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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5524206" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 229: May 1996part 3/8Bazaar of the Bizarre: Oooh. More Indian stuff. If there's a still neglected corner of the world in gaming, this is it. Both Oriental and Arabian settings slip stuff from it in, but it doesn't get it's own dedicated setting very often. Nice to see them continuing this theme for the year. Akbari lotus wine of negotiation helps people just get on with the business at hand, instead of farting around joking and getting sidetracked, and ensures they stick to the contract after agreeing on it. Gods, I'd love to have some of this right now. Amrita paste of immortality keeps you from dying if eaten regularly. It doesn't make you look any younger though. Enjoy your ancient withered guruness. Animated rumal is a magical scarf that can fly and strangle people. As ever, myth is full of amusing bits to steal. Anklet of firey retribution is one for the married couples. Course it only alerts you something is up after they die, which ain't so great, but at least it has the revenge part built in, and you won't have to clean up their body either. A Bell of announcement lets people know how long it's going to be until you arrive, no matter how far away you are in the journey. How very polite of you. Not many wizards are well mannered and considerate enough to think of making something like this. The Bow and Axe of conflicted Righteousness are both lawful good, but have their differences on how to best achieve this. Which means that if their owners meet, they are likely to fight. Should be fun to resolve. Conches of rending get rid of anything from other planes, and stun everyone else by being ridiculously loud. Deafness might be an advantage here. Dhoti of nonviolence make sure no-one attacks you if you don't attack them. Just lay back and watch the fight smugly, then negotiate with the winners and send them on a cryptic quest. That's the guru way. The ebony mace of wavering drains karma from anyone it hits. Great, not only have you been bashed to death, but you've been reincarnated undeservingly as a weasel. Talk about adding insult to injury. Ashoka's lion kings are a 4 set of wise and benevolent figurines. They're more than just servants, they make excellent conversation as well. Naming them Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo will probably not go down well. Bandicoot Mounts reverse the normal figurine procedure. Instead of growing, it shrinks it's user so they can use it as a mount through small areas. Hanuman monkeys are rather good at spying and trickery. Send them on a mission suited to their strengths and they can be quite effective. Straight combat isn't quite such a strong point, but they're hardly useless at that either. (little) White bulls are our final figurine. They're mainly for ploughing and carrying heavy loads, but like the real thing, can be pretty nasty in a pinch. They can stay animate longer than most of these too, so they can become a staple of your party's treasure carrying strategy.  The flute of Silence persuades undead to die for good with it's unheard melodies. An excellent substitute for a cleric in the party. Linen armor of displacement is for the thief in the party. Climbing and dimension dooring lets you ninja around quite happily. The Mandala of psychic devotion contradicts itself. Not as useful as it'd like to be, due to unclear rules. Rani of Jhansi's saddle lets you fight on beyond death. Once the battle stops, that's when you drop. Ride a bear, so your mount doesn't become the weak link in this business. The Rod of monsoon control lets you cause massive devastation. Since that happens every year around these parts, people won't be too surprised. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> Sapling wands allow you to bend in the wind and avoid any harm from it. Low key but neat. Probably work better as a ring or other worn item though. Shakunta's ring of memory helps you remember where you last met people and what you did. Perfect for the adventurer on the go, this'll save you a bit of embarrasment over the years. The Sitar of clarity is another incredibly useful item that allows you to half your spell regaining time, along with it's other meditative benefits. Course, it's tricky to read and play at the same time, so you'll have to hire someone else to do so. A Spinning wheel of Dharma is a rather interesting device that helps you locate people's reincarnations and restore their memories of past lives. This is a very entertaining one to play with indeed. Spirit Whisks allow you to clear out an area of intangible presences. The cleaning process may look somewhat amusing, but really, this is a plus. The Tandava Drum and Tambourine of deva presence make people think you have a powerful supernatural guardian. Which after all, you might in a fantasy world. The Tome of Spying allows you to have all your nearest and dearest watched for signs of treachery. Since the magical creatures involved tend to err on the side of generosity when reporting, this will make you paranoid and bitter if you weren't already. Which is the kind of consequences for owning a magic item that I find rather pleasing. Flame-of-the-woods trees produce flammable flowers that you can use as grenades. Woo. Everyone should have some of these, if only to learn how to handle stuff carefully. Moshka Mango Trees are the ultimate booby prize for any non-buddhist. If you're not a self-righteous prig they'll permanently cripple you, and if you are they'll "release you from the cycle of reincarnation" Yeuch. And this is presented as a good thing in the original myths. Wool trees produce extra badass wool. This may sound funny, but will make a nice little earner for anyone who can cultivate them. And given it's importance in everyday life, it's another one it's surprising you don't see more of. Vajira arrows turn into lightning bolts when shot. That's reasonably awesome visually. Not as dangerous as actual wizard's lightning bolts, but since they're often in batches, the damage and stunning can really add up in a tactical situation.The Wheel of light rays is dazzling, and hurts you more the worse your karma is. Another one to separate the good guys from the bad guys (and then result in a fight afterwards) Since it also seems to have unlimited uses, use it from behind a transparent wall for freesmiting utterly broken carnage. Wrist threads of spirit protection allow you to usefully cover another area of your body in magic items. In addition to the obvious shieldings, they also let you detect rakshasa. Course, you still probably won't be able to hurt them, but that's your problem to solve. Well, that was certainly a pretty epic article. This should keep me busy for a quite a while, and has several amusing and surprising items in it. Always nice to be able to open a fresh barrel instead of scraping out the old ones.</blockquote>

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