Help with magical location treasure

[Gromnar]

Hi Enwolders!

I'm hoping I could get some advise on non-standard magical treasure for one of my players. Through a lot of role play and various quests, the character has received ownership of a noble house and its assets. One of those assets is a manor house, and I'd like to put a unique magical location underneath it as part of the treasure.

A little background first:

The noble house they've taken over specializes in silver mining, most noteably mining in deep places rather than surface locations. The manor house is outside a large city on a small lake. There's a small cavern underneath the manor house that's currently unknown to the player (and will take some time to discover). I wanted to place some magical location or other kind of unique treasure in this cavern that has aided the previous owners of the noble house and helped to create their fortune. However, my prerequisites are I don't want this to be too powerful: since the character owns the location, I don't want them to simply go down every day and exploit it (once they find it). It needs to be flavorful and give some sort of boon, but not overpoweringly so. I'd also like it to tie into the wealth of the house; something this location can do or produce assists in (not the sole reason of) keeping the house wealthy.

The character (and the party) are level 13, almost 14. My ideas so far:

1. An Earth Node (from the Underdark book). I'm not sure what spells from that node would benefit wealth, however. It would also cost the character a precious feat slot to be of any use.
2. Magical Locations as Treasure (DMGII). None of the pre-generated areas seem suitable. I was initially thinking of something like the location producing a diamond of moderate worth every few months, but the magical location cannot be used more than once by any one character.
3. Portal to the Elemental Plane of Earth. Portal perhaps goes to a large cavern where silver or gems may be abundant.
4. Elemental Plane of Earth Bubble (Similar to the gnoll sample encounter in MMIV): A bubble from the earth plane formed in the cavern and have encrusted it with various low-cost gems like amethyests.
5. Philosopher's Stone (SRD): This is an artifact and I'm loathe to use it (especially since if the previous owners knew about it, it would have been used already) but the transmute iron/stuff to gold or silver would have been interesting.
6. Planar Touchstone. I haven't found any pre-generated ones that are suitable.

Might anyone have some suggestions?

Thanks for your help

 

[Celebrim]

There are so many ways to go with this I don't know where to begin. First of all, didn't you say 'non-standard magical treasure'? Why are you just looking at standard resources?

1) There is a basically untouched fairie grotto under the house. The resident is an earth spirit or fairy creature or genie of some sort whom advices the owner of the house where to dig to find treasure provide the grotto is not damaged and occasionally brings a gift such as good wine or other boon the spirit cannot actually acquire himself. Bonus fairy tale points if the inhabitat is actually under a curse, and this is not his/her true form.
2) There is an ancient temple under the house, dedicated to some diety of earth and treasure. The diety willingly offers boons to those that offer sacrifices in the temple, and spells of a particular domain cast there are more efficacious than normal. The temple is guarded over by a some sort of outsider or spirit being.
3) The cavern is the meeting point of several powerful lay lines, and a wizard long ago learned how to harnass them and built a stone circle inside the cavern. Spells cast within the cave with the Earth descriptor are more powerful than normal, with greater than normal caster level or much amplified range or duration.
4) There is a magical spring within the grotto, which slowly fills a pool with water at the rate of say 1 gallon per month. The pool contains about 100 gallons of water. Anything dipped within the pool turns to silver, at the rate of 1lb of material convert to 1lb of silver per one pound of uncontamenated water. Magical pools like this are Gygaxian, and they can do pretty much anything you want. For example, the contents of the pool can be a potion (potion of treasure finding?) or the undisturbed pool may be used as a crystal ball a certain number of times a day. You could have several in the grotto if you like, with different refill rates and uses to discover.
5) The cavern is an ordinary mine. A seam of valuable material intersects the cavern and can be worked.
6) The cavern also contains an ancient crypt, the burial place of a long line of nobles. The ancestoral spirts of the household may be contacted here, and their knowledge pool as if querying a most learned sage about the surrounding lands. Additionally, the spirits of the crypt have certain magical powers to protect the house. There may be a shrine in the house above providing for the worship of ancestors, or one in the cavern itself.
7) The cavern is haunted by a ghost with a disposition that is not particularly hostile. The ghost can, if befriended, provide useful aid.
8) There are far dangerous reaches of the caves where monsters can be fought. However, the bodies of these monsters are themselves valuable.
9) The far reaches of the caves allow entrance to the underdark, and there is a small clan of Pech living there which will trade goods valuable on the surface for things much less valuable on the surface - say adamantium for wine or other surface foods - at a profitable rate. However, there is a limited number of trade goods available per time period.

Any and/or all of the above at the same time. If you want mechanical ideas, select things that are of interest to you and I'll help you work it out.

Also, consider the following spell from my own library:

Dowsing
Divination
Level: Wiz/Sor 1
Components: S, F
Casting Time: 1 roud
Range: Extreme (400 ft. + 100 ft./level)
Area: Cone-shaped emanation
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
You can detect mineral deposits, including metals and subterrainian water. The amount of information revealed depends on how long you study a particular area. You can only douse for one different mineral at a time, and you must use a focus suitable for the material being sought after.
1st Round: Presence or absence of minerals within range of the spell (in the direction the douser is facing, one facing per round of study). This requires a DC 12 scry check, failure means ambigious sensation. This check, if it fails is, retriable once per minute.
2nd Round: Exact direction of the mineral deposit in question. This requires a DC 14 scry check, retriable once per minute. It is also possible to triangulate a direction by wandering about and changing facing until you can no longer sense the material.
3rd Round: Approximate distance to the mineral deposit in question. This requires a DC 16 scry check, retriable once per minute. It is also possible to determine distance experimentally by the simple expedient of walking toward the mineral until you know longer feel its presence in front of you.
Different materials require foci made from different materials, usually a forked or bent stick either held or suspended on a thread – collectively referred to as dowsing rods. You must keep a firm grip on the focus during the spell or the spell ends. You may not trade foci while concentrating on the spell, but you may independently look for each of the sorts of materials a particular focus is sensitive to.

 

[Gromnar]

Those are a lot of great ideas Celebrim. I especially love 4. There's a pool in the caravan that would make that perfect. Could we flesh out the history behind this spring, perhaps? How the magic works, where it comes from, etc?

 

[Celebrim]

Those are a lot of great ideas Celebrim. I especially love 4. There's a pool in the caravan that would make that perfect. Could we flesh out the history behind this spring, perhaps? How the magic works, where it comes from, etc?

Well, Gygax never did. There is sort of an assumption usually that the entire area is faintly magical (detect magic reveals a faint aura over the whole cave) and the spring concentrates that magic until it is in a form sufficiently strong to use. Incidentally, if you are familiar with Mud Men, they are animated in the same fashion - from slow eroding or concentration of magical ruins. D&D spellcasting is predictable, but magic in the Gygaxian style in general is odd and inexplicable. Keep in mind that even if the spring has a logical backstory, it might not be in the slightest discoverable to the inhabitants. But, you might allow Knowledge (Arcane), Knowledge (Geology), Spellcraft, Craft (Alchemy) and other checks to get clues.

Which spring/pool concept are you interested in?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

There's a node under the house that contains a Balor in stasis. Beware if they delve too greedily and too deep.

 

[Gromnar]

I'm interested in the pool that turns things into silver. That would explain a constant, if infrequent revenue and contain a start point for why they now mine silver.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Are you familiar with the Stronghold Builder's Guide? In it is a variety of Wondrous Architecture, which can be made with the Craft Wondrous Items feat to craft large, immovable enchanted affects into structures or large objects.

A few that cool be cool for this:
-Bed of Regeneration (restores hitpoints and lost limbs)
-Bier of Resurrection (you supply the diamond, it does the rest!)
-Pool of Scrying (self explanatory)
-Everful Larder (Never go hungry again!)
-Greater Tree of Jaunting (you can guess)

and so on, there are plenty of examples in the book.

Also, Races of Stone book has Dwarven magic forges. Those are cool for the crafter. Rune Circles are in there as well.

 

[LostSoul]

What about an NPC - some kind of seer? (Not necessarily a humanoid - an intelligent entity bound to the location would work just as well.) Typically used to find new veins of silver, but perhaps its powers are greater. Perhaps it has knowledge about events that happen and may happen where the rays of the sun does not reach.

The reason I suggest an NPC is that you can give it goals and desires and needs to be met, which could get interesting. This NPC doesn't even need to be sentient or identifiable as a "person" in any way - it could be a chamber full of strange gasses that gives you odd visions; but yet it wants and desires things from those who would seek vision.

 

[Gromnar]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I've looked through the sources suggested and have come up with some ideas. Any suggestions or alterations would be welcome. I'm not sure what to choose yet. A little more lore of the noble house the character is aquiring is generally evil in alignment and the character is good. They'll be working to alter the servants and other staff's alignment.

NPCs
- Galeb Duhr (MM2): Either its home is in the cavern or it was captured and brought here. The house was using its abilities to find out more about the distant mountains on where deposits of silver are located. The previous owners may have needed some magical compulsion due to alignment differences.
- Oread (FF): Its bound location might be in the small hill the manor resides on, and is further bound to the cavern. Similar to the Galeb Duhr above, it might require magical compulsion or some sort of deal in order to reveal its secrets.
- Earth Weird (MM2): I like this creature, but I'm already planning the characters visit a Fire Weird for critical lore, and I don't really want to duplicate it.

Other
- Greater Stone of Jaunting: Instead of the tree of jaunting, I could make it a stone of jaunting...that there's a magical stone beneath the cavern that can take them elsewhere to other stone of the same type. It might be a bit game breaking, however.
- Pool of Silver Transmutation: As per one of the original posts, the pool is silver in colour which slowly fills a pool with the silvery water at the rate of 1 gallon per month. The pool contains about 100 gallons of silvery water. Anything dipped within the pool turns to silver, at the rate of 1lb of material convert to 1lb of silver per one pound of silvery water.

Anyone have any further suggestions?

 

[Jester David]

I like the idea of a pool or natural spring as that is inherently non-portable making it harder to abuse.

A fun idea might be a cleansing pool that heals wounds, speeding natural healing and removing negative conditions. Which is beneficial in the long-term as it prevents the party relying on a local cleric for removing blindness and the like, while the party healer feels less pressure to memorize those types of spell.
Doesn't help in combat though.

It might even have the one-time ability to restore the dead, but that exhausts te magic of the pool (possibly permanent, possibly for a long time).