Celestial wing dust

Celestial wing dust, or angel-wing dust, is a rare material that, by an alchemist's account, can be had only from certain celestial beings. In the Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles") campaign, Kemp Corvus, Sarah and Ephorus found a white powder sealed in a hollow inside a black amethyst, a stone left behind after a struggle with a devil, and an alchemist identified it as true wing dust.¹²

Breaking the stone

A local expert told the companions that the black stone was neither much loved nor much traded, and that hardly anyone but the dwarves mined it in those parts. He suggested that it might be a casing hiding something inside, which could be broken open with a harder tool of diamond or mithril, though filling it afterwards and sealing it so that no one could tell would take very great skill or power.³⁴

Ephorus showed the stone to a dwarf he knew and asked him to break it with his mithril hammer, away from the crowds. The dwarf struck it again and again; at about the third blow the underside gave way, revealing white powder in a hollow inside. It gave off a lovely, fresh scent like grass or rain that made those near it feel good.⁵⁶

It was soon clear that the powder was no ordinary substance of this plane and no simple stone dust, though its source could not be told at first sight. Ephorus built a theory linking the pleasant powder to the Feywild, through drugs, the unsettling experiences of the fey wilds and tales of puppets and manipulation, but admitted that it could not explain the tie to the devil.⁷⁸

The alchemist's verdict

The companions took the powder to the alchemist Vincent Von Reigns near Gromkar. To test whether it might be false, he set up a vessel and crude spinning devices for an analysis that lasted hours. At the end he pronounced it true angel-wing dust, which can be gathered only from certain celestial beings: from the remains of angels that fell on Victory Day, or very rarely from an aasimar with wings.⁹²

He called it a very rare and valuable material that could strengthen the effects of potions within the bounds of alchemy, and thought that mages might use it for other ends; the legality of trading in it was also discussed. He added that such dust could serve in powerful spells to summon, imprison or bind celestial beings. A later account of the visit described it as the ground feathers of an angel, counted as temple property and worth a fortune on the black market.¹⁰¹¹¹²

In the wider lore of Teneris, angels are the servants of the gods, and a feather left behind by an angel that has manifested in the material world is said to hold unimaginable properties. Even the remains of a Sinful Angel, though weaker than a true angel's, are prized for rituals, spells and potions and fetch high prices on the black market.¹³

Suspicions

The companions wondered whether the dust might be a means of controlling the devil, or the beings used by The Puppeteer; that it had come out of the stone left by the devil strengthened the suspicion. They later told O.C., a man who opposed the Puppeteer, what they had found. He said he had seen amethyst fragments on those who followed the Puppeteer of their own will, and spoke of accounts that those under control heard a voice as beautiful as an angel's before they died.¹⁴¹⁵