D&D 5E Locate object help

[Michael Evans]

I’m currently running The horde of the dragon queen campaign for my group. On page 27 under the treasure section - “the guards’ scabbards are decorated with dragon motifs. They are worth about 5 gp each. They are not part of the Cult of the Dragon “uniform” but wearing one of these scabbards could buy a character credibility when trying to pose as a cultist”

Fast forward to chapter 4. The party is now part of the caravan heading from Baldur’s Gate to Waterdeep.

One of my more experienced players had the brilliant idea to take the above mentioned scabbards that he has had in his possession for a while now and bury them along the road then the next day cast Locate Object to see if any more of these specific scabbards were in the caravan

My question is how would you folks rule this. Does the object being located need to be a specific one? Or can it be another like item, like a component of a specific uniform?

 

[iserith]

The spell says it "can locate the nearest object of a particular kind, such as a certain kind of apparel, jewelry, furniture, tool, or weapon."

Therefore, I would say that it can locate the scabbard in the caravan, if there are any there.

 

[Celebrim]

I would rule that this is a perfectly valid use of "Locate Object".

As a fairly consistent wording across editions, Locate Object tends to find the nearest object in range that fits the mental image that the player has. It can be used to find a very specific object if you are sufficiently familiar with it to imagine it's unique details, or it can find a more generic object by picturing something in a more generic way. In this case, knowing exactly what a Cult of the Dragon scabbard looks like gives the player a very good mental image for finding a scabbard that looks exactly or almost exactly like what the character is imagining.

 

[Umbran]

The spell says it "can locate the nearest object of a particular kind, such as a certain kind of apparel, jewelry, furniture, tool, or weapon."

Therefore, I would say that it can locate the scabbard in the caravan, if there are any there.

Agreed. Quite solidly within bounds of the spell.