literal 'immovable object'.

Casting spells to discern the nature of the Virednith end in failure 100% of the time. By magical sensory modes, such as identification spells, the Virednith does not exist. Touching the item reveals that it is by all means real, and it is not any sort of illusion that can be disbelieved. The geomantic design of the pillar ensures that any spells cast directly at the Virednith are absorbed into it without any effect. Spells cast in close proximity have a chance of being 'snatched' by the Virednith.

History
In ancient times, at the height of another civilization, there was a call for a terrible weapon, a weapon so horrible that it's very existence and threat of use would cow all dissidents and rivals. Research lasted for decades, with vast sums of gold being expended in the effort to create the greatest of all weapons. Many terrible things were created in the time, such as the Flamgra-Khaliz, a weapon that caused stone to ignite into flame, and the Anulo-Ghinn, a terrible monolith that would turn the sky to sackcloth and rains into ash. Yet none of these were wicked enough, did not inspire terror enough to be considered the most terrible of weapons.

Doszool Stone
The material of the Virednith was discovered by accident, a freak detonation of a permanent planar gate. The material present was changed, it became something else which researchers ended up naming Doszool. Later the suffix stone was added simply to end questions as to what it was. Doszool is a hyperdimensional material, simultaneously existing in the material world, the spirit world, and the entropic realm of the dead. Since things of the material world only exist in the material world, they cannot affect things made of Doszool other than to move it about. Spells function the same way, as they exist in at most, two realms. Only tools crafted of Doszool themselves can be used to shape the material.

The Quortek Stone
A pillar was crafted of Doszool, the inside was left hollow, with the top and bottom being threaded together with grooves as small and fine as the hair of a child. Inside of the vessel, more geomantic patterns were laid, these channeling the essence gathered on the surface of the pillar and focusing it into the center of the pillar. The flow of essence along these grooves are the sole cause of the pillar 'drinking' essence and spells cast at it.

The heart of the pillar is an irregularly shaped crystalline material, Quortek. This material is also completely artificial, but rather than being accidentally made, it was made in a studied and deliberate fashion. Demons are summoned and their spiritual essence, their dross, is drawn out, hammered, purified, condensed and crystallized into Quortek crystals. According the certain celestial principles, seven powerful demons were so gathered and destroyed to create the Quortek crystal set inside of the Virednith.

Power Overwhelming
The completed Virednith was charged with essence and under the cover of darkness was carried as close to an enemy stronghold as possible. A proclamation was sent to the enemy, declaring that unless they surrendered in their war, that they would suffer untold pain and loss. The answer was the expected execution of the messenger and a massing of troops at the border fortresses. At the appointed time, a volunteer Artificer activated the Virednith.

The fortress vanished in a brilliant white light, as did the village around it and half of the encamped army laying siege to the fortress. There was no blast, no roar, no monstrous heat to turn sand to glass and bodies to vapor. When the light receded and those present could see again, the fortress was mottled shades of black and gray, everything was, mottled and completely still. The breeze moved, and the figures of men crumbled into powder fine ash, as did the buildings, the trees, the animals in the field and even the stones of the fortress and the earth beneath the Virednith. Where there had once been thousands of soldiers and many more civilians, a large fortress and acres and acres of farmland was a bowl of ash 49 feet deep at the deepest. At the bottom sat the Virednith, completely unharmed.

Ultimate Surrender
Not understanding the mode of attack, the foes surrendered. Those close to the Virednith when was activated later perished, as the windblown ash itself proved to be poisonous, killing plants it fell on and causing those who breathed it in to choke on their own lungs and drown in their own blood.

Thaumaturgic Mechanics
The Virednith is a portal generator. By gathering massive amounts of magical energy and focusing it into the Quortek crystal at its heart, the pillar creates a roughly circular area that is displaced. The innate corruption of demonic essence directs this displacement towards the planar aspect of entropy and the Abyss. For the second that the entire area is displaced, all of the animating force, the cohesive force that makes up everything is swallowed by that plane.
When the displacement is reversed, only the material dross is returned, reduced to ash and tainted with the unwholesome essence of the void beyond. Souls slain by this method cannot be raised again, ever, even by the hands of the divine. Materials so destroyed are utterly destroyed, with no chance of repair or salvation.

Game Balance
Is this item too powerful? By all means yes, but it has several drawbacks to limit it's threat to a game. The most obvious limitation is that it has to be set off by hand. To use it, the villain, or evil PC would have to sacrifice himself ro trust a minion to set the Virednith off. Hard to rule the world when your uber-weapon makes you not exist any more. Less obvious is the fact that the Virednith does not come with an instruction manual, and their is nothing more than the inscription from the summary on the outside of the item. It is hard to do trial and error testing when success means your lab and research notes are instantly destroyed. Basically, here is a supremely powerful weapon, and no one knows how to use it, but the PCs and their players don't have to know that.

Plot Hooks