Magic Items D&D 5e Archives - Brazen Wolfe Tabletop

Now tonight I was looking for something to write about, and really the bombardment of ideas was a Mixed Bag of Misery. After spending a day, yup a whole day (well nearly…) Magnetising my currently built infantry for my Hedonites of Slaanesh army and painting nearly all my currently built blissbarb archers (so expect a photo bombardment next weekend) I am tabletop fatigued. But as I looked at the twenty daemonettes in front of me I thought “Well, at least after the content dense blissbarbs these are different kind of misery.”

But this got me thinking, and soon an idea blossomed. Cursed useful items in DnD. Now hear me out. A cursed sword is arguable useful as long as you can resist the curse. A cursed ring can is generally not great at all – in all cases.

But what about a cursed utility item. So tonight I will focus on a Mixed bag of Misery.

Mixed Bag of Misery

Lore – The devil in the detail.

Long ago a devil plagued the house of Rosariae. The little imp pestered the family daily for years. By creating little acts of malice within the home it spread misery throughout the household. Eventually the family noticed that the cause of this misery was an imp, Demsodae (Dems-o-day). Acts to catch or persuade it to leave the house always failed but they noticed a quirk of the diminutive devil. It always took a single egg each night and devoured it. Using this knowledge they hired an enchanter to alter a leather drawstring bag to capture and ensnare the creature if it entered it willingly. So they laid a trap with a large, goose egg as bait.

Sure enough in the morning the bag was full and the family rejoiced in their capture of the imp. Many decades later and the bag fell into position of an adventurer who mistook the bag for one of holding. Upon reaching into the bag they discovered with horror that it was filled with headless mice. And this adventurer hated mice.

The next owner found that the bag was instead filled with centipedes, but when that owner entered the bag again the bugs were gone. The cursed bag has seen a few duplications as the original enchantment was unravelled but all of them contain a tricked imp that tries to give the owner of the bag a daily dose of misery.

Mechanics of the Mixed Bag of Misery

Once per day, the Mixed Bag of Misery will change the contents of what it contains to something the owner finds repulsive, disgusting or something they are fearful of. After the contents have been revealed then the bag is sated. Once sated it acts like a bag of holding, although its storage capacity is half that of a normal one (due to an imp living within…). However, despite the Imps malicious nature it can be persuaded to help.

If the owner offers it something it favours, a goose egg in the case of Demsodae, it will help the owner. This is an infrequent occurrence but it can produce something to help the owner of the bag. This act of helping is infrequent and will normally backfire on the owner.

As this bag is cursed it is not easy to get rid of it. In fact to get rid of the bag the owner must convince someone else to place the imps favourite thing within the bag. Only then can the bag be transferred from one living owner to the next.

Thoughts

Now I have created this bag primarily for role play. However it all depends on how we interpret the assistance of the imp. I may have the Imp may assist the owner by producing rotten eggs that the owner can use. In the right circumstance they could be a great distraction or tasty snack for a hostile beast. The list of things that we can do to make this cursed item a useful one is near-endless. However it’s up to the Role play of the Player, us – the DM, and the situation that its being used.

Thanks for joining me tonight for this weird little item. A Mixed Bag of Misery isn’t quite how I would capture my current tabletop progress. But, there are highs and lows with any tabletop venture and for me I find its focusing and finding the time to focus on painting miniatures. So as we continue on with our weekend consider this. The bag of experiences you take you are always going to be mixed. You can’t always pass that skill check, nor should you. That’s not how adventures are made or how heroes are born. So take what will with what you can and the rest, I guess just leave it up to the dice!

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for more Tabletop content and, as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

As we move closer to the end of the campaign I don’t foresee having many more NPCs of note joining us for every weeks encounters. So for tonight I wanted to release the Dragons Tears Items that I worked on a template for last week with some slight tweaks. So enjoy!

Dragons Tears Items

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Dragons Tears Items – Melee

Dragons Tears Item – Ranged Weapon

Dragons Tears Item – Wondrous Item (amulet)

Thoughts.

Tweaking the bonus to hit and damage to be all the time was just to make the weapon feel more versatile outside of this specific campaign. Having the damage be activated rather than all the time and only when shedding light means that there is a decision to be made. Stealth or no stealth. The non-optional beacon effect of the light them a target for the minions of the shadow, undead, fiends or creatures in general and that could be enough of a deterrent to not use it all the time.

The ranged weapon didn’t get much tweaking. I know how strong guiding bolt is but granting permanent damage boost on a ranged weapon felt too strong. The three times a day (resetting on dawn) is thematic as well as should make the use of the ability something they save, or risk being caught without an ace up their sleeve.

The wondrous item wasn’t changed too much if at all as the provision of darkvision, the light effect AND the advantage on being charmed should be powerful enough.

Thanks for joining me once again when we look towards Ryokughan. Tonight we looked at some magic items that were gifted by the Harimasu family to defeat the Shadow. Well that’s the hope at least. Tomorrow we look at further advancements as the party travel towards the wall so it aims to be a good one. Don’t forget to come back each night this week to stay up to date on the content here and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe