This bestiary is for storytellers and world-builders. If you have ever thought about running a Dungeons & Dragons game for your friends, either a single night’s adventure or a long-running campaign, this tome contains page after page of inspiration. It’s your one-stop shop for creatures both malevolent and benign.
Some of the creatures that inhabit the worlds of D&D have origins rooted in real-world mythology and fantasy literature. Other creatures are D&D originals. The monsters in this book have been culled from all previous editions of the game. Herein you’ll discover classic critters such as the beholder and the displacer beast next to more recent creations such as the chuul and the twig blight. Common beasts mingle with the weird, the terrifying, and the ridiculous. In collecting monsters from the past, we’ve endeavored to reflect the multifaceted nature of the game, warts and all. D&D monsters come in all shapes and sizes, with stories that not only thrill us but also make us smile
Keen. This feline has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing sight.
Enhanced Agility: The hairless riding cat has exceptional agility and dexterity, allowing it to navigate treacherous terrains, leap over obstacles effortlessly, and execute swift turns with precision. This mount can ignore all difficult terrain.
Speed of the Wind: Once mounted, the cat can run at incredible speeds, rivaling the wind itself. It swiftly traverses long distances, making it an ideal mode of transportation for adventurers seeking quick travel or escape. While activated it has a movement of 40 feet.
Astral Bond: The hairless riding cat shares a deep connection with its owner. It possesses an innate sense of the rider’s emotions and can offer comfort and companionship during long journeys. This bond also grants the rider a heightened sense of perception while mounted. Rider gains Advantage on Perception rolls while mounted.
Actions
Bite: Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4 piercing damage.
Claws: Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d6+4 slashing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Description
Furlion’s Shifting Whiskers is a cherished and sought-after magic item, as it combines the allure of a fashionable accessory with the convenience and speed of a reliable, hairless riding companion. It has become a symbol of adventure and freedom, captivating the hearts of those who yearn for both magical companionship and swift transportation in the world of fantasy.
These are best used as mounts for small sized creatures.
Mobile Consciousness
Challenge:
1 (200xp)
Type:
Tiny Unknown
Initiative:
+3
AC:
14
HP:
7 (3d4)
Speed:
40 ft
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
1
17
10
16
16
8
-5
+3
+0
+3
+3
-1
Saving Throws
INT+5, WIS+5
Skills
Arcana +5, History +5, Stealth +5
Damage Vulnerability
Psychic
Damage Resistance
All damage but Force, Radiant, and Psychic
Damage Immunities
Poison
Condition Immunities
Poisoned
Senses:
Darkvision 60 ft, Passive Perception 15
Languages:
Common, Primordial, Telepathy 30’ to any creature
Proficiency Bonus:
+2
Special Abilities
Movement: The Mobile Consciousness is only able to fly. It can “swim” at the same speed as it’s flying. It does not need to eat or breath.
Magic Resistance. The Mobile Consciousness has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects due to them being partially immaterial. While not able to pass through objects, they are also not quite solid.
Spellcasting. The Mobile Consciousness is a 3rd-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 13, +5 to hit with spell attacks). The Mobile Consciousness has the following wizard spells prepared:
Cantrips (at will): Mage Hand, Mind Sliver
1st level (2 slots): Dissonant Whispers
2nd level (1 slots): Mind Spike
Familiar. The Mobile Consciousness can enter a contract to serve another creature as a familiar, forming a telepathic bond with its willing master. While the two are bonded, the master can sense what the Mobile Consciousness senses if they are within 1 mile of each other. While the Mobile Consciousness is within 10 feet of its master, the master shares the Mobile Consciousness’s Magic Resistance trait.
The Mobile Consciousness can whisper to the caster’s mind even when it has not been summoned. If left unsummoned for more than a week, the Mobile Consciousness will start to pester the caster until it has been summoned. While it pesters the caster, the caster will be at a disadvantage on all spell casting.
The Caster is unable to ever remove or gain a replacement familiar after the Mobile Consciousness has been chosen. If it is caused to be removed from the Prime Material Plane for any reason, and the caster does not cast another Find Familiar to summon it back, the caster will start to suffer under a disadvantage on all spell casting after a week of the Mobile Consciousness having gone away until it has been re-summoned.
Actions
Invisibility. The Mobile Consciousness may at will turn magically invisible until it attacks, or it willingly ends the invisibility.
Mind Sliver Ranged Magic Attack (60’): +5 to hit, one target. Hit 1d6 (special)
Description
The Mobile Consciousness will resemble a ball of light most of the time, but for limited times each day it may also assume the shape of an older looking person. That person can be of any humanoid race and gender but will always be the exact same shape for each individual Mobile Consciousness. Each one will only have one unique spirit form.
All forms of the Mobile Consciousness are semi-independent. While they will listen to the commands of the caster, it is able to argue, discuss those options as well, and more literally interpret those commands to a result that may not be what the caster intended. It will never attempt to cause the caster direct harm, but it is perfectly willing to play pranks on the caster and their companions.
Note that the casting if Find Familiar for the Mobile Consciousness is different than the normal casting. The casting itself will be a form of meditation for the casting time, and the ingredients will be the casters blood itself. The caster takes 1d4 of damage as well as one level of exhaustion.
Characters are defined by much more than their race and class. They’re individuals with their own stories, interests, connections, and capabilities beyond those that class and race define. This chapter expounds on the details that distinguish characters from one another, including the basics of name and physical description, the rules of backgrounds and languages, and the finer points of personality and alignment.
Character Details
What is contained within the Player’s Handbook related to names, gender, height, and weight are sufficient to cover most situations for newly developed characters. There is not any reason to expand upon those.
Alignment
This detail for each character can be viewed as more of a guideline of expected behavior but will not be strictly enforced unless there is some class requirement for a specific expected behavior.
Languages
There are not any changes to the base language sets. It is expected that all the characters will minimally speak common unless there is a specific background or story about not being able to speak common. It is also assumed that all characters are literate, again unless there is a story reason to change that.
Personality Characteristics
The Player’s Handbook offers many different suggestions on a character should consider for different traits, both good and bad. There are also the more specific ones offered under each of the Backgrounds. Again, these are all considered guidelines and only to be used if the player feels they need that assistance to understand their character and their background better.
Inspiration
Inspiration is a rule the Dungeon Master can use to reward you for playing your character in a way that’s true to his or her personality traits, ideal, bond, and flaw. By using inspiration, you can draw on your personality trait of compassion for the downtrodden to give you an edge in negotiating with the Beggar Prince. Or inspiration can let you call on your bond to the defense of your home village to push past the effect of a spell that has been laid on you.
Gaining Inspiration
Your DM can choose to give you inspiration for a variety of reasons. Typicality, DMs award it when you play out your personality traits, give in to the drawbacks presented by a flaw or bond, and otherwise portray your character in a compelling way. Your DM will tell you how you can earn inspiration in the game.
It is also frequently rewarded for some brave action, superb role-playing, or the completion of a difficult objective.
You either have inspiration or you don’t-you can’t stockpile multi pie “inspirations” for later use.
Awarding Inspiration
Think of inspiration as a spice that can be used to enhance the campaign.
Roleplaying. Using inspiration to reward roleplaying is a good place to start for most groups. Rewarding a player with inspiration when that player causes his or her character to do something that is consistent with the character’s personality trait, flaw, or bond. The character’s action should be notable in some way. It might drive the story forward, push the adventurers into danger, or make everyone at the table laugh. In essence, you reward the player for roleplaying in a way that makes the game more enjoyable for everyone else.
Consider each player’s roleplaying style and try not to favor one style over another.
For example:
Allison might be comfortable speaking in an accent and adopting her character’s mannerisms, but Paul feels self-conscious when trying to act and prefers to describe his character’s attitude and actions. Neither style is better than the other. Inspiration encourages players to take part and make a good effort, and awarding it fairly makes the game better for everyone.
Heroism. inspiration can be used encourage player characters to take risks. A fighter might not normally hurl himself over a balcony to land during a pack of hungry ghouls, but they could be rewarded for the character’s daring maneuver with inspiration.
Genre Emulation. Inspiration is a handy tool for reinforcing the conventions of a particular genre. Under this approach, think of the motifs of a genre as personality traits, flaws, and bonds that can apply to any of the adventurers.
For example:
In a campaign inspired by film noir, characters could have an additional flaw: “I can’t resist helping a person I find alluring despite warnings that he or she is nothing but trouble.” If the characters agree to help a suspicious but seductive noble and thereby become entangled in a web of intrigue and betrayal, reward them with inspiration.
Similarly, characters in a horror story typically can’t help but spend a night in a haunted house to learn its secrets. They probably also go off alone when they shouldn’t. If the party splits up, consider giving each character inspiration.
A sensible person would avoid the noble’s intrigues and the haunted house, but in film noir or horror, we’re not dealing with sensible people; we’re dealing with protagonists in a particular type of story. For this approach to work, create a list of your genre’s main conventions and share it with your players. Before the campaign begins, talk about the list to make sure your group is on board for embracing those conventions.
Using Inspiration
If you have inspiration, you can expend it when you make an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check. Spending your inspiration gives you advantage on that roll.
Additionality, if you have inspiration, you can reward another player for good roleplaying, clever thinking, or simply doing something exciting in the game. When another player character does something that really contributes to the story in a fun and interesting way, you can give up your inspiration character inspiration.
Reset of Inspiration
All inspiration that is gained during a session, if not used, expires at the end of that session such that all the characters will start with no inspiration at the next session and must earn it again.
Homebrew Proficiencies
When new tools or kits are added to the game this also will need to be reflected in the affected proficiencies as well as where that proficiency might be acquired.
Harvesting Kit
This guide adds in the new tool: the harvesting kit. Players may have proficiency in this like any other tool, and it is highly advised for them to have it as it provides a valuable bonus when making the checks outlined in this book. To accommodate this additional tool, the following classes and backgrounds have been slightly altered to give them the option to gain proficiency in the Harvesting Kit.
Rangers may have proficiency with the harvesting kit upon character creation (this skill is not gained in multiclassing)
Druids may have the option to choose between proficiency in the herbalism kit or the harvesting kit upon character creation (this skill is not gained in multiclassing)
The Hermit background may choose between the herbalism kit and the harvesting kit as its starting tool proficiency and gains the appropriate kit as part of its starting equipment.
The Outlander background may choose between a musical instrument or the harvesting kit as its initial tool proficiency. They may also choose between a hunting trap, and the harvesting kit in its initial starting equipment.
Backgrounds
Every story has a beginning. Your character’s background reveals where you came from, how you became an adventurer, and your place in the world. Your tighter might have been a courageous knight or a grizzled soldier. Your wizard could have been a sage or an artisan. Your rogue might have gotten by as a guild thief or commanded audiences as a jester.
Choosing a background provides you with important story cues about your character’s identity. The most important question to ask about your background is what changed? Why did you stop doing whatever your background describes and start adventuring? Where did you get the money to purchase your starting gear, or, if you come from a wealthy background, why don’t you have more money? How did you learn the skills of your class? What sets you apart from ordinary people who share your background?
Expectations
Background serves not only to help give your character life, but it also provides the DM hooks to apply to the Campaign to give your character more than just a two-dimensional feel to it. You can include a happy childhood, horror, or anything in between that feels that it helps create the personality and history for you character.
Obviously, you cannot create an unbalanced background such that it would not fit into the Campaign. All backgrounds must be approved and most likely will be modified buy the DM to help it fit into the story everyone is about to participate in.
All backgrounds will need to be able to answers several fundamental questions:
Why are you adventuring? What is motivating you to live this dangerous lifestyle?
Do you have any other motivations?
Where did you come from? Where did you live? What was your life there?
Do you have any family alive? Where are they?
Do you have any important friends or contacts that would be useful to your new life?
Why would you be joining a group of strangers to do anything? Why would you trust them? Would you trust them? At some point you will need to integrate with the group and if you create an onerous personality and background that will prevent that, it will be difficult for your character to participate with the group.
Homebrew Backgrounds
While the multitude of reference, modules, and other books include many different backgrounds that are available to the players, sometimes there is the need for something more than just the standard ones. Here are the available homebrew backgrounds for this Campaign.
The following Homebrew backgrounds are available to the characters if their background would warrant the use of one of them.
Some master of both magic and machinery assembled you with a mixture of arcane prowess and tinkering proficiency. Your creator may be a mad mage who meant to use you for nefarious ends, a wise sage creating a steadfast soldier, or a lonely soul seeking friendship or family through unusual avenues. Perhaps you don’t even know for sure, having awakened decades or centuries after you were initially built. Gradually, you are discovering your innate abilities, your arcane code compiling and iterating. Perhaps you are discovering arcane gifts that your master shared with you or learning newer and better ways to pulverize your enemies with your unbreakable fists. The world is strange and new, and you will absorb as much of it as is mechanically possible.
Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from the following: Arcana, Investigation, Medicine, Perception, Performance, Stealth.
Languages: Choose two
Equipment: A broken sword, a set of common clothes, and a belt pouch containing 10gp.
Feature: Quick Study
You were designed to adapt and grow, iterating on your experiences and developing a wider skill set as a result. Your arcane code rewards you for seeking out new encounters, particularly if you can challenge yourself to reproduce them. If you spend an extended period observing an expert at their craft, you gain advantage on your next attempt to mimic that skill.
For example:
If you spend an extended period observing a pickpocket plying their trade, you may gain advantage on your next sleight of hand check. You may only use this feature once per day, and the period of observation time required will be determined by your Dungeon Master.
Suggested Characteristics
Your praerogativa arcana determines how you prioritize your actions, interactions, and reactions to the world around you. Your attitudes may be determined by your master, or you may be developing new models of behavior as a rebellion against your creator.
Personality Trait Table
d6
Personality Trait
1
Retribution: I do not tolerate threats to my person and do not process nuance when it comes to myself preservation.
2
Iteration: My sarcasm module is in constant need of exercise and improvement.
3
Deception: I can’t be bothered to explain the truth, so I often pretend to be a human in a very complicated suit of armor.
4
Fascination: People are endlessly complicated, conflicted, and confusing. I can’t get enough of them!
5
Exploration: I love to wander around new areas, taking in all the sights and sounds.
6
Remediation: When there is a misunderstanding or falsehood, I am compelled to clarify. This program has occasionally been exploited by trolls (literal and metaphorical).
Ideal Table
d6
Ideal
1
Priority: Curiosity. I must observe the world around me and gather all available data. (Any)
2
Priority: Replication. My code can only improve through the process of trial and error. It is my only means of achieving “growth.” (Neutral)
3
Priority: Adapt. The world is constantly shifting and changing, and I must be able to do the same. (Chaotic)
4
Directive: Protect life. I was built to preserve the lives of sentient beings and protect the innocent. (Good)
5
Directive: Consume. I will grow in power and complexity with each battle, and the battles will never end. (Evil)
6
Directive: Obey. I must follow my code and the laws to which I am bound. I am a bringer of order. (Lawful)
Bond Table
d6
Bond
1
My creator’s genius has no equal; I must protect them, no matter the cost.
2
I have discovered that there are others of my kind. I must seek them out and protect (or destroy) them.
3
There are strict, specific laws governing my interactions with living creatures; I am incapable of breaking them.
4
I’ve made a tiny found family for myself – people that accept me despite my oddities. I would do anything to protect them.
5
Someone has discovered a means of manipulating the arcane spells that animate me. I must obey this interloper until I can find a way to free myself.
6
The secret to my creation is ancient, dangerous, and better off forgotten. Fortunately, I already don’t want people to tear me apart and see what makes me tick.
Flaw Table
d6
Flaw
1
There is a loneliness inside me that I cannot explain and don’t fully comprehend. Sometimes it drives me to behave in erratic ways.
2
I am either disgusted or envious of my companions’ need to eat, sleep, and breathe. I sometimes goad them into overeating, intoxication, or other dangerous behavior just to see what happens.
3
I don’t yet understand social interactions well. I try to avoid speaking for as long as I can; when I finally do speak, it’s often exactly the wrong thing.
4
There are certain specific situations in which I am programmed to respond with violence. It is extremely difficult for me to overcome these directives.
5
I’m compelled to prove my superiority whenever a biological creature challenges me.
6
I don’t understand how imposing my presence is. I intimidate when I mean to comfort or console.
Far East Traveler
Almost all the common people and other folk that one might encounter along the Sword Coast or in the North have one thing in common: they live out their lives without ever traveling more than a few miles from where they were born.
You aren’t one of those folks.
You are from a distant place, one so remote that few of the common folk in the North realize that it exists, and chances are good that even if some people you meet have heard of your homeland, they know merely the name and perhaps a few outrageous stories. You have come to this part of Faerûn for your own reasons, which you might or might not choose to share.
Although you will undoubtedly find some of this land’s ways to be strange and discomfiting, you can also be sure that some things its people take for granted will be to you the new wonders that you’ve never laid eyes on before. By the same token, you’re a person of interest, for good or ill, to those around you almost anywhere you go.
Skill Proficiencies: Intimidation, Stealth, and Athletics or History
Tool Proficiencies: Gain tool proficiency in Alchemist and Herbalist
Languages: Each Far Eastern Traveler gains a non-standard foreign language that will have to be added manually.
Equipment: One set of traveler’s clothes, Herbalism Kit and an Alchemist’s Supplies, poorly wrought maps from your homeland that depict where you are in Faerûn, a small piece of jewelry worth 10gp in the style of your homeland’s craftsmanship, and a pouch containing 5gp
Why Are You Here?
A far traveler might have set out on a journey for one of several reasons, and the departure from his or her homeland could have been voluntary or involuntary. To determine why you are so far from home, roll on the table below or choose from the options provided. The following section, discussing possible homelands, includes some suggested reasons that are appropriate for each location.
Why Are You Here Table
d6
Why Are You Here?
1
Emissary
2
Exile
3
Fugitive
4
Pilgrim
5
Sightseer
6
Wanderer
Feature: All Eyes on You
Your accent, mannerisms, figures of speech, and perhaps even your appearance all mark you as foreign. Curious glances are directed your way wherever you go, which can be a nuisance, but you also gain the friendly interest of scholars and others intrigued by far-off lands, to say nothing of everyday folk who are eager to hear stories of your homeland.
You can parley this attention into access to people and places you might not otherwise have, for you and your traveling companions. Noble lords, scholars, and merchant princes, to name a few, might be interested in hearing about your distant homeland and people.
Suggested Characteristics
These are the suggested characteristics for Far Traveler.
Personality Trait Table
d6
Personality Trait
1
I have different assumptions from those around me concerning personal space, blithely invading others’ space in innocence, or reacting to ignorant invasion of my own.
2
I have my own ideas about what is and is not food, and I find the eating habits of those around me fascinating, confusing, or revolting.
3
I have a strong code of honor or sense of propriety that others don’t comprehend.
4
I express affection or contempt in ways that are unfamiliar to others.
5
I begin or end my day with small traditional rituals that are unfamiliar to those around me.
6
Sarcasm and insults are my weapons of choice.
Ideal Table
d6
Ideal
1
Open. I have much to learn from the kindly folk I meet along my way. (Good)
2
Reserved. As someone new to these strange lands, I am cautious and respectful in my dealings. (Lawful)
3
Adventure. I’m far from home, and everything is strange and wonderful! (Chaotic)
4
Cunning. Though I may not know their ways, neither do they know mine, which can be to my advantage. (Evil)
5
Inquisitive. Everything is new, but I have a thirst to learn. (Neutral)
6
Suspicious. I must be careful, for I have no way of telling friend from foe here. (Any)
Bond Table
d6
Bond
1
So long as I have this token from my homeland, I can face any adversity in this strange land.
2
The gods of my people are a comfort to me so far from home.
3
I hold no greater cause than my service to my people.
4
My freedom is my most precious possession. I’ll never let anyone take it from me again.
5
I’m fascinated by the beauty and wonder of this new land.
6
Though I had no choice, I lament having to leave my loved one(s) behind. I hope to see them again one day.
Flaw Table
d6
Flaw
1
I am secretly (or not so secretly) convinced of the superiority of my own culture over that of this foreign land.
2
I pretend not to understand the local language to avoid interactions I would rather not have.
3
I have a weakness for the new intoxicants and other pleasures of this land.
4
I don’t take kindly to some of the actions and motivations of the people of this land, because these folk are different from me.
5
I consider the adherents of other gods to be deluded innocents at best, or ignorant fools at worst.
6
I have a weakness for the exotic beauty of the people of these lands.
Farmhand
Prior to becoming an adventurer, you were a farmer, gardener, or orchard-keeper of some kind. You made your pay by tending to fruits and vegetables to produce food for your family and to sell at local markets. While most farmers grow common, edible crops, such as wheat and corn, others can grow rare fruits and magical flowers, depending on the climate and their expertise.
Many farmers live comfortably or in poor conditions, making you used to conditions that would make a nobleman turn up his nose. Caring for animals and digging in dirt is a messy and often thankless job, but it does have to be done by someone.
Farming tends to be a tradition within families, carried on for generations without much thought. Perhaps you were bored of a life of farming, or a disaster of some sort spurred you on to a life of adventure.
Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from among Animal Handling, Athletics, Medicine, or Nature.
Tool Proficiencies: Choose one from among Brewers’
Supplies, Cook’s Utensils, Leatherworker’s Tools, Weaver’s Tools, or Woodcarver’s Tools. You also have proficiency with Vehicles (Land).
Equipment: A set of common clothes, a walking stick, and a belt pouch containing 10gp.
Feature: Rustic Hospitality
Since you come from the ranks of the common folk, you fit in among them with ease. You can find a place to hide, rest, or recuperate among other commoners, unless you have shown yourself to be a danger to them.
Suggested Characteristics
These are the suggested characteristics for Far Traveler.
Personality Trait Table
d8
Personality Trait
1
I am unmoved by the wrath of nature.
2
My family is my bedrock, we will survive
3
I need long stretches of quiet to clear my head.
4
Rich folk don’t know the satisfaction of hard work.
5
I laugh heartily, feel deeply, and fear nothing.
6
I work hard; nature offers no handouts.
7
I dislike bargaining; state your price and mean it.
8
Luck is for losers; I make my own fortune for success
Ideal Table
d6
Ideal
1
Camaraderie. Good people make even time pass more easily when working long days (Good)
2
Luck. With proper planning and the right weather, you can make your own luck (Lawful)
3
Daring. That crop might be the money maker this year. (Chaotic)
4
Plunder. Take all that you can and leave nothing for the scavengers. (Evil)
5
Balance. Pay attention to the needs of your field, and the field will watch over you. (Neutral)
6
Hard Work. No setback can move a soul hard at work. (Any)
Bond Table
d6
Bond
1
The dirt is in my blood and always will be.
2
Someone else’s greed destroyed my livelihood, and I will be compensated.
3
I will grow the most fantastic of plants.
4
The gods saved me during a terrible season, and I will honor their gift.
5
My destiny awaits me in the wilderness finding that plant that will make me feel the earth again.
6
I must repay my village’s debt.
Flaw Table
d6
Flaw
1
I am judgmental, especially of those I deem homebodies or otherwise lazy.
2
I become depressed and anxious if I’m away from the land too long.
3
I have lived a hard life and find it difficult to empathize with others.
4
I am inclined to tell long-winded stories at inopportune times.
5
I work hard, but I play harder.
6
I am obsessed with finding that one fantastic plant, often to the detriment of other pursuits.
Harvester
Like a miner in their cave or a farmer in their field, you too make your living through reaping the riches of the natural world. Your resources, however, are the monsters and creatures that populate the multiverse. Although there are some who would scoff and call you a mere butcher, you understand the subtle complexities in the fantastical anatomies you find in your adventures, and only you are qualified enough to harvest them.
Skill Proficiencies: Nature, Survival
Tool Proficiencies: Harvesting Kit, Languages: One of your choice.
Equipment: A set of traveler’s clothes, a hunting trap, harvesting kit, a cloak made from a creature you harvested, and a belt pouch containing 5gp.
Feature: Connected
You have been harvesting creatures for a long time and as part of that, you have become deeply acquainted with the large industry of crafters and merchants that rely on the wares you bring. Whenever you enter a place of civilization, you have no trouble finding merchants willing to buy your materials or crafters that can work with your wares. You are also savvy in the bargaining techniques used when haggling over prices and are not easily tricked during negotiations. You often find yourself able to secure a good price, or even a discount on services relating to harvested materials.
Suggested Characteristics
Harvesters are an odd bunch, half outdoorsman, half entrepreneur. As someone who spends most of their time in the hunting and being elbow deep in dead bodies, you probably have a different worldview compared to most.
Personality Trait Table
D8
Personality Trait
1
I am often covered in blood and viscera, which other people find off-putting.
2
I see no moral issue about harvesting any once-living creature, even if they were clearly sentient. “Waste not, want not”, after all.
3
I often unnerve people with my discussions of the more disgusting aspects of creature anatomy.
4
I am obsessed with self-sufficiency; anything I wear must have come from something I harvested.
5
I say a small prayer before harvesting a fresh kill, thanking it for its sacrifice
6
The hunt is what excites me more than anything. Harvesting is just how I keep mementos of my prey
7
I insist on using every little bit of what I kill, it would be an insult to that creature’s life otherwise
8
I have a myriad of harvested trophies from rare game which I show off whenever possible
Ideal Table
d6
Ideal
1
Life. Harvested meat will feed the hungry, harvested furs will warm the cold. Through death, comes life. (Good)
2
Honor. I refuse to use something harvested from a creature that I did not kill with my own hands. (Lawful)
3
Necessity. Creatures kill and harvest other creatures to survive. You may not like it, but it’s just the way things are. (Neutral)
4
Opportunity. If something is already dead, what’s the point of letting its corpse go to waste? (Chaotic)
5
Dominance. Nothing shows off your strength like having your own Owlbear-head trophy. (Evil)
6
Money. People always want hides, pelts, and skins; I may as well be the one to profit off it. (Any)
Bond Table
d6
Bond
1
My clan won’t respect me unless I bring back the head of a rare and dangerous creature.
2
Ever since I was a child, I dreamed of wearing a unicorn fur cloak. If you have a better way of getting one, I’d like to hear it.
3
Hunting and harvesting creatures are the only way I know how to make money and feed my family.
4
Visions of a monstrously large creature haunt my dreams. They won’t stop until I find it and claim its pelt for my cloak.
5
I am interested in studying the anatomy of rare and magical creatures and I need samples to continue my research.
6
Harvesting creatures has been my family’s profession for generations; I’m just continuing this long line of tradition.
Flaw Table
d6
Flaw
1
Once I decide that a creature will become my next trophy, nothing will stop me from getting it.
2
Some would say I get a little too much pleasure in slicing corpses open and tearing out their fresh organs.
3
I’m always looking for the next big hunt, something that will probably get me killed.
4
I tend to exaggerate the quality of my harvested wares to inflate their price.
5
Once I kill something, I will drop everything to take a trophy from it before moving on.
6
I see other living creatures as just organs in a skin bag, waiting to be sold.
Continuing the exploration of the rat tunnels, both Fogo and ISAC realized that the situation they were in was not normal. Fogo waxed on about how rats are normally communal and live in smaller burrows whereas these tunnels represented a more intelligent construction, such as goblins. ISAC add in about how the behavior of the rats have been odd, more like they were all being controlled and not operating like they would normally.
The party had a somewhat long discussion on what might be waiting for them further in. Some sort of super rat? Some other type of creature? It was unknown and the guesses were wild.
There was also some additional investigation on the dead body. It was an odd addition to the land fill above them. With Avery checking more closely about the features of the body, they discovered that the man had been somewhat well built, and calluses on his hands resembling a long life of holding pole like objects, could have been a how, shovel, or even spear. There was not enough evidence to determine which one it might have been. The level of the torture was somewhat severe, and they confirmed that he had died from the torture about five days ago.
The party was also able to determine that the body was not just dropped in the rat tunnels, but dragged here from outside, most likely by the rats or something else.
Continuing forward they finally met some of the Greater Giant Rats, or also known as Rodents of Unusual Size. Unlike their previous brethren, these were of medium size and were as large as a mastiff. These rats were fast, could take a lot of hits, and bit much harder than anything they had met so far.
Greater Giant Rat (RoUS)
At the same time as their encounter with the Greater Giant Rats, they met their first Rat Swarm. A nasty business of squirming crawling, and biting rats. Vladimir was quickly covered but with a lot of difficult shots from his party they were able to pick off the offending small rat members of the swarm. Vladimir did have a few new ear piercings though.
Rat Swarm
As they progressed further into the tunnels, they reached an area where the lichen had been removed and more freshly dug tunnels were discovered. The decrease of the lichen also reduced visibility for the party. They now only could see ten feet around themselves except for those with darkvision. The range that they could hear also increased to about 50 feet from the 20 it had been. This meant that they could hear rats or something else coming sooner, but then again, the rats could hear them much better as well.
They had already caused more than one encounter unexpectedly when Avery’s Dancing Lights went around a corner and illuminated areas that had rats and caused them to attack. Having it happen once was not sufficient, so they made the same mistake again. Eventually the wounds and tiredness caught up to them and they took a short rest. Not being as diligent with the bodies of the Greater Giant Rats, they were left where they had been killed last. Luckily, no other rats wandered by, and they were able to safely rest.
Trying to sneak into what would prove to be their last encounter, Avery made sure to alert the waiting Wererat with his Dancing Lights again. I am sure it was not on purpose, it being the third time after all. The Wererat was armored in “ratty” leather and dual armed with short swords. It leaped forward and was able to quickly take out Vladimir and started moving into the rest of the party quickly. Eventually it too was slain.
Wererat “Pumpkin”
The last few rooms were rotting provisions, some gold, and three more dead bodies. Much like the other one that was found, these had been heavily tortured but with one primary difference. All their faces had been carefully carved off. One of the dead bodies had a small tattoo on his chest over his heart.
Tattoo on Dead Person
Among the treasure that were found was a map leading somewhere in the Dessarin Valley, as well as a small golden statue.
Using the long tunnel that led out, they finally were able to determine that they at the lowest point had gone underground over 80 feet. The winding tunnels and frequent changes of elevation confused them such they it was not clear how deep they really had gone until they had a clearer indicator such as the somewhat straight tunnel out.
The party was also able to see more clearly additional drag marks that were from the more newly found bodies have been dragged from the Middens somewhere.
They all then lingered around the cave entrance trying to decide what to do. There was discussion about bringing the dead Wererat body back, who had transformed back into his human form. After a lot of discussion, they decided that since there was not really an organized law enforcement agency in Amphail, they might just make more trouble for themselves by dragging dead bodies into town.
Figuring out that they all stunk of the Middens, rat shit, and exploded rat heads, courtesy of ISAC and his Mind Sliver spells, they decided to head to Hose Pond and wash off the most egregious noxious contents off themselves. Heading back to their room they took turns bathing and getting ready to rest in the soft beds.
There was a lot of heart-to-heart talk about some of their pasts and most of them opened. A short session to split up some cash, and then to bed for everyone.
Oddly enough everyone survived. This was a great milestone for everyone. Besides only being the third session, the group had managed to start working together and planning their actions better. The players began communication their actions to each other more and better. The rat warren served several purposes for the campaign, first of which was just this. Getting a new group of player to figure out how to work together and what combat looks like for everyone. I might have other reasons, but those are to be filled in sometime later.
After finishing a short rest, Fogo did a quick Detect Magic to see if any of their ill-gotten gains were magical, and it turned out that one of the maces and the breastplate the priest had been wearing were both magical. Stashing them away and cleaning up their impromptu camp the group was ready.
The party decided to finally look at and attempt to open the last heavily fortified door. It was not locked and proved to be the priest’s office and bedroom. The room looked like it had been ransacked. All the furniture had been beaten up, a table and desk bashed with a hard blunt instrument, a bookcase tossed over, and finally, a large pile of burnt documents sitting by the door.
It seems that the priest before running out to engage the characters had paused to burn anything important to ensure no information leaked in case the combat did not go their way. Avery stepped over to the desk to see if he could find anything remaining while Fwoosh dug through the ashes hoping for a remnant piece of paper.
The desk proved to be completely empty, and secret compartments in the desk had been opened and dumped, and the desk itself bashed enough times to break it in half. The ash pile was not even warm anymore. It was evident that the hour-long waits gave the small fire sufficient time to burn down anything that was there and to cool completely. As he continued to dig through them looking closely, he saw a sheet of paper under a chair nearby.
While in a hurry, the priest seemed to have missed something. Fwoosh scooted over and grabbing the paper. It was clear that it had been in the fire, and through some means had escape before burning completely. Most of the message was obscured by the burnt hole in the middle. If they had only gone into the room sooner, more might have been recovered.
There was one passage that seemed to stick out for them:
“I have contacted our spies in Red Larch to keep an eye on them and remove their presence if needed.”
Otherwise, the room was empty of anything else. In fact, it seemed overly empty. The room had been almost completely cleared out of anything. There were not any clothes, knickknacks, or anything, it was bare except for smashed furniture and a burnt pile of documents. When everyone examined the rest of the space, it looked like the soldiers had completely emptied out the areas only leaving their packs. They were ready to depart in just minutes before the characters had arrived and interrupted their exit.
Knowing there was nothing else to find everyone convened in the main room. A lengthy dialogue occurred about what their exact plans should be. It was decided that securing the exit would be the best plan before gathering the prisoners. They also remembered that there were supposed to be ghouls somewhere in the ruins that they had not yet met. There were only a few areas they had not visited, but they felt the urgency of needing to get the prisoners away to be the most important.
Heading down the tunnel, they were finally able to reach the end of it after over 500 feet. The tunnel was straight and in the last 50 feet the ground started becoming frozen as well as the walls until they reached the4 end where the walls, floor, and ceiling were sheathed in a thin coat of ice. Looking out into the open area they could see a damaged wagon just outside of the opening, and two wagons with horses tacked up and ready to go. They also heard voiced. Rough and ruff voices to the right and left of the opening as well from one of the wagons up ahead. Voices speaking in a language that only Avery could understand. Goblin. There were bugbears waiting outside with the wagons needed for the escape.
Huddling around further back in the tunnel, the party started making plans. It was good that the bugbears were further away and were not expecting invaders since the group were not speaking in hushed tones. There were several close calls as the bugbears are well known for their ambushes, assassinations, and capability to hear very well.
Deciding on a path of action, Fogo used Disguise magic on himself making him resemble the priest exactly. Moving out through the exit it did not take long for the bugbears to notice the characters. Avery split off from the rest in anticipation of hostilities, which made the bugbears much more suspicious because none of the party was recognizable except the priest to them.
A larger bugbear began speaking loudly at Fogo, unfortunately Fogo did not speak goblin.
“Lareth, is everything ready to go? Where is Sar?”
At which point Avery answered:
“Sar is dead.”
“Who are you? Lareth, what is going on?”
It was at this point, that Fogo interjected in the common tongue since he did not recognize any of the previous conversation.
“It’s alright, it’s alright. We found these guys, and everyone has a price. We were able to convince them to join our cause and we are bringing them with us. The rest of the people are back and are almost done packing up. They will be here in just a couple of minutes. In fact, it would very helpful if someone could give them a hand.”
“The wagons are already packed.”
“There were just a couple more things that they needed back there.”
“Can we get two or three guys going back there?”
The bugbear boss started yelling at some of the other ones and four of the six splits off and started running down the secret passage. It seemed that Fogo’s persuasion worked and most of the bugbears departed. Fogo continued.
“We got into a bit of a scuffle with these guys before they decided there was a better option them. I wonder if we have any healing potions, we can give them so they can be at full strength for the journey.”
The bugbear boss responded in goblin.
“Only if you packed something, only you would know what is in there.”
Not understanding, Fogo just kept nodding his head in agreement, but the conversation continued in goblin.
“Why did the gnome say Sar is dead? Where is Sar?”
Using that opportunity, Avery decided that the jig was up and let off with a Ray of Frost missing the bugbear, but fully alerting him that something was not right. Yelling for the last remaining bugbear they attacked the party. It did not take too long to finish the two of them off, but their constant yelling did attract the other four who made it back just as the others died. The combat continued until all the bugbears had been killed except one that they captured to question later.
Finally having time to start inspecting the wagons they found enough arms and armor for at least 20 to 30 people and food for a 100. There were two small chests and a single large one. There was also a particular long box full of black cloaks. Avery took a cloak, one of the small chests while ISAC took the other small chest. It was getting very late, and darkness had already descended, and the cold was biting into them a fair amount. Untacking the horses attached to the wagons, they moved those 12 horses into the hallway to prevent them from freezing, abandoning the two lame horses outside as well as the two warhorses that would not allow them to get too close.
Moving the horses about 150 into the tunnel they left ISAC and Fogo to guard the horses while the rest began shuffling the merchants down to the soldiers’ barracks room. The merchant who had been hanging in chains and heavily tortured had died at some point not been healed. As the time neared midnight, the party started their watches relieving those guarding the horses every two hours and keeping the heavily fortified doors locked. It was before the first watch ended that Fogo realized that his bugbear prisoner was imminently about to escape. Not wanting to deal with it, he just bashed in its skull killing it.
During Sky’s watch he allowed the horses to move forward deeper into the warmer tunnel until the lead on was stopped by the closed door in front of the barracks. There was some consternation with the next group having watch as the horses were occupying all the open space.
Sometime during the night as ISAC was resting, he lost focus and began dreaming again.
“Your body feel light and gently floating. As you open your eyes, you see an open void. The inkiness of the void is very stark, but at the same time you do not feel lonely. You feel companionship nearby. Something familiar is close to you. Your body slowly spins around, and you can see the golden statue. It seems much larger that you are, it feels like you could fly around it. It is transparent, as if it is not fully there, or that it is only partially represented in this space.
As you close in on the item, the four blocks of the bottom split out and start making a slow orbit around the top part. As you watch, you realize that the top part is really an eye. A closed eye, but it is attempting to open, but cannot.
You feel it drawing something from you, some sort of internal essence. You feel weaker as it draws from you and while that happens, you are slowly becoming more transparent, while it seems more solid. As it becomes more solid you can feel the eye attempting to open again, but still cannot, something is preventing that.
A shape pain strikes your head, your brain, your being, and you awaken with a severe headache and the dream fading with the morning. The golden statue rests in your hands.
Upon awakening, the statue was truly in his hands and Fwoosh did not have it. While somewhat disturbing, Fwoosh seemed to be happy that it did not seem to be attached to him any longer.
16th of Mirtul of the year 1492
Early the next morning the party, the merchants, and the mysterious gnome all headed out. It took them to nearly noon to get the horses back out of the hall, tacked up to the wagons, and get everything ready to go. While working outside, the four horses that had been left outside were all dead. It was not sure if it was because of the cold or some large creature since the two warhorses had large bites missing from them, one of the lame horses clawed into pieces, and the second lame horse missing, and clearly dragged off into the frozen swamp somewhere.
Before departing the gnome insisted that they burn the last remaining wagon to ensure they were not leaving anything for the bandits. Putting the Ruined Moathouse behind them, the group all traveled forward. The small trail they were able to follow first headed to the east, then made a turn to the north until they exited the swamp. The closer the got to the edge of the swamp the warmer the weather was becoming, and the muddiness of the trail and swamp more prevalent.
Reaching the edge, they could see the trail then headed directly west. Nighttime had already arrived, and they set up camp for the night. Fwoosh put on a little show to entertain the merchants and the opening of one of the barrels of brandy helped the night pass well for everyone.
As the evening moved on, ISAC had Fwoosh investigate the two chests. The small one was opened and contained a large amount of gold coins, probably some of the bandit payroll. The larger chest was heavily trapped with poisonous darts and difficult lock but was nothing in front of Fwoosh. Contained within was a multitude of wealthy goods. It looked like all the expensive goods from the priest.
Theories and ideas were shared, and that perhaps the cold was related to the water group, and maybe the heat was related to a fire group. It generated many different hypothesizes and directions, but without any evidence they could only guess what it all meant. But as more pieces of information came it started creating a larger and complex picture of what was happening.
With some input and arguments for what direction to go, the group decided to head to Amphail the next day since they would be halfway between Red Larch and Amphail.
Deciding to revisit the statue, ISAC was able to demonstrate that it did have additional powers that it did not have previously. In fact, it now had some offensive power to compliment the previous defensive powers. The new attacks where of the four different elements, each one new and different from any magic any of the arcane casters have heard or seen of previously.
17th of Mirtul of the year 1492
Morning came and the camp was packed up with everyone starting to head in the direction they believed was toward the Long Road.
And that is where the session ended.
Campaign Notes
The Ruined Moathouse comes to an end. They encountered a new group, ones that seemed to worship water as a source. This is now two of the four elemental symbols they have come across. The merchants rescued and they are near the road, safety is near, or at least they all hope so. The Gold Statue has changed, it has more power, what else does it have?
The session started on the road a day outside of Waterdeep. Our seven heroes, Angelica the dragonborn, Avery Rockwell a gnome, Fogo the Firbolg, Fwoosh a kenku under disguise as “Pick”, ISAC hiding his warforged looks and nature, Sky Zephyr an air Genasi, and Vladimir Miller a human set out under the auspices of being under contract from Otis Samael.
Some of the group had been contacted by different factions, all of which gave pretty much the same request. Investigate the odd things happening around Red Larch, find out what is causing the unnatural weather in the Dessarin Hills and make it go away.
Angelica being a starting initiate of the Order of the Gauntlet, was also requested to meet up with the Knights of Samular in the Sumber Hills at Summit Hall. The Order would like to improve relations with the Knights. Avery on the other hand had a very loose association with the Harpers and was sent forth with only basic instructions, while Vladimir was a staunch mercenary for the Lord’s Alliance was given much more strict directions. “Pick” while escaping his captivity had managed to contact the Zhentarim. He was given a small ring with their symbol and told that hiding up north was the best for him, and while there he should investigate the oddities happening, someone would contact him there.
Those with factions and those without, were all hired at the Mercenary Hall by Otis without much negotiation. The pay was very good, and most if not, all had some reason to head that direction.
Otis Samael
The trip started with Otis in the lead wagon and his two sons George and William in the second wagon. The wagons were not overly large but were clearly heavily laden with large barrels. Everything in the wagons were set in very solidly and none of the barrels had any movement in the wagons and were obviously filled to the brim with something and made no noise when Avery listened to them closely.
George Samael
George appeared to be about 20 years old and gave off a serious but somber mood and attitude. He did not speak much unless asked a question, but just did his job quietly. Whereas his younger brother William at 15 years old continued to play around as much as possible. He would frequently jump off the second wagon and run around the characters while swinging is wooden sword around claiming he was practicing. William started pestering the group about who was a swordsman, but there were none in the party disappointing William, not that he remained unhappy long.
William Samael
About halfway to the camping area, a very loud sound started off in the distance from the group coming from the road. Dust could be seen coming closer with the sound. Something was coming fast down the road. The wagons took to the side as two very large box wagons came by with the Ammakyl family crest on the sides. Avery was able to identify the family and that these were most likely produce wagons going to Waterdeep.
Ammakyl Family Crest
Further down the road the group ran across a patrol of 20 Waterdeep Soldiers and Timmer Longschal, the sergeant who was leading them. Timmer was a grim older man that did not seem to have much time to chat, nor the inclination to waste any time with the guards of a merchant group.
Timmer Longschal
Waterdeep Soldiers
At the first campsite the party started chatting with each other and began sharing a little about themselves. Avery seemed the most interested in everyone’s past and profession. In fact, Avery had a nagging suspicion that there was something wrong with Otis and his cargo. All of this without any facts or details, just his hind lizard brain making things up. The rest of the group were more non-committal about Otis and his cargo.
A lot of the discussion occurred with William due to his openness and willing to talk about anything, and George about what things were like up north, and why did Otis need so many guards. Finding out that this was the largest contingent of guards hired so far, made the group a bit more worried. Banditry was an all-time high, especially north of Amphail. The guards were needed to help protect the cargo of Dwarven Ale that Otis was bringing north.
The guards were always hired for a one-way trip to the north, and occasionally some might come back with Otis. Usually there were only two or three guards, but the last trip saw some casualties and Otis decided to increase the number a fair amount to ensure that he and his cargo would be able to arrive safely.
With everyone getting along, George cooked the food at the campsite. The food left a lot to be desired since the taste was at best bland and at worse seemed like George was using sand as an ingredient. While it was not poisonous, it needed a lot of assistance. Fogo jumped in and gathered a bunch of herbs and field onions to help make it taste a bit better than it would normally. No one was happy with the end results except maybe Otis who ate whatever George gave him without changing his expression.
It was very evident that George took care of most things related to the camp and settling down the horses for the evening. William was more interested in swinging his wooden sword around carelessly claiming he was practicing being a swordman.
“Pick” continued to hide in his disguise of a plague doctor’s mask and goggles to hide his Kenku nature. This only interfered with his ability to eat and later he had to sneak around after everyone else was asleep to grab that food.
3rd of Mirtul of the year 1492
The rest of the trip was uneventful until the group reached the town of Rassalantar. A small town of about 650 in town and another 200 in the surrounding farms. A heavily fortified camp was situated just behind the Sleeping Dragon where 60 Waterdeep soldiers and their commanders ran patrols both North and South of Rassalantar searching for bandits and protecting the Long Road.
The Sleeping Dragon Inn is a fine establishment run by Yondral Horn, a middle-aged dwarf. It has an extensive menu, great food, much better than anything George has ever cooked, and an excellent selection of different drinks.
Yondral Horn
Arriving around lunchtime, everyone had to stay at the only Inn in town the Sleeping Dragon. Given the earliness of the arrival, several members decided to wander around a bit before dinner time.
Fogo, ISAC, and Avery all visited the sole store in town the ‘Tween Keep and Stump. A small establishment run by Lily Phen, and thin old lady with sharp eyes. Picking up a few small supplies but nothing very excited given that this was more of a farm store than a normal general store. She seemed a bit suspicious of the group, especially Avery since he kept pestering her with questions. She gave them a bunch of local gossip, but no information of importance.
Lily Phen
The rest of the group sat around the open room in the Sleeping Dragon. There always seemed to be a set of Waterdeep soldiers in the room. Their normal schedule seemed to coincide with watch duty, then an amount of time in the tavern, and then back to the barracks.
The party was able to overhear all the grumbling about the bandits and the fact that the bandits seem to be able to avoid the patrols completely. The guards were speculating that there was a bandit outpost close by, perhaps in the Stump Bog that was just south of town. Squads had investigated the edge of the bog, but the overly poisonous nature of the bog and the dangerous creatures there prevented them from going in very deep.
The same group that visited Lily’s store decided that the Church of Torm would be another good location to scope things out. At the church was Imar Feldar who was the garrison priest as well as managing anything religious needed for the village. A gregarious and engaging young man, Imar was quick to relay any of the local gossip as well as mentioning the issue with the bandits and most likely bandit spies nearby. He also mentioned the unnatural and horrific weather that has been hitting the north. It in fact was also impact the farms of Amphail to a certain degree.
Imar Feldar
Once everyone was back at the Sleeping Dragon, everyone had a wonderful meal. In fact, the meal was one of the best any of them had ever had. The group all finally went to bed breaking up into two rooms. Vladimir, Avery, and “Pick” were in one, while Angelica, ISAC, Fogo, and Sky were all in the remaining room.
4th of Mirtul of the year 1492
At about two in the morning, ISAC decided to go outside and stare at the stars from the back of the Sleeping Dragon. After a few hours, the constant flow of guards between the fortified barracks and the Inn diverted to where ISAC was standing. Given the paranoid nature of the guards and concerns about bandit spies, ISAC was instructed to go back into the Inn and rest there.
Within another hour, Sky also decided to go outside and wander around more. He was seeking a way on the roof to give his natural state a more comfortable place to rest. The guards were much quicker to approach him and guide him back to the Inn. At this point the guards had decided to station a group in the Inn to stop the outflux of people leaving the Inn at night to prevent any misunderstandings.
“Pick”, not having eaten all day, had taken off his disguise and hidden it in his room that he was sharing with Avery and Vladimir. Upon coming down the stairs and expressing his hunger the soldiers gave him some rations as well as a ration of questioning. The basic issue was that Fwoosh without his disguise was not one of the recognized people that had arrived in Rassalantar.
At this point the situation quickly went bad for Fwoosh. When questioned about how he had arrived at the village, he claimed that he had stowed away in a cart. With the concern about the bandit spies and an unknown person, the soldiers told Fwoosh that he needed to come with them to talk to the captain.
Uttering an ear breaking shrill screech of a child being tortured and murdered, Fwoosh expressed his worry about the situation. This awakened the rest of the Inn, especially the party. The soldiers were quick to draw weapons and summoning additional guards. Tossing a set of manacles to Fwoosh, they ordered him to lock up and come with them.
Just in time, the rest of the party arrived. While being ordered to remain in place, Sky ran forward to place himself between Fwoosh and the action. His assumption that a child was being threatened, a feather small child. While moving quickly and putting himself into a defensive mode to dodge anything incoming the scene then exploded.
Another half dozen soldiers joined the six already there and all of them had their weapons out at the two. More manacles were thrown to the floor for Sky and a lot of harsh vulgar words were uttered by the soldier in charge ordering compliance to put on those manacles or else. Additional orders were given to those that were gawking to return to their rooms while the soldiers began dragging the two to their captain in the garrison.
Fogo reacted quickly and ran to bring Otis to assist what was going on, while Avery and Vladimir realized that “Pick” was missing. Spending time to search their room they found the disguise the Fwoosh had been using. They finally put together the idea that the person captured was their “Pick”. Taking the disguise down to the soldiers, Avery was brought to the garrison as well.
Fwoosh and Sky were brought to garrison’s main room where Captain Gheldram Tassor and his sergeant Blaskus Ulraven were waiting with an additional dozen or so troops. It seems that the trouble was only giving the captain a larger headache than he had. When he started asking clarifying questions, Fwoosh continued his story about being a stowaway.
Gheldram Tassor
Blaskus Ulraven
While summoning the merchants to see if a stowaway would have been possible, Otis and Fogo arrived. To Fogo, this strange little bird person was clearly not one of theirs, and to Otis, well he did not say much. The rest of the merchants arrived and gave additional information on their cargo. At that time, Avery and the accompanying soldier arrived with the disguise. This seemed to be a breaking point for several of those there as they were finally able to connect the dots between “Pick” and Fwoosh.
With a lot of forehead slapping and groans, the captain levied a 100gp fine on Otis since this was one of his guards and sent everyone on their way. While everyone was departing, the captain told the party that they were prohibited from ever returning or there would be severe consequences. Otis made sure the party knew that this was coming out of their pay once they arrived at Red Larch.
Starting early the next day, barely into dawn, the entire group left along the Long Road toward Amphail. No one seemed to be in the mood for any conversation and they reached their campsite without an issue. Otis just quietly sat by his tent and waited for George’s cooked dinner.
Dinner was as wonderful as normal, not, in fact it tasted worse than the previous time. Maybe having had that wonderful meal at the Sleeping Dragon skewed everyone’s taste. While dinner was quietly being eaten Fogo was observing Otis. His concern about how angry Otis might be led to some confusion on his part as all he could determine was that Otis was simply indifferent to everything happening around him. He ate without an expression as always, almost mechanically.
The party started querying William a lot more on what should be expected on the trip, especially what would be in Amphail. He described all the unnatural weather north of Amphail including tremors and tornados. He did say that they might consider avoiding Gouland Sester’s since a lot of nobles seem to hang out there. He also gave them a warning about the local lord.
Sometime during the night while Fwoosh and Fogo were on watch, they heard two horses with lots of jingly sounds ride by very rapidly on the Long Road going south to the North. They were not able to identify the source or even who it might be.
Morning came, and the wagons hit the road. It did not take long to reach Amphail. Arrival happened before noon again. The smell of horse dung was the most abrupt greeting the party had experienced so fart, except maybe being manacled. The first stop was at Wescott’s Saddlers, a large storage facility for merchants to leave their wagons and horses, and to even get repairs if needed. A small dragonborn with reddish scales named Nesbis Westcott ran the place. Otis left the group somewhat quickly while George took case of settling the wagons and horses.
Nesbis Wescatt
Looking around, Fogo, Sky, and Vladimir noticed an unusual wagon in the corner of the building. It looked like a heavy-duty smaller box wagon, but the box was not at all normal. It was a box made of steel with extensive burn marks on all the sides of the box. In fact, when looking closer and seeing that a lot of the wood of the wagon has a bit burnt, it seems that the entire wagon was made of metal.
Looking to Nesbis for some answers, she relayed what happened as far as she knew. The wagon belonged to Nathan Axedredge, someone claiming to be a merchant. She did not know that the wagon had been made of metal but a day ago it had somehow caught fire and burned all the wood off the box part. Nathan had tried to contract with the local carpenters, but they had recently gotten a huge order which would occupy them for at least five-day.
What she finds interesting, is that the wagon always seemed to have guards with it, and they were missing when the fire occurred. She said that Nathan’s gigantic half-orc bodyguard was so pissed she thought he was going to rip the guards in half. She told the party that Nathan and his bodyguard were sulking in the Stag n’ Flag.
Nesbis was surprised by the whole thing since she had never seen an entire wagon made of metal before. She now understands why they needed four horses to pull it. The only other point she mentioned was the increase of large rats at the Middens and how irritating they were.
Discussing with George on what was in town and what they might do, he suggested that the check-in at the Stone Stallion soon, get food at the Stag-Horned Flagon, also known as the Stag N’ Flag, and avoid Mother Gothal’s. he explained that it was an establishment for drink, dancing, and companionship. A lot of nobles were known to have rendezvous at Gouland Sester’s, and nobles are known to cause trouble for commoners.
Once he finished settling the wagons and horses, George dragged William away to their accommodations at the Stone Stallion. At this point the party split up into three groups. Vladimir to the Stone Stallion to check-in, Fwoosh, Fogo to a sundries store, and Avery, Isac, and Angelica to the Stag N’ Flag for some food and drink.
It turned out that the Stone Stallion was a huge Inn. It was four stories with what appeared to be several rooms per floor. After ringing the bell on the desk several times and waiting a fair amount of time, the proprietor Thorn Tlassalune. With a small amount of chit-chat and Vladimir having identified himself as one of Otis’s guards, Thorn gave Vladimir a single key for a room and told him that he and the rest were all put on the troublesome fourth floor.
Thorn Tlassalune
Going up the narrow staircases to get to the floor, Vladimir was able to get a glimpse of each of the floors. As he passed each one, he could see that the décor became rougher the higher he went. All of it was opulent, but more worn the higher he went. Once on the fourth floor, he could see that there were 20 rooms on this floor. The walls, floors and even the doors contained scars, burn marks, and what appeared to be dried blood in a few locations.
Vladimir could hear screaming from one room, what seemed to be an ongoing sword fight in another, and just odd sounds in general. Even with all the heavy damage, none of the walls, nor doors had holes, or were scarred through their material. Whatever everything was made from, it was tougher than a regular inn. Opening the door to their room, it was much larger than expected. With three double beds and a private area for a bath, it was surprising, nice. Tapestries covered the walls, and plush rugs the floors.
Given some time before meeting the others, Vladimir settled in for a nice hot bath. Wash away his worries and the events from the last couple of days.
Fwoosh, Fogo, and Angelica asked for directions to a sundry store from Nesbis. She directed them to Sammy’s Sundries. There Saul Blockgnasher a gnome was manning the store. Fwoosh was desperately trying to find a replacement for his mask that had been left in Rassalantar. No matter what was offered, nothing seemed to work. Saul did suggest going to Shrunedalar’s Secrets and get some makeup to minimize Fwoosh’s beak.
Saul Blockgnasher
The last group of Sky, ISAC, and Avery all headed to the Stag N’ Flag to see what is happening in town. Upon entry they were seated at a table in the middle. There were what was clearly several groups of nobles in the room, and in the corner was a young man with a very large half-orc standing behind him. These two were most likely Nathan and his half-orc guard.
Nathan Axedredge
Bartholomeus
Getting some food and drink from the unusually dressed waitress, the group settled down. They could see a waitress going over to one of the tables containing some nobles. The nobles seem to be negotiating something with the waitress. They finally hand her a platinum piece. She places on one of the heavily pock-marked columns in the room. Stepping back 20 feet, and she quickly tossed the daggers on her waist trapping in the platinum piece tightly. All the patrons give a soft applause, and she claimed the coin.
Stag N’ Flag Waitress
Session Notes:
The occurrences in Rassalantar proved to be a surprise to everyone, including the DM that rolled harshly with the flow. We will have to see if the characters try to come back another day, or just avoid the village moving forward. A lot of the time was spent with the players and the characters learning more about each other, and the sudden arresting event made a lot of things clear about each other on how each person and character responded.
Session 1 – Overland Travel
Campaign Notes:
I wanted to limit the races that were available for a variety of reasons and wanted a way of documenting any variation from the rules as written, any home brew as an example, as well as add clarification anywhere I thought was needed, so I created a Players Books and Table rules for everyone and update it as needed.
In any new campaign there will always be different specific rules that are important for all the players to know and understand. This document will cover any changes to standard rules, what optional rules will be used, and any homebrew content that has been created for this campaign.
This is a fluid and changing document and will change frequently in the beginning of the Campaign. As the players learn different details that are important, these too will be added here.
This Campaign is called “The Cataclysm of the Primordial Orders”. It is based off one specific Wizards of the Coast module, but heavily modified to address the much larger player pool as well as adding in individual hooks for each of the created characters.
Certain sections from the Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide have been reproduced here to ensure everyone is on the same page about a few of the basic rules and concepts.
How to Play
The play of the Dungeons and Dragon game unfolds according to this basic pattern.
[1] The DM describes the environment. The DM tells the players where their adventurers are and what’s around them, presenting the basic scope of options that present themselves (how many doors lead out of a roam, what’s on a table, who’s in the tavern, and so on).
[2] The players describe what they want to do. Sometimes one player speaks for the whole party, saying, “We’ll take the east door,” for example. Other times, different adventurers do different things: one adventurer might search a treasure chest while a second examines an esoteric symbol engraved on a wall and a third keeps watch for monsters. The players don’t need to take turns, but the DM listens to every player and decides how to resolve those actions.
Sometimes, resolving a task is easy. If an adventurer wants to walk across a roam and open a door, the DM might just say that the door opens and describe what lies beyond. But the door might be locked, the floor might hide a deadly trap, or some other circumstance might make it challenging for an adventurer to complete a task. In those cases, the DM decides what happens, often relying on the roll of a die to determine the results of an action.
In any of these cases, the Player will describe what their actions are, and the DM will determine what the roll will be if any. In some cases, it might be Passive Perception, it might be an Investigation roll, or anything else that the DM feels is applicable. Every situation depends on the environment as well as what specific action the Player takes. Both influence what the result might be. But in the end, the DM will determine if a roll occurs, what type of roll that will be, and will requires the Player to make that roll if appropriate.
[3] The DM narrates the results of the adventurers’ actions. Describing the results often leads to another decision point, which brings the flow of the game right back to step 1.
This pattern holds whether the adventurers are cautiously exploring a ruin, talking to a devious prince, or locked in mortal combat against a mighty dragon. In certain situations, particularly combat, the action is more structured, and the players (and DM) do take turns choosing and resolving actions. But most of the time, play is fluid and flexible, adapting to the circumstances of the adventure.
Often the action of an adventure takes place in the imagination of the players and DM, relying on the DM’s verbal descriptions to set the scene. Some DMs like to use music, art, are recorded sound effects to help set the mood, and many players and DMs alike adopt different voices for the various adventurers, monsters, and other characters they play in the game. Sometimes, a DM might lay out a map and use tokens or miniature figures to represent each creature involved in a scene to help the players keep track of where everyone is.
The D20
Does an adventurer’s sword swing hurt a dragon or just bounce off its iron-hard scales? Will the ogre believe an outrageous bluff? Can a character swim across a raging river? Can a character avoid the main blast of a fireball, or does he or she take full damage from the blaze? In cases where the outcome of an action is uncertain, the Dungeons and Dragons game relies on rolls of a 20-sided die, a d20, to determine success or failure.
Every character and monster in the game has capabilities defined by six ability scores. The abilities are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, and they typically range from 3 to 18 for most adventurers. (Monsters might have scores as low as 1 or as high as 30.) These ability scores, and the ability modifiers derived from them, are the basis for almost every d20 roll that a player makes on a character’s or monster’s behalf.
Ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws are the three main kinds of d20 rolls, forming the core of the rules of the game. All three follow these simple steps.
[1]Roll the die and add a modifier. Roll a d20 and add the relevant modifier. This is typically the modifier derived from one of the six ability scores, and it sometimes includes a proficiency bonus to reflect a character’s skill.
[2]Apply circumstantial bonuses and penalties. A class feature, a spell, a particular circumstance, or some other effect might give a bonus or penalty to the check.
[3]Compare the total to a target number. If the total equals or exceeds the target number, the ability check, attack roll, or saving throw is a success. Otherwise, it’s a failure. The DM is usually the one who determines target numbers and tells players whether their ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws succeed or fail.
The target number for an ability check or a saving throw is called a Difficulty Class (DC). The target number for an attack roll is called an Armor Class (AC).
This simple rule governs the resolution of most tasks in Dungeons and Dragon play.
Advantage and Disadvantage
Sometimes an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw is modified by special situations called advantage and disadvantage. Advantage reflects the positive circumstances surrounding a d20 roll, while disadvantage reflects the opposite. When you have either advantage or disadvantage, you roll a second d20 when you make the roll. Use the higher of the two rolls if you have advantage and use the lower roll if you have disadvantage.
For example: If you have disadvantage and roll a 17 and a 5, you use the 5. If you instead have advantage and roll those numbers, you use the 17.
Specific Beats General
The Player’s Handbook contains rules, especially in parts 2 and 3, that govern how the game plays. That said, many racial traits, class features, spells, magic items, monster abilities, and other game elements break the general rules in some way, creating an exception to how the rest of the game works. Remember this: If a specific rule contradicts a general rule, the specific rule wins.
Exceptions to the rules are often minor. For instance, many adventurers don’t have proficiency with longbows, but every wood elf does because of a racial trait. That trait creates a minor exception in the game. Other examples of rule-breaking are more conspicuous. For instance, an adventurer can’t normally pass-through walls, but some spells make that possible. Magic accounts for most of the major exceptions to the rules.
Round Down
There’s one more general rule you need to know at the outset. Whenever you divide a number in the game, round down if you end up with a fraction, even if the fraction is one-half or greater.
The Three Pillars of Adventure
Adventurers can try to do anything their players can imagine, but it can be helpful to talk about their activities in three broad categories: exploration, social interaction, and combat.
Exploration includes both the adventurers’ movement through the world and their interaction with objects and situations that require their attention. Exploration is the give-and-take of the players describing what they want their characters to do, and the Dungeon Master telling the players what happens as a result. On a large scale, that might involve the characters spending a day crossing a rolling plain or an hour making their way through caverns underground. On the smallest scale, it could mean one character pulling a lever in a dungeon room lo see what happens.
Social interaction features the adventurers talking to someone (or something) else. It might mean demanding that a captured scout reveal the secret entrance to the goblin lair, getting information from a rescued prisoner, pleading for mercy from an ore chieftain, or persuading a talkative magic mirror to show a distant location to the adventurers.
The rules in chapters 7 and 8 of the Player’s Handbook support exploration and social interaction, as do many class features in chapter 3 and personality traits in chapter 4 from the Player’s Handbook.
Combat, the focus of chapter 9 of the Player’s Handbook, involves characters and other creatures swinging weapons, casting spells, maneuvering for position, and so to defeat their opponents, whether that means killing every enemy, taking captives, or forcing a rout. Combat is the most structured element of a D&D session, with creatures taking turns to make sure that everyone gets a chance to act. Even in the context of a pitched battle, there’s still plenty of opportunity for adventurers to attempt wacky stunts like surfing down a flight of stairs on a shield, to examine the environment (perhaps by pulling a mysterious lever), and to interact with other creatures, including allies, enemies, and neutral parties.
Example Items: A variety of hand tools, thread, needles, a whetstone, scraps of cloth and leather, and a small pot of glue
Crafting Restrictions: Requires Workshop
Mundane Item Crafting: Can lead the creation of some assembled items but assist in the creation of a great many items.
Magic Item Crafting: Can assist in the creation of a great many items.
Artwork Creation: Can create mechanical artwork for sale.
QA Artwork Bonus: N/A
Structure Building: N/A
Adventuring Utility: Able to repair items and understand contraptions.
Tinkers are a rare profession, but their work possesses incredible value. Tinkers are usually associated with finicky contraptions and devices, and if they ever use magic, it is usually more of an energy source rather than the driving characteristic. Really, tinkers are more concerned with finding new materials with strange properties to experiment with, and their inventions can range from the entertaining to the revolutionary.
With that in mind, tinkers vary widely in skill. A traveling peddler may have some experience in making mechanical puppets that flail around for the amusement of children, while the daring few that have traveled to Mechanus and returned alive may have unlocked the secrets of artificial life.
Any character that is proficient in the tinker’s tools may be considered a tinker for crafting purposes.
Skill Usage
History: You can determine the age and origin of objects, even if you have only a few pieces remaining from the original.
Investigation: When you inspect a damaged object, you gain knowledge of how it was damaged and how long ago.
Repair: You can restore 10 hit points to a damaged object for each hour of work. For any object, you need access to the raw materials required to repair it. For metal objects, you need access to an open flame hot enough to make the metal pliable.
Tinker’s Tools Basic Use Difficulty Table
Activity
DC
Temporarily repair a disabled device
10
Repair an item in half the time
15
Improvise a temporary item using scraps
20
Default Designs
All Tinkerers are assumed to be able to mend and fix most small metal tools or objects. They also have the concept on how to create clockworks and gain one of the following effects to start with:
Armor, Basic
Bite, Basic
Slam, Basic
Slashing, Basic
Swimming Speed, Basic
Walking Speed, Basic
Salvaging Materials
You can obtain materials by salvaging them from their natural occurring nodes, from creatures, or by breaking down existing items. The DM can decide how many units of material are on the target by standard. A low roll yields half of the possible unit less as it wastes a portion (or a poorer quality than expected), a much higher roll yields one unit more (or increases the quality due to its purity).
Breaking down existing items removes all Smithing effects from them (unless you are trying to re-use portions of it), and risks losing one or more Magical effects.
Salvaging Material Difficulty Table
Rarity
DC
Common
8
Uncommon
14
Rare
20
Very Rare
26
Legendary
32
Tinkerer Crafting Options
Tinkerers are good at many different things besides repairing or making modification to small objects. there are two direct area for tinkerers to craft items within. The first are small mechanical objects that have limited functions, or a clockwork.
Crafting Mechanical Objects
Much like anything else being crafted, each of the possible objects will need to be researched and then crafted. The following list is not conclusive, but just a suggested start:
Tinkerer Mechanical Crafting Table
Object
Rarity
Crafting DC
Cost
Alarm Clock
Uncommon
14
50gp
Gills
Rare
20
100gp
Grappler Attachment
Uncommon
14
10gp
Hidden Blade
Uncommon
14
25gp
Windup Toy
Common
14
5gp
Mechanical Object Descriptions
Alarm Clock: This hourglass is attached to a set of weights that produces a great noise when the sand runs out after a certain amount of time. Any creature asleep within 15 feet of the alarm clock awakens when the time runs out. As an action, you can set the time to up to eight hours.
Gills: This device allows you to breathe underwater, so long as no magical effect is stopping it. This does not purify the water you are breathing, so if it is laden with poison or salt, you will suffer the effects, like salt making you thirstier than normal. The device works for one hour and will then need to be repaired to work again.
Grappler Attachment: This attachment is designed to be equipped onto a heavy crossbow. When the crossbow is fired, it shoots out a grappling hook attached to a 50-foot rope. This does not create the grappling hook, the rope, or the heavy crossbow.
Hidden Blade: A dagger is incorporated into a device operated by a wrist. As an object interaction, a creature can flick their wrist and a dagger appears. This device is large enough to carry a dagger or other small objects per the DM’s discretion.
Windup Toy: This small windup toy bears a vague resemblance to a duck. As an action, you can wind up this toy and release it on the ground. Roll initiative for this toy, and on its turn will walk up to 30 feet in a straight line. On its next turn, it produces a huge amount of noise, like that of cymbals crashing together. It produces this noise several rounds equal to the number of feet it walked, divided by five.
Crafting a Clockwork
The final product that most Tinkerers want to create, especially if they are a gnome, is the mighty somewhat autonomous device also known as a clockwork. It would be the dream of many gnomes to have an army of clockworks toiling away for them. There is a specific amount of material and time needed for each type of object created. The ingot is just a unit of measure of material that is required for that creation. There are many different materials that the clockwork can be crafted out of. Many of these offer special abilities, and a greater difficulty in that crafting. Refer to the Material Difficulty Crafting Table for more information.
Clockwork Size Table
Size
DC Difficulty Increase
Minimum Hit Dice
Ingot Requirements
Tiny
+1
1d4
1
Small
+0
1d6
1
Medium
+1
3d8
5
Large
+2
4d10
20
Huge
+3
5d12
50
Gargantuan
+4
6d20
100
Using a Clockwork
Even if one has a clockwork, how does one use it? Any clockwork has the basic capability to follow orders within its capabilities. To command the clockwork to take some action, the owner must use a bonus action to give it those orders. The clockwork is completely neutral in what it will do, and if the orders are not precise enough, it is entirely possible the clockwork will take an action it was programmed for, but not what the owner thought it ordered. Al orders must be thought of black and white and be exact. If there is not an interpretation that is clear, the clockwork will simply defend that round and do nothing else.
Each clockwork that a Tinkerer has occupies one attunement slot for that character.
Starting Clockwork Stats
A basic clockwork is not capable of very much. It can move, it could carry simple things if they were strapped to it, but it cannot attack and only take the dodge action. Until the crafter adds in functionality, it is basically a lump of slow-moving metal parts. As it sizes increases, the material gets better, and functionality is added, its abilities will get better, it will tougher, faster, and maybe even be useful.
Type:
Construct (any size), unaligned
Initiative:
-1
AC:
10 (natural armor)
HP:
3 (1d8-1)
Speed:
10 feet
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
8
8
8
1
1
1
-1
-1
-1
-5
-5
-5
Skills:
None
Damage Resistances:
None
Condition Immunities:
Charmed, exhaustion, frightened, poisoned
Damage Immunities:
Poison, Psychic
Senses:
Normal Vision, no Passive Perception
Languages:
–
Proficiency Bonus:
+2
Special Abilities:
Construct Nature: The clockwork drone does not need to eat, breathe, or sleep.
Material Difficulty Modifier Table
Metal
Difficulty Modifier
Weapon Effect
Armor Effect
Cost per Ingot
Adamantine
+5
All Adamantium items are magical in nature, weapons gain a +1 magical bonus to attack and damage rolls.All Adamantium items weigh twice their normal weight, have twice the number of hit points, and are considered Indestructible – except when hit with another indestructible item, it is then counted as having an additional +5 to any Strength check made to break them.When hitting a non-indestructible object, deal damage equal to max critical damage.
All Adamantium items weigh twice their normal weight, have twice the number of hit points, and are considered Indestructible – except when hit with another indestructible item, it is then counted as having an additional +5 to any Strength check made to break them.Armor and Shields: Cancels any critical hit, making it anormal hit. (If an adamantine weapon was used against adamantium armor, it becomes possible to land critical hits.)
2000gp
Bronze
-3
Is fragile and breaks on a roll of a natural one or two as well as any natural 20.
Is fragile and breaks when any natural 20 hit is done against the wearer and it is rendered useless, but the weight remains until removed.
8sp
Cold Iron (Meteoric Iron)
-2
When you hit a fey creature with a Cold iron weapon, you can reroll the damage and use either result.All items made of Iron have the DC of strength checks made to break them reduced by 1. (As compared to steel items of the same make.)Weapons, traps, and other metallic creations: Gain -1 to their damage rolls (to a minimum of 1 damage)
Grants a +1 bonus to any saving throws made against attacks or spells made by fey creatures. Additionally, while a creature is donned with an item of Cold Iron, they have advantage against being charmed or magically put to sleep.Armor and Shields: Gain -1 to their AC value.
250gp
Dark Steel
+4
You have advantage on attack rolls while in darkness wielding Darksteel weapons.
Perception checks relying on sight have disadvantage against you when you are in dim light or darkness while wearing the armor
1500gp
Fire Steel
+4
A weapon forged from firesteel deals an extra 1d6 fire damage on hit.
Wearing armor forged from firesteel grants resistance to Cold damage.
1500gp
Ice Steel
+4
A weapon forged from icesteel deals an extra 1d6 cold damage on hit.
Wearing armor forged from icesteel grants resistance to Fire damage.
1500gp
Mithril
+3
All Mithril items weigh half their normal weight.Weapons: A weapon with the Light property weighs nothing if crafted with Mithril and gains Finesse. All weapons with neither the Light nor the Heavy property gains the Light Property if crafted with Mithril A weapon with the Heavy Property loses the Heavy property if crafted with Mithril.Other: Mithril ammunition can be fired out to the long range of the weapon it is fired from without suffering disadvantage.
Armor: Requires no Strength requirement. Heavy Armor Made from Mithril counts as Medium Armor for armor proficiencies, and Medium Armor counts as Light Armor for armor proficiencies. Additionally, medium armor made of Mithril allows the user to add a max of +3 from their Dexterity Modifier to their AC, instead of +2. While wearing Mithril armor, you don’t suffer disadvantage on Dexterity(stealth) checks, even if the armor would normally impose disadvantage.Shields: made from Mithril gain the light property (and therefore may be used in two-weapon fighting.) In addition, so long as the wearer is conscious and can see/hear/sense a threat, the wearer adds the AC bonus of their shield to their Dexterity saving throws.
500gp
Steel
+0
Normal
Normal
2gp
Clockwork Slots
All clockwork devices have a certain number of slots available for different effects. At the common and uncommon rarity levels most of the effects are just mechanical, but at are and higher many starts looking like and are magical in nature.
The number of slots any clockwork has is dependent on the rarity, material, and size that comprises the device. There is only one type of slot, but the different rarity of the effects determines how many slots are consumed by that effect. There is also the requirement for how much material is required to build the clockwork.
Clockwork Rarity Slot Table
Rarity
Slots
Minimum Level Required
Common
1
1
Uncommon
2
5
Rare
3
9
Very Rare
4
13
Legendary
5
17
Clockwork Material Slots Table
Material
Slots
Adamantine
+3
Brass
-1
Cold Iron (Meteoric Iron)
-1
Dark Steel
+2
Fire Steel
+2
Ice Steel
+2
Mithril
+1
Steel
+0
Clockwork Size Slots Table
Size
Slots
Minimum Level Required
Ingot Requirements
Tiny
-1
1
1
Small
+0
1
1
Medium
+1
5
5
Large
+2
9
20
Huge
+3
13
50
Gargantuan
+4
17
100
Effect Research Requirements
Since making most of the objects are just a normal part of tinkering, where the research comes in is in those effects. It does not matter what the effect is, nor what it is to be slotted into, it can be researched, and must be before it can be used in a forging project. The following table shows the research costs of each rarity of effect.
Research Requirements Table
Effect Rarity
Research Point Cost
Minimum Required Level
Common
10
1
Uncommon
30
5
Rare
75
9
Very Rare
150
13
Legendary
250
17
Once the appropriate amount of research points is collected, a validation process must be attempted by the smith to see if their design works. They must make a straight Tinkering Tools skill check without any other additional modifiers. If the effect is magical in nature, then a Magical Essence of some type of the same rarity is also required to be expended during the research process.
Smith Design Difficulty Table
Design Rarity
DC
Common
8
Uncommon
14
Rare
20
Very Rare
26
Legendary
32
Clockwork Effects
Each listed effect will have specifically it added to the armor or weapon, what requirements it might have if any, the increase of cost and time that the forging would take when adding in that effect. If there are sufficient slots in the armor or weapon, then as many effects can be added in as long as they do not contradict each other in effects. If the effect has a magical effect, then a Magical Essence of some type of the same rarity must be expended for that effect. The table lists which type of Essence is required for the forging. At no time can the rarity of the effect cannot exceed the rarity of the clockwork.
If more than one attack method is added to the clockwork, they are only able to use one of them per action unless the effect Multiattack is also added.
Effect Slot Cost Table
Effect Rarity
Slot Cost
Common
1
Uncommon
2
Rare
3
Very Rare
4
Legendary
5
Clockwork Malfunctions
There are not any perfectly constructed clockworks. There is always some shortcut the designer or builder took and that impacts the function of the device. Sometimes these are considered features, but many times they are buried deep within the mechanism. For our purposes, the malfunctions will serve as a means for the builder to gain additional slots by adopting different issues with their device. None of the malfunction effects need to be researched. They are all available from the beginning, but the malfunction rarity cannot exceed the rarity of the clockwork.
The builder has as many malfunction slots as normal slots for the clockwork. For each malfunction slot that is expended, the builder gains an extra regular slot to compensate. You cannot select a malfunction if it is the opposite of a positive effect.
Example:
As an example, Energy Cascade (M) and Lightning Absorption. These cannot both be taken, nor a vulnerability to an attack type while having been made of a material that makes the clockwork resistant or immune to that type of attack.
Clockwork Malfunction Slot Table
Rarity
Malfunction Slots
Regained Normal Slots
Common
1
+1
Uncommon
2
+2
Rare
3
+3
Very Rare
4
+4
Legendary
5
+5
Example:
Grignak the gnomish barbarian has been feeling his roots and feels the need to make something that can follow him and blare his accolades. Grig using a small clockwork as the base made of steel will make an uncommon version. This nets him two slots in total. But knowing he wants more features; he elects to include two slot points of malfunctions and therefore now has four points to spend in features.
He is ready to start building, assuming he knows any effects he can add in.
Clockwork Effect Table
Effect
Rarity
Crafting Time
Price
Magical
Advanced Sensors
Uncommon
10 Days
500gp
Primal
Alert
Uncommon
15 Days
350gp
Armor, Advanced
Rare
10 Days
1,000gp
Arcane
Armor, Basic
Common
2 Days
10gp
Armor, Intermediate
Uncommon
5 Days
500gp
Armor, Legendary
Legendary
60 Days
25,000gp
Arcane
Armor, Masterworked
Very Rare
20 Days
10,000gp
Arcane
Berserk (M)
Very Rare
0 Days
0gp
Bite, Advanced
Rare
5 Day
500gp
Primal
Bite, Basic
Common
1 Day
25gp
Bite, Intermediate
Uncommon
3 Day
100gp
Bite, Legendary
Legendary
30 Day
5,000gp
Arcane + Primal
Bite, Masterworked
Very Rare
10 Day
2,000gp
Primal
Burrowing Speed, Advanced
Rare
30 Days
500gp
Arcane
Burrowing Speed, Intermediate
Uncommon
15 Days
250gp
Burrowing Speed, Legendary
Legendary
60 Days
25,000gp
Arcane + Primal
Burrowing Speed, Masterworked
Very Rare
45 Days
1,000gp
Arcane
Camouflaged
Uncommon
2 Days
100gp
Climbing Speed, Basic
Uncommon
5 Days
250gp
Deft
Uncommon
10 Days
500gp
Drill
Uncommon
10 Days
500gp
Energy Cascade (M)
Rare
0 Days
0gp
Explodes (M)
Rare
0 Days
0gp
Explosive Bolt
Rare
25 Days
2,500gp
Arcane
Faulty Sensors (M)
Uncommon
0 Days
0gp
FireDamage
Uncommon
10 Days
100gp
Arcane
Fire Damage, Advanced
Rare
20 Days
250gp
Arcane
Fire Damage, Legendary
Legendary
50 Days
10,000gp
Arcane
Fire Damage, Masterworked
Very Rare
30 Days
1,000gp
Arcane
Flawed Targeting (M)
Uncommon
0 Days
0gp
Flying Speed, Advanced
Rare
20 Days
2,500gp
Arcane
Flying Speed, Intermediate
Uncommon
10 Days
500gp
Flying Speed, Legendary
Legendary
90 Days
25,500gp
Arcane
Flying Speed, Masterworked
Very Rare
40 Days
5,500gp
Arcane
Gear Jam (M)
Common
0 Days
0gp
Ground Fault (M)
Common
0 Days
0gp
Harpoon
Uncommon
15 Days
750gp
Ice Damage
Uncommon
10 Days
100gp
Arcane
Ice Damage, Advanced
Rare
20 Days
250gp
Arcane
Ice Damage, Legendary
Legendary
50 Days
10,000gp
Arcane
Ice Damage, Masterworked
Very Rare
30 Days
1,000gp
Arcane
Imprinting Loop (M)
Uncommon
0 Days
0gp
Intelligent
Legendary
100 Days
25,000
Arcane + Divine
Intercept Attack
Rare
20 Days
1,000gp
Arcane
Lancing Bolt
Rare
30 Days
1,500gp
Primal
Leaking Lubricant (M)
Uncommon
0 Days
0gp
Lightning Absorption
Rare
20 Days
2,000gp
Arcane
Lightning Damage
Uncommon
10 Days
150gp
Arcane
Lightning Damage, Advanced
Rare
10 Days
300gp
Arcane
Lightning Damage, Legendary
Legendary
10 Days
15,000gp
Arcane
Lightning Damage, Masterworked
Very Rare
10 Days
1,500gp
Arcane
Lightning Flare
Uncommon
10 Days
500gp
Limited Steering (M)
Common
0 Days
0gp
Magical Resistance
Very Rare
30 Days
5,000gp
Arcane+ Divine
Multiattack, Advanced
Rare
10 Days
750gp
Primal
Multiattack, Legendry
Legendary
60 Days
25,000gp
Arcane + Primal
Multiattack, Masterworked
Very Rare
20 Days
3,000gp
Arcane + Primal
Muted (M)
Uncommon
0 Days
0gp
Necrotic Damage
Rare
20 Days
500gp
Divine
Necrotic Damage, Legendary
Legendary
100 Days
50,000gp
Divine
Necrotic Damage, Masterworked
Very Rare
60 Days
5,000gp
Divine
Overactive Sense of Self-Preservation (M)
Uncommon
0 Days
0gp
Overclock
Rare
15 Days
500gp
Primal
Overheats (M)
Uncommon
0 Days
0gp
Paralysis Damage
Uncommon
5 Days
50gp
Primal
Paralysis Damage, Advanced
Rare
10 Days
250gp
Primal
Paralysis Damage, Legendary
Legendary
75 Days
5,000gp
Arcane + Primal
Paralysis Damage, Masterworked
Very Rare
30 Days
1,500gp
Arcane + Primal
Petulant (M)
Legendary
0 Days
0gp
Radiant Damage
Rare
20 Days
500gp
Divine
Radiant Damage, Legendary
Legendary
100 Days
50,000gp
Divine
Radiant Damage, Masterworked
Very Rare
60 Days
5,000gp
Divine
Reinforced Construction
Uncommon
5 Days
100gp
Rusty Gears (M)
Common
0 Days
0gp
Self-Repairing
Rare
15 Days
2,500gp
Divine
Sensors, Advanced
Rare
10 Days
300gp
Arcane
Sensors, Intermediate
Uncommon
5 Days
150gp
Arcane
Sensors, Legendary
Legendary
50 Days
15,000gp
Arcane
Sensors, Masterworked
Very Rare
25 Days
5000gp
Arcane
Siege Device
Rare
10 Days
1,500gp
Primal
Slam, Advanced
Rare
5 Day
500gp
Primal
Slam, Basic
Common
1 Day
25gp
Slam, Intermediate
Uncommon
3 Day
100gp
Slam, Legendary
Legendary
30 Day
5,000gp
Arcane + Primal
Slam, Masterworked
Very Rare
10 Day
2,000gp
Primal
Slashing, Advanced
Rare
5 Day
500gp
Primal
Slashing, Basic
Common
1 Day
25gp
Slashing, Intermediate
Uncommon
3 Day
100gp
Slashing, Legendary
Legendary
30 Day
5,000gp
Arcane + Primal
Slashing, Masterworked
Very Rare
10 Day
2,000gp
Primal
Sonic Scream
Uncommon
10 Days
500gp
Primal
Strong
Uncommon
15 Days
750gp
Stumbles (M)
Common
0 Days
0gp
Sturdy
Uncommon
5 Days
500gp
Sturdy Frame
Uncommon
5 Days
50gp
Swimming Speed, Advanced
Rare
20 Days
500gp
Arcane
Swimming Speed, Basic
Common
10 Days
100gp
Swimming Speed, Intermediate
Uncommon
15 Days
200gp
Swimming Speed, Legendary
Legendary
60 Days
10,000gp
Arcane + Primal
Swimming Speed, Masterworked
Very Rare
30 Days
1,000gp
Arcane
Vocal Resonator
Rare
20 Days
5,000gp
Primal
Walking Speed, Advanced
Rare
15 Days
250gp
Primal
Walking Speed, Basic
Common
5 Days
50gp
Walking Speed, Intermediate
Uncommon
10 Days
150gp
Walking Speed, Legendary
Legendary
50 Days
5,000gp
Arcane + Primal
Walking Speed, Masterworked
Very Rare
25 Days
500gp
Primal
Weak Armor (M)
Common
0 Days
0gp
Common Effects
Armor, Basic: Gains an AC of 12.
Bite, Basic: Melee Weapon Attack: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4 – 1 piercing.
Gear Jam (M): When the clockwork is hit with a critical hit, it must succeed a constitution saving throw equal to half the damage dealt (minimum 10) or be stunned until the end of its next turn.
Ground Fault (M): The clockwork has vulnerability to lightning damage.
Rusty Gears (M): The clockwork has disadvantage on initiative rolls, and its speed decreases by 10 feet.
Slam, Basic: Melee Weapon Attack: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d6 – 1 bludgeoning.
Stumbles (M): Roll a d6 every time it moves. If you roll a one, it falls and is prone and its turn ends.
Swimming Speed, Basic: The construct can swim at a speed of 20 feet per round.
Walking Speed, Basic: The walking speed of the clockwork increases by 10 feet. This cannot be stacked with other speed enhancements.
Weak Armor (M): The clockwork is vulnerable to one type of damage; bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing. This malfunction can be taken once per damage type.
Uncommon Effects
Advanced Sensors: The clockwork has advantage on Perception checks.
Alert: The clockwork cannot be surprised if it is not incapacitated.
Armor, Intermediate: Gains an AC of 14.
Bite, Intermediate: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d6 – 1 piercing
Burrowing Speed, Intermediate: The construct can burrow at a speed of 10 feet per round through earth, but not rock or other hard materials.
Camouflaged: The clockwork gains proficiency in Stealth if it doesn’t already have it. While motionless, it is indistinguishable from a stopped machine.
Climbing Speed, Basic: The construct can Climb at a speed of 10 feet per round.
Deft: The clockwork’s internal mechanisms have been improved and it now has a dexterity of 16. Adjust its attacks to hit and damage where applicable.
Drill: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d12 -1 piercing damage.
Faulty Sensors (M): Roll a d6 at the start of the clockwork’s turn. If you roll a 1, the clockwork is blinded until the end of its turn.
Fire Damage: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 1d6 in fire damage on a hit. This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Flawed Targeting (M): Roll a d6 at the start of the clockwork’s turn. If you roll a one, the clockwork makes attack rolls with disadvantage until the end of its turn.
Flying Speed, Intermediate: The construct can fly at a speed of 10 feet per round but cannot hover.
Harpoon: Ranged Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, range 50/200 ft., one target. Hit: 1d10 – 1 piercing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 12). While grappled in this way, a creature’s speed isn’t reduced, but it can move only in directions that bring it closer to the clockwork. A creature takes 5 (1d10) slashing damage if it escapes from the grapple or if it tries and fails. As a bonus action, the clockwork can pull a creature grappled by it 20 feet closer. The clockwork can grapple only one creature at a time. After two shots the clockwork must be reloaded.
Ice Damage: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 1d6 in ice damage on a hit. This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Imprinting Loop (M): Roll a d6 at the start of the clockwork’s turn. If you roll a 1, the clockwork mistakes one creature it can see within 30 feet for its creator. The clockwork won’t willingly harm that creature for 1 minute or until that creature attacks it or deals damage to it.
Leaking Lubricant (M): Roll a d6 at the start of the clockwork’s turn. If you roll a one, the clockwork gains one level of exhaustion that it isn’t immune to.
Lightning Damage: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 1d6 in lightning damage on a hit. This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Lightning Flare (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest): Each creature in contact with the ground within 15 feet of the bronze scout must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 14 (4d6) lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Limited Steering (M): The clockwork must move in a straight line. It can turn up to 90 degrees before moving and again at the midpoint of its movement. It can rotate freely if it doesn’t use any of its speeds on its turn.
Overactive Sense of Self-Preservation (M): If the clockwork has half its hit points or fewer at the start of its turn in combat, roll a d6. If you roll a one, it retreats from combat. If retreat isn’t possible, it continues fighting.
Overheats (M): Roll a d6 at the start of the clockwork’s turn. If you roll a one, the clockwork is incapacitated until the end of its turn.
Paralysis Damage: Modify any one of the clockwork’s physical melee attacks and it also does paralysis on a hit with a DC13 Constitution check for no effect and upon failure the attacked creature is paralyzed for one minute unless attacked. This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Muted (M): During any rest, or if the owner is sitting around for a while, the clockwork goes down to a more semi-shutdown mode and has disadvantage on all Perception rolls and is always surprised in the first round of combat.
Reinforced Construction: The clockwork has resistance to force, lightning, and thunder damage.
Sensors, Intermediate: The range of the clockwork’s Darkvision becomes 60 feet, and it gains proficiency in Perception if it doesn’t already have it.
Slam, Intermediate: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d8 – 1 bludgeoning.
Slashing, Intermediate: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d8 – 1 slashing.
Sonic Scream: The screamer emits destructive energy in a 15-foot cube. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 11 Strength saving throw or take 7 (2d6) thunder damage and be knocked prone.
Strong: The clockwork’s internal mechanisms have been improved and it now has a strength of 18. Adjust its attacks to hit and damage where applicable.
Sturdy: The clockwork’s internal mechanisms have been improved and it now has a constitution of 18. Adjust its hit points.
Sturdy Frame: The clockwork’s hit point maximum increases by an amount equal to its number of Hit Dice.
Swimming Speed, Intermediate: The construct can swim at a speed of 25 feet per round.
Walking Speed, Intermediate: The walking speed of the clockwork increases by 20 feet. This cannot be stacked with other speed enhancements.
Rare Effects
Armor, Advanced: Gains an AC of 16.
Bite, Advanced: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d6 – 1 piercing
Burrowing Speed, Advanced: The construct can burrow at a speed of 15 feet per round through earth, but not rock or other hard materials.
Energy Cascade (M): When the clockwork guardian is hit with a critical hit, it takes an additional 2d8 lightning damage on top of the critical damage. This damage bypasses all resistances. This effect cannot be combined with the effect of Lightning Absorption.
Explodes (M): When reduced to zero hit points the clockwork explodes in a fiery ball using his dice as damage to everything within a 20-foot radius from the clockwork. A DC15 Dexterity check for half damage on a success and full damage on a failure.
Explosive Bolt (Recharge 5–6): The clockwork launches an explosive charge at a point within 120 feet. Each creature within 20 feet of that point must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 17 (5d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. After two shots, the clockwork must be reloaded.
Fire Damage, Advanced: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 2d6 in fire damage on a hit.This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Flying Speed, Advanced: The construct can fly at a speed of 20 feet per round but cannot hover.
Ice Damage, Advanced: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 2d6 in ice damage on a hit.This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Intercept Attack: In response to another creature within 5 feet of it being hit by an attack roll, the clockwork gives that creature a +5 bonus to its AC against that attack, potentially causing a miss. To use this ability, the clockwork must be able to see the creature and the attacker.
Lancing Bolt: Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 100/400 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) piercing damage. After ten shots it must be reloaded.
Lightning Absorption: Whenever the Clockwork is subjected to lightning damage, it takes no damage and instead regains several hit points equal to the lightning damage dealt. Cannot be combined with the effect Energy Cascade.
Lightning Damage, Advanced: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 2d6 in lightning damage on a hit.This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Multiattack, Advanced: The clockwork can make two attacks using any melee or ranged attack, but not magical attacks.
Necrotic Damage: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 1d10 in necrotic damage on a hit. This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Overclock: When the clockwork hits a creature with a critical hit, it can make an additional weapon attack as part of that action. It can only benefit from this feature once a turn.
Paralysis Damage, Advanced: Modify any one of the clockwork’s physical melee attacks and it also does paralysis on a hit with a DC15 Constitution check for no effect and upon failure the attacked creature is paralyzed for one minute unless attacked. This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Radiant Damage: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 1d10 in radiant damage on a hit. This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Sensors, Advanced: The range of the clockwork’s Darkvision becomes 90 feet, and it gains proficiency in Perception if it doesn’t already have it.
Siege Device: It can do double damage to objects and structures.
Self-Repairing: If the clockwork starts its turn with at least 1 hit point, it regains 5 hit points. If it takes lightning damage, this ability doesn’t function at the start of its next turn.
Slam, Advanced: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d8 – 1 bludgeoning.
Slashing, Advanced: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d8 – 1 slashing.
Swimming Speed, Advanced: The construct can swim at a speed of 30 feet per round.
Vocal Resonator: The clockwork gains the ability to speak rudimentary Common or Gnomish (creator’s choice).
Walking Speed, Advanced: The walking speed of the clockwork increases by 30 feet. This cannot be stacked with other speed enhancements.
Very Rare Effects
Armor, Masterworked: Gains an AC of 18.
Berserk (M): Every time the clockworks take damage roll on a d10 and if the roll is a one it goes berserk. On each of its turns while berserk, the clockwork attacks the nearest creature it can see. If no creature is near enough to move to and attack, the clockwork attacks an object, with preference for an object smaller than itself. The clockwork will remain in the berserk mode for 1d4 rounds.
Bite, Masterworked: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d8 – 1 piercing
Burrowing Speed, Masterworked: The construct can burrow at a speed of 20 feet per round through earth, but not rock or other hard materials.
Fire Damage, Masterworked: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 3d6 in fire damage on a hit.This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Flying Speed, Masterworked: The construct can fly at a speed of 25 feet per round and can hover.
Ice Damage, Masterworked: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 3d6 in ice damage on a hit.This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Lightning Damage, Masterworked: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 3d6 in lightning damage on a hit.This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Magical Resistance: The clockwork has advantage saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Multiattack, Masterworked: The clockwork can make three attacks using any melee or ranged attack, but not magical attacks.
Necrotic Damage, Masterworked: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 2d10 in necrotic damage on a hit. This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Paralysis Damage, Masterworked: Modify any one of the clockwork’s physical melee attacks and it also does paralysis on a hit with a DC17 Constitution check for no effect and upon failure the attacked creature is paralyzed for one minute unless attacked. This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Radiant Damage, Masterworked: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 2d10 in radiant damage on a hit. This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Sensors, Masterworked: The range of the clockwork’s Darkvision becomes 120 feet, and it gains proficiency in Perception if it doesn’t already have it.
Slam, Masterworked: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d10 – 1 bludgeoning.
Slashing, Masterworked: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d10 – 1 slashing.
Swimming Speed, Masterworked: The construct can swim at a speed of 35 feet per round.
Walking Speed, Masterworked: The walking speed of the clockwork increases by 40 feet. This cannot be stacked with other speed enhancements.
Legendary Effects
Armor, Legendary: Gains an AC of 20.
Bite, Legendary: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d12 – 1 piercing
Burrowing Speed, Legendary: The construct can burrow at a speed of 30 feet per round through earth, but not rock or other hard materials.
Fire Damage, Legendary: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 4d6 in fire damage on a hit.This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Flying Speed, Legendary: The construct can fly at a speed of 30 feet per round and can hover.
Ice Damage, Legendary: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 4d6 in ice damage on a hit.This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Intelligent: The clockwork has been given a brain. Its Intelligence is changed to 15.
Lightning Damage, Legendary: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 4d6 in lightning damage on a hit.This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Necrotic Damage, Legendary: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 3d10 in necrotic damage on a hit. This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Multiattack, Legendary: The clockwork can make four attacks using any melee or ranged attack, but not magical attacks.
Paralysis Damage, Legendary: Modify any one of the clockwork’s physical melee attacks and it also does paralysis on a hit with a DC21 Constitution check for no effect and upon failure the attacked creature is paralyzed for one minute unless attacked. This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Petulant (M): The clockwork somehow has gained an innate desire to be free and is not always favorable to its owner. The owner must make Persuasion checks to give it orders at an increasingly difficult DC. The DC starts off at an eight and increases by one for each argument. The clockwork will not argue every single point, it will pick the places where it has leverage and then attempt to argue a point.
The clockwork does not like being used as a war machine, a beast of burden, or whatever roll it was originally created for. It would prefer to paint pictures, direct plays, or even collect potted plants. The disagreements will start small and slowly escalate. If the owner ever makes a natural 20 roll on the persuasion, the DC resets to eight.
Radiant Damage, Legendary: Add to one of the physical melee attacks that the clockwork has, and it will add 3d10 in radiant damage on a hit. This cannot be combined with any other damage types.
Sensors, Legendary: The range of the clockwork’s Darkvision becomes 150 feet, and it gains proficiency in Perception if it doesn’t already have it.
Slam, Legendary: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3d12 – 1 bludgeoning.
Slam, Legendary: Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3d12 – 1 slashing.
Swimming Speed, Legendary: The construct can swim at a speed of 40 feet per round.
Walking Speed, Legendary: The walking speed of the clockwork increases by 50 feet. This cannot be stacked with other speed enhancements.
Evening was rolling in quickly and no one wanted to be wandering around outside while dark, however Fogo’s insistence on poking dead bodies would be causing a delay. With many skeletons and a few zombies standing up and starting the assault, it did not take long for Fogo and ISAC to run screaming for help away from the room.
Skeleton
Zombie
The rest of the party was able to respond with Vladimir taking the lead to block the hallway and bottlenecking the undead from coming further down. Deciding that retreating and with the prisoners should be smarter than trying to fight the creatures in place. The three former prisoners with Dancer grabbing the children they quickly ran outside the cave. When having retreated halfway outside the cave, the party back around and started engaging the undead once again.
Grafaerd Ulamoira
Alfred
Gef Rilisk
With Dancer repeatedly asking what was happening, and left unanswered, but the weak and slow undead were easily killed off and reduced to moldering piles. Reuniting outside they started making their way back to Red Larch. Halfway back to town tremors started up again shaking the ground and everything around them. This time it was a bit more severe as they could hear the slight roar of the earthquake around them.
On the way back Grafaerd was chatting with the group. He had been out here seeking his fortune using an old map he had found in a book hidden in a library in Waterdeep. Realizing that he was over his head and should pursue a safer profession, he handed it over to the group as a reward for saving him.
Map from Grafaerd Ulamoira
Vladimir started briefing Dancer about some of the things they had faced, especially the Bleeding Eye group and their connection with bandits. He included his favorite enemy, the Iceshield Orcs and that they were detestable in general. The bandits have been preying on merchants, the orcs and Uthgardt on smaller undefended settlements, and that there were some other cult groups in the area. When Fwoosh started explaining about their golden statue, everyone, especially Angelica tried to shush him from speaking about it too much. Fogo was quick to talk about the unnaturalness of the weather and some of the odd microhabitats. Dancer was happy to let the party know that he was a bounty hunter and sent out to collect a bounty of 1000gp on Oreioth, the necromancer’s heads.
Oreioth (Necromancer)
The merchant was also forthcoming about the different vendors in Red Larch. The Wheelworks was run by a drunkard, Grund was a great pickler, but not too smart, the Swinging Sword was the nicest Inn, and that the Helm was the place where all the locals hung out at night. Continuing their way back to town, the tremors did not seem to have damaged anything and they made their way to Harburk Tuthmarillar office. The two little girls were reunited with their parents which made the family whole once again and much happier than before.
Harburk Tuthmarillar
The group started describing what happened but once he got to the Ruined Moathouse, they decided that it might be better to talk among the party first and explain everything tomorrow to the constable, especially since Harburk seemed to be a bit frustrated and unhappy that bandits have a castle nearby.
Funding Grafaerd some gold, both he and Dancer were able to rent rooms from Gwendolyn Venelli. The entire group sat down for a meal getting a little rest and good food before heading to bed. Delillia was as surly as usual, but it did not take much long for the food to arrive. Fogo headed to the kitchen for his training with Xaasz. He put on his knee pads and headed on back. Consumed with curiosity Dancer followed into the back and was greeted by the small group of goblins in the kitchen making all the meals.
Gwendolyn Venelli
Delillia Quelbeard
Xaasz
While at dinner, the party began describing more about themselves and they got a little more information about Dancer himself. He explained that he was tired of adventuring alone and waking up on top of zombie piles. Giving some background information of each other Dancer as he shared a little more about his history. Heading up to bed, Dancer left for the night. Gathering everyone in one of the rooms, Vladimir had an internal discussion with the party about Dancer and how to have him involved.
The discussion veered toward some of happened in the caves. That the statue seemed to have swallowed a ball of light that had flown out of the image of the eye after the vision they all had.
25th of Mirtul of the year 1492
With everyone in bed, Dancer made sure he got up before sunrise and head to the bakery in town. Knocking on the door he was able to gain access with a certain amount of finger talk with Mangobarl Lorren. Bringing him back and having him speak with Jepos, dancer informed them of his task completion. Requesting his reward, Jepos suggested that Dancer come back at sunrise to collect the reward. Jepos also offered a chance to shop at the black-market store that they were running in the bakery.
Mangobarl Lorren
Jepos Copperhand
Departing for a few hours Dancer went back to the Blackbutter Inn. In the morning, Dancer went back and collected his bounty as well as a dozen beaver tail buns. Passing Fwoosh heading to the same direction to purchase some bear claws, they all eventually met in the dining room of the Blackbutter Inn. A struggling tired Fogo wandered down still wearing his knee pads and his apron, which was covered with blood and fruit juice. He decided to head out to the bath at Haeleeya’s and then come back once clean. When Angelica came down, it seemed that she was a bit out of sorts since she had been disturbed by a dream that consumed her.
You stand at the edge of a vast, tempestuous sea. Dark clouds loomed overhead, casting an ominous shadow upon the horizon. The air crackled with electricity, and the sound of distant thunder resonated through the air. Istishia, appearing as a colossal figure wreathed in stormy clouds, reached out to you with a hand that sparked with lightning.
“Angelica,” the deity’s voice boomed, carrying a sense of urgency. “A tempest approaches, a tumultuous storm of great magnitude. It gathers strength, threatening to engulf all in its path. Heed my words, daughter of the tempest, for you are chosen.”
You feel a mixture of awe and trepidation, your scales tingling with anticipation. You bow her head, showing reverence to your deity.
“Seek shelter, Angelica,” Istishia commanded. “Gather your friends, those who have stood by your side in times of trial. Together, you must weather the storm that looms on the horizon. Trust in each other’s strength and find solace in the unity of your bond.”
As your deity’s words faded, the vision shifted, revealing Angelica standing among her loyal companions, their unwavering support evident in their eyes. They stood together, backs against the wind, bracing themselves for the impending storm.
“You are not alone, Angelica,” Istishia whispered, his voice gentler now. “Harness the power of water and ice that flows within you, for they shall be your shield against the coming tempest. Stand firm, weather the chaos, and emerge stronger on the other side.”
With those final words, the vision dissipated, and you awaken from you dream. You knew that your path was set before you, and that your destiny intertwined with the approaching storm. Determination surged within your heart as you vowed to gather your companions and prepare for the challenges to come. For in their unity, you would face the storm and emerge victorious, guided by the whispers of the storm god, Istishia.
She relayed parts of it to the rest of the party. Given that still had time before needing to visit Harburk, Avery was able to go through and identify all the different magic items they had collected but were just using a baggage until now. The most interesting item was the Lantern of Equivalent Exchange.
Lantern of Equivalent Exchange
Once all of that was complete, it was time to go see Harburk at the Swinging Sword to meet breakfast so they could explain what has happened more leisurely and in greater detail. The constable was waiting for them with his six heavy-set part-time deputies and butchers sitting nearby. As they approached Harburk they were greeted by Kaylessa Irkell the owner of the Swinging Sword. Ordering some drinks, they settled down to finally have their conversation with Harburk.
Kaylessa Irkell
Taking time to describe and explain that they had discovered a swamp southeast of here and as they entered, it started to freeze over. In the middle was an old dwarven fortress, the Ruined Moathouse. Within were many bandits and other creatures allied with the bandits even including an ogre. There were some thoughts considering the possibility that the necromancer and the bandits were working together since there were zombies in the Moathouse, although there were also bandit zombies in Lance Rock. Their story only got stranger when they described the Ice Hag, and finally that there were what appeared to be soldiers in the Moathouse.
Harburk started to describe that there were stories, rumors that there was a giant dwarven city complex underneath the Sumber Hills, but there was not any proof. They also informed him that they still had not visited all the possible bandit locations and that there might be more. They also updated the constable about the changes in Amphail, and that there was now a Lord Warder in charge who had brought a unit of soldiers with him. They also expressed their concern about the hippogriff riders they had seen. He mentioned to them that there was something about a place called Feathergale Spire in the hills somewhere, but he did not know exactly where that was.
It was then that the building began to shake. A loud roaring could be heard with creaking and groaing of buildings here and around them. Harburk jumped up and ran to the door. They could hear all the screaming outside, and people panicking. A giant sinkhole had opened out outside in the street.
“The children, they fell. Someone please help us.”
And this is where the session ended.
Campaign Notes
They thought that with the rescue of the children their adventure was coming to a point where they might get some rest, but now there was a sinkhole in town and more children to rescue.
Magic Item Crafting: A large variety of weaved items.
Artwork Creation: Weaved artwork and clothing.
QA Artwork Bonus: Selling Products takes half as much time rounded down.
Structure Building: N/A
Adventuring Utility: Additional bonuses when interacting with cloth products, knots, and materials.
Default Blueprints
Weavers are those that hold together many communities since no one wants to run around naked. They can make the following at start:
Sling
Basket
Blanket
Clothes
Pouch
Robes
Rope
Sack
Common items made of linen.
Skill Usage
Arcana, History: Your expertise lends you additional insight when examining cloth objects, including cloaks and robes.
Investigation: Using your knowledge of the process of creating cloth objects, you can spot clues and make deductions that others would overlook when you examine tapestries, upholstery, clothing, and other woven items.
Repair: As part of a short rest, you can repair a single damaged cloth object.
Craft Clothing: Assuming you have access to sufficient cloth and thread, you can create an outfit for a creature as part of a long rest.
Weaver’s Tools Basic Use Difficulty Table
Activity
DC
Repurpose cloth
10
Mend a hole in a piece of cloth
10
Tailor an outfit
15
Crafting
For much of the crafting for this skill set and tools, just use the Mundane Crafting rules unless there is something specific that the character wishes to create outside of the normal things.
Magic items are gleaned from the hordes of conquered monsters or discovered in long-lost vaults. Such items grant capabilities a character could rarely have otherwise, or they complement their owner’s capabilities in wondrous ways.
Rarity
Each magic item has a rarity: common, uncommon, rare, very rare, or legendary. Common magic items, such as a potion of healing, are the most plentiful. Some legendary items, such as the Apparatus of Kwalish, are unique. The game assumes that the secrets of creating the most powerful items arose centuries ago and were then gradually lost because of wars, cataclysms, and mishaps. Even uncommon items can’t be easily created. Thus, many magic items are well-preserved antiquities.
Rarity provides a rough measure of an item’s power relative to other magic items. Each rarity corresponds to character level, as shown in the Magic Item Rarity table. A character doesn’t typically find a rare magic item, for example, until around 5th level. That said, rarity shouldn’t get in the way of your campaign’s story. If you want a ring of invisibility to fall into the hands of a 1st-level character, so be it. No doubt a great story will arise from that event.
If your campaign allows for trade in magic items, rarity can also help you set prices for them. As the DM, you determine the value of an individual magic item based on its rarity. Suggested values are provided in the Magic Item Rarity table. The value of a consumable item, such as a potion or scroll, is typically half the value of a permanent item of the same rarity.
Magic Item Rarity Table
Rarity
Character Level
Value
Common
1st or higher
50gp to 100gp
Uncommon
1st or higher
101gp to 500gp
Rare
5th or higher
501gp to 5,000gp
VeryRare
11th or higher
5,001gp to 50,000gp
Legendary
17th or higher
50,000gp+
These listed prices and approximate availability are dependent on the Campaign itself. There is also the possibility of growth magical items that change as specific conditions are met.
Attunement
Some magic items require a creature to form a bond with them before their magical properties can be used. This bond is called attunement, and certain items have a prerequisite for it. If the prerequisite is a class, a creature must be a member of that class to attune to the item. (If the class is a spellcasting class, a monster qualifies if that monster has spell slots and uses that class’s spell list.)
Without becoming attuned to an item that requires attunement, a creature gains only its nonmagical benefits, unless its description states otherwise.
For example:
A magic shield that requires attunement provides the benefits of a normal shield to a creature not attuned to it, but none of its magical properties.
Attuning to an item requires a creature to spend a short rest focused on only that item while being in physical contact with it (this can’t be the same short rest used to learn the item’s properties). This focus can take the form of weapon practice (for a weapon), meditation (for a wondrous item), or some other appropriate activity. If the short rest is interrupted, the attunement attempt fails. Otherwise, at the end of the short rest, the creature gains an intuitive understanding of how to activate any magical properties of the item, including any necessary command words.
An item can be attuned to only one creature at a time and a creature can be attuned to no more than three magic items at a time. Any attempt to attune to a fourth item fails; the creature must end its attunement to an item first. Additionally, a creature can’t attune to more than one copy of an item.
For example:
A creature cannot attune to more than one ring of protection at a time.
A creature’s attunement to an item ends if the creature no longer satisfies the prerequisites for attunement, if the item has been more than 100 feet away for at least 24 hours, if the creature dies, or if another creature attunes to the item. A creature can also voluntarily end attunement by spending another short rest focused the item unless the item is cursed.
Cursed Items
Some magic items bear curses that bedevil their users sometimes long after a user has stopped using an item. A magic item’s description specifies whether the item is cursed. Most methods of identifying items, including the identify spell, fail to reveal such a curse, although ore might hint at it. A curse should be a surprise to the item’s user when the curse’s effects are revealed.
Attunement to a cursed item can’t be ended voluntarily unless the curse is broken first, such as with the remove curse spell.
There might also be different special circumstances on how a specific cursed item can be removed. It might require a quest, bath it in the blood of a beast, or any other story related set of actions to end the connection to that cursed item.
Magic Item Categories
Each magic item belongs to a category: armor, potions, rings, rods, scrolls, staffs, wands, weapons, or wonderous items.
Armor
Unless an armor’s description says otherwise, armor must be worn for its magic to function. Some suits of magic armor specify the type of armor they are, such as chain mail or plate.
Potions
Different kinds of magical liquids are grouped in the category of potions: brews made from enchanted herbs, water from magical fountains or sacred springs, and oils that are applied to a creature or object. Most potions consist of one ounce of liquid.
Potions are consumable magic items. Drinking a potion or administering a potion to another character requires an action. Applying an oil might take longer, as specified in its description. Once used, a potion takes effect immediately, and it is used up.
Mixing Potions
A character might drink one potion while still under the effects of another or pour several potions into a single container. The strange ingredients used in creating potions can result in unpredictable interactions.
When a character mixes two potions together, you can roll on the Potion Miscibility table. If more than two are combined, roll again for each subsequent potion, combining the results. Unless the effects are immediately obvious, reveal them only when they become evident.
Potion Miscibility Table
D100
Results
01
The mixture creates a magical explosion, dealing 6d10 force damage to the mixer and 1d10 force damage to each creature within 5 feet of the mixer.
02 to 08
The mixture becomes an ingested poison of the DM’s choice
09 to 15
Both potions lose their effects.
16 to 25
One potion loses its effect.
26 to 35
Both potions work, but with their numerical effects and durations halved. A potion has no effect if it can’t be halved in this way.
36 to 90
Both potions work normally.
91 to 99
The numerical effects and duration of one potion are doubled. If neither potion has anything to double in this way, they work normally.
00
Only one potion works, but its effect is permanent. Choose the simplest effect to make permanent, or the one that seems the most fun.
For example:A potion of healing might increase the drinker’s hit point maximum by 4, or oil of etherealness might permanently trap the user in the Ethereal Plane. At your discretion, an appropriate spell, such as dispel magic or remove curse, might end this lasting effect.
Rings
Magic rings offer an amazing array of powers to those lucky enough to find them. Unless a ring’s description says otherwise, a ring must be worn on a finger, or a similar digit, for the ring’s magic to function.
Rods
A scepter or just a heavy cylinder, a magic rod is typically made of metal, wood, or bone. It’s about 2 or 3 feet long, 1 inch thick, and 2 to 5 pounds.
Scrolls
Most scrolls are spells stored in written form, while a few bears unique incantations that produce potent wards. Whatever its contents, a scroll is a roll of paper, sometimes attached to wooden rods, and typically kept safe in a tube of ivory, jade, leather, metal, or wood. A scroll is a consumable magic item. Whatever the nature of the magic contained in a scroll, unleashing that magic requires using an action to read the scroll. When its magic has been invoked, the scroll can’t be used again. Its words fade, or it crumbles into dust.
Any creature that can understand a written language can read the arcane script on a scroll and attempt to activate it. Scrolls are the most sought-after item for Wizards to allow them to copy that spell into their spell book and expand out their repertoire. Note that by copying a spell from a scroll to a spell book, that scroll is destroyed in the process.
Scroll Mishaps
A creature who tries and fails to cast a spell from a spell scroll must make a DC 10 Intelligence saving throw. If the saving throw fails, roll on the Scroll Mishap table.
Scroll Mishaps Table
D6
Results
1
A surge of magical energy deals the caster 1d6 force damage per level of the spell.
2
The spell affects the caster or an ally (determined randomly) instead of the intended target, or it affects a random target nearby if the caster was the intended target.
3
The spell affects a random location within the spell’s range.
4
The spell’s effect is contrary to its normal one, but neither harmful nor beneficial. For instance, a fireball might produce an area of harmless cold.
5
The caster suffers a minor but bizarre effect related to the spell. Such effects last only if the original spell’s duration, or 1d10 minutes for spells that take effect instantaneously. For example:A fireball might cause smoke to billow from the caster’s ears for 1d10 minutes.
6
The spell activates after 1d12 hours. If the caster was the intended target, the spell takes effect normally. If the caster was not the intended target, the spell goes off in the general direction of the intended target, up to the spell’s maximum range, if the target has moved away.
Staffs
A magic staff is about 5 or 6 feet long. Staffs vary widely in appearance: some are of nearly equal diameter throughout and smooth, others are gnarled and twisted, some are made of wood, and others are composed of polished metal or crystal. Depending on the material, a staff weighs between 2 and 7 pounds.
Unless a staff’s description says otherwise, a staff can be used as a quarterstaff.
Wands
A magic wand is about 15 inches long and crafted of metal, bone, or wood. It is tipped with metal, crystal, stone, or some other material.
Weapons
Whether crafted for some fell purpose or forged to serve the highest ideals of chivalry, magic weapons are coveted by many adventurers.
Some magic weapons specify the type of weapon they are in their descriptions, such as a longsword or longbow.
Wondrous Items
Wondrous items include worn items such as boots, belts, capes, gloves, and various pieces of jewelry and decoration, such as amulets, brooches, and circlets. Bags, carpets, crystal balls, figurines, horns, musical instruments, and other objects also fall into this catch- all category.
Wearing and Wielding Items
Using a magic item’s properties might mean wearing or wielding it. A magic item meant to be worn must be donned in the intended fashion: boots go on the feet, gloves on the hands, hats and helmets on the head, and rings on the finger. Magic armor must be donned, a shield strapped to the arm, a cloak fastened about the shoulders. A weapon must be held in hand.
In most cases, a magic item that’s meant to be worn can fit a creature regardless of size or build. Many magic garments are made to be easily adjustable, or the: magically adjust themselves to the wearer.
Rare exceptions exist. If the story suggests a good reason for an item to fit only creatures of a certain size or shape, you can rule that it doesn’t adjust.
For example:
Armor made by the drow might fit elves only. Dwarves might make items usable only by dwarf-sized and dwarf-shaped characters.
When a non-humanoid tries to wear an item, use your discretion as to whether the item functions as intended. A ring placed on a tentacle might work, but a yuan-ti with a snakelike tail instead of legs can’t wear boots.
Multiple Items of the Same Kind
Use common sense to determine whether more than one of a given kind of magic item can be worn. A character can’t normally wear more than one pair of footwear, one pair of gloves or gauntlets, one pair of bracers, one suit of armor, one item of headwear, and one cloak. You can make exceptions; a character might be able to wear a circlet under a helmet, for example, or be able to layer two cloaks.
Paired Items
Items that come in pairs – such as boots, bracers, gauntlets, and gloves – impart their benefits only if both items of the pair are worn.
For example:
A character wearing a boot of striding and springing on one foot and a boot of elven kind on the other foot gains no benefit from either item.
Activating An Item
Activating some magic items requires a user to do something special, such as holding the item and uttering a command word. The description of each item category or individual item details how an item is activated. Certain items use one or more of the following rules for their activation.
If an item requires an action to activate, that action isn’t a function of the Use an Item action, so a feature such as the rogue’s Fast Hands can’t be used to activate the item.
Command Word
A command word is a word or phrase that must be spoken for an item to work. A magic item that requires a command word can’t be activated in an area where sound is prevented, as in the silence spell.
Consumables
Some items are used up when they are activated. A potion or an elixir must be swallowed, or an oil applied to the body. The writing vanishes from a scroll when it is read. Once used, a consumable item loses its magic.
Spells
Some magic items allow the user to cast a spell from the item. The spell is cast at the lowest possible spell level, doesn’t expend any of the user’s spell slots, and requires no components, unless the item’s description says otherwise. The spell uses its normal casting time, range, and duration, and the user of the item must concentrate if the spell requires concentration. Many items, such as potions, bypass the casting of a spell and confer the spell’s effects, with their usual duration. Certain items make exceptions to these rules, changing the casting time, duration, or other parts of a spell.
A magic item, such as certain staffs, may require you to use your own spell casting ability when you cast a spell from the item. If you have more than one spell casting ability, you choose which one to use with the item. If you don’t have a spell casting ability-perhaps you’re a rogue with the Use Magic Device feature – your spell casting ability modifier is +0 for the item, and your proficiency bonus does apply.
Charges
Some magic items have charges that must be expended to activate their properties. The number of charges an item has remaining is revealed when an identify spell is cast on it, as well as when a creature attunes to it. Additionally, when an item regains charges, the creature attuned to it learns how many charges it regained.
Magic Item Resilience
Most magic items are objects of extraordinary artisanship. Thanks to a combination of careful crafting and magical reinforcement, a magic item is at least as durable as a nonmagical item of its kind. Most magic items, other than potions and scrolls, have resistance to all damage. Artifacts are practically indestructible, requiring extraordinary measures to destroy.
Homebrew Magic Items
The following magic items are all ones that can be found in the game, many have already been found, but do exist somewhere. All these items can also be found in D&D Beyond so any of them can be easily added to the character sheets in D&D Beyond if ever needed.
Amulet of the Monotone Voice
Wonderous Item, Common (requires attunement)
There are many instances where a person is unable to speak, from physical damage, lack of proper vocal cords, or any other reasons. This amulet will allow the wearer to speak what is on their mind. The sound of the voice will very clearly emanate from the wearer’s mouth even if they never open it up. The voice will be in a medium normal speaking volume in a generic genderless voice that is only able to deliver their worded content in a strict monotone. No matter high excited, angry, or any other emotion that the wearer might be feeling or displaying physically, the voice will never vary in loudness, tone, and delivery.
While wearing this amulet the wearer has an advantage on all roll’s verses Insight checks, or any magic that would cause the user to tell the truth. In fact, even under a Zone of Truth the user has a 50% chance of being able to tell a lie anyway.
This magic item must be attuned to for it to function for the wearer.
Bag of Bones
Wondrous Item, very rare (requires attunement by a Only usable by Clerics)
This small ordinary-looking leather pouch contains several tiny bones with runes carved into them. The bag contains 50 fingerbones. You can pull out 10 bones and scattering them over the ground. You can then speak the command word which causes 1d8+2 skeletons spring from the ground.
The skeletons last several rounds equal to the characters wisdom modifier + proficiency bonus. Once all the bones have been removed from the bag it becomes a normal bag. The bag can be replenished by taking the fingerbones of any sentient creature and the owner spends one hour carving new runes into the bone. The magic of the bag lasts if there are at least 10 bones left in the bag. If a character attempts to put 10 new bones into the bag after being empty nothing happens. The bag cannot hold more than 50 bones at a time.
Blight Oil
Oil, common
Crafted by: Blight Seed x5 (Alchemist)
This bottle contains enough oil to cover up to 10 square feet of surface area. Once this oil is rubbed into the surface of vegetation, it will soak half a foot into it. Vegetation soaked in this oil becomes as soft and malleable as wet clay and retains any physical manipulation done to it.
The oil dries after 10 minutes, causing the vegetation it was rubbed on to become solid again.
Blinder’s Helm
Wondrous Item, rare (requires attunement)
While wearing this helm, you gain blindsight out to a range of 60 feet and are immune to the blinded and deafened conditions.
Book of Notes
Wonderous Item, Rare (requires attunement)
This old ratty notebook does not look like much, but it is in fact a magical item that will allow two people to share words and drawings daily. Each user may send up to 25 words in a message or a single uncomplicated drawing. A full map of something is considered too much to send.
The words are only legible between the two books and the attuned owners. To anyone else reading the book it looks like badly written love poems in the handwriting of the attuned owner. Once the words have been read, they fade away as if nothing had been written. Any type of ink can be used to write within the book and does not impact the contents of the writing.
Bracer of Elemental Demise
Wonderous Item, Common (requires attunement)
Created by a loving Djinni mother for her half-breed son. Knowing that she would not be able to remain in this world and to protect him, she created a magical item to help him survive in the rough world.
When the wearer is reduced to zero hit points their body disintegrates into a warm breeze, leaving behind only equipment they were wearing or carrying. They reappear a random distance away and in a random direction from where they were reduced to zero hit points. They are transported a distance equal to 2d6 x 10 in feet. When they reappear, they are at one hit point and have nothing on them except this bracer.
This function can be used only once per long rest.
Broken Sword of Weal and Woe
Weapon (dagger), Common (requires attunement)
Originally the dagger of a soldier named Benny. After a disastrous battle with Benny bravely defending all is friends and fellow soldiers, Benny was the last survivor to face the enemy. He swore that no more of his friends would die, and he dove into the opposing group. He was able to kill all the enemies but himself had endured numerous wounds, most of which were fatal. The next day Benny and the rest of the military unit was found by those that had managed to flee the ambush. There was Benny on top of all the dead bodies, slumped over with nothing but this broken dagger in his hands.
Once per long rest, the owner can freely cast Augury to see what fortunes await them in their endeavors. This dagger, while broken is still able to function as a normal dagger in combat and gives the user the capability to have advantage in the first strike in a combat if the user has been surprised.
Proficiency with a dagger allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.
Canteen of Last Resort
Wondrous item, common
Crafted by: Ankheg Stomach x1 (Artificer)
This canteen resembles a gourd in the shape of an “8”, with the bottom sphere smaller than the top, and with two plugged openings on the top and bottom. When fertile soil is left in the top sphere, the canteen slowly extracts usable nutrients from it, which it filters into an edible slime in the bottom sphere.
The top sphere can hold up to three pounds of fertile soil, which if left for at least 16 hours, produces enough slime to provide the nutritional requirements of an average humanoid for a day. This slime has a repugnant taste and expires if not eaten within 24 hours.
Concussive Headache (Maul +1)
Weapon (maul), rare (requires attunement)
Forged in the fires of a volcano and quenched in the blood of giants, this maul was famous over 4000 years ago when wielded by the dwarf Angrboda Gog. It has been lost in time and lost much of its luster and power having sat in a tomb for far too long. It hungers for the smashing of foes, especially those of the giant kind. It might be possible to repair the weapon and bring it back to its former glory.
This weapon gives a magical +1 to hit and damage against any type of creature, but when faced with against any type of giant, the bonus increases to +2 to hit and damage and when it hits successfully, it does an extra 2d6 of damage to those types of foes. While wielding this maul and facing any giant kind, the wielder is immune to fear and charm spells and effects. To this weapon, “giant” refers to any creature with the giant type, including ettins and trolls.
Enchanted Vial
Wonderous Item, Common
Some creature parts have powerful, yet fleeting, magical energies within them. The motes from elementals for example hold traces of their former essences in them but disperse rapidly upon the destruction of their original form. An enchanted vial is inlaid with several runes designed to keep any magical resource within from dissipating while the lid is closed and is often the only way of transporting certain parts back to a workshop for crafting. Items that require an enchanted vial to be harvested are fragile by nature and must be stored inside an enchanted vial quickly to prevent degradation. Any attempt to harvest a material that has an enchanted vial as a requirement must be initiated within one minute of the death of its creature. These are also used to store essences, and one vial can store up to five of any one specific essence at a time.
This tool can be used a maximum of five times afterwards it disintegrates into powder. At each attempted use, roll a d20 and if a 1 is rolled, the vial is immediately destroyed.
Green Shield Vault (Shield +1)
Armor (shield), uncommon (requires attunement)
Despite the powerful enchantments upon this shield, it appears somewhat plain; supposedly it will make you more appealing to potential romantic interests. While you are attuned to this shield you gain the following benefits:
Defense: You get a magical +1 to AC.
Containment: This item functions as a miniature Bag of Holding with a maximum capacity of 100lbs.
Healing Pill
Wonderous Item, Common
You regain 1d4 hit points when you swallow this pill. If more than one is swallowed, then all after the first do 1d4 damage instead.
Eye of Elemental Protection (Stage One)
Wondrous Item, unknown rarity (requires attunement by an Item auto attunes to the nearest person once acquired during the first long rest.)
A small golden statue made of what appears to be gold with four different arcane symbols with a vertical oval above them all. This small magical item comes with five charges that renew up to 1d6 charges every day at dawn. It has two different functions. It can allow the user to cast an Absorb Elements for one charge or a Protection from Energy for three charges.
Note that the Absorb Elements can be up cast for the cost of additional charges. One charge for each level it is being up cast.
Eye of Elemental Protection (Stage Two)
A small golden statue made of what appears to be gold with four different arcane symbols with a vertical oval above them all. This small magical item comes with seven charges that renew up to 1d6 charges every day at dawn. It has several different functions and can allow the user to cast a variety of spells.
Absorb Elements (1/charge)
Protection from Energy (3/charges)
Dancing Wave (2/charges)
Earth Ripple (2/charges)
Hurricane Slash (2/charges)
Unstable Explosion (2/charges)
Note that the spells Absorb Elements, Hurricane Slash, and Unstable Explosion can be up cast for the cost of additional charges. The charge cost for each one is depends on the specific spell.
Lantern of Equivalent Exchange
Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement)
This stone lantern is twice as heavy as a normal lantern. It is carved from a green stone with careful runes and flourishes on its top and sides. It has a stone shutter that can allow light to project from a single side, or all the way around.
When a gemstone is placed within the lantern, it begins to glow with a radiance equal to a Daylight spell. The light illuminates a cone-shaped area with a range of 60′ of bright light, and another 60′ of dim light. At the far end of the cone of bright light, it illuminates an area 30′ in radius from the center of the cone.
This light will last for one hour per gold piece value of the gem inserted in the spring, but that only counts the time that the shutter system is open. If the shutter is closed, the gem will last indefinitely. When the duration of the light has passed, and the gemstone has been removed, it will have been changed into a piece of colored glass with no value.
As the gem is consumed, the value of the gem decreases based on the amount of time it has been used.
There are additional effects based on the type of gem that is placed within the lantern. These are effects on top of the Daylight equivalent light. The color of the light will match the gem placed in the lantern. There will also be a specific cost to use any of the abilities which will consume the inserted gem faster.
All the different spell effects come out of the lantern in the direction it is being pointed. It takes a full action to use any specific effect.
Lantern of Scintillating Brilliance Gem Effects Table
This lantern glows an ethereal greenish light when you are within 30 feet of an undead creature. The light glows brighter the closer you are to the creature.
Long Sword +0 (Ember)
Weapon (long sword), Rare (requires attunement)
While this is only a +0 weapon, it still counts as a magical weapon for overcoming damage resistance. It has the following powers:
Sheds light in a 20-foot radius upon command
On a critical hit, it deals an additional 1d6 fire damage
Once per long rest, as a bonus action the owner can cast Fire Bolt as the spell for 2d10 fire damage and +6 to hit.
Ember was created over 600 years ago when the time of nobles and barons’ rules over the area. Little is known of its origin. A flame symbol is etched along the blade neat the hilt.
Proficiency with a long sword allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.
Lycan Gas
Poison, common
Crafted by: Lycanthrope Blood x1 (Alchemist)
This vial of silvery white gas reacts strongly with air and expands to a 30-foot radius cloud as soon as the vial is opened. Any creature that starts their turn in the cloud must succeed on a constitution saving throw or be cursed with lycanthropy. The type of lycanthropy and the DC depends on the type of Lycan this gas was created from as outlined in the table below.
The gas cloud remains for 1 minute before dispersing naturally. It may be dispersed early by a strong wind such as that created by the gust of wind spell.
Lycan Gas Save Table
Lycan Type
DC
Bear
14
Boar
12
Rat
11
Tiger
13
Wolf
12
Mask of Painful Faces
Wonderous Item, Common (requires attunement)
This mask has the bearing of a face in pain when in its normal state. The magic item allows the wearer to create the illusion of them being someone else but only their face changes. This illusion can be changed only once per short rest. All the faces that are created will appear to be in some sort of pain or mental struggle. None of the faces will appear at peace. It is not able to change the user’s gender, nor will the wearer’s clothing be altered in any way. The wearer’s voice can be altered, but all the voices will be gravely and sound like the person’s throat has been damaged.
Unlike most illusion spells, if the user is touch in any way, the effect will not be disabled or change at all. In fact, there is a distinct chance the person touching the user might still be fooled by the illusion. With a DC 20 to make the determination that there is in fact an illusion on the user. However, if the wearer is attack and takes any form of physical or magical damage, the image will flicker, but still not revealing the exact features. Once the user has taken five or more hits, the mask will cease functioning until a short rest is taken.
This item must be attuned to function. Once attuned the mask will not fall off, or can it be removed until the attunement has been ended by the wearer. The mask itself has 10 hit points and no armor class, so it is easily destroyed even when worn.
Merrow Amulet
Wondrous item, uncommon (requires attunement)
Crafted by: Merrow Heart x1 (Artificer)
While wearing this amulet you can breathe both air and water and you know the Abyssal and Aquan languages.
Monocle of Verisimilitude
Wonderous Item, Common (requires attunement)
Originally owned by an old hanging judge from hundreds of years ago, this monocle helps the wearer to discern the difference between lies and the truth. It allows the user to have advantage on all Insight checks when trying to see if the target is telling the truth or not. This function can be used as many times as the wearer’s proficiency bonus. This is reset after a short rest.
A side effect of attuning to this object causes the user to grow a long and thin mustache that end in sharp tapered tips, no matter the gender of the wearer. When using the special function, a single eyebrow is caused to be raised as if pondering some great fact, as well as causing the user to immediately reach to one of their mustaches ends and twirl it.
Moon Muzzle Mixture
Potion, rare
Crafted by: Lycanthrope Blood x1 vial (Alchemist)
Drinking this potion completely cures a creature of lycanthropy if taken before that creature experiences its first full moon as a lycanthrope. If drunk after that, or if drunk by a natural born lycanthrope, a lycanthrope can ignore the usual transformative effects of the full moon for the next 28 days.
Paralyzing Dust
Wondrous item, uncommon
Crafted by: Ghoul Claw x1, or Ghast Claw x1 (Alchemist)
You may spend an action to blow this pouch of grey dust into the face of a non-undead creature within 5 feet of you. That creature must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. That creature may repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turn, ending the effect on a success.
If this dust is dissolved into a liquid first and then drunk by a non-undead creature, they automatically fail the save and all subsequent saves for the next minute.
Petrifying Dagger (Dagger +0)
Weapon (dagger), uncommon (requires attunement)
Crafted by: Cockatrice Beak x1 (Blacksmith)
If this dagger strikes any non-living organic matter that is smaller than half a cubic foot in volume, it is instantly turned to stone for 24 hours.
If a tiny creature is hit by this dagger, they must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw against being magically petrified. On a failed save, the creature begins to turn to stone and is restrained. It must repeat the saving throw at the end of its next turn. On a success, the effect ends. On a failure, the creature is petrified for 24 hours.
While this is only a +0 weapon, it still counts as a magical weapon for overcoming damage resistance.
Proficiency with a dagger allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.
Potion of Cure Lycanthropy
Wonderous Item, Uncommon
The encroaching madness, the changes to personality, extra body hair, all of these are possible symptoms of an infection of Lycanthropy. This potion will cure any lycanthropic infections if it is consumed within a month of the infection being inflicted.
The styling of this longsword is ancient and when seen from the corner of your eye it appears to be moving. While you are attuned to this longsword you gain the following benefits:
Minor Properties: while in possession of it, you feel fortunate and optimistic about what the future holds.
Knockback: When you hit with an attack with this longsword you may use a bonus action to push the target up to 5ft. in any direction. You may use this feature as many times per rest equal to your Strength modifier.
Repelling Candle
Wondrous item, common
Crafted by: Ogre Fat x1 vial (Alchemist)
This pale-yellow candle is made from ogre tallow and emits a powerful odor when burned. Any beast that possesses the keen smell trait or similar that starts their turn within 100 feet of this lit candle, must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be forced to spend their turn moving as far away from this candle as safely possible. A creature that succeeds on this saving throw is immune to this effect for 24 hours. This item otherwise acts as a normal candle and will last for a total of 1 hour while lit.
Reszur (Dagger +1)
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)
A bloody blade found in the Tomb of the Moving Stones. Its origins are unknown, but the leather one the handle has had so much blood on it that it is now dyed a dark red and has a continuous iron smell coming from it.
The name “Reszur” is graven on the dagger’s pommel. If the wielder speaks the name, the blade gives off a faint, cold glow, shedding dim light in a 10-foot radius until the wielder speaks the name again.
Once per long rest, as a bonus action you may turn invisible as per the spell.
You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
Finesse: When making an attack with a finesse weapon, you use your choice of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls. You must use the same modifier for both rolls.
Light: A light weapon is small and easy to handle, making it ideal for use when fighting with two weapons.
Thrown: If a weapon has the thrown property, you can throw the weapon to make a ranged attack. If the weapon is a melee weapon, you use the same ability modifier for that attack roll and damage roll that you would use for a melee attack with the weapon. For example, if you throw a hand axe, you use your Strength, but if you throw a dagger, you can use either your Strength or your Dexterity, since the dagger has the finesse property.
As a bonus action, the owner may cause the dagger to fly back to their hand if it is within 60’ of the owner.
Proficiency with a dagger allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.
Ring of Biting Retort
Ring, Common (requires attunement)
A ring made by someone who has an overabundance of mocking humor. Resembling a mouth with a set of sharp teeth this ring does not look pleasant in any way. Made of some sort of silverish metal, it never seems to be tarnished or able to get dirty in any way.
By wearing and attuning to this ring, the wearer can heal an individual 1d4, but takes 1 point of damage every time it is used. To active the healing action, the wearer must first insult the recipient of the healing as meanly as possible. Once the insult has been hurled the ring takes a bite of the wearer’s finger doing the damage and then spitting blood onto the healing target.
The ring may heal as many times as the proficiency bonus of the wearer per short rest. The ring cannot be used to heal the wearer of the ring.
Sanngriðr (Greataxe +1)
Weapon (Great Axe), rare (requires attunement)
An ancient Dwarven Great Axe forged over 500 years ago by a skilled weaponsmith, but completely forgotten today. This axe was his supreme creation, and he never was able to make anything as well after it.
The axe is covered in strange Runes that are not Dwarvish, or any normal known language. In fact, they are all gibberish and decorative. The weaponsmith added them because he thought they were cool looking and hid the real magic underneath these fake runes.
This weapon gives the user a +1 to hit and +1 damage. When the weapon is wielded and used in combat, it will begin to glow with a purplish trailing flame as it is swung. It has the special ability to absorb damage on behalf of the wielder.
The weapon has four charges. When you are hit by an attack while wielding this weapon, you may expend one charge and use your reaction to reduce the incoming damage by 1d12. This property is suppressed while you are incapacitated, restrained, or otherwise unable to move. The weapon regains 1d4 charges at dawn.
While this weapon is equipped, your voice becomes deeper and booming. Once per short rest, you can use Intimidation with advantage. Proficiency with a great axe allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.
Shield of Towering Earth (Shield +2)
Armor (shield), rare (requires Strength Score 13)
While holding this shield, you have a +2 bonus to AC. This bonus is in addition to the shield’s normal bonus to AC. While you wear this shield reduce damage from ranged attacks by two. As a bonus action you can plant the shield onto the ground granting you half-cover.
Requires at least a Strength of 13 to wield.
Spirit Paper
Wonderous Item, Common
Spirit paper is a versatile tool that resembles a square of bleached papyrus. The secrets of its production were only recently discovered, and reverse engineered from secrets brought back from distant necromantic cults. By performing a small ritual with the spirit paper shortly after slaying certain creatures, a copy of that creature’s soul is bound to the spirit paper for later use. These copies are not a true soul and are more akin to an echo. These echoes do retain all the memories from its original body, and a few crafting techniques utilize these echoes to grant an item a low level of sentience or to mimic the abilities of their incorporeal reflections.
Using spirit paper is often the only way to harvest anything useful from creatures with incorporeal forms. Any harvesting attempt made for a creature part that has spirit paper as a requirement is done using a Wisdom (Religion) check rather than the usual check and is rolled separately for each item. Once a sheet of spirit paper has been used successfully to harvest an item, it cannot be reused, even if the item it contained is released.
Unlike most harvestable materials, materials that require spirit paper to be harvested dissipate very quickly after the death of its creature. Any attempt to harvest a material that has spirit paper as a requirement must be initiated within 1 minute of the death of the creature and takes 10 minutes to successfully complete.
Each Spirit paper can only be used once. Spirit papers can also be used to gather in essences. Each paper can only hold one essence.
Stick of Fancy Nature Lights
Weapon (club), Common (requires attunement only and only usable by Druids)
Within some deep forest hundreds of years ago, a Great Druid carved out different wooden sticks and clubs to help those newly ordained with their concentration and spell casting. Some of these objects have spread out as hereditary objects used by Druids ever since that time. When a Druid uses this object as a focus for any spell casting, the craved head on the object will lean back and belch forth a bright green flame that will remain lit above the object until the spell duration ends.
While wielding this object, a Druid will gain advantage on all concentration checks when taking damage. When this object is used as the component for the Shillelagh spell, the caster will have advantage on their first attack using this object. This is available every time that spell has been cast using this object as a component.
Proficiency with a club allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.