D100 Objects Laying About an Alchemist’s Sanctum

 

One of the more evocative locations a party might venture to is an alchemist’s sanctum or laboratory. Images of Jacobs ladders, and bubbling glass containers fill the mind. To help you with bringing these dangerous and mysterious locations to life I’ve written for you a D100 table of items that are found in an alchemist’s sanctum. These aren’t the high value treasures that PCs are normally looking for when raiding dungeons and laboratories, but the kind of odd and interesting objects that fill a space and help to make it seem more real than it otherwise would. Many of the items below can be leveraged to varying effect by smart players. What will your players think when they find…

D100 Objects Laying About an Alchemist’s Sanctum

1. A pair of elbow length waxed griffon hide work gloves with elk hide lacing.
2. Four small brass spoons with silver cups at the end, each etched with a specific measurement. They are in descending size a bissel, a dram, a corn, and a pinch.
3. A massive, weathered copper alembic the size of a backpack. Something wet still sloshes around inside it. (1. 4 uses of a mild poison- save vs. death or take 1d4 damage. Half a flagon’s worth of foul smelling swill that tastes like sour rotting meat. 3. A bottle’s worth of a greenish acid. (thrown, splash 5/15/35, 1d8) 
4.  A glass’s worth of a citrus smelling, yellowish-orange liquid that tastes like oranges, limes, and guava mixed together. (save vs. magic or skin will become polka dotted with green and yellow polka dots, lasts for 1d6 days).
5. A full set of artist’s pastels. Most are unused except for the red which is almost gone. They come in a small, hinged metal tin.
6. Four small glass vials filled with powdered giant ant exoskeleton and stoppered with a cork and wax.
7. A handheld metal device that looks like a large wire safety pin, but instead of a head there is a small metal cup and a scraper that rubs against it. When the handle is squeezed, the scraper rubs against an odd metal fixed to the inside of the cup and produces plentiful sparks. (This is a more reliable replacement for flint and steel.)
8. A blown glass bottle with a flat bottom that has had regular horizontal lines marked on it in red pastel to indicate how many liquid ounces the bottle contains.
9. A set of copper eyeglass frames with lenses of swirled blue and red glass fitted into them.
10. A clear glass prism the size of a loaf of bread.
11. A dented and stained brass mortar and decorative copper pestle.
12. Three silver signet rings, one with an opal set in it that is carved with the device of an owlbear rampant, one which bears a ruby that has been etched with the device of two crossed wands, and one set with a jade gemstone that has been etched with the device of a dragon segreant. They are worth 55 gp each.
13. A milky sea-green glass flask with a decorative shell-shaped corroded bronze stopper. The flask is labeled with a delicate hand and says, “Sea of Southern Terror.” This flask contains salt water.
14. A set of the Platonic Solids, each made out of clay and painted the corresponding color of the element that they represent. They include the fiery red tetrahedron, the earthy green cube, the breathy yellow octahedron, the aethereal brown dodecahedron, and the watery blue icosahedron.
15. A parchment folio containing a treatise on cloud formation and weather prediction written by a Half-Elven sage named Olothealis.
16.  An intricate metal and waxed linen contraption that appears at first glance to be an upholstered walking cane until it is held upside down and the metal ring around the cane is extended out, transforming the linen into a circular canopy that blocks sunlight and rain with ease.
17.  A tanned leather mask that resembles a bird with an elongated beak-like mouth that has been sewn shut. Inside the mask is gauze soaked with clove and peppermint oil. The eyes of the mask are poor quality glass.
18. A pitted and stained set of leather chaps and a thick leather apron. (armor 12)
19. Seven blown-glass fishing trap floats. Most are made of green, blue, or purple glass. These glass globes are tied together through a lattice of knotted cordage.
20. A thin copper rack with 10 finger-length glass vials nestled into it. Two of the vials hold a reddish powder.
21. A ceramic jug shaped and painted like a stylized chickadee. When a special hole on the handle is covered by a finger, the jug will make an almost perfect chickadee song when tilted to pour.
22. A cylindrical metal lantern that when lit casts a shadow around it that looks like a scene of a playful village harvest festival.
23. A mildewed copy of Golem, The Key To Artificial Life by the sages Ilkaster and Branlouden. Sadly, the middle three-quarters of the book have been ripped out.
24. A beautifully made doll with a wax head. The intricately sewn cloths and sharply painted face resemble in almost perfect detail the princess-heir of the kingdom!
25. A small cask made of carved and oiled mesquite wood with an artistically crafted iron latch, hinges, and other iron hardware. This football-sized cask holds three fistfuls of multicolored powder. When a fistful of powder is thrown into a fire, the flames will flair, writhe, and transform into a rainbow of different colored flames for up to an hour.
26. Three waxed, folded paper envelopes filled with small chunks of sulfur and charcoal.
27. A small, hand-sized object the size of a large goose egg made of carved tiger’s eye quartz. The object is vaguely pear shaped and carved with repeating grooves and notches. When the carved stone is held in the hand, the bearer will instantly become aware of which way is north. (A party that uses this stone while traveling cannot become lost through nonmagical means. This object will not work when taken off the prime material plane.)
28. A hardly used cake of dried oak gall ink. One just needs to crush some of the cake into a powder and add water to it until the desired thickness is achieved. This cake is the size of a brick of soap and is the equivalent of twenty ink bottles.
29.  A small soapstone jar of pungent smelling invisible ink. Messages written with the ink quickly disappears. All the reader of the message must do is pass the note over a source of heat like a candle and the message will reveal itself.
30. A tattered tome of ripped manticore leather and orichalcum embellishments titled “The Drawing of Mercury from Cinnabar.” Random chapters have faded with time, age, and a myriad of unpleasant smelling stains.
31. A bar of a steel gray metal worked and polished to fit comfortably in the hand. When held for ten minutes, the bearer will feel a refreshing rush of cool air. This effect can only be felt by the bearer and doesn’t show any signs when working.
32. A set of keys attached to a copper and brass key ring with a blue topaz set into a charm on the key ring. Once the bearer has been in possession of the keyring for more than ten minutes, all they need to do is snap their fingers and the keyring and whatever is attached to it will appear in the bearers hand anywhere on the material plane.
33. Two fans made of lacquered manticore bone and delicate silk brocade woven with a scene of a desert in shades of yellow, red, pink, and orange.
34. A small ceramic jar glazed a dull red. Inside there are six uses of a mysterious spice blend that is so delicious, anything you cook with it will taste amazing, whether it is food or not.
35. An elaborate brass armillary sphere on a beautifully carved and polished ebony wood stand.
36. A set of 24 different sized tweezers. A few of the tools are clearly not original to this set. They are in relatively good shape except a small blackish green patina at the tips. The tweezers are made of a special alloy of silver, copper, and manganese. Their case is a roll of common leather with an individual pouch for each tweezer on the inside.
37. The cracked and broken wooden body of a telescope, missing its secondary lens, with its slightly scratched main lens still intact inside. The telescope body has a U-shaped brass mount and is painted with a faded pattern of rows of repeating red, blue, and yellow triangles.
38. A slightly water damaged copy of the ”Tome of Transmutational Magics,” a scholarly examination of the abstract concepts behind transmutation. The cover is fashioned out of sheets of mica with cast bronze corner protectors and a bronze lock. The chapter titled “What Lead into Gold Really Means” has been cut out of this copy, and an obscene Orkish rune has been scrawled on the inside cover.  
39. A large pipe with a carved alabaster bowl and a stem made of polished and oiled mesquite wood. The bowl resembles the laughing face of the local god of smoking, inebriation, and poetry.
40. A small set of apothecary’s drawers with small, hooked metal knobs. The set of drawers is roughly 15 inches long and 12 inches wide with a set of 16 drawers 20 inches deep. Inside the drawers can be found the severed feather barbs of several local bird species including brown eagles, ravens, magpies, cardinals, and nuthatches.
41. A delicate and thin 15 inch long glass spoon. The small bowl of the spoon is made of a translucent aqua colored glass.
42. A set of four graduated cylinders of varying diameters, each marked in regular intervals with a different numbering system.
43. A bronze abacus that is strung with beautifully colored glass beads. This is a table abacus, and because of that it is rather heavy.
44. A set of six lacquered black, red, and silver teacups that can be nested in an octagonal wooden carrying box for storage.
45. A palm sized glass jar with a stopper. The jar is labeled “Gas Pills” and contains three berry sized, frosted sugar coated balls of foul tasting herbs and who knows what. (If a pill is eaten, the consumer’s farts will smell heavily like flowery perfume. The effect last for d6 days.)
46. A thin, 2 foot long tin straw with a slightly bent end. The straw is not entirely straight and curves a little down its length.
47. An extremely polished, notably concave silver hand mirror that still has mounting pins on the edges that indicate this was used as a mounted reflector at some point.
48. A folded packet made of waxed paper that contains a slightly dried herb that tastes bitter and peppery. (If the herb is placed between the gums and the lips for at least ten minutes, the consumer will get an energizing feeling coursing through them that helps them feel brave and capable (+2 to saving throws vs. fear). This lasts as long as the character keeps it between their lip and gums, but no longer than an hour. After the effects of the herb ends, the consumer must save vs. paralysis or receive -1 to to-hit and damage rolls until they get a good night’s sleep due to exhaustion.)
49. A crusty and discolored 3 feet diameter flat-bodied salt boiling pan with handles and three stubby legs on the bottom.
50. At least 11 unwashed glass beakers. Most are chipped and cracked.
51. A traveler’s stool constructed out of three equal 2 foot lengths of staves pinioned together side by side so that when they are rotated the staves splay out and function as the chair legs. Over the top of the staves is stretched a leather seat cushion. The tension between the legs splaying and the seat cushion keeps the stool together.
52. A clear crystal roughly a foot long and 3 inches in diameter that glows progressively bluer the more basic the liquid it is dipped in is. When dipped into an acid, the crystal glows redder and redder to indicate how acidic the liquid is instead.
53. A 4 foot long lightweight metal mechanical grasping pincer. A squeeze handle on one end can be squeezed to close the grasping, claw-like pincer at the other end of the device.
54. A set of 4 inch diameter balls, all polished to a shine and all with varying numbers of grooves carved in them. Each ball is made of a different material than the others. There is a ball of yellowing white mammoth ivory, a ball of blood red sandstone with metallic flakes in it, a well oiled ball carved of shedua wood, and a ball made of amber.
55. A heavy chalice over a foot tall, carved from a gigantic block of rose agate. There are four handles on the crystal chalice, and it has been carved to resemble a rose bush.
56. A small ogre skin pouch filled with a mixture of rock salt, powdered chalk, and fine ground rust powder.
57. A bent copper signet ring with a serpentine imbroglio inscribed with the image of a wyvern being ridden by a long-haired woman on it.
58.  A brass and iron balancing scale with an incomplete set of counterweights. The only ones left are the half ounce, five ounces, and one-third pound weights.
59. A flat envelope of thick paper, one foot square. It is open on only one side. Inside the envelope there is a curious flat disk made of wax with a hole in its center. The envelope is faded and cracked, although it was once beautifully painted. The faint image shows the impression of a triangle in white at the center over a black background with a thin bar of colors stacked one on top of the other that appears to travel horizontally through the picture from the left of the image, through the triangle, exit it, and then bend downward before widening at its end. The disk made of hard wax is inscribed with a long thin continuous groove that travels from the outside edge towards the center.
60. A beautifully carved walnut wood box approximately 8 by 2 by 4 inches that contains four ounces of black peppercorns (worth 100 gp.) The box is carved with a hypnotic repeating motif of bounding wolves.
61. A foot long, half inch diameter copper tube decorated with hammered inlays of dots, zigzags, and circle patterns. A transparent glass marble has been fixed at each end of the tube. When looked through while facing a light source, one will see a fractured image of color and reflections that seem to swirl when rotated.
62. Finely ground graphite dust contained in a 6 inch long brown glass bottle, a small, delicate 6 inch long duster with a down feather head, and a small booklet of thin sheets of almost translucent white paper.
63. A bottle of an opaque, metallic blue liquid marked “Blood Beacon.” When the liquid is lightly applied to a surface, any trace amounts of blood on that surface will fluoresce a cool green color. There is enough liquid here to cover 5 square feet of a surface.
64. A wide glass jar approximately 10 inches high and 7 inches in diameter, with a leather stopper. Inside is a fuzzy looking fungus that looks like a small mound of blueish, purplish, greenish fuzz. The interior of the jar smells musty, with a hint of warm spices. This is Murlac, a fungus that grows on meteoroids that crash to the ground. If smoked, one will feel elation, profundity, and a sense of pressing weight that lasts for 1d8 turns. The smoker must save vs. poison. If they fail, they take 1d4 damage and vomit up whatever is in their stomach. If they succeed, they have hallucinatory visions of the near future lasting 1d8 minutes. This prescient vision grants the smoker a +1 bonus to attacks and saving throws for the next 24 hours.
65. A quart-sized stoneware crock of fragrant mineral oil that has been steeped with rose pedals, cloves, and sandalwood bark.
66. A bronze pill mold used to make pills for medicine. The mold is 12 inches long and 6 inches wide and contains individual pill molds for 18 pills.
67. A simple tin filled with broken and ground up glass of various colors and qualities.
68. A bread loaf sized crucible made of carved stone. There are traces of steel still inside.
69. A cuttlefish bone comb with decorative silver wire.
70. A loose-leaf treatise on the use of auroch bezoars in curing poisons and curses. This work was written by an Elven healer named Gwyne of Thelos whose works were thought lost to history.
71. A small vial of an unknown substance that smells so horribly bad that it can wake up any unconscious characters who smell it.
72. A 13 inch diameter marble mortar attached to a rotating frame that can be used to dump out the mortar’s contents. The pestle for this mortar is big and made of heavy granite.
73. A delicate set of two tongs both thin and long. One is crafted from common pewter, and the other is crafted from gold (worth 15 gp.)
74. A delicately carved tube, only an inch in diameter and 2 inches long with a well-polished lens fixed to one end of it. This object magnifies things seen through it as long as they are brought close up to the lens. This is commonly used by jewelers when viewing work close up.
75. A cut crystal decanter with glass stopper. A dried rusty orange residue still clings to the inside surface of this object.
76. A thin, dark blue glass jar filled with a yellowish brown powder that smells of citrus and sulfur. When the jar is thrown into a fire, the fire will immediately start to pour out thick purple smoke that obscures all vision within a 10 foot radius. This powder takes one round to start producing smoke and will only dissipate after ten minutes or when facing a moderate to strong wind.
77. A dented can of opaque waxy grey putty that remains pliable and ductile indefinitely.
78. A handful (1d4) of marble-sized blue and white swirled glass spheres with some kind of blue liquid inside. If thrown (10’/35’/70’), on a successful hit, the sphere will crack and a rapid endothermic reaction will occur within 5 feet of the point of impact, inflicting 1d6 cold damage to any characters struck by the sphere. These spheres get cold enough to freeze water or put out a campfire instantaneously.
79. A pinch pot sized ceramic jar of ointment that smells strongly of a combination of anise, clove, and black pepper. When applied to sore muscles the ointment will cause a sensation of soothing heat and cold, helping relieving tired and aching muscles.  
80. A squat brown bottle of a chemically smelling liquid. When the liquid is poured on copper it will transform into two-thirds of the copper’s weight in silver. This process takes 2d10 hours and produces noxious vapers.  One bottle will transform 500 coin weight of copper into 250 coin weight of silver.
81. A corrosion-speckled copper retort with an archetypical bent neck, used to dry-distill many important alchemical mixtures. An angular rune of unknown provenance has been stamped into the side of the retort.
82. A red stoneware jar with ceramic stopper. Inside the hand-sized jar is an incredibly sticky paste that acts as a stronger than average glue. The glue will dry within 1d10 minutes and can be overcome with either an acidic solvent or a successful open doors/ lift gates check. There is enough of the sticky paste for eight applications of glue.
83. A pair of large work gloves long enough to reach to the wearer’s shoulders. These impressively sized gloves are made of a shinny light green leather and bear dwarven protection runes embroidered into them with gold thread. The gloves are immune to damage caused by even the most corrosive acids.
84. A 100 foot long roll of bright yellow silk ribbon on a spool. The ribbon has been marked in 1 inch long intervals and numbered.
85.  An 8 inch tall mechanical gnomish bard figurine crafted out of gears and an armature covered in beaten plates of copper, iron, and brass. It is powered by winding up the figurine with its winding key. Once fully wound, any tune being sung, hummed, or played within 10 feet of the figurine will be copied by it and whistled back in a beautifully haunting high pitch whistle. It can be asked to play as many times as one likes, but the figure only knows one song at a time that it can whistle back. (The figurine cannot replicate speech, only melodies it hears).
86. A rounded, lozenge-shaped chunk of quartzite big enough to fit in a hand, carved with abstractly shaped patterns of ridges of varying widths and raised knobs of differing sizes spaced a uniform distance apart. When it is held, the stone allows the bearer to radiate an air of strength and trustworthiness. This effect only lasts for five minutes a day, but while it does, any social checks the bearer makes while holding the stone and invoking its power grants them a +2 bonus, such as on reaction rolls and charisma checks.
87. A bar of blue-green soap wrapped in waxed paper. It works just as effectively as normal soap at cleaning. When a person washes themselves with the soap, they become undetectable to scent-based detection methods for 24 hours. There are seven uses left of the soap.
88. Six metal sticks coated with a thin layer of elongated almost bulb-shaped dried chemicals. When a flame is put to the tip of the bulb the sticks will start to burn erratically, casting bright sparks of various colors from the tip. The sticks burn for five minutes and cast as much light as a torch as they burn.
89. A silver hammer (worth 10 gp) engraved with the obscure and complicated script of the higher planes. The hammer is surprisingly light and tough.
90. A set of iron tuning forks, one for each note of the diatonic scale. They are found in a brown, leather covered wooden case with strap.
91. A bronze and copper collar made for an adult humanoid and decorated with arcane ruins and small charms of little metallic silver powder filled glass bottles. When the collar is worn by a person who has the ability to hear, the person is rendered instantly deaf and unable to hear any noise whatsoever for as long as they wear the collar. A spellcaster wearing the collar can’t cast spells with verbal components. The collared person can still make noise audible to those not wearing the collar.
92. A primitive battery consisting of a ceramic vessel the size of a jug with a copper cylinder wrapping around an iron rod. Once the vessel is filled with an acidic solution it becomes a primitive wet-cell battery. When properly filled and maintained, the vessel puts out 4 volts of electricity for about six hours.
93. A wooden stand with a brass extension on top of it holding a series of lenses on a rotary hinge so that they can be stacked in various ways while looking through them. There are five hinged brass arms with hoops at the end, four of which have a different lens made out of colored crystal. The lenses are made of ruby quartz, clear quartz, green emerald, and a reddish golden amber.
94. An amazingly beautiful game board for the game Senet with inlays of mother of pearl, ebony, and cedarwood. The board is gorgeous, but it lacks any pieces.
95. A small tome with a dyed black cover and tin corner pieces. The cover reads “An Index of Potions.” Inside is a mostly intact encyclopedia of various potions and their variants. The book details the history, creation, original purpose of, identification of, and effects of each listed potion.
96. A large silver ring topped with an intricately carved lozenge depicting a scene of drunken debauchery on the top decoration. This ring holds a secret compartment in the decorated lozenge that can be used to store poisons or other powders or liquids. The top of the ring hinges open but will remain basically undetectable to observers when kept closed.
97. A small amphorae-shaped ceramic jar that has a leather lanyard tied to it so that it can be easily worn around the neck. When the jar is uncorked, it will slowly and steadily draw air inside it. It’s unknown where the air sucked into it goes, but the hanging jar is always pulling air into it with a slight vacuum when uncorked.    
98. A set of four wooden sifting hoops, all roughly 10 inches in diameter, with progressively finer mesh screens attached to the base of each hoop.
99. An odd looking tool composed of a 2 foot long metal handle wrapped in a protective wooden sheath and a 10 inch diameter metal hoop bent at a 30 degree angle from the handle. When the hoop is pressed up against a rock surface for ten minutes, the consistency of the rock becomes like thick, sticky clay. After about an hour the rock will return to its natural consistency again.
100. A small glass flask with a green glass stopper. The liquid inside is a metallic emerald green color. Whatever the liquid inside touches will begin to instantaneously sprout a rapidly growing carpet of grasses and flowers. If successfully thrown at an opponent, the flask will break, covering the target in the green liquid. A target that has been covered in the liquid will immediately begin to erupt in a carpet of uncontrolled plant growth that forces them prone, as they receive 1d8 points of damage. 

D100 Random Items

D100 tables are such a great way to add variety and verisimilitude to a campaign. More than that though, they're fun! I've been running my current campaign for almost a year now and I've been trying to finish writing up all the odds and ends that I've ignored or forgotten thus far for my homebrew setting. Besides the hexes that I never bothered populating till now, what I needed was a good random item table. Something to give players and NPCs that doesn't have a real coin value, and only nominally has adventuring utility. The table below is my result. I hope you enjoy it as much as my players have!

1.      Four rotted humanoid finger bones tied to a lanyard of braided copper wire.

2.      A wooden teetotum with the numbers 1 through 10 painted on them.

3.      A thumb-sized ball of red thread with two needles sticking out of it.

4.      Four thimbles, one made of carved bone, one of copper, one of soap stone, and one of hardened leather.

5.      A  red, gold, and black military ribbon given out for bravery.

6.      A dark green felt hat with a wide brim and a flat top.

7.      A small brass cloak pin worked to look like a bunch of grapes.

8.       A set of eating utensils made of steel and carved bone. it is contained inside a case that looks like a fish.

9.      A curved and smoothly carved piece of yew wood marked with four notches.

10. The flight feathers of a harpy eagle.

11. A very thin reed flute.

12. A bronze plate the size of a palm with an oak leaf motif etched into it.

13. A fancy and rather garish silk handkerchief imprinted with a kaleidoscope of colors and patterns.

14. A foldable leather drinking cup marked with the sigil of the famous gnomish artisan Gigilote.

15. A small handheld woven wicker box and lid.

16. A writing set consisting of two nibbed feathers, an ink pot, and a pot of sand for blotting. This kit is all wrapped up in a neat deerskin roll.

17. A painted yellow ceramic ocarina with only four holes.

18. A pamphlet on children’s string games.

19. Half a deck of cards.

20. A small wooden box with a sliding lid that contains 20’ of fishing line and six hooks.

21. A figurine of a giraffe carved out of a red stained mahogany wood.

22. A red silk pair of women’s dress gloves.

23. A Phrygian style hat in blue.

24. The King’s Golden Lily, a medal given out to nobles for gallantry and honor in battle.

25. A half full half-keg of hard apple cider.

26. Just the right hand of a pair of chainmail gauntlets.

27. A hand-sized iron box. Its lid has a small grate built into it. This is commonly filled with sand and an ember or two is placed inside the box then slipped into one’s bed to help warm it in the wintertime.

28. A small leather pouch containing four sticks of charcoal.

29. A foot-long carved wooden ladle.

30. A bronze cookpot that can hold up to a gallon of liquid.

31.  A small leatherbound book on identifying different species of dragons based on their head shapes.

32. A small, polished bronze hand mirror.

33. Six extremely sharp obsidian arrow heads.

34. A book-sized placard with a film of wax melted on top, for writing messages.

35. A small pouch containing around twenty flat, smooth stones perfect for skipping across water.

36. A painted cameo of a beautiful, matronly looking woman in a green dress.

37. A glass goblet etched with the symbol of a powerful noble house.

38. A leather case that hangs on the belt containing three small vials. One vial contains holy water (1 damage to creatures with chaotic alignments), one vial contains distilled alcohol mixed with wood ash, and the last vial contains lead shavings.

39. A series of letters from a child to their distant parent. It is clear from the messages that the parent left to fight as a soldier. The little girl can only plead with him to return and never leave their farm again.

40. A small soapstone jar with medicinal lip balm made of botanicals and animal fat in it. (10 uses)

41. A small glass jar and stopper. The jar is filled completely with wood shavings.

42. Three lead soldiers. Their paint has started to rub off.

43. A clam shell larger than an open hand.

44. A deck of intricately painted fortune teller’s cards.

45. A roll-up leather game board with almost enough pieces to play the Game of Kings.

46. A set of brass hand chimes.

47. A personal knife with an intricately carved horn handle.

48. A mustard-yellow and burgundy sleeveless surcoat with painted horn buttons.

49. A bracelet made of orc teeth strung together with copper wire.

50. A small carved marble head of a dwarf, about the size of an apricot.

51. A lead curse tablet with a curse asking the gods to strike the current town leader down for their mean spirit and stingy nature.

52. A book of 300-year-old dwarven poetry, mainly haiku.

53. A ceramic beer stein twice the size of most steins.

54. A pet hamster named Norman.

55. A perfume bottle smelling of lilacs and honey with an individual use of perfume still left in it.

56. A small box made of thin strips of maple bark filled with incense.

57. A yellow green scarf knitted from goat hair. It’s very warm.

58. A set of knuckle bone dice carved from Gnoll bone.

59. Six brass buttons cast to look like shields.

60. Two elven-style wrist guards for archery, both made of beautiful and supple elk skin and painted forest green.

61. A lumpy clay figure of a laughing halfling clutching their belly.

62. A bent and corroded copper ring with a small pink agate set into it.

63. A simple apron-style dress made of dark red dyed linen.

64. A carving of a songbird made out of quartz. It is big enough to fit in the hand.

65. A scrimshawed deer antler the length of a human forearm, etched with figures of lions and leucrota rearing up at each other.

66. A kite made of thin, pink dyed linen attached to lashed river reeds. There is about 200 feet of twine tied between the handle and the kite.

67. A very old gold coin, larger in diameter but thinner than modern coins. A menacing eye with lines of power emanating from it is on one side. On the other are three spruce trees with three eight-pointed stars above them.

68. A rattle made of a wolf’s leg bone and a small bladder of rawhide stuffed with seashells that have been lashed together.

69. A pair of boots with specially designed soles that leave dog tracks behind.

Three pages of thick paper with the middle part of the epic poem, “The Saga of the Western Dragons” written on it.

70. A ladle made of half a coconut shell lashed to a length of bamboo.

71. A small leather case that holds eight beeswax candles, all a different shade of purple. When burned, these candles produce a strong smell of clove, orange, and cinnamon.

72. A four foot long cord attached to a flat piece of flat bark. When swung hard around one’s head, this odd contraption makes a very loud, hollow whistling noise.

73. A thin iron chain with small weights at each end. When laid atop an open tome, it keeps the pages open.

74. A small brown jar filled with a fine ground mixture of cinnabar and mica dust.

75. A functioning half foot-tall replica of a catapult made of wood, leather, and iron nails.

76. Three different leather eye patches, one made of green lizardman skin, one made of blue painted pig leather, and one made of wyvern hide dyed a reddish purple.

77. A protective metal cover and lock made of bronze, copper, and iron that is meant to fit around a wizard’s tome to secure it from theft.

78. A traveler’s salt cellar made of ebony wood secured by a brass latch.

79. A beautiful hair comb made of thin plates of bone lashed together.

80. A steel multi-tool that folds into a fork, knife, spoon, or toothpick.

81. A long red and black peaked knit hat that is over three feet long and ends in a blue pompom.

82.  A small goose down pillow with a brown case.

83. A carved marble game board for the dwarven game known in common as High table. No pieces remain, however.

84. A four string gnomish lire with a sound box made of tortoise shell and a neck made of a carved piece of rosewood.

85. A small chapbook full of socialist musings on the failing policies of a local kingdom.

86. A toy composed of a carved handle with an open cup on top and a small ball attached to the handle with some twine. The goal is to try and catch the ball in the cup on the first try.

87. An intricately tooled griffon leather sword sheath embedded with cast iron eagle embellishments at the tip.

88. A monocle with 10x magnification.

89. A tied up package of chewy date candy. There’s about enough for six servings.

90. Blinds and a bridle made for giant riding birds.

91. A set of carved wooden alphabet stamps in the common script.

92. A tin of loose leaf tea made from bay leaves, pine needles, and dried berries. There’s about enough for eight cups of tea.

93. Seven pieces of random broken pottery, all bearing the elven name Dellianna on them somewhere.

94. A yellow wool sash dyed with a pattern of repeating green olive trees, blue dolphins, and light blue zephyrous curls of wind.

95. Fuzzy earmuffs made of warm white yeti hair.

96. A pair of brown leather fingerless gloves.

97. A full set of oracle sticks carved out of badger bones.

98. A set of gray basalt rocks that make enough sparks when they are struck together to light a fire.

99. A white rose that never withers or dies.

100. A simple marionette made of carved and painted yew wood. The puppet resembles the local trickster deity.

Demonic Mutations

Today I’d like to share a table I’ve been putting together for an upcoming campaign. The setting is a vast demon-haunted wasteland where mortals and fiends have been locked in a cycle of war and violence for centuries. The players will be taking the role of opportunists and deserters sneaking into war-torn lands to loot the remains of both mortal and demon. Such lucrative work is not without its dangers though.

Below you will find a D66 table with a plethora of odd, uncomfortable, and embarrassing mutations. Many mutations carry some kind of benefit alongside their more unsavory effect. That being said, within the campaign world, such mutations are considered (rightly or wrongly) as moral reflections of a character and their motives. Players who bear such marks are subject to prejudice, fear, and mistrust. You may do with this what you will. Please enjoy!

D66
11. Half-foot-tall crystals sprout from your head like horns. They ache whenever you are near fresh water.
12. Your ears grow fanlike extensions. Your hearing greatly improves.
13. Your hair starts growing until it is below your waist. It is now as strong as steel. (Gain a melee hair whip attack for 1d4 damage.)
14. Your hair falls out and you grow three long ridges of horn-like material from your forehead to the back of your head. They are sharp, very sharp. (Gain a head butt attack for 1d4 damage.)
15. Your ears quadruple in size. You can now move them independently of each other. (Elves and other classes with superior hearing now have a 3-in-6 chance to hear noises and listen at doors. Other classes now have a 2-in-6  chance to do the same.)
16. Your head balloons to twice its size and your hair falls out. Your brain can now be seen inside your skull.
21. You sprout a long rack of antlers. Normal animals take a liking to you. (Gain a melee antler goring attack that deals 1d4 damage.)
22. Your hair grows to below your waist and becomes chameleonic, taking on the colors of the environment around it. (Gain a 3-in-6 chance to remain still and hide in foliage, shadow, or other concealment.)
23. You grow two blue, prehensile antennas from your forehead. You can sense the surface emotions of those you can see within 10’.
24. Your snout elongates like a dog's muzzle. You gain a bite attack. (Gain a melee bite attack that deals 1d4 damage.)
25. Each of your eyes grows a new pupil. You can now see better in the dark. (Those with darkvision gain an additional 30’ of sight. All others gain 30’ of darkvision.)
26. Your eyes turn completely black. You can now see invisible and ethereal creatures as though you’re looking through a clouded lens. (Within 30’.)
31. Your nose elongates to twice its length. You can now smell exceptionally well. (Can only be surprised on a 1.)
32. Your tongue grows longer and takes on a green color. Your spit is now corrosive. (Gain a ranged acid spit attack with range 15’ that deals 1d3 damage.)
33. Your head transforms into the head of a gorilla.
34. You grow large tusks from your bottom jaw and gain a bite attack. (Gain a melee bite attack that deals 1d6 damage.)
35. You grow a beard if you didn't already have one. Your facial hair now grows in all different colors of the rainbow.
36. Your tongue grows long and bifurcates like a snake's tongue. You can now taste subtle chemical changes in the air. (Can only be surprised on a roll of 1.)
41. Your voice changes, and you now have multiple additional octaves when you speak. You are now captivating to talk to. (+1 to Charisma.)
42. Your fingernails grow into true claws. You gain a claw attack. (Gain a melee claw attack that deals 1d6 damage.)
43. Your arms elongate like a monkey’s, allowing you to swing from tree to tree. (Gain a climb speed equal to half your encounter speed. This character can climb horizontally.)
44. You grow two extra fingers on both hands, making it almost impossible to knock things out of your grip.
45. Your fingers elongate, granting you greater manual dexterity. (+1 Dex.)
46. You grow skin between your arms and torso, allowing you to glide from great heights. (For every 10’ you move horizontally, you glide down 5’ vertically. You can only glide a distance equal to half your encounter speed.)
51. Your arms grow large muscles, allowing you to better lift heavy objects and bend metal. (+1 to Strength.)
52. The skin and muscles on your arms slough off, leaving you with skeleton arms. There is no difference in performance between these arms and your old arms.
53. Your hands grow a thick webbing between your fingers. This greatly improves your swimming ability. (+10’ to your swim speed.)
54. You grow scaley leather skin all over your upper body, granting you +1 to your armor class.
55. Your skin grows chromatophores, allowing you to change the color of your skin to match your surroundings. (You have a 2-in-6 chance of hiding in shadows, or +10 to a Thief’s Hide In Shadow skill.)
56. Your lungs ache and burn for what feels like an eternity. When it ceases, you find you can now hold your breath for up to 10 minutes before needing to breathe.
61. Your back sprouts feathered wings. You can now fly. (Gain a 20’ flying encounter speed. Characters with this mutation can only fly for 10 minutes a day.)
62. You suddenly grow a third arm from the middle of your chest.
63. Large patches of coarse blue and purple skin appear all over your body.
64. Your upper body sprouts 3' long white hairs all over it.
65. Your legs fuse into the bottom half of a snake.
66. Your heart glows whenever you are angry or frustrated.

You Come Upon A Ruined Vehicle

 To paraphrase Gandolf, I return to you now at the changing of the tide. I had to step away from the blog last year due to life events. I'm back now, though my output will have to reduce for my sanity's sake. I hope to continue creating fun stuff for you all in the months ahead!

Today I bring you a little encounter generator for adding some weirdness and mystery to you campaign. this is just one part of a bigger project I've been working on for generating interesting wilderness encounters. in the months to come i intend to share it and more with you. 

You Come Upon A Ruined Vehicle By The Side of the Road

 

There are more than just wandering monsters to encounter when travelling through the wilderness. Below you will find a handful of tables you can use to whip up a quick encounter for your players as they traverse the wilds of your campaign in search of adventure. This encounter showcases odd vehicles or vessels alongside themes of mystery and exploration and is best placed in mountain, desert, or barren hill terrain types.  Enjoy!

To create this encounter you will need to take three actions.

1) Roll on the Vessel table to determine what sort of vehicle or vessel the PCs encounter.

2) Roll to see if the party is alone when they come upon this sight.

3) Consult the table below that details the vehicle stats of those vessels that can be made working again.

D12	The Vessel
1	A longboat made of an entire block of carved granite. This vehicle was once enchanted to fly. It still bears a few rotting feathered oars and a series of mostly intact silk sails in its hold (worth a total of 400 gp). The rudder of the ship is broken in two but the magical runes used to keep the vessel aloft are still carved into it, and it may be able to be re-enchanted.
2	This was once a massive wagon with four axels. The wagon box is huge at nearly 15 feet square. It is made of moss covered timbers reinforced with rusting iron bands. There are a number of arrow slit-like windows around the entire wagon box. A strong looking door lays open as the whole thing has fallen on its side. It has become half covered in earth and moss. A team of oxen must have had to pull this large war wagon. Inside can be found a profoundly rusted tapered metal tube a few feet in length (a small hand canon), and a bunch of wet and molding black powder.
3	This horrific contraption looks like a metal platform built on top of 13 long and gangly metal legs. The whole rusted hulk is covered in brambles, lending it an air of some monstrous metal spider. The control levers and a small bench seat are the only things built on to the platform. The platform itself is big enough for six human-sized individuals to comfortably stand on it at one time.
4	A moss covered, segmented marble snake-like sculpture without a head. In place of a head, a marble seat has been carved, and a large green crystal (200 gp) is embedded in front of that. The marble stone segments of the snake body are fixed together with gold and copper chains an inch thick. (500 gp worth of metal can be salvaged). This vehicle is entirely intact. It can be driven by sitting in the driver’s seat, placing one’s hand on the crystal and imagining the direction you want the vehicle to move in.
5	This wooden vessel that resembles a long sailing boat is approximately 120 feet long and 20 feet wide at its widest. The entire top deck of the vessel has been covered over in a broken lattice of glass similar to that of a greenhouse, though most of the glass is now shattered. Besides the two main masts, there are two smaller masts curiously protruding from the underside of the vessel pointing downward at 45 degree angles. Below deck underneath the steering wheel there is a metal throne with arcane symbols etched on it. From here, a trained mage could levitate the entire vessel and even (legend says) take it to the stars and into other planes. Any character with arcane training who sits on the throne must save versus spells or be flooded with memories of interdimensional battles with other worldly creatures. This will exhaust their mind, preventing them from casting spells for the next 1d8 hours.
6	This vehicle seems to be the cap of a humongous acorn 12 feet in diameter. Inside the acorn cap are two holly branches woven into oars. This is some sort of faery boat. It is impervious to fire, nigh unbreakable, and can be floated across lava, acid, or almost any other mundane but dangerous liquid. A large river stone with a natural hole worn in the middle has been set inside, tied to the acorn cap with a rope of woven grasses for use as an anchor. The entire vessel weighs 500 pounds.
7	This large stone statue is carved out of gray-green basalt and is roughly 15 feet tall and 8 feet wide. It has been fashioned in the likeness of an armored dwarf with a long plaited beard, although the whole thing is now covered in moss and vines. There is a compartment in its back big enough to fit two dwarf-sized individuals. Besides some small benches, this little recess contains rusted control levers for making the great stone statue walk. The dwarven runes that imbued this artifact with power have been partially weathered off, rendering the great machine an inert statue.
8	This odd looking craft is 120 feet long and 20 feet wide at its widest. It is cigar shaped and made out of rusted metal. Affixed to one end are three bent metal fins. Halfway along the metal cylinder is an oval metal door with a wheel that must been turned to open it (Stuck Door Check). There are three compartments in this vessel, though they are laid out one on top of the other. The entire vessel is lying on its side. The compartment towards the fin end of the vessel is filled with odd metal contraptions with circular dials painted in an unrecognizable script. The middle chamber is empty save for a stool bolted to the floor. The chamber on the end opposite the fins has two seats of rotting upholstery bolted to the floor and a large array of dials, buttons, and switches. There is some fuel left in the tanks. If syphoned out, it can be put in a bottle and made into an incendiary much like lamp oil, though it deals 1d10 damage to the target, and half damage to anyone adjacent to the target.
9	This vehicle is a 10 foot diameter sphere of translucent reddish crystal. There is a small, circular hatch that allows entrée though there is no visible means of opening the hatch (it pushes inward). Those inside will find it’s actually quite easy to roll the sphere along by walking. The sphere and those inside it are impervious to normal damage, and float when falling from a great height (like the spell Featherfall), and float on water. The sphere can only hold up to two people before it becomes too cramped to control properly.
10	This strange vehicle resembles a rusted metal millipede, with 25 small metal legs on each side. It is roughly 15 feet long, and its body is 7 feet wide. The front end though is a large corkscrew of metal. Two small windows on the front allow those inside to see, and a 3’ square hatch on the back allows entry to the interior of the largely brass contraption. Inside are three rows of benches and an elaborate collection of knobs, levers, dials, and switches. Though the dials are written with gnomish script, they are not in any known gnomish dialect. 1d6 of the knobs have gems on their ends, each worth 75 gp each.
11	This vessel is long, approximately 150 feet long, consisting of three 28 foot long carriage-like contraptions and a larger 65 foot long control engine, all made of various metals hooked together. This long metal snake is lying on its side with vines and small trees growing out of some windows. The interiors of the three smaller cars have been ripped up and torn out a long time ago. The larger car still has a large, rusted furnace, levers, dials, and a broken stool. Hidden inside the fire box of the furnace is a piece of obsidian polished into a smooth, egglike shape. A glyph of the elven word for fire has been etched into it. If this word is spoken out loud within 10 feet of the stone, it will heat up sufficiently to burn wood and cause a fire to form for one minute before it cools again. This can only be used three times a day.
12	This gliding vessel resembles a large Roc constructed out of delicate carved wood and stretched silk. The wingspan is about 25 feet long, although the body of it from beak to tail is only 10 feet long. Many of the silk panels stretched over the wooden frame are ripped or missing. Within the body of the bird vessel are three seats, one in front of the other. With the foremost seat in front of a corroded copper steering lever. Dwarvish runes are still visible on the interior wood struts.

 

 

 

2D6	Is the party alone?
2-5	There are 1d10 corpses strewn about this location. [Roll on an appropriate Human or Humanoid encounter chart to determine type.] They seem to be 1d6 days old. [The die explodes on 6s.]
6-8	There doesn’t seem to be any signs of any recent activity here.
9-12	Oh no, the party is not alone! [roll on the appropriate combat encounter for your terrain type.] The encountered party is usually covetous of the vehicle that has been encountered.

 

 

Table #	Vehicle type	Miles per Day	Movement Rate	Max Load (Coins)	Notes
1	Re-enchanted Granite Longboat	18/9	90’ (60’)/45’ (15’)	7,000/14,000	This vessel can fly. It requires an arcane magic user of level 3 or more or a group of magic users whose combined levels equal 3 total to be concentrating to keep the vessel flying.
4	The Snake-Like Sculpture	24/12	120’ (40’)/60’ (20’)	4,000/8,000	Those who sleep within 15 feet of the vehicle dream of fondly of snakes.
6	Enchanted Acorn Cap Boat	12	60’ (30’)	3,000	See table description above.
10	The Metal Centipede	12/6 or 6/3 Burrowing	60’ (30’)/30’ (15’) or 30’ (15’)/ 15’ (7’)	4,500/9,000	The vessel and anyone inside are immune to mundane sources of heat.