Artifacts and Magic Items with style

[FaradayCage]

Disclaimer: This is a long post. The first part is spitballing about magic items being more magical. The second part zooms in on how that might play out for a particular item.

I've been imagining a new 5E campaign where magic items go back a bit more to their subtle and mysterious roots (which is basically what 5E encourages).

I daydreamed a scenario where magic items basically didn't exist to normal players. Maybe a mysterious draught of liquid from a faraway place, or a pair of quiet slippers passed down from the generations to keep from waking the missus on a run to the chamber pot. Nothing too serious. Nothing too +1.

But maybe they're daring enough to follow a lead to somewhere odd. Myth Drannor (prior to whatever happened after 3E). Or a different plane. Or wherever a mysterious old man scratches on their map before saying "bring geodes...you'll need them...lots of th-" and melting into a puddle that fertilizes the ground to instantly grow a giant mushroom.

I continued daydreaming the scenario where the characters ended up in a bargain with a baelnorn, outsider, aberration, whathaveyou. Whatever the entity, they offered a choice (or choices - "each of you pick one") of reward or compensation for the bargain.

Literally, "What's in the box?"

So I started thinking of magic items and artifacts that would be intriguing, but you have no idea what they are.

(This situation means any sort of spell that tells you what an item is would not exist in the conventional sense. Same for "remove curse", potentially.)

Continue daydreaming:

"You are most kind to return to me my favorite jar of spices. Perhaps this old tongue can still taste them."

With a smile, Jath'yerr empties the jar into her mouth, crunching and munching. Her eye sockets seem to look from side to side though her eyes are long gone. Her head sinks, shaking. After a few moments of tearless weeping, she composes himself.

"Perhaps the taste of food is a price I paid for this transition. So subtly it went. Mortal immortality is just a vain facsimile of godhood. Still, you went where I could not to get what I want. Kindness, I can still feel. As promised, I will show you my...collection. Each of you can...maybe...have one. "

she leads them down and around to her hiding place

"Unless I like it too much. Then maybe it's not for gift."

<Potential PC response: "Ohhhhhhh no. We made a deal.">

"Ohhhhhhhhh alright. A deals a deal."

(Perception DC 25 to notice her quickly pocket an unassuming piece of black fabric from a shelf).

"Now, here it all is. I don't know much about any of these."

She sweeps her arm across the room that hosts a collection of oddities. Things on pedestals. Trinkets on shelves. Unknowns in chests, boxes, or sacks.

"To tell it true. It took me hundreds of years to figure out this damned ring kept devils away, but also kept me away from them."

She points to the corroded green copper ring on her decaying finger.

"Fair enough trade...I suppose. But I still can't take the damned thing off."

She fusses with the ring a moment and then gives up with a dry chuckle.

"Per the bargain, you may each choose one item. I must warn you that inspecting one too much...may make your choice for you."

The choices are many (and their properties are determined by sight and inspection, at the DMs discretion):

1.) A silver dinner plate with a rainbow sheen.

2.) A small stone carving of a headless fish.

3.) A pewter mug that can easily hold a gallon of liquid. Touching it causes the touchee to hear distant voices.

4.) A hand mirror that has a transparent spot where the eyes of the reflectee should be.

5.) A tapestry of a knight eating the heart of another knight he had just defeated.

6.) A palm-sized rectangle composed of different metals in deliberate geometric configurations.

7.) A page of a book written in an unknown language with a diagram on it.

8.) A very small (pixie-sized) mithral hammer. It makes very distinct but quiet sounds depending on what it strikes.

9.) A 3x3 gold box with gems of different colors inset on the various faces. There are 9 of each gem color. It is certainly not currently in a configuration where each face of the box is showing one color.

10.) A sword with a permanent red glow.


___________________________


I will describe the potential result of one of them (of random power/mystery).

5.) The tapestry, if thoroughly investigated, might be found to be the one that appeared in the great hall of some lord. They claimed that a talented vandal must have stole in during the night to hang it there. Finding it to be in very poor taste (and a reminder of the vandal's horrible trespassing), they sold it to someone for very little. Who sold it to someone else. And so on. The art is truly vicious. Obscene, even. A careful observer might even notice the subtle things hidden within. It's more than just a knight eating another knight's heart. Part rebus puzzle, part riddle, part poem. If the "answer" is spoken deliberately in the presence of the tapestry, it will spring to life. Folding in on itself again and again, it begins to form hundreds of layers. The exterior layer thickens and darkens. A brass lump forms on the middle of the outermost layer and slowly morphs into a human face grinning in sadistic glee. The tapestry has turned into some kind of book. No one beckons you to read it, save that grinning face - saving secrets.

You dare to read the first page?

Prologue

The peasants plow the field for their kings.

The mortals roam the earth for their gods.

If all peasants knew their plight and shared their anger at once, the kings would rule no more.

That is impossible. For you know already, if you are reading this book, that peasants are daft fools.

The peasants cannot overthrow the kings anymore than the mortals can overthrow the gods.

But what can overthrow a king?

A king.

And what can overthrow the gods?

Only a god.

In my wisdom, I suspected I would not be the one to overthrow the gods.

But I learned many of their secrets.

I can live on in you...and the many others that have or will read from my...our...thoughts.

In that way, we are truly immortal.

Read on, if you will. Learn from my...our...knowledge. And add to it.

We are doing the right thing.


You have just read the first page of The Book of Vile Darkness

[RickAllison]

I like this. One comment is that outright preventing Identify from working kind of makes the spell pointless. One thing I might suggest is that Identify can tell you what the item does, but not what it will do.

Taking the example of the tapestry, Identify might tell you that the piece is a lock, and maybe give a hint on how to open it. When it is unlocked, Identify may tell you what happens if you study it. The full effects, however, might not be able to be discerned until someone has attuned to it.

In a similar vein, a sword that has a +X and other effects when attuned may only reveal those once the person is attuned to it and Identify is used.

[Regitnui]

I'm certainly a fan of the innocuous-looking powerful item. I also like the little snippet of the Book of Vile Darkness. I can support this idea.

[FaradayCage]

I like this. One comment is that outright preventing Identify from working kind of makes the spell pointless. One thing I might suggest is that Identify can tell you what the item does, but not what it will do.

Taking the example of the tapestry, Identify might tell you that the piece is a lock, and maybe give a hint on how to open it. When it is unlocked, Identify may tell you what happens if you study it. The full effects, however, might not be able to be discerned until someone has attuned to it.

In a similar vein, a sword that has a +X and other effects when attuned may only reveal those once the person is attuned to it and Identify is used.

I like the idea of Identify giving hints. Like each casting might tell you something. Or better: each casting you can ask a simple question (and the answer itself can be cryptic or a riddle). Perhaps the component only gets expended when a relevant answer can be given. And an unwritten rule that the older or more powerful the item, the more cryptic the answer.

[FaradayCage]

I was trying to think of more magic items that would have been mere curiosities and children's toys in an era when magic was more prominent. I ended up settling on a literal "what's in the box?"

The shrunken head of Snaga-Su

Description: The wooden box is about eight inches on each side and carved with elaborate tree and leaf motifs. A wooden sliding latch unlocks the lid to reveal a twisting snake of braided black hair. The hair is attached to a burgundy-colored orc's head, shrunken and preserved to a rawhide toughness. The mouth is sewn shut and the heavy eyelids are closed. A simple mark has been branded on the forehead.

Lore: Snaga-Su was the slave of a wild elf tribe in ages past. Her foul language and sass back prompted her owner to sew her mouth shut when he got sick of whipping her. All the elf children in the tribe feared her appearance and elders would often threaten so "sew their mouths shut like Snaga-su" if they were being loud or naughty.

So effective was the threat that when Snaga-su died, the tribal elders shrunk and preserved her head. Every year the tribe's children would gather around a fire to hear an elder tell the story of Snaga-su. At the appropriate moment, the head would be produced from the box much to the delight and terror of the young ones.

How the head acquired it's magical powers is a bit of a mystery. Some say that Snaga-su was herself an orc witch and her head retains some of her original psyche. Others believe the wild elf elders themselves imbued the head with magics of their own design.

Effects: If the head is held while a quick poem is recited (it begins as "Snaga-su, Snaga-su...") it will create an area of Silence as the spell for ten minutes wherever the head was pointed. (The poem may be etched on the inside of bottom of the box, possibly in a dead language that requires research). This effect can not be used again until after the next full moon.

Whoever possesses the head may occasionally hear faint mumbling. Cutting the stitches on the mouth may prompt the head to speak a single mysterious word before rotting away to a thin black slime.

[Biggstick]

I like the idea of Identify giving hints. Like each casting might tell you something. Or better: each casting you can ask a simple question (and the answer itself can be cryptic or a riddle). Perhaps the component only gets expended when a relevant answer can be given. And an unwritten rule that the older or more powerful the item, the more cryptic the answer.

The component used in the Identify spell doesn't get expended when the spell is cast. Unless of course you're house ruling that it does.

As for "potentially" removing the Remove Curse spell, definitely not a fan of that. It's naturally on the Cleric, Paladin, Warlock, and Wizard spell list. While maybe not as big a deal on a Warlock or Wizard, its definitely a let down if a Cleric or a Paladin is unable to cast this spell. Even if you were to house-rule it requiring more to cast the spell (component cost or some other in game cost), Paladins and Clerics should be able to utilize an important part of their divine-based character.

[Biggstick]

As for an item that might be found here, how about a pair of spectacles? Or glasses, whichever you prefer. I'm not the best at creating names or a way one might figure out each thing for the spectacles, but here's the idea.

Description: At first glance, this pair of spectacles seem to shimmer in whatever light happens to be in the room. If one were to pick them up, they wouldn't notice anything strange about them, nor when they put them on. In fact putting them on might make their vision go funny/fuzzy. If they decide to take the glasses off at this point, they can continue on their way and nothing happens. If they leave the spectacles on though, all of a sudden their vision clears, almost becoming sharper then it was before. It's as if they've gone their entire lives without seeing the world for what it truly was and they're seeing it now for the first time. Colors seem brighter, darkness seems clearer, and things which might have been hidden to the PC are hidden no longer.

At the corners of one's vision though, one sees something grey. As the PC tries to draw the party's attention to it, none of them can see it. It seems lost and doesn't know where it's at. It approaches the PC and asks what this place is. The PC responds (to the party, this seems like the PC wearing the spectacles is talking to no one) to the spirit, and can't quite tell what's going on yet.

At the end of the day when the PC takes off the spectacles to sleep, they notice that while everything nearby is easy to see, everything at a distance is a bit fuzzy. In fact they can't even make out the face of the party Ranger who's sleeping up in the tree. Panicked, the PC reaches for the spectacles and puts them on. Being able to see the Ranger again grants the PC a bit more knowledge about what's happened to them.

Effect: These spectacles grant Truesight out to 10-30' (whatever range you're comfortable with giving them). They also unintentionally grant the wearer the ability to interact with spirits/Baatezu in the Fugue/Astral Plane. These spirits/Baatezu may or may not be friendly, and they may or may not be able to interact with the PC. In granting this vision to the wearer, these spectacles make it difficult for the wearer to see without them past the Truesight range when taken off.

Reason for Creation: Plain and simple, these glasses were created for someone to see better. The creator/s went too far though, as it made the wearer dependent on the glasses. Being able to interact with the spirits/Baatezu also wasn't intentional, nor was it normal for just anyone to be able to interact with the souls of the recently deceased or the devils trying to seduce them.