The main artifact featured in Issue No. #2 of the Warehouse 13 comic book series. The electronic label next to the censer reads:
Ned Lowe's Censer
Smoke Emitter
Warning: Dissipates Victims
Properties[]
The censer emits a fog/smoke that is able to absorb people and allows the wielder to turn into a vaporous form they can control. The absorption effect becomes permanent after a while and the people trapped eventually vanish.
The smoke is vulnerable to heat, which is why Edward Lowe only used it at night. Exposure to a strong enough heat source, such as a a large amount of light, will cause the smoke to dissipate, rendering the user fully corporeal. However, trapped victims will only be released once the censer is neutralized.
History[]
The Hindu prayer censer was used by a ruthless pirate named Edward "Ned" Lowe, who had acquired it during his travels to the East. He used the artifact to plunder any wayward ship unfortunate enough to cross his path during the night. Once Ned Lowe and his men were finished looting, he would sail off, leaving a trail of ghost ships in his wake.
The censer is part of Warehouse 12's lost cache, which was being transported from the U.S. to England when the ship it was in, The Halcyon, was sunk.
Viola Adair, a direct descedent of the men who sank the boat, hired dive teams to retrieve the cargo. She later sold the censer to Jon Breen in Innis Orr, Ireland; so she could attract the Warehouse's attention. Breen used the censer to capture off-islanders. He was heartbroken over his ex, Indira, who'd left him. Pete retrieved the artifact from Breen, after Myka had been captured by the fog. He managed to neutralize the censer in time to save her and all of the other victims (by Breen) and they placed it in the Warehouse.
Trivia[]
- Although this artifact is attributed to Edward Lowe, he had acquired the censer from an unknown Eastern source, presumably after it had already become an artifact, and was not himself a Hindu.
- It shares this attribute with Qin Shi Huang's Mallet from the previous issue.
- This artifact's design is based on the thurible, a variety of censer that is suspended from beads or chains, commonly used in Christian rites. Hindus instead traditionally use a type called a Dhunachi, which resembles a cup that is held by a handle rather than a pot suspended from beads.
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