Heroic Items

Heroic items are weapons, armors, staffs and tools that are part of Keralon's legends. They appear in stories told within families about important ancestors or by bards in taverns across the realm. They re-appear again and again, often finding their way in to the hands of new heroes to continue the path set out by the fallen legends before them.  

Spirit Points

  Spirit Points are the currency with which heroic items are upgraded, and new abilities unlocked. Every upgrade has a cost which is paid for with spirit points that have been handed out by the DM. The higher the spirit point cost, the stronger the ability.
A character will earn Spirit Points which can be handed out in amounts varying from 1 to 5. Characters can spend Spirit Point to permanently unlock a hidden power of their heroic item. Each heroic item will have a list of abilities that can be unlocked. A character can never have more spirit points saved than their character level plus 2.
Spirit points are generally granted when a heroic act is performed that is line with the item's legend. Finding out the item's legend can be done in many ways, from visiting libraries to seeking out sages.
When spirit points are earned a heroic item will glow, pulse or emanate a spectral aura, indicating to the player that they are rewarded for their actions.
The number of spirit points a character will receive will vary, but it will mostly fall within the following range, which also determines the heroic item's rarity.    

Buying Upgrades

To add an upgrade to a heroic item, a player must spend the number of spirit points as displayed in its description. Upgrades are grouped by ‘Tiers’, which relate to the Tiers of play. Each Tier of upgrade are unlocked at certain levels (5, 10 and 15). Upgrades added are permanent. You cannot remove them unless you are overwriting them (see below).
You can never have two upgrades with the same name. Some upgrades have a level, displayed next to their name. These upgrades count as having the same name for the purpose of duplication. You can only add the higher level by overwriting the lower level version.
Some upgrades have the Limited tag. Each heroic item can only have 2 upgrades that are limited. If you have an item with 2 limited upgrades, and wish to add another, you must overwrite one of the existing limited upgrades.  

Overwriting upgrades

  Sometimes you will want to place an upgrade on a heroic item, replacing one already there. To do this, when you buy the upgrade, you re-gain spirit points equal to the original cost of the upgrade being overwritten. An upgrade can only ever overwrite a single other upgrade already on the item, you can never remove multiple other abilities in order to equip a single other upgrade.  

Attunement

  Heroic Items require attunement to the bearer before their abilities are usable. A heroic item that is not attuned will act as a mundane item of its type.  

Researching the Item

  Researching an item is a downtime activity that requires one workweek of work and at least 100 gp spent on materials, bribes, gifts, and other expenses. If a character has access to the Research bastion action (in its own bastion), they can use this bastion action (instead of a downtime activity) to gain the information. They forgo the regular benefit (not the BP) the research action usually delivers. This still requires the 100gp investment.   In both cases, addtional gold can be spent to receive a bonus on the later skill check. A +1/100gp, for a maximum of +5.   The character determines the subject they are researching:

Examining the item's construction (Arcana)

Researching previous owners (History)

Determining the item's nature (Insight)

Exploring the item's bond (Persuasion)

At the end of the week the character makes a skill check DC 15 of the appropriate skill. On a succes, the character receives some information on the action required to strengthen their bond and receive additional spirit points. Each skill check can only be made twice, so the same subject can only be researched twice.