Found Objects II (Random Table/Wermspittle)

Ten Intriguing Items and Peculiar Objects salvaged from the Public Domain and elsewhere that you can now slip seamlessly into your own game.

A few of these things might be found in Schroedinger and Cave's Curiosity Shop in Wermspittle...

1. Three slightly dented tins containing a peculiar White Powder. (Base 20% chance of a sage, scholar or sorcerer identifying this as the vinum sabbati. Alchemists have base 60% chance to identify it correctly.) [Details: White Powder--enables strange visions of eldritch things. User may learn obscure secrets, including ancient spells and rituals, but runs risk of losing 1 point of Wisdom with each use (save versus poison) as well as becoming increasingly polymorphous until at last they lose all sense of their true form and become a writhing protean mass that loses all intelligence and is triply susceptible to fire damage. If burnt to death, victim leaves behind a patch of white powder...]
2. A luminous opal that seems to flicker strangely when not looked at directly, as though illuminated by a sort of Inmost Light. (40% chance that this is the gem of one of the Soulless. They will be searching for this item...) [Details: The opal contains a formerly humanoid soul and is the property of a Soulless NPC that is looking for it with every intention of recovering it despite cost or difficulty. Prolonged study of the opal will run a 20% chance of forming a temporary telepathic rapport with the soul residing in the opal (treat this as a Sapient Sword in terms of CHAR, INT, Willpower and attempts to take-over the character--the soul within the gem will attempt to first Charm the character, then to Possess them, and if they fail in their attempt they will attempt to bargain in order to broker the return of the opal to its proper master). Study of the opal will also reveal certain dark secrets of the Trap the Soul spell to a spell-caster of sufficient level to cast that spell, but such study will take 3d6 weeks of intense observation, exposing them to repeated Charms, Possession-attempts and/or offers from the soul trapped within the gem...]
3. A small orichalcum disk inscribed with an elaborate alchymical diagram on both sides. Locked within this disk is a small sliver of Quintessence. The disk heals 1d4 hit points of damage/day when held against the skin of one person. Unlocking any of its other capabilities will require the services of an Alchemist.
4. One slightly used Parisian-style Safety-Pin...stuck into an unpublished hand-written and slightly waterlogged and singed score from some obscure opera that has never been performed.
5. A Gold Tiberius in nearly mint condition resting within a teakwood box lined with green velvet. Removing the glass panel releases the rank fume of a goat. [Details: There are unscrupulous, ruthless, very dangerous people searching for this particular antique coin. Possessing the Gold Tiberius inevitably attracts the attention of those seeking after it. This could be most terrible, violent or potentially rewarding depending upon how the character(s) choose to handle it...one wouldn't want to wind up like the young man with spectacles...]
6. A very old, battered and notched sword that appears either yellow, or red or gray depending upon from which angle one looks at the blade. The hilt is inscribed 'Crocea Mors' and it has the following stats: [Crocea Mors, INT 12, Psyche 10, Willpower 22; Detection Powers: 3--Detect Secret Doors (10' radius X3/day), Detect Evil (20' radius), Detect Traps (10' radius X3/day); Spell-like Power: Double Damage for 1d10 rounds once per day. Crocea Mors is Lawful/+2 versus Chaotic beings when Yellow. It is Chaotic/+2 versus Lawful beings when Red. It is Neutral/+2 versus Law or Chaos when Gray. It switches color/alignment every 2d8 days.]
7. A notebook containing a translation of the Wujing Zongyao part I, vol 12 with extensive notes, diagrams, formulas and corrections derived from someone's efforts at concocting various forms of gunpowder. The translation and notes are in six different languages (randomly determined) and are clear enough that even a non-alchemist could create gunpowder, making it a very dangerous book in the wrong hands, potentially attracting the interest or ire of very powerful NPCs who were relieved that this manuscript was supposedly 'lost' sometime ago.
8. (1d4) rolls of a sickly yellow wallpaper. Anyone viewing this wallpaper for longer than a couple of hours must make a Save or begin to really, really hate this stuff and suffer a debilitating sensation of powerlessness for 1d4 turns.
9. A wonderfully well-preserved and richly bound copy of the third edition of Homer's Odyssey as translated into Gronk-speak. This volume does have the tipped-in hand-colored illustrations, but is lacking the index. Any non-Gronk attempting to read this translation must make a Save or lose 1d4 INT or WIS for one week. Doing it twice results in a permanent loss of 1 point from either stat.
10. A Cask of Amontillado in reasonably decent condition, all things considered. The outside is a bit banged-up, dusty and smells of long years of being left in a closed-up cellar, but the wine itself is still excellent and very drinkable.