Identifying Unstable Artifacts

While the magical and dangerous nature of most Unstable Magical Artifacts is apparent to the casual observer, a character may only be aware of the details of an Unstable Artifact by studying it. A determined spellcaster or scholar can identify most Unstable Artifacts with enough time and patience while a well-connected adventurer can attempt to locate a discrete and knowledgeable appraiser to evaluate and identify an artifact in their possession - albeit for a fee of course.


To find out exactly what an Unstable Artifact does, a character must spend a number of hours equal to the item's rarity analyzing it and may make an Average (dd) check with an appropriate Knowledge skill (as determined by the GM.) On a successful check, the item's basic properties are known, however depending on the dice result the specific qualities my still be withheld. If the check generates a or h they may be spent to cause a variety of effects not limited to increase and decreasing the time it takes to identify the object, hiding particular item qualities, or even upset the unstable nature of the artifact. There are also objects that can be acquired and utilized by characters when identifying Unstable Artifacts to greatly speed up the process.

Dice Result	Effect When Identifying an Unstable Artifact
a	Additional properties of the item are revealed.
aa	The time required to identify the item is reduced by 1 hour.
t	All of the item’s properties are known. If the item is cursed, additional insight into what is required to break the curse is known.
h	Fewer properties of the item are revealed. If the item has drawbacks, those should be the hidden properties, which players can find out once they effectively try to use the item.
hh	The time required to identify the item is increased by 1 hour.
d	While subjected to the caster’s own energy for a prolonged period of time, the item flares out with volatile and dangerous sparks which inflict one Critical Injury to the character, adding 20 to the result.

If a character is able to find someone who specializes in identifying Unstable Artifacts, they can provide the service for a price - usually silver equivalent to at least the item's rarity level X 100. Because of their expertise with these items, and the specialized tools they imploy, the normally take no more than a hour to have a whole batch of Unstable Artifacts studied and identified.