Piezas de Comunicación

By David “Greyharp” Macauley

The monsters are slain! It’s time to search the bodies and the room. “What do we find?” Here are some fleshed-out ideas for the GM to sprinkle about his dungeon. Items useful and useless, magical and mundane, but mostly, items that may just get the players thinking, one way or another. Read through the list and pick out whatever takes your fancy, or randomly roll d100 and let luck decide.

1-2. A goblin skull with the name “Grrsh-uk Krr” en-

graved on its forehead. It is a magical amulet, which if held forth while speaking the name will cause all creatures with Intelligence 2+ viewing the skull to be momentarily frozen to the spot in sheer terror. The power of the amulet may be invoked only once every lunar month.

3-4. A piece of animal hide, on which the following

message is written in orcish: “will trade 3 human prisoners for that traitorous dog Ooguk the Maimed.”

5-6. A plain dagger. Close examination will reveal that the

pommel unscrews. Contained within the handle are 175 gc worth of gems, wrapped in a piece of cloth.

7-8. A single knee-high boot with a cleverly concealed

pocket, concealing 3 gc and a small iron key.

9-10. A hollow, wooden, capped tube containing a knife, a

spoon and a 2-pronged fork.

11-12. A long bone that has been carved into a shoe horn

at one end and a back-scratcher the other. It has the word “Terren” engraved on its length.

13-14. A small sack containing a dozen nauseatingly foul

and stained loin cloths, obviously some humanoid’s dirty laundry. On one is drawn a crude map of the surrounding area (dungeon or wilderness, DM’s discretion).

15-16. A pair of bone dice. The first has a skull on five

faces and a single dot on the sixth; the second is similar, but with crowns instead of skulls.

17-18. A quiver containing 17 arrows. Close and careful

examination will reveal all the arrows are slightly warped, giving a -4 penalty “to hit” when used.

19-20. A small ivory box, on the lid of which is engraved a

scene showing a Magic-user battling some small humanoids. The box contains three small, buff-colored books, written in some indecipherable tongue. Its purpose can only be guessed at.

21-22. A wide-brimmed hat, several sizes too big for any of

the party to wear.

23-24. A cleverly constructed stone jar with a screw-top

stone lid. It contains a small piece of wood, a needle and a small lodestone. If water is added to the jar, the needle placed on the piece of wood and floated on the water, the sharp end of the needle will point north. With the lid on, the jar looks very much like a rock.

25-26. Rattling around the inside of a human skull is a

small red tear drop-shaped gem worth 20 gc. If touched by a human, it immediately flies straight up their nose. The victim will scream “it’s drilling into my brain” while thrashing around on the floor, shortly thereafter losing consciousness and half their current wound points. Some- time after awakening they will discover they now have permanent infravision.

27-28. A garnet-studded platinum toothpick worth 40 gc. 29-30. A cleverly constructed, folding wooden stool, which

stands 1 foot high when open.

31-32. A bone musical whistle, covered with exquisite

carvings of twining ivy. Sadly, it plays out of tune.

33-34. The upper half of an orc corpse, still clutching its

sword and shield, with a leather bag containing 200 gc around its neck. Written on a piece of hide included with the money is a message written in orcish using what looks like blood for ink. It says: “You have until moonset tomor- row or your chief will lose what little blood he has left”.

35-36. A copper 4-pint pot with bronze decoration. It has

two handles, each in the shape of a rearing dragon. It leaks.

37-38. A waterproof canvas roll holding 6 parchment

sheets and pockets holding writing implements and glass vials of red and black ink. It is inscribed “Belfur Grensby”.

39-40. A necklace of human, demi-human, and humanoid

teeth. Engraved on each tooth is a single letter. The whole thing spells out the words “the God’s healing” in the language of bugbears. It has no powers.

41-42. A small wooden two-note whistle, carved in the

shape of a small bird.

43-44. A cloak made of raven’s feathers that will show a

magical aura if detected for but has no actual powers.

45-46. A pouch of dried aromatic herbs, which will induce

sleep if burnt and the fumes inhaled. There is enough in the pouch to easily fill a 20’ x 20’ x 10’ room with smoke.

47-48. The 2 foot stub of what appears to be a Mage’s

crystal-tipped staff, burnt on one end. A read magic spell will enable a Mage to know the trigger word engraved on the shaft. Each time an attempt is made to use the “staff”, the DM must roll a d6. On a roll of 1, all creatures looking towards the staff are blinded by a flash of light for 2 rounds. Nothing happens on a roll of 2 – 5 except for a few sparks, but on a roll of 6, a cloud of choking smoke bursts forth, causing all within 10 feet (including the wielder), to become helpless due to violent coughing.

49-50. A small bark container holding 27 dried lizard’s tails

and a green glass marble.

51-52. A tiny cage made of twigs and leather thongs,

containing a large beetle. If the cage is handled, the beetle will spray that person with a hideously foul smelling liquid. The smell will repulse most creatures (and fellow adven- turers) for around 3 days, resisting all efforts to wash it off.

53-54. An alabaster egg, hinged in the middle, which opens

to reveal a finely painted miniature portrait on the right side and an inscription on the left. The portrait is of a round-faced, balding old gent with a goatee and dark eyebrows, who has the hint of a smile and a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. The inscription reads “Remembered always. With heartfelt gratitude”.

55-56. A small leather pouch containing 26 small, round,

black pellets. Crudely embroidered on the front of the pouch is the following phrase in goblin “all-heal berries”. Anyone who comes from a rural background will recognize the berries for what they are – goat droppings!

57-58. A collection of rusty, handle-less, blunt knife blades

tied together with a leather thong, one of which has a symbol representing lightning engraved on its length.

59-60. A small coffer holding 12 tiny wood-carved hands. 61-62. A map of a nearby location (DM’s choice) indicates

a secret door, behind which, according to the map, is a treasure room. Neither door nor treasure room exist.

63-64. A large wooden wheelbarrow with a squeaky wheel. 65-66. A wooden walking stick with a removable handle,

concealing a stiletto. Poorly made, every time it is used there is a 4 in 6 chance that the blade will snap.

67-68. A small book of everyday phrases translated into

Bugbear. Unfortunately the translations are incorrect and the bugbear phrases are actually unforgivable insults.

69-70. A jar of what appears to be nine eyeballs in water.

They are, in fact, semi-precious gems worth 10 gold pieces each, but together worth 150 gp to a collector.

71-72. A plain looking dagger encased in a solid cube of

one foot square, amber-colored glass. There is nothing special about either the dagger or the glass.

73-74. A pair of bulky leather mittens lined with lamb’s

wool. They give the wearer a +4 saving throw vs. cold and cold-based attacks, reduce cold damage by 2 points of damage per die, and are so bulky that using missile weapons is impossible.

75-76. A plain iron ring, which when worn will cause any

knife or sword held in the same hand to become a +1 magical weapon. Unfortunately, any such weapon will be impossible to release until the curse is removed, after which the weapon can be released (and loses its magic).

77-78. A heart-shaped, red, polished stone of no monetary

value, which absorbs up to 20 points of damage taken by the bearer, growing progressively darker as it does so. Once it has absorbed 20 points of damage, the stone becomes black and lifeless, having lost its magic.

79-80. The recently deceased body of a well-dressed man,

next to which is an open and empty lead-encased coffer. In the man’s pocket is a note reading “I shall bring the object three nights hence in exchange for 10,000 gold coins. I have enclosed it in a lead coffer, as per your instructions, to hide its powerful magic.” The object is gone.

81-82. A hollowed-out book inside which is a piece of

parchment, folded into a small envelope. Written on the outside of the envelope in Dwarven runes, is the following: “For health and vitality take one measure three times daily with food”. If unfolded without care, the contents –a turquoise-colored powder - will be spilt. The powder is both useless and harmless.

83-84. A jar containing a three-inch high figure of a

terrified elf, suspended in a viscous amber fluid. The fluid is honey and the figure is intricate and finely painted.

85-86. A small bronze pig with a slot in its back and a

small hatch on its belly. Engraved on the side is: If you feed me copper then

In the morn there will be 10 In a year no more than 4 Lest I stop and work no more

If between one and nine copper coins are placed into the pig, by the following sunrise there will be 10 cc inside. This will work only four times a calendar year. If a fifth time is attempted, the pig will never again work.

87-88. A small silver amulet of a bee. On the bee’s

stomach is a tiny dial marked from zero to ten. If the dial is turned to a number, it will slowly rotate back to its starting position of zero, vibrating briefly and inaudibly as it passes each number – once every minute. This was used by a Mage to keep track of the length of his spells.

89-90. A bundle of (18) sticks, carved with unreadable

runes and polished to a bright finish. They are wrapped in a square of red silk, which in turn is wrapped in a roll of canvas. They have no powers.

91-92. A small wooden case containing ten crudely carved

dwarves and a wooden ball.

93-94. A stone with a hole in it, threaded onto a leather

thong. Looking through the hole will enable the bearer to see anything invisible under a moonlit sky.

95-96. A small metal box, 8 inches square, containing

charred pieces of wood that can’t be removed. If the wood is set alight, it will soon become apparent that it doesn’t burn, even though a flame is given off. Shutting the lid extinguishes the fire. The box itself does not get hot.

97-98. A black, scarf-like piece of material, with what looks

like two eye-holes cut into it. If worn like a mask, the wearer will be able to detect traps and snares, which to him will appear to glow red. The mask does not grant the wearer automatic knowledge of how to disable said traps. Each time the mask is used, there is a 2% cumulative chance the mask will fail to correctly show a trap.

99-00. A small silver flask, engraved with an ode to the

moon in elvish script. It contains a fine quality spirit and is worth 85 gc. Ω