TERPSICHORA MASK

TERPSICHORA MASK

A white domino mask with elaborate gold and black inlays carved around the eyes. Black laces made of silk hang from the mask’s eyes like tears. It changes from pale white to blood red once activated. Said to be possessed by the spirit of a dancer murdered by an obsessive fan.

What's It Do?
When the command word (TERPSICHORA!) is spoken the mask removes the wearer's subconscious strength limiters allowing them to fight at peak performance at the cost of damage to their body. The wearer's STR & DEX score becomes 18 (+3) and they fight as a Fighter twice their level for the duration of the ability. However the human body has limiters to protect itself, each round the ability is used the wearer's muscles become shredded & their bones riddled with hairline fractures causing 1d2 points of temporarily CON damage. The wearer may end the ability early before combat ends by asserting their will and passing a save vs magic. A failure means the wearer will fight until combat ends regardless of any CON damage received.

Updated the Body Over Mind Spells here btw.

Additionally if the wearer's HP or CON is reduced to 0 or less the user’s body (corpse) rises and eloquently fights unarmed as a Fighter twice their level with their STR & DEX becoming 20 (+5). The body fights (anyone, including allies) for 1d4 plus level rounds or until the body takes damage equal to 8 plus level.

Influence:

My favorite video game of all time is The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask. One of the things the game tasks you to do is collect an assortment of weird masks scattered throughout the world map. All the masks are unique and have different properties and abilities. Now I tend to throw in weird magical masks in my games as an homage to Majora's Mask. This particular mask's ability is from the anime/manga Hunter x Hunter and was used by the sinister royal guard Pitou.
Anime and manga are a gold mine for RPGS btw.

Like this magic item? Let me know in the comments and definitely let me know if you throw it in your games.

Death Masks

"L'Inconnue de la Seine"

Death Masks

have been been used to preserve a person's likeness from the time of the pharaohs to relatively recently when photography became prevalent. However a hidden family of morticians in Egypt known as the Coin Eaters(the process is very expensive) have passed down an ancient ritual to imbue death masks with the deceased's personality and memories. This allows one to continue existing on the material plane using a surrogate body after death.

Ritual of Transference

The following components are required to begin the ritual:

• The deceased's head(with/without body) which is cleaned, sutured, and painted to the look alive to the best of the mortician's ability*. This done to ease the transference of the deceased's persona and to shape the mold of the face with wax. Requires a successful Cosmetology Skill roll to complete. A failed roll means the process must be redone from scratch wasting 1d10 x 10sp worth of materials. The client of course foots the bill.
• Offerings of precious metals equal to 1000sp x the character's level that is smelted down to construct the mask. The stronger the personality the more expensive the mask to house it. Requires a Successful Mask Making Skill roll to complete. A failure means the mask must be melted down and recast again, costing the family 1d10 x 25sp worth of materials. The client of courses foots the bill.
• A whole corpse to wear the mask. The family will provide the body for an additional charge of 100sp or will work with whatever the client provides. When the ritual is completed and the mask worn, the corpse takes the physical appearance of the character the mask was made for.

*Mortician Skills- Usually the family requires a substantial donation to allow one of their more experience members to forge the mask. In lieu of coin, the family may also ask for an errand(of varying difficulty) to be completed at their behest. 

1. Novice Mortician- 250sp, 3-in-6 Cosmetology Skill, 3-in-6 Mask Making Skill
2. Experienced Mortician-  500sp 4-in-6 Cosmetology Skill, 4-in-6 Mask Making Skill
3. Expert Mortician-  1000sp 5-in-6 Cosmetology Skill, 5-in-6 Mask Making Skill
4. Master Mortician- 2000sp 6-in-6 Cosmetology Skill, 6-in-6 Mask Making Skill

Once the mask has been forged(and the fees paid) the Ritual of Transference may commence. The family allows the clients to view the forging of the mask but the actual magic is done behind closed doors. Its a family secret after all. In my game the process involves a certain piece of music...and takes three days to complete.

Once completed the mask holds the deceased's Class Level/XP, Mental Stats(INT,WIS,CHA), personality, and memories. The body procured earlier provides the Physical Stats(STR,CON,DEX) and holds any gained XP. As long as the mask stays intact(the mask has 50hp), the character only needs a new body upon death to continue. Though they begin with the stats they had when the mask was constructed and any new xp or levels are lost. I'll let you decided if they get to keep memories or not.

Nábrók (Corpse Trousers)/Necropants

I was listening to the newest Last Podcast on the Left episode about Icelandic Sorcery and was inspired to make a magic item from one of the occult objects they talked about, Necropants.

-Nábrók (Corpse Trousers)/Necropants.
Allows the wearer to reach into their Necropants(the scrotum pocket) and pull a silver coin from it once a day. 1-in-6 chance to pull a gold coin. Works as long as the original widow's coin isn't removed.

In order to create a pair of Necropants a Magic-User must first complete the following ancient ritual:

• Make a true male friend.(Why male? We need that scrotum pocket!)
• Ask said friend to let you skin them from the waist down upon their natural death.
• If yes, proceed. If no, make a new friend.
• Wait until friend is buried, then dig him up and skin him. Make a relevant skill check to not damage it or hire a flesh tailor.
• Once you have the skinned flesh of your friend, steal a coin from a poor widow.
• Place stolen coin in scrotum along with a runic symbol.
• Put Necropants on and bathe in goats milk under the moon.
• Profit???

Congrats your now the proud owner of a pair of Necropants! Taking them off requires a Remove Curse spell.

These'll make a great addition to the magic items for sale at the Ghoul Market. Or make your insane Magic-User NPCs wear them. Anyways let me know what you think!

Jörmungandr's Blood, Redux

*Note: I posted this on my old blog but I wanted to redo/update it.*

My Last LotFP campaign ended when the earth was hurled into the void of space. How? Why?
PVP man, pvp.

Anyways. What does that have to do with Jörmungandr, child of Loki? or its blood? Well, early in the campaign I had put Skerples’ Tomb of the Serpent Kings out in my campaign's wilderness. My player's stumbled upon it, conquered it and claimed it as their own. Of course one of the reasons they turtled up there was the treasure in the last room. Something so valuable it would serve as one of catalysts for the campaign’s finale…

The Well Room

The last room in the Tomb of the Serpent Kings says to place your own treasure, so I did. I called it the Well Room and it held a way to get Jörmungandr's Blood. Here's what I had in my notes:

• The room is empty save for three items. A large well(15ft wide), a large drillis suspended with rope above the well. The rope winds around a spool hidden in the ceiling. A lever nearby activates the drill.
• The well is miles deep.
• At the end of the well sleeps Jörmungandr, the world snake.
• Activating the drill sends it down to the snake drawing blood that fills the well.
• Roll a d10. An earthquake with magnitude equal to the result erupts after the drill causes the world snake to stir possibly collapsing the entire Dungeon. Insta death.

Looking back this kinda sucks. I never explained how the drill works. Magic, science? Who knows!. What happened to the blood still in the well? Eh. A d10 roll for a possibility of insta death? That's a Raggi fuck you, still digging that. Also a lot of rope. Alot. I think I can do it better, here's what I would use today:

• Large well made of black scale and stone in the middle of room, 20ft wide now. Still miles deep.
• The room’s floor is slick with dried blood.
• Along the walls are ancient clay jars filled with coagulated blood. Useless.
• The big change is instead of a drill now there's a cow sized monstrous tickworm. Its chained up and suspended above the well with its grotesque head pointing down into it.
• A person must continuously crank the enormous spool of chain that now lies next to the well. Turning the lever clockwise lowers the tick into the well.
• Takes 3 turns of cranking for the tick to reach the sleeping serpent and latch on.
• The tick worm is trained to drink until full then detach. Takes 1 turn.
• Now requires 4 turns of cranking counter-clockwise to return a full tickworm back to the surface due to its added weight.

Alright! We got a giant gross tick full of a demi god's blood. Now what? Time to harvest! Now assuming (big assumption) the PC's don't just immediately kill the tick, which is harmless btw. They'll be able remove the blood via a removable plug in the tick's abdomen.

Like this! *gags*

Harvest Notes:

• "Harvesting" the blood yields 20 gallons worth.
• Not leaving at least 10 gallons for the tickworm will cause it to starve and die after a week.
• Not letting the tickworm digest it's yield, which takes a week, causes it to starve & die.
• The blood of Jörmungandr is only usable when it's mixed with the tick's saliva and digestive fluids. I would a place a "how to milk the tick" guide somewhere in the dungeon or in this room. Have it have sketchings of the tick and the hole in its abdomen. Also give the book a weird title and written in a ancient(snake) language.(Put those langage pips to use!)
• Sending the Tick down more than once a day causes Jörmungandr to stir, d4 roll, result equals a earthquake of that magnitude. Increase die size for each time the tick is sent down more than once a day, up to a d10. (7 roll equals a 7.0 magnitude quake, etc.) 1-4 is scary. 5-6 causes minor damage(falling shelves, glass breakage), 7-9 Causes falling rock damage. Magnitude 10 is insta death for anyone in the dungeon as it collapses on itself.
• Harvested Blood spoils after a month.

The Harvested Blood (Jörmungandr's Blood)

Originally I had made the blood similar to cocaine. A supreme high that completely changed a person. I had this change represented by letting characters reroll their ability scores during their first high and take the higher number. Afterwards they would make a Save. vs Magic, a failure would mean that character was addicted and had to take a hit at least once a day. After the first dose you get more tolerant and take on more snake-like qualities on with each failed save, eventually becoming a horrible snake monster. Still sweet, but I want to update it a bit.

The Blood‘s Effects:

1. During the first dosage(8oz), Reroll your physical ability scores(STR, CON, DEX) using 4d6, drop the lowest.
2. While the blood is in your system(lasts 1 hour) you may reroll any saving throws and take the higher result.(Advantage) Does NOT affect saving throws from the Blood.
3. Each time the blood is consumed, make a Save vs. Poison, if you fail you are now addicted to Jörmungandr's Blood and must take one dose each day. Failure to do so causes you to take 1d6 Permanent CON damage each day the blood isn't taken. 0 CON ='s Death.
4. After you are addicted you must make Save vs. Poison after each dose. For each failed save afterwards consult the list below in order:
5. Your eyes become snake like, and you gain infravision(sense heat) with a range of 60ft.
6. Your skin becomes pale & scaley, once a week you instinctively seek solitude to shed your skin. (takes 8 hours of painful shedding)
7. You grow serpentine fangs and gain a 3d6 Poisonous bite attack, usable once a day.
8. Your tongue elongates and bifurcates at the tip, you gain the ability to speak to snakes & reptiles. (Parseltongue yo)
9. Your jaw gains the ability to dislocate, you can swallow large prey whole such as a chicken, or small child. Each such meal counts as a week's sustenance.
10. Your Intelligence & Charisma becomes 3. Congrats on your new life as a snake-person abomination.

Breaking the Habit

A character may attempt to break their addiction to Jörmungandr's blood by spending 72 hours in a dark room, water fasting (consume only water). They still take CON damage as per my addiction rules and RAW starvation rules. After the 72 hours the character may make a Save vs. Poison. A success means they broke their addiction to the god's blood. Any CON score damage suffered by the blood heals at the same rate as HP.

The Woodsman's Hatchet

A long time ago, early in my Referee career I had to quickly improvise some backstory for a spontaneously created magic item. The item in question was the Woodsman's Hatchet and has since become somewhat iconic in my games.

The Lore
Once there was a Woodsman who fell in love with a beautiful maiden. He wooed the woman with small wood carvings of roses and hearts and she fell madly in love with his earthly charms. The two gleefully went to get approval from the woman's family but were denied due to the man's meager earnings. Heart broken the woman fled deep into the woods and was spirited away by the monstrous Beast of the Forest. The woman's family begged the man to save their daughter and promised to give the man her hand in marriage. The Woodsman marched into the forest with a single musket and his trusty hatchet. After days of tracking the beast he finally cornered it outside its lair, a dark cave. The man fired at the Beast with his musket but the missile bounced off the monster's wood-like hide. It charged and tore at the man, who howled in pain. The Woodsman then raised his hatchet and hacked away at the Beast. The monster bled a strange green liquid that seeped into the head of the ax and sharpened it with each strike. Finally after exchanging blows, the Woodsman raised his hatchet one last time and claimed the beast’s head. Exhausted and wounded the man searched the cave but was horrified to discover his beloved’s partially devoured corpse. The sullened man returned her remains to the family and fell back to the forest, never to return. While preparing the woman for burial the family discovered the body was missing one thing, her left hand. To this day the townsfolk say they occasionally find trees and boulders split in half deep in the woods. When asked they claim: “the Woodsman's rage.”

The Woodsman's Hatchet
was lost to time but now it's tradition for me to throw it in any campaigns I run. In fact the only reason I thought to write about it now was because my character found it in a play-by-post game my brother was running. So what does it do? The Woodsman's Hatchet has one simple ability, it can cut through any solid material as if it were wood. Stone, steel, dragon scales, or even adamantine, doesn't matter the hatchet will cut through it. Obviously you don't give this sucker out if your player characters are dungeon crawling, or do. The user still has to use their strength to cut since the material has the consistency of wood. Additionally the hatchet never dulls and in combat any armored foe's AC becomes 12. Now this thing is all pluses, it's useful in and out of a fight. Be careful if you want to throw it in your world as it can and will wreck your game if given to intelligent players. If you want to give it some horrid curse Lamentations style check out the one I made below.

--The Hatchet's Curse--

The beast's blood sharpened the blade but left a dark stain.

Whenever the wielder slays a living thing with the hatchet they must make a Save vs. Magic. For each failure the following happens in order:

1. Your skin becomes bark-like after a night's sleep. Your AC becomes 14 unarmored and you gain +1 permanent point of encumbrance due to your new wood weight.
2. Your skin secretes a resin like substance, attracting crawling things that chew. -1 to all saves as the insects are, distracting.
3. The insects chew deeper. -2 to all saves.
4. The insects reach your brain, -1d6+1 Intelligence. (this again for each additional failed save)

When your Intelligence becomes 3 or less you become a new Beast of the Woods and the following happens:

• The Hatchet is "misplaced".
• Your body is completely made of wood and riddled with crawling things.
• You automatically attack anything that has a melee weapon, preferably a hatchet.
• You lurk in deep woods hunting local fauna and the occasion maiden.