This Is Another Item From Our Collection Inspired By A Random Visitor Who Popped Into Our Stream (every

This is another item from our collection inspired by a random visitor who popped into our Stream (every Mon\Wed\Fri!). They wanted a dagger made of fire, that could summon an Elemental and was powered up while it was out. What do you think? If your DM dangled this in front of you, would you take it?

Serpent’s Flame

Weapon (dagger), very rare (requires attunement)

“The hilt of this dagger looks like the head of a red dragon, mouth open with the blade rising out as if it was spewing a silvered breath of fire. The blade snakes and shifts in a serpent-like shape.”

You have a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon, and it returns to the wielder’s hand immediately after it is used to make a ranged attack. When you score a critical hit using this weapon you can summon a fire elemental under your control. The elemental remains under your control for 1 minute, after which it turns on you.  The elemental can be dismissed with a bonus action so long as it is under your control. While the elemental is active this weapon deals an additional 2d6 fire damage.

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💎 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺! Bangle of the Arcane Assassin
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement by a spellcaster) ___

Once per turn while wearing this bangle, you can deal an extra 3d6 damage to one creature you hit with a spell attack if you have advantage on the attack roll. The damage is of a type dealt by the spell attack. If you’re a rogue, you can choose for the amount of extra damage you deal to be equal to your Sneak Attack damage instead; you can still only deal Sneak Attack damage once per turn. If a spell would allow you to attack multiple times over the course of its duration, this extra damage can only be dealt on the turn the spell is cast.

In addition, you can ignore the verbal component required for any enchantment or illusion spell you cast while you’re in total darkness and wearing the bangle. ___

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Resonant Crystal - CR4 Hazard

An environmental hazard to put in a boss room in a crystal cave.

Artwork by Kev Walsh at Corehammer.

Traps and environmental hazards are often best-used in combat encounters.  Here’s one that only functions in a combat encounter.  Unless a powerful enemy (at least 1 CR higher than the average party level) is attuned to this crystal, the hazard is CR 0 and worth no experience.

Although it gives no XP in an encounter with multiple smaller enemies, my goal was for this to still be an interesting hazard to include in such encounters.  It can be used tactically by both the PCs and the enemies, so it doesn’t particularly make the fight easier or harder, but it makes it different.  If you plan on using some of these crystals in a boss fight, it’s a good idea to sprinkle them around the rest of the dungeon too, so players get to play with them before they reach the boss.

You can make a resonant crystal any size you want, but somewhere between Small and Large is the most obvious range.  If the enemy attuned to it is bigger than Large, then a bigger crystal might make sense.

Resonant Crystal - CR 4 or CR 0

XP 1,200 or XP 0

Resonant crystals grow out of the stone in certain underground caverns.  A creature with at least 3 Intelligence can attune to a resonant crystal by spending 1 minute touching it.  Only one creature can attune to a single crystal at a time - if another creature attunes to it, the previous creature’s attunement ends.

A resonant crystal creates dim light in a 5-foot radius, but the light appears much brighter to the attuned creature, acting as normal light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet which only that creature can see.  As long as the attuned creature is within the 60-foot emanation of dim light, it gains a +2 sacred bonus to attack rolls, spell DCs, AC, and saving throws, and gains 2 temporary hit points at the start of each of its turns; these temporary hit points do not stack.

A resonant crystal has 2 hardness and 3 hit points per inch of thickness.  If a resonant crystal takes any amount of slashing, bludgeoning or piercing damage (even if the damage is reduced to 0 by its hardness), it creates an explosion of sound and light.  All creatures within a 60-foot radius must succeed on a DC 16 Fortitude save or take 1d8 sonic damage and be dazed for 1 round.  After this explosion of light and sound, the resonant crystal goes dark for 1d6+1 rounds, providing no light or benefits to the attuned creature or anyone else, and any further damage to it does not create another explosion of light and sound until it begins to glow again.

If a powerful enemy (at least 1 CR higher than the average party level) is attuned to a resonant crystal, the hazard is CR 4 and worth 1200 experience.  Otherwise, the hazard is CR 0 and worth no experience.

Villain: The Gleebringer Battalions

Gallard Gleebringer only ever wanted to make people happy. By using his skills as a toymaker and inventor he sought to fill the world with devices that would bring wonder, and save people from the drugery of labor to give them more time for play.

Seeking to save his neighbours from the horrors of war, and under the patronage of the battlehungry local margrave, Gallard has a constructed an autonomous army of toy soldiers that in some weeks time will go berserk and begin rampaging across the land, playing out an inexplicable war-game that will leave villages sacked and the entire region destabilized.

It’s up to the party to notice the looming crisis and do something about it before the toys begin their march, As the powers that be are not only blind to the looming crisis but actively dismissive of any

Adventure Hooks:

Scraping together enough coin to fund a construct army has left the margrave’s treasury more than a little tight pursed, leading them to skimp on things like repairing infrastructure, public festivals, and resupplying their garrisons. There’s plenty of opportunities for adventurers as bandits and monsters propagate through the wilderness, and the lesser nobles rely on mercenaries to guard their holdings. Its only so long before the cracks begin to show however, as roads wash out and the realms defenders turn to brigandry. 

The party end up in a tavern drinking with an old military officer previously employed by the margrave. She’s iresome and illtempered, but she’ll crawl out of her cups long enough to tell the tale of how after twenty years of loyal service she was let go for protesting when some of the troops under her command were killed in a training exercise.  If the party press a little she might just let it slip that it wasn’t training so much as a field test of Gleebringer’s machines, which her boss insisted be against real troops. Later on, they’ll find an official bounty posted for the woman, who’s rallied some of her fellow discontented soldiers and started on a campaign of sabotage. 

For his part Gleebringer is quite blind to the looming threat, having been carried by his ever shifting attention to yet another new project once the design and manufacture of the armies were complete. The party might get a chance to talk to him however if they manage to sneak into the excursive exposition he's hosting in the province's capital, either by riding in on the coattails of a wealthy patron, or by sneaking in among the serving staff. Actually getting an audience with the toymaker will be even more difficult as the margrave has set his agents to watch and protect Gleebringer, and it's only so long before they notice the uninvited guest have crashed the private function.

Setup: While many gnomes dabble in artifice, it was early in his apprenticeship with the village toymaker that a young Gallard discovered both his love and prodigious talent for the technical arts. It wasn't just a magical knack, it was an eye for detail that had people saying that the gnome's creations seemed to be alive long before he figured out how to make them move on their own.

Soon Gleebringer toys were in demand across kingdoms, and Gallard found himself not only patronized by innumerable wealthy merchants and nobles but sought out by engineers and craftsfolk of all kinds who realized the genius packed away in his creations.

Gallard didn't let the fame or the fortune go to his head, instead using his growing connections and commission budget to experiment with even more complex designs. For example: scaling up from music boxes to clockwork bands, and eventually an automated opera house.

As a man who dreamed all his life of building a flying town, it was safe to assume that Gallard had his head in the clouds. He hated to see people suffer but seldom thought through the implications of his inventions, Such as when an automated lumber mill intended to supply materials for his projects put an entire town of foresters out of work. This penchant for distraction was only encouraged by the margrave, who saw the military applications of Gleebringer's gifts from the moment a clockwork dragon bought for one of his children ended up badly maiming one of the servants who saught to tidy up the toyblock castle it had been charged with guarding.

Over the past ten years, the Margrave has become Gallard's most generous patron, supplying him with workshops ( staffed by apprentaces who's loyalty can be counted on) and an endless series of new projects ( which always end up increasing the margrave's power and standing at the cost of the common good).

Art 1

Art 2

Book of Exalted Deeds -- teaches you secrets of goodness, smites evil readers.

Book Of Vile Darkness -- teaches you secrets of evil, corrupts good readers.

Book Of Neutral Blandness -- teaches you secrets of neutrality, doesn't really care whether you read it or not.

Book of Tedious Forms -- teaches you secrets of law, chaotic characters can read it but they have to fill in Form 13(b) first and take it to Desk A in sub-facility 19, so none ever have.

Book Of Zany Plans -- teaches you secrets of chaos, heists lawful readers using a mascot head, box of mousetraps and a recording of a Justin Beiber concert.

Book Of Mediocre Bullshit -- teaches you unimpressive commoner knowledge, is slightly annoyed if cool people read it but not enough to do anything.

Book Of Gay Shenanigans -- teaches you secrets of gayness, presumably something happens if a straight person reads it but no-one knows for sure because there aren't any in the D&D world.

Book Of Meta Knowledge -- teaches you weirdly personal things about your players. Not sure what that means and there's no effect if you read it, but you feel like someone somewhere just got really sad about what it said.

Book Of Unpleasant Goblins -- hollowed out, an angry goblin is lurking inside to steal your kidneys. The goblin is at least highly egalitarian so will attack anyone who reads it, goblin or not.

Book Of Empty Pages -- doesn't contain anything or do anything. Not sure what you expected.

Beedle & Goodfellow

Goodfellow is a warforged barbarian dnd character I want to use if I ever get to play someday. Figured I'd draw his backstory even if I never do 😊