DnDWiki:Glass of distant vision

A glass of distant vision is a magical telescope that can make objects seem up to 250 times closer than normal.

Description
A glass of distant vision looks like an ordinary brass telescope. It is about eighteen inches long. The end with the eyepiece is one inch in diameter and the other end is three inches in diameter. It weighs about five pounds.

The glass acts like a normal telescope and causes objects to look eight times closer than they really are. A command word is required to activate the magic of the glass.

When the command word is spoken the magnification of the glass increases and objects appear to be eighty times larger than they really are. A narrow ring around the eyepiece allows for further magnification and can cause objects to seem to be two hundred and fifty times closer than they really are. The same command word causes the glass to revert to working like an ordinary telescope.

All telescopes have a narrow field of view when using extreme magnification, and it is very difficult to keep a telescope focused on a distant object, but when the command word is spoken, the glass somehow counteracts this instability and manages to keep an object in its field of view until the user decides to move the telescope. The stabilisation effect does not work when the magical magnification is turned off.

The glass has a very faint aura of magic.

History
The glass of distant vision is based upon magical technology invented by the silver dragons of Edill. However, they were actually constructed by a human mage by the name of Revorian. The dragons themselves had no desire to put their theories into practice.

Revorian created approximately two dozen glasses of distant vision, but died before constructing any more or passing on the knowlege of the creation process. Since his untimely death, nodbody else has been able to replicate his work.