Sentient Items and the Spirits That Inhabit Them

Several years back, I wrote - at length - about sentient items, to include a few examples.

In a way, this post is both summation and refinement of that post. 

A sentient amulet named The Mouth of Mimulus, from the book Return to Brookmere

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d10 Possible Spirits Providing Sentience

1 - a bound Celestial, willingly there to ensure a greater goal is achieved

2 - a bound Devil, tries to force bargains before using abilities

3 - a bound Demon, finding brief pleasure in monkeypawing the wielder's intents

4 - a Fey Spirit, determined to the make the most of its condition

5 - a Dragon, benevolent if metallic, maleficent if chromatic

6 - a bound Elemental, most likely a Djinn or Ifrit

7 - a normal animal, acting on instinct

8 - a Sphinx, speaks in riddles but knows much

9 - a ghost, perhaps of the first person slain by the item, its first wielder, or its creator

10 - a PC class, deliberately slain in the crafting process to inhabit the device

d10 Agendas Items Pursue Especially When Dominating Wielder

1 - Freedom - either through trading places, destruction of the item, or merely traveling extensively

2 - Vengeance - against a place, a cause, a faith, a family, or an individual

3 - Chaos - death and destruction for its own sake - the more grand, the better

4 - Self-Preservation - survival first, which may involve cowardice or acting in extremis

5 - Genocide - including forced suicide if a member of the race it hates tries to wield it

6 - Assist - it wants to help a place, person, cause, or faith and ensures they are helped

7 - Guide - the item leads (or drives) wielders to a specific place or conclusion

8 - Rule - the item wants to rule, and will do so through the wielder

9 - New Experiences - lives vicariously through its wielders, and after several centuries, is quite jaded

10 - Wealth - either in decorations for itself or donations to a cause or faith

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Share your favorite sentient item stories in the comments, please.

Magic Item: Wheel of Fortune

The Rules Cyclopedia never fails to reveal something new with subsequent readings.  This time, I found the Wheel of Fortune on page 242, between Wheel of Floating and Wheel, Square.

Wheel of Fortune, by Daniel Gelon

The best part of the item description is this:

If desired, the wedges may be numbered from 1-20, 1-100, or some other conveniently determined number, and a chart may be made with more varied results.

That's right - customization is encouraged.  The basic Wheel of Fortune provides 6 positive results and 6 negative results, so an equal amount of both types of results makes complete sense.  

Looking at other BECMI and BX sources, we see that eating rock chips in B1 and drinking from a fountain in B5 both provide random effects (d20 and d8, respectively).  What all three have in common are the number of ways to raise and lower various (or all) attribute scores. B1 and the RC both provide free treasure in the form of cash, gems, and even minor magic items, as well as take it away.  It's worth noting that BECMI doesn't have a Deck of Many Things (at least the Rules Cyclopedia doesn't), but the DoMT is a similar item worth looting of ideas.

Using all these as potential sources, I have this as my draft expanded d20 Wheel of Fortune.

It features 10 positive and 10 negative results, with source in parentheses.

1 - Subtract 1 from each ability score (B5)

2 - Add 1 to each ability score (B5)

3 - Subtract 1 from Prime Requisite (RC)

4 - Add 1 to Prime Requisite (RC)

5 - Permanently lose 1d4+1 hit points (B5ish)

6 - Permanently gain 1d4+1 hit points (B5ish)

7 - Gems on person crumble to dust

8 - 3d10 gems appear in your mouth, stuffing your cheeks (Goonies).

9 - Jewelry on person turns into cheap costume jewelry worth nothing.

10 - 2d4 pieces of jewelry appear on your body.  

11 - Coins on person turn to lead.

12 - Coins rain down from above! type 1d8 1-2 copper, 3-5 silver, 6-7 gold, 8 platinum; 1d4 thousand copper and silver, 1d4 hundred gold and platinum.

13 - The least valuable magical item carried by spinner disintegrates (RC).

14 - A random weapon carried by spinner gains an enchantment (B1ish).

15 - Cursed! Roll on the Cursed! subtable below (B1ish).

16 - Blessed! Roll on the Blessed! subtable below.

17 - All nonmagical items carried and worn disintegrate into dust (RCish).

18 - All nonmagical items carried and worn become the finest quality possible, to include changing materials and workmanship.  

19 - Spinner dies.  No saving throw. (RC)

20 - Grants a wish, and the spinner knows it and can use it whenever they like.

Cursed! (d8) Note that a Remove Curse spell will suppress the curses for a time, but a true cure is required to finally be rid of each curse; knowledge of the true cure comes with the curse.

1 - Lycanthropy - d8 1-3 Wererat, 4-6 Werewolf, 7- Weretiger, 8- Devil Swine.

2 - Slow Healing - magic only heals 1 hp per casting; normal healing takes twice as long.

3 - Berserker - when combat begins, won't stop until all around are down, allies included.

4 - Unlucky - rolls disadvantage on all rolls.

5 - Marked - Charisma effectively reduced to 5 for reaction rolls, loyalty checks, and such.

6 - Hunted - something wants you dead - and it's coming.  DM choice of monster.

7 - Polymorph - d6 1-4 become a talking normal sized animal; 5-6 become a monster.  DM choice.

8 - Geased! - DM choice of what the spinner MUST do.

Blessed!

1 - Polyglot - gains the ability to speak and understand (but not read) 1d6+1 additional languages.

2 - Sniffer - can smell metal with concentration, as per the detect metal ability (like a magic sword). Full disclosure, I lifted this entry from the Idalium Story Hour on Dragonsfoot.

3 - Healer - can lay on hands to heal a person of disease, blindness, poison, or damage. 1/day

4 - Confident - Charisma raises to 18 for reaction rolls, loyalty checks, and such.

5 - Caster - can cast one useful spell per day: d6 1-3 Detect Magic, 4-5 Continual Light, 6 Knock

6 - Nature's Friend - animals are friendly towards you; you can Speak with Animals at will.

7 - Lucky - roll all nonattack and nondamage rolls at advantage. 

8 - Regenerate - as per ring; note that weapons that damage regenerators affect you, now

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It occurs to me that a group of enterprising (and morally questionable) individuals, be they PCs or organized bandits, might force captives to spin the wheel to harvest the treasure they may generate.

After all, the rules themselves state:

A charmed creature cannot move the wheel, and each user can spin the wheel only once per day. p241

So anyone charmed cannot spin the Wheel of Fortune.  Everyone else, though, can.

Forcing captives at swordpoint to spin the Wheel results in wealth-farming.  Yes, the captives may die, but I don't see that being an issue to bandits (or many PCs).  Why, an enterprising sort may even charge others for a spin, while a scholarly sort might try and document likely effects to 'find the pattern'.  Canny individuals will eventually realize the bad spins that disintegrate wealth and items only affects items carried, so stripping naked (or to a loincloth for PG-rated games) mitigates those rolls.  

If only using the book version of the Wheel of Fortune, there are 4 (out of 12) chances to score wealth: 1,000 gp OR 10 garnets OR a brooch OR a miscellaneous magic item.  These treasures just appear.  Me being me, I'd argue that this treasure comes from somewhere, likely a nearby dragon hoard or the treasure vaults of someone or something powerful.  As written though, they just materialize through the power of magic.  

Those wanting to cheat the house through telekinesis, other magic, or outright damage to the Wheel find that it all fizzles.  All magic fails except for Wish - wishes involving the Wheel of Fortune in any way cause it to disappear, but for good or just teleporting away to another location, the rulebook doesn't say.

The rules do specify that the wheel weighs 20,000 coins (2,000 pounds) and can only be moved by a creature with 26+ HD or levels, meaning that only the most powerful PCs are going to be able to move this into their strongholds, and then only by brute force, as the wheel is immune to pretty much all magic.  A mean translation suggests that even draft animals won't help, as they lack the HD.  

It would be far simpler for PCs to turn the location of the Wheel of Fortune into their stronghold; it would likely be cheaper, as well.

A Cursed! but Wealthy regular spinner of the Wheel of Fortune

From Return to Brookmere, art by Tim Truman

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A bonus entry I am not sure where to put:

Dragon - a rift opens above you, streaming down thousands of silver, gold, and platinum coins, as well as dozens of gems and pieces of jewelry. With this wealth falls 2d4+1 magic items.  You dream at night of flight and flame, and find yourself changing ... shifting ... into a red dragon in 1d8 days.  The DM takes control of this now-NPC.

Campaign Journals

There is something about a well-written campaign journal or log that is better than just reading a book.

I've read several over the years, and the single major drawback to reading campaign logs is that they - by virtue of being logs of games played at the table - tend to never reach completion, generally because the game itself falls to the vagaries of life.   So there is no satisfactory ending, just a stop in posting.

Despite this, I love reading them, and as I discovered a new log this weekend - one spanning 70+ sessions - I wanted to share: The Nightwick Abbey Campaign (the author of Nightwick Abbey is at In Places Deep).

You might be thinking that this is livestreamed games in written form, and to a degree that is correct.  At the same time, written logs are so much more, because it cuts out all (or at least much) of the real world, leaving only the in-game fiction. 

So here are some of my favorite campaign logs, and sources for more.  Reading through them will eat up your time, but they are strangely satisfying and certainly inspirational for your own games.

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Favorites:

Idalium, a B/X megadungeon campaign

The Extraordinary Delving and Cartography Company

Appendix P Party in Appendix A Solo Dungeon

Piratecat's Story Hour

The Long Stair part 1 - not exactly a campaign log, though it reads like one

The Long Stair part 2

Note that I am a thesis away from a Masters in Creative Writing.  The fiction I was writing was basically the Long Stair - and then I discovered these two threads and just ... stopped.  There is no way I could continue with that out there, now heavily influencing me.  Such is life.

Second note - Konsumterra has developed a Long Stair-related pdf if this setting catches your interest, there are several session logs at Elfmaids & Octopi, as well.  

Sadly, several of the tales I remember most have long disappeared into the digital graves that all such writing eventually enters.

Additional sources: Dragonsfoot and ENWorld

All that said, what are your favorite written campaign logs or story hours?

Water Features in the Dungeon

A staple of dungeons are magical pools, fountains, and springs, as well as waterfalls concealing sublevels and portals to elsewhere (or elsewhen) and raging rivers acting as barriers and rapid, albeit dangerous, transport to deeper in.

Magical pools have a long history in DnD, from the fabled pool room of B1: In Search of the Unknown to the Pool of Radiance of Goldbox Fame, and again in Ruins of Adventure.  Drinking deep from the well of knowledge even reveals Appendix A from the AD&D DMG.

From B1: In Search of the Unknown, page 17, room 31, art by Sutherland

Magical water features are fun, because they require players to interact with them, be it through drinking the water or bathing in it.  Perhaps my favorite unofficial pool comes from the campaign journal for Idalium, hosted at Dragonsfoot. It heals, raises, AND later clones anyone it raises, for all sorts of mischief at the table.

To add to risk/reward of exploration, perhaps pools only react well to specific races, alignments, or followers of specific deities.  Suddenly, those ill-considered choices made during PC creation matter.

1. Transmute Metal - either making base metals valuable or changing valuables to lead (and therefore sinking the carrier).

2. Adjust stats up or down - specific stats or roll randomly; a set amount or roll randomly.

3. Teleport - to one or more locations, depending on keys, a sequence, or random chance. Are they two-way or one-way.

4. Portal to different plane - the Feywild, the Astral, the abode of a specific deity, or the lair of Grendel's Mother.

5. Possession - the plot of Pool of Radiance.  Does the PC suddenly become an NPC, or can they be trusted to play as the new being.

6. Become Undead - pool glows a sickly red or purple, like that episode of Stranger Things; no doubt a rift to the Negative Energy Plane is at the bottom.

7. Polymorph - perhaps with a twist, like in Ranma 1/2.

8. Mutate - bubbling greenish goo, probably with an odor.  

9. Change size up or down - shrinking down may result in drowning.

10. Heal or Harm - be it straight hit points or conditions that are healed or inflicted, there is variety.

11. Raise Dead or Reincarnate - both result in the PC sticking around.

12. Clone - nothing happens at first, but with time, a clone will arise, a clone whose purpose is to destroy its progenitor.

13. Youth or Age - maybe you actually get younger or just forever remain your current age; then again, you may wrinkle and crumble to dust! Roll randomly for years or go by set amount.

14. Free XP - bonus power! Ideal if your game uses magic powered by XP; if not, 

15. De-magic something (or someone) - a nasty surprise or a welcome rescue from a curse.

16. Enchant something (or someone) - a welcome surprise or a nasty curse.  A werefish? Learn a spell?

17. Wild Magic - perhaps from this d10000 table or a more reasonable list.

18. Wish - either the pool itself or a fish swimming in the pool, like in a koi pond.  Does it monkeypaw?

19. Immortality - What does immortality look like? Perhaps it simply doesn't let you die, but still take damage and survive, regardless of condition.

20. Secrets - be sure they are actionable secrets - locations of lost hoards, true names of potent beings, eldritch rituals, etc - stuff the players will be interested in and try to use pursue at the table.

Of course, it is preferred that some clues be provided for a clever party to narrow down likely results.  One such clue is what liquid is in the pool.  Water, blood, wine, acid, or something else all change the color, consistency, and contents to anything you'd like.  The physical clues of statues and carvings and corpses around the pool can provide clues, as well.

In the end, though, someone needs to drink from or touch or bathe in the pool to see what happens.  Given the power of some of the affects, it is recommended that PCs only benefit from one bath or drink, not multiples.  Carrying water away as a later potion should probably fail, as well.

The beauty of such pools is that at least one player is guaranteed to give them a shot.  So if you use magical pools, be ready to handle the consequences.

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Of course, pools and fountains can also contain monsters, harkening back to Caric's adventures in the Dungeon of Dread, where he learns early on to "watch the water that is not water, and beware the basilisk!"  As the book cover shows, water weirds love to hang out in pools.

Other critters, do as well, though.  Water Elementals, Kelpies, Nixies and Naiads, Merrow, Aboleth, Ixitachital, Grey Ooze, and a variety of tenctacled monstrosities (like the Watcher in the Water from LotR).  All of which share one desire: to drown and likely eat unwary surface dwellers. 

A simple trick is to have something glowing and valuable looking in the pool.  That alone can be enough to bait the trap.  Players (and wise PCs) should suspect it to be a trap, but still go willingly because it could be a MAGIC ITEM.  

The things I learn from Angler Fish...

Anyhow, let me know in the comments about any fun magical pools your party has run afoul of.