Tag: item

Item Seed: Tertium Bellum In Caelo Polyporum.

Blame this.

tertium-bellum-in-caelo-polyporum-google-docs

 

Tertium Bellum In Caelo Polyporum

 

Tertium Bellum In Caelo Polyporum (“The Third War Against the Sky Octopuses”) exists only in palimpsest form: the earliest copy was apparently a 10th Century transcription of an earlier scroll.  The copy was later erased sometime in the 13th Century so that the parchment could be used for monastery tithe records (modern-day researchers found it via a standard check for palimpsests).  The records were eventually found, slightly buried, in the back of a natural cave in Spain, next to the remains of a trussed-up monk: both the remains and the bag holding the parchment had been covered with quicklime before burial, which ironically enough helped preserve the parchment itself.  Interestingly, Interpol is still treating this discovery as being part of an open murder investigation, although that may simply be because even international police organizations are allowed to have a little fun sometimes, too.

Continue reading Item Seed: Tertium Bellum In Caelo Polyporum.

Item Seed: The Pravaz Syringe.

the-pravaz-syringe-google-docs

The Pravaz Syringe

 

This particular device is a masterpiece — a bizarre, twisted masterpiece — of 19th Century technology. To begin with, it’s titanium covered in silver, which would be generally considered to be simply flat-out impossible, given that the Syringe has been verified as existing at least since 1850.  It’d be like finding a handmade automatic breech-loading rifle in Grant’s Tomb: a sufficiently brilliant and obsessive tinkerer might have made it, but why didn’t they make any more?

Continue reading Item Seed: The Pravaz Syringe.

Item Seed: Spear of the Holy Tent-Peg of Saint Deborah.

The stuff you come up with, when looking for other stuff…

spear-of-the-holy-tent-peg-of-saint-deborah-google-docs

Spear of the Holy Tent-Peg of Saint Deborah

Well, strictly speaking it should be the Spear of the Holy Tent-Peg of Jael, but from the Roman Catholic Church’s point of view St. Deborah was the ranking Biblical figure. Quick summary: Deborah was a prophet and a Judge among the Israelites in the time of the Judges (obviously), she and her military adviser went out to smite the Canaanites, the Canannites were duly smote, and the fleeing general of the Canaanites (one Sisera) ended up getting a tent peg pounded into his head by, yes, Jael. The tent peg then effectively disappeared for a few thousand years, and only resurfaced in the 12th century AD as part of a steel spearhead that is reputed to be remarkably strong and rustproof.

Continue reading Item Seed: Spear of the Holy Tent-Peg of Saint Deborah.

Item seed: Mechows.

You know that rule When in doubt, involve a cow? Yeah.  Sometimes that rule takes you to weird places.

mechows-google-docs

Mechows

 

When Humanity first encountered the Blip-yaps in the beginning of the Interstellar Era, things went surprisingly well.  Yes, Blip-yaps look like pulsating-yellow, diseased tiny cockroaches, and they have a certain, ah, odor: but Humans weren’t any more attractive to them, and Blip-yap currency spends extremely well on the Galactic market. Also, Earth had things that the Blip-yap apparently  very much wanted to buy.  Mostly organic; in fact, mostly complete animals of every sort (although fur and pelts were always in demand). Preferably live, and even the dead ones had to be perfectly preserved.

Continue reading Item seed: Mechows.

Item Seed: The Baptismal Surveyor.

I dunno why, either.  Might be interesting to just hand this one to a bunch of players and see what they do with it. You can get some interesting campaigns that way, at least.

the-baptismal-surveyor-google-docs

The Baptismal Surveyor

 

That’s what it says, right on the box.  Yes, it comes in a box.  The contraption itself is firmly in the “wood-bronze steampunk aesthetic:” all polished gold-browns and dark woods, rivets, a basic shape that evokes a bulky tazer without being so crass as to really resemble one, vacuum tubes and needle-dials… and a blunt-tipped probe that extends, gently, when you pull the trigger. If the probe touches a person’s bare skin, a mechanical readout on the top of the Surveyor will gently spin to one of the following entries:

Continue reading Item Seed: The Baptismal Surveyor.

Item Seed: Winston Churchill’s Walking Cane.

winston-churchills-walking-cane-google-docs

 

Winston Churchill’s Walking Cane

 

This is the walking cane that Winston Churchill carried throughout World War II. As you might imagine, it can have a certain resonance, in the right hands. And if it ever ends up in the wrong ones, well, the pyrotechnics could be entertaining.  Also, messy.

Continue reading Item Seed: Winston Churchill’s Walking Cane.

Item/Adventure Seed: Deborah the Destroyer.

I assume I’m not the first person to make this joke, sure.

deborah-the-destroyer-google-docs

Deborah the Destroyer

 

Because even Black Ops Necromechanic Engineering (BONE) teams have senses of humor.  And, for that matter, kids.  No, really, you want men and women with families for that kind of job. Keeps them focused on the exoteric world, and not on the bad half-heard whispers on the edge of hearing.

Continue reading Item/Adventure Seed: Deborah the Destroyer.

Adventure Seed: The Sanditon Enterprise.

I… I don’t know why either, folks.  Sometimes I just don’t have a choice.

the-sanditon-enterprise-google-docs

The Sanditon Enterprise

The book is privately printed: the title page claims that it was written by Jane Austen in 1818, and revised by her in 1824. This would immediately indicate that it’s a fake, of course; but it’s a contemporary fake, because everything about the book suggests Nineteenth Century construction.  The book does not particularly appear to be esoteric or otherwise unusual.  The contents, however… well.

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Item Seed: The Divje Babe Flute [Night’s Black Agents].

So I checked with Pelgrane Press, and they’re cool with noncommercial fan material for Night’s Black Agents that doesn’t violate copyright.  Which is what I figured, but it never hurts to check, right? Especially when you may not know what, if anything, may be going on with ’em elsewhere. Anyhow:

the-divje-babe-flute-google-docs

The Divje Babe Flute [Night’s Black Agents]

The original form of this supposedly forty-three thousand year old flute was found in a Slovenian cave in 1995; and it was allowed to stay in the hands of mundane researchers for about a decade or so. It might still be in researchers’ hands if a forensic analyst with Poland’s Internal Security Agency had not correlated the positioning of the holes on the flute with a particular half-burned manuscript dating from the 8th Century AD.  Said manuscript told the tale of a powerful pijavica that had been warded off by the playing of ‘the Flute of Nebuchadnezzar:’ and the one drawing that survived more or less matched what pictures were available of the Divje Babe Flute. So the Flute was thus duly stolen, and surreptitiously replaced with a duplicate.  From there it was merely a matter of waiting until 3D reconstruction and printing was up to the task of ‘repairing’ the item.

Continue reading Item Seed: The Divje Babe Flute [Night’s Black Agents].