Scavenged Items that tell a story

[Toy Killer]

In my campaign, I'm keeping the items strictly under control. It's post apocalyptic, no shops to trade in your stuff for better stuff. I'm allowing the party to scavenge for stuff, by writing things on index cards, shuffling and distributing based on their search scores.

To show for the supplies running out world wide, I have 7 'tiers' of loot. The highest has good odds to finding things like 1/day magic items and continous magic items, while the lowest has seemingly useless items that add flavor to the despair of the broken world.

They are currently in the forth tier, and soon to be in need of the fifth, where I throw in the useless items.

Some of the masterwork items already did tell blips about the world that used to be, for example, a masterwork short sword with "Elyese, No storm can keep us Apart". While the storm doesn't have any context with the game world, it tells the players that more is going on beneith the looting and staying safe.

I'm trying to compose a list of approximately 100 items that tell a story and, conceivably, have no use to the party directly, and I'm looking for help outsourced.

to start things off:


The List of things from the world that was...
1) Baby shoes, still in the box from the cobbler.

2) Shattered mirror, dried blood in between the cracks, a large piece is missing from the center.

3) a loaded picnic basket, the food inside is rotted and home to a small cloud of flies

4)in a closet that partly survived: a well preseved (possibly pressed) wedding dress. there is a faded ribbon on it "for Marie, on her day".(Kol Korran)

5)a bit on the creepy side: in one place the party searches they find a hidden door, leading to a hidden basements, in which there are 2 small sized skeletons chained, in a sort of a hugged position.(Kol Korran)

6)an unfinished musical piece written with a now ironic/ sad name ("last day i saw you", "my last sunset", "because tomorrow is a new day", "the future beckons") players might be able to reproduce this if they have musical talent, and a tool or two.(Kol Korran)

7)a box with letters from a romantic counterpart (a soldier at war, working off sea). can give some insight to far places.(Kol Korran)

8)near some bed some medical implements (depends on the technogloy of your world) now not functioning, but have been used to keep some person alive.(Kol Korran)

9)a religious icon, partly shattered, with the word "why?!" written over it. (this may fit more if there is a survivor after the war, or if the apocalypse took a little while to occur)(Kol Korran)

10)a magical/ technological device that plays a broken chirpy/ heppy tune, over and over again.(Kol Korran)

11)A great hall with dozens of bodies in finery, and as many cut crystal cups: in their hands, on the floor, dropped or rolled. In the center a cut matchinh punchbowl with a tarnished silver ladle.
One of the bodies is surrounded by dozens of empty poison vials or has a (possibly half) empty bottle of poison in their coat pocket.(Guigarci)

12)A potted plant that is doing quite well, the pot is brightly painted, with a child's palm stamped onto it(Guigarci)

13)A mirror with an inscription reading "~Of all the blessings, health is the greatest.~ Love: Oma"(Guigarci)

14)A silver box full of baby teeth(Guigarci)

15)Grocery List, TODO list (Pally Din)

16)Pair of glasses, broken beyond repair.(OzymandiasX)

17)A wedding band in a box with a note: "Rest in Peace. I love you"(OzymandiasX)

18)A dead dog, chained to a tree, with an empty water bowl nearby.(OzymandiasX)

19)A worn pair of boots with blood stains.(OzymandiasX)

20)A partial prayer to Pelor scrawled in blood on a broken wall(Callin)

21)A scrimshaw turtle. It's just a normal turtle, with maybe a reassuring refrain on it. (Deffers)

22)A tiny, ornate scabbard with a weapon rusted firmly inside. There is a message in brail along the length of the sheath, close to the hilt of the weapon, which reads "Thank you Grandfather".(Chained Birds)

23)A jar with a shriveled humanoid hand within. Upon further investigation, the item is but a toy used to scare people. On the bottom of the jar is a name: "Jeremy".(Chained Birds)

24)A tin can. Although it is closed, there sounds like there is something inside it rattling around. Checking the bottom, the players find a hole big enough to fit a(n) bolt head (or bullet depending on the campaign timeline).(Chained Birds)


25)A small pot, with an even smaller dead flower. It is hard to tell whether it wilted away or burned; either way, it is extremely difficult to tell what type of flower it was supposed to be.(Chained Birds)

26)an old clay pot filled with burned matches.(Hxolhpths)

27)a skeleton, holding a smaller skeleton with hand over its mouth, in a locked
cellar.(Hxolhpths)

28)at the ruins of a destroyed village flyers that reads "believe"(Hxolhpths)

29)at the time you get hungry they found a menu.(Hxolhpths)

30)...

[Randomguy]

Make sure the stuff actually fits with the setting. The basket of rotten food doesn't fit, for example, since food would rot away completely in a few years at most, so that might give players the wrong idea as to how and when the world actually ended.

[Toy Killer]

Well, in game, it 'ended' about 8 days ago. I don't know what kind of food you know, but without preservatives I'm pretty sure food left out in the open for a week would rot.

I mean, assuming scavengers don't get it, and the season being late spring, food doesn't last long out in the open. especially food you would bring on a picnic (Fruits, cheese, bread? admitedly, cheese might make it, but not next to a pile of rotting apples).

EDIT: Sorry, I misinterpreted you're post! I thought you were saying it would take a couple years for it to rot away completely (As in, no doubt this is rotten food), instead of rotted away completely (As in, There is no semblance of food, it has withered away into the past). left it as was for understanding purposes.

reading comp on my part; Fail

[Kane0]

- Empty but unbroken Containers (barrels, ceramic pots, wicker baskets)
- Said containers filled with spoiled food (or long lasting foodstuffs that are unprepared, such as flour)
- Unfinished or unrepaired tools/weapons/equipment
- Chunks of various metals/woods/leathers
- Coins/Gems (assuming they are of no value as currency anymore)
- Lucky Charms (Placebo variety only)
- Magic items of convenience rather than utility (eg, eating bowl that cleans itself, Wineskin that ages wine automatically, etc). Usually found in places once belonging to nobility or mages
- Bricks & other usable masonry or building materials
- Frayed & well used rope, with knots
- Childrens toys

[Cirrylius]

1) Baby shoes, still in the box from the cobbler.

Aw, you beat me to it. "For sale: baby shoes, never used"

[Kol Korran]

- in a closet that partly survived: a well preseved (possibly pressed) wedding dress. there is a faded ribbon on it "for Marie, on her day".

- a small closed room that mostly escaped devestation, in which there are several chess board (or another board game fit for your world), with names of people all over the world, and even some decumentation of the game so far in neat tidy files besides each board. some pieces may have fallen, but some boards (and games) are in tact.

- a bit on the creepy side: in one place the party searches they find a hidden door, leading to a hidden basements, in which there are 2 small sized skeletons chained, in a sort of a hugged position.

- a small religious book discussing the beauty of creation and the coming salvation of the righteous.

- a skeleton with a prostethic leg and arm. on his chest there is a dusty but still readable badge of honor from a war, declaring a great act of bravery. (for those who know)

- a securely tied bound, with the title "recipes for the countess", in which there are many recipes (perhaps partly faded), which enlist exotic materials and spices.

- at a coffin maker's shop 3 coffins: Mr. Jones, Mrs. Jones, and a small one called "kid jones". (one of the skeletons may be missing)

- a bunch of wooden figurines, quite nicely scupted, but all broken or mutilated in a basket, and a new one fallen from the hands of another skeleton, along with the sculpting knife. each figurine a bit different. (same might go with paintings, if you prefer).

- an unfinished musical piece written with a now ironic/ sad name ("last day i saw you", "my last sunset", "because tomorrow is a new day", "the future beckons") players might be able to reproduce this if they have musical talent, and a tool or two.

- a disturbed card game between several skeletons, a lot of coin to one of them, one may have a hidden card or two, some mugs of drink spilled on the floor.

- a box with letters from a romantic counterpart (a soldier at war, working off sea). can give some insight to far places.

- near some bed some medical implements (depends on the technogloy of your world) now not functioning, but have been used to keep some person alive.

- a religious icon, partly shattered, with the word "why?!" written over it. (this may fit more if there is a survivor after the war, or if the apocalypse took a little while to occur)

- a hidden stash of LOADS of coins and currency from before the apocalypse, perhaps with hidden ledgers describing how the fortune was amassed. (now completely useless of course)

- a magical/ technological device that plays a broken chirpy/ heppy tune, over and over again.

- a slaughter house with masses of intact animal skeletons. and a horrible smell.

this is all i got for now... this sounds like an excellent idea. i'd love to see your lists sometime. even if not- good luck! :smallsmile:

-

[Gildedragon]

A great hall with dozens of bodies in finery, and as many cut crystal cups: in their hands, on the floor, dropped or rolled. In the center a cut matchinh punchbowl with a tarnished silver ladle.
One of the bodies is surrounded by dozens of empty poison vials or has a (possibly half) empty bottle of poison in their coat pocket.

A collection of books written in an unreadable script

A work of art slashed to ribbons

A potted plant that is doing quite well, the pot is brightly painted, with a child's palm stamped onto it

A wreath of flowers or paper flowers with a ribbon reading "condolences"

A mirror with an inscription reading "~Of all the blessings, health is the greatest.~ Love: Oma"

A box wrapped in decorated paper

A pile of torn crumpled decorated paper

A silver box full of baby teeth

[Pally din]

Some of this depends on what the world was like 'before', what the nature of the disaster was, and how much the PCs know.

Map: either to a now unrecognizable place they currently are, or to a far off country, or even a globe.

Grocery list, TODO list, or technical drawing, to things that people no longer have the context for.

Half used medicine /potion by a bedside.

Melted metals inside a blast mark.

You can probably look around where you live and just pick common objects.

[OzymandiasX]

-Pair of glasses, broken beyond repair
-A wedding band in a box with a note: "Rest in Peace. I love you"
-A dead dog, chained to a tree, with an empty water bowl nearby
-A worn pair of boots with blood stains
-A discarded photo album with a handful of photos still in it
-A tray with a stack of partially burned photographs

[Gerrtt]

I rolled a bunch of random items that would be in a room once when creating a dungeon. Came up with:

Clothes
Playing Cards
Pillows
An encounter with Kobolds.

Naturally the kobolds were playing strip poker seated on the pillows. :smalltongue:

On to some ideas:

-A map of the city with several houses/buildings circled, "x'd" out, or with arrows pointing to them (maybe these are points of interest to the overall plot and someone who had the map was on the trail before being killed).

-a music box that plays the same tune over and over but gets stuck at the same point in the song every time. You can overwind the box to make it keep going. Why does it stop there every time? (maybe some sort of cataclysmic event occurred while the box was playing and it got stuck during the event, which damaged the box enough to stop if from working briefly when played).

-a storm/bomb shelter that is sealed up, but nobody is inside it. Living or dead.

[Gildedragon]

The feet of a great statue, legs and body toppled and shattered. On the statue reads...
Knowing the nature of the cataclysm would help

A pet dog not yet gone feral

[Toy Killer]

The nature of the cataclysm:

One fine dusk, the sky started raining blood. The dead arose from their graves, mass panic rippled out.

The area is close to Coventry, the 'Vatican' to the church of Palor. Many people held their faith strong as hell invaded. Paladins rode out to rid the threat. After the first dusk, the High Priest of Palor, Ventrek, Went missing.

Faith shattered, the dead walking, Devils roaming the night. Countless thousands were lost.

I will be amending my first post for Items added into the list.

[Gildedragon]

An exquisite sculpture/art-piece of paper or balsa or some other fragile material;miraculously unharmed even as stones and steel are shattered and mangled around it.

[Callin]

A partial prayer to Pelor scrawled in blood on a broken wall

[Deffers]

-Scrimshaw carvings. These ones are... incomplete and wrong somehow. They're made of odd geometric shapes. On them, illegible runes. If you look at the runes, they seem to blur together a bit, and if you keep looking your head starts to hurt. Sleeping with it on you will give you bad dreams. Your players should only be able to find these near the beaches, in cellars, held by a skeleton that has those same runes all over its body, etc.

-A scrimshaw turtle. It's just a normal turtle, with maybe a reassuring refrain on it.

-Assuming the demons are of the off-the-deep-end crazy variety, maybe put in some of their own 'additions.' Say, maybe a wind-chime made of still bloodied bone, with claw marks drawing stark white lines across them and teeth marks where ravenous things nibbled. Sinew replaces string, and obviously it doesn't work very well.

-A suggestion for one of your high-tier items: an exquisitely crafted and decorated, but functionally normal, wand of cure light wounds in a rosewood box. Roughly five of the charges should be spent-- maybe roll 1d6+2 to see how many. This box should be in the satchel of a younger man in colorful robes, of the kind a wizard would wear. There ought to be emptied, and perhaps shattered bottles inside. Obviously, the corpse should be somewhere hard to reach-- maybe a flying demon impaled him on a church's Mandatory Pointy Spire from a great height, and it was only through good luck his satchel didn't fall to the ground and break everything. Wrapped around the wand should be a letter going something like,

"My dear boy! Congratulations on your acceptance into the Academy! Eleanor and I are so proud of you. We always knew your study would take you to fantastic places. The journey ahead might be perilous, and a mage's study is always a dangerous place, so we have decided to give you your first wand, that you may be safe and healthy. Bear our family name with pride,"

The rest of the letter is illegible. The corpse should be fresh. It should be obvious this young man was a survivor. Maybe leave a demon corpse nearby, to hammer it home.

[Chained Birds]

Here are 10:

- An worn box containing inkblot tests. Upon opening the box, a player may see something resembling a great fear for them like a spider blot or a skeleton head. (Player's reactions to the inkblots may vary).

- A tiny, ornate scabbard with a weapon rusted firmly inside. There is a message in brail along the length of the sheath, close to the hilt of the weapon, which reads "Thank you Grandfather".

- A random pile of balloons near an empty helium tank. Each balloon seems to have different celebrations printed on them, though it is hard to tell unless they are blown-up. Many have holes in them, and others have lost most of their elasticity.

- A moldy newspaper with hardly anything legible on it except a small comic. The comic is also circled with a small arrow leading off from the circle to an immature obscenity about the main character.

- A jar with a shriveled humanoid hand within. Upon further investigation, the item is but a toy used to scare people. On the bottom of the jar is a name: "Jeremy".

- A false tooth made of fool's gold. It is engraved with a small "T" in the center.

- A carton of wrappers from a well known confection business. There is not a single scrap of food or sweet flavor remaining, no matter how hard the players try to like the wrappers or box.

- A tin can. Although it is closed, there sounds like there is something inside it rattling around. Checking the bottom, the players find a hole big enough to fit a(n) bolt head (or bullet depending on the campaign timeline).

- Players find a small sandbox. There isn't much in the sand (if searched) except for a single glass marble with a crake down the middle. Some sand appears to have gotten into the marble.

- A small pot, with an even smaller dead flower. It is hard to tell whether it wilted away or burned; either way, it is extremely difficult to tell what type of flower it was supposed to be.

[Kerilstrasz]

- A small painting of a old man smiling. (the sword beside him is exactly the same
as the one a player has) and on it is written "with love, (the name of that player)!

- a box, inside a locked box, inside a locked box, inside a locked box, inside a
locked box, with a card in it saying "for luck" and a small vial with a drop of
holy water.

- a mirror that only reflects while in moonlight

- a metal rod that it has a moon carved on 1 end and a sun on the other

- an old clay pot filled with burned matches

- a room, with barrels of new rotted food (about a week), a diary no longer
readable, and a torn page that reads: "they come,had to move,i ll go towards..."

- 2 sacks filled with salt

- a collection of seashells (the big one is filled with partly dried blood)

- a biiiig metal ring with keys of various metals (about 50 of them)

- a skeleton, holding a smaller skeleton with hand over its mouth, in a locked
cellar.

- at the ruins of a destroyed village flyers that reads "believe"

- at the time you get hungry they found a delivery menu :P

- a funny shaped glass bottle with a black liquid inside.. the faint red & torn label
reads: Co.. ..la

- every now and then a broken toy (toys are good for creepy situations)
maybe a good preserved doll at some point (that they might give it to a little girl
they find later)

thats for now... maybe more later :)

[Toy Killer]

So, I trimmed down some of the suggestions, and put the full list of the selections in the OP.

A lot of good ideas here. Thank you all for helping with the project.

[Golden Ladybug]

Found poking out of the ground, a large metal cube that was once below ground. It is easily big enough to fit four people comfortably, and would've served as a useful shelter once upon a time. Unfortunately, the door has been left open and the shelter despoiled. All food, water, ammunition and other materials have been pilfered long before the PCs arrive.

What they find, inside a locked cabinent, is a threadbare teddy-bear. On the floor of the shelter, the shadow of a small humanoid figure, burnt into the metal by an apocalyptic flash of light and fire.

[Pally din]

A small pile of silver coins next to a crossbow bolt mold with slots for 6 bolts. One slot is filled. If the coins are melted into the mold, decide on the number of additional bolts that can be made. Varriation is arrowhead mold or sling bullet mold. Probably want this next to a fireplace, though the wood may be missing. It looks like someone left in a hurry.

A hastily broken table with one leg missing along with a spilled box of nails.

An unscarred ornamental bush currently in fragrant bloom as part of some thoroughly useless landscaping.

A water clock, currently without water. If it had water it could run for about 25 hours before needing a person to move the water from the lower tank to the upper tank. Not easily portable, and not portable at all if filled. But, it is a mechanical marvel.

Broken pottery next to a building made of sandstone. It looks like someone was trying to grind an edge to some of the shards.

A tripwire made of twine attached to some bells at the bottom of a stairwell.

A rainbarrel, filled with mostly blood and maggots.

A bloodsoaked ornamental rug.

A heavy wardrobe still pushed up against a door as if to block it. All of the clothes however are ripped to shreds and scattered about the room.

A flooded basement with at least one cracked wall. Most other contents are ruined.

An ornamental iron fence section of a gate with almost all sections bent as if by a colossal baby. A spear head might be salvageable.

A damp sackcloth bag full of chicken feathers next to some cracked bones, both chicken and human.

[Regitnui]

A dirty book, with most pages illegible or torn out. Enough of it remains to show that it was a prayer book.

A straw doll, oddly untouched despite the small skeleton still clutching it.

Carefully embroidered shoes made of fine leather with a bone still sticking out of it.

A dented helmet. The plated gold has peeled off in the centre of the dent to reveal dull iron.

An overturned wagon. Cries for help can be heard from underneath. If the players turn it over, the parrot flies away, still mimicking the screams of the family that owned it.