Olympia: The Age of Gods PBEM (May 4 1999)
In ages past, mighty wizards created a variety of magical artifacts that are beyond the capability of today's mages. Nearly indestructible, most of these artifacts retain their powers even unto the current times. They may be found in ruins, in the possession of monsters, and other such places.
Most of these artifacts are marked with tiny runes indicating their purpose. These runes may be read with the identify command. Some artifacts (about 20%) are unmarked. Some artifacts (about 20%) have lost their powers. (Note that the name of an artifact will not reveal what it does, although you may change the name of an artifact with the name command.)
Most artifacts grant a power (e.g., immunity to attacks from chimeras) or provide a specific bonus to a noble's abilities (e.g., +5 to attack). The amount of the bonus will be shown by the identify command. If a noble carries more than two artifacts of the same type (e.g., a +5 to attack artifact and a +8 to attack artifact), then only the better of the two artifacts applies (e.g., in this case, the noble would receive +8 to his attack, not +13).
Most artifacts have unlimited uses and are applied automatically whenever appropriate. Some artifacts have a limited number of charges and must be explicitly used with the use command (e.g., an orb of scrying).
The following sections describe the types of artifacts that can be found.