Blood of Lathander

The Blood of Lathander was a minor artifact unknown to or forgotten by most of the Realms. A relic of a long-ago battle between an avatar of the Morninglord Lathander and one of Mystra's Chosen, it resided in a shrine in the Dalelands thorp of Hap.

Description
Small and unremarkable other than in its rarity, the artifact was merely four drops of the deity's blood suspended in hardened amber the size of a clenched fist. However, whenever a follower of Lathander made use of its powers, it would levitate motionless in the air and burn with a warm pink light that, depending on the god's will and the actions and intentions of the follower using it, could be soft and soothing or blazingly bright. It would also pulse or blink when queried for divine wisdom.

Powers
When called upon by a paladin or cleric of Lathander only, the Blood could be employed to cast cure critical wounds four times a day and raise dead once a day; every other day it could be used to regenerate a missing body part or to cast restoration. In all of these capacities it had to touch the one in need of healing, sent flying through the air to them by the wielder's thoughts.

Additionally, it could be used, when employed by a cleric only, to detect lie, identify, or determine if one who professed a devotion to the Morninglord was being truthful.

Anyone who attempted to touch or transport the Blood who did not follow Lathander would discover the amber burning brighter than a continual light spell, thereby causing all nearby to be aware of its presence. They would also suffer from horrific nightmares of dripping, fiery blood for three days, after which the Blood would rise in temperature in exactly the manner of a heat metal spell, and stay that way until they returned it to its rightful place and owner.

History
The Blood of Lathander dated from a time long-forgotten by most&mdash;partly simply due to the fog of ages, but also because none in either the faith of Mystra or Lathander would prefer to remember such a dark event, seeing as it proved the goddess of magic to be neither omniscient nor infallible and the god of light and hope to be vulnerable.

In the Year of the Sinhala, 916 DR, the maddened and fallen Chosen of Mystra, Sammaster, was well on his way to spreading great evil in the Realms, having created the first dracolich fourteen years before and through his prophecies and writings inspired the Cult of the Dragon. When the Harpers at last discovered that he and his followers were traveling to Cormanthyr so as to make contact with two green wyrms, they tracked down the relatively undefended archmage and ambushed him. But although they slew many of his followers, the power invested in him by the Lady of Mysteries protected him from destruction.

Followers of Lathander among the Harpers prayed to their deity for intervention, and the Morninglord sent an avatar that then did battle with Sammaster. The god's power was at last sufficient to slay the wizard whose goodness, stability, and judgment Mystra had so sadly underestimated, but drawing upon his former goddess's magical bequest, he succeeded in badly wounding Lathander's avatar even as he died. From its side fell four drops of blood, which were scooped up and rescued from the scene by one of the priests of Lathander from nearby Hap. The magic imbued within it transformed the amber flask he used into a hardened sphere, sealing the blood within.

Thanks to the deaths of so many on both sides of this skirmish, the relic was lost to history, with only the few survivors in Battledale to know of its existence and powers. Even the majority of Lathander's clergy were not aware of it.

Notable Owners

 * Cathalandra Dovaer, priestess of Lathander's Open Hand in Hap.

Destruction
The Blood of Lathander, it was said, would flare up and burn away if the amber holding it was ever broken. How that could be accomplished depended on the source. Some said, likely in reference to it having come about due to the creator of the Cult of the Dragon, that it could only be crushed in the jaws of the oldest dracolich still in existence; others stated it had to be taken to a dead-magic zone and kept there for ninety-nine years, while still others pointed to divine intervention by describing it meeting its end either by the boot of an avatar of Talos or the fist of the current god of the dead.