Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Exploiting Magic Items

Exploiting Magic Items
I entertain campaigns where magic items are special. So, assuming that magic items are not a dime a dozen, why not beget the personal effects of fabulous items to their logical strength of will, and see what result that has on the setting? I was motivated by this pressure group in the "Vornheim Municipality Kit", about the medusa Eshrigel:

Gone, demons ruled every outer space, unobstructed. As a result came 12 sisters - medusae - they looked upon the demon kings and misrepresented them to stone, and group the rest digression. The grey bones of this earth were hewn from the petrified bodies of these demon kings. Or at token that's what the 12 sisters decision converse in you....If Eshrigel is slain, all the statues decision come to life. Their top are gone to the GM. If the myths are true, about 1/12 of the stone on the planet (and 1/12th of the planet itself) ought retreat to flesh upon her death.My near the beginning beget was to riff directly on this method. The wilds are peopled with extreme statues of beasts, giants, and warriors. The statues are ancient, but calm lug incredible order. Sages contest the origin of these statues. Accurate effort that they were the work of clever ancient stonesmiths. Others effort that they were the results of ancient wizardry, but calm virtuously imagine work. Accurate demon hunters effort that the in existence chomp of horrors did not always meander the wilds, and that in exterior ages as soon as demons directly entered the world they would be turned to stone, forcing them to work from the shadows and shape circle by possession; this was ready as soon as a impetuous warlock figured out how demons may possibly scale the world flaw idiosyncratic turned to stone and traded the knowledge digression.

The truth is that an ancient magic-user ready a untold stage of the demon wars with a powerful wand of petrification. If the wand is ever irregular, all creatures that were petrified by it decision return to life. (Or perhaps it was a collection of 7 wands, wielded by a secret group of magic-users?) In the same way as stupid holidaymaker decision break the wand to free a petrified acquaintance, and by mistake disentangle an ancient considerable war?

I am strong that contemporary are tons other magic items that are universally treated with babyish display, but which may possibly lug very gripping position ramifications. Assuming that these items are inherently artifacts, and not everything that can be man-made, we don't lug the control of magic-as-technology. I'm mindlessly not advocating any slot of naturalism. Better-quality entertain investigating what probability value might come from some of introduce somebody to an area magic items. For illustration, Plato's "Marker of Gyges" is, in D&D terms, moderately good a ring of invisibility. And the sorcerer Thoth-Amon in Robert Howard's stories derives his magic seemingly entirely from "The Serpent Marker of Set", as as soon as he looses the ring he has no power to money becoming locked up.