Towel Day

[Eldan]

The Adventurer's Towel

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interplanar adventurer can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold wastes of Cania (giving yourself +2 bonus to saves to resist taking damage from cold weather); you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Elysium, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the deserts of Arborea; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Oceanus; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat (an improvised weapon dealing 1d4 bludgeoning damage); wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Basilisk Beast of Gehenna (it gives a +2 bonus to all saves against gaseous effects and gaze attacks if used that way); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal (giving everyone a +5 bonus to spot checks to find you), and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For magical reasons, if an NPC discovers that an adventurer has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the NPC will then happily lend the adventurer any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost." (This replicates the effect of the Entice Gift spell, found in the Spell Compendium up to three times a day.) What the NPC will think is that any man who can adventure the length and breadth of the multiverse, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

The Towel of Vecna [Minor Artefact]

This Towel, only whispered of in legends, is the source of Vecnas power of breaking out of Ravenloft and even withstanding the power of the Lady of Pain.

The Towel of Vecna is worn slung across one shoulder, taking up the cape slot. It is a small piece of fluffy cloth, about three feet long and one foot wide, of black colour with a grey skull in the middle. The towel always emits a musty, mildewy smell that can not be removed or suppressed in any way.

It has all the powers of a normal Adventurer's Towel, in addition to the following:
While wearing the cape, the wearer may use either Planeshift or Greater Teleport once per day, as a supernatural ability. The teleportation or planeshift may not be stopped by any spell or effect that stops teleportation, including, but not limited to, the power of gods to bar planar travel into or out of their domain.
Furthermore, the wearer of Vecna's Towel may hitch a ride along with anyone using a Conjuration (Teleportation) effect within 60 feet of themselves by holding up a hand with the thumb extended. This is a free action that requires a free hand.
When used as an improvised weapon, targets become sickened as well as taking normal damage, with no save.


The Wanderer's Towel

This towel is blessed by the god of wanderers and travellers. It is twice the size of a normal adventurer's towel. The colour is difficult to tell, but most likely, it was once a dark brown with some kind of flower pattern, now all but vanished under stains in all the colours of hte rainbow.
It has all the effects of a normal Adventurer's towel, but also the following:

Once per day, the towel can be rolled up and squeezed with both hands to produce enough nourishing soup to fill a large bowl and feed two people.

When worn as a cloak, the towel grants cold resistance 5.

When wrapped around the head it grants fire resistance 5.

When held in both hands, it slows a creature's fall enough to halve all falling damage.

The towel can be thrown at a creature's head as a ranged touch attack with a range increment of five feet. If the towel hits, the target is blinded until it can remove the towel.

The stains on the towel continually shift. By concentrating on them for a full minute, a creature finally realizes that they resolve themselves in a detailed map of everything for one mile around the creature, showing all natural landscape features and buildings.

Finally, when worn as a cloak, the towel's stains slowly shift to match colours with the background. A creature who stands still for at least a minute gains +5 to hide checks while wearing the towel.

[Malachi Lemont]

I love this idea! Sounds pretty useful all-around. I'll be sure to get my towel ready the next time I'm on an adventure.

[Omnicrat]

Are Adventurer's Towels minor artifacts, or are they supposed to be free, like quarterstaffs?

[Grod_The_Giant]

I think they're required.

[Eldan]

They are probably quite cheap. But no, they aren't artefacts. That's just Vecna's Towel.

[Cheiromancer]

The Fluffy Towel mentioned in the description of the Towel of Vecna - is it the same as an Adventurer's Towel, or does it have other properties?

[Eldan]

Whoops. That was an earlier name. I'll have to change that.

There, done. Vecna's Towel is now also sickening.

[inuyasha]

I smell a hitch hikers guide to the galaxy reference...dont panic!

[Gildedragon]

F... He of The Ineffable Name, God of Travelers
Ought to have a relic of the sort. And it ought to bestow immunity to the panicked condition. Any effect that would render you panicked instead affects you as a "calm emotions" spell

[Silverbit]

Now I can't stop laughing. Well done good sir. I second the idea that He of the unpronounceable name should have a relic towel. Oh, and you forgot the soaked in nutrients (and BBQ sauce) bit .

[Eldan]

Ffarlaghn? Something like that.

Hm. Not quite sure what a Ffarlaghn towel would do. Move speed, perhaps.

The hitchhiker's guide already sort of exists in Planescape, in form of the Mimir. Though maybe one that provides a bonus against fear effects would be fun.

[Gildedragon]

Feather fall: provided both hands are free. Unlimited distance
+to survival checks

Relic Power:
???

[Eldan]

There. The Wanderer's Towel.

[TuggyNE]

Ffarlaghn? Something like that.

Hm. Not quite sure what a Ffarlaghn towel would do. Move speed, perhaps.

I wanna say it's Fharlanghn, but that looks not quite right. On the other hand, it would appear that that's actually how it's spelled.

Maybe the towel should replicate a lesser version of Travel Devotion?

Edit: ooh, nice.

[Eldan]

And another ability. I might add more, if I get any ideas.