Magic Objects and Artifacts? Which do you Love?

[BigBro359]

So, one of my favorite things about D&D are artifacts and magic objects. What are your favorites? What are your most hated? Any fun stories involving them? Any edition is welcome

 

[BigBro359]

Personally, some of my favorites include a set of Gems of my own invention, the gems of teravast. They are, admittedly, OP af, but they are typically an endgame scenario if you put them in. They grant a variety of powers, and can be combined with a suit of armor to create the armor of Teravast.

 

[Imaculata]

The Winter Closet

My players are currently having a lot of fun with a magical closet. This closet is wrapped in chains, and cold air leaks from the doors. Occasionally when people are near, it starts shaking, and growling and clawing on the inside can be heard.

No, this closet does not lead to Narnia. Instead it contains a pocket dimension to a very tiny winter wonderland. A bunch of really angry yeti are locked up inside, and they don't like it one bit. That is what the chains are for, to keep them in.

The Telling Tapestry

This magical rug is turning out to be quite useful. It illustrates the thoughts of anyone who touches the rug, and wants to project their thoughts (it doesn't work against someone's will, and only shows what you want to). Upon using the tapestry, it is as if the woven images come alive, and take on the shape of what you are thinking of. This item can bridge language barriers, and explain something extraordinary that you have seen. Of course it is only as detailed as a piece of rug can be, so it is by no means a painting.

 

[BigBro359]

The Winter Closet

My players are currently having a lot of fun with a magical closet. This closet is wrapped in chains, and cold air leaks from the doors. Occasionally when people are near, it starts shaking, and growling and clawing on the inside can be heard.

No, this closet does not lead to Narnia. Instead it contains a pocket dimension to a very tiny winter wonderland. A bunch of really angry yeti are locked up inside, and they don't like it one bit. That is what the chains are for, to keep them in.

That sounds fantastic. In one of the campaigns that I was part of at one point, we had this... well... we called it a milk horse. It was a result of an animation spell, a large vat of milk, and a lightning djinn, i believe. The point was, it somehow became sentient, and this was because inside the horse was a portal to the "milk world" The horse, being the only sentient milk being in any realm, was now the master of this previously unknown world. He could transport people to the milk world by absorbing them into his body. He could also eject them from it at will. This became the explanation for where players went of they could not make it to a session.
After a while, we realized just how powerful this thing was. It was really kind of funny, actually. Since it was made of milk, it could produce curds to float to the top of him to make it rideable. It was also impervious to anything except magic and heat. Both of which he could very easily avoid by simply squishing through the nearest crack in the wall or ground. The thing would not die. His name was also Bob.
So, what did your players do with the winter closet?

 

[Imaculata]

Well so far they've only opened it once. It took them a while, and they first had countless people look at it, who warned them that they should probably not open it. So open it they did (of course!). Immediately upon taking off the chains, the first two yeti's tried to crawl their way out, clawing at the players that were near. But since the Winter Cabinet was stored in the lower deck of their pirate ship at the time, the ceiling was rather low. So it was rather cramped for the creatures. They were able to drive the creatures back inside and shut the door with a spell or two. So for now the yeti's are locked back inside, but they haven't disposed of it yet.

I suspect the players are planning to secretly use this item on one of the villains at some point. I could tell by their mischievous smiles. I'm curious just how they intend to use it, since the yeti's will pretty much just attack anything in sight.

 

[ccs]

The Horn (s) of Valhalla.
I love these things both as a player & DM. And our new campaign is going to start with the use of one. With a twist though. The user is an NPC (picture Shaggy from Scooby Doo) sounding a horn he's not keyed to. The bezerkers he ends up calling are going to be the PCs. (All 4 of them decided to play barbarians - wich led me to this idea). Thier initial adventure is 600 rounds long.
And then periodically they'll be summoned as the campaign progresses. They'll find themselves suck into random situations (like bits Ravenloft) where they won't have ANY idea what's going on....

 

[BigBro359]

The other thing that is always fun is sentient artifacts and magic items. In another campaign, one of the players themselves was a magic item. He was a magic yellow bucket named Pale. He could not move unless carried, he could talk, and that was about it. What made him so hilarious, however, was A) His player played him to be exceedingly pissed off all the time because he WAS a bucket, and B) He had a power that if any living or undead being's foot came in contact with him, they automatically died, because they had...

wait for it...

KICKED THE BUCKET *duh dun tss*

The way they used the crabby little water vessel of death was they would whip it at the enemy's feet. They brought down a 90 foot demon with that thing.

 

[BigBro359]

Well so far they've only opened it once. It took them a while, and they first had countless people look at it, who warned them that they should probably not open it. So open it they did (of course!). Immediately upon taking off the chains, the first two yeti's tried to crawl their way out, clawing at the players that were near. But since the Winter Cabinet was stored in the lower deck of their pirate ship at the time, the ceiling was rather low. So it was rather cramped for the creatures. They were able to drive the creatures back inside and shut the door with a spell or two. So for now the yeti's are locked back inside, but they haven't disposed of it yet.

I suspect the players are planning to secretly use this item on one of the villains at some point. I could tell by their mischievous smiles. I'm curious just how they intend to use it, since the yeti's will pretty much just attack anything in sight.

That is beautiful. See, with my friends, they would be more likely to try and appease the yeti's by letting them free in a hole, and once they calmed down, attempting to charm them to make a yeti army. For some reason, the group I play with likes to try and create a business, more or less, or army, or something similar. At one point, they managed to get an entire brothel up and running. Unfortunately, I don't know a whole lot about that specific encounter because that was before I started playing D&D

 

[Imaculata]

Charming them could definitely be an option, since yeti's are humanoid creatures. But my players rarely use charm spells. The yeti's are also rather angry (who wouldn't be, after being locked up in a closet for so long?), and unpredictable. So it may be easier to just open the closet in front of some bad guys, and make a run for it. Then again, it is a rather large and heavy closet. Its not like you can just carry it around. You need a crane to lift it at least. But maybe they could use it to set some sort of trap.

My players did attempt to create an army of Chuul (giant evil lobster monsters) earlier, by stealing a bunch of Chuul eggs from one of their nests. But then one of the eggs hatched prematurely on board their ship, and that one Chuul escaped. They have no idea where it went. This got them nervous enough to want to quickly sell the other damn eggs.

 

[BigBro359]

Charming them could definitely be an option, since yeti's are humanoid creatures. But my players rarely use charm spells. The yeti's are also rather angry (who wouldn't be, after being locked up in a closet for so long?), and unpredictable. So it may be easier to just open the closet in front of some bad guys, and make a run for it. Then again, it is a rather large and heavy closet. Its not like you can just carry it around. You need a crane to lift it at least. But maybe they could use it to set some sort of trap.

My players did attempt to create an army of Chuul (giant evil lobster monsters) earlier, by stealing a bunch of Chuul eggs from one of their nests. But then one of the eggs hatched prematurely on board their ship, and that one Chuul escaped. They have no idea where it went. This got them nervous enough to want to quickly sell the other damn eggs.

That is fantastic. How were they going to control them though?