How does a farmer end up with a magic item?

[Quasqueton]

This comment in another thread:

Just be happy you see them +5 vorpal holy avengers in Walmarts, and not being given away by farmers for seed.

Made me remember an anecdote from an old AD&D1 campaign.

The PCs had been shacking up in a village between dungeon raids. One night they had to leave in a big hurry. One PC inadvertantly left a +1 battle axe in his inn room. (It was not anyone's primary weapon.)

The Player and I joked afterward about what the innkeeper might do with the weapon. "Would make for a good wood axe," was the Player's idea.

What are some interesting anecdotes about PCs losing magic items in your campaigns?

Quasqueton

 

[Lord Ipplepop]

I don't remember any characters really leaving things behind; however, in a multi-DM campaign that my group was running, the game had gotten WAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY too magic happy (4-6th level characters taking out an old Red Dragon with very little damage to themselves). I ran the next adventure, and designed it to be a standard, old-school dungeon crawl. When the characters re-surfaced, all of their mounts were gone (or dead), having been attacked by the orc hordes that inhabited the area. The character that they left behind to guard the horses (mine, obviously) was also near death as a result of fighting off the orc hordes.
The characters lost EVERYTHING except what they had on their backs... and all of their nice, neat magical weapons that they had been hording on their horses were ka-put.

 

[Felix]

It wasn't in a campaign, but the topic brought to mind the peasants from Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai. You had these 7 destitute samurai and the peasants come trotting out with enough armor to equip most of the village. Heh.

 

[green slime]

I don't remember any characters really leaving things behind; however, in a multi-DM campaign that my group was running, the game had gotten WAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY too magic happy (4-6th level characters taking out an old Red Dragon with very little damage to themselves). I ran the next adventure, and designed it to be a standard, old-school dungeon crawl. When the characters re-surfaced, all of their mounts were gone (or dead), having been attacked by the orc hordes that inhabited the area. The character that they left behind to guard the horses (mine, obviously) was also near death as a result of fighting off the orc hordes.
The characters lost EVERYTHING except what they had on their backs... and all of their nice, neat magical weapons that they had been hording on their horses were ka-put.

GAHHHH!!!! My eyes! Could you please change the colour?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

There was an offhand bit in one of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books where a farmer had an incredibly powerful item that he basically handed over. The farmer had claimed to be the descendant from an ancient line of kings entrusted with safeguarding the relic. However, as the centuries passed they grew more destitute until finally this guy who can barely keep his family fed has it.

Another idea is to have the magic item buried in a grave. Heroes a hundred years ago or more fought some kind of monster on the open plains. One of their number died and was buried with his signature item. Years pass, erosion takes its toll, and one day, while tilling his field, a farmer's plow gets stuck on it. Thinking at first that he's just hit a rock, the farmer digs it up and ... violia! He's the proud owner of a vorpal sword!

 

[Holy Bovine]

GAHHHH!!!! My eyes! Could you please change the colour?

Or leave it as the default? I hate people who do that.

 

[smootrk]

Vorpal weapons are all the rage with the Farmers who are Level 20 Commoners!

 

[Rothe]

How most farmers find rare items these days, they plow them up. Not so common in the US, but in Italy, Greece, etc. sometimes you can't dig 10 feet without hitting some artifact a 1000+ years old. Rhodes and Crete are notorious for this.

 

[werk]

Another idea is to have the magic item buried in a grave. Heroes a hundred years ago or more fought some kind of monster on the open plains. One of their number died and was buried with his signature item. Years pass, erosion takes its toll, and one day, while tilling his field, a farmer's plow gets stuck on it. Thinking at first that he's just hit a rock, the farmer digs it up and ... violia! He's the proud owner of a vorpal sword!

I rather like that. I know my dad has a ton of arrowheads, etc, found much the same way.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Given how many magic items are floating around amongst the ordinary folk in L1 and T1, I'm guessing this sort of thing happens fairly often.