The Vanta Reliquary
You dream of a chest you haven’t seen, and wake with the taste of ash and jasmine.
There is an object spoken of only in footnotes and arguments. An echo of desire shaped into matter.
No hinges. No seams. No maker’s mark.
The chest is deep black—not painted, but colored by absence.
When the light strikes it, the shadows tilt away.
They call it The Vanta Reliquary.
And it can only be opened once.
“They said there were six keys.
No one mentioned the cost of choosing one.”
—Griswold Cain
What It Is
- A magical chest that opens with any of six unique keys.
- Each key yields a different reward—but using one destroys the others.
- If all six keys are found and combined, a seventh key is born.
- Only the seventh key reveals the final truth: a familiar who remembers everything.
The Six Keys
Each key is forged of unknown metal, bent and spiraled like a question that’s been answered too many times.
At its center: a pearl that glows with a faint, shifting color—each one tied to a specific reward hidden inside the Reliquary.
🝔 Ivory Key (Preservation)
Reward: A vial of stillsilver fluid sealed with bonewax.
When uncorked, it captures the exact moment the user is experiencing—locking it in a shimmering glass bubble.
- That bubble can later be shattered to return everything to that moment: position, condition, even health.
- The bubble only exists for 7 days before fading.
Visual Cue: The vial fogs slightly when you think about it.
Use: One-time time-reset effect. Not resurrection—reversion.
Tone: Hauntingly practical. Many use it out of fear, few wisely.
🜛 Amber Key (Remembrance)
Reward: A bronze sigil etched with spirals.
Place it on any surface, speak the name of someone you’ve lost, and that memory manifests physically for ten minutes.
- They cannot be touched.
- They may speak, repeat a familiar gesture, or recreate a shared moment.
- They always fade when the sun touches the horizon.
Visual Cue: The sigil glows brighter in moonlight.
Use: One-time summoning of memory into real space.
Tone: Bitter and beautiful. Comforting for some, cruel for others.
🝯 Verdigris Key (Wild Accord)
Reward: A sleeping vine-wolf curled in a wicker basket.
The creature bonds silently with the summoner upon waking.
- It communicates via gestures and pulse-signals in its barkskin.
- It can scout, defend, and occasionally bloom into a burst of luminous thorns.
- It does not eat. It thrives on proximity and trust.
Visual Cue: The basket pulses once when lifted.
Use: Permanent non-verbal companion. Familiar rules may apply.
Tone: Quiet companionship. Wild, but gentle.
⛨ Cinder Key (Power with Price)
Reward: A dull iron ring that trembles faintly when anger is near.
Once worn, it fuses painlessly into the skin, leaving only a faint metallic sheen.
Your next attack or spell deals triple damage—
but you immediately suffer the same amount, unavoidable and unsoftened.
- The ring cannot be removed until its power is spent.
- After use, it burns away entirely, leaving only a scar.
Visual Cue: Always warm. Warmer when someone nearby is seething.
Use: One-use surge. For when power matters more than survival.
Tone: Raw. Reckless. A blade with no hilt.
✶ Violet Key (Foresight)
Reward: A thin porcelain mask painted with indigo ink.
Wearing it during sleep reveals one possible future in vivid clarity.
- The vision is truthful but incomplete.
- The mask cracks after use.
- The dream never fades, and never repeats.
Visual Cue: It hums when the stars are visible.
Use: One-time dream prophecy. Can inform, mislead, or haunt.
Tone: Mystical. Disorienting. Interpretable.
🜁 Blueglass Key (Devotion)
Reward: Nothing.
Using this key first triggers the Reliquary... but opens to an empty hollow.
All other keys disintegrate, wherever they are.
The player receives nothing—only the sound of wind and the taste of salt.
Some say this is the key of purest intention.
Others call it a divine test of patience.
Visual Cue: The pearl shimmers like still water.
Use: Triggers Reliquary. Destroys potential.
Tone: Honest. Devastating. A tragedy of belief.
“Some say the Blueglass Key is the only one that tells the truth.
But it never tells it twice.”
Notes on the Keys
The Blueglass Key tempts players with a sense of “completion.” If used:
- The chest opens—but reveals nothing.
- All other keys vanish instantly, wherever they are.
- The chance at the true reward—Zábo—is lost forever.
The keys are semi-intelligent. When in proximity, they:
- Emit faint hums that resonate sympathetically
- Grow warm when the chest is near
- Occasionally shift orientation in their holder’s pack
Carrying a key too long induces strange side effects (see below).
Key Fusion
If all six keys are brought within a few feet of one another, they begin to hum, then shake, then collide violently—
an explosion of light and sound erupts:
- DC 15 Dexterity Saving Throw
- 4d6 force damage to creatures within 10 feet
- Fail: Full damage + knocked prone
- Success: Half damage, remain standing
Once the blast fades, a vacuum implosion collapses inward toward the fusion point.
In the center: a single, flawless seventh key.
The Fused Key
- Forged of smooth, darker metal
- At its center: a pearl swirling with colors like a trapped galaxy
- Emits a soft, constant vibration
- Glows with quiet, muted ultraviolet light—visible even in shadow
- Warm to the touch, and seems to bend sound slightly nearby
Only this key may unlock the final truth of the Vanta Reliquary.
Unlocking the Reliquary
If the Reliquary is unlocked using the seventh key:
- The chest makes no sound
- It does not open—it simply vanishes, collapsing into ash
- The fused key dissolves with it, humming once in your palm
In the center of the blast circle: a small, soot-black kettle.
Lid shut. Quiet. Perfectly still.
When the lid is removed, something stirs inside—
And you meet Zábo.
Zábo, the Familiar
- A soot-colored goblin-like creature, no taller than a kettle
- Long ears, smoky quartz eyes, bare feet
- Smells faintly of iron and plum
- Ancient, helpful, and vaguely sarcastic—never mean
- Speaks in flat, dry tones with strange warmth beneath
He does not leap out or ask for wishes. He stretches. Yawns.
And treats your arrival like the most predictable thing in the world.
Once per long rest, Zábo may:
- Phase through locks, cracks, or dreams
- Retrieve distant objects (telekinetic pull up to 30 ft)
- Cast minor illusions or disguises
- Whisper truths—only when directly asked
Drawback: Transmutation Cost
Zábo consumes trace metal to phase in/out of reality.
Normally this is subtle: a missing coin, a rusted hinge.
But when asked to perform something powerful, he will require:
- An offering of metal (trinket, pendant, weapon)
- The more difficult the task, the more deliberate the cost
Zábo is not a pet. He is a companion, an artifact, and a witness.
He stays as long as he is amused—or needed.
Side Effects While Holding a Key
Keys carry subtle magical influence—more suggestion than curse.
Holding one for too long may cause:
- Vivid dreams of places you’ve never been
- Coins in your bag to hum softly at night
- Your reflection to blink slower than you do
- Pockets that warp—the key is always with you, even if dropped
- Animals that avoid you, or stare in silence
- Moments of déjà vu with strangers who act like they know you
- A sense of slowed time, just for a breath, just for you
None of this is harmful. Until it is.
For the DM
The Vanta Reliquary is a slow-burn, high-impact artifact encounter designed for:
- One-shots of temptation
- Long-term storytelling seeds
- Loyalty tests, endgame quests, or surreal world events
Modular Ways to Introduce It
- A scholar’s codex with diagrams of curved keys
- A swamp hag who speaks only in rhymes about “iron pearls”
- A monastery that burned down, but the key remains untouched
- A dead man’s bag with two keys—and a third sewn into his coat
Tone Tips
- Lean into strange stillness and quiet urgency
- The chest should always feel out of place—like it arrived before the party did
- Use Zábo sparingly—a guide, not a crutch
- Let rewards feel powerful but intimate—poetic, not bombastic
“I never found the chest. Not really.
But I did find a key once—verdigris, bent like ivy.
I gave it to a girl who said she’d never owned anything important.
She tucked it in her pocket and smiled like it wasn’t even strange.
I hope she waits.”