Item:Stable elemental cube of water

stable elemental cube of water
Look:	An amalgamation of water states condensed into a well-defined cube that could fit comfortably in an average Human's palm. The greatest share of the cube has the appearance of liquid water, though it is currently maintaining its shape like a solid. Pockets of ice and vapor drift through the cube, occasionally bouncing off its inner wall and wandering another direction. You realize this peculiar item could stand further study.
Weight:	5 stones
Metal:	No
Appraised Cost:	0 Kronars0 Lirums <br />0 Dokoras <br />0 LTBpoints <br />0 Tickets <br />0 Scrips <br />
Properties:	This is an item. This item has more than normal or unusual verbs. This item is magical.
Dimensions:	1 length x 1 width x 1 height
Sources:	Source is Sleeping Dragon Corn Maze 447/End loot, Hollow Eve Festival 443, Drathrok's Duskruin 448/End Loot

Overview

The gift from Hollow Eve 443 (2022) is a cube that can imbue a (plain, non-scripted, non-flared) piece of (any type of) armor or a parry stick. It'll perform three different types of functions: Offensive, defensive, and utility. You will be able to reverse the enchantment, INVOKE it to strip it from the piece you applied it to and return it to cube form so that you can apply it to something else.

The functions are three water-themed abilities, designed around state (solid, liquid, vapor) and elemental magic.

1. The first is a pure offensive ability: you can shoot a freakin' giant ice spike at whoever you're facing in combat. Short cooldown, uses your highest offensive combat skill to contest. Can be parried, blocked, or dodged.
2. The second is a defensive disengagement tool. Magic vs. Fortitude SvS ability on a moderate cooldown that explodes a sphere of highly pressurized water outward from the user. Anyone in melee or pole who fails to save against the attack will be pushed out of combat range, particularly bad failures against the contest will result in the person landing on their butt too.
3. The third is a non-combat utility. Long cooldown, but for five minutes most crafting RTs will be noticeably reduced. This only applies to actual crafting actions, not gathering or any misc. actions that contest a crafting skill. It also might not catch everything, but so far in testing it's worked as it should.

The ice spike is a deliberate, triggered attack. It is not an automatic function of the armor that you have ostensibly no control over. As such, it follows the normal rules regarding Empathic Shock.

Cube Form

STUDY:

This is an invention of the Merelew enchanting tradition. Unlike the Provinces, the Merelew never had a political reason to strongly separate bardic and summoning strains of elemental magic. The result, such as this cube, is an amalgamation of function based on elemental themes.

Functionally, this cube can be invoked while holding it in one hand and a piece of armor in the other. This will imbue the cube's magic into the armor and set its magical properties into place. Unlike most enchantments, the armor can then itself be invoked to draw the cube back into existence, stripping the enchantment from it.

Due to the mechanism of this durable, broadly applicable enchantment, a few restrictions apply to what it can enchant. It requires the durability and structural integrity found in armor, and that armor cannot have any competing enchantments. Particular elaborate pieces may also cause the process to fail, by dent of being too complex for the brute-force enchantment to settle in.

You recognize that the cube is yours and will respond to you.

FOCUS:

The elemental cube has a definite magical matrix, which holds its shape.

You recognize it as a manifestation of Elemental magic.

The cube's matrix has the hallmark of Merelew magical practice, blending different traditions together in ways that are useful but obscure. While this matrix obviously draws on elemental water, it has strands that echo both the summoning of Warrior Mage practice and the "carrier wave" elemental-emotional theory of Bard magic. Studying the device would likely be more beneficial to understanding it.

INVOKE:

Your cube erupts in a geyser of water and mist, each droplet drawn like magnetic attraction to the [armor in your hand]! The water swirls into a vortex that drains itself into the substance of the armor, vanishing without so much as a hint of moisture.

On Armor

STUDY:

This is an [armor] enchanted with elemental magic in the Merelew tradition. It has four functions, though all four draw from the same reservoir of energy that replenishes over time.

First, if PUNCHed while in combat a large, icy spike will attempt to impale whoever you are facing.

Second, if TAPped a pressurized sphere of water will burst from your location, drenching anyone in combat range and hopefully pushing them out of combat from you.

Third, if TOUCHed an emotion-manipulating spell will increase your speed in crafting endeavors.

Finally, the armor can be INVOKEd if you have a free hand to strip the enchantment away and reform the cube it came from. This would allow you to move the enchantment to another item without causing any harm to either the [armor] or the magic.

You recognize that the [armor] is yours and will respond to you.

Verb	Actions
PUNCH	First Person: Chilled mist circles in front of you for the briefest moment and then darts forward! A long spike of jagged ice materializes in the air, coalesing toward a ship's rat! The vicious spike lands an awesome (13/23) strike to a ship's rat's left hindleg before shattering into a fine mist! A ship's rat screams and falls to the ground grasping its mangled left leg! [You're solidly balanced and in dominating position.] Roundtime: 2 sec.
No messaging for second person.
Third person messaging needed.
TAP	First person messaging needed.
No messaging for second person.
Third person messaging needed.
TOUCH	First Person: Warm vapor swirls around your head in a misty halo, dissipating as you breathe it in. Carried on those vapors, through methods bardic and obscure, is heightened self-confidence in your crafts.
No messaging for second person.
Third person messaging needed.
INVOKE	First Person: Your [armor] shakes and rattles violently, briefly seeping before erupting from all sides with an explosion of water and mist! Every last drop is drawn swirling into your hands, where it condenses into a stable elemental cube.
No messaging for second person.
Third person messaging needed.