The Synchronocitor

The staff goes inert. The purple light goes out. There is a moment of vertigo and then your party is standing in the midst of a pitiless purple desert of seemingly endless sand, in the middle of an even worse sandstorm than before. Eventually,your group locates what appears to be some sort of shelter amidst a group of huge columns of heavily pitted diorite and limestone blocks have been set into a triangular peristyle-like arrangement. You've discovered a tomb that appears to have been carved into the sheer face of a cliff that rises to an elevation of over two thousand feet. Each of the staggered columns surrounding the Main Entrance has a large statue that has eroded into something of a vaguely humanoid shape at each of their four faces. While the outer faces are too scored and worn down to really discern any details, the farther inwards towards the Main Entrance you go, the backsides of the columns are more intact, less damaged by the near constant sandstorms. These inner surfaces are covered with what appears to be some form of diagonally-oriented pre-human cuneiform that tends to appear as though it were writhing ever so slightly the longer one stares at it.

You're not in the Kalaramar Drifts any longer.

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The staff-like mechanism (shown below) is a typical specimen of Synchronocitor. This is a technomagical artifact that can be wielded as a blunt weapon by any race or class (treat as a +2 Staff). While inert, the staff observes quietly for 1d4 hours, during which time the bubbles of semi-transparent material located at various points along the staff slowly begin to refill with purple fluids. Once the staff has fully recharged it will take on a lambent deep purple glimmering much like Faerie Fire and its primary power will be made available to the wielder—it is a type of Transition Mechanism — a means of transport between worlds, planets and planes.

A particular Synchronocitor might be sapient, as some magical swords are, and some are rumored to be living beings in their own right. At least two Synchronocitors have been confirmed as being some sort of technologically-enhanced form of undead. The most common types of Synchronocitor tend to have the following stats:

Synchronocitor (+2 Staff) [AL N, INT 10, PSYCHE 10, WILLPOWER 21, 2 random Detection Powers, 1d4 random Spell-like Power(s), 3 Special Abilities*, MOTIVATION: inter-planar travel and exploration, COMMUNICATION: Communion, Read Magic and Verbal, LANGUAGES: 1d6 selected at random]

* Special Abilities of the Synchronocitor: 1) Plane Shift once every 1d4 days, 2) Extend Zone of Protection once every 1d4 hours, 3) Decipher/Unravel Hypergeometries. Treat the Decipher Hypergeometries ability as a type of Read Magic that enables the Synchronocitor to 'read' hypergeometries. Unravel is a specialized form of Dispel Magic that affects hypergeometries in particular, but might be used against spells, spell-like effects, etc. at the referee/GM's discretion. Some Synchronocitors are rumored to have even more special abilities, but this is unconfirmed at this time.

A fully-functional Synchronocitor is worth a great deal to certain people, factions, and things...especially Things...