BurgerSlave/DivineProspectorsCompass
Divine Prospector's Compass
The power of the Exalted is considerable, but that power is only reflected and magnified through the Five Magical Materials. All of the Exalted have Castes dedicated to the crafting of artifacts, and true marvels of sorcery and engineering are made possible by the fabulous power of these Chosen. However, the scarcity of the Five Magical Materials can put an instant halt to the creation of artifacts.
In the First Age, magical objects tumbled from the hands of the Twilight Caste by the thousands, from the smallest magical trinkets and jewelry to the grandest of warstriders and automata. Yet, for all their erudition, these powerful smiths and craftsmen were stymied by lack of material. While the Sidereals were adept at predicting the impact of meteors sent to Creation by the Maidens, their growing responsibilities in the Bureau of Destiny limited the time they could spend seeking out deposits of materials for other Exalts. Indeed, the Exalted themselves had far better things to do than spend days at a time grubbing in the earth for metal.
Thus, the Twilight Caste devised the Divine Prospector's Compass. These simple artifacts are so simple to make and use, even mortal magic can empower them. They consist of a single nugget of one of the Five Magical Materials engraved with a particular rune, usually worn on a cord or string around the neck. Orichalcum compasses manufactured in the First Age are graven with the Old Realm heiroglyph for 'precious', while jade Compasses of all five colors are wrought in the Empress' time, marked with the High Realm kanji for 'sacred'. Moonsilver compasses resemble liquid teardrops more than nuggets, and are intricately carved with part of a songline. Sidereals prefer to use astrology to track down sources of starmetal, and thus there are few starmetal Compasses. Since soulsteel is not naturally ocurring but rather manufactured in Stygia, there are no soulsteel Compasses.
Anyone carrying a Divine Prospector's Compass will feel a tugging when they are within a mile of an exploitable deposit of the Magical Material matching their Compass. If suspended from its cord, the Compass will pull in the direction of the deposit. The Compass is not attracted to worked material, and thus does not react to artifacts, weapons, armor, and suchlike that is crafted from the Five Magical Materials.
A variant of the Divine Prospector's Compass is Sacred Grove Detection Amulet. These allow a mortal to detect the presence of an uncapped Demense if he passes within the Demense's rating in miles. These were often used by scouts in the First Age, when seeking out appropriate places for their Exalted masters to erect their Manses.
