Terry Pratchett's "The Luggage"

[Felix]

If any of you are familiar with Terry Pratchett's Discworld, you know and fear The Luggage. Made from sapient pearwood, this trunk can clean your laundry, eat bad guys, and keep up with you as you travel from dimension to dimension on its many little feet. It never talks, but its lid and keyhole seem remarkably suggestive about its mood.

So how would you create this little beauty with the 3e item creation rules? How much would it cost?

Some properties to consider:

• Intelligent.

• Unknown or limitless capacity.

• Will open to contained item upon request. (Give me my clean undies please.)

• Ambulatory by means of many little feet.

• Improved Grapple and Swallow Whole abilities.

• Understands Common, but never speaks.

• Highly resistant to magic.

• Ability to follow owner through space and time.

• No motivation other than to serve and protect.

And if you folks are familiar with the Luggage, please suggest other additional idiosyncracies we could model that would make the Luggage fully realized in all its 3e glory.

PS. I realize I have the thread descriptor set to "Creatures" and then asked about item creation rules. This is on purpose: the Luggage could be either. I prefer it as an item; share your opinion.

 

[Deekin]

Magic of Eberron.

Packmate Hommuclus.

 

[Sejs]

I'd design it as an animated object or golem instead of as a magic item.

Cost...er, would be a tad high.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I think it's one of those things that's gotta be an artefact?

And IMO - "Ability to follow owner through space and time" - makes it a major one. That and being able to kill pretty much anything.

Do like the idea of DnDifying the luggage. Two thumbs up for you, Felix!

 

[MarkB]

I'd make it a golem. One of the Luggage's notable abilities is the capability to ignore practically any amount of spellcasting thrown at it, so you're going to have to include Spell Immunity anyway - might as well go with a creature type that already has it.

Make it a Pearwood Golem with similar characteristics to a flesh golem, add extra abilities such as Fast Healing and Follow Owner as fixed-cost upgrades, give it Prestidigitation as an at-will spell-like ability for laundry cleaning, and build in one or more extradimensional containers.

 

[Legildur]

And here I was thinking about a mutated intelligent planar mimic.......

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

It is, for all intents and purposes, an artifact. It is a truly singular, manufactured item that due to the material used for its construction has attained sentience. Therefore it's origins are that of an item, its manifested abilities make it a living (?) creature or construct, and given Pratchett's "definition" of sapient pearwood will certainly never be copied. It is alive, RUTHLESSLY devoted to its "owner", and in the truest sense of the word, invaluable. It is SO insanely valuable that it is a pointless excercise to consider it to BE of a monetary value.

So, give it all the stats needed to represent it as both a creature and an item, but treat it within a campaign as an artifact - useful and amusing, but NEVER to be placed in a campaign without consideration for the consequences of doing so.

 

[IanB]

I'd stat it as a creature. Mimic barbarian 20 or something along those lines, but with swallow whole and less ability to change shape.

 

[shilsen]

It is, for all intents and purposes, an artifact. It is a truly singular, manufactured item that due to the material used for its construction has attained sentience. Therefore it's origins are that of an item, its manifested abilities make it a living (?) creature or construct, and given Pratchett's "definition" of sapient pearwood will certainly never be copied.

Actually, in the novel "Interesting Times", Rincewind discovers lots of other such sentient pieces of luggage in the Agatean Empire. The Luggage even 'mates' with another smaller piece of luggage and has a brood of kids.

That being said, for D&D purposes, I wouldn't have multiple versions of it or price it out, but would simply treat it as a sentient artifact.

 

[Felix]

Seems this should have been a poll. Looks like there are several options going, and the Luggage's characteristics support them all in their own way.

Manufactured Item: It is a made thing; has abilities tied to spells, common for items (Prestidigitation, Discern Location, Plane Shift, Secret Chest); seems to have the intelligent item Special Purpose of "Protect Owner".

Living Creature: It (sexually?) reproduces; it has abilities common to living creatures (Improved Grapple, Swallow Whole); somewhat cognizant of surroundings.

Golem: Somewhat mindless; Spell Immunity; it is a made thing.

Considering all of its other contradictions, I don't think it would be a bad thing to answer "yes" if someone asked if it were a golem, an item, or a living creature.