Moe Lane

Ghost House – Google Docs

The Ghost House

The Ghost House exists in whichever conveniently rural and semi-arid locale that the GM needs it to be located in. It is a small two-story single-family residence of mixed wood, brick, stone, and metal construction.  With a special emphasis on ‘mixed:’ the house is well put together, but regular aesthetics were tossed out the window. Wood slats alternate with metal sheets, the floors are bricks in some places and wood in others, and no step in the staircase to the second floor matches any other.  The Ghost House has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a basement, an attic, and is fully furnished (in the same crazy-quilt, ‘eclectic’ style). One other oddity of the place; all the lighting is fluorescent, and obviously antique.

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Smoke Scabbards – Google Docs

Smoke Scabbards

These charming assassination tools somehow never get officially banned by various nations or public institutions; Smoke Scabbards are simply too useful. In their natural form a Smoke Scabbard is a dirty grey-brown thin sheet of magical fabric. When it’s used to completely wrap a weapon (usually no larger than a dagger), the sheet and whatever it’s wrapped around transforms into a cohesive cloud of gas that can be inhaled and kept in a container — like, say, a pair of lungs — for eight hours.  At the end of that eight hours, the Scabbard is expulsed from its container and solidifies back into a sheet and whatever it was wrapped around. If the Scabbard was being kept in somebody’s lungs, the expulsion does not cause direct damage but is highly unpleasant.  Note that the magical effect can be ended early, if desired.

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Spokuruna – Google Docs

Spokuruna

Spokuruna originates in Latvia, mostly by accident.  The country has been fought over several times over the last century or so, invariably by regimes nasty in word and deed, which means that there have been a lot of people killed suddenly, and with unfinished business.  As anybody familiar with spectral phenomena can tell you, that’s an excellent way to get ghosts. And that is exactly what has happened in Latvia, as it has happened throughout human history. It mostly doesn’t matter, as most ghosts can’t be seen by anybody who isn’t Sensitive in a particular way, anyway.

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North American Amusements, Inc – Google Docs

North American Amusements, Inc.

North American Amusements (NAA) is run out of a warehouse-office building on the outskirts of Bakersfield, California.  It’s been there since about 1974 or so; the company employs about ten or so people, mostly in the warehouse. The company owner is listed as ‘Maggie Rogan,’ but nobody’s seen her for decades. But the taxes and utilities get paid on time, so nobody fusses much.  Besides, in some ways working for NAA is a dream job.

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Frothing Sloth – Google Docs

The Frothing Sloth

It is (correctly) said that this fantasy inn was first owned by one Jon the Surly, a mercenary of fearsome visage and skill who terrorised whatever battlefield he was on until a magical curse forced him into retirement.  It is also said that the curse was one of shapeshifting, which is also correct. Every night, on the night of the full moon, Jon the Surly turned into an equally surly giant sloth.

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Lincoln’s Bow – Google Docs

Lincoln’s Bow

This 19th Century recurve composite bow is fairly obviously enchanted, given that it’s made out of American chestnut while still looking brand-new.  Well, brand-new and archaic, at the same time; it’s a hand-tooled, wood-and-sinew affair with about a hundred pounds of draw weight and featuring a single white crystal inset just above the grip.  The string was originally gut, but apparently could be ( and was ) replaced safely without breaking the Bow’s enchantment.

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Hardware Space – Google Docs

Hardware Space

It’s sort of like Terry Pratchett’s L-Space, except that it involves giant hardware stores, has considerably fewer books, but also considerably less active danger.  You see, all hardware stores across the multiverse — at least, all hardware stores above a certain cultural level — are interconnected, spatially. Maybe temporally, too? It’s hard to say. Nobody’s ever reported a time-slip. But then, nobody’s ever reported a time-slip, so it’d be evidence either way, right?

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Lava Ice Cream – Google Docs

Lava Ice Cream

Lava Ice Cream is in fact made from lava; well, the lava is technically flavoring.  It’s a fascinating use of enchanting magic, really; the base is regular ice cream that has had the lava magically mixed with it.  The result is an ice cream that simultaneously tastes hot (but not dangerously hot) while still showing all the properties of something that melts at room temperature.  The sensation is remarkable, particularly since Lava Ice Cream doesn’t actually taste horrible.  A bit salty-sweet, but that’s hardly unusual in the ice cream world.

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Gatebusters – Google Docs

Gatebusters

Description: six-foot long centipede-like creatures covered in somewhat offensive-smelling mucus; said mucus is not completely compatible with regular human physiology).  Gatebusters seem to feed on the energies that are generated by teleportation or interdimensional travel; the ‘mouths’ filled with razor sharp teeth found on either end of their bodies seems to be merely for defensive purposes.  Fortunately, they generally remain passive, only attacking when provoked (which includes keeping them from feeding). Gatebusters are also somewhat impressively armored; military weaponry can shift one, but regular civilian arms will simply just tick the creatures off.

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Taiga Tea – Google Docs

Taiga Tea

Camellia exotica

This plant superficially resembles Camellia sinensis (the common tea plant), but it only grows in the Ural montane tundra/taiga region. The plant itself has leaves that are significantly more purple on the underside, and the plant does not increase in size past a certain point.  Camellia exotica plants are also considerably hardier than ‘regular’ tea plants, and can survive in much more hostile conditions.  It is not exactly an invasive species, but it grows well and fairly quickly.

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