Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The Wizard's Estate Sale


Lucius T. Malregard, infamous Southron sorceror, has passed on. (His body was found ripped limb from limb and in an advanced state of decay, but that’s another story.) His estate is being sold at auction by his relatives. The following items are on the block:

1. Jelly Monkeys candies in a wax-paper bag: These 5 colorful, gelatinous, monkey-shaped candies have been made into homunculi powered by blood. A pinprick drop of blood in the “mouth” of a Jelly Monkey will animate it for a day and place it under the command of the person whose blood fed it. The monkeys are able to report what they see and hear, though their intellects and vocabularies are limited. If the candy is eaten, a person will experience everything the monkey did that day. The more blood fed to the monkeys (or that they illicitly consume), the larger they will grow--and the more willful they will become (though the changes take time and will not immediately be apparent).

2. Human Skull: An adult human skull with a separated calvarium. If a candle is placed inside, and the skull is in darkness, flickering black and white images (like a kinetoscope) are projected from its eye sockets. These images are essentially clairvoyance (as the spell)--if a specific location is requested (aloud) of the skull. Otherwise, they are random and may be from anywhere in the world. Every night at the stroke of midnight, the skull laughs loudly and says: “Oh, for Heavens sake, Ormsley!”

3. One Past Midnight Man: Selected Recordings: A box of 3 10-inch phonograph records emblazoned with an image of an old-fashioned minstrelsy performer: the One Past Midnight Man. If any of the records are played, strange and backwards sounding voices can be heard overlayed on the primary recording. Upon completion of an record, a 10-inch tall man dressed like the figure on the cover will appear, only he is not in embarrassing blackface, but rather his skin is an unnatural inky black--as if made out of night, itself. He can teach any spell of the necromantic school (and likely others)--for a price.

4. Obscura gossamer: Wound around a bone spindle, is a black and silken, rough outline of a human. In fact, it is a human shadow that if attached to a new host (this process is unknown) obscures the wearer in such a way that they are hidden from magical and nonmagical attempts to find them (short of a wish). People can interact with them normally (if they draw attention to themselves) but won’t remember doing so within minutes. Attaching the shadow is likely permanent.

8 comments:

Jack Guignol said...

It's times likes these I'm glad you have the print-to-pdf option on your blog...I'm so using these.

Needles said...

Very nice Stuff! Very cool & oh so inspiring!

Trey said...

Glad you guys liked it. I have a few more of these--they may see light later this week. We'll see.

Anonymous said...

Bidders have come from far and wide too. That striking young lady in the blue dress, an agent of the Hell Syndicate. That man in the pin-striped suit, an operative of one of the City's political families. And more, all here for the prizes. It could get ugly.

Chris C. said...

I have got to get myself one of those skulls!

"(His body was found ripped limb from limb and in an advanced state of decay, but that’s another story.)"

Aww, man, such a tease!

Justin S. Davis said...

As a guy who's continuously had a DJ-quality turntable plugged into his computer for the last 20 years so as to archive old, rare recordings...

...the One Past Midnight Man entry is genius.

Trey said...

@seaofstarsrpg - Thank goodness the auction firm hired those adventurers for protection...Those are the ones they hired, aren't they?

@Bard - Maybe one will turn up on ebay. ;)

@Justin - Glad you liked it. While I've never engaged in it as a hobby old/rare recordings have always interested me, too.

Canageek said...

As a note: I just realized that if you have a RPGnow account you can subscribe and it will email you when the print version of Trey's book comes out.