This weathered leather satchel is tooled in nautical designs and is full of rose-colored salt. Rubbing the salt on a sea creature will dry it out and shrink it to a tiny size without harming it (an hour of drying for each ton). When placed in water again the creature will revitalize and grow back to original size. It is said this was how the narwhals came to the Grand Lama's forbidden lake.
Pages
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Monday, October 11, 2021
Jeong-Suk's Iron Nail
Drive this rusted iron spike through your flesh and into a living tree and no being can possess you, bewitch you, or even touch you unwanted. It is said that this was a requirement for the greatest necromantic rituals of the 2nd Dynasty.
Thursday, October 7, 2021
Because You Saw a Ghost
1. All you can smell is burning.
2. The DM rolls twice as many encounters but half of them aren't real; only you thought something was approaching.
3. Every person has white hair and black eyes for you now.
4. Each creature you kill becomes a voice in chorus that questions your actions.
5. Perhaps they died bound or hung, but you no longer see rope.
6. You only heal if you carry something dead with you.
7. You can see lies.
8. You faint if left alone.
9. Gold smells like rotting flesh.
10. Everything is offkilter; only odd numbers work for you (to hit, it must be an odd number, to do damage it must be an odd number, to win initiative it must be an odd number, etc.).
11. Metal passes through you.
12. Animals are terrified of you.
13. Your clothes and gear seep blood constantly.
14. Every person that looks at you mistakes you for their most recently dead relative.
15. Food is as heavy as lead for you.
16. You can no longer see creatures that have drawn your blood.
17. When you speak, it comes out in an ancient, dead language.
18. No fire you make stays lit.
19. You no longer remember names.
20. Dead things regain life for as long as you touch them.
Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Telecanter's Garden of Sources
Take a handful of these nibs cut from used quills, say a phrase, and cast them on the ground like seeds and they will quickly grow into plants that flower and fruit. The fruit resembles maize and when husked, reveals a scroll with a passage from an ancient source about the phrase invoked, whether it be "siege engines" or "Imperial footwear" or "the poisons of peasants."
Tuesday, October 5, 2021
Illuminated Panthers
These reclusive, swamp-dwelling cats are tawny with deep black rosettes. On closer inspection, the rosettes are actually cities and landmarks that make up a map to a hidden city. Which city the map leads to differs for each panther. Some say the pelt of one of these cats is the only way to find the City of Happy Orphans or the Hermitage of the 10,000 scribes.
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Telecanter's Inquisitive Quill
Aim it at an opening and throw. This goose-feather quill will travel through the air like a lazy dart, drifting up and down on drafts of air. If there are threats in that place, there is a risk it never returns (1 on d6 for each place a party might encounter creatures or traps), but if it survives it will return and draw a map of the basic layout with no details but crude "X"s where it came into danger.
Thursday, September 23, 2021
The Origami Library
"I saw it once, it looked like a big, old map until Lady Fude started unfolding it. It kept unfolding and unfolding. After an hour it was a beautiful tent and when we walked inside we saw it was decorated with birds and pale flowers. There were paper shelves and on the shelves scrolls of paper that could be unrolled and read and they were all treatises on whatever topic Lady Fude whispered to the Library as she unfolded it."
"Oh, I thought it was a library of origami techniques!"
"It could be a library about anything, but it's true, that day I saw it, she did whisper to it to show her paper folding techniques and then she read one, and folded a crane that flew across the tent on its own."
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
The Saffron Path
It's unclear whether by invocation or magic artifact, but Anshumat the Quiet could toss a a handful of saffron threads before him and walk safely anywhere. When the lepers rioted for bread in Dhunar, he slipped through the crowd as if he weren't there. When hunted for heresy, he lived in the Untouched Tomb of Ambareesh, for only he could walk safely through those trapped halls.
Monday, September 20, 2021
Corinne's Case of Vivid Lenses
This mahogany box is lined with black velvet and holds pairs of eyes. Stories differ on how many pairs or what type, but if the eyes are held up to those of a person, they grow into them and replace them. This grants the person new ways of seeing. When finished with the eyes the user can pull them out, leaving their own eyes unharmed. Tales mention a milky white pair, clouded with age, said to obscure the world in a hazy fog except for the living, which appear as bright lights. A brilliant green pair is said to let a person see the true emotions play across a person's face no matter their skill in lying. There are other strange sights mentioned, but always the warning that using the eyes is comforting and pleasurable and harder and harder to resist. (user become addicted: minus one to hit/damage for each day they haven't used a pair of eyes in a session)
Friday, September 17, 2021
The Circumspect Carpet
This large carpet has a relatively plain design- a stylized tree with bare branches. But moments after a person has stepped on it, geometric blossoms will appear in vivid colors wherever a foot fell. These blossoms will last a day and are the way the great scholar Adrina of Nar always knew someone had visited her private library.
Thursday, September 16, 2021
The Envious Platter
The merchant-priest Nabusalim grew famous for holding lavish feasts with the same foods the God-King dined on. It is was whispered that he had a large, silver platter with a cover. And if he whispered a name over the platter, it made food appear, whatever the named person was eating. Nabusalim's feasts ended the same summer the God-King was poisoned.
Sash of Shrewdness
This fine silk sash has scenes embroidered in multicolored thread. Examined closely, it becomes apparent the scenes change to represent the topics of the closest conversation to the sash wearer, even if the wearer cannot hear the conversation.
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
The Cherished Shield
If you tell each combatant you face the story of how you acquired your impressive Nguni shield, it will block their first three blows outright, working as a sturdy shield thereafter. If you forget to praise your shield to them, blows will fall on you as if you had no shield.
Monday, September 13, 2021
The Veil of Voices
The first trader said "In my youth there was song popular in the wine houses about such a veil. The Lover laments being unable to express love to the Beloved because a Beautiful One in a haik, nodded and stole the Lover's voice."
"No," said the second trader. "My grandfather wore the Veil of Voices, it was a ragged tagelmust that an old wise woman gave him. She told him when he wore it, two voices would whisper in his ear-- one beckoning him to treasure, the other warning of danger. One voice would be a liar. He would have to find out which. He found out which, and only because of that did he survive the Great Plague."
"Perhaps, perhaps," said the third trader. "But are you sure you are not mis-hearing Vale of Voices, for I heard once that, far west, near the Living Sea, there is a valley with strange, wind-carved stones and if you listen you can hear the voices of the dead speaking to you."
Thursday, September 9, 2021
Mother of Answers
It is said that the hermit-wizards of Khezh knew a ritual to conduct when they had a singular question. They must write their question on rose petals and consume them. They must build a ship, christen it the name of their question, then sink it. They must compose a verse in the manner of the stressed poems of Bahim and recite it in front of a ruler. And if these were done in accordance with the strictures, the wizard would become gravid with the bearer of the answer. The person that knew the answer to the singular question, wherever they were in the world, would become gravely ill. They would die in seven days. And on the seventh day the wizard would give birth to a misshapen child whose first words would be to utter the answer.
Tuesday, September 7, 2021
Casket of Suffering
If the holder of this tiny, sandalwood box is harmed, it will hold the pain of one blow, even though it be mortal, so that the holder does not feel it. If someone opens the casket unsuspecting, the blow it holds will fall on them. Sought after by assassins.
(I'm still out here, folks. Hope you are well.)