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Old 01-21-2014, 09:17 PM   #21
Gedrin
 
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Default Re: Treasure from the Sheikh of the Grinning Skull Oasis

Salts of Hospitality: Exceptionally pure, but otherwise identical to normal salt, this seasoning afflicts the consumer with the Lesser Geas spell. Specifically, the consumer must abide by traditions of hospitality for the duration of a visit (typically not harming, siding against, disgracing or betraying the hosts confidence). This item originates in cultures were offering of salt is a sign of accepting the host/guest bond, and in those cultures a significant resistance penalty applies to those who accept food or water seasoned with the salts, as their participation in the ritual opens them mentally. While there is no compulsion on the host, if the host breaches hospitality himself, the guest is, by the traditions of hospitality, released from obligation. This does not "break" the geas, but would count as having completed its scope.

Last edited by Gedrin; 01-21-2014 at 09:21 PM.
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Old 01-21-2014, 09:18 PM   #22
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Default Re: Treasure from the Sheikh of the Grinning Skull Oasis

Venom of Wadd: Wadd, as patron of snakes, has the most potent venom. When a single drop of this translucent bluish fluid is placed in whine, it acts as a potion of Friendship.

Sand of Oblivion: Tossing this black sand upon an enemy causes them to whither and disintegrate. If enough is used, all that's left is a pile of ashen powder.
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Old 01-21-2014, 09:27 PM   #23
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Default Re: Treasure from the Sheikh of the Grinning Skull Oasis

Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
No, in fact it would have been attuned to Rasul Khamsin Mubtasim, one of the PCs, whom Abu Jafar had divined to be the slayer of Sheikh Jarir's nephew.
Oh, perfect. Not very well something you can leave lying around, but what can you do with it? I suppose it should be indestructible. Or, if it's destroyed while charged, all the lions in the desert get a taste for the target's blood. Hehe. Yeah. Hunted by men or beasts? Your choice. I suppose you could hide it away, pray nobody ever finds it, live the rest of your days in fear - but I suppose you're going to do that anyway, and why not be a coward? Haha.
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Old 01-21-2014, 10:02 PM   #24
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Default Re: Treasure from the Sheikh of the Grinning Skull Oasis

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
What does a green glow around a lance-tip signify in terms of magical powers?
The aura is powerfully corrosive, granting an armor divisor and permanently damaging the armor in the area struck.
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Old 01-22-2014, 05:04 AM   #25
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Default Re: Treasure from the Sheikh of the Grinning Skull Oasis

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Originally Posted by Genesis View Post
OK, here's a few more:
Very good.

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Originally Posted by Genesis View Post
Despoiling Bean:
Unquestionably something Abu Jafar would make using his Herbalism and Quick and Dirty enchantment.

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Originally Posted by Genesis View Post
Sand Shaper:
Do you imagine that it is something they found in old ruins, stole through raiding or something constructed by Al-Warrakh or Abu Jafar?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Genesis View Post
Desert Striders:
Sounds like a useful scouting item and well within Al-Warrakh's scope to enchant.

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Originally Posted by Genesis View Post
Carrion Maw: An enormous skull, probably giantish, which has been worked into an goblet/cauldron.
This sounds like Abu Jafar's work. The nearby giants are mostly stone giants, but I presume that they have blood within their matted stone skins.

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Razorthrift: A light scimitar, matte black everywhere but its gleaming edge (which glints even in perfect darkness). Any attack which would cripple the target instead automatically dismembers the relevant body part - a solid hit to any extremity separates it cleanly. On the plus side (for the diminished victim), such wounds bleed very little. Season with damage and holdout bonuses to taste.
It's very cool, but I've described the weapons carried by the Sheikh, his bodyguards and several of the lieutenants.

It could be Abu Jafar's sword, but he's not all that good with a sword any longer.* Of course, it could be Al-Warrakh's blade. He was a fine swordsman, even if he didn't get to draw a sword in the battle.

*While he may once have been a tall and handsome man, his body is now twisted and torn from some unimaginable torture.

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Heart of the Lion: This desiccated heart of a desert lion allows the user to track prey across even the featureless sand. [...] If it is possible to give up a hunt before killing the target it's not clear how this would be accomplished - the heart can track one thing at a time.
Unless it's an artifact created by more powerful beings than Abu Jafar, there probably ought to be a way to cause the heart to lose its attunement. If nothing else, a Dispel effect that temporarily suppresses its magic would probably return it to inactive form.

If it was made by a dark genie, demonic power or some unholy servant of a wicked deity, however, that doesn't necessarily apply. In that case, it would be able to 'see' through all known illusions, scryguard, scryfool and similar spells.
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Old 01-22-2014, 05:23 AM   #26
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Default Re: Treasure from the Sheikh of the Grinning Skull Oasis

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In that case, the Vulture Cloak does seem thematically appropriate. It's similar to the Jackal Cloak, but give Winged Flight instead of Immunity (Heat), and is thus a more powerful item.
It's perfect. Particularly if he made one example for himself, which is more powerful in that it also grants him some protections from magical attacks and also some heat resistance, and then several lesser versions for scouts.

At least one of whom is unaccounted for...

I think I'll put a limitation on the duration of the Winged Flight. Most of the PCs have Boots of Dragonflight, constructed from the remains of a Great Red Dragon they slew by the Red Wizards, and those allow up to eight hours of Flight per day or two hours of Hawk Flight, in any combination (with time in Hawk Flight counting as x4 for the purposes of expending Flight time). I guess the Vulture Cloak would just grant Flight, but the lesser Cloaks might grant at least four hours and the greater one could, I suppose, be limited only by the wearer's stamina.

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Anyone who wears it for more than a month also goes completely bald.
Nah, doesn't work. Abu Jafar wasn't bald, he had an unplesant comb-over. A faint whiff of carrion that always clings to the wearer might be enough. Or, of course, the Greater Vulture Cloak might slowly twist the wearer toward the worship of the Dark Sun, the Lord of Murder and Prince of Lies.

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I have it in my head that a taste for carrion is a very common (maybe universal) side-effect of Abu Jaffar's enchantments, due to the nature of his magic.
His Mad God, variously known as N'asr, Cyric, the Black Sun, the Dark Sun, the Lord of the Three Crowns, Prince of Lies or Lord of Murder, is associated with murder, deception, intrigue and strife. He was the god of death and the dead when Abu Jafar took up his worship and his loyalest worshippers still account him those titles, but in truth, there is a new steward of the Realm of the Dead, after a debacle in which Cyric mishandled his responsibilities there and was removed by a cabal of other gods.

Side-effects more like than a taste of carrion, as such, would be a need to slay something regularly for no other reason than to dedicate its death to the Lord of Murder and/or Compulsive Lying, Jealousy or Delusions about the supremacy of Cyric and the falseness of all other gods.
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Old 01-22-2014, 05:49 AM   #27
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Default Re: Treasure from the Sheikh of the Grinning Skull Oasis

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Salts of Hospitality: Exceptionally pure, but otherwise identical to normal salt, this seasoning afflicts the consumer with the Lesser Geas spell. Specifically, the consumer must abide by traditions of hospitality for the duration of a visit (typically not harming, siding against, disgracing or betraying the hosts confidence). This item originates in cultures were offering of salt is a sign of accepting the host/guest bond, and in those cultures a significant resistance penalty applies to those who accept food or water seasoned with the salts, as their participation in the ritual opens them mentally. While there is no compulsion on the host, if the host breaches hospitality himself, the guest is, by the traditions of hospitality, released from obligation. This does not "break" the geas, but would count as having completed its scope.
Very appropriate. Salt lasts forever, so this could well be recovered from the ruins of a Raurinese post-Imskari successor state with similar traditions on guest rights as the modern Mujhuri culture that the bandits mostly come from.

Sheikh Jarir is likely to keep this where he can offer it to favoured guests. Most 'guests', of course, do not receive the kind of treatment at his hands that there would be any point to giving them bread and salt, but he was a most inconsistent and temperamental man; sometimes struck with wild impulses of generousity and honour.

He would certainly have fed salt to Salif Kwal, for example.
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Old 01-22-2014, 06:55 AM   #28
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Default Re: Treasure from the Sheikh of the Grinning Skull Oasis

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The aura is powerfully corrosive, granting an armor divisor and permanently damaging the armor in the area struck.
Hmm... that also sounds appropriate.
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Old 01-22-2014, 10:08 AM   #29
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Default Re: Treasure from the Sheikh of the Grinning Skull Oasis

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
Very good.
Do you imagine that it is something they found in old ruins, stole through raiding or something constructed by Al-Warrakh or Abu Jafar?
Oh, it's definitely ancient and found. Someone magically inclined might have figured out how to change the layout of the constructions, but they can't have been very good at it. With all the pieces and knowledge of the item's workings a talented user ought to be able to construct elaborate palaces out of sand - gravity defying wonders that are continuously reshaped as the occasion demands. Of course, most of the rods are long missing/broken, and it's calibrated with some totally weird variant of Architecture, which makes changing things difficult even for folks who know how it works.


Quote:
This sounds like Abu Jafar's work. The nearby giants are mostly stone giants, but I presume that they have blood within their matted stone skins.
The blood needn't come from the giants, necessarily - I was imagining the special spell being powered by any convenient blood sacrifice.


Quote:
It's very cool, but I've described the weapons carried by the Sheikh, his bodyguards and several of the lieutenants.

It could be Abu Jafar's sword, but he's not all that good with a sword any longer.* Of course, it could be Al-Warrakh's blade. He was a fine swordsman, even if he didn't get to draw a sword in the battle.
Eh, I liked the idea of a weapon that specifically dismembers targets. It seemed... in genre?

Quote:
Unless it's an artifact created by more powerful beings than Abu Jafar, there probably ought to be a way to cause the heart to lose its attunement. If nothing else, a Dispel effect that temporarily suppresses its magic would probably return it to inactive form.
I was thinking that the inability to un-attune it is a bug, not a feature. The heart is 'stuck' once attuned - so if you try to hunt the wrong thing you end up with a worthless item, and if you kill the fool who was hunting you the heart doesn't just go away. It might be possible to hide from the heart using scryguard spells or magical containment (for the target or the heart, I suppose), but such measures should probably be doomed to fail eventually in a dramatically appropriate fashion. If it's trivial to defeat (and a Dispel effect seems pretty trivial) than discovering the heart, already attuned to a PC, isn't much of a hook.
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Old 01-22-2014, 10:35 AM   #30
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Default Re: Treasure from the Sheikh of the Grinning Skull Oasis

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Oh, it's definitely ancient and found. Someone magically inclined might have figured out how to change the layout of the constructions, but they can't have been very good at it. With all the pieces and knowledge of the item's workings a talented user ought to be able to construct elaborate palaces out of sand - gravity defying wonders that are continuously reshaped as the occasion demands. Of course, most of the rods are long missing/broken, and it's calibrated with some totally weird variant of Architecture, which makes changing things difficult even for folks who know how it works.
Sounds nice. I'll probably tie the item to some Raurinese version of Solon/Durpari/southern geomancy.

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The blood needn't come from the giants, necessarily - I was imagining the special spell being powered by any convenient blood sacrifice.
Oh, indeed, but if stone giants weren't creatures with blood, it would be strange to make such an item out of their bones.

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Eh, I liked the idea of a weapon that specifically dismembers targets. It seemed... in genre?
It is, yes.

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I was thinking that the inability to un-attune it is a bug, not a feature. The heart is 'stuck' once attuned - so if you try to hunt the wrong thing you end up with a worthless item, and if you kill the fool who was hunting you the heart doesn't just go away. It might be possible to hide from the heart using scryguard spells or magical containment (for the target or the heart, I suppose), but such measures should probably be doomed to fail eventually in a dramatically appropriate fashion. If it's trivial to defeat (and a Dispel effect seems pretty trivial) than discovering the heart, already attuned to a PC, isn't much of a hook.
Yes, but if it can't be de-attuned, it will just be destroyed as soon as that is revealed. And if it was made by Abu Jafar, someone of his power or more wouldn't have much trouble destroying it and/or dealing with any magical consequences of such destruction.

In this corner of the world, Abu Jafar was feared, but he was only about equal in power to Esarheddon Fireheart of the Enclave, the friendly wizard the PCs have with them, and he's decidedly inferior to some of their wizardly and priestly allies back in Unther and Thay.
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