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NAME: The Grandfather Clock
Aura Overwhelming transmutation; CL 21st; Slot none; Weight 175 lbs
DESCRIPTION: The Grandfather Clock (sometimes referred to as the Aeon Clock) is a tall, heavy clock hewn out of a single piece of wood. The clock face is carved from a large piece of bone and features two spindly hands. It is crude, ancient, and has a seamless door with no obvious handle. The interior reveals a void of darkness, in which swings an infinitely large pendulum of bone. Looking inside causes you to go mad, as the insanity spell, unless you succeed on a DC 30 Will save. The clock never needs to be set, and once you have heard it, the tick, tock sound seems to linger with you no matter how far away you are from the clock.
Once a day, The Grandfather Clock can stop time for one hour. You must be within line of site to the clock and speak a command phrase (“proin tempus”). This functions as a time stop spell, except you cannot cast spells or use spell completion or spell trigger items while time is stopped. Time stops for you and any entities you are touching when you speak the command word (up to 21 people). After the hour is up, you (and any who were touching you when time stopped) return to normal relative time, no matter your distance from the clock. You can return to normal time as a free action, but cannot use the clock again for one day, even if you end the effect early. Additionally, every time you use the clock there is a cumulative 10% chance that you attract the attention of an Bythos Aeon who appears before you to demand an explanation for your tampering with the time stream.
HISTORY: The Grandfather Clock was first created by the inscrutable Aeons. It is a physical representation of the time stream itself, and seems to surface during critical turning points throughout the history of the multiverse, almost as a physical embodiment of cataclysmic change and the infinite possibilities of the time stream.
Because of the potential abuses by any entity who uses the clock, the Aeons guard it very closely, and continually monitor the time stream for ripples indicating that the clock has been activated. Deities (particularly those with dominion over time) also watch The Grandfather Clock, and may intervene if they deem it necessary.
The Grandfather Clock is effectively part of the time stream itself, and therefore it cannot be destroyed without undoing time itself. Attempting to break the clock (with a hammer, or dropping it off a cliff, or lighting it on fire, using a shatter spell, etc) simply causes it to disappear, only to reappear in another random location on a random plane 1d10 days later. To fully destroy the clock, you must enter the time stream and travel to a nexus point, where all past events come together and burst into an infinite number of futures, and smash the clock with a cold iron hammer. It should be noted that doing so may irrevocably destroy the planes and all reality as it is currently known or understood, and that any individual attempting to do so will draw the attentions of very powerful outsiders and gods.
SAMPLE TREASURE HORDE: The Grandfather Clock should never appear as part of a random treasure horde. If it is in the lair of a randomly encountered monster, it should be for a purpose; typically because whoever finds it will somehow be instrumental in shaping the future of their world.
Now for the legal stuff:
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Sources Used: Core Rulebook and Ultimate Combat
Jandor’s Magic Item Series by Anthony Borzotta is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.d20pfsrd.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/community-use.
Captain Jandor's Grimoire 