Etherean Torch (Patreon)

Wondrous item, uncommon

This torch's handle is made of oemmock, a plant that only grows in the Border Ethereal. While holding the torch, you can use an action to speak its command word to make it ignite with a purple flame. The flame produces as much light as a normal torch and can only be extinguished by using an action to speak its command word again. While holding the lit torch, you can see into the Ethereal Plane within the torch's bright light. The torch's light stays purple on the Ethereal Plane, despite everything else being in shades of gray.

While holding the lit torch, you can use an action to take a deep breath and blow into the flame, causing a 15-foot cone of purple fire to erupt from the torch in the same direction. Each creature within the cone must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 3d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Any object in the cone that isn't being worn or carried, as well as any creature that failed the saving throw, is outlined in a purple light that glows for 1 minute. For the duration, a glowing creature or object can't benefit from being invisible. Once this property of the torch has been used, it can't be used again until the next dawn.

The young man entered the monastery sanctum, his small form even smaller before the great tapestries that hung along the wall. The tapestries told grand stories of previous elders, of great lives spent and lost.

He clasped his hand to the unburning torch at his side and whispered, "Will of the past, words of my forebears, guide me now."

Before his eyes, the torch began to sputter—the darkness giving way to a brilliant violet. Suddenly, the empty room was full of spirits: each name known, each title memorized, and each story well-lived.