Treasures For The God-King!

[SHARK]

Hi Shark!

Here are a few ideas based on your Persian theme. I was thinking that much of the treasury would be tribute collected from neighbouring Satraps and Client Kings. Haven't worried too much about mechanics as I figure you will tweak everything/anything to fit anyway. Enjoy!!

1) A gold encrusted sedan chair carried on the backs of four bronze Minotaur constructs. The Minotaurs need neither food nor rest and can carry the chair at the rate of 100 miles per day. Whilst inside the chair, the occupant is unaffected by heat or cold. The constructs will not fight or let go of the chair under any circumstances.

2) A box of 150 cloud pearls; these beautiful lustrous pearls, when thrown into the air, cause rain-clouds to form overhead over the next few hours and result in a continuous day of rain within a twenty mile radius. These are used in bad years when lack of rain threatens the harvest.

3) Mithridaic cocktail; a chest containing wax sealed ibex horns filled with a combination of poisons in minute amounts that if consumed every day for 30 days allows immunity to all poisons for a year and a day but lead to the loss of 2 points of constitution for the same period. There is enough supply for 10 years of poison immunity.

4) A chest of spiced wood containing hundreds of clay tablets. If a question is asked in the presence of the chest on any subject relating to religion/history/taxes/geography/local knowledge, the chest opens and a clay tablet pops up that allows even an untrained person to attempt to answer the question with a +10 check result. Note that such knowledge is limited to "what government records" could be expected to have recorded.

5) A golden fleece; this fleece has the power to heal 500 points of damage before becoming useless, but can even bring back the dead if they died within a minute of the fleece being placed over them. The fleece can be used multiple times until a total of 500 damage is healed. The healing takes place overnight.

6) A gem encrusted miniature bronze/gold amphitheatre about 4 feet in diameter complete with animated figurines that battle in this arena and miniature animals such as lions, tigers, minotaurs and a hydra to be their opponents. There are also 4 miniature chariot teams that can be set to race. The amphitheatre will even accept and honor small bets (10 gp or less). Odds are displayed on metal wheels and winnings collected via coins ejected from inside the miniature.

7) 10 amphorae of scented oils. Bathing and applying the oils everyday for a month (1 amphorae per person) leads to a +1 permanent increase in charisma. This benefit can only apply to 1 character once ever.

8) A large 2 wheeled chariot with 4 bronze figures standing in it. The figures can play the most beautiful music if commanded to “play” and use exotic wind and percussion instruments to form a quartet of musicians. The figures know about 50 songs and can be commanded to play any one of them if the name of the song is uttered.

9) A huge white twisted/spiralled horn winds around one of the treasury rooms, over 50 feet long. The horn is hollow and the radial diameter at the open end is 3 feet but the horn tapers to 6 inches in diameter at the closed end. Every morning, the horn is found to be filled with an abundance of fruits; enough to feed 30 people for a day. It is a cornucopia and refills at exactly daybreak.

10) An everlasting amphorae of wine; this amphorae appears to have been carved out of white stone and weighs 50lbs but is always full of the sweetest tasting nectar that tastes pleasant and is only mildly intoxicating.

11) A huge marble table upon which a topographic map of the whole Kingdom is carved out in perfect relief, showing mountains and even seas. Armies appear on the map as small moving flags, as do fleets as tiny ships. Cities are also shown as golden or silver buttons. To take command of this table, the person must have been crowned as ruler of this nation. Once this is done, via a ritual lasting a night of devotion, the table will reset to show all friendly and unfriendly armies and their exact current position. The table cannot be deceived by magic unless the spell is greater than 5th level.

12) Ten ivory cylinders are found in a box of sandalwood. The cylinders allow encryption/decoding of a complicated and unbreakable cipher. Paper with a message is wound around the cylinder and the command word “Ackbar” is spoken, at which point the message appears as mundane list or set of business accounts. The cipher is unbreakable, even using divination magic. To decode, a message is rewound around a cylinder, at which point the message appears upon utterance of the command word “Kesha”.

13) An elephant (giant sized) is carved out of jade and stands 25 feet at the shoulder and has a palanquin that can hold 6 people on its back. The construct will animate on the command “Bathsheba” and can be ridden or used to batter down city gates. It has a strength of 40 but will not attack people/animates and stands motionless unless ridden or if someone stands in front of it (it will NOT trample). It has a speed of 50 feet, 150 HP (hardness 15) and can run all day and all night and can carry about 500 lbs in weight.

14) A beautiful embroidered tapestry of a summer land full of bounty. The Tapestry is a demi-plane in which a white marble palace is set on the shores of on a sun-drenched shallow sea; the demi-plane is less than 1 mile square. Object left in the plane remain there but it can hold no more than 300 lbs of equipment etc as well as 10 people. The tapestry is entered by removing a golden thread from the edge and pinning it to clothes of the person who would like to gain entry. The tapestry has 200 HP but if it is destroyed with people inside, they are flung back into this world, stunned for 1 round. This was the travelling accommodation of the Emperor and his retinue whilst visiting client Kings. Magic (arcane and divine) is completely impossible (unless the user is a Deity) inside the tapestry, making it a good neutral meeting ground for the PCs.

15) A silver astrolabe about twenty feet in diameter can predict the positions of the sun, moon and stars and thus can be used in occult divinations via astrology. This mechanical marvel is clockwork and can give precise planetary positioning up to ten years ahead. Anyone with knowledge (Arcane) can spend a day calculating with this device and receive omens of future events that affect the Empire within the space of up to ten years hence or, if a person’s birth-date and birth-place are known, the future of an individual can also be calculated.

Greetings!

*TOTAL WIN* my friend! These are outstanding! Oh yeah, it's all of this kinda stuff I'm thinkin' of! These are very cool, Ysdars!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[Ydars]

I tried to go with the theme of big treasure that has some use (to an Emperor) and has some flavour but is not TOO useful in an adventuring context.

I just felt an Emperor of millions would have some cool stuff and I also knew you would enjoy the reference to a certain former King of Cappodocia.

 

[Wycen]

If you don't mind a little self pimpage, the Hoards link in my sig is filled with custom treasures. There is a selection of Arabic (not Persian specifically) goods I wrote in there. It has both magical and "mundane" items.

Ok, it appears the link in my sig goes to a different product now, so here is Hoards

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Behind the Treasury Doors are six rooms.

Room 1: The vestibule. It's a vestibule. Lovely one though. Some great desks for greeting. Also a vast apparatus built off of hydraulics and weights that acts primarilly as a machine for the creation and tracking of reciepts. It has other functions as well. A true master is said to be able to trigger a function that opens a door within the machine. Once inside one is able to 'see' the tax and disbursement information for the empire over a thousand years. Every coin that enters or exits passes beneath the machines great counting brushes and strikes a motionless crystal gong before being bagged or boxed for its eventual destination. The truest of masters is said to be able to strike said gong and cause every coin to vibrate.

There's some good desks in here for more mundane purposes, some security, and an excellent small kitchen.

Kitchen is haunted. No one cares.

Room 2: The Vault.

This room is vast and contains all the relics of the empire that are so precious that they must be seen every day and their accompanying security and ritual spaces. No one actually uses this room for anything. It's only purpose is to be passed through on your way to actual business areas so that someone can be said to see this limitless multitude of unique artifacts every single day. If someone doesn't gods are said to get upset.

The back of the Vault contains doors to three public doors to other areas and one door that is very very public and ostentatious and clearly also the most private in the place.

Door 1: The Coin Caverns

This is actually a passage that leads to the vast underground complex in which the coinage is actually made and regulated.

Door 2: The Fisc

Portions of this room are very well organized. It's vast. Under normal periods it is divided between accountants and the government's personal treasury and private operations. The room can be endlessly reengineered to function. Once it was flooded for a special guest or a thief - accounts vary.

Door 3: Emergency Operations

This is the shadow treasury. Normally only used when an additional beauracracy must be created to deal with special circumstances - war, floods, or famine - under other circumstances it functions as a theater in which models of said circumstances can be created, run, and then broken down. A mathematics school, art academy, excellent bar, and temple are all located internally.

For a while a dragon and a djinn did all of this work, but there was some - unpleasantness.

Door 4 (The Great Door): The Embassy

The room holds six objects. Two chairs - one on either side of a double sided desk -, said desk, a large book, a writing set, and a xylophone.

They're all resplendent. Even the xylophone.

If you sit in the chair nearest to the door and know the right percussion tune the book will open and allow you to make an appointment with the ambassador from the infernal realms. He/she/it is very prompt and generally has an open schedule.

Other rituals can summon other embassies.

Those ambassadors are summoned even less often.