6 Encounters Without Any Birds

It is well and widely known that owls are false birds from the moon. Perhaps, though, you are looking to run an encounter, defined by its complete absence of birds in another fashion? Here are some other ideas for things that are not birds.

Snot Crow

Apparently named by the same kind of mind responsible for the sea horse. It's black, it's flying, it's making... sounds. Must be some kind of crow.

A chimera of gas sacs, vents, and feathery limbs keeps this reeking ball of slime and fungus afloat. It has an uncanny sense for movement far below it and drips adhesive slime onto its prey, followed by a plunge which reveals its killing root-beak.

HD 1+1 AC as leather (rubbery, uncertain anatomy) Drop 1d8 (only usable from above)
Move Fly clumsy Int mindless Morale fearless
Wants absorb nutrients

Glop: Only usable from above. One target must save or be slowed.

Pop: When a snot crow dies, living creatures near or under it must test Morale as they're showered in stinking black goo.

Anti-Simurgh

When the Simurgh, The Lord of Birds, manifests, drawing towards and into itself all birds in the region, by necessity a vacuum of bird is created elsewhere. Though natural forces quickly move to fill this void with more bird, cagey wizards have been known to sometimes capture it in enchanted cages (hence their name).

A caged Anti-Simurgh is more of a force than a creature, though it may be mistaken for the latter the way it flickers and flutters against the lead and orichalcum bars. If released, it will dart unerringly towards the nearest bird and cancel it, resulting in an explosion that deals d6 damage per HD of the former bird in a radius 10 times the bird's former size.

Scab Finches

The name is possibly a corruption of "scab filchers". Or they were named by the same person responsible for the snot crow.

Actually a kind of green beetle, or dusky wasp, it's a little unclear. Definitely not a bird, though, too many legs. They flit in to steal the scabs off living creatures' wounds to build into their nests of bark and paper. Some druids swear this material makes for superior scrolls of blood and tree magic.

HD 2 AC as unarmored Peel 1d6 (damaged creatures only)
Move Fly normal Int mindless Morale high
Wants steal scabs

Swarm: Minimum damage from direct attacks, maximum damage from area attacks. Can attack everyone in its space and squeeze through tiny cracks.

A Chair

Wise sphinxes know many riddles. Terrible sphinxes fake it with obstinance and may insist the solution to "what is not a bird" is "a chair", for example.

They're not wrong. This encounter is a chair, and it is distinctly not a bird. Is it also anything other than a chair, though?

1. No.
2. Bears fine engravings of The Final Mole. Worth 10x a normal chair.
3. Can levitate once a day for 5 minutes when commanded by someone sitting in it. (This is levitating, not flying, so it's not like something a bird would do.)
4. Collapses when it hears a certain note. Can be reassembled in 10 minutes. (This effect is artifice, not magic.)
5. A secret compartment under the cushion. Well-hidden, and locked with a small key. Currently holds several stale biscuits, half a flask of brandy, and a candle snuffer.
6. Hmmm. This chair might actually be a bird after all? There's something fatuous and unsettling about it. If wielded as a club it deals an extra die of damage to sphinxes and other extremely logical creatures.

The Bee of the Bird of the Moth

Oh no.

This encounter is at the center of a series of underwater caves. Unsettling, unseen waves permeate the place, and despite its location it is patrolled by intelligent, noxious snakes riding horses.

The Bee of the Bird of the Moth is a colossal hummingbird moth. It could be misconstrued as a bird, except that bird would be a bee. It feeds on the strange radiation of these caverns, growing, amassing its forces of horses (and snakes), and preparing to conquer the overworld with its hypnotic powers in search of sweet, sweet nectars.

The Bee of the Bird of the Moth

HD 8 AC as chain (flits, can't be believed) hypnotizing tractor beam see below
Move Fly fast Int as human Morale brave
Wants dominance, nectar

Dread hypnotic flying: When The Bee of the Bird of the Moth flies overhead, living creatures must test Morale or cry and scramble away.

Hypnotizing tractor beam: Emitted from between the antenna. Anyone struck by this beam is subject to any of the following effects of The Bee of the Bird of the Moth's choice:

• Hypnotize: Target must save or spend their next turn gazing in reverence.
• Pull: Slowly moves the target up to 30' closer towards The Bee of the Bird of the Moth.
• Fling: Quickly moves the target 30' behind The Bee of the Bird of the Moth. If it strikes a hard surface (including the ground) it takes 1d10 damage.

Deforming in the swarming: If three or more of the The Bee of the Bird of the Moth's mounted snake minions charge while they can see it, anyone they strike must save or get a random mutation.

Snakes

As large poisonous snakes, but their venom is laced with protozoa. This odd poison resists treatment (neutralize poison and the like grant another save instead of removing the effect outright).

They can also straighten themselves out to act as their own lances during a charge.

Horses

As horses, but morale brave when serving The Bee of the Bird of the Moth. Loyal steeds of the protozoic snakes.

The Final Mole

In some faiths, infants are delivered to their waiting parents by a stork. Less spoken of is the thing that waits at the end of their lives, coming up from below to take what was brought from above: The Final Mole.

HD 3 AC as plate (mostly underground) claws 2d6
Move burrow normal Int clever Morale fearless
Wants death, grubs

Tireless: The Final Mole does not need to sleep, eat, or rest.

Snuffle: The Final Mole can unerringly track any of the stork-born, and burrow across planes to find them at the end of their lives. But it cannot fly.

Mounting: If the The Final Mole is defeated, it crumbles to dirt and worm castings. The next dusk it reforms somewhere within six miles or so with another hit die and begins its mortal snuffle anew.

CCC Charms 1

Some simple, one-use magic items for an upcoming weird west, 5e-ish campaign.

A wizard can study these charms as if they were scrolls for purposes of expanding their spellbook and add a normal version of the spell to it, but doing so consumes their magic as if they had been cast.

---

This pig-leather poke of 99 clinking discs of fool's gold can be used to cast friends once. The target of the spell will believe the discs to be gold coins for the duration, as well.

A pair of knucklebone dice, each wrapped in the end of a rawhide tether. If hung from the handle or wrapped around the body of a walking stick or staff, they can be used to cast shillelagh on it. When you do, the dice clatter against each other - roll 2d6. On anything less than a 7, they crumble.

An iron rail spike that looks like it just came out of the foundry, glowing with a soft red light, but strangely casting no warmth. Striking it with a hammer loudly ignites it to the brightness of a candle for a minute. Striking it again while it glows this way causes it to flare up to red-tinged light spell for an hour, after which it becomes an ordinary rail spike.

This snuff pouch is made of waxy reeds woven tightly together. Filled with herbs, it can be used to cast druidcraft once, but the effect always manifests accompanied by a sneeze.

In full, bright sunlight, this burnished tin hand mirror can be used to cast fire bolt with a 300' range, and then melt.

A handful of jagged, magnetized scrap-iron needles. Toss them into the air to cast wrathful smite, and they will hover around you. When you hit and trigger the spell, the needles fly out and pierce the target, giving them disadvantage on any save to end the frightened condition imposed by the spell.

A bent and reforged cavalry saber handle forms the grip of this oak walking stick. It can be used once to invoke the soldier's memories that infuse it, casting longstrider on the bearer and allowing them to use the stick as a saber for the duration.

This delicate yew dowsing wand trembles in the presence of blood, granting advantage on checks to follow a trail to the wounded, but casts healing word on its quarry and becomes nonmagical as soon as it comes within 60 feet.

Anyone proficient with a playing card set can use this deck of gold-gilt playing cards as if the spell was on their class list. These decks are becoming more common, everyone involved in a game where one is introduced can make an Arcana check to recognize it. As part of play, the owner of the deck can command one other player to lose the game (giving disadvantage on any checks for the game), or, sometimes more sinisterly, to win the game (giving advantage). At the end of the game, the gilt has worn off on the players' fingers, and the deck becomes a regular, non-magical deck of cards.

Several tiny glass vials of patent veterinary medicine. The labels make it unclear which are appropriate for which animals, but the smells are unmistakably alluring. When used to cast animal friendship, also roll a d6: On a 1, the target animal attacks immediately; On a 6, the effect is permanent.

A mycelium-riddled railway map points the way towards routes not yet established, and ones long since rotted. It can be used to cast pass without trace once, and fungus and slimes will eat the footsteps of those who follow its dampened paths. If cast in the desert it simply desicates.

Deep in this cheaply printed religious pamphlet for One Eyed Jack, a misalignment (?) of characters is actually a prayer of spider climb.

A finger ring of white salt, that doesn't melt despite humidity or sweat. You can eat it as a ration, or eat it to cast mirror image. If you're somewhere salty, attacks against the images have disadvantage.

This wallet of reeking cigars can be use to cast locate animals or plants - the smoke that drifts from them indicates the direction. Adding a bit of the quarry to the cigar will double the range.

Poems of loss and fidelity grace this embroidered linen hanky. It can be used to cast wind wall if fluttered as if in farewell, at which point the embroidery unravels and falls out.

A clockwork toy donkey that can happily stomp around and bray when wound up. Wound in a certain unintuitive combination, though, it brays... backwards? somehow? in a dissonance that replicates dispel magic. After this it continues its playful aspects, somehow looking more pleased with itself.

This pair of wooden hare statuettes is carefully (and demurely) interlocked. When teased apart, they crumble, and a stinking cloud effect of boisterous charging bunnies, dust, musk, and... scents erupts.

An old leather dog collar scratched with the name "Bo". It can be used to cast polymorph once, changing the subject into an shambly hound dog for the duration. Since only one form is available by using the item, the target has disadvantage on their saving throw.

A finely printed religious pamphlet for Factumus that can be used to cast staggering smite. If all the dice come up the same, the book is not expended in the casting.

An old, dry cardboard box tied with a faded black ribbon. Inside is a dried grave wreath. It can be used to cast seeming, but only to create the appearance of a funerary party with out-of-date fashions, with a duration of 24 hours, at which point a ghost appears and reacts as if it had observed its own funeral again.

Some Magical Items

Potion of Shirt-On-Backwards

The imbiber of this cursed potion cannot put their shirt on the right way. Normally this is just embarrassing and can be hidden under a cloak or shawl. Unfortunately the effect extends to armor, and affected's armor class is always treated as a class lower. Also may mess with some high-necked sorcerer robes.

Teleportato

Eat this whole tuber raw and you'll be warped back to where it was grown. The crops are a little weaker and meandering each year. Cooked into a meal it invokes strong yearning for that place instead and grants everyone who partakes advantage on checks to navigate there for a month.

Knobgoblin

A leering, verdigrised codpiece that bestows all the advantages of a ring of protection if worn proudly and obviously. Its facial expression shifts slightly to match the wearer's subconscious when not observed. Once per week it can be used to cast magic missile with a suitably obscene set of somatic gestures.

Pom de Terror

Planted in a garden, this root will flourish with almost no care. In fact, it will grow luxuriously when other plants near it flounder, and produce far too many offshoots. Within a year, it becomes the basis of farming within the hex it was planted in. And then it withdraws its nourishment -- the roots become bitter and underwhelming, providing just enough to keep people and livestock moving but not nourished. Soon they advance to their neighbor's farms, sickles sharpened, hungry grins waiting. The Pom de Terror is upon them.

Glaive of Mutilation

On a critical hit, this outlandish polearm deals an outlandish amount of extra damage (6d, maximum x 3, +3, whatever comes up to the borders of the system without being vorpal).

You Tuber

A wriggling 5-pronged root. Cut yourself, dribble some blood on it while you whisper, and plant it somewhere dank. Come back in a year, and unearth a simulacrum fascinated with your whispers and gaining approval, though not necessarily yours. It's a crappy copy of you with expertise in one of your skills, no loyalty, and an intense desire for fame. Good luck.

The Book of Making Ready the Way

This spellbook would look at home on any academic's shelf. A leather-bound, tastefully-gilt vellum volume. The internals are fairly common observations on the night sky and weather patterns, with a lot of internal references. Like, a lot. Holding certain pages that reference each other forces one's fingers into the correct patterns, and there lie the book's spells of abjuration and, with practice, hidden names.

If the Book of Making Ready the Way is used as a material component in any ritual that requires tracing a geometry, that ritual is a level more effective due to the precise placement of angles and points the book engenders.

Bolus Bolas

Rank and stinking bolas with a wet mass bound on each end. They deal escalating acid damage to a creature bound up in them for a few rounds until they burn themselves out.

Given a pair of rations, they can recover or even reproduce themselves.

Trickledown

This magical saber is forged of pure reaganite. On a hit, compare the wielder's lifestyle to the target's (luxury > wealthy > modest > poor > squalid): Trickledown deals additional damage for each step the wielder is above the target (a d6, or a +1, or bump the weapon die, depending on the system).

Additionally, the wielder has advantage on any Deception-style checks to convince someone a plan is in their best interest, or to stoke fears of a nebulous "they", so long as the notion is mostly lacking in details.

Trickledown is a mildly intelligent weapon with a weak and mumbly ego wrapped around a blistering Neutral Evil core dedicated to the golden rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. It will nudge its bearer to acquire wealth at any cost, but preferably at someone else's cost.

The saber's goat-skin scabbard, Throat, is also mildly enchanted. Once per month, it can be used to cast commune, but it can just say no. It's said that on lonely nights, some adventurers have put the scabbard to unusual uses with remarkable success, but this is likely merely a rumor.

A Short Bestiary of "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus"

"The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" by L. Frank Baum is an adventure I read every year these days, and I was struck by how well some of the descriptions of immortals and their foes would translate to an old-school RPG. So here they are. It's public domain, so read it yourself and write your own monster stats if you disagree, Merry Christmas.

As always, images from the original 1920's book when available, and Rankin & Bass when not. 

Not included, though interesting, are the Water Sprites, Sleep Fays, Sound Imps, Wind Demons, and Light Elves.

Ryls

 

HD 1 AC none Thorns 1
Move Normal Int Low Morale Normal
Wants protect plants, destroy ravagers

Little first cousins to the nymphs, who watch over flowers and plants. They are merry and light-hearted, loving laughter. Their king lives in a distant meadow of gay flowers and luscious fruits.

Each attends a particular type of flower and takes its color for its name and simple garb. (The Yellow Ryl tends the buttercups, for example.)

Gifts: Can bring food, and paint the color of their plant.

Fairies

HD 2 AC as chain (flitting) Golden Wand deflect
Move Fast, flight Int High Morale High
Wants protect mankind, destroy tempters

Dressed in white gauze with rainbow-hued wings and golden wands. They are usually invisible and unknown to mortals. They honor a great queen who protects a magical pool which grants beauty to those who bathe in it.

Golden Wand: Each turn, a fairy can reduce the damage from one attack by 2d4. The attacker takes the same amount as the damage flows back to them (but no more than the attack could have caused). Multiple fairies working together can turn back dragon breath. 

Gifts: Can bring cloth and tools. 

Knooks

 

HD 3+1 AC as leather (gnarled) Spear 1d6
Move Normal Int Normal Morale Brave
Wants protect beasts, destroy monstrosities

Old and worn and crooked, anxious and rough, gray beards and scowling brows. They love courage, and are gruff but friendly. Knooks are known by names like "Will" and "Peter". Their great king lives in a distant jungle.

Each band are particular to one woods, but they share a secret language of whistles by which friendship is known. They can teleport creatures between their woods if all parties are willing and friendly.

Stinging Gnats: Once per day a knook can set a swarm of stinging gnats against a foe or recalcitrant beast. The target is blinded and slowed and cannot concentrate. Any area damage destroys the gnats, but damages the target as well. Submersion or strong winds may help.

Gifts: Gather and work (dead) wood and leather from animals that died of old age.

Nymphs

HD 4 AC as chain (wooden flesh) Ash Switch transmute
Move Normal Int Normal Morale High
Wants protect trees, destroy defiers

Tree colored, slender, dressed in oak-leaf green and sandals. They are curious and proud.

Cause Fear: In defense of forests and trees, a nymph can cause 2d4 HD of creatures that can see her to save or flee in fear.

Ash Switch: A creature struck by a nymph's ash switch has its speed reduced by a category. Anything rendered immobile by this effect is transmuted into a clod of dirt.

Gifts: A nymph can seal a dwelling against unwanted incursions.

Awgwas

 

HD 6 AC as chain (huge, tough) Stone d10
Move Slow Int Average Morale Proud
Wants tempt mortals to mischief, become king

They were of gigantic stature and had coarse, scowling countenances which showed plainly their hatred of all mankind. They possessed no consciences whatever and delighted only in evil deeds.

Their homes were in rocky, mountainous places, from whence they sallied forth to accomplish their wicked purposes.

The one of their number that could think of the most horrible deed for them to do was always elected the King Awgwa, and all the race obeyed his orders.

Limited Invisibility: Invisible to mortals, but not immortals.

Tempt Mortals: Whisper in a mortal's ear to give them advantage on their next check or attack to a petty, cruel, or quarrelsome action.

Bat-Winged Demons from Patalonia

HD 3 AC as leather (flapping) Immiserate d6 morale
Move Normal flight Int Average Morale High
Wants flap through the air spreading misery

Three-Eyed Giants of Tatary

HD 8 AC as plate (gigantic, thick walls of flesh) Slam x3 d8
Move Slow Int Average Morale Brave
Wants fight!

Goozzle-Goblins

HD 1 AC none Sword-Talons d6
Move Normal Int Average Morale High
Wants flay flesh from bones

Wherever a goozle-goblin dies, a thistle will grow.

20 Magic Beards

Method of Application

1. Hooks around the ears. Removable. Usually.
2. Pill or potion that grows the beard overnight.
3. Salve or oil that is rubbed into an existing beard, granting the effects immediately.
4. Enchanted mirror - gazing within reflects you with a magnificent beard, then shatters.
5. Attached to a mask that slightly limits perception.
6. Manual that prescribes esoteric diet and exercise. Growing the beard takes a month, but you know what you're getting into.

The Beards

1. Axed Beard - Long and oily, creeping up the face. Smells like yelling. Spend an action staring, screaming, and flexing, and a full on battle axe comes flying out like you'd thrown it wildly with two hands. After ricocheting around a bit it can be picked up and used like a normal battle axe but dissolves after an hour into fingernails, snail slime, and moans.
2. Beer Beard - Wispy about the mouth but long and full under the chin. Smells like hops. Once per day can be wrung out into d4 nourishing and highly intoxicating rations, which the wearer is as immune to as they'd like.
3. Bear Beard - Short and full and moustached. Smells like pine. The bearer of the bear beard is blessed in bouts of bare-knuckle brawling.
4. Deer Beard - Dozens of short antlers and prongs growing down from the chin and face. Smells like velvet. The wearer gets a short-sword like unarmed melee attack. Ungulates and many forest deities will see them as a threat to their virility.
5. Drear Beard - Insubstantial but heavy, climbs the face, and pulls the head down in idle moments. Smells like old wood. The wearer's personality becomes more dour, and they have advantage on saving throws to be frightened or charmed. They also have to pass a saving throw to enter states of heightened emotion like rage or heroism
6. Eerie Beard - Thin, wispy, and moves on its own - affects the eyebrows. Smells like your grandmother's shed. While the wearer holds their breath and shoves the beard into their mouth with both hands, they can see invisible and ethereal things.
7. Feared Beard - So black it's blue. Smells like cannon smoke. The wearer can become terribly present and intimidating in these scenarios, but they must do so in each before they can in another again: an intimate conversation; a battlefield; a council.
8. Geared Beard - Wires, sauter, steel wool, gears, and cogs - atwitch and clicking. Smells like machine oil. Works as a tinkerer's kit and can hold several small items within its coils. 
9. Missile Bristles - Literally a beard made of arrows and bolts, with arrowheads forming the moustache. Smells like flint. Bearer finds it hard to run out of ammunition. Once per day, shake them bristles to make an arrow attack against everything in swinging distance.
10. Queered Beard - Looks like whatever the bearer chooses each day. Smells like stardrops. The bearer is assured of who they are and has advantage on saving throws to be charmed or dominated.
11. Rubble Stubble - Rock climbs the bearer's face. Smells like dust. In addition to supplying nigh-infinite sling stones, this beard lets the bearer ruminate rocks as rations.
12. Seared Beard - Cinders and chars, extends to the head and body. Smells like burnt hair and flesh. The bearer cannot catch on fire but can easily choose to cause any held combustible to catch. Wild carnivores are more likely to follow their scent.
13. Sheared Beard (cursed) - SMOOTH. Smells like baby powder. This replaces any existing magic beards and prevents the bearer from either bearing a new one or growing a natural one. Some may not view this as a curse. It can only be removed by an experienced hirstutiomancer.
14. Smeared Beard - ?? Is that?? Are you? Smell? The face of the bearer (who?) becomes rough and forgettable in the minds of everyone who.. who... what?
15. Sphered Beard - Mathematically precise orb that follows the bearer's face on a short delay. Smells like pie. Once per day the bearer can turn the effect of a spell they cast into a sphere. Doing so destroys the beard, but it regrows while they sleep.
16. THE BEARD OF WORMS (cursed)  - Worms. Smells like worms. Is worms. This rare curse can only be bestowed by the Albatross Golem. Earthworms grow from the victim's face - they must be fed and tended like real earthworms, which usually means keeping your face buried in a bowl of dirt most of the day. If any die, they start to rot and stink and spread such infections to their host. Plucking them out is as about as pleasant as plucking out a fingernail, and they grow back much faster.
17. Thistle Bristles - A gnarl of weeds and thorns that clambers over the shoulders. Smells like late summer. The bearer is unappetizing and certainly unpleasant to grapple. They have extreme difficulty donning pullovers, however.
18. Weird Beard - Asymmetrical, but only after you've looked for a moment. Smells like apple leaf mold and leather and eggs. The bearer begins to favor outcasts and such more. Once per day, they may use an action while glaring at a target within close range and stroking the beard poignantly with one hand to (roll a d6):
1. Conjure a placebo flamingo into the target's space. This is an angry pink bird that will bluster around trying to fly away. If, however, it's caught and rubbed against someone who can by whatever means be convinced they're drinking a healing potion rather than being assaulted by an ornery bird, it will heal as a healing potion.
2. A fuzzy kitten appears in the target's space. They can't move past it, but they can move around it.
3. A sparrow of slaying builds a nest in the beard. If you don't shave or wash much for a month, it will lay an egg. Smear that egg over a missile weapon to make it a slaying weapon versus the stared creature's type. Or raise it up and see what happens!
4. The hairs of the beard weave themselves into 3 mawths. Each has the stats of a raven with moth wings and a rough, hairy approximation of the targeted creature's face and voice and a huge mouth. They hate you but they hate the targeted creature slightly more.
5. The hairs of the beard weave themselves into a convincing mask of the observed. It's permanent until you shave.
6. All the target's gold becomes hairy and heavy and woven together and awkward. It'll burn off in a fire, but it's basically impossible to pickpocket them.
19. Whistle Bristles - Like a bamboo wind chime dangling from your chin. Smells fresh and green. The bearer can accompany themselves on wind instruments, and always has a moment's worth of fresh air stored within their singing beard. They can spend their turn to make a saving throw to turn wind magic back on its caster. None of this works if they're prone or underwater.
20. Zyrd's Beard - A slab of dark wood carved in the shape of a luxurious beard. Smells like citrus and grain alcohol. Last remnant of a dwarven wizard gourmand, this inflexible beard readily floats to obscure any workings of the jaw (including speech). At will it will produce a small, sharply scented napkin from its mouth which can be used to clean the hands, lips, or whatever, to great efficacy.   

 

More Goblin Names

Continuing from here, another quick d50 table for generating goblin names. Roll twice, and consider adding "-y" or "-er" to the result. Some tests:

• moon-noggin
• powdermulch
• muffin-licker
• bitterhobble
• wartpie
• ruckyfist

Also attaching a combined d100 table for all your goblin-naming needs.

1-2: muffin
3-4: puppy
5-6: cuddle
7-8: midden
9-10: mulch
11-12: wart
13-14: bloat
15-16: pie
17-18: spit
19-20: jug
21-22: comb
23-24: hobble
25-26: shiv
27-28: bitter
29-30: brown
31-32: goat
33-34: moon
35-36: ruck
37-38: pile
39-40: crud
41-42: oil
43-44: fist
45-46: groom
47-48: scape
49-50: jam
51-52: bodkin
53-54: lick
55-56: red
57-58: liver
59-60: bottom
61-62: husk
63-64: wife
65-66: moss
67-68: quag
69-70: powder
71-72: giggle
73-74: brother
75-76: tooth
77-78: cowl
79-80: pip
81-82: squeak
83-84: snot
85-86: little
87-88: boot
89-90: toad
91-92: sister
93-94: noggin
95-96: beetle
97-98: tongue
99-100: speck

dice decay probabilities

Messing around with supply dice in a game. Here are the average number of times you can expect a die of a size to last if it decays to the next smaller sizer on a 1 or a 2, then be expended after 1.

d	minimum uses	avg uses
12	6	13.03
10	5	9.23
8	4	6.12
6	3	3.71
4	2	2.00

2018 One Page Dungeon Contest Entry - The Rippling Tower

Pretty much what the title says. dungeoncontest.com



https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwlOCsl0BgaoNGFNb1JYa1lYRzRBd0Z0WFNkNzNrbFY4WlZN

More Magic Bottles

A continuation of this post for some reason.

Fusspot

An unremarkable brown clay pot. Anyone viewing it for more than a few moments is in danger of becoming infatuated with it, and anyone possessing it is compelled to display it proudly and prominently.

Decadent deca-ant decanter

Fancy stoppered bottle gives a crawling sensation when held. It contains 10 ants which will grow to giant size within one round when removed from the bottle - no special control over these vermin is granted by the bottle, however.

Essence Flacon

A delicate rose-glass bottle with a detachable gold-and-silk atomizer. When a coin-sized amount of any substance is placed within and the atomizer squeezed, the sample is dispersed as a cloud of scent. Anything can be thus processed, and the smell will be recognizable even for things normally without scent. A mist of diamond will smell like diamond.

Alchemist's Paraphernalia

Each of these oddly shaped flasks and tubes holds a different minor enchantment. When filled with water, they will cause the following purely cosmetic effects for a day. Just the thing no self-respecting alchemist can be without upon their shelves.

	A … liquid	with...	That are...	and...
1	red	stripes	clear	sediment
2	orange	abscesses	pearly	filaments
3	yellow	whorls	glowing	specks
4	green	rushes	twitching	bubbles
5	blue	frescoes	hissing	froth
6	purple	blooms	vacancies	yine

Thrential's Infuser

The sage Thrential was, according to himself, an "explorer of the spirit", and according to his associates, a drunk. He commissioned the creation of this lens-like bottle to allow the extraction of interesting flavors into pure grain alcohol.

In addition to its mundane functions (which it performs superbly), if the center chamber is filled with a potion and the device is left to work for a week, there is a 1-in-6 chance the resulting liquor can function as two doses of the potion. Though the original potion is never ruined, any potion resulting from this process has a 6-in-6 chance of getting the imbiber ruinously drunk.

Trollskin Wineskin

Any liquid stored in this warty green leather pouch will remain fresh and unspoiled indefinitely.

Bottle Rocket

A clear glass bottle full of violently darting, glowing motes. Functions as a wand of magic missiles, but also sheds light as a torch until the last charge is spent.

Magic Bottles

Mason Jar

When dashed upon the ground, this jar shatters into 33 identical, though non-magical, jars.

Wine-Scry-Bottle-Mine

Fill this glass pint bottle with wine or spirits and pass it around telling stories of a place or person, toasting each with "Wine scry, bottle mine". Whoever finishes the bottle can look through the mouth and see the subject of the tales through the bottom, like a terrible telescope. They're likely drunk by this point.

Witch Bottle

You must fill this bottle with three things: something of you (blood, or pee, or tears); something that binds (soil, or sand, or wine); and something sharp (nails, or pins, or evergreens).

The next time you would fail a saving throw against magic, the witch bottle instead fails for you, trapping the spell within it. It has a 1-in-6 chance of becoming a potion relevant to the spell it captured.

Killing Jar

Any creature closed in this quart-sized jar must pass a saving throw each round or die.

Moss-Glass Flask

Milky glass heavily flecked with furzy, dark-green spots makes the walls of this elaborate flask. Its stopper is carved from the pit of some unknown fruit.

This functions as an iron flask, but instead imprisons fey, and is significantly more breakable.

Jugged Hare

A gallon clay jug holds a long-dead rabbit in aspic and stringent herbs under a thin layer of the creature's own fat. If the jug is shattered, the creature lies still a round, before commencing to slowly crawl about, gasping and fluttering its hind legs. This pathetic minor undead cannot take commands or even defend itself, serving perhaps only as incriminating evidence or a minor diversion before expiring in a turn.

Alternatively, a tasty ration for two!

Hoard Gourd

This narrow-necked dry squash can hold any number of coin-sized items, but they must be placed into it one at a time. Each takes a round to poke down, or a round to shake out, and order of retrieval is not assured.

When discovered, choose a coin type appropriate to the situation (copper for goblins, gold for dragons, as the saying goes). Roll as many d6 as seem appropriate, but each explodes on a 5 or better. Add rings or gems on doubles.

A general sense of the number of items the gourd holds can be had by shaking it, from a dull rattling for a single coin to a distant sloshing and sliding for thousands of coins. Breaking it open reveals only a dry, pithy interior and a many tiny seeds. They're actually sufficient to serve as a ration.

However, if the seeds are sown over an acre or so of fair soil, and cared for as a crop over the course of a year, roll 2d6 here, modified as appropriate by the skill of the farmer:

• 3 or less: This harvest appears healthy, but anyone eating of it instead suffers as if they have starved a day. Anyone who dies of this starvation rises as a zombie the next day. (Use your favorite plant-zombie.)
• 7-4: A healthy crop of gourds, particularly well-suited to preservation.
• 8-9: As above, plus 1d4 empty hoard gourds, if the farmer is clever enough to recognize them.
• 10 or more: As above, plus one hoard gourd has drawn something precious into it as it grew.

Fiasco

A round glass bottle whose bottom half is wrapped in straw, some of which is hitched upward to connect with the neck, forming a handle. It is a void of good luck and proper decision making - when opened, such things within a large range are sucked into it and devoured.

No critical hits or critical successes are possible within this area. Spells that grant bonuses to attacks, checks, or saving throws are suppressed. Fumbles, failures, and penalties all operate normally.