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Copycat
Acolyte
6 Posts |
 Posted - 19 Mar 2015 : 21:28:31
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Hello Candlekeep
First time poster, long time reader of this forum.
At the moment i am running a campaign (on 12th year!) in the Forgotten Realms and just introduced a rather excentric drow merchant to my group. I've been looking around the forum, but could not find anything on "special merchandise".
What i really would love was some ideas (the more the better) for all kinds of gadgets, merchandise, special gear, exotic items etc that might both be fun and interesting, or even items that might tell a good story.
What i do not want is a list of powerful magic items (My group got plenty of magic items). Small special items with a little magic will do aswell.
As i noted earlier, i've been running this campaign for some years, and the characters are quite high level, so exotic and special items that are also powerful is alright. But most of all i'm just looking for something... different.
Thanks for reading.
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Delwa
Master of Realmslore
USA
1270 Posts |
Posted - 19 Mar 2015 : 22:04:04
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Two suggestions.
1. Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog. Can be gotten off of Amazon here for about 20 bucks or in PDF format for ten bucks here.
2. This is the free option. The trinket table from the 5E Basic Rules page 55. Also, a single sample can be found here. |
- Delwa Aunglor
I am off to slay yon refrigerator and spoil it's horde. Go for the cheese, Boo!
"The Realms change; seldom at the speed desired of those who strive, but far too quickly for those who resist." - The Simbul, taken from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Conspectus |
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 19 Mar 2015 : 22:32:32
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A small hide-covered box, nondescript except that it emits a faint but annoyingly repetitive sound... a bit like a woodcutter's axe, some distance away through a foggy forest.
Twenty-four times between each dawn, one side of the box suddenly erupts and a small poorly carved rooster leaps forth and wails. This sound, unlike the other one, is not faint at all and will attract attention from every person or creature within 500 feet.
Breaking the rooster off is an easy task for anyone who can hit it. This is hampered, however, by the fact that the box (including the rooster) shifts into the ethereal plane just before the rooster appears, and remains there while the crowing is taking place. It returns to the material plane once the rooster has withdrawn and the doors have closed. Nobody has yet answered the question of how the ethereal rooster can be heard on the material plane.
If the PCs manage to sever or destroy the rooster, the faint noise will continue unabated but the rooster will cease his infernal crowing... for 4d6 hours, after which a new rooster will have formed and the hourly crowing will resume.
The box itself is more difficult to damage. It has hardness 10, 100 hit points, fast healing 10, and "resist 30" to all forms of damage. It's immune to disintegrate specifically, but vulnerable to other spells. If the box is broken, it reforms within the same 4d6 hours... but one assumes that the PCs will be long gone by that point. If it's completely destroyed (by acid, for example) then it doesn't reform.
The box can, of course, be left behind at any time. But it deserves far worse than that.
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Edited by - xaeyruudh on 19 Mar 2015 22:36:26 |
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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
Posted - 19 Mar 2015 : 23:05:55
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| Welcome to Candlekeep! +1 on Auroras Whole Realms Catalog. |
Some people have a way with words, and other people...oh, uh, not have way. -Steve Martin
Amazon "KindleUnlimited" Free Trial: http://amzn.to/2AJ4yD2
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SaMoCon
Senior Scribe
USA
403 Posts |
Posted - 20 Mar 2015 : 07:11:54
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I take it you have already scavenged the list found here for some items. Also, give the links found in that thread a look for many more (often real world) of beauty and extravagance. If you want ideas for unusual magic items and primers for stories to go with them then check out the Sea of Stars blog for its inventive and decidedly non-tactical wargaming items. If you are particularly evil you may have them find a decorative box holding a magical candle that your drow merchant hastily closes and says "this is prepaid item held for a client and not for sale only to find said box several adventures later in the lair of their defeated enemy who committed suicide rather than face the terrible wrath of the PCs yet the candle is gone. If the players think to track down the merchant and inquire into the box and candle they might not be totally blind-sided by the terrible secret of the All Consuming Candle of Sardanapalus.
I like more the other items that I can actually see being a part of the realms and for which merchants and lordlings would spend their money. Who would not have thought of the Image of Memory and made such in the great kingdoms of magic that populated the Forgotten Realms? I took one look at the Yoke of Servitude and instantly incorporated it into my games as Thayan Slave Collars though I made allowances for other forms such as chokers, slave hands, and slave anklets plus introducing an entire taboo about these items as clear signs of oppression and slavery instead of the pop-culture fad jewelry that it has turned into today. Even an item like a Rain Basket puts a fun new twist on a trite cantrip.
Inspired by those examples I made the Orb of the Beautiful Home; something your drow merchant may actually be using on his shop. quote:
This particular item is named "Vindalapa Eskriza" and appears as a rounded and polished smooth oval, foggy crystal orb measuring almost 4 inches at its longest point and three inches at its narrowest. Like most objects, it does not move unless touched or pushed in which case it wobbles until slowly coming to a rest. The semi opaque, white mineral appears dull and lackluster. The name is badly accented Eladrin (low elven) for the words Home and Veil though those two words do not belong together in proper elvish. Vindala is an arcanist teacher in Marsember, Cormyr that is not above field work, consultation, and manufacturing. Once per day this orb may be activated (Knowledge Nobility DC 10 or Profession Merchant DC10) by a command word to mask a space/building with a radically different appearance for up to 14 hours. As per Hallucinatory Terrain, up to 189,000 cubic feet (Apx. 57 foot cube) may appear illuminated, shaded, colored, textured, shrouded, painted, or as if made from a different material(s). All objects/furniture inside the space may be masked (not rendered invisible) at the orb user's discretion at the time of activation but moving an object will reveal its true appearance though it will be masked again if placed back in or near its original position and so long as it does not leave the area of effect. Though the surfaces may appear lit to any luminescence up to and including sunlight there is no light actually emanated or created. Any smell can also be enhanced, neutralized, or detected for the duration as well as ambient sounds muffled (wind, rain, road traffic) or created (babbling brook or wind chimes), again set at the time of activation. This item is used to enhance abodes of their users for their own or their guests' enjoyment.
Moderate aura, Illusion, Hardness 4, HP 5, +5 saves, 9,072gp to make, Requires Hallucinatory Terrain. The skill checks are for the person to figure out what to use it for when they figure out what it does since the typical applications of the hallucinatory terrain spell is to hide dangerous traps or camouflage armies which is what this item won't do.
Anyways, I hope you find good stuff to get your creative juices flowing and your players engaged. |
Make the best use of the system that's there, then modify the mechanics that don't allow you to have the fun you are looking for. |
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Copycat
Acolyte
6 Posts |
Posted - 20 Mar 2015 : 10:10:20
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Great stuff here! Thanks alot for this. I had completely forgotten about Auroras catalog, somehting i need to look through again for sure!
Also, Xaeyruudh and SaMoCon. Absolutely fantastic! There's some truly amazing ideas here. Thank you. |
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Interesting merchandise
