There are 8 different triggers to acquire the palantir, but some of them wil only be triggered if another type doesn't exact in the game. So there are basically 4 different palantirs that can exist at the same time (ithil, orthanc, anor, elostirion).
As for the (possible) negative effects of using the palantir I have made my decision what it will be. But it think it will be more fun to keep it a surprise, because I want people to play and test my palantir-script. Thanks for all the suggestions btw (expect some +rep coming in)
Anyways once I have finished the palantir-script, I will finalize & test the elven-reforging script (it will be very different from the original one in ME-lore submod). Everything else is aleady implemented. The release will be probably tomorrow if all goes well.