"And as a gift- I present you with this eyelash!"

[alsih2o]

In medieval times body parts of kings, saints and even Christ were passed about, purchased, cherished and displayed.

It seems to em that in a magical world there would be even more of these types of things available.

So, instead of a splinter of the ulna of St. John you could get- __________?

What is it? I mean, obvious legendary dragon bits and religious whoo-has, but what has the cool?

What would your P.C,s do if given a patch of the cape worn by the great wizard SO Andso when he fixed the rift to the plane of water 1000 years ago? or some such?

 

[Crothian]

Sounds like some great power components for making magical items!!

 

[Piratecat]

One of the PCs in my game is considered a living saint. He's been told that after his death, different churches are queueing up to take finger bones and pieces of his body.

 

[WayneLigon]

Maybe even use Clone so every church gets a whole saint!

"And here, we have the Holy of Holies, the receptacle of St. Mournus the Thousand-Blessed. Wave to the nice people, St. Mournus."

 

[Gnarlo]

I think D&D's conventional thought doesn't always lend itself to the saintly artifact type of thinking, especially if the PCs are the ones to be made saints. I can't ever see a PC's blessed sword or holy cape ever being kept out of the greedy hands of his fellow adventurers long enough after his or her death to end up in a shrine or church. It's been a topic of threads on numerous occasions how only NPCs ever seem to be buried with their equipment; like Aragorn, PCs loot their comrades.

Resurrection spells and the like also raise the uncomfortable situation of what happens when said saint arrives at the local chapel and wants his parts back. I can see someone not getting too upset at seeing a church that claims to have his finger bone or something in its reliquary, but I can't see the average resurrected adventurer letting the clerics who claim to have St Johnson's johnson in their altar live.

 

[Qualir]

One of the PCs in my game is considered a living saint. He's been told that after his death, different churches are queueing up to take finger bones and pieces of his body.

Wow, I hope they actually let the guy be truly and finally deseased before carving him up. I imagine that he will find it quite difficult to arrange resurrection for himself, I mean, talk about being worth more dead than alive!

I would think that sanctified objects would offer abilities similar to those mentioned in Book of Exalted Deeds or similar to such items as prayer beads, mantle of faith, holy weapons, etc..

 

[Evilhalfling]

My game world has only had three Saints - St Orhro is the parton Saint of monster slayers. He was famous for chasing all the rats out of a country, and later killing the Iron Boar of North Bumbria. Now the dogs used for chasing rats and killing boars are very different, but everyone agrees he had dogs of some sort. The bone fragments of these dogs are all considered relics -
the kind that you put in a shrine and worship, not the kind actually used.
The entire dog skeleton which was recovered has no immediate powers but the city where it is located seems to have lost 1/2 of its rat popluation in 3 years. (This will eventually result in increased human population, as disease
drops and food storage rises it may take a generation however.)
BTW my world was once without magic, all saints come from that period.
Although now prayers to them have real (if minor) effects.

It seems like as waste to have items connected so closely with the gods, burned to reduce some spells XP cost or give it a +1 DC.
Now I could see incorperating them into a holy item of some sort.

 

[Tonguez]

IMC a lot of Magic items come in this form - for instance Feather Tokens are often feathers given from magical herons as thanks to PCs. A girdle of strength will be made from the hair of 140 Champions (each one of whom must be invoked for the belt to keep working) and knotted cord 'scrolls' (based on mayan Khipu) might incorporate bits of hair or skin or bone - Funery rites are designed to protect the bodies of ancestors from such miuse

I also once ran a campaign in which the PCs were all members of the 'Church' Special Serive - the Opus Dei- sent out on various missions including the recovery of holy artifacts which were either lost or fallen into the wrong hands. (a Spycraft time game set in modern times would be cool)

 

[tarchon]

One of the PCs in my game is considered a living saint. He's been told that after his death, different churches are queueing up to take finger bones and pieces of his body.

If he's that holy, he must be able to cast Regenerate, right...?

 

[diaglo]

Sounds like some great power components for making magical items!!

yeah, isn't eyelash a material component for the Darkness spell?

maybe you can attack it.