"By the Egg of the Sea! A Baltorc!"

Before Pessen stood a three meter creature which vaguely resembled a Dwarf, except that its face was distorted by its incredibly fanged mouth. Despite its relatively Humanoid appearance, Pessen had heard of them before. They were a demonic creature that always pursued their prey until one or the other (usually the prey) was dead.

As a mere Lizard Man, he realized that his only chance of survival was to attack first and kill the Baltorc before it had a chance to defend itself. He leapt. His sword descended with all the force his reptilian body could muster.

The blade hit the Baltorc in the neck. . .and shattered! Not even staggered by the impact with a 150 kg. Lizard Man, the Baltorc reached down and grabbed Pessen by his weapon harness and hefted him, effortlessly, over its shoulder. Then with a sudden flick, it threw Pessen forward into a stone wall, over seven meters away.

Pessen landed hard and a crack told him that he had broken his tail in at least one place. Suddenly he cursed his luck at losing his other weapons in that gambling game. Hoping that he had something left with which to defend himself, he reached into his backpack. The Baltorc took its time approaching as Pessen knew it would. It enjoyed the game too much to end it too quickly.

Pessen could find only one thing in the bag of any concern, a Gem, Chiastolite, which had somehow escaped his drunken gambling of the night before. He held the stone in his hand and hoped that some god would look kindly upon him in this plight. He then threw the stone as hard as he could straight at the Baltorc's eye. Incredibly quick, the Baltorc snatched the stone from mid-air and glanced at it curiously. Suddenly he flung it away, but evidently too late, as a mist was slowly appearing and solidifying in the chamber. Slowly but surely, a Humanoid solidified.

"A Baltorc, eh? Well, run my little Lizard friend. This demon and I have a bit to settle here."

With that, the Cleric tapped his Staff to the ground and an expanding sphere of light emerged from it to engulf both the Cleric and the Baltorc. Pessen stayed only long enough to see the Baltorc writhing in the light before hurriedly leaving the chamber, with his broken tail dragging behind him. "By the Great Egg! A Baltorc able to activate Chiastolite." This laughter helped take his mind off his broken tail and the fate he had narrowly escaped. . . .

In most Fantasy Role Playing games, treasure makes up one of the more important goals. You have your miscellaneous Magic Items, Junk Items, Money and, last but not least, Jewels. In the Dungeon Master's Guide, Mr. Gygax gives some of the more common Gems and the powers one might give them. In my own game, with a computer to do most of the work, I give out lots of different types of Gems and allow a player a 1% chance of activating them, either using its powers to help or hinder himself. Here is a list of some of these Jewels.

For instance, the Agate family has many members with special powers. Banded Agate, an Agate with brown, blue, white or reddish stripes, allows one to produce light of any color included in the stone. Another, Clouded Agate, which has cloud scenes on it, gives one a 10% chance of summoning rain clouds. Eye Agate, which can be told by its concentric circles of gray, white, brown, blue, or green, allows one to see into the Demonic Plane - this could be quite startling at times. Flower Agate, which allows one to communicate with and control 1-10 types of flowers, has a flower shape on it. Landscape Agate, an Agate with a Landscape scene on it allows one to cast an Illusion of that Landscape over the present one. It will last for 1-10 turns. Scenic Agate, much like Landscape Agate, has a greatly different power. It contains a Pocket Dimension which the activator can point at someone and teleport him into the stone. However, there is a 25% chance that the user is teleported in as well. The activator must also find a way out. One Agate, Plume Agate by name, has a feather shape on it, and when activated it causes all birds within 100 meters to attack the user. Polkadot Agate, a gem with polkadots on it, causes intense anger in any creature it is directed at. Finally, Tree Agate, a stone with a tree shape on it gives one +2 on all initiative rolls; this being quite useful at times, especially in fights.

Another interesting stone is Amazonite, a green microcline Feldspar, which gives a Female Fighter +2 on her fighting ability. A greenish or grayish white stone, Bronzite by name, allows one to use Bronze weapons at +l in Hit and Damage, while Californite, a type of green Jade, gives the user +l on Saves vs. charm Person. Then there is Chiastolite, a black stone, that when activated summons a high level Cleric to attack the user. This is part of a family of attack stones.

Chert is another stone. It is prized by primitive tribes as it, a grayish flint-like quartz, allows one to make +1 stone weapons. With Agrarian tribes, Chlorospine, a grass-green spinel, is highly prized, as it gives the user a 5% per level chance of talking to a plant. They will give lots of Gold for these Gems, as they are not common in Agrarian areas.

The steel gray stone, Dwarf Nodes by name, is highly prized by Dwarves, as it allows one to shatter up to 1 meter of rock per melee round. They also prize Fluorite, a deep purple Gemstone, that will glow in the dark for 1 - 6 turns when activated. These are used when there are dangerous gases in the area that is being mined. Elves prize the Elf-stone, and rightly so. It is an opaque black stone that glows from red to white when activated, shooting off a 1 8 Hit Die Laser Bolt. It will do this once per turn. Psioners prize the Janus stone, which is crystalline with one or more colors in it. They like it because if someone has psionics and is able to activate, it, they can produce pictures Inside the stone. They also like the Star stone, a brilliant blue crystal that gives one a 20% chance per level of having psionics. Many races use it to bring out their latent psionic powers.

Other stones include Margusite, a light blue stone, which can make any object extremely heavy, when pointed at it. A stone for Clerics, is Odontolite, because it is made up of fossilized ivory, bones, or teeth, that are blue in color. They give one +2 on the chance to turn or dispell a skeleton. Violan, a fine blue colored diopside allows one to fly for 1 melee round per level once a week. Finally, to end up this survey of Gemstones is Zoisite, a gray, red or greenish stone that when activated summons all the Rats within 100 meters to attack the user.

The use of these stones might enable the Judge to create a player or non-player character class called Geosage. These people would require the intelligence of a Magus and would be inclined to using the magic of the stones (Judge's discretion). These Geosages would have a cumulative 10% chance per level of activating a stone up to 5th level. At 6th level the percentage would sink to an additional 3% per level. The Geosage would check his ability to activate a stone whenever he wished, once a level. If he tests it every level, then the new chance of activating it is only the difference in chances between the two levels. The Geosage, being what he is, would be effectively a Magus, with a different source for his spells, and so he would be limited to the Hit Dice, Weapons and Armor of a Magic User.