#magic item march

[gigantic-spider]

Soarwood Graft (Day 23 of Magic Item March, a 31-day series of homebrewed magic items)

(Image source: "Warforged after all" by Werility; image description: A warforged, (a humanoid figure made out of metal and wood) kneels in the grass. Fungi and plants grow out of their body and drape over their metal body parts and armor.)

Wondrous item, uncommon (only usable by warforged)

While the soarwood graft is part of your body, you feel lighter and move around easier due to the magical nature of the wood core of your limbs. You may use an action to cast the levitate spell on yourself at will, medium armor that you wear loses its property that gives you disadvantage on Stealth checks (if it has one in the first place), and you are considered to be 50 lbs lighter than your normal weight.

Background

Since most people see warforged as being primarily made of metal plating, it is easy to forget that the core of the warforged is made of livewood, a special type of tree native to Aerenal. Though cut livewood does not continue to grow, it does not truly die, and it is this property that prompted an enterprising warforged artist named Spark to attempt something very strange: grafting other plants onto their livewood tendrils. Initial attempts were largely unsuccessful as well as rather painful, but eventually they managed to graft several small bits of living mundane plants into their livewood. They shortly discovered that keeping these plants alive was practically a full-time job, but as they continued to refine their technique they eventually replaced more and more of their metal plating with decorative plants. Warforged and artificers around Khorvaire heard about this living art installation and have begun research into how these grafts could be potentially weaponized or industrialized. The soarwood graft is an initial development from one of these individuals, a prototype that could potentially even allow warforged to fly.

Story Hooks

Spark has become a symbol for the warforged rights movement, living proof that they are more than simple weapons of war. They are scheduled to visit the warforged laborers in Sharn, but local warforged leaders have heard that Spark might be targeted for assassination while there. You have been asked to serve as a proactive security force to find out who wants Spark dead, and why.

A warforged artificer researching the applications of soarwood grafts ventured into the Mournland, and House Cannith wants them found. The last thing the dragonmarked house wants is the Lord of Blades getting his hands on arcane research that could enhance him and his followers. Why exactly this artificer ventured into the gray mists and what their feelings are about the Lord of Blades is unknown, but House Cannith does not want to take any chances.

[gigantic-spider]

Hoarfrost Weapon (Day 10 of Magic Item March, a 31-day series of homebrewed magic items)

(Image source: Ivan Dedov - ArtStation; image description: An average looking metal sword is on the lefthand side of the image, a Norse rune etched into the center of the pommel. The same sword appears twice more to the right of the first, covered in ice in the center and covered in even more ice on the right.)

weapon (any weapon made out of metal), rare (requires attunement)

You gain a +1 to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.

Once per short rest, you can use a bonus action to cover the metal surface of this weapon with a thin coating of frost for 1 minute. While this weapon is covered in frost, its attacks deal an extra 1d4 cold damage and reduce the target’s movement speed by 10 feet until the start of your next turn. Additionally, enemies killed by this weapon while this effect is active are frozen solid. If the effect of this weapon would reduce the target’s movement speed to 0 or less, the creature becomes completely restrained by a thick coating of ice. The restrained creature can make a DC 17 Athletics check as an action on its turn, ending the restrained condition on a success.

Background

The frost giants of Icewind Dale are mighty and cruel masters of ice. Much like their favored element, they care not for the suffering of others and delight in covering the world in a sterile coating of snow. One of their favorite pastimes involves kidnapping unwary smallfolk, freezing them solid over the course of several days, and competing to see who can make the most entertaining diorama of the resulting ice sculptures. One day, an enterprising frost giant named Ulfrida realized that they could achieve the same result much faster through a magical enchantment on their weapons. After considerable experimentation, she developed the hoarfrost enchantment, which covers its victims in an ever-thickening layer of frost as they are struck. Wielding these weapons, she and a party of frost giant revelers maraud throughout Icewind Dale on the hunt for particularly amusing individuals to freeze.

Story Hooks

Ulfrida and her giant revelers have gone too far by taking the town of Dougan’s Hole captive. They descended on the town in search of targets for their twisted game and decided to turn the whole town into a twisted diorama. The Speakers of Ten-Towns have promised great rewards for anyone who can drive them out of the town and save its denizens.

A member of the Wolf Tribe has somehow gotten ahold of a hoarfrost weapon, but instead of using it herself she approaches a group of outsiders with the plea to take it and kill the brutal Isarr Kronenstrom. If the fractured Wolf Tribe is to survive, the brutal worshipper of Malar the Beast Lord must die. Once this is done, the weapon is the outsiders’ to do with as they please.

[gigantic-spider]

Magic Item March masterpost

Folklore Week

The Good Death; Helm of Awe; Bearskin of Wealth; Zoulvisia's Flaming Bridle; Ring of Slumber; The Stick and Stone; Staff of Misrule

Icewind Dale Week

Spirit Bear Gauntlets; Crown of Blackened Ice; Hoarfrost Weapon; Refined Icehoney; Glacial Gauntlets; Powdered Chardalyn; The Frozen Heart

Potent Potables Week

Flechette Tree Oil; Liquorwyrm; Mindwrack Scroll; Traitorsbane Poison; Potion of Hydration; Oil of Anointing; Perfume of Purity

Eberron Week

Fabulous Facemasks; Soarwood Graft; Lantern of Turning; Orb of Seeing; Sentry's Salve; Kalok Lash; Fly on the Wall

Miscellaneous 'Week'

Perfume of Pungence; Pom of Power; Ooze of Slashing

[gigantic-spider]

Refined Icehoney (Day 11 of Magic Item March, a 31-day series of homebrewed magic items)

(Image source: The Mystery of Blue Honey - Our State; image description: A honey wand dripping blue honey is suspended over an open jar of identical blue honey.)

Wondrous item (uncommon)

Eating one serving of refined icehoney deals you 2d4 cold damage and allows you to ignore the effects of freezing temperatures for 1 hour. Eating two servings of refined icehoney deals you 2d8 cold damage and allows you to ignore the effects of freezing temperatures for 8 hours. Eating three servings of refined icehoney deals you 2d20 cold damage and allows you to ignore the effects of freezing temperatures for 1 week. Eating four servings of refined icehoney deals you 2d100 cold damage and allows you to ignore the effects of freezing temperatures for the rest of your life. In order to reap the benefits of refined icehoney, the cold damage it deals must not bring to 0 or fewer hitpoints.

Background

In the small town of Good Mead in Icewind Dale, travelers are treated to a rare sight: that of the beautiful ice bee. These insects are almost entirely translucent and quite difficult to see even if you know what you’re looking for. It is only when they move, refracting sunlight through their delicate crystalline bodies, that they are easily visible. Observers describe the sight as being akin to watching living snowflakes or ice spirits dancing upon the wind. Natives to Good Mead describe it as “damned showboating.” You see, the noble ice bee is beautiful to look at but incredibly difficult to tame. Each individual ice bee is entirely consumed with its own beauty, so much so that they sometimes forget to eat. Good Mead’s beekeepers operate on a round-the-clock timetable in order to pound on the sides of the hives and jolt the ice bees out of their vanity-induced comas. It is fortunate that they primarily derive their sustenance from snow and ice, converting the cold itself into some kind of energy and expelling the processed water in the form of icehoney, which tastes as bright, crisp, and clean as frigid Arctic water feels. The apiarists of Good Mead periodically refine this icehoney to enhance its peculiar magical effects, but to the best of their knowledge no one has ever survived eating more than two servings of the stuff in one sitting.

Story Hooks

The rumors are true - Good Mead is buried under a mass of icehoney. Locals fortunate enough to escape the arma-goo-don are perplexed as to what could have caused the sticky situation but will pay good money to any willing to investigate the morass and save any trapped townsfolk.

Legend has it that there is a hive of immense icebees somewhere in the Reghed Glacier, with hoards of icehoney that would tower over Kelvin’s Cairn. Reginald Featherhead, gnome of wealth and lover of honey, desperately wants a taste of this frozen treasure and is paying you handsomely to guide him through the honeycombing tunnels. You had better hope that there aren’t any similarly enormous predators stalking these combs...

[gigantic-spider]

Traitorsbane Poison (Day 18 of Magic Item March, a 31-day series of homebrewed magic items)

(Image source: Silumgar’s Hand by Lius Lasahido; image description: A pale man in ornate blue and green clothes lined with gold breathes out iridescent purple mist. Around him are several dead bodies.)

Poison (contact)

One creature must add a drop of its blood to attune to this poison. When creatures who have betrayed the attuned creature are subjected to this poison, they must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 hour. The poisoned creature is paralyzed. All other creatures feel a mild tingle but are otherwise unaffected. It is up to the DM to decide what constitutes betrayal of the attuned creature.

Background

A favorite of paranoid rulers, traitorsbane poison is derived from a rather innocent plant. In the poison’s natural form, it is simply an oily secretion on the plant’s leaves. Any creature that happens to brush up against the plant is completely unaffected, but any herbivore that attempts to take a bite might find itself easy prey as it is instantly paralyzed. The distilled oil’s specificity makes it an excellent tool for the suspicious, as it will spare those loyal to the user, but it is incredibly expensive to create. As such, only the richest and most cynical have enough of it to use regularly, but some courts will spring for it in particularly important cases.

Story Hooks

A member of your party has fallen prey to traitorsbane potion at the hands of a local noble. There’s just one problem - they swear they’ve never even heard of the noble before today! What mysteries might lie in their past, and what did they do to this minor noble?

A salad of traitorsbane plant leaves has paralyzed a dinner party of wealthy merchants. You were only there as bodyguards for one of the guests, but now you’re the only ones who can move about freely. What will you do with free reign of the house of the wealthiest man in town? And what are those strange sounds coming from the basement?

[gigantic-spider]

Flechette Tree Oil (Day 15 of Magic Item March, a 31-day series of homebrewed magic items)

(Image source: Thorn Tree by Yuli Seperi; image description: A tree trunk with brown bark and long sharp black thorns growing out of it.)

Potion, uncommon

After rubbing this oil on your hands, you gain the ability to fire a total of 10 small darts made of bone from your fingers for 1 hour. These darts are identical to normal darts except that they can be fired at long range with no penalty, and making an attack with one of these darts causes you to take 1 point of piercing damage from the intense pain of growing a dart made out of your own bone and firing it. Additionally, you may make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check when attacking with these darts. If the result exceeds the target’s passive Perception score, you may make the attack with advantage.

Background

The flechette tree is an infamous bit of flora in its native habitat due to its unusual method of acquiring sustenance. It has a thick canopy of dark green leaves and grows delicious oily fruits much beloved by birds, small mammals, and humanoids of the region. But hidden beneath the leaves are the dangerous weapons for which the tree is named. Long sharp thorns grow in special sockets along the tree’s branches that it is able to fire off at a moment’s notice if any of its fruit is disturbed. These darts are not especially accurate, but the tree is able to fire several volleys of them at once and is able to bring down small animals that venture onto its branches with a few hits. Some animals make it out alive with the delicious fruit, but enough are felled to make the mulch of animal corpses and bones that provides the tree with the nutrients it needs to grow. Humanoids of the region have discovered that pressing flechette tree fruit and distilling the resulting oily components produces an oil that allows the user to mimic the tree’s peculiar hunting strategy, albeit at a painful cost.

Story Hooks

A rogue druid has planted hundreds of fast-growing flechette trees in the middle of a large metropolis, bringing life to a standstill. The druid has yet to make any demands, but the lady mayor is willing to handsomely reward any who can bring this issue to a peaceful resolution.

An assassin is on the loose in a tightly guarded facility where no one is allowed to bear weapons. They clearly wield flechette oil, as evidenced by the bone darts sticking out of the victim, making them the most well-armed person in the vicinity. Can your party track them down and bring them to justice?

[gigantic-spider]

Mindwrack Scroll (Day 17 of Magic Item March, a 31-day series of homebrewed magic items)

(Image source: Psychic Corrosion by Bastien L. Deharme; image description: The head of a bald human man with pale skin appears to be fracturing. A haze surrounds his head, enhancing the illusion of fracturing.)

Scroll, very rare

Curse. The mindwrack scroll is cursed, a fact that is revealed only when an identify spell is cast on the item or with a successful DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) ability check. It appears to be a normal spell scroll that bears a spell of a random level. When someone attempts to cast the spell or copy the spell into a spellbook, they must attempt a saving throw using their spellcasting modifier with a DC of 20. On a success, nothing happens and the mindwrack scroll spontaneously (but harmlessly) combusts. On a failure, they lose a spell slot with a level equal to the spell they were attempting to cast. If they do not have a spell slot of that level available to lose, they lose a spell slot of the next highest level. Additionally, they lose the ability to cast a random spell that they know and have prepared until they take a long rest.

Background

Mindwrack scrolls originate in a popular game among wizarding schools known as Spell Scroll Scramble. Contestants are turned loose in a library filled with worthless illusory scrolls and numerous real spell scrolls. The official objective is to be the last wizard standing, but the side objective is to find as many spell scrolls as possible. The winner of the competition gets to keep the spell scrolls they collected and eventually add them to their spellbook, but contestants are also permitted to use the scrolls during the competition in order to knock out their opponents. Mindwrack scrolls are thrown into the mix of real spell scrolls to weed out those who don’t yet have the knowledge to recognize the cursed objects when they see them, leaving them down some spell slots and less one prepared spell.

Story Hooks

The party wizard has been challenged to a game of Spell Scroll Scramble by an old rival, but this time the stakes are much higher. Unlike the games from their apprentice days, these players are playing for each other’s spellbook, leaving the loser unable to prepare new spells until they acquire a replacement.

Mindwrack scrolls are practically unknown outside of wizarding academies, which makes them an excellent weapon against other breeds of spellcaster. A whole case of them was recently delivered to the temple of a minor god, and the resulting loss of spellcasting among their clerics left them almost completely defenseless in the face of a coordinated burglary. Where did the burglars get these scrolls, and why were they so interested in the relics of this minor divinity?

[gigantic-spider]

Liquorwyrm (Day 16 of Magic Item March, a 31-day series of homebrewed magic items)

(Image source: Tequila Wyrm Wood Print by Stanley Morrison; image description: A beige dragon-like creature with a mane of blue spines sits partially submerged in a clear shot glass filled with liquid. A lime is visible behind the shot glass.)

Wondrous item, rarity varies (see below)

After consuming the liquorwyrm, make a Constitution saving throw according to the type of worm you have consumed (see below). On a failure, you vomit up the worm and it dies. On a success, the worm takes up residence inside you until it dies. While it is inside you, you are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition. When you would take poison damage, the worm takes it instead. After the worm has taken a certain amount of poison damage, it dies and harmlessly dissolves in your body. The liquorwyrm also dies if you don’t feed it a regular diet of its preferred type of alcohol once a week.

Beer Variant (common) - DC 10, 10 poison damage

Wine Variant (uncommon) - DC 12, 20 poison damage

Whiskey Variant (uncommon) - DC 14, 30 poison damage

Vodka Variant (rare) - DC 16, 40 poison damage

Moonshine Variant (very rare) - DC 18, 50 poison damage

Background

After being initially discovered in the foulest, most inhospitable places on the Material Plane, it was only natural that the soon-to-be-named liquorwyrms were studied to determine the source of their survival abilities. Unfortunately, researchers soon ran into a problem: they just couldn’t keep the strange creatures alive. Once the liquorwyrms were removed from the putrid pools they call home, they quickly sickened and died. It was only after one researcher placed a dying wyrm in a mostly empty cask of ale that they discovered the animals’ affinity for that common and well-loved poison: alcohol! After gifting the animal its current name, her team quickly packed up several specimens in other alcohol containers and spirited them away for closer study. Nowadays liquorwyrm beverages have become quite the rage among high-end taverns and adventurers due to their ability to neutralize the worst effects of alcohol and stronger poisons that enter the body.

Story Hooks

The Teki-la Bottling Company has the largest breeding population of liquorwyrms on the continent but something is going deeply wrong. Whole generations of liquorwyrms are dying overnight and the owners want you to do something about it. What mysterious causes could kill so many animals who live in literal poison?

You have come into the company of an eccentric researcher who claims that liquorwyrms are sentient, a claim that liquorwyrm breeders have denied ever since discovering the creatures. While you don’t know whether he is telling the truth or not, the assassins that are coming after him are undeniable in their reality. No doubt they will come for you too if they think you might continue his research.