Crown of cats

This crown allows the wearer to summon every normal non-magical cat within level x 100 yards/metres. Familiars, awakened cats and other beings of a feline nature feel the summons, but aren't compelled to obey it. The cats take 10 - 1D4 minutes to all arrive.

It also allows the cats to understand the wearer's instructions. Roll a D6 either for individuals or the group:

1 - 3: The cats, having seen what all the fuss was about, wander off.
4 - 5: The cats watch the summoner with interest, but make no move to obey. Eventually they get bored and wander off as well.
6: The cats obey the received instructions provided they aren't dangerous, tedious, undignified or too much work.

If the crowd of cats number more than six, assume that at least one is co-operative at first.

+1 to the outcome if the orders are something a cat is inclined to do anyway, like chase a prey creature, bat something around the floor, or knock something off a high place.

+1 if the summoner is in favour with the local cats - generous with titbits and scritchies and space in front of their hearth.

For the benefit of the table, the player using this item should be encouraged to roleplay their attempts to persuade a crowd of cats to do anything at all useful*.

Crown of cats

Usage: All characters
Charge: 1D10 charges
Appearance: A circlet of braided leather studded with white opals. At the front are a topaz and an aquamarine.

* a cat 'assisted' in the writing of this post.

Magic item: Forston's Excellent Terranautical Sailboat

Forston always enjoyed the romance of the sea in books and songs. It called to him in his dreams. Sometimes he woke thinking he could hear gulls. But the actual sea made him so sick he couldn't memorise spells. What's a wizard to do? Craft a boat capable of sailing on land, of course.

The sailboat is a small vessel, comfortably seating four or squeezing six. It has a single sail and a tiller at the back. One person can operate it. For movement, it treats land like water. It's the same for anyone touching the boat, as long as the contact is palm-sized or larger. You can even splash it, although it resumes its proper shape afterwards. Oars work.

All the magic is in the keel. You could remove it and fit it to another boat, so long as it would take a similar-sized keel. Too large and the magic won't trigger.

Using the boat

Level ground is like calm water. The boat moves at about 9/10 of the wind's speed. You can tack against the wind at about 1/3 speed. Broken ground is like choppy water. Features like trees are like sudden swells. The boat will go over them, but it's a strain on the timber. And the magic does nothing to keep passengers or goods inside. Forests or cities are like storms, packed with up/down inclines. You can tack against gravity and sail up a vertical surface. Once again, it's hard on passengers.

Forston only sailed his boat once. He passed over an unexpected ditch and lost his seat. He sank into the turf while gripping the sail line, but lost it - and the earth solidified around him. He was never found.

Usage: all characters.

Charges: permanent.

Appearance: a mahogany keel banded in copper and carved with runes.

The eye-mine of Dhurmak

The dwarven settlers at the holding of Dhurmak came to mine the copper veins. They made a modest living that way for years. An undistinguished minor clan with a small but tidy hall in the hills. But once they dug down underneath the ore, they found a surprise.There was worked stone down there. Crushed, as though the hill had shifted and sagged above it. And there were already-cut gems scattered in generous piles throughout the wreckage. 

Each was a green or yellow crystal, cut with facets by an expert. And each gem's centre was a flaw that resembled the slit-eye of a hunting beast.

Not being fools, the clan leaders had the gems examined by sages before allowing anyone to touch them. The scholars confirmed there was magic on them but it was old, weak magic. Made to hold something fast. That made perfect sense to the dwarves. They understood the difficulty of cutting flawed crystal without cracking it.

They stopped mining for copper and started mining for gems instead. Stones with eye-shaped flaws became fashionable. For a while Dhurmak enjoyed a brisk trade.

Disaster fell the first time they entombed one of their own with his jewellery on him. Left alone in the dark with a corpse, the gem liquefied. It spread over the body, dissolved the flesh and draped itself over the bones. Like a slime with an internal skeleton and an eye swimming at its forehead.

It spent half of that first night oozing between the debris sorting room and the mausoleum. Dropping eye-gems into the other coffins. Soon there was a squad of slime-skeletons. They quietly took over the hold entrances and the mine, converting living dwarves as they went. When traders arrived in the morning, they found it sealed tight. Dhurmak had been the victim of a silent invasion.

Now the dwarves are slaves. Driven by the slime skeletons to dig faster, uncovering more and more eye-gems. There are more gems than dwarves. So far, they've been content to share skeletons between them. Each skeleton has three to seven eyes, and a thicker layer of ooze as the number goes up. They've said nothing about their plans, giving orders and threats using hand-signals. Even so, the dwarves know that they live until they dig the last of the eye-gems from the underground ruin, and not a day longer.

AC 7 [12], HD 1 (4hp), Att 1 x slam (1d8) or acid (see special), THAC0 19 [0], MV 60' (20'), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (1), ML 8, AL Chaotic, XP (see special), NA 0 (3d4), TT -

Specials:
Acid: 1d8 damage + 1d4 per round until victim makes an appropriate save.
Immunity: Unharmed by piercing attacks. Half damage from bludgeoning, heat, cold. Broken bones halve movement speed, but don't affect the use of limbs.
Eye level: For each additional eye, the creature improves AC and THAC0 by 1 and gains 1 HD. It loses 5' from movement speed.

Eyes	XP
1	16
2	30
3	65
4	175
5	325
6	775
7	1250

The rituals of the goddess of secrets

In the covert hours of the night, cut a branch from a tree you don't own. Saw a plank from that branch. Carve an empty circle on one side and an owl sigil on the other. Whisper a secret to it that you've never told anyone. Congratulations. Any table you place that board on is now an altar consecrated to the goddess of secrets.

Everyone has secrets they want to keep. You'd think the goddess of secrets would receive more worship. Truth is, not many people know about her. Those that do refer to her as 'our patroness' or 'our gracious lady' because they don't know her name. Most of them are thieves or assassins.

You can talk about anything at that altar. At the discussion's end, announce 'we dedicate these secrets to our lady' and let a drop of honey fall on your tongue. Spill the final drop on the carved board. Now no-one present can talk about what they've heard unless they're back together at an altar. Your voice will fail if you try. Sign language works, but she still might break your fingers for trying.

This is a obviously a tremendous boon to people who need to talk about their plans in private. It's good to know your partners can't spill the beans, even under torture. The lady might help them out there, by filling their mouths with acid or tearing their tongues in half to the root. She's serious about secrets.

But there's a price. The lady chooses one of the people at the altar to perform a task as her champion. It's usually an act of theft or violence. To keep something from coming to light, or shut a mouth forever. She sends her orders in dreams. Which are crystal-clear on the goal you've been set, but short on details like obstacles you might face. It's her nature to send you off, not unprepared exactly, but trusting you to work out the details on your own.

As you might expect, the penalties for telling anyone about this work are horrible.

If you succeed at several of these little tasks, there's a chance she'll select you for a great privilege. You'll become her priest. (No, you can't decline.) Then your job will be to move far away from everything you've ever known and found an organisation in her honour. A thieves guild or assassins lodge.

No need to tell the junior members why their order exists.