Magic Trinkets
For many adventurers, a magic item which doesn’t have immediate uses in combat is worth less than the residuum used to create it. To such heroes, magic which doesn’t protect them from the blows of their enemies, or allow them to swing their blade or cast their spells with more power and speed is wasted magic, good only for commoners, and those who don’t regularly put their lives in harm’s way.
Canny adventurers, however, can find myriad uses for such simple wondrous items. They see the subtle possibilities which such magic trinkets present, and can divine numerous ways to use their unique powers to gain other, less tangible, but no less real, benefits.
The wondrous items presented here are designed to be flavorful and add a little bit of magic, excitement, and zest to your games. They are not designed to have immediate uses in combat, but rather are designed instead to encourage roleplaying and clever, out-of-the-box solutions to problems. Their power is subtle, but the fun and enjoyment they can provide is not.
Merchant Pouch
Used primarily amongst merchants and bankers wealthy enough to afford such things, merchant pouches are becoming more and more popular with adventurers, especially those who often find themselves facing huge mounds of copper and silver coins, and are loathe to part with the difficult-to-carry wealth. They are also very popular with anyone who travels from country to country, as they allow travelers to avoid having to stop at moneychangers to exchange their coinage into the local currency. They are especially popular amongst the frugal, due to their ability to always produce exact change.
Merchant Pouch Level 6
This small leather pouch always clinks with the sound of coins, even when empty.
Wondrous Item 1,800 gp
Property: When you place a coin of any kind into the merchant’s pouch, it vanishes to an extraplanar space. The merchant’s pouch can hold any number of coins in this way, though its magic doesn’t work as long as any other item is inside the pouch.
Property: You can reach into the merchant pouch at any time to remove stored coins from it. When doing so, the coins you retrieve are of whatever denomination you wish (copper, silver, or gold), and are of the currency of the nation of your choice. The value of the coins withdrawn in this way is subtracted from the value of the coins stored (for example, if you filled the bag with 500 copper pieces, and withdrew 2 gold pieces, you would effectively have 300 copper pieces remaining). You cannot create currency which exceeds the value of the coins remaining in your pouch. Exceptionally rare or valuable currency (such as astral diamonds) cannot be created in this way.
Power (Daily): You can withdraw from the pouch one gem or similarly valuable piece of currency whose value does not exceed 5,000 gp. The value of this gem is deducted from the value of the coins stored in the pouch. You cannot use this power to create an item whose value exceeds the value of the coins remaining in your pouch.
Scales of Fair Exchange
According to legend, the earliest sets of scales of fair exchange were gifts from a goddess of commerce to shrines and trading settlements devoted to her. Such settlements were apparently often victimized by traveling merchants, who were better informed than the small trade settlements, and would often sell goods whose value was dropping, or buy goods whose value was rising, only days before word of the change arrived in the settlement. They are still used in such places, but have since spread, and are now a favorite amongst adventurers and merchants who are only interested in making a fair deal, and don’t want to have to deal with unscrupulous buyers or sellers who are looking to swindle them.
Scales of Fair Exchange Level 2
This pair of scales is balanced in the outstretched hand of a small marble statuette of a blindfolded woman.
Wondrous Item 520 gp
Property: These scales do not compare the weight of two items, but rather their value, measured in gold pieces. The scales are normally fixed, but when one or more items are placed on each measuring dish, and the proper word is spoken, the scales will tip to indicate the item (or group of items) worth more. The greater the difference, the further they tip.
Power (Daily): Once per day, the scales of fair exchange can briefly grow to life-size proportions, allowing them to measure larger items than would normally be able to be placed on the scales themselves.
Forger’s Quill
These quills are illegal in most civilized lands, as most lawmakers feel that the potential mischief such items can create far outweigh any benefit that they might provide. Some kingdoms do allow a similar version of this quill, called the scribe’s quill, which shares the forger’s quill’s ability to write unattended, but not its ability to copy handwriting. Most kingdoms ban even these, however, claiming that it is too hard for the town guards to tell the two magic items apart, and that a supposedly innocent scribe’s quill may be a forger’s quill in disguise. The penalty for possessing a forger’s quill typically ranges from a hefty fine (1,000 – 5,000 gp) all the way up to death, in some of the more extreme legal systems.
Forger’s Quill Level 8
This quill’s feather is jet black, and its tip is made of exquisitely crafted mithral.
Wondrous Item 3,400 gp
Property: A forger’s quill can be set next to paper, then commanded to write, springing to life and magically recording to paper anything dictated to it. It will faithfully write in this way as long as the dictation continues, moving to the next sheet when the first is filled. It never runs out of ink. Some forger’s quills stop writing when they run out of paper, while others will continue to write on the nearest available surface, such as a wall, desk, or table.
Property: Once a forger’s quill has been manually traced over any sample of handwriting at least 25 words long, it learns that handwriting, and, at its owner’s wish, can switch to that handwriting at will, reproducing it flawlessly.
Chest of Useful Things
These chests are a favorite amongst those who often find themselves suddenly in need of various gear, and are typically most beloved both by the shortsighted and forgetful (who regularly forget to procure important equipment before setting out) and by those who insist on being prepared for everything, as the chest’s adaptability allows them to remain prepared even for situations they didn’t anticipate. Rumors speak of a more powerful version which can produce magical items, as well, but most scholars simply dismiss such claims as the tales of drunkards and old wives.
Chest of Useful Things Level 7
This chest is made of polished, stained oak. It has no keyhole, instead featuring a large, gold-wrought question-mark in its place.
Wondrous Item 2,600 gp
Power (5 times per day): Standard action. You name a single, mundane item worth no more than 50 gp, and lay your hand on the chest. Roll a d20. If the result is 11 or greater, the chest opens, and the named item is inside. If the result is between 6 and 10, the chest still opens, but the item inside is a different mundane item worth no more than 50 gp, determined by the DM. If the result is 5 or less, the chest does nothing, and the power is wasted.
Scrying Paints
Also known colloquially as “spy in a bottle,” “poor man’s crystal ball,” or sometimes just as “crystal paints,” these magical paints allow even those with no magical talent to remotely observe a location. The paints themselves are not illegal, but using them to spy is rarely any less illegal than spying by any other means. Some clever organizations use the paints to send messages, with the recipient keeping a smaller, pre-painted canvas and the sender carrying enough paint to make several small “eyes,” holding up a short, written message, or giving a pre-arranged sign, and then erasing the “eye.”
Scrying Paints Level 20
This jar of black paint bears the image of an eye on the seal.
Wondrous Item 15,000 gp
Power (Consumable): You use the paint to cover a 5-foot-square surface, such as a wall or a canvas, with the paint. Then, with the remaining paint, you can paint a single, 1-inch diameter image of an open eye on any flat surface. This eye serves as a magical sensor, and the paint on the 5-foot surface shimmers and changes, revealing the scene from the perspective of the painted eye. The painting changes as the area changes, meaning that anyone watching the painting can effectively survey the area the eye overlooks. The painting provides no sound, only images. If the eye is covered or otherwise obstructed, so will be the image in the painting. Similarly, if the eye is destroyed the effect ends, returning the painting to blackness. Once created, the effect lasts until destroyed, though eyes painted outside tend to be ruined by the weather in a week or so, if not destroyed sooner.
Lovers’ Journals
Lovers’ journals always come in pairs, and are actually used by a wide number of individuals. The journals get their name from a romantic tale of two young lovers, kept apart by their families, who use the journals to communicate with each other, eventually using the journals to coordinate an escape from their families, eloping and living happily ever after. In reality, the journals are used primarily by spies and bureaucrats to quickly send messages over long distances. Some enterprising spies will give one half of the pair to the person they are observing as a “gift,” not telling them the book’s true nature, and then reading everything they write therein in secret.
Lovers’ Journals Level 3
These two books have identical silver trimmings, and are indistinguishable from one another, except that one is bound in red leather, the other blue.
Wondrous Item 680 gp
Property: Anything written or drawn in one of the two lovers’ journals magically appears in the other journal, as well.