Monday 10 March 2014

Magic Consumables: Salve of Vermin Poreification and Knotted Wring of Babble Weed

I would like to see more one-time-use magic consumables.When I get around to writing it all up I want my Guild Dogs campaign setting to be filled with them. I want to have a veritable feast of temporary game breaking items available for players to purchase before each "job".

Imagine these items come from seething black metropolis filled with all the weirdness of intersecting multiverses. Also note that these items aren't particular wild and belong on the mundane side of an adventurer's inventory.

These items do what they say they do once, and then they are gone. They are consumables after all. You could probably buy a few of them if you had the ability to carry them (and the gold).


Salve of Vermin Poreification: 500 GP, Black ointment contained in a metallic canister.

Large black pustules will begin to form once this tarry jelly is smeared over a person's (or fleshy being's) skin. A patch of flesh approximately the size of human's thigh is needed for the verminifaction to take place. 12 hours after the application a quivering mass of vermin filled sacks will be protruding from the salve's application area. With the correct flex of the muscles beneath the sacks, or the correct pressure applied either side of the sacks, a swarm of misshapen insects will burst forth from the popped abscess's. There is a 75 percent chance that the vermin swarm will move in the direction the host of the vermin sacks was intending (the art of aimed boil popping is unfortunately lost to the ages). If the chance fails roll a d8 to determine the direction the vermin travel in.

The airborne insects released from the pustules will move directly along their launched trajectory until they make contact with an immovable barrier. At this point they will continue to squirm against said movable barrier until they exhaust themselves and fall to the floor dead. Any flesh-based being caught in the cloud of insects path will take 1d4 damage as the insects bite and sting them. They must also make a Save Vs. Poison to avoid their bites swelling into unsightly, stinging boils which will drive them to distraction for the next 24 hours (-1 to any attempted actions).

Once the insect pustules are popped the host takes 1d6 damage and is left with a large open sore. This wound has a 1% chance to become infected with the cancerous magics that produce the insects themselves.


Knotted Wring of Babble Weed: 750GP, Knotty roots braided into a arm sized band, the underside of which is speckled with fleshy, pink suckers.

Slipping this wooden band over a persons arm will cause the suckers on the underside to leech onto their skin and release incredibly thin, sharp root tips. These will quickly spread to tap into the blood steam of the arm. At this point said person is require to make a Constitution Save at a penalty of 3 to avoid instantly passing out from pain.

Once the root tips have tapped the blood stream, the band will begin to sprout luscious red vines, leaves and flowers. The plant growing from the band will be fully formed, protruding approximately a foot in all directions from the band, in d6 rounds. Each round that the band grows results in 1 point of HP lost for the person wearing the band. The plant will not grow to its full size (and thus not flower) if the person wearing the band drops below 0 HP. It will continue to grow if that person is unconscious but above 0 HP.

The flowers of the Knotted Wring of Babble Weed bear a resemblance to that of a human's lips. Once formed the lips will begin to "sing" an alien, but alluring sounding song that will draw the attention of any vaguely intelligent being within 100 feet of the plant. The song lasts for 1d10 rounds. During this time any being hearing the song will do everything within its power to get closer to the noise. They will not risk bodily harm or death for this goal though. Those within a 10' radius of the plant's first round of song will be affected by the plant's soothing, healing vapors which heal for 1d6 and calm any mental anxiety for the next day.

Once the Babble Weed has sung its leaves will wither, die and fall to the ground. The ring will be unable to be removed without severe damage to the wearer's circularity system  for the next d10 days. 

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