Wine of Telling
The various wines of telling inspire wondrous stories of faraway lands in those who drink them. Those consuming the same wine as the storyteller receive bonuses to follow the story as it is being told. In the hands of a powerful enough bard, these stories lead to adventures in these lands. Different wine types lead to different stories (and thus different adventures) — think forks tuned to different planes.
Here, the effect is felt by those who hear stories told by those under the influence of the wine. For instance, if a bard tells a story about a far away land, and has been drinking wine of telling, all those who can hear the story are whisked away to the foreign land for the duration of the buzz.
Wine of telling is usually served from the clay decanters in which they are distributed. This keeps the sunlight from ruining the flavor or the enchantment.
Price: 500-1000gp. To make wine of telling, it takes someone with a Profession: Vintner of 5 one month per batch. In addition, the vintner must have access (either through arcane magic or access to magical grapes) to the ability to teleport or plane shift. The effects of the wine are limited by which of these powers the vintner imbues the wine with.
Posted in Magic Item and tagged food and drink by Stephen Hilderbrand with no comments yet.
Fair Folk
Also known as children of deepwood, these short, slender, pale folk wander the woods throughout Proppia and the Farghoal. They are strong storytellers who revel in adventure that they can spin yarns about, and their song and dance is often heard before they are encountered in person. Fair folk seem mostly human except they are paler and have slightly oversized eyes due to their natural habitat. They have also been known to take up residence in caves and undersea grottos, living in these locations for periods of five years at a stretch before moving on.
They ride tiny horses (actually medium-sized). They wear long, flowing clothing of fine, highly-colored silk. They often wear wings in their dramatic productions and dances, but do not fly, contrary to certain folk tales.
Rumor has it that they are the descendants of elves who mated with humans, though they stand a mere 2-3 feet tall.
They only count in fives, and are usually encountered in groups of five. This is due to a superstition that runs deep in their culture. They are highly enamored with the truth and seek it with every interaction. Lying to them once means never having them trust you again. Though they themselves often pay for services with gold that turns into manure or cockleshells the next day.
They fear iron and collect bronze wherever they can.
Fair Folk as characters:
• Small: As small creatures, Fair folk have the usual +1 bonuses on AC, etc. due to their diminutive size.
• Fair folk base land speed is 15 feet, but they can move this speed even through the deepest forests.
• 4 extra skill points at 1st level and 1 extra skill point at each additional level, all to be applied to nature-based skills.
• Automatic Languages: Fair folk and one other fey tongue.
• Favored Class: Rogue, wizard. They tend to be both at even levels.
• Favored alignment: Neutral
• Unique Languages: Though each fair folk society speaks a strong dialect of the base fair folk language, each of the dialects is mutually intelligible by other fair folk.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged farghoal, proppian, race or culture by Stephen Hilderbrand with no comments yet.
Book of Dreams
The stories in the book of dreams are centered around themes that resonate between the Prime Material Plane and the Dream Plane. Readers of a book of dreams travel into the Dream Plane as they sleep, appearing in whatever form is negotiated between the character’s will and the passage read. Readers remain on the Dream Plane for the duration of their sleep cycle. If awakened, readers are immediately whisked back to the plane on which the books are read.
Minor tomes allow passage to the Dream Plane for an hour, and Greater/Major tomes transport readers to the Dream Plane indefinitely. There are none too rare cases of adventurers having disappeared for long period of time, only to return to the Prime Material Plane acting like the creature form that represented them in the Dream Plane.
Price: 10,000gp. Books of dreams require Craft Wondrous Item, plane shift, and dimensional anchor to construct.
Posted in Magic Item and tagged tome by Stephen Hilderbrand with no comments yet.
Book of Escape
This book, when any passage is read from it, transports the reader to a location considered safe by the the reader. This can be anything to a decadent palace to a crib in her parents’ home. This depends on the reader and how well the player rolls when the book is read. Higher rolls mean more lavish accommodations, lower rolls more spartan ones. The effect is that of a word of recall spell. The book can be reread, though any passage already read loses its value for any given reader. A typical book of escape has 150 passages for each reader.
This tome led to the meaning of the term “book” meaning to run from a situation.
Price: 2,500gp. It requires the ability to Craft Wondrous Item and word of recall to create a book of escape.
Posted in Magic Item and tagged tome by Stephen Hilderbrand with no comments yet.
Helm of the Beast
Helm of the Beast – Level 13
Worn by the barbarians of the Kitel Wood, this helm’s sharpened jaws have left their mark on many a warrior.
Item slot: head 17,000 gold
Power – (Encounter): Minor action. Make a bite attack with Strength vs AC for 1d6 + strength damage.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged equipment: magic helm by Adam A. Thompson with 2 comments.
Otherworld Dog
Otherworld Dog
Size/Type: Medium Outsider (Chaotic, Extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 4d8+8 (26 hp)
Initiative: +6
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 17 (+2 Dex, +5 natural)
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+5
Attack: Bite +5 melee (1d8)
Full Attack: Bite +5 melee (1d8)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Trip attack
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., spell resistance 10, scent
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +4
Abilities: Str 11, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 6, Wis 10, Cha 6
Skills: Hide +15, Jump +11, Listen +10, Move Silently +14, Spot +8, Survival +7*
Feats: Improved Initiative, Run, TrackB
Environment: A chaotically-aligned plane
Organization: Solitary, pair, or pack (5-12)
Challenge Rating: 3
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always chaotic neutral
Advancement: 5-8 HD (Medium);
Level Adjustment: +3 (cohort)
A typical otherworld dog stands 4 feet high at the shoulder and weighs 100 pounds. Their coats are a mix of pastel and light-colored hues, ranging from blue to lavender to tan across their coats.
Otherworld dogs do not speak, but they do communicate with each other through a series of howls, barks and whimpers.
Otherworld dogs have never been domesticated, tough some have tried. They have the ability to plane shift a will, complicating the process of trying to keep them in one place for very long.
Combat
Otherworld dogs are efficient hunters. A favorite pack tactic is to surround prey quietly, then attack with all the hounds, tripping prey with their trip attacks. They do not give their prey a chance to escape.
An outerworld dog’s natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as chaotically-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Trip Attack(): An otherworld dog has a trip attack resembling that of a wolf.
Skills
Otherworld dogs have a +5 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks.
*They also receive a +8 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent, due to their keen sense of smell.
Posted in Creature and tagged chaotic, dog, extraplanar, outsider by Stephen Hilderbrand with no comments yet.
Tome of Ensnarement
If read, this tome traps the reader, not allowing them to stop reading until the entire book is complete. This takes varying amounts of time, depending on the intelligence of the reader and the length of the book. The effect requires a DC 35 Will save to avoid.
Minor tomes number a hundred or so pages and are DC 20, and Greater/Major tomes number in the thousands and are DC 30 to avoid. Many an adventurer has met their demise by these tomes, which is why the major ones tend to be found with a desiccated corpse close at skeletal hand.
Price: 20,000gp. Tomes of ensnarement require Craft Wondrous Item, hold monster and dimensional anchor to construct.
Posted in Magic Item and tagged tome by Stephen Hilderbrand with no comments yet.
Daren Riverboat
These small, flat-bottomed boats ply the waters of the River Daren. This design has been used for generations to move goods and people from Lake Abernath and the Middle Kingdoms all the way to the Soral Sea. They are propelled by small square sails, or poled or rowed along. They can navigate calm sea waters, but in stormy weather are easily overwhelmed, and so tend to sail close to shore when leaving the rivers.
Daren Riverboat
Gargantuan vehicle
HP 150 Space 4 squares by 9 squares Cost 2,5000 gp
AC 3; Fortitude 20, Reflex 2
Speed swim 5
Pilot
The pilot may stand or sit at the stern of the Daren Riverboat and operate the rudder.
Crew
In addition to the pilot, a Daren Riverboat requires a crew of three, all of whom use a standard action each round to control the ship.
Reduce the ship’s speed by 2 squares for each missing crew member. At swim speed 0, the ship sails out of control.
Load
Twenty Medium creatures; one ton of cargo.
Out of Control
An out-of-control Daren Riverboat moves forward at half speed. At the
DM’s discretion, it can move in the same direction as a strong wind at up to full speed.
Sails
At the DM’s discretion, a Daren Riverboat can take a penalty or bonus to its speed of –4 to +4, depending on the strength and direction of the wind.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged equipment: vheicle by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Duergar Berzerker Armor
Level 8+
Made by the craftiest, deepest dwarves, this armor was often given as a gift to their “friends”, with the promise that wearing it would make them invincible in battle. The armor grants the wearer great strength and speed, but to do so it makes them insensible to pain. As a result, those who wear it often receive mortal wounds without knowing it and die of them.
Lvl 8 +1 3,400 gp
Lvl 13 +2 17,000 gp
Lvl 18 +3 85,000 gp
Lvl 23 +4 425,000 gp
Lvl 28 +5 2,125,000 gp
Armor: hide, chain, scale, plate
Enhancement: AC, Dexterity & Strength
Property: The player does not keep track of their own hit points while wearing the armor, instead the DM does. In addition, whenever the player wishes to use a healing surge, they must make a saving throw. Success indicates that they can, failure indicates that they instead attack the nearest enemy (via charge etc.)
Cursed: Removing the armor from a living creature requires a Remove Affliction ritual with a penalty to the Heal check equal to the armor’s level.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged equipment: magic armor (cursed) by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
New 4e material over at Tailslap!
So I’ve just published another article at Tailslap, our 4th edition sister publication. This post details Baldrik Ostov, a death knight in service to Orcus.
Another post on Tailslap details a new 4th edition artifact weapon: Ayrte Majak, the Sword of War.
Posted in 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons, news by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.