Oxinley Vase

This tall crystal vase was discovered in the ruins of Oxinley castle. The adventurers who uncovered it found it being held by a weathered statue. The adventurers got a good price for the vase in Shaon, along with all of the small animal statues they also found nearby.
The vase was purchased by Averal, an ambitious member of one of the branches of the Renkart family, who equated success with being able to fill his home with art and objects from previous ages. The way the light caught the cut crystal and created myriad colours patterns on the walls as the sun moved around absolutely mesmerised him and he was sure those he invited to his home would be equally captivated.
The vase was positioned in the middle of the entrance hall, carefully placed so that the evening sun would shine onto it as the guests were arriving. It proved to be quire the conversation piece, and Averal was delighted by the way his social stock was rising. He was waiting to greet the last of his guests when all sound inside the hall stopped. Fearing something had happened to the vase Averal dashed inside and found that while the vase was in one piece, all of his guests and the servants in the hall had turned to stone. Quickly realising that the important thing was not to get caught, Averal ran over to give orders to the servants that hadn;t been in hall, giving them an assortment of tasks that would prevent them looking in the hall for some time.

With no witnesses around, Averal hastily grabbed anything of significant value from his house and called for a wagon to be made ready. A hastily scribbled note was sent off accusing the only guest yet to arrive of having caused the petrification before Averal made his way out of Shaon and down towards Filishar. Once at the port town Averal was obliged to sell some of his artwork, including the vase in order to recoup the losses from abandoning his business.

Averal was eventually arrested for his attempted deception about the cause of his guests turning to stone and he was forced to pay the costs of returning everyone affected back into their natural state

The vase passed through the hands of several collectors before there was another unforunate incident. The vase had been placed on in upper floor window that caught the evening sun. The shifting colour patterns created by the vase on the ground outside the building had attracted quite a crowd. A crowd that was turned to stone in a brief flash of light. Fortunately for those involved the authorities were fairly quick on the uptake and the petrified people were safely moved out of the way until the curse could be undone. However, by the time the authorities arrived the vase had vanished.

The header was created in Flowscape and relates to Baramith.