Souls, And The Selling Thereof (#NED 7: Daemon)

It has happened a number of times over the years that players in my games have made friendly contact with a devil. Invariably, someone brings up the possibility of soul selling. After all, that’s kind of the whole role of devils in this genre. My standing policy at this point is that—once friendly contact with a devil has been made—1 soul given by free contractual agreement may be exchanged for 1 wish. Devils are Libertarians in the American style. Some player usually takes the deal (often my sister Lily who seems to dislike having a soul). This is the objectively correct decision for these players to make, because up until now I’ve never been good about enforcing any penalties on characters without souls.

When discussing this problem with others, a common suggestion is that characters without souls should receive no benefit from magical healing. This makes good sense after all, since magical healing typically comes from good gods, a group the soul-seller has now actively scorned. One could even go further and deny the character benefit of any divine magic, good or evil. If such a character were to try and cross the red sea while it is parted, why wouldn’t god cause a bit of water to run free and wash them away? As for the evil gods, I figure the whole purpose of letting humans use clerical magic for them is to gradually and subtly taint living souls so they can be harvested after death. Once a soul is gone, why bother with the person attached to it?

Sensibly thematic as this option is, I hate it and I’ve never used it. It’s just too harsh a price to pay for a single wish. I don’t think anybody would sell their soul if it meant being stuck recovering 1hp/day for the rest of their character’s life. I’d prefer a consequence that would tempt my players. So finally this morning, after literally years of putting it off, I sat down to think my way through the problem, and I’ve resolved on what I call the Devil Die.

See, good gods are forgiving motherfuckers. For as long as the mortal beneficiary of a devil’s bargain stays alive, the devil’s investment is in jeopardy. You never know when the asshole might fall down on her knees and repent of all her misdeeds, thereby robbing the devil of their justly-earned soul. So, after the devil’s side of the bargain has been executed, they’ll immediately set out trying to get you killed so they can secure your soul for themselves.

When a player proposes their wish to a Devil, the referee tells the player how many Devil Dice the wish will cost them. Usually this will only be 1, but I figure it’s good to leave the door open for more if the player makes some absurdly grandiose wish. For each Devil Die a character has, the referee may force the player to reroll once per session. If they roll well on a save, or deal just enough damage to kill a dragon before it gets another breath attack, the Devil slips in to try and fudge the result.

My players’ lives do not often hang on the result of a single roll, but they can. This is a dangerous risk, but it’s the sort of risk I think my players might take. I also like the implication of a game being played between the Devil and the Soul-Seller. The Soul-Seller recklessly confident in their ability to dodge and outsmart the devil, confidence bolstered by each session they survive. The devil knowing time is on their side. They only have to win once, while the Soul-Seller has to win every time.

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Thinking About Forms of Persuasion (#NED 6: Shame)

For those unfamiliar with the rules I use for social encounters, they’re fairly simple. The reaction roll (2d6 modified by Charisma) functions as an analogue for the attack roll. The base target is ≥9, which can be modified up or down as circumstances merit. It’s something I’ve discussed on the blog frequently over the years, perhaps most usefully in No-Prep Social Encounters. The current iteration of the system is fairly loosy-goosy, but it evolved out of a highly formalized one with codified social actions that each had unique mechanics to govern them. That sort of formalization doesn’t work well for me at the table. However, it’s still useful to think about how different approaches to social encounters might be categorized. How might one approach succeed when another fails; what different consequences might result from one style over another?

Take for example the act of persuasion. The player characters are trying to talk a non-player character into doing something they may not be inclined to do. Whatever their specific phrasing is, it can probably be boiled down to something like this:

Shame — Probably the least effective method for an individual to employ. Shame is much more likely to result in the target lashing out in anger, or lapsing into depressed inactivity. Community is also a pretty effective shield against shame. If the players try to shame a goblin for eating babies, all her goblin friends are going to reassure her that eating babies is normal and that the adventurers just have a pro-baby bias.

Entice — Luring someone to take action in order to achieve something they want is going to be much more effective than shame is, but it’s also bounded by some strict limitations. First, it has to be something the target actually does want. Players cant just incept desires into NPC’s heads. Second, they’ve gotta believe it’s something they’ll actually get if they do the thing the players want them to do. The more abstract the benefit, the less likely they are to think it can be manifested. (Players are always trying to convince NPCs to let them do stuff “because in a few years things will be better for everyone, and that includes you!” or some such nonsense.) Third, the amount that they desire the thing needs to be outweighed by the risk and effort involved in getting it. Everybody wants a shiny gold coin, but their time and safety are worth something to them.

Cajole — Attempting to make the target view the desired action as normal or trivial. Hinges entirely on how charming the PC is, and how much the NPC values their bond. “C’mon, we’re friends, right? C’moooon.”

Threaten — Pretty much only effective for the shortest of short-term gains. A threat will gain you advantage for a moment, and an enemy for life. And you only get the advantage if your threat is credible! Of course, threats can be institutionalized to work over the long term…

Legal — Really just a sub-form of Threaten that involves extra steps. The target has got to be someone who lives within a system of laws, they’ve gotta believe you posses the standing necessary to press legal claim against them, and you’ve gotta demonstrate that the they have some relevant legal vulnerability. Of course, that last step can be skipped if you’re just doing…

Fast Talk — In content, fast talk tends to resemble one of the other approaches. In form, though, it’s all about tricking people into making a decision before they’ve actually thought about it. Frighten them with spurious legal threats, entice them with fantasies, cajole someone who doesn’t actually like you much, etc. Once the target has a moment to think they’re likely to realize they’ve been bamboozled, and people do not generally like people who bamboozle them.

Of course, these are just the ones I came up with in the shower this morning. No doubt I’ll get a few suggestions for ones I missed.

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Outdoor Swords In Narrow Corridors (#NED 5: Blade)

Combat takes up too much space in the game. I’ve been thinking for awhile now that I’d like to resolve all combats with a single roll, or a simple system of 3 rolls. Really reign it in so that play remains more firmly rooted in the exploration and planning phases. Yet also, combat involves so many fun intricacies to tinker with. I’m about to advocate for increasing its complexity, presumably further stretching out the time required to resolve any fight. At some point I ought to sit down and ponder a resolution between these two opposed desires of mine. Find a synthesis between them that really makes me happy. For now, though, I am satisfied merely to acknowledge my own inconsistent moods on the matter.

Most of the games I’ve played in tend to gloss over the space required to use a given weapon. These are typically objects designed for battlefields! A longsword or flail needs enough space to be swung effectively. Arrows and thrown spears need enough vertical space to arc through the air. Halberds and other pole weapons are such great massive things that moving through an interior space with them may often be impossible, or require the sort of effort that getting a couch into a 3rd story apartment does. All of these weapons would be rendered nearly useless in the subterranean vaults which adventurers commonly frequent in their search for lucre.

To be absolutely clear: I’m not advocating we pursue a faux-realistic dungeon delve ideal where daggers are the only functional weapon. Big swingy weapons are cool. Dungeons are cool. Cool + cool = more cool. That said, dungeons contain variously sized spaces. A rule as simple as “medium weapons work well in dungeon rooms, but attack with disadvantage in corridors” adds a valuable wrinkle for players to consider when looting a tomb. They may want to scout corridors, or run away from corridor encounters towards the nearest room. They may want to enter the dungeon equipped with smaller weapons specifically so they can ambush weapon-wielding monsters in corridors. It’s a little thing, but whenever I’ve managed to be on top of it in my games (which hasn’t been often, I admit), we’ve had a lot of fun with it.

Secondary weapon characteristics like this have always been a fascination of mine. All the little things that differentiate them outside of their damage range and number of hands required to wield them. In the past I’ve been strongly drawn to intricate systems of codifying these. This weapon has the “Basher” and “Smasher” traits, that one has the “Trippy” trait, that sorta thing. Having played with such systems under a few different referees, and run one myself, it unfortunately seems to wind up being one of those things that’s too tough to keep track of at the table. I tried going the other way with in when I ran Fuck the King of Space back in 2018. That game used d6 damage for every weapon, with an explicit encouragement for players to propose unorthodox uses for their weapon during play. Despite that game including an all-star list of the most creative players I’ve ever run with, that approach was just too open-ended to work, and wound up being frustrating for all involved.

I think the best approach for me may be to ‘stay in my lane,’ so to speak. As referee, I can consider how my player’s equipment choices may result in bonuses or penalties to their declared actions. If it gets them thinking about unique applications for their gear, so much the better.

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Making Use of Misses (#NED 4: Rage)

Failed attack rolls are one of the more irritating parts of normal play. Somehow there always ends up being some poor schmuck at the table who has nothing to do but sit quietly until it’s time for them to roll a d20, announce they missed, and lapse back into bored silence. No amount of encouraging creative play or constructing interesting encounters prevents it entirely. I’ve become convinced that it is a genuine flaw in the game’s structure. It’s okay for the game to be frustrating, but it shouldn’t be be boring.

In all likelihood, Ava has the correct idea by simply removing attack rolls entirely from Errant. In her version of the game play moves directly from announcing an attack, to rolling damage. But let’s say we want to solve the problem while maintaining the traditional form of Roll to Hit, then Roll for Damage.

In the past I’ve suggested that failed attack rolls deal half damage. I do think this would be an improvement. Players can consistently rely on being able to contribute something, even if it’s just whittling away the foeman’s hit points a bit. The downside, though, is that it flattens out the drama of combat, right? Misses become less tedious, but hits are made commensurately less enjoyable as well. A hit no longer means overcoming a miss, no longer makes the difference between progress and zero progress. There will be times when a player misses, then rolls 8 damage which gets halved down to 4; then the next round they hit and roll 3 damage which doesn’t get halved. In the long term it is always better to hit, but it is less better than it used to be.

So I’ll propose a new solution. Missed attacks deal no damage, as in standard play. For each combat, players should keep a tally of their missed attack rolls. If they miss 3 times during a single engagement, their next attack is automatically a critical success. Which, in my game, allows them to automatically maximize their weapon’s potential damage (so, 8 for a d8 weapon), as well as perform a combat maneuver of some sort, like tripping their foeman.

The 3 misses need not be consecutive. Landing a blow does not reset the tally, but the end of combat does. I’ve settled on 3 as the number because it’s big enough to feel well earned when it occurs, but also small enough that it never feels too far away. Also, by my estimation, most combats in my games only last 2~4 rounds, so I figure this would be a fairly uncommon occurrence. My goal is not to make the players want to fail, but simply to give them some consolation prize to keep them engaged when they do. A sort of miniature barbarian rage as reward for enduring an enraging situation.

If a character earns their auto-crit, but doesn’t get to use it before the end of combat, they can keep it to use in the next encounter. When a player has an auto-crit, though, they must use it next time they attack. It can’t be banked for the most opportune moment. Also, I think the definition of “a single combat” can be a little flexible here. The aim of this limitation is to avoid a running tally that guarantees everyone a few auto-crits every session. But if the players roll 2 encounters in a row which both devolve into brawls, I think I’d count them as a single combat for the purposes of this rule.

*Unless they roll half of 1, which gets rounded down to 0 in order to differentiate it from rolling a 1 when you hit successfully.

Adventuring With Bebbies (#NED 3: Child)

This prompt seems like a good opportunity to expound on something I mentioned yesterday about my players adopting kids. Because one of those kids, Bluepie, has had a dramatic impact on how I run the game.

Bluepie is a Torture-Demon. In the natural course of events she’d grow up to devise special suffering for condemned sinners in Hell. While playing through Bad Myrmidon, my players came upon Bluepie’s parents doing what they do to some poor travelers. The party killed Bluepie’s parents, then got the bright idea to look around for a lair. They found one, which I hastily generated while they were busy climbing down a sheer cliff face to reach it. Within, they found 6-year-old Bluepie. One of the PCs, a Patchwork Boy named Ecco the Enduring, lied to her about discovering her mothers’ murdered in the road and hunting down their killers to take revenge. She believed him, and he adopted her. Bluepie has been with the party ever since. She is a strong contender for my favorite NPC in any game I’ve ever been a part of, ever.

At first I was uncertain how I wanted to portray Bluepie, but I settled on playing her as a 6-year-old first, and a demon second. I think that decision was largely influenced by the way Ecco handled her. I don’t think he’s ever chastised her on moral grounds, merely on practical ones. Never “You can’t kill that person because it’s wrong,” just “You can’t kill that person because they might be useful to us later / people will see and kill you instead.” His approach always struck me as one that would resonate with this precocious and reckless monster baby, and so she gradually adapted to life with a group of amoral adventurers who (probably) do more good than evil in the world. She’s able to go into towns and even occasionally play with other children because Ecco has made such a consistent practice of responding to her shenanigans with honest attempts to be the sort of parent she needs.

So for several years now I’ve been in the curious position of figuring out what a child is doing while the party fights off an ogre ambush, parleys with goblins, or does whatever else adventurers tend to do. Other hirelings and NPCs who travel with the party can usually be relied on to follow the players’ lead, but kids will be kids. Often I roll 2d6 to determine how foolish Bluepie is going to be at any given moment. On a particularly low roll she might throw herself into danger. On middling rolls she’ll follow Ecco’s lead. On a particularly high roll she perhaps spots an opportunity to contribute to the party’s current struggle, without calling down some horrible consequence on herself.

(This 2d6 roll to determine a hireling’s foolishness comes in useful a lot, actually. The only difference being that each NPC tends towards different flavors of foolishness. For example, Hibub Karate has internalized a lot of toxic ideas about masculinity, and is prone to acting foolishly in his attempts to be macho. He’s getting better, though.)

From my perspective, the best part of having Blupie in the party is that I get to use her to inject all sorts of chaos into tense situations, and the players let her stick around because she’s Ecco’s kid. For example, on multiple occasions she has whispered bad advice into another NPC’s ear explicitly because she thinks it will be funny to see them get killed. She is, after all, a demon! Whispering bad advice into people’s ears is a natural talent for her, and has nearly gotten a few good torchbearers killed at inopportune times. Another example are the times she’s rolled a 2 or 3 on the foolishness check, and wound up on death’s door after trying to backstab an ogre. She’s only got something like 4 hit points, and no plot armor beyond the injury rolls I allow to all characters in the player’s party.

Bluepie is a fun NPC for me to play. She’s a highly motivating NPC for my players. She’s a tool through which I can inject chaos into the party’s ranks during tense situations. And, as her presence in the party has now spanned several years—both real and fictional—it’s neat to watch her grow up. It feels odd to say it that way, but I can’t think of a better one. Aging doesn’t usually come up that much in my games, because the difference between a 30 year old PC and a 34 year old PC is negligible. But the difference between a 6 year old child and a 10 year old child is huge. Before too long I might need to consider giving her class levels of her own!

In fact, Bluepie has been so much of a joy to play with, that it’s basically a foregone conclusion I’m going to try and tempt future parties to adopt children of their own. Street urchins on the run from local child-gangs; apprentices who want nothing to do with tradecraft; homonculi on the run from the wizards who made them. Pitiable things which prey upon the player’s sentimentality. Convince them to take a tiny chaos engine into their midst for me to leverage against them in amusing ways.

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Simple Season Calendar (#NED 2: Ice)

“You can not have a meaningful campaign if strict time records are not kept.” The phrase has become a meme. A way of poking fun at a self-important racist who receives more credit than he deserves for getting the ball rolling on this hobby. There’s a nugget of wisdom in his bloviating, though. Having some metric for the passage of time in a campaign is vital if you want to model the long term consequences of the player’s actions. This is particularly important for me, because I am a highly campaign-motivated player.

That said, the extent to which it’s relevant to track a thing will differ from game to game, or even from session to session of a single game. In discussing yesterday’s post about ammunition with my friend Eric Boyd, he pointed out that a character will rarely empty a quiver during a single-day dungeon delve. If you’re running that sort of game (which I am), tracking ammunition may be perfunctory. However, if the characters were to spend weeks or months venturing overland away from skilled fletchers to refill their quivers, ammunition becomes an interesting concern. A flexible approach, using different methods suitable to a given situation, is best. The same holds true for how closely we ought to track time.

My Saturday morning campaign, Dangerous Neighbors, is an exercise in playing through published modules. There’s very little of my own bespoke campaign design going on. No elaborate system of downtime, no room for the players to set lofty long-term goals for themselves. For Dangerous Neighbors, the setting is just a fluffy connective tissue that exists to get us out of the end of one published adventure, and into the start of the next one. None the less, after 3 years and 74 sessions that connective tissue has a personality. The players have adopted children, romantic interests, ongoing theraputic projects, and little cottages where they keep watch on the road between adventures. Sometimes they travel through the space occupied by an earlier module on their way to a new one, and they get to see the aftermath of their adventuring. It’s nice for the world to feel like it’s moving, for those adopted kids to grow older.

So I set a simple rule for the campaign: each adventure module we play takes one season. Journey to the Rock takes place in summer. When it’s done, we presume the players hang out at home for a bit before the next call to adventure arrives. We have a casual conversation about what they do with those weeks and months, which might be more or less involved as the mood strikes, but doesn’t include any kind of formal downtime action system. By the time they begin playing through The Sunless Citadel, the leaves are starting to turn and they must adventure in Autumn weather.

This method would be too lax for many other campaigns. On a Red World Alone, which was heavily focused on the players attempts to transform society, needed a much more robust calendar and downtime action system. And those systems are a ton of fun, too. There have been a couple of times when I set out on misguided attempts to graft such a system on to Dangerous Neighbors, because I miss playing with something like that. Thankfully I’ve always stopped myself. Different games have different needs, and this one works better with a loosier goosier setting.

Now I just wish I did a better job at remembering to think about the seasons when I’m running a session. Our current adventure is taking place in deep winter, and I’ve got a terrible habit of forgetting the players are supposed to be trudging through wasit-deep snow until we’re far enough into the session that it’d break the flow of play for me to actually enforce it.

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No-Effort Dicember 1: Ammo

There was a time when blog posts were simpler for me. Typed hastily using the scant few hours between dragging myself home from work, and collapsing into unwilling sleep. No proofreaders were consulted, no rewrites, no editing passes, no research, no lofty expectations. Blogs were a method of conversing casually with the scene, used the way discord, mastadon, or twitter might be today. I can’t go home again—nor would I want to—but we can occasionally indulge ourselves. Better yet, we can revisit old forms to see what new life we might find there. So, prompted by Dyson, I’m initiating No-Effort Dicember on Papers & Pencils this year. One post every day. Their subjects won’t be thoroughly considered, their structure will ramble, their sentences will run-on, and typos will frequently go uncorrected.

I had set the notion for myself that I’d try and draft a rough procedure for each of the prompts, but already here on day one I can’t do it. Ammo is a solved problem for me. Brendan solved it way back in 2012 by attaching an exhaustion die to each quiver (or other unit of ammunition storage). There are a few good permutations on the idea to choose between. For example, the exhaustion die may be rolled each time a shot is fired, or it may be rolled at the end of an encounter. A 1 might indicate the ammo is depleted, or simply that the exhaustion die changes to one with fewer faces, or a 1 may mean the character only has a single shot left. That last one is my favorite. Lends itself well to creating tense situations.

The only real trouble I have with running ammunition this way is that it requires the referee to be somewhat strict about encumbrance and economy. Those are both aspects of play that I admire, but struggle to implement consistently. It’s not a problem that can be solved by a better ammunition tracking rule.

So instead of coming up with a procedure for ammunition, I’ll reminisce about a game in which ammo was meaningful for me. I was playing in Brendan’s Pahvelorn game with Ram, Gus, and a few other folk I’ve lost touch with over the years. This would be circa 2011~2012. I was at this time thoroughly enchanted with the play style of OSR games, but my own mindset was still stuck in a video-gamey, neo-trad perspective from years of playing WotC’s 3rd Edition. Our party was adventuring overland, and encountered a monster way too tough for us to deal with. A giant or some such paragon-level encounter. The sort of thing that takes planning, potions, and maybe a GMPC to overcome via an hours-long combat encounter in the games I was used to playing at the time. We were considering fleeing when Ram’s cleric* archer Satyavati fires a great big black arrow of doom at the monster, who instantly pops away into nothing.

In another game it might have been considered an anti-climax for this great big party-annihilating threat to be felled so easily. But it was a GREAT climax to the story of finding this arrow deep in the vaults of Pahvelorn, saving it, and knowing just when to deploy it. I remember feeling amazing, and I wasn’t even the one who did anything cool. This is a sort of ammunition tracking that is often easier to manage. Arrows and bullets are simple tools that move in and out of a character’s inventory so frequently that tracking them is difficult to make fun. Single-use magic ammunition, though, gives a player that experience of managing scarcity, without verging on the tedious.

(Apparently Satyavati was actually a Magic User? I don’t know why I remember him as a cleric.)

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Papers & Pencils 10 Year Anniversary

I started this blog 10 years ago today, on August 8th, 2011.

It began as a desperate groping towards meaning. Dedicating myself to writing meant I could call myself a “writer,” which was a preferable identity to “failure.” Shortly thereafter I stumbled into the then-thriving subculture of the OSR. I developed a self-discipline I needed, produced work I’m proud of, and most importantly built relationships which give my day-to-day life meaning that mere art never could. Sometimes I miss the energetic pace of work from earlier years of the project, but looking back I know the source of that energy was a terror of backsliding into aimless depression. I’m glad I’m not terrified anymore.

I won’t say ‘here’s to 10 more years,’ because all things must end and it’s likely that this project has passed its halfway mark. I’m not done with RPGs, but there are only so many hours in the day, and too many projects I’d like to pursue. Instead I’ll say: Thank you for a good time these past 10 years. I hope we have lots more good times.

Stay safe, have fun.

Bones of Contention

Today my review of Mother’s Malady went live on Bones of Contention. As this is my first contribution to that site, it seems as good a time as any to direct my readership towards it.

Bones of Contention is a multi-user blog dedicated to providing substantive reviews of TTRPGs and their associated works. It’s a slick little project with a great little crew of skeleton reviewers. The blog’s introductory post goes into more detail about what our overall goals are, and who we are individually.

I must admit I’ve been having fun. I promised myself long ago that I wouldn’t become a reviewer, but now that I’ve let myself off the leash I’ve got 3 reviews fully written and a 4th nearly so. My series on the site is called “Flying Dice,” and it’ll run periodically as we cycle through everyone at a rate of one post per week. Everyone has their own goals and style and preferences, but the hope is that we’re similar enough in our likes and dislikes that similarly inclined people will find our thoughts useful.

For those who use the dread birbsite, there is an account that’ll post links to each review as it goes up: @BonesOfContention.

I hope everyone is having a pleasant summer. Stay cool, stay safe, get vaxx’d!

d100 Wondrous Items

Etching of a table cluttered with curiosities. A skull, a flower, scattered papers and open books, etc.

(Before we begin: Bones of Contention is a new TTRPG review site, for which I am a contributing member. Please give it a look!)

“Wondrous Items” is the category where D&D puts all the good magic items. At their best they demand creativity from the players who possess them in a way that a Flaming Sword or Ring of Protection never could. Wondrous Items didn’t make the leap to video games the way so many of D&D’s other trappings did, because Wondrous Items require a tactically infinite environment in order to thrive.

Here I have endeavored to present the greatest diversity of physical objects I could, marrying each to a magic power intended to push players to engage with the game in new ways.

The treasure chest contains a…

Knife which will expertly season any food prepared with it. Even a novice cook could significantly elevate the quality of their ingredients. The knife loses its enchantment permanently if it is ever used for violence.
Saddle which will resize itself to fit any natural beast it’s placed on. Once the saddle is strapped in place that creature will behave as a well-trained mount for one day. After this the saddle falls off not matter how well secured. Some animals may resent having been ridden, and turn claws and fang upon their fallen rider.
Book which records every conversation of the person who owns it. It does this no matter how far away its owner is. If a new person takes possession of the book (without having it explicitly lent to them by the owner), all its pages become blank
Dry log which burns, but is never consumed by fire. Its owner never needs to gather another piece of firewood again. This log was probably cut from some very special tree, and probably has some much more amazing properties to it, but this is the only remarkable thing anyone has ever discovered about it.
Battle standard which appears friendly to anyone who would recognize a battle standard. One could ride through two warring armies, and both forces would perceive them to be allies. If a person has no knowledge of flags or battle standards, it displays a gray-and-white checkered pattern.
Set of magically silenced woodworking tools in a nice box. Hand drills of various sizes, files, saws, planes, a mallet, none of which will ever make a sound when in use.
Winnowing basket which will sift objects according to any rules described to it. An excellent tool for finding needles in haystacks. For example, it might be told to sift a load of treasure for items worth more than 100 gp, after which any item worth less than that will fall right through the basket’s bottom regardless of its size. The imp bound to the basket cannot read, and refuses to learn, so any attempt to use scrabble tiles to turn the basket into a tedious oracle will not work.
Mirror of capricious deceptions. It will never reflect reality properly, though most of the time the differences it displays are slight enough that one must study the image carefully to determine what’s wrong. Perhaps a ring is shown on the wrong finger, or cheeks are displayed more flush than they are. This isn’t always the case. When one least expects it the mirror will show a demon looming behind them, or spiders crawling out of the viewer’s nose. If someone spends a good Turn or two polishing the mirror to make it look its best, they may whisper a request to it and it will reflect one lie of their choosing.
Pipe which, when lit and puffed on, produces great clouds of cloying, sight-obscuring smoke. If the pipe is loaded with any substance that carries a particular effect (hallucinogenics, poisons, narcotics, etc.) the cloud will also carry those effects, which must be Saved against by anyone in the vicinity. Note that the smoker is not immune, and must save along with everyone else.
Tripod which folds down to fill the smallest unit of encumbrance the game uses. When fully opened up it’s large and strong enough to support the weight of a standard adventuring party.
Bell of attention. For one moment after the bell is rung all eyes and ears will be focused on the ringer. It is up to them to be interesting enough to hold people’s attention after that first moment. If anyone hears the bell a second time within a single day, they will perceive that the ringer is attempting to control their minds with magic. People do not generally appreciate this, and will almost certainly turn violent towards the bell-bearer.
Directional magnet, of the U-shaped variety. The magnetic field it projects is tightly focused on a single point, and is powerful enough to attract any metal object its pointed towards with 2 horsepower.
Music box which suppresses all sound except the plink-plink-plink of its own music. A full wind lasts 3 minutes, after which it takes a few moments to wind up again. The silencing effect is exactly proportional to how well the music can be heard. Those near the box will hear absolutely nothing but the music, while those far enough away to hear the music only faintly will also experience all other sounds being slightly suppressed.
Tent which rolls up as small as a pup tent. However, when properly put up, the tent is spacious enough to stand in, with several semi-private rooms. Additionally, there is an extra flap at the back of the tent which leads to an extra-dimensional reference library. This library is used by a variety of magicians across the planes, and tended by a dangerous librarian. No object may be taken from the library, but anyone willing to spend time there ought to be able to find the knowledge they’re seeking.
Sponge capable of absorbing an abnormal amount of liquid. If thrown into a body of water it could soak up a good-sized lake. It never grows any larger or heavier no matter how much liquid it holds. A single squeeze will always release the whole volume at once.
Wand which allows the wielder to ‘save’ up to ten outfits. They simply must dress themselves a certain way, then wave the wand over themselves from head to foot to store that outfit in extra-dimensional space. By thinking of the outfit and waving the wand over themselves again—from foot to head this time—the clothes will be returned to their body. There is nothing to prevent the wand from being used to store worn treasures, though it must be noted that one cannot switch partially between outfits.
Scabbard which shapes itself to any weapon one wishes to put in it. When the wearer calls for their weapon, the scabbard will oblige by propelling the weapon out of itself. This is best used to instantaneously bring a weapon to hand, even if one is mid-grapple. One may also attempt to launch a weapon directly from the scabbard and towards an enemy, but this form of surprise attack is clumsy, and only rarely strikes successfully.
Ball about the size and density of an apple. It is perfectly accurate within the range of the thrower’s strength, hitting whatever they were aiming at no matter how small or mobile. The ball is unlikely to do any serious harm if used as a weapon.
Net with eight weights around its edge. Each weight has a button which causes it to stay exactly where it was when the button was pressed—even if that means levitating in mid-air. The magic which holds the weights is released if jostled. The net can thus be used to quickly set a simple snare in almost any environment.
Board game with a subtle magic. Everyone who sits down to play it will have a comfortable understanding of the rules, without ever needing to learn them. The play of the game is as simple or as deep as is appropriate to the temperament of the players; and as short or as lengthy as the time they have available to play. Any creature who can be convinced to play will have a nice time, and will remember the party pleasantly.
Key of Imaginary Transportation. When used to mime starting a car, the key enables the holder to also mime sitting down in a car, and driving at car-speeds. The magic lasts for as long as they continue to mime. It will instantly cease to work if they break character by speaking or taking action not possible with a car, or if they ram their imaginary car into something solid / try to take it where it could not reasonably go. If moving at speed, the sudden faltering of this magic can prove exceptionally dangerous. The imaginary car can carry a party’s worth of passengers and luggage.
Wood barrel which will find its way back to its owner (with all its contents) one week after being cast away. It must be truly cast away in order for the magic to work: thrown into an ocean or river, given to a stranger as they leave town for parts unknown, etc. So long as the owner cannot reasonably retrieve the barrel themselves, the barrel’s magic will work, and it will return.
Polished bronze torque which allows the wearer to lengthen or shorten their neck at will. Elongated necks are difficult to move with, but can coil like a snake, and even be climbed by allies. If the wearer is attacked, each additional foot of length their neck current has results in a 5% chance that a successful hit deals 5x its normal damage. (So for 1 extra foot, an attack roll of 20 deals 5x damage. For 2 extra feet it’s 19-20, for 3 extra feet 18-20, etc.)
Mummified cat’s paw. When placed on an object, the paw causes that object (and itself) to immediately become buried ten feet under ground. The buried items can only be retrieved by digging, which may take more or less effort depending on the material they were buried in.
Candle which will undo any harm that is done within the range of its light. The harm simply reverses itself when the candle naturally burns itself out as a stub. Note that the candle must be fully used up before its magic can take effect. If a person is killed in the candle’s light, but then the candle is snuffed out and not used up until 100 years later, then it will be 100 years before that person is revived. Candle burns for 4 hours.
Fish hook that works its magic when slipped into someone’s clothes. An ethereal tether extends between the hook and the person who placed it, so that they always know which direction to go to find the target. If pulled on, the tether will drag the hooked person with magic force along the most expedient path to the one who placed the hook. The magic is undone if the hook is discovered, or if the hooked person changes clothes.

Two etchings of a hand holding a peculiar writing tool. They demonstrate that it ought to be held with its base resting in the palm, and its point guided by the index finger.

Manacles of escaping. If a person goes to sleep while wearing them, they will awaken in a completely different situation. It will be some generally bad situation, such as rower on a slave galley, or prisoner in a foreign dungeon—but perhaps it is a better situation than the one which prompted the person to wear the manacles in the first place.
Feather duster with a wooden handle that has been carved into the figure of a gossipy maid. When the duster is used to brush a layer of dust, the wooden gossip will come to life and tell the whole history of the room since that dust settled here. They know exactly how long it has been since someone passed through, what sort of creature they were, what they did, etc.
Shears which imbue any hair they cut with magic properties. The person who holds a lock of hair cut by these shears is suffused with a subtle aura that makes it completely believable that they are best buds with the person whose hair they hold. Cut the hair of a king? Everyone you meet will believe you’re the king’s friend. The effect lasts until the person who’s hair was cut denies the relationship, after which that lock will never work on anyone again.
Large vermilion folding fan. If a creature or object’s shadow falls upon the fan’s folds while it is opened, then the fan may be snapped closed to fold that creature or object away in extra-dimensional space. Whatever is stored in the fan will be released again the moment it is opened, believing that no time has passed. There are no limits to the size of objects stored, save that their entire shadow must fit on the folds of the fan.
Gloves capable of magically producing cord of any commonly available type and thickness between them. It may be ropes, chains, fishing line, twine, etc. The cord can be attached to the gloves, or released from them, but will never be any longer than the width to which the wearer can stretch their arms.
Metal stud for wearing in a pierced tongue. While worn, the wearer gains a sticky frog’s tongue with 5 feet of reach.
Steel bucket which is able to produce twenty times the amount of sand, water, gravel, or any other useless material it is filled with.
Gardening trowel. If used to dig a shallow trench, and that trench is filled with water, the little furrow will expand to become a full-sized moat.
Vase which “melts” any metal placed into it down to a liquid state. If one then whispers a shape into the vase and pours the metal out, it will “cool” and form itself into the shape desired. One can form the metal into coins, or statues, or bricks, or balls. The process is quick and does not involve any heat.
Quill and ink-pot that imbue any words they write with supernatural comprehensibility. They can be read and understood even people people who do not read the language they are written in, people who are entirely illiterate, and even by creatures who lack language entirely. Even a mindless zombie or an alien slug could understand what is written.
Lockpicking tools which work on people’s hearts. If someone skilled in legerdemain is able to sneak up on an unconscious person, or do their work on a restrained person, they can use these tools to “open” the person’s heart, and place some new love inside of it.
False mustache cut from the lip of a great warrior who was cast out of his tribe, and ritually deprived of this symbol of his manhood. When it tied by straps to be worn on a person’s face, the mustache grants the ability to tell absolutely superb war stories.
Farming scythe. If passed backwards over some dead thing, that thing will very briefly be brought back to life. It may be a few minutes, or an hour, but they will shortly return to death.
Crowbar which is a magical force multiplier, in addition to being a mundane one. If an average person uses it, it will be as though 10 burly strongmen are all helping them. Note that this functions only when the crowbar is used as a lever, not if it’s used as a cudgel.
Bright clear crystal which cleans any room it’s left in. Nothing will happen while one watches, but leaving it alone for only a few moments will eliminate dust and detritus, put items back in their proper place, brighten paint, etc.
Folded fortune teller made of browned and tattered papyrus. If placed in a dead person’s hands, the hands will move to open and close the fortune teller. Back and forth, accelerating rapidly, until a choice is made, and an inky rune is revealed, taking immediate effect (d8): 1-3: Speak With Dead, 4: An illusory scene appears, depicting this dead creature’s final moments of life, and how they came to be where they are. 5. Raise the dead as a powerful undead revenant which loathes the living. 6. Raise the dead as a simple creature under the command of the caster. 7. Animate the dead, and return the creature’s mind to it, for one day. Experience of the afterlife will have made them weird, and they will likely have their own unfinished business they want to attend to. 8. The body explodes, splattering those nearby with blood, and leaving nothing left for a magician to tamper with.
Straw whisk tied with simple cord. If waved vigorously in the air, the whisk will make a huge mess of any room. Anything that isn’t nailed down will be scattered pell mell.
Quizzing glass which allows its wielder to see through another’s eyes. They simply need orient the glass towards any creature with eyes, and it will display what that creature is seeing.
Complex and awkward vestment which must be actively held together by one hand in order to be worn, precluding the use of other weapons or tools. The garment takes a full Turn to don or doff, but while it is worn anything a person says is significantly more compelling. If one uses a 2d6 reaction roll, this vestment would enable the wearer to roll 2d8 instead.
Grappling hook which falls up. It’s prongs have a jagged zig-zag pattern, as stylized lightning bolts. If allowed to reach 100′ in height, a lightning bolt will flash from the sky to catch the hook, and carry it away. The hook—and anyone holding on to its rope—will be transported [d12 * 10] miles towards the destination of their choosing. The travel is instantaneous, but dangerous, as everyone going on the journey must make a saving throw or take 2d6 damage from the lightning bolt.
Wagon with a hatch door in its bed. Beyond the door are stairs which lead into an extra-dimensional cellar. Cool, dry, and with plenty of space for storage. There is a door in the cellar which is heavily barred on the other side.
Statue of a roaring leopard carved from tufa. It has a perfectly ordinary appearance, but has been enchanted so that if someone tells a lie while their hand is in the leopard’s mouth, it will snap closed hard enough to crush bone, and won’t release until they reveal the truth that they lied to protect.
Rustic hat with a wide shady brim. The shade cast by the hat is variable depending on how tight or loose the band around its rim is fitted. The wearer can vary the shadow to be simply personal, or up to 20′ in diameter. Anyone within this shade is immune to magical spying, and will appear to be a mere trick of the light to anyone observing from more than 60 feet away.
Clay jug filled with three corrupting ichors: Slurry of Instantaneous Decay, Ooze of Malignant Mutation, and Vinegar of Undousable Incineration. The three fluids occupy the same space within the jug, each filling it entirely, but never mixing with one another. One never knows which one will come out when the jug is tipped, and no other vessel can safely contain these three potent liquids. The jug contains one gallon of each.

Etching of a woman with a black cat sitting beside a table of men. The men are drinking, with swords, axes, and shields resting nearby. The woman leans forward as if to intimidate them, and some men appear cowed, while others are defiant.

Buff coat which makes anyone who wears it appear to be the most physically powerful person in the world. All bulging muscle and towering height. This strength is entirely illusory.
Prop sword which is obviously fake and not at all threatening. Anyone touched by the blade will perceive that they’ve been stabbed by a real weapon, and react accordingly. To anyone watching, however, the object is clearly harmless. They’ll think the person who was “stabbed” is wildly overreacting.
Wooden pole which can be pressed down to 2 feet long, or stretched out to 15 feet long at the wielder’s preference. On one end of the pole is a willowy wooden hand which the wielder of the pole can manipulate as easily as they do their own hand.
Roll of cotton bandage which surreptitiously draws out more blood from any wound it binds. Unless used on a very minor cut, the bandaged person will bleed out and die without ever realizing that they haven’t been properly tended to.
Domed birdcage with a little locking door, large enough to fit most tiny creatures inside. Any such creature placed within gains a humanlike intelligence and understanding of itself, as well as the ability to speak, and a desire to be pleasing and cooperative. This state is very uncomfortable for the animal. They don’t want to be rude, but they would really very much like to get the heck out of this cage as soon as possible.
Small statue which watches and listens. When picked up it will describe everything it has seen and heard since the last time it was set down. If only recently rediscovered after being left alone somewhere for many years, this may be a lengthy and tedious recitation.
Wrought iron fire poker. Each time it touches a fire, that fire will double in size. Fortunately, irresponsible wielders of this item will kill themselves long before they pose an existential threat to the whole region.
Mousetrap of the spring bar & board style. When the jaw is pulled back and locked in place the weight of the trap increases to ten tons, and it will remain in this magically-heavy state until the trap arm is fully closed. Few creatures will be strong enough to escape the trap, and their own trapped foot or hand will prevent the bar from closing enough to dispel the magic.
Small brazier, in which burns a magic fire. Legend has it this is the first fire made by human hands, kept burning through the eons by careful tending. If it ever goes out the magic is lost forever, but so long as it still burns, any creature close enough to be warmed by its heat will be healed 1hp every 2 Turns.
Glass thermometer with a plug at its top. It’s meant to be filled with a few drops of a person’s blood, rather than with mercury. It will then display hotter temperatures when it is closer to that person, and cooler temperatures when it is further away from them.
Parasol which stores the current weather at the moment it’s opened. Closing the parasol then conjures that same weather regardless of place or time. For example the parasol might be opened in the arctic during a blizzard, then kept open until it can be closed in an arid desert to really mess with the local environment. Of course, an open parasol is an awkward thing to move around, and cannot be easily kept in one’s bags.
Comb which will quickly ferret out any needles hiding in haystacks, or any other aberrant objects that have been lost in a material fine enough to be ‘combed’ through.
Twelve marbles which accurately and unerringly roll and bounce anywhere their user desires, within the range of a thumb flick. This is not limited to a single target or semi-natural path. They will zig-zag, hop, and backtrack as needed to accomplish their wielder’s goals. This is the only power which the marbles wish their wielder to access. Together they are an object of immense cosmic power, with a will all their own. On any given flick there is a 1-in-20 chance that the marbles will choose to become lost, having decided their time with the player character is done. The marbles do not move with enough force to deal damage to most creatures.
Maraca filled with the broken teeth of the dead. Shaking it draws the attentions of nearby ghosts, causing at least one to appear (1d6 – 3, min 1). Ghosts are not friendly, but they know many secrets which were taken with them to the grave, and will sometimes trade what they know in exchange for the characters acting as their living agents in some way. Often what they want is minor, but never is it wholesome.
Satchel of wood blocks. They’re brightly colored, come in various shapes, and are of a style a child might play with. They may be arranged however the user would like. A single clap causes the blocks to grow to become structure sized, while three claps in rapid succession cause them to shrink down to normal. Note that while they could be used to build a little house for the night, the blocks are not affixed to one another, and would make for a somewhat unstable structure.
Sand timer which lasts 10 minutes. When the sand runs through to the bottom chamber, the hourglass and the person who set it in motion will jump backwards in time 10 minutes. Very handy for testing out uncertain actions, since you’re guaranteed a second try. Be warned, however, that the timer can’t be stopped once started, and there’s a 1-in-12 chance for each use that the timer will jump back without the person who turned it, disappearing from their reality, and leaving them stuck with whatever actions they’ve taken.
Line measure of the type commonly used aboard boats. When lowered into a body of water the line causes that body to be at least as deep as the line. A shallow puddle could be made into a 15-foot-deep pool by lowering 15 feet of the line into it. Note that the magic does not actually create more water, it simply causes the water that exists to bi-locate or multi-locate into extra-dimensional space.
Conductor’s baton. When pointed at an object or creature, that thing’s movement begins to produce a musical sound. If pointed at a rat, every scurrying movement and twitch of whiskers will produce melodic tones, which will merge nicely with other tones produced by other moving objects, revealing a sort of music underlying the ecology of a space. Once the baton is used, the thing indicated will continue to produce sound until the next sunrise.
Plumage arrayed in a crest, with a bolt for affixing it to a helmet. Whomever wears it may see and speak with the ghost of the long dead bird whose feathers adorn the crest. The bird is of a large sort which has long since ceased to exist anywhere in the world. It’s not kindly disposed towards the descendants of primates which wear its feathers, but will grudgingly scout for them, and offer mostly accurate information. Doing the bidding of primates is moderately preferable to existing in the tedious limbo the bird returns to whenever the crest is not being worn.
Blanket which traps any 1 person who sleeps with it in a fuzzy, two-dimensional prison. While there they perceive time, but suffer no hunger, thirst, or other basic need. Shaking the blanket causes them to come tumbling out of it.
Stained glass in a 2 foot by 2 foot wood frame, depicting a sleeping dragon. The magic of this device must be attuned to a room by hanging it in a window long enough for one full cycle of moonlight to shine through it. After which the dragon recognizes this room as the location of its hoard. The glass may be carried anywhere in the world, and functions as a small portal back to that room. Any objects placed on the stained glass will disappear when no one is looking, and can be found later in the dragon’s hoard room.
Length of chain 15′ from end-to-end. If lain in a circle, only true promises may be spoken within. It does not lay a geas on the promise-maker, but it does prevent them from speaking if they lack the intention and the will to carry their promise through.
Locket capable of binding a willing soul to this world. It must be placed on the dead person’s body before the body grows cold, after which the soul may be asked to remain awhile before moving on. If they agree, they will appear in the locket as a tiny portrait capable of speech. Being stuck in a locket is dreadfully tedious, and the amount of time any soul is willing to stay there will range from hours to weeks, but not longer.
Razor-sharp scalpel which can cut into living flesh without causing any pain, and any damage caused by its cuts heals itself within a few hours.
Dirty rag of cloth which must be worn in some way in order to work its magic. It might be used as a pocket square, a kerchief, or just lain on top of one’s head. The rag then causes it to appear as though everything the user is wearing or carrying is trash. If they were to hold up a gold coin, it would look like a rock to everyone else. They will be dismissed as a beggar or a dirt farming peasant.
Hide of a great animal treated with magic oils. Three people holding its edges can hurl a fourth person 30′ in the air, after which they will drift gently and safely back to the ground. Each additional person adds 10′ to how high the bouncer can be thrown, up to a maximum of 10 people hurling someone 100′.

An etching depicting an assortment of farm tools. Saws, shears, knives, a bell, ladders, a wheelbarrow, a bucket, a hammer, and a few items of unclear function.

Rake which creates a magical one-way window through any surface it’s dragged across. Each stroke of the rake causes the window to show a space 10 feet deeper. So, for example, if there is a secret cultist den 20 feet underground, then raking the surface a single time will show whatever earth is 10′ below the spot, and raking the surface a second time will show the cultist’s hideout.
Perfume spritzer which causes any ol’ liquid placed inside it to smell like delicious food when sprayed. “Delicious” here being relative to the nose that smells it.
Bar of soap which is most effectively used when one is fully dressed. Not only does it clean the user perfectly, but it also removes minor bruises and abrasions, performs minor mending to clothes, polishes gear until it gleams, and otherwise removes all signs of wear and tear.
Bicycle with a peculiar lever on its handle bar. Any distance covered while riding this bike can be instantaneously un-covered by pulling on the lever. The bike and rider are teleported immediately to where they started from. This option is lost the moment the rider dismounts the bike.
Torch made from treated hardwoods which will never burn down so long as the cloth fuel is replaced regularly. Carvings indicate a particular way of holding the torch (somewhat awkwardly) which causes its flame to stay in whatever air it moves through. Somewhat like the images that are left behind by moving the torch quickly, except semi-permanent and still as hot as ever. With a little patience a person could create a wall of torch fire to close up a corridor, for example. Once placed, the fire remains until the wielder adjusts their grip on the torch.
Ball of yarn with little wisps of smoke twirling off it. When dropped, it will tend to roll towards something that deserves the dropper’s attention. It may indicate secret doors, trap triggers, the hiding spot of a foe waiting in ambush, or just a good deal at market. Each time the yarn is dropped, a few inches of its length burns away, until there’s not enough left for it to have any use.
Paper envelope, appropriate to contain a folded piece of paper. When closed with a wax seal, and words describing a destination location are etched on the wax, a gust of wind will whisk the envelope (and anything it carries) away towards that destination. The location can be anywhere, so long as it is a specific place. “Tom’s desk on the second floor office of his home in Bluehaven” will work. “Tom’s current location” will not. The wind carries the envelope about as fast as a bird flies.
Snow globe which contains a small village. If placed down somewhere and rubbed with the hand, a person can be transported into the village. There they can access the goods and services of the town, and when they wish to leave they merely need to rub the glass dome from the inside to pop out again. The villagers are fully aware of their condition. This place is a purgatory for them, where they are punished for terrible sins committed in life. If they can behave like decent people for for 100 years they’ll get to be reborn, and have a second chance at living a good life. If the snow globe is smashed while someone is inside, they will be trapped at that smaller size until some alternate means of growing large can be found.
Pale blue paste flecked with silver. Safe to touch with the fingers for spreading, but a mere moment after being spread the paste hardens to the strength of iron welds.
Broom which produces a strong gust of wind in whatever direction it’s swept towards. Strong enough to cause an unsuspecting person to stumble, or to propel a sailing ship. There is no limitation on the frequency this item can be used, though note that once a foe gets used to the wind it will have almost no impact on their ability to act.
Tiny catapult, small enough to fit in a backpack. A peculiar spigot allows it to be “inflated” to full size by blowing or using a bellows. At full size it is just as sturdy and heavy as any other catapult, yet if the spigot is opened it will release all the air pumped into it and the catapult will return to its small size.
Plow which digs furrows that are potent with fertile magic which will grow plants from any item as if it were a seed. Plant a sword, get a sword tree. Plant a gold coin, get a gold coin flower. The plants require a normal amount of time and care to develop, and the items they produce will not replicate any magic or artistry present in the original seed. For example, a gold coin will not produce a flower with the same image stamped on it.
Whetstone, long with two flat sides. Twelve strokes will hone any blade to a set purpose. The first side hones a blade to fighting trim, and could make a butter knife dagger-sharp. The second side forms a worker’s edge, allowing even a delicate rapier to chop trees like an axe, or strike stone with its point like a pick.
Belt buckle in the shape of an alligator’s head. A whistle brings the buckle to life, and it can move about using the belt its attached to to push itself along the ground. Its abilities are limited, but it will do whatever it’s asked. Once awakened the alligator will not go back to sleep until it is fed.
Scale which is able to weigh values other than weight. A dial on its base allows it to be set to measure monetary value, cultural value, academic value, spiritual value, and probably a few other sorts of value as well. In order to be of any use, the scale must have something to be weighed against. A gold coin to measure monetary value, or a holy symbol to measure spiritual value, for example.
Spectacles which allow the wearer to see a number above the head of any property-owning creature, showing the net value of their assets.
Whip which tangles expertly and perfectly every time. Able to quickly grab a far ledge, or reliably initiate a distance grapple against a foe. When targeting a living creature the wielder must roll a d20 all the same, and if a 1 is rolled the whip deals draws blood, and deals 1 hp of damage. Contact with blood causes it to lose its magic until ritually purified for 30 days and 31 nights.
Veil of coarse thread, but hemmed elaborately. When worn it reduces vision to indistinct shapes. Putting it on and wandering aimlessly for d6 + 3 turns will lead a person to a safe place. There is food, potable water, shelter, and safety from attack. (All relative to the environment. Where the veil leads in a dungeon or desert will be different than where it would lead in a lush countryside or city). The veil wearer may bring as many people as they like with them, led in a chain of hands, all with eyes closed. While wandering the wearer and followers are guided by the veil’s magics, and will remain safe from harm or violent encounters. However, if anyone opens their eyes, or if the veil wandering is halted before its proper end, the wanderers will invariably find themselves in a terribly dangerous situation. The veil’s magic is able to lead the wearer, but cannot phase them through bars if they’re locked in a cell, or divert a determined foe from killing them if donned mid-combat.
Casket of dark citrus wood. If a person is properly buried in this casket, then the very next day a tree will have grown where they were put to rest. High in the branches of the tree is a book, or perhaps several, which contain every noteworthy piece of information which this individual took with them to the grave.
Censer which produces smoke of special divinatory power. After a space has been thoroughly filled with its fumes, items and marks which are evidence of some wrongdoing will glow a faint yellow. The censer reveals anything that points towards violence, deceit, oath-breaking, or willful disregard towards the welfare of others.
Rug, blue with floral patterns at its edges. About 3′ wide, and 30′ long. When rolled out it’s stiff enough to serve as a bridge, and tough enough to form a short barricade. Only the very ends remain pliable, and allow the rug to be rolled up again.
Empty turtle’s shell which, when placed in water, propels itself at incredible speeds. If the user is able to keep hold of it (no easy task!) they may learn the nuances of movement which allow them to guide its course, and move through the water with the speed and grace of any marine animal.
Embroidery hoop which allows objects to be stored as images on fabric. The fabric must be held firmly in place by the hoop, after which anything from a dagger to a dog can be placed on the taut cloth. The placed item will disappear, existing now only as an embroidered image. At any time the cloth can be torn to break the enchantment and release whatever was stored there.
City seed. Heavy and awkward. When planted, it will overnight grow into a bustling town filled with people who believe in a fictional history of their lives and their town.

That’s another d100 table on the books! I hope you enjoyed it, and that you’re happy, healthy, and getting vaccinated!