Two magic items for 5e

Cool magical items can make the best D&D campaign that much sweeter. Here is a few i dreamed up but have not been able to use yet.

The twin-circles of Sunlight and Moonlight

Illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle,
by Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514)

A pair of metal circles about 21cm (8 inches) in diameter forged from star metal. One is golden and the other is silvery in color.

They work like this: If a magical item, like a wand or a magical dagger, is passed through the moonlight circle it removes the magical abilities from the item, leaving it a mundane shell. Passing the magical item through the sunlight circle restores the magical abilities.

For purposes of magic detection the sunlight circle appears magical until a magic item is stripped of its magic by the moonlight circle. At that point the moonlight can be detected as magical while the sunlight circle can not.

The twin-circles can only be used on items that physically be moved through the circles. The moonlight circle can not be used as long as the sunlight circle "holds" the magical abilities of an item. Magical abilities can only be restored to their original item. Pulling another object through the sunlight circle should have dangerous and spectacular effects (details are left to DM discretion).

Thanks to the guys at the Appendix N podcast for mentioning similar items in their eight episode covering The King of Elflands daughter by Lord Dunsany. And also thanks to Lord Dunsany for the original idea and for being one of the finest fantasists in history.

The Voice Gem

A gemstone of indeterminable kind, deep lilac in color with a slight pulsating light inside.

The gem contains the brain of a demon who has the ability to vocalize through vibrations in stone. The demon feels defenseless and lost. Once every day there is a 1-20 chance of it screaming and howling uncontrollably in utter fear.

If contacted through telepathy it will normally vocalize the words spoken into its mind. However, the demon can still feel good and evil qualities of thought and treachery is second nature to it.

Originally posted by me at google+

Preparing X1 - The Isle of Dread

Cabin view including ski tracks.

This time of year for over fifteen years, I have retreated to mountain cabin in central Norway for four to five days of intense gaming.

Our yearly winter trip has become a fond tradition for me and my friends that now live scattered across Norway. Still we get together, almost all of us, every year.

We have run many different games over the years, but Warhammer FRP (1st and 2nd edition) have featured prominently with the occasional round of D&D, Kult (Swedish horror game) and EarthDawn.

This year we are going to do something that I have been looking forward to for a long time. Running one of my favorite modules: X1 The Isle of Dread by Tom Moldway and David Cook. I do not think I need to tell people why X1 is great, this great person has done so and this great person as well.

With my personal nostalgia out of the way, I will turn to how I have been preparing to run it.

I am using the module with D&D 5e, so there is something new as well as something traditional. I am also leaning on the play test version of the module as well as the original version (and even a Norwegian translation of the module from the Norwegian edition of the Mentzer Basic D&D Expert-rules, aka “Blåboka” in Norwegian).

So how to prepare the sandbox?

Isle of Dread module-cover (1983 cover)

Well, the first thing to realize with a hexcrawl-type sandbox is that it is only a framework and that, as a DM, you have to create the details of, and connections between, the seeds that the sandbox gives you.

I have read somewhere (but I cannot remember the source) that a sandbox is about emergent stories.
Not the stories you, as a DM might want to tell, but the stories that you as players (the DM also being a player) find as you explore.

Sowing adventure seeds

Consequently, I have spent my prep time taking the seeds that are already in the module and trying to fill them with good stuff.

The first thing I did was hack the encounter tables. There are significant variations between the play test encounter tables and the original ones. I wanted to stay close to the original ones but I had to remove a few monsters because I did not have the time to convert them. Weighing the different results of an encounter table is also a fun exercise and it lets me prefer some encounters to others without implementing the quantum ogre.

The second thing I did was create rival NPC adventuring parties. This is not in the play test version, but the rival adventuring parties suggested in the original module are nice and I love making NPC parties. Now I have an evil band of adventurers looking for a temple, a neutral band of treasure hunters and a good pair of adventurers looking for a powerful fey.

The third was creating a web of relationships between the village chieftains, their witch doctors and war chiefs. I made a few choices and clarifications about how the villages and clans of the module interact. Adding some political intrigue to this module is exiting because the structure of clans in the villages opens up another level of complexity.

The last point was writing a paragraph of additional detail about the major encounters on the island. Detailing the current plans and some personality traits of the leaders of the isle have really made the island come alive.

Improvisation

Another reflection after preparing this module is that the loose structure is very useful for providing the DM with a room for improvisation without having to resort to railroading the players. In other words, the undefined parts of the module are actually the most exiting parts because it is where the players have room to unfold their ideas and plans (or schemes…)

I have made sure there is still enough room for those on the Isle of Dread.