Scarab of Protection - Hathor

    Igenius laid the small carving down on the table glinting blue and green in the sunlight.  

    The old lady on the other side, quietly studied it for a moment, then picked it up with a pair of  wooden rods and turned it over without, he noticed, ever touching it with her fingers.  

    "And how did you feel when you first picked it up?"

    "Warm", Igenius responded, "like I'd just come into my mothers kitchen on a winter's day."

    "Ah, it appears to be an amulet of the goddess Hathor, mother and protector.  It will be of use to you in your delvings, more would require me to cast a spell and you to provide me with means and further payment for my efforts."

  These small carvings were once common in Egypt, their protective properties have scattered them across the multiverse.  Consisting of a small image of a woman in a headdress, with long hair and cows ears, they provide protection against magic and disease to the wearer.

    The material of the amulet is a sure guide to it's strength.  The most common are made of ceramic, usually with a faience glaze or copper.  When worn these provide +1 on saves vs magic or disease.

The next types are carved from semi-precious stones or made of silver, they provide +2 protection when worn.

Gold amulets are rare, but those who wear them receive a +3 bonus to their saves vs magic and disease.

Rarest of all are the ones carved from precious gems, which provide a +4 bonus on saves vs magic and make the wearer immune to disease

    Hathor is a goddess of destruction as well as protection.  1 in 20 of these reflect the other side of her nature and act like a Sword of Cursed Berserking!  In each combat the wearer must save vs magic or go on an unstoppable rampage until slain, knocked unconscious or dead.  The only way to remove one of these cursed scarabs is for the wearer to imbibe a flagon of mixed blood and milk.

Inspiration from Dominic Perry's History of Egypt Podcast  It's well worth a listen.

Aggie's Dolls

Mandrake Doll
Prohibition Agent

Aggie’s Dolls - in the Kitchen at Igman’s, investigators may notice small (6”) dolls made of cloth sewn around a mandrake root, decorated and dressed to look like specific people. Letty’s is one of the more prominent.

When a doll is picked up, the holder will have a sense of where the individual it represents is located. The better the holder knows the area, the more accurate the knowledge. For example, Aggie picks up Letty’s doll, Letty is cleaning Professor Bernard’s room at the time. Aggie knows it’s the Professor’s room. An investigator will only sense that Letty is close by and inside.

Expending a Magic Point will allow the holder to use one of the doll’s senses. For example looking into the eyes of the doll to see what the person is currently looking at.

Similarly, putting the doll’s lips next to your ear allows you to hear what, if anything, they are saying. If the doll has ears, you can whisper a message to the individual via the doll. Each sense used requires one Magic Point to activate it and works for ten minutes.

Dolls: Letty, Mrs Igman, several members of Church of Nature’s Bounty, Donald French (no ears). After BLANK days, they will find Aggie has made one of Professor Bernard.

____________________________________________

I created these for my recent Call of Cthulhu adventure, note that I never quite completed the write up.  The investigators found them, right before they burned the boardinghouse down.  The description is generic enough you can adapt these to any system.  The sketch is my rendition of the earless doll used for Donald French, the Prohibition Agent masquerading as a tractor salesman, who was murdered by the cult.

Lunch Bag of Holding

     The flawed creation of an apprentice wizard attempting to create a Bag of Holding that would disguise it's contents as innocuous objects a thief would overlook.    The apprentice succeeded - sort of....

     The Lunch Bag of Holding appears as a small brown paper bag, wrinkled and having a large grease spot bleeding through.  The bag can hold any object that can fit through it's relatively small opening (3" x 5" / 7.62cm x 12.7cm) at negligible weight, after 50lbs (22.7kg) are reached there is a 5% chance for each subsequent pound (.45kg) of items placed in the bag that it will rupture, cascading it's contents over the floor at the next inconvenient moment.
     Items placed in the bag will be transformed according to the following rules.

Money
    Standard copper pieces are transformed into smaller copper coins roughly one quarter the size of the original.  The smaller coins are also only worth one quarter of a regular copper coin.
    Other coins are transformed into silver pieces, approximately 2/3 the weight of a standard silver piece.  Due to debasement of the silver by an alloy of copper, the new coin is only worth one half of a standard silver piece.  Silver pieces are transformed on a one to one ratio, electrum at two new silver coins for each electrum piece.  Gold pieces are transformed at a four to one ratio and platinum at a twenty to one ratio.

Items
     All other items stored in the bag are transformed based on a percentile roll on the following table.

Roll	Item appearing
01-05	Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
06-09	Apple
10-27	Package of potato chips
28-32	Turkey sandwich
33-34	Chocolate chip cookies
35-39	Bologna sandwich
40-43	Banana
44-48	Cheese sandwich
49-52	Orange
53-57	Tuna salad sandwich
58-59	Peanut butter cookies
60-64	Ham sandwich
65-68	Celery sticks
69-73	Egg salad sandwich
74-75	Chocolate cake
76-80	Salami sandwich
81-84	Pear
85-89	Chicken salad sandwich
90-91	Fruit pie
92-96	Vegemite sandwich
97-00	Carrot sticks

Electro-Sword

From Lynn Carter's The Warrior of World's End

"His sizzling tubular  blade flew past her ward to strike at her head.  Even in the last extremity of effort she glided to one side, avoiding the full force of the stroke.  But the energy sword left her a glancing blow on the temple.
     The numbing electric shock wrung the strength from her. Stunned and reeling, she let her longsword fall from nerveless fingers.  She crumpled to her knees, fighting against the impalpable darkness that surged up to drown her consciousness.  Then a sword point struck her unguarded brow.  The shock of it drove splinters of incandescence through her brain and she fell to one side and knew no more."

The electro-sword has a tubular 'blade' with a conventionally shaped ceramic hilt.  Despite having two blunt points or prongs on the tip, it is a bludgeoning weapon that does 1d4-1 damage on a hit.  It's power lies in the disabling electrical shock it delivers with each successful attack.  If you're system has a Hit Location mechanic use it, or use the following chart to determine hit location and effect,

Roll d20	Location	Effect
19-20	Head	Save vs Blast /Fortitude DC 18 or fall unconscious for 2d6 minutes and staggered for an additional 4d6 minutes
16-18	Left Arm	Save vs Blast /Fortitude DC 16 or arm becomes numb for 3d6 rounds.  Anything in the hand is dropped.  A shield on the left arm only protect against attacks from the left.
13-15	Right Arm	Save vs Blast /Fortitude DC 16 or arm becomes numb for 3d6 rounds.  Anything in the hand is dropped.  A shield on the right arm only protect against attacks from the right.
11-12	Chest	Save vs Blast  /Fortitude DC 14 or Die as ventricular fibrillation sets in.  Add four to your die roll when saving vs Blast.
9-10	Abdomen	Save vs Blast /Fortitude DC 16 or your diaphragm convulses forcing the air out of your lungs.Lose all attack actions for the next 3d4 rounds.  Plus you are flatfooted for the first three rounds as you gasp for air.
5-8	Left Leg	Save vs Blast /Fortitude DC 16 or your leg becomes numb for 3d6 rounds.  Make a balance check DC 16 or fall.  No combat maneuvers or tumbling may be done while your leg is numb.   Lose half your Dexterity adjustment to AC and -1 to melee damage as you concentrate on staying upright.
1-4	Right Leg	Save vs Blast /Fortitude DC 16 or your leg becomes numb for 3d6 rounds.  Make a balance check DC 16 or fall.  No combat maneuvers or tumbling may be done while your leg is numb.   Lose half your Dexterity adjustment to AC and -1 to melee damage as you concentrate on staying upright.

Critical Hit - save as for a Chest hit.  If the origial hit was to the Chest, save again.

These weapons are especially sensitive to sundering.  A successful Sunder will cause 3d6 damage to everyone within 5 feet.

Metal armor makes it easier to receive a shock, for every two points of protection provided to the defender by metal armor, attacks with the electro-sword receive a +1 attack bonus. No modification to damage.  For example in ACKS, Plate Armor is AC 6, Electro-swords attacking someone wearing Plate Armor receive a +3 Attack Bonus.

Electro-swords hold up to twenty charges.  Recharging them is the stuff of legend, some say they can only be recharged by slaying a blue dragon, others say they require new 'batteries' a strange power device from across time and space, another says they need to be planted in the sunlight like flowers and Petocles the Mad claims you just rub them with cats.

Treasure - The Basyn Spell or the Thieves Dance

     Magic users come in three varieties - (1) new, poor and feeble, (2) dead or (3) rich and powerful.  All of them start in the first category and hope to avoid the second while advancing to the third.  Those who make it to the third category are also very intelligent and, having pursued the same path to wealth and comfort, understand that their fortune is a magnet to the first category and other undesirable types.

     With this in mind they put in a great deal of thought and effort into designing traps and safeguards to protect the treasures that they have accumulated (stolen) at great personal risk.  Those of a more humorous frame of mind enjoy using the following spell to identify and capture less successful miscreants.

The Basyn Spell
Arcane 4
Range: Touch
Duration: Special

This spell is cast on a single non-magical object no larger than a footstool.  The spell is completed when the object is placed in it's intended location.  Once placed, anyone who picks up or grasps the object can not let go of it until the spell is dispelled. Furthermore, once someone has been grasped the object, anyone else who grasps or touches the object or a creature touching the object (ad inifinitum) is also unable to let go.  This secondary effect extends to tools used to touch the object or creature.  For instance, attempting to smash the object with a hammer would cause the hammer to stick to the object, while the wielder of the hammer could not let go of it in turn. Any number of creatures may be effected.

The caster sets the requirements for dispelling the magic as part of the spell.  It may be a word or phrase; or it may be the object being used in a particular manner or by a named individual.  For instance, they can't let go until the magic user had put his feet up on the footstool.

The nickname of the spell comes from the actions of a group of thieves trying to tug it out of each other's grasp resembles them dancing around it.

Forgotten Gem - Metamorphosis Alpha

Metamorphosis Alpha was science fiction role playing game written by James M Ward and published by TSR Rules in 1976.  It is also one of the first two RPGs I ever purchased, I found my copy this summer cleaning the basement.

In just 32 - 8 1/2 x 11 double column pages it gave you a complete role playing system, similar but different from D&D.   Still based on 3d6, the character attributes were Radiation Resistance, Mental Resistance, Dexterity, Strength, Leadership Potential and Constitution.  Characters can be basic humans, mutated humanoids or mutated animals or plants.  Mutants don't have Leadership Potential

Radiation Resistance and Mental resistance both used cross index charts comparing the power of the attack against the character's resistance to determine damage.  Here we're seeing one of the roots of the hobby, as similar charts were used in hex and counter board wargames of that era.

Poison vs Constitution used a similar chart.

Rules and examples of character generation take up about two and a half pages - including an illustration.

When you consider that the rest of the pages give descriptions of every deck of a 50 mile long starship, lists of mutations, a beastiary with mutated humans, animals and plants and lists of technological treasures, this game is pretty much the epitome of 'rules light'.

I only played it a few times in high school, but the player rewards in terms of advancement just weren't there.  You could gain access to technology, such as robots, and wander around the starship, but unlike Heinlein's Orphan's in the Sky, there was no set goal of achieving control of the ship.  Not being an experienced game master, the system was just too open ended for me to continue with.  So it's been in storage for several decades awaiting for me to level up as a DM.

On a side note the 1e DMG has rules for running a cross over with Metamorphosis Alpha.

[Ed. - forgot to ask: Any of you get to play this one?]

Grimoires

Authoritative books on magic are extremely rare, although many are known of, such as the Libram of Silver Magic, Nine Books of Nagash and the Necronomicon, in a pre-Gutenburg world they are almost never actually seen.  The books which are found are almost exclusively what are known as 'grimoires', often referred to as 'spell books'. The term 'spell book' is a misnomer, as these grimoires do not provide step by step instructions on how to cast a fireball. Rather they are a combination of research notes and personal journal which a wizard accumulates over their professional life.  Often they contain quotes and paraphrases of passages from the authoritative books, written down in whatever order the author encountered them.  Indeed, the contents of the great works are spread almost solely through these notes.

An arcane magic user who finds a grimoire has a resource to last his lifetime. By studying the notes of his predecessor (and copying extracts into his own grimoire), the magic user increases his own knowledge of the theory and Art of magic.  This provides him with insight to cast new spells.  Because this insight is coming from the synthesis of his current knowledge with the contents of the grimoire the spells learned from the same grimoire may be completely different for different magic users and the abilities of the grimoire's author have no bearing on what a reader may learn from the tome.  A chance turn of phrase in the notes of an apprentice may unlock a powerful spell.

Mechanics
The number of spells a character may learn from a grimoire is 1d4 + Intelligence modifier.

For each spell, roll on the following table to determine the spell level.  The player selects the spell they are trying to learn from the list of spells for that level.  If they succeed in the Spellcraft check, they have added their preferred spell to their spells known. If they fail the check, they learn a random spell of that level.  It takes two weeks of study to learn each spell.

Note that the DC is set so that in Pathfinder, a character which has Spellcraft as a class skill, has maximized their ranks in the skill and have the minimum intelligence to cast the spell have a 50/50 chance of learning their preferred spell.  It follows that a character cannot take 10 or 20 on the Spellcraft check, as the check is to see if the grimoire along with their current knowledge enables them to learn the desired spell.

Characters cannot learn spells of a level higher than they can cast.

Die Roll	Spell Level	Spellcraft DC
01-07	Special	N/A
08-10	0	12
11-28	1	14
29-44	2	17
45-58	3	19
59-70	4	22
71-80	5	24
81-88	6	27
89-94	7	29
95-98	8	32
99-00	9	34

Special: A result of Special indicates that among the entries in the grimoire, the character has found a note about an item or person of interest, such as the true name of a demon; a clue to the powers or location of a legendary artifact; or even a standard treasure map.

Taxes

In honor of the fact that I just finished my taxes for the year, and I'm annoyed as I lost my last child deduction because he has a job, not because he's financially independent.  Here's a table of taxes and fees based on those exacted in classical Rome.

Sesterius.  The standard Roman accounting SP at 10 SP to 1 GP

1. The tithes paid to the state by those who occupied the ager publicus. This amounted to 1/10th of the produce or one fifth of the wine and olives

2. The sums paid by those who kept their cattle on the public pastures. The amount was not recorded, but was apparently lucaive, so charge the higher rate - one fifth of the increase in any herd pastured on public land.

3. The harbour duties raised upon imported and exported commodities. One twentieth the value of the goods, including slaves.

4. The revenue derived from the salt-works. One denarius (a large silver piece worth four regular silver pieces (sesterius)) per 60 pecks (524 liters)

5. The revenues derived from the mines (metalla). This branch of the public revenue cannot have been very productive until the Romans had become the masters of foreign countries. Until that time the mines of Italy appear to have been worked, but this was forbidden by the senate after the conquest of foreign lands (Plin. H. N. XXXIII.4,º XXXVII.13). The mines of conquered countries were treated like the salinae, that is, they were partly left to individuals, companies, or towns on condition of a certain rent being paid (Plin. H. N. XXXIV.1; Cic. Philip. II.19), or they were worked for the direct account of the state, or were farmed by the publicani. In the last case, however, it appears always to have been fixed by the lex censoria how many labourers or slaves the publicani should be allowed to employ in a particular mine, as otherwise they would have been able to derive the most enormous profits (Plin. H. N. XXXIII.4). Among the most productive mines belonging to the republic we may mention the rich gold-mines near Aquileia (Polyb. XXXIV.10), the gold-mines of Ictimuli near Vercelli, in which 25,000 men were constantly employed (Plin. H. N. XXXIII.4;º Strab. V. p151), and lastly the silver-mines in Spain in the neighbourhood of Carthago Nova, which yielded every day 25,000 drachmas to the Roman aerarium (Polyb. XXXIV.9; cf. Liv. XXXIV.21). Macedonia, Thrace, Illyricum, Africa, Sardinia, and other places also contained very productive mines, from which Rome derived considerable income.

6. The hundredth part of the value of all things which were sold (centesima rerum venalium). This tax was not instituted at Rome until the time of the civil wars; the persons who collected it were called coactores

For slaves it was charged at two percent.

7. The vicesima hereditatium et manumissionum.  Freeing a slave costs the owner one twentieth of the slaves value as a tax.  A nice one to charge your paladins for doing good deeds.

9. A tax upon bachelors.  Not contributing to the future of the state? Five percent every census, for unmarried men, excluding widowers, over the age of twenty five.

10. A door-tax and a pillar tax. These are taxes on palaces or fancy townhouses, two percent for every door, and one percent for each external pillar. [Ed.  Value is calculated based on the total cost of the building.]

11. The octavae. In the time of Caesar all liberti living in Italy and possessing property of 200 sestertia, and above it, had to pay a tax consisting of the eighth part of their property.  The liberti were freed men (former slaves) , but this works as a tax on any novaeu riche, such as successful adventurers.

See Vectigalia for the source of the information.

Treasury - Pearl of New Reality

Sometimes a wish is granted or action is taken that changes the course of history ... for awhile.  For the truth is that not all desires can with stand the pressures of Time, Space, Fate and most especially the sheer mass of History, grinding into the future.

When a wish can not stay fulfilled, History, the sages agree, will form an event horizon around the wish and slowly push in until the wish has collapsed into an opalescent  sphere, resembling an extremely large pearl.  Thus encapsulating the altered reality.

After that the sages split into various schools regarding the properties and fate of the orbs.

The Amber school claims if you take one to the space between Shadows it will expand into a whole new reality.

The Alexandrian school claims that the altered reality, complete to the edge of the universe is still within the pearl. And that if you could but pierce the event horizon you could find yourself as you would have been.

The Ankh school agrees with the Amber school, but claims that you have to wait until the end of this reality, when all of the pearls will be able to expand and grow into new realities.

The Rel Astran school says that these are not complete new realities, but seeds of new planes.  The seeds can be "planted" in the Astral plane and nurtured through complex ritual magic to grow into a new plane of existence.

The Chendl school is an offshoot of the Rel Astran and says that the seed must be taken to the Ethereal plane rather than the Astral.

The Waterdeep or Nesting school claims that our reality is contained within a Pearl and that Pearl is itself contained within a series of Pearls all the way back to the Primal Pearl.

The Greyhawk school says that it's a load of ballocks that the Pearls can contain a new reality or plane.  They like to trot out what they say are Xagyg's research notes recovered by a band of intrepid adventurers, which show that he planned to use Pearls to contain the essences of the demi-gods he captured.

The sage Lysixenos, in his scroll On Infinity, relates the apocryphal story that St Cuthbert once offered such a Pearl to Asmodeus, offering to let him escape to found his own reality and never trouble humankind again.  Asmodeus refused with a wry smile, saying "Not again".

Treasury - Portal of Eibon

An oval shaped inlay of a reddish metal - neither gold nor copper, nor any metal named by man.  When mounted on an exterior vertical surface, it allows the possessor to pass through it to another place or time.

When pushed, the portal will swing open on unseen hinges, providing a means of passing through whatever surface it is mounted on to another location.

The portal may be freely detached and moved to another location with no ill-effects, however every time the portal is moved, randomly determine it's destination.

It's important to note that travel through the portal is one way.  Users must provide their own means of returning to their home.  Nor does the portal offer the voyager any protection or adaptation to the conditions and inhabitants of the destination.

Random Locations

2  Sea bottom of Barsoom
3   Gormenghast
4   Random Plane of the Abyss
5   Steampunk London of Jack the Ripper
6   Mountains of Madness
7   Alternate Material Plane
8   Plane of Shadows
9   The corpse of a dead deity on the Astral plane
10 Mount Olympus
11  Starship Warden
12  Post-apocalyptic Las Vegas
  
Inspiration: Clark Ashton Smith: The Door to Saturn

Treasury - Goddess of the Ebon Moon

An 18 inch tall statuette of a humanoid female. It appears as an incredibly beautiful female of the viewer's race, carved out of an unknown dark wood, standing within a crescent moon.
The possessor gains the ability to move from shadow to shadow unseen.  The possessor also gains low light vision as follows:
New moon - 15'
Waxing/Waning moon - 30'
Full moon - 60'

To use these abilities the user must sacrifice one pound of silver per month.

Inspiration: Clark Ashton Smith The Venus of Azombeii

Treasury - Tools of Klephtis

Image linked from The Adventuring Archives blog

Klephtis was the senior Guild Master in Apollonia - until he was assassinated one night.  His custom made set of thieves tools were never found afterwards.  One of his apprentices claimed to have been allowed to use them once and described them as "being made of divers material, keys of gold and crystal, saws of purest adamant and pliers made of quicksilver that could reach into the smallest lock and around corners".  But all know what sort of braggarts and liars thieves are when in their cups.  

In game terms possessing the tools gives a thief +20% to Find Traps, but oddly no bonus to remove or disable them.  And a +15% bonus to Open Locks.

Treasures - Breastplate of Diomedes

This +5 breastplate is embossed with a charging boar and was forged out of solid gold by Hephasteus himself.  Additionally, any armor check penalties are reduced by 2 and the armor provides the wearer with limited protection from critical hits.  Critical hits only occur on the roll of a natural 20, regardless of threat range or feats, and even if confirmed, there is a 50% chance that it is reduced to normal damage