A few treasures of distant past - RPG Blog Carnival
My lens for worldbuilding is currently set on a setting I do solo playtest at the moment. It is basically ancient Mediterranean, somewhat inspired by both Bronze Age Collapse and death of Roman Empire but centered around humanity becoming so powerful they challenged the gods - and gods simply leaving. This marks the end of grand empires and prosperity as civil unrest raged and undead started roaming the land sacred before. So most non-mundane treasures are related to divine items that still hold power and lost knowledge.
These are some treasures I prepared for the playtest.
Incenses of Motherly Love
- a bunch of brown-reddish pebbles in tarnished copper box with markings in shape of flowers, hearts and, surprisingly, daggers.
- when burned the pebbles produce sweet aroma, each person smelling something different but familiar. One pebble is enough to burn for an hour.
- priests of goddess of love, motherhood and sacrifice were blessed with the knowledge of making these incences inside their temples. When goddess - known in each culture by different name and personality - left with other gods she gifted each temple dedicated to her one last batch of these blessed incences. These are the only traces of a being that inspired and helped countless. Most were used and defiled when temples fell but some survived, hidden and sealed in ancient ruins.
- everyone who smells it burned can choose to take the benefit, which is healing temporary mental conditions and suppressing the permament ones (bonus Health/HP) at the same time making them inaggressive for a day (penalties to attacks and damage but not to defending oneself or others).
Harpoons of Sea King
- large bronze harpoons carved with mystical symbols on blades.
- when thrown they release a howl and crackle slightly, they cut through winds and waves without issue.
- created by ancient island kings with the blessing of cruel ocean god these harpoons were made to hunt the worst creatures of the sea, the monsters even gods had a trouble with. Now gods left, monsters stayed and harpoons are lost and dispersed among cities and ruins on islands all over. Some rulers of countless islands think it is the symbol of power and claim they can rule over others.
- harpoon is obviously mystical, everybody can feel it in its presence. It is easy to use against creatures of the sea (+2 attack and damage) and flies farther (range as long bow, ignores bad weather). If it hits a legendary sea monster it immobilizes it and pins in place (if it doesn't pin the creature immediately they will both fall down to the seabed and be pinned there).
Fiery Tubes
- small wooden tubes, similar to blowpipe. One end is sealed with black metal, the other with red wax and some arcane symbol.
- after it is unsealed you can point it and squeeze the black end, it hurls bullet of colourful and hot energy with high velocity. Each tube has three-four charges, after it is unsealed and not shot the charges will wane one per day. If the tube is damaged, besides red seal, it will explode in random direction as long as any charge is left.
- powerful tool from the times arcane knowledge was better kept and wider spread. Some wizards were able to combine their mastery in alchemy with spells of high magic to prepare these tubes and use in time of need. A few kings and chiefs of old times were able to buy them or persuade their court wizards to make a bunch of these. The rumours say of vaults full of fiery tubes just waiting to be uncovered and used to conquer the known world.
- each shot from the tube has rather long range (as short bow), it deals solid damage of heat and energy (as long sword, type fire/lightning) that is armor piercing and leaves horrible scars. If damaged it doesn't simply explode where the crack is - it bursts randomly (roll d6 for front, end or sides).
As an example above shows, not every treasure is connected to divine. Long ago I established myself rules for science fantasy items when the setting I played was a little more "fantasy world left after science world collapsed" and had blasters, light sabers and high tech things among elves and Conans. The rules were simple - items of distant past are fragile in some way. You can have blaster that trivilizes any combat - but it has limited charges. You have a sword made of space adamantium - it is the hardest and sharpest thing but if it is bent too much it will break and there is no way in the world to repair it. You may own a medbay - but pray for solar panels or any other part not to break. Or if you have very knowledgeable ancient engineer who is not going to live forever.
Basically every thing from the past is a finite resource.
This month's host: https://seedofworlds.blogspot.com/2024/07/august-2024-rpg-blog-carnival-it-came.html