(another) SYSTEM AGNOSTIC MAGIC ITEMS POST
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Bow of the Tempest:
A ships' prow repurposed into a bow by a storm giant craftsman, the Bow of the Tempest's string has been created from the cured hamstring of a Roc, requiring immense strength to pull back, never mind use in battle.
The true purpose of the Bow of the Tempest is to instead allow wielders to 'wound' storms, squalls and other weather phenomena, allowing them to be hunted like living beings for sport or redirected in the path of an enemy fleet.
However, these phenomena have their own familys tructures and their own strange relations and intelligence and may very well seek revenge from the Bow's wielder, if they abuse their power.
The Archmage's Thumb:
The severed backup thumb of the legendary sorcerer-king Ostrog the Omnipotent, the Thumb retains part of its owner’s power and toxic personality. The Thumb will not deign to suffer the touch of a user that is not fully dedicated to the arcane arts and will often strike back at the unworthy, when its powers are called upon. If a wizard of satisfactory skill and renown takes the Thumb, it will still allow them to use its powers but will often turn against them, if they prove lacking in ambition or cruelty.
When calling upon the powers of the Thumb, a wizard can call down a gigantic digit which will attempt to crush its enemies. The Thumb can also be used to augment any sorcerous workings but it will often attempt to overextend the effects, just to show off (for example, summoning an archfiend instead of a run of a lesser demonic servitor). If a wizard begins to rely on the Thumb, then it will inevitably attempt to fuse with their flesh, rooting into their nervous system and imprinting its own half remembered version of Ostrog on the user, with catastrophic results.
12th Eye of the Beholder:
A preserved eye taken from the backside of a rare, mutated beholder, the 12th Eye grants its user preternatural powers of hindsight. After becoming attuned to a user, the Eye will always hover behind the user’s head and will instantly fill their mind with a flood of advice after a failure. While this does give an edge to the user on their next attempt toward a similar feat, the Eye never really stops. Instead, it will become a permanent backseat driver to every action the user performs, eventually driving them insane.
Beholders consider this item to be highly offensive and will go to great lengths to destroy both the user and the eye at all costs.
The Darkroot Rod:
The last remaining mote of the blighted World Tree, the Darkroot Rod must never be allowed to touch unconcecrated ground.
As soon as the Rod does so, it wil shoot roots that will drive themselves deeply into the earth, siphoning any groundwater sources. It will use this sustenance to explosively grow into a great and blighted tree, much like a baobab, that will bear fruit infested with deadly stinging insects, within the following days. It will use these fruit to harrass and drive away all that attempt to cut it down.
If left unchecked, the Darkroot will then begin to shed its seeds, choking out nearby vegetation with copies of itself. It will even take root in the sea, darining the oceans to power its growth. Only fire, natural magic or destroying the original tree can prevent this apocalyptic spread.
Destroying the original tree will result in another instance of the Darkroot Rod.
A drink tumbler fashioned from the skull of a cyclops seer, the Tumbler will transform any liquid poured into it, depending which socket the user decides to drink from.
Users that drink from its eye socket will get a mouthful of blood, which will fill them with blinding rage, making them immune to pain for a brief period of time.
Users that drink from the top of the skill will get a mouthful of thickened brain juice, granting them perfect clarity but making them susceptible to mind altering effects.
Users drinking from the nasal conch will taste mouthful of thinned out snot and will not require to breathe and survive in even the harshest environments for a short window of time.
Users drinking from the foramen magnum will taste the metallic taste of spinal fluid, increasing their reaction time and speed but making it impossible for them to perform any tasks that require any amount of concentration for the duration of the effect.
The last symbol of office of a lost bloodline of rulers from a long forgotten empire, Crown of the Ru’raht grants the wearer the ability to implant suggestions or attempt to command any person descended from the empire itself. Given that the empire has disappeared millennia ago, this makes the item’s effect largely unreliable or seemingly random.
The extent of the effects of the Crown depend on the person’s lineage to the Empire and the position that their ancestor held in its social order.
Serfs: Descendants of serfs can be commanded by the wearer of the crown and have a diminished ability to resist. The commands must have to with menial work or military service. In the event that a serf’s descendant dies, they can be commanded to rise as mindless undead.
Craftsmen: Descendants of craftsmen can be commanded to perform tasks related to their ancestor’s profession and have suggestions implanted to them, with a diminished ability to resist. They also have a smaller chance of being successfully raised as unded with limited intelligence.
Merchants: Descendants of merchants cannot be commanded, but can have suggestions implanted to them. In the presence of the crown, their powers of glibness and diplomatic capability are augmented. After death, merchant descendants have a small chance of being raised as ghosts or spectral undead.
Scribes: Descendants of scribes can be suggested and given the ability to temporarily implant suggestions to others via the written words. In the presence of the crown, scribes can also perfectly read any language but none that went extinct prior to the time of the Pu’raht. After death, descendant of scribes have a miniscule chance to rise as sorcerous undead that are bound to the crown’s wearer.
Soldiers: Descendants of soldiers can be commanded to fight for the crown wearer or suggested to be spurred to violence. In the presence of the crown, Soldier descendants become more adept at fighting. If soldier descendants die in battle, they immediately rise as powerful undead for a brief period of time before collapsing into dust.
Nobles and Priests: Descendants of the upper castes cannot be commanded but be implanted with suggestions relating to leadership of command. In the presence of the crown, they are more adept at commanding others can attempt to affect any member of the previous classes. In the event of their death, they rise as sentient undead bound to the crown and may attempt to destroy themselves or the wearer to gain their freedom.
Pu’raht: The Descenants of the Pu’raht are not affected by the crown and can command any of the affected individuals at will. In the presence of the crown, they can command the wearer to do anything (up to and including perishing on the spot). If a descendent of the ruler of Pu’raht dies while wearing the crown and their body is properly attended, they will rise as a powerful mummy within the next year.
Sword of Angst:
Appropriately enough, the sword of angst is made from a pitch black length of starmetal, its pommel fashioned in the shape of a gaunt, haunted face.
Victims wounded by the sword will experience a sense of dread that will only grow until it consumes the victim with pure despair. Magic can suppress this effect but the only way to dispel it is by acquiring the sword and wounding another.
Victims that die before having done so will almost always return as a form of undead or seek undeath before their demise.
The Khagrin's daughters:
Contained inside a small filigreed box with 8 places, only 6 of the Khagrin’s Daughters now remain, with two lost to time and obscurity. Each of the small figurines, hewn from semiprecious stones, can be activated upon being removed from the box and can perform a specific function.
Amethyst: A healer figurine, the Amethyst daughter can create unguents and balms, assist with minor healing magic or perform basic surgery if given an appropriately sized set of tools. It will not produce poisons or harm an injured individual it is attending to and will willingly cease its function if it witnesses or is forced to participate in any form of torture.
Malachite: A warrior figurine, the Malachite daughter is armed with a bow and greatsword and fights with magically augmented strength and speed, despite its tiny frame. The Malachite daughter will always fight valiantly and uphold a code of honor and will willingly cease its own function if ordered to backstab a retreating foe or finish off one that has surrendered.
Onyx: An artist figurine, the Onyx daughter carries a tiny ocarina and can play any appropriately sized instrument perfectly and can assess and adapt to any social situation, assisting its owner. The Onyx daughter’s music soothes any mental distress in any intelligent being and can even undo magical effects that attack one’s mind. It will willingly cease its function if it discovers it is being used in an underhanded or manipulative manner.
Turqoise: A mystic figurine, the Turqoise daughter is dressed in long, flowing robes and has the ability to read and comprehend any magical writing or assist in identifying any magical items on behalf of its wearer. It can also provide assistance in workings but will willingly cease its function if it discovers that the spell or the user intend to apply these working to cause innocents to suffer.
Lapis: A priest figurine, the Lapis daughter wears vestments of an unknown faith and is able to parse any religious ritual that it has witnessed at least once and assist it. It can also commune with the servants of the gods, appearing as a fellow immortal to them. It will cease function if the user attempts to consolidate with evil entities or work toward the service of a dark god.
Citrine: A sly figurine, the Citrine daughter is dressed in simple clothing and can be used to spy or sneak on a person, in the interest of gathering information. It can also help its owner to more proficiently hide in shadows but will cease its function if it discovers it is used for sabotage or toward an assassination.
Penned by member sof a cult to a forgotten god of Chaos, the Book of Turmoil is intended for long-term destabilization of an enemy, by destorying their knowledge base.
When placed in the presence of books, scrolls, or other items containign wirtten words, the contents of the book of Turmoil will spill out, annihilating the contents of those written words, twisting them into scribbles which readers interpret as anything that confirms their biases or worst possible fears. Appropriately powerful magic will reveal them as nonsense chicken scratches or whorls.
If allowed to continue its effect, the Book of Turmoil will continue its effect, destroying every written word in its immediate vicinity. Readers that have been exposed to its effects will also find that their spoken language also suffers a similar fate. It is theorized that the Book of Turmoil could have been behind the annihilation of other languages and if its effects should spread to any Common tongue, the results could be apocalyptic.
Destroying the Book of Tumoil and all affected books will stop its effect. However, A new Book of Turmoil will assemble itself from even the finest ashes of the affected books, a few weeks later.
A moving, animate vault, Vigilant Hoards are usually chest-sized constructs containing a hyper-dimensional space where a powerful being can store their valuables. Vigilant Hoards will usually attack unsuspecting thieves in an attempt to subdue them, attempt to ‘swallow’ intruders by trapping them in the stasis field inside them or disgorge a portion of their payload at high speed as an area attack.
Higher end Vigilant Hoards usually come with complimentary construct guards for additional muscle, planar jaunt capabilities and, in rare cases, the ability to self destruct, consuming their contents in the process, an option for the excessively petty connoisseur.
Fashioned as a heavy, jeweled ladened crown, the Torturous crown was created as a cursed gift to a past tyrant. Once worn, the crown locks onto the despot’s head, becoming increasingly heavier with every unjust decree the tyrant makes, until it becomes so heavy, it crushed the despot under its own weight.
While kind-hearted acts will release the load, the victim is usually too far gone and deserving of a torturous death to realize it.
A tiny creature with the capability to flit between dimensions, the Ethereal Scarab is a magical messenger, mostly used by accomplished arcanists. It can also act as a courier, as it has a limited ability to adjust its size.
However, the Scarab is cowardly by nature and cannot carry out complex commands. If threatened, it will drop its payload and if given a very complex command or asked to pass along a very elaborate message, there is a chance that it will fail to do either and instead wander off, only to return to its master, its mission botched.
The last unbroken fang of the first Wolf, Aelforth’s Long Fang has been fashioned into a spear, which causes those wounded by it to be infected by a lesser form of lycanthropy, in service to the bearer of the fang. The fang is capable of permanently killing lycanthropes and other shapeshifters without further magical assistance and allows its wielder to dominate wolves and, to a lesser extent, all breeds of dog.
The Fang however, is prized by the gods of the Hunt, who will harass its owner every other full moon, seeking possession of the item
The twin blades of twilight:
Shaped from the light of waning twin suns, the blades of twilight exist concurrently to each other, allowing their respective wielders to communicate even across realities as long as the swords are in their possession.
Owners of the blades can also trade places or exchange effects (beneficial or otherwise) on command but the blades cannot coexist in the same space.
In the event that either owner dies, this effect cannot be evoked until either blade finds a new wielder.
A magically powered sparring partner, the Wargod’s mannequin is proficient with every weapon and martial style that its owner uses or wishes to train in. While the mannequin cannot teach a technique directly, it can reproduce it on request.
Any damage done to a mannequin ‘heals’ in the same manner as a living being and any damage it inflicts is nonlethal. There is however, a 1 in 6 chance, if the mannequin becomes damage or if a bout drags on too long, that it will enter a ‘self-preservation’ mode and attempt to kills its attacker with any manner of weaponry before it powers down, after they are either killed or subdued.
Named such for their bleach white color, Bone Caltrops are actually a form of predatory plant species that reproduce by shedding rom their parent plant, drifting in the wind. They use their limited ability of locomotion to tumble in the middle of a road, where they wait for a hapless living being to step on them.
As soon as this happens, the Bone Caltrops sink into the unprotected skin of the bein and immediately shoot their roots into the ground, fastening them into place. The Bone Caltriop then shoots its seeds into the victim's bloodstream. This causes immense pain to the victim, which often draws nearby predators (supernatural or otherwise) that consume it.
This process infests the predators with the Bone Caltrop seedlings, which are then deposited elsewhere, allowing the cycle to begin again.
A disastrous form of tumbleweed summoned from a reality inhabited by colossal, predatory plant life, the Troubleweed rolls down its path, consuming anything it can find, attaching them to its mass. Larger instances of Troubleweed also contain larvae of pitch-black assassin wasp creatures, which grow in tandem with the host plant and will attack any that try to stop it. Used by particularly evil nature arcanists with no moral compass or care for collateral damage.
Once the Troubleweed reaches a ‘mature’ size, it will then explode violently in every direction, showering the nearby area with its sprouts, which will inevitably result in more instances of Troubleweed. This also releases the assassin wasps.
Lesser elemental beings with animal-like intelligence, Snarglaphites tend to nest and hunt in places of geomagical importance, in service to local nature wizards or lesser forest deities.
Snarglaphite pups can be chipped away from a female adult and trained to operate as sorcerous familiars or elemental animal companions. Their natural ability to move through rock unimpeded, coupled with their powerful melding attack (which lets them fuse into the unprotected flesh of their target) makes them excellent for taking down quarry.
However, Snarglaphites are not very intelligent and will take almost all commands literally. Furthermore, Snarglaphites that grow too large will bury themselves in place and rfuse to move, until the time of their shedding, requiring their owner to retrain a pup from the ground up.
Ring of Directed Fortitude:
Used by devious nobles in proxy duels, Rings of Directed Fortitude imbue the creature they are pointed at with augmented endurance and prowess in battle but only as long direct line of sight with the ring is maintained. If broken, the effects are rescinded, often with very unfortunate results. Nobles found to be using such rings are often punished severely for their trickery.
Vestments of the far seer:
Sewn from the cured hide of an alien creature, the interior of the Vestments of the Far Seer is covered in tiny, sucking mouths which attach themselves to the flesh of the wearer. These mouths then hum strange hymns into the body of the wearer, their vibrations translating into strange visions.
At the dawn of each day, the wearer must roll a 6 sided die, after specifying a number. On an even result, the Vestments fill the wearer's mind with visions of pure bliss, brought forth by the Outer Presences communing through the Vestments, which grant him resistances to mind-altering effects (both beneficial and harmful) and the ability to speak in tongues with any sentient creature and instantly perceive the nature of any magical item after a few hours of uninterrupted inspection.
On an odd result, the wearer's presence becomes known to the Adiphagoi, world-devouring intelligences, which home in to their position at a geological pace. This grants the wearer the ability to devour and digest anything (whether vegetable, animal or mineral though magical items may prove chewier than most), exposes anyone reading their mind to the horrific presence of the Adiphagoi and grants them the ability to command lesser abominations (abominations are entitled to resist this effect).
If the wearer rolls their exact specified number, then they are brought before the Council of Worlds, a congress made up of unknowably powerful alien entities and are granted audience with them for exactly sixteen seconds. The Council of Worlds can respond to any questions posed to them (they are knowledgable but not all-knowing), grant any reasonable request (but will never provide overwhelming power to the supplicant) or perform a single deed (applicable once and within reason; wearers that attempt to abuse this are instantly turned down). Wearers that waste the Council's time or fail to adress it with the proper form of respect or attempt to disrupt its function may find themselves turned inside out, their own skins converted to a set of Vestments which will then be deposited to another reality, to be used by a more respectful wearer.
Pocket Azoth:
The seedling of a pocket plane, an Azoth can cause a miniature world, roughly the size of a small town, to begin expanding inside any space without matter. If given enough magical sustenance and room to grow, this pocket plane could grow to the size of a world, after a few millennia.
If a pocket Azoth is released inside an existing plane, it instead causes an absence, as a result of its expansion, annihilating anything in its path. This does not kill any organic life, but it can disrupt the barrier between dimensions, causing unwanted visitors or phenomena to break in with disastrous results.
Used by underhanded magistrates to place blame on wrongly accused victims, Mirrors of Blame generate a magically twisted reflection of their victim, which reinforces their guilt of a crime they have been accused of. This can be undone by powerful magic, but destroying the Mirror of blame is not recommended, as its individual shards can have the same, if diminished effect toward anyone exposed.
A ring once world by an otherworldly cast away, the ring makes its wearer immediately appear as unfamiliar and alien to any that look upon them. While this helps them interact with any alien technology or beings hostile to life, it will make it impossible for them to interact with anyone in their home world, if worn for too long.
If the ring’s wielder dies while wearing the ring, then their soul is consigned to the alien afterlife of the original wearer and will have to find their way back home or linger in the strange mercurial metropolises of the Grey ones for eternity.
The Ominous mostly just stands there, causing users that look at it a sense of foreboding. prolonged exposure to the node increases a feeling of paranoia and may cause sensitive or magically attuned individuals to exhibit strange effects during their workings. The effect is nullified by simply moving the node to another location.
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