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Song of Extinction (Music Box)

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Aura strong transmutation; CL 20th; Slot none; Weight 3 lbs.

DESCRIPTION

Images of ruin wind like worms across the surface of this midnight blue box—its size just large enough to contain a human skull.

Winding this music box causes it to play a haunting, 30-second-long melody. However, a bard can learn this tune as though it were a masterpiece. When performed by a bard, the tune becomes the Song of Extinction masterpiece (see below). Once per week, as a standard action, the wielder can command the music box to perform the Song of Extinction masterpiece itself, affecting all within range except the bearer. After being used in this way, the music box cannot be reactivated in any way for 1 week.

DESTRUCTION

Any creature that makes a successful DC 35 Craft (traps) check while manipulating the music box can rig the device to play in reverse once. In this way, a bard can learn the Song of Extinction masterpiece, but backwards. Performing this reverse version of the Song of Extinction causes the music box to implode, but also kills the performer. The performer cannot be brought back to life by any means short of divine intervention.

Song of Extinction Masterpiece (Sing, String, Wind)

The clarion of the end times, this masterpiece is a meticulous cacophony that ends all life.

Prerequisite: Perform (sing, string, or wind) 15 ranks.
Cost: Feat or 6th-level bard spell known.
Effect: The area within 100 feet of the performer begins quaking and moaning as if the earth itself were in pain. The affected area is treated as per the spell earthquake. In addition, all creatures in the area except for the performer must make DC 25 Reflex saves, as individual earthen maws open beneath each. Those who fail fall into a 100-foot-deep pit that quickly grinds shut, trapping them as if they were in the bury zone of an avalanche and trapped without air. If any living, sentient creature is killed by the Song of Extinction's effects, the performer ceases to age for 1 year.
Use: All of the performer's uses of bardic performance for that day.
Action: 5 full rounds.

RAMIFICATIONS

Anyone who opens the Song of Extinction potentially unleashes the very sound of death.

Insubstantial Artifact: The Song of Extinction is in part a bardic masterpiece of artifact-level power. As difficult as artifacts can be to destroy, revoking the Song of Extinction once a character has attained it can be even more challenging. GMs should carefully consider allowing the song to fall into PC hands, lest a character gain great and dangerous power.

  • Intangible Weapon: Any bard with the ability to learn and perform the Song of Extinction carries with her an incredibly powerful and completely undetectable weapon. A performer needs less than a minute to unleash the dangerous harmony, which in and of itself sounds just like music, albeit eerie and haunting. Performed in a crowded area—or even woven into a greater work performed in a packed concert hall—this music can turn even the most innocuous artist into a walking calamity.
Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Artifacts & Legends © 2012, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: F. Wesley Schneider.