[Shadow] Item - Glimmerstones

These tiny stones are crucial to adventurers in the shadow of the Blighted Sun, even traded as currency among their ranks. They make excellent exploration tools, capable of illuminating distant darkness or ravine depths, as well as life-saving wards against monsters of the dark. Apprentice enchanters in their first several years are often tasked with their production, much to their chagrin.

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Glimmerstones
Ammunition (sling), rarity varies

When you launch this enchanted stone from a sling, it leaves behind a faint trail of light until it hits or misses your target. For the next minute, the stone emits bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet, and the trail emits dim light out to 10 feet. The stone leaves no further trails of light for this duration. After the light fades, the stone becomes nonmagical.  Several types glimmerstones exist, each enchanted via different materials and processes. They may have additional properties in addition to the light it sheds when launched.

• Blighted Sunspot (Very Rare). This stone irradiates with light of the Blighted Sun. It deals an extra 2d4 radiant damage to a target it hits, and the light that the stone and its trail sheds is Blighted sunlight. The stone’s light is comparatively weak; if a creature contracts Solar Sickness from this stone, its symptoms do not progress beyond the third level, unless it is later exposed to Blighted sunlight from a different source.
• Durable (Common). This stone is enchanted with more powerful magic. After the stone's light fades, roll a d20. On a roll of 16 or higher, the stone does not become nonmagical.
• Flameheart (Uncommon). A magical flame supplies this stone's light. It deals an extra 1d4 fire damage to a target it hits.
• Glimmerstone (Common). This simple enchanted stone has no additional properties.
• Phosphor (Uncommon). A lustrous mineral compounds this stone's light. It deals an extra 1d4 radiant damage to a target it hits.
• Sporelight (Uncommon). Bioluminescent spores supply this stone's light. It deals an extra 1d4 necrotic damage to a target it hits.
• Sunspot* (Rare). This stone is imbued with the radiance of the sun. The light that it and its trail sheds is sunlight, and it deals an extra 2d4 radiant damage to a target it hits.

*This type of stone sheds normal sunlight instead of Blighted sunlight, which cannot be found in the Azira setting.

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Enduring Variants. Each type of glimmerstone has a more longer-lasting version whose light lasts for 10 minutes instead of 1 minute. The rarity of these versions increases by one tier in the following order: common, uncommon, rare, very rare, legendary.

The rules for Blighted Sunlight Exposure and Solar Sickness are attached; you can also access them via this link.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

I wanted to design something for the oft-forgotten sling, as well as design some unique, useful tools for cavern exploration. This uses a couple ideas I already explored with the flare arrow. Interestingly, these glimmerstones are a pretty interesting introduction to the various ways the Aziran inhabitants produce light that isn't from the sun!

I designed the glimmerstones to read different, through different colors and silhouettes. There's the super-round Sunspot stone, contrasting a flat-shaped Sporelight stone, contrasting the sharp-edged Phosphor. I had initially wanted to carve some runic designs on the center stone, but the other glimmerstones already looked different enough and didn't have natural space for runes. Leaving runes out of the other stones would have implied they didn't need them, so I just stuck with a basic light carving design - which I now realize look a bit too much like a sun.