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Draenar
Acolyte
Canada
9 Posts |
 Posted - 02 Oct 2009 : 07:17:56
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I'm running a 4e FR game, and for story reasons, I needed some items that were recognizably connected to the Spellplague, but which weren't otherwise important. So I came up with Spellscarred trinkets.
Spellscarred trinkets are minor items of magic, with no game effects, and mostly useless even not counting game effects. For instance, trays that float upside-down, animated (and cowardly) statuettes, an otherwise mundane dagger rusted through but as strong as ever, a dull gray ioun stone wreathed in blue flame, a goblet that flows through the fingers of anyone trying to hold it, etc. They could fairly be called "misfit magics".
I'd intended them to be throwaway curiosities, but my players really took to them, to the point where I began to give them out as small rewards for things that I couldn't justify giving out XP for, like bringing home-made snacks. Of course, this meant I had to come up with a lot more than my initial selection, and I'm starting to run out of ideas. So I thought I would share the idea, and see if anyone else wanted to contribute to the pool of useless magic items. (You can always use them unconnected to the Spellplague, if you want.)
(Note that with a couple of these, I tried so hard to make them useless, I ended up making them useful to devious PCs. Also, part of the point of these is that one of my PCs can detect Spellplague, so they know to pick up otherwise inconspicuous items.)
Ones I've already come up with:
-- Kettle that screams with a human voice (Or bites)
-- Harp that only plays one song (Any other notes do not sound.)
-- Everlasting garlic (including bad breath)
-- Blank-faced dive that announce aloud the number they land on, often disagreeing with each other.
-- Mirror in which everyone is wreathed in blue fire, and has horrible burns.
-- Inkpen that writes only in blue fire, but must still be filled with ink
-- Doll with buttons for eyes. There is *no* external indication that the doll is spell-scarred, but it will detect as such. (Yes, it's a creepy doll that's creepy because it's completely normal.)
-- Nonmagical hunting bow that animates any game it kills as undead
-- Blue apple (not recommended for eating...)
-- Puzzle-box that changes itself as you try to solve it, making it impossible to solve
-- Blue flame-wreathed fishhook that remains lit underwater (scaring fish away)
-- Set of cutlery that makes everything taste like chicken of varying degrees of freshness (except chicken)
-- Rope that behaves like a snake (and unties itself at the worst possible times)
-- Sack that weighs twice as much as it should
-- Manacles that can stretch infinitely, but won't break
-- Lyre that sounds like a kazoo
-- Aspergillum that shakes out blue sparks
-- Glass eye that occasionally blinks
-- Brass bell with no clapper, which nonetheless tingles (sometimes autonomously)
-- Pipe that burns normally, but produces no smoke from either end
-- Fickle compass: This compass points north. Or whatever other direction strikes its fancy.
-- Incorporeal 10-foot pole
-- Buoyant anchor
-- Oar that is permeable to liquids
-- Key with liquid teeth
-- Knife that makes the sound "Onomatopoeia" when stabbing
-- Blood-drinking bonsai tree
-- Sign that is always in a language the reader doesn't understand (If magic is used, it says "Illiterate? Leave a message at [place] for Faros, Master Reader.")
-- Alive, struggling insect in a chunk of amber
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BRITANNUS (shocked): Caesar, this is not proper.
THEODOTUS (outraged): How?
CAESAR (recovering his self-possession): Pardon him Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
-- Caesar and Cleopatra, Act II, George Bernard Shaw |
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Saegis
Acolyte
Canada
23 Posts |
Posted - 02 Oct 2009 : 09:28:54
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I really dig those ideas. In the last session I DMed (4E), I threw a modified giant at the players who wore an iron crown. At first I thought it would be some crude piece of metal that the giant made himself to make himself look important. But after only describing it as a crown and one of the players took it as a trophy for having defeated it I realized that the crown became important to the player. So now I'm trying to write up something new about the crown to entice the character to learn more.
Also to add to your list I thought of:
- A blue felt hat that seems to shrink a few sizes too small when it gets any where close to your head.
- A tiny, decorative metal songbird that only moos.
- A single leather glove that seems hot to the touch.
- Jewelry that tattoos a shape similar to itself on the part of your body where you put it, and it takes considerable effort to remove.
- A deck of cards that are all the same card, but the type of card changes every time you take them out.
- A black cloak perfect for sneaking around, but turns blaze orange the moment you put it on.
- A telescope that shows only a reflection of the eye you're using to look through it.
- An animated coin purse that greedily eats any money you put in it, but can easily be emptied like a normal coin purse.
Anyways, that's all I have for now. Happy DMing. |
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Sandro
Learned Scribe
New Zealand
266 Posts |
Posted - 02 Oct 2009 : 10:43:32
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Man, this is probably the best thing I've read all day. I can't help but try to think of a few:
- A coin that instantly becomes a coin of lesser value upon changing owners (platinum to gold, gold to silver, etc.)
- A brush one would use in a bath that sings (poorly) while in contact with hot water or steam.
- A ring that will randomly move from finger to finger until removed.
- Logs that, once lit on fire, begin to wiggle and squirm.
- A butter knife that will cut anything except butter.
- A painting that will slowly erase and then re-paint itself when hung on a wall.
- Parchment that re-arranges all letters written on it.
- A necklace that appears to be finely crafted from gold to the wearer, but as a noose to everyone else.
I'm sure I'll think of more, though that's all I've got for now. Cheers! |
"Gods, little fishes, and spells to turn the one to the other," Mordenkainen sighed. "It's started already..." |
Edited by - Sandro on 02 Oct 2009 10:46:44 |
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skychrome
Senior Scribe
713 Posts |
Posted - 02 Oct 2009 : 14:49:36
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I really like the idea! There are some items listed here, that appear more like joke items than something I would associate with the spellplague if I was a player, but stuff like the tray floating upside down or the goblet that one cannot hold (and that maybe shrouds itself in blue fire for a second when the fingers pass through it).... that is a neat idea.
I feel those items serve perfect as some kind of "shock element" that make players remember the plague and the changes and loss it has brought.
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"You make an intriguing offer, one that is very tempting. It would seem that I have little alternative than to answer thusly: DISINTEGRATE!" Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick 625 |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36971 Posts |
Posted - 02 Oct 2009 : 15:48:51
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I like most of your ideas, except for the bow -- I can see a crafty player taking advantage of that one.
If you can find a copy, look at the "Magic Gone Haywire" article in Dragon 163. It's a whole bunch of quirks that can be applied to normal magical items, making them something really unique -- like a magic wand that always buries itself in the bottom of whatever container it's put in.  |
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Tyranthraxus
Senior Scribe
Netherlands
423 Posts |
Posted - 02 Oct 2009 : 19:10:33
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| Wow, i really like all the ideas and i might use some of them. Thanks! I'll post some items too when i have the time to brain storm :) |
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Hawkins
Great Reader
USA
2131 Posts |
Posted - 02 Oct 2009 : 19:30:25
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| These lists would also work really well for stuff you might find when visiting the Harpells. |
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Draenar
Acolyte
Canada
9 Posts |
Posted - 02 Oct 2009 : 22:54:32
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Heh, I'm glad others enjoy the idea. And I'll definitely be adding those to my list for distribution, thanks.
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I really like the idea! There are some items listed here, that appear more like joke items than something I would associate with the spellplague if I was a player, but stuff like the tray floating upside down or the goblet that one cannot hold (and that maybe shrouds itself in blue fire for a second when the fingers pass through it).... that is a neat idea.
Thanks. The goblet I imagined to act normally when sitting, but to become almost liquid when someone tried to pick it up, flowing through the fingers (like the flowing earth of Plaguelands). And admittedly, my efforts to come up with new trinkets have led to some being more of a joke than others, but I've been portraying the Spellplague as a horrible disaster, but one whose effects are as often simply bizarre as harmful.
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I like most of your ideas, except for the bow -- I can see a crafty player taking advantage of that one.
If you can find a copy, look at the "Magic Gone Haywire" article in Dragon 163. It's a whole bunch of quirks that can be applied to normal magical items, making them something really unique -- like a magic wand that always buries itself in the bottom of whatever container it's put in.
I've been saying the undead created by the bow basically act just like the original animal. So a bird brought down by it will fall to ground, lay there for a second, then get up and fly away (preferably just as the hunter gets there).
I'll have to check that Dragon article out. Thanks. |
BRITANNUS (shocked): Caesar, this is not proper.
THEODOTUS (outraged): How?
CAESAR (recovering his self-possession): Pardon him Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
-- Caesar and Cleopatra, Act II, George Bernard Shaw |
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Ayunken-vanzan
Senior Scribe
Germany
657 Posts |
Posted - 03 Oct 2009 : 08:37:35
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A quill that now and then omits random letters in random words when you write.
Scary enough, we have a printer here who does exactly that. |
"What mattered our lives now? When our world had been torn from us? Folk wept, or drank, or stood staring out over the land, wondering what new horror each dawn would bring."
Elender Stormfall of Suzail
"Anyone can kill deities, cause plagues, or destroy organizations. It takes real skill to make them live on."
Varl
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36971 Posts |
Posted - 03 Oct 2009 : 15:41:36
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quote:
Originally posted by Ayunken-vanzan
A quill that now and then omits random letters in random words when you write.
Scary enough, we have a printer here who does exactly that.
Sounds like a driver issue.
Expanding on that idea, though... The quill could instead have horrible spelling; whoever is writing spells out a word correctly, but the quill manages to misspell it.
Or maybe the quill writes automatically, when someone dictates to it. However, instead of writing down what they say verbatim, it scribes it in either some odd dialect, in a pidgin form of another language, or in a totally dead/obscure language.
I'm recalling another source of useless magical items: the old AC11 The Book of Wondrous Inventions, a book for the original D&D. My favorite was Ch'Thon's Astral Ball, a crystal ball with a satellite dish; rather than functioning normally, it could only pick up TV shows. |
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Useless Magic Items (4e)
