OK, I'm thinking it may be better if you have to go around the circle twice - start at one end and you have to get around, then you get teleported back to the same place & have to go back.
I have an idea.
At one point you enter the burial vault of an old Dwarven hero. There is a retextured Ibis Crown wall model at the far end of the vault, and directly in front of this the grave of the hero. On the wall is depicted a scene of a dwarf throwing a hammer at a Myrkridia, with maybe some other vague battle shapes in the background. The engraved lines of the hammer as it flies seem to be glowing blue slightly, and the hammer is obviously the center of the picture.
When you enter the crypt and kill the guys there, your dwarf walks over to the wall and says "This must be Mi–ner, the hammer of Thror himself" or something, and he says something in Dwarvish. The hammer fades off the wall and teleports into room in front of the dwarf.
Now, if you are confused by exactly what this effect will be, it will be as if the hammer came out of the picture and into reality. This is very possible to do. Anyone notice that the bre'Unor Godhead idol changes its expression as you play "Through the Ermine," opening and closing its mouth? This would be the same sort of thing thing.
Anyway, Mi–nir would be an actual unit, not an artifact. It sorta floats in the air and follows you around. When you order it to attack, it's attacking animation is a single transparent pixel, and its attack is a projectile that looks exactly like it. The effect would be that it throws itself at the enemy. When it hits, it detonates in a shower of lightning that targets any nearby units... and then it reappears back on the wall! So you can go back and get it to use it as often as you want, but its not free, you'd have to fight your way back to the vault every time.
Good idea?
-Ares
