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The Bandicoot
2016-09-02, 04:48 PM
So, in a game I'm currently running one of the players has come across a small portal to The Plane of Lost Items, a name I made up on the spot to explain a quirky magic item(reach into the hat, pull out a random item/creature) . He's made it clear at some point in the future he wants to travel there and I'm not inclined to disallow it. In fact, I'm inclined to run a couple one-on-one sessions with him.

Problem is, I made the idea up on the spot and am now drawing a blank for ideas on how it'd look or what kind of adventure could happen.

Help, please.

Slipperychicken
2016-09-02, 04:50 PM
There was a room in Hogwarts that was kind of like this, in one of the later books. Room of Requirement maybe? Could have a look at that for inspiration.

halfeye
2016-09-02, 04:53 PM
Obviously it's full of paperclips, cheap ball point pens and unpaired socks.

Douglas Adams and others have riffed on this, perhaps Terry Pratchet?

JAL_1138
2016-09-02, 05:04 PM
Obviously it's full of paperclips, cheap ball point pens and unpaired socks.

Douglas Adams and others have riffed on this, perhaps Terry Pratchet?

Guitar picks, AA batteries, the chuck keys to electric drills, Allen wrenches, and cigarette lighters too.

For Pratchett, maybe "Where The Sun Does Not Shine" (As in, "you can stick that where the sun doesn't shine.") It's an area under a rock overhang in a particularly steep-sided valley in the mountainous kingdom of Lancre. All sorts of things ended up there. There was also the Eater of Socks, a sad, embarrased elephantine creature that took up residence in Unseen University's laundry room in Hogfather.

inuyasha
2016-09-02, 05:08 PM
I know it's not entirely what you want, but Pathfinder has an extraplanar location with a duplicate of every single item in existence... You may find that useful in some way.

It's called the First Vault (http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/First_Vault)

TheCountAlucard
2016-09-02, 08:29 PM
I like the Exalted setting's Madam Marthesine of the Lost. She's the goddess of lost things, and she has a cadre of hoarder-spirits who seek out lost objects to pilfer.

She has become quite a potent goddess in this fallen age, and she never willingly parts with something she has obtained without trading it for something of equal or greater value.

She also has a magic bag that leads directly into her sanctum (and from which she can draw her possessions), but would-be thieves are in for an unpleasant surprise - unless the person reaching into the bag is Madam Marthesine, whatever is inserted into the bag cannot be removed. :smallamused:

Aeson
2016-09-02, 10:17 PM
Problem is, I made the idea up on the spot and am now drawing a blank for ideas on how it'd look
Think about how high a "lost item density" you want to have. At one extreme, you might have something that looks like a vast landfill, with random odds and ends piled high as far as the eye can see. At another extreme, you might have a mostly-empty plane with random bits of trash here and there. Somewhere in the middle, you might have, say, a fairground after everyone's left but before the cleanup crews go through picking up all the trash left on the ground.

You may also want to have the items behave in a somewhat abnormal manner so long as they're on the plane, perhaps in a manner related to how the item is used in the "real" world, or perhaps in a manner suggested by the form of the item (e.g. figurines of birds fly and form flocks, while rivers and lakes are made up of vast quantities of beads of various colors, mostly white, blue, green, and brown, etc), or perhaps in more "silly" ways.

You may want to consider having some lost historical artifacts (whether magical or mundane) for the player to stumble across; if nothing else, they could be of value to collectors.


what kind of adventure could happen.
The crazy lichold man Elddir Mot lost his phylacterydear mother's tiara in the plane last time he visited; something about an irate scepter taking the tiara as its queen and being chased out by seething spoons and flying forks preventing him from recovering it himself, so would you, honorable adventurer, kindly go retrieve the tiara for him?

Run into a magic lamp to which a genie is bound; the lamp wants you to go find some item to which the bond can be transferred (or which can break the bond) because it's tired of being rubbed by grubby hands to get the genie's attention. Ruins the beautiful finish on its surface, you know.

Random encounter against a bunch of crazed animated items. The dinner set insists that you simply must stay to be served; the rubber chicken is most excellent this time of year.

Find a page of some book of oracular wisdom which bears the words "a Dorian war shall be accompanied by (some word you cannot quite make out which is either 'death' or 'dearth');" start a quest to find someone who'll pay you for this prophecy. Maybe that herd of atlases, geography books, and travel books that tends to arrange itself into one of a number of maps might be willing to help tell you of what place might care about a Dorian war?

Âmesang
2016-09-02, 10:27 PM
Perhaps rewrite bags of holding so that when they're stuff is lost, they find their way into the Plane?

Draconium
2016-09-02, 10:39 PM
Perhaps rewrite bags of holding so that when they're stuff is lost, they find their way into the Plane?

"For the love of Pelor, why do I keep finding all this random crap in my bag? Unmatched socks, keys, random copper and silver... Wait, is this the Head of Vecna?"

LarwisTheElf
2016-09-03, 12:36 AM
The first thing that came to mind for me was the scene from Labyrinth with the junk lady. That would make for an interesting encounter. Maybe a hag with levels in sorcerer or enchantment and illusion spells?

Eldan
2016-09-03, 10:40 AM
One of the layers of Acheron has the ability that lost and broken things end up there. Though mostly weapons, especially big ones like siege engines, spelljammers, golems etc.

Vinyadan
2016-09-03, 10:53 AM
It's the Moon. Has really no one heard of that time Astulf had to ride a charriot of fire to get there and recovet Orlando's sanity after he had gone mad?

Telonius
2016-09-03, 01:06 PM
The Land of the Perfect Dice. Mountains of dice that are beautifully crafted, perfectly balanced, and always seem to roll well when you need them to.

You could go for a more metaphorical sort of "item." Various personifications of luck, hope, innocence, memories, sanity. Maybe a person's vision (if they were blinded) or hearing (if they were deafened). Phantom limbs. The souls of lovers who were parted from each other, and can't get to the afterlife without their counterparts. Echoes of great empires that have been destroyed might find a place here. Art that had been destroyed. Libraries that were burned.

Suggestion for the plane: Divinations to locate particular objects or people on the plane simply don't work. (No "Find the Path" to lead you right to the item you're looking for).

Demidos
2016-09-03, 08:35 PM
One of the sample planar locations in the DMG contains something similar. Not sure how much I can say to not violate copyright, but assuming you're playing 3.5, I'd take a look.

Edit: See Eldan's post.

Traab
2016-09-03, 08:43 PM
I like the idea of the trash creature from Labyrinth. You could fill it with all sorts of creatures known to hoard/collect items. Dragons for an obvious example. Lots of kender. :smallbiggrin: Another option might be to make the plane be an ever shifting mass of random crap. More is constantly falling from the sky like a rain storm, give them the chance to make random rolls that go absurdly high in order to find stuff of actual value. 99 times out of 100 all they find is junk like extra buttons, quills, socks, etc. But sometimes valuable stuff gets lost too. The hoard creatures will of course gather the best stuff for themselves. The only exit from the plane is of course guarded by the biggest and strongest whatever in the plane. After all, there is only one of those, making it intensely valuable to whoever "has" it.

Jay R
2016-09-03, 10:47 PM
If it's the plane of lost objects, then he can't find a way there. Finding is against its nature. He can't get there if he knows where he is. All attempts to reach the place should fail.

Then, he should get lost in a trackless swamp, feel dizzy for a moment, and realize that he has just made it there.

He will fail to either stay there or have an adventure there, however. Once he realizes he's reached his goal, somebody should grab him by the shoulder, and pull him out of a quirky magic item. He is now in any adventure you want to run, anywhere you want to run it.

The Bandicoot
2016-09-03, 11:03 PM
If it's the plane of lost objects, then he can't find a way there. Finding is against its nature. He can't get there if he knows where he is. All attempts to reach the place should fail.

Then, he should get lost in a trackless swamp, feel dizzy for a moment, and realize that he has just made it there.

He will fail to either stay there or have an adventure there, however. Once he realizes he's reached his goal, somebody should grab him by the shoulder, and pull him out of a quirky magic item. He is now in any adventure you want to run, anywhere you want to run it.
Maybe the Plane of Lost Items is a bad name for it. Plane of the Lost would be better. It's mainly full of lost items but the occasional creature shows up there.

I was considering putting in a race that hasn't been seen in the material plane for millenia. They all by got lost and made their home in the plane.

Also, maybe a race of Frankenstein-ish stitched together creatures made up of all the lost bits of other creatures.

Temperjoke
2016-09-03, 11:41 PM
Several things to think about:

1. How organized/disorganized is it? Is it based on where stuff comes from? Or by type? Who is doing the organizing?

2. Is there a entity in control or some sort of guardian to the plane?

3. Are some areas more dangerous than others due to the sort of things lost in it? For example, if a lich lost his phylactery in the plane, it could have reformed there. Or if items have come to life, an area that has a lot of weaponry could be lethal.

4. How does time flow? Is the plane outside time? What about when he returns, how much time has passed outside? This could also affect the condition of items in the plane, after all if time flows normally, lots of items would be rotted and decayed, the air filled with mold and spores and potentially deadly. Scrolls and tomes could crumble when touched, swords and armor rusted, coins tarnished and worthless.

The Bandicoot
2016-09-04, 12:11 AM
Several things to think about:

1. How organized/disorganized is it? Is it based on where stuff comes from? Or by type? Who is doing the organizing?

2. Is there a entity in control or some sort of guardian to the plane?

3. Are some areas more dangerous than others due to the sort of things lost in it? For example, if a lich lost his phylactery in the plane, it could have reformed there. Or if items have come to life, an area that has a lot of weaponry could be lethal.

4. How does time flow? Is the plane outside time? What about when he returns, how much time has passed outside? This could also affect the condition of items in the plane, after all if time flows normally, lots of items would be rotted and decayed, the air filled with mold and spores and potentially deadly. Scrolls and tomes could crumble when touched, swords and armor rusted, coins tarnished and worthless.
1. I'm thinking it's fairly disorganized but some items naturally appear more in certain areas (For example there could be a great mountain of teeth or a river made of lost drinks) however, any attempt at mapping the area fails.
2. I'm thinking no.
3.Areas would be dangerous based on what appears there. I'm thinking that while some items might animate, not all will.
4. I'm not sure how time will pass but I'm thinking time doesn't affect items at all in this plane.