DM-Nastics 123: Fantasy Limbo

1. Name a weapon and describe its history.

The Raven- An all black longbow that has a black beak attached to it, serving as a guide for pulling back arrows. This bow belonged to the ranger, ironically named Hunter, who would use it while tracking hunting and combat targets alike. Hunter was something of a vigilante in his town, and specialized in hunting predators and monsters outside of town, but was not shy to take out corrupt political figures and other villains to the common men of the town. The bow acts as a+1 longbow.



2. Pick a generic monster and give it a unique name and backstory.


The Curse of Lamplight

In the town of Lamplight, there is a curse that falls upon those who become the leader of this community. In the last year, there have been a dozen magistrates. Each begins to hear steps following them, see subtle movements, feel something watching them, following them. The paranoia consumes the politics, and as each leader slowly goes into madness, they all violently commit suicide within weeks. However, the curse is actually the work of an invisible stalker. When the "curse" began, the serving magistrate at the time, Sergio Maul, had become paranoid of any who were after his seat of power and called the invisible stalker to destroy those who would covet his ring, a memento that was passed from one leader to another. When the magistrate was impeached for his crimes derived from his madness, every leader who inherited the ring was hunted by the invisible stalker, while Maul rots in his jail cell.


3. Pick a spell that might be found as a scroll and flavor it as a unique creation.


A scroll which is found in a dungeon in the hand of a statue, the scroll itself contains the spell petrify. However, the spell is written in a way in which it is cast onto the user, turning them into the next statue holding the scroll for the next adventurer to find.


4. Describe a character in a low fantasy world that the players can befriend to gain access to something they can't get any other way.
Lynda
There is a speakeasy in town, the blind muskrat, which hosts both an exclusive club as well as the top of the line performers. Many come to this place to audition for Lynda. Lynda is a member of the Bard's College, and if the performer is good enough, they will gain her sponsorship into the college, where they can learn not only to refine their musical art but to harness the maximum potential of the power it carries and the hints of magic that subtly peek through to influence those not gifted or familiar with the art.

1 : The Mace of Mount Celestia

Iorethel, on of the great generals of the holy mountain was the one who lead the resistance against the infernal host.
The battle was long and hard and the devils pushed the holy armies to heavens gates.
Despite the fact that they were outnumbered, the devils were beaten back, but no without great cost.
General Iorethel fell in battle, his armor melted by profane fire.
But his soldiers being so devoted to there leader forged his melted armor into a +3 flaming holy mace.
Now the spirit of Iorethel inhabits the mace making it into a lawful good intelligent weapon.

2) "The Lobster King" is a moniker given to a giant scorpion that lives near a stretch of desert coastline. The only people to have seen it are fishermen, and the closest thing they've ever seen to it are lobsters - thus, the Lobster King. The clay soil, lying a few meters beneath the sand, has given the scorpion's carapace a distinctly red hue as it prefers to dig under ground on too hot of days.

3) This scroll smells like it was left next to a fireplace for too long and reeks of smoke when unfurled. Once it is successfully read, it must be crumpled up and hurled at the enemy as part of the spell - catching fire in air and turning into the spark that unleashes a Fireball.

1. The Blade of Sjornskar is both the name of an ancient longsword and the name of the hero who wields it. Forged and wielded long ago by the mythical hero Sjornskar, this +1 longsword was crafted to aid in the defense the villagers of Brekkur. When wielded in defense of noncombatant creatures, you can make one attack with it as a bonus action on each of your turns. In addition, hostile creatures attack with disadvantage when attacking a target within 5 feet of you.



2. Ugranil the lazy orcish wizard who hails from the Sea of Sand… and has a bit of a drinking problem. Ugranil was barely allowed entry into the Lyceum Arcanum due to his orcish heritage. He managed to scrape together the grades to pass his courses and graduate – barely! On the night of his graduation he and his classmates went to the local tavern to celebrate and, determined to show off to his friends by way of his orcish fortitude, Ugranil had a bit too much to drink. A few too many ales later, he found himself expelled from his Order due to a prank involving a Halfling, a crude drawing of a flumph, and a prestidigitation spell gone awry. Despondent at being cast out, Ugranil has been drowning his sorrows with ale ever since, secretly hiring out his services as a wizard to any who will hire him.



3. You find a scroll of Beast Bond, created by the Firbolg druid Symund because he was tired of talking to his animal friends without being able to understand their responses.

I'm going to do all four at the same time because I hate myself.

First, some background: Jackalweres are probably among the least used monsters in the entire manual because of their ancient egyptian flavour (whereas most games are set in a medieval europe inspired setting). They're basically jackal-headed shapeshifters with the ability to put people to sleep with their gaze.

So, let's do this!

Priestess Vamunaptra, Doctor of the Pallour of Rest

Vamunaptra is a middle-aged dark-skinned woman who dresses herself in thick black robes and covers her face with the mask of a wild dog. The dog's eyes are closed and the nose is curiously wet, but the mask is otherwise inanimate.

She has been offered many positions at the great palaces of the pharoahs but each time she turns them down. She works as a specialised doctor in a local clinic in a small town. Most would say this is a waste of her talents.

She specialises in three areas: curing insomnia, providing relief from pain, and preparing souls for entry into the afterlife.

She will put patients to sleep before a difficult surgery, or just to assist those who have trouble resting without help. She flips up the visor on her mask to show her true eyes underneath, and her patients fall into a deep slumber that they cannot be woken from. If they are unwilling, they wake up within 10 minutes, so she tries to make them as comfortable as possible and guide them through the process as thoroughly as she can to ensure that their sleep is satisfying, deep, dreamless, restful, and of appropriate length.

Word of her talents is widespread and she often gets people travelling thousands of miles to her village in search of respite from terrible chronic pains, or to seek restful slumber in spite of terrible nightmares, or for a peaceful and dignified death where they are cared for with kindness and respect in their final days.

She also has a talent for crafting scrolls of papyrus, either as documentation of her work or as a spell that her patients can take home and apply without her help. These are mostly for those with recurring insomnia who can't afford to sleep at her hospital every night.

Scrolls of the Dreaming Jackal

This is a scroll of sleep. It has no words, only images in the form of simple hieroglyphs. The ink has been taken from dried and processed jackal dung.

Most people who acquire such scrolls are patients of Vamunaptra, but there of course exists a very small black market, as she is unable to personally ensure that every scroll is used for the right purpose. The scrolls are generally used as a cure for insomnia, requiring two people (as you will fall asleep before finishing reading it; the spell will not be completed and the effects will nitre main permanent) but some use it for more nefarious purposes. This isn't as widespread as it has the potential to be because, again, if the target is unwilling, the effects are much less potent and much less permanent.

Vamunaptra is often seen wandering the wastelands in search of the materials she needs to craft her scrolls. Some say she transforms into a jackal herself once every full moon.

Scimitar of the Restless

Ironically, Vamunaptra herself cannot find rest, either each night where she lies awake, or in the sweet release of death, for she possesses and undying body.

The only weapons that can harm her are those forged of silver, and she carries such a silver weapon with her at all times: the Scimitar of the Restless.

It's a long, thin, gently curving blade of pure silver that never tarnishes.

Each night she contemplates impaling herself through the stomach with her own blade, but each night she chooses to remain alive as long as there are people in the world who still benefit from her work.

The scimitar is a +1 silvered weapon (otherwise dealing nonmagical damage) that puts the target to sleep for 1 minute if the target is below 20 hit points.

So there you have it!