Graveknowledge
Graveknowledge was hammered from iron salvaged out of a collapsed scriptorium, a place where forbidden histories were sealed into the walls rather than written on paper, and where the archivist who built it died inside it when the ceiling came down. The shield does not merely record what it touches; it hungers for it, the way a drain hungers for water. Scholars who have held it briefly report that putting it down feels like closing a book mid-sentence.
Mechanics
A shield that absorbs the history of everything it touches, letting its wielder rip truth from objects, corpses, and ruins, and ultimately burn that knowledge into a devastating revelation.
Residue Reading
While holding this shield, you may touch any object, structure, or corpse with the shield's inner face. You instantly perceive a detailed sensory impression of the most significant event this object witnessed or experienced, who held it, what killed the creature, what happened in this room. The impression is vivid and accurate but lasts only until the end of your current turn. This works on objects of any age and is not blocked by mundane concealment, but it cannot penetrate magical aversion such as the Nondiscovery or Mind Blank spells. No action is required; touching the object is sufficient.
Accumulated Weight
Each time you use Residue Reading, the shield absorbs a fragment of what it witnesses. These fragments are stored as Testimonies. The shield can hold a maximum of 10 Testimonies at one time. When you gain an 11th Testimony, the oldest one is overwritten. The current count of stored Testimonies is visible as hairline cracks of dim silver light along the shield's rim, one crack per Testimony.
Ironclad Recall
While holding the shield, you have advantage on all Intelligence (History), Intelligence (Investigation), and Wisdom (Insight) checks. When you make one of these checks, you may choose to consult any stored Testimony, the shield surfaces relevant sensory detail from its absorbed impressions even if that specific object is no longer present. This does not expend a Testimony.
Revelation Burst
As an action, you expend all stored Testimonies at once, releasing them as a shattering wave of compressed psychic history. Every creature within 30 feet of you that is not behind total cover must make a DC 19 Intelligence saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 2d10 psychic damage per Testimony expended (maximum 20d10), is stunned until the end of your next turn, and loses any benefits from spells or abilities that prevent divination or detection of the truth (such as Nondiscovery or Mislead) for 1 minute. On a successful save, a creature takes half damage and is not stunned. After this ability is used, the shield's cracks go dark and hold no Testimonies until Residue Reading is used again. You must have at least 3 Testimonies stored to use this ability.
Obdurate Frame
While holding this shield, you gain a +3 bonus to AC. This bonus is in addition to the shield's normal +2 bonus to AC.
DM Notes
Balance: The +3 AC bonus stacks with the shield's normal +2 AC, giving the wielder a total of +5 to AC from this item alone, this is intentional at legendary rarity and makes the shield genuinely dangerous to be up against at range. The real power is Revelation Burst: at full capacity of 10 Testimonies, the maximum damage is 20d10 psychic (average 110), which is devastating AOE. The minimum threshold of 3 Testimonies keeps the ability from being used trivially with only a single touch. The DM should use Revelation Burst as a pacing tool, in dungeon-crawl environments with many objects and corpses, the wielder will accumulate Testimonies quickly and may feel very powerful. In open-field encounters with few touchable objects, Revelation Burst may be unavailable. Design encounters accordingly. Residue Reading is an exploration powerhouse: it effectively replaces the need for Identify on any physical object and can short-circuit mysteries. The DM should prepare brief sensory impressions for significant objects in advance, since this ability will be used constantly by a player with this character concept. The information Residue Reading provides is always accurate, which makes it a strong investigative tool, consider that this ability will collapse certain plot beats that rely on players not knowing the history of an object. The stunned condition on a failed save is strong but requires the setup investment. Creatures immune to psychic damage are immune to the damage but still make the save against the stun.
Generated with: Level 17 · Artificer · Artillerist · Armor (Shield) · A theme that fits the character · Dark / Gritty · Legendary · No curses