(Psi)SeveredHead
Adventurer
Instead of a map, couldn't this be a ritual/spell? Every time you cast it, you get the same map demon. It's pretty close to the 4e Hand of Fate ritual, but more informative.
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D&D 5E magic map artifact
- Thread starter pukunui
- Start date
What about having the map demand payment. It notices and informs the players about nearby secrets, but doesn't tell them where those secrets are for free.
"Hey, that's one huge chest of gold hidden away. What will you give me to help you find it?" The bigger and better the payment, the better their hints. Offer the map everything in the treasure chest and it will tell you exactly where to find it. However, it will magically teleport all the treasure away when you do find it.
Want to work it into the storyline even more, the map is an artifact created by a greedy devil. Deals are binding and payment is moved to a different dimension for collecting. Maybe later on this devil could become a foe using items and equipment the party gave up. Unfortunately for the devil, the map was made to only care about the collection of goods. It will tell the party anything they want if the price is right, including the owner's location.
The map can accept any form of payment, ale, money, items, sacrifices, slaves, ect. However good or evil they want to be. The more valuable or difficult for the party to give payment the more helpful the map is willing to be.
"Hey, that's one huge chest of gold hidden away. What will you give me to help you find it?" The bigger and better the payment, the better their hints. Offer the map everything in the treasure chest and it will tell you exactly where to find it. However, it will magically teleport all the treasure away when you do find it.
Want to work it into the storyline even more, the map is an artifact created by a greedy devil. Deals are binding and payment is moved to a different dimension for collecting. Maybe later on this devil could become a foe using items and equipment the party gave up. Unfortunately for the devil, the map was made to only care about the collection of goods. It will tell the party anything they want if the price is right, including the owner's location.
The map can accept any form of payment, ale, money, items, sacrifices, slaves, ect. However good or evil they want to be. The more valuable or difficult for the party to give payment the more helpful the map is willing to be.
Mishihari Lord
First Post
Suppose the map works off the minds of those within the area of effect. It's limited to a quarter mile in any direction and only shows areas currently perceived by living creature with an intelligence greater or equal to that of a rat. It also indicates treasure and threats, but according to the subjective values of the creatures it's using. The orc's treasure would show up, but the orc wouldn't unless something is nearby that perceives the orc as a threat. A squirrel's hoard of nuts would show up a a great treasure and a cat as a great threat. The dragon that never bothers the squirrel might not show up at all, or might be perceives as a minor threat.
keiome
Villager
Personally, I found this custom map item on this website for making weak items for your games (Magic Item Generation Tables)
It states: "On its own volition, the item records a map of the environments that the bearer is exploring, and can magically project it for the bearer to see." It is the 'Cartographic' or 'of Cartography' item.
It seems like a rather simple way to allow players to justify having maps of areas they have been to. So if you are handing out maps to players, you could use that item as a storytelling device for why they remember the area.
Maybe tweak it so the map of Cartography can consume physical maps and add those details to its own collection of maps?
It states: "On its own volition, the item records a map of the environments that the bearer is exploring, and can magically project it for the bearer to see." It is the 'Cartographic' or 'of Cartography' item.
It seems like a rather simple way to allow players to justify having maps of areas they have been to. So if you are handing out maps to players, you could use that item as a storytelling device for why they remember the area.
Maybe tweak it so the map of Cartography can consume physical maps and add those details to its own collection of maps?
