Zabaranth’s Sundial by Cliff Dunn is a role playing game supplement published by ZealZaddy for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as a 10 page Pay What You Want supplement from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, one the front matter, one the Contents and one the Open Game License.
The first two pages of content are taken up by some links to Free City of Vadashar material, a sidebar, Welcome to the Free City of Vadashar, that is duplicated from other supplements and gives background and history of the city, its present and future, and some details on using Zabaranth’s Sundial in a non-Vadashar or a Vadashar campaign; the Vadashar material explains that Zabaranth the Magnificent was a player character.
Zabaranth’s Sundial is a wondrous item in the form of a sundial set into a pedestrian plaza. It’s a complicated mechanical item and the shadow the sundial casts never falls where it should. It is one of a number of items created by the Archmage Zabaranth. Attempts to exert mastery over the Sundial have ended badly and it is now forbidden to molest it under pain of, well, pain and death.
Powers and Selected Uses has seven powers listed. Standing in the sundial’s shadow at the right time grants the benefits of a complete rest. If the shadow passes over a person on midnight of their birthday, nothing may happen, or they may gain or lose 1d6 years. A character that attunes themself will get an immediate revelation of the past or premonition of the future. An attuned character can, once per week, attempt to be in two places at once. Attempting to move or damage the Sundial results in magical darkness and shadows appearing. The Sundial is also a gateway to the Demiplane of Time. Finally, it is a temporal prison. Containing something very bad and time-related, of the GM’s choice.
Pierce the Temporal Mesh is a new 9th level spell allowing the caster and their companions to travel to other places in time.
Zabaranth’s Sundial in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with major and most minor sections linked. The Contents is to a similar level of depth and is hyperlinked. Navigation is good. There are a variety of stock colour illustrations, up to full page in size. Presentation is good.
This is a temporal artefact with quite a few powers and messing around with temporal magics can always be “interesting” for those doing the messing. Interesting good and interesting bad. Though this is a fairly sizeable item, it’s still easy enough to drop into a setting; all that’s needed is somewhere to put it. The background and history will need to be changed, naturally, but the easiest way of doing that is simply plonking Zabaranth’s Sundial down and saying no-one knows what it is. Zabaranth’s Sundial is an interesting supplement and it can be found by clicking here.
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