Faux Torches

"Faux Torches" is a generic term for magical items incoporating the First Circle Invocation Spell Light. Faux torches are popular with adventurers but they are generally viewed as being impractical for anyone else, even wealthy people at least above ground. Many successful miners and others in Scarnoctis are fond of the magic item.
They can be placed on the end of a staff, on a weapon, a piece of jewelry, or even an actual torch. Either way is the item glows with heatless light roughly comparable to a non-magical torch.
Handheld items allow a ray of light to be pointed at things like a modern flashlight but most prefer a wearable version of the item because it lets someone work or fight in the dark with both hands free.
A faux torch is a finite magical item, but it is measured in "hours" not "charges". If light was made into a traditional wand, a "charge" of the light spell would last three hours and you would burn a whole charge even if you only wanted ten minutes of light, but a faux torch is more efficient because you only burn as much as fuel as you need.

I want one, how much does it cost?

by Me with Midjourney

The reagents to manufacture a faux torch cost roughly a dram of reagents per one hour of light. A dram of reagents usually trades for a silver piece though the price can get much higher if there is a shortage.
The light produced is going to be the same whether the faux torch is large or small, but the larger the item is, the more "fuel" it can hold. A small pendant can hold up to fifty hours of light and a large staff can hold four hundred hours of light.

20 d10s from Wikimedia Commons

An invoker who has the Craft Charged Item and can cast the Light spell, can make a faux torch relatively easily.


The character rolls Intelligence + Invocation (difficulty 6) every hour and creates one hour of light into an item per every success rolled.
Each success costs a dram of invocation reagents.
A failed roll costs three drams of reagents and a botch burns through 20 drams of reagents.
Whatever the maximum number of hours of light a faux torch is intended to hold (fifty, a hundred, three hundred) the creator needs to fork over an upfront cost of one tenth of this number in drams of durable reagents or one fifth this number in drams of common reagents.
Faux torches on the open market are typically sold at at a 20% markup, but as always, if you have a good relationship with the magic item crafter, you can get a better deal.

Significance

by Eron12 with Hero Forge

-Beznak Bristlebranch, Dwarf Deep Ranger

Most of the time, I use nonmagical means to light my way, but I have a faux torch as a backup.
While faux torches are pretty cheap as magic items go, it is still more than ten times more expensive as torches and lanterns. This magic looks like a purple chicken at first glance. Why would anyone bother?

Most obviously, if you are expecting combat, a faux torch can let you see and frees up a hand to carry an extra weapon or a shield that would otherwise be carrying a torch.
It rarely comes up, but a normal torch has to be lit with flint and steel and the flame has to be physically smothered to be put out. A faux torch can be turned on or off with a word. I've managed to confuse and trick some dim witted creatures by surprising them with a faux torch.
Nonmagical torches uses fire. Fire is a beautiful wonderful thing, but it is dangerous. If you have to wedge yourself or your party into a small space, you risk burning yourself or your mates with a torch.
Fire breathes. If a tunnel or cavern has limited air, you are going to run out of breathabe air much faster if you an open flame. Aphysixiation is a horrible way to die.
Less common, but still terrifying are flammable gasses which sometimes pop up unexpectedly and a torch can easily set them off. If you can explode your enemies, great, but I don't like exploding myself if i can help it.
So there you go. If you are traveling in a well mapped out area, you can probably stick with a normal lantern, but the more dangerous your location becomes, the more useful faux-torches become."

Item type

Magical

Rarity

relatively common