The Aetherite Crystal Tower Node is a unique artifact: a towering formation of aetherite crystal rising from Mount Origin, where the veil between the planes is said to grow thin. The crystal pierces upward like a shard of the Astral Plane, and the elves of Iquasilath refer to it with reverence as one of “Banor’s Fingers.”
Item type: Unique artifact Rarity: Artifact Current location: Three Falls Creator: Banor Dimensions: Approximately 50 meters tall, with a base diameter of roughly 30 meters Raw materials and components: Aetherite crystal
Properties
Any number of creatures may touch the crystal to attune to it. Upon attunement, a creature immediately regains all expended spell slots, and it cannot benefit from this effect again until it attunes anew. The attunement persists only while the creature remains within five miles of the Aetherite Crystal Tower Node; leaving that radius ends the attunement immediately. A creature cannot attune to this Aetherite Crystal Tower Node if it is already attuned to this node or another of its kind, meaning a creature can be attuned to only one node at a time.
Attunement
When a conscious being makes physical contact with one of Banor’s Fingers, its unique Aetheric Resonance interacts with the crystal, and the node offers the being a choice to attune. If the being accepts, all of its expended spell slots are restored at once. Because the Aetherite Crystal Tower Node is a physical manifestation of the Aether, it is naturally attuned to the Aetheric Resonances of conscious beings, which is what allows this exchange to occur on contact. The crystal can hold multiple attunements simultaneously, though as noted above, no single being may be attuned to more than one node at a time.
Given the rarity of these artifacts and the small number of known nodes, the risk of Aetheric corruption is considered minimal. Even so, the Law of Aetheric Resonance suggests that negative or unstable resonances could, in theory, affect even artifacts as powerful as these.
Location and History
The village of Three Falls was founded in the tower’s shadow, and its people, drawn by the node’s arcane allure, are said to be natural-born sorcerers. The Sanctum of the Sun and Moons in Three Falls keeps close the legend of the node’s origin, passing it down through countless generations.
Theories and Legends
Legend holds that an ancient Sorcerer, bathed in the light of all the Stars of Power, pressed a finger into the earth, and that this colossal crystal sprang forth from the touch.
Master Aberran, the late Tatharian scholar, theorized that the node marks a focal point of interplanar energies, a theory he suggested finds an echo in the Elven name for these formations. In line with his thinking, it is plausible that Banor’s Fingers serve as focal points for interplanar energies more broadly, making them not merely artifacts of power but potential nexuses for planar interaction.