Magic item help...chalice of..

[Lameth]

I’m running a high fantasy game and in the end of a major plot of three evil hags, they will have a potent magic horde. One of the items I’m see seeing as a chalice that depending on the liquid placed in, it produces various effects. Something like maybe clear honey water makes a healing brew, or these three herbs and foul water makes poison, or maybe a fish heart makes gallons of see water, etc. Or maybe you need to quest for something to put in the cup to use a property.

The item should be potent but also cool and faerie take like maybe and very much fitting a horde of treasure at the end of long quest.

Thoughts? Ideas?

[Maz]

Some questions to consider.

-Is it a powerful tool the evil hags are using? Or is it only there to be a reward for the players? It's always problematic to balance an NPC-mcguffins that falls into the hands of the PCs. But if it's only a reward for the PC's its much easier.


-Is it going to be useful in combat, or only outside of combat-time? Ie. How long do you need to prepare the ingredients?


But to make it mystic and a bit weird, do not give a long list of stuff to do with it. Let the players experiment. And maybe do not let it require specific ingredient. But more the feel of it. So healing might be gotten by specific rare healing herbs. But could also be gotten by offering up part of your own life (like blood) (Or others).

[Culture20]

Easiest solution is the chalice grants +X to Herb Lore skill.

[khorboth]

Sounds awesome.

I would probably add a line for liquids the cup "doesn't like" producing an unpleasant result. It deactivates for a day or requires ritual cleaning before it produces anything other than smelly swamp water or... something. That way, you don't have to have it transmute EVERYTHING into something unique.

If the hags know what's up, they probably have a stash of recipes and/or pre-potions ready. It might be fun watching the PCs try to decipher and/or analyze them.

[Varyon]

An item that allows you to quickly make potions out of moderately-rare ingredients would be useful, but depending on your players you may need to tread carefully. Consider your honey water -> healing potion idea. A quick bit of research suggests honey water is typically roughly 10% honey by weight. The liquid weight of GURPS drinkable potions is 0.25 lb. While I don't think any GURPS books give a price for honey, if the potion made from the honey water is comparable to a Minor Healing Potion ($120 in DF), honey would need to cost $4800/lb - roughly 5x the cost of silver, and 1/4th the cost of gold - to prevent a character from being able to leverage the chalice into a rather profitable business anytime he was able to purchase honey. An easy way to avoid this is to take a tip from PK and make such potions short-lived.

[tanksoldier]

Yep, have to drink it out of the chalice... and only works a set number of times in a given time period... say it takes an hour to steep.

...or, honey water creates a potion that will cure anything (or almost anything) but stops working for a time commensurate with the severity of affliction it just healed.

A minor wound resets in an hour, but curing lycanthropy or ghoulish wasting disease stops it for a year.

...or maybe it can cure anything, but resets for a month regardless of severity.

[khorboth]

Another option for the drawback which would require substantially more GM work...

The Chalice of Fate challenges its owner commensurate to the power drawn. After using a healing potion, perhaps a snake is encountered in the next 1d hours. For curing a tough disease, a bear wanders through town. For enhancing potions, perhaps a group of lower-level goblins besets the adventurers.

After using the Chalice of Fate to produce resurrection potion and bring the third hag back from death, the hags were faced with a very capable band of adventurers....

Maybe too much work, but it would be a fun gimmick and would result in the PCs limiting the use themselves.

[Racer]

Infuse Tomato Juice with a Raw Egg & Onion gratings in the Chalice = Instant 100% reliable Hangover Cure ! X-D

Milk , Powdered Chalk , pinch of dry Clay & sprig of Parsley = Permanent cure for Acid Reflux .

Powered Pumice , Olive Oil & Coconut Milk = totally prevents dry skin problems for 13 Moons ...

These are just minor effects & could be fun to roleplay , with minimal impact on gameplay . Let players experiment & put forward suggestions for more potent concoctions - with a bit of imagination the possibilities are endless . :-)