d10 magical items for Secrets of the Black Crag

I have been running a weekly 5e campaign through the fun pirate isles sandbox Secrets of the Black Crag (SoBC), by Chance Dudinack.  We are 23 sessions in, and I plan to write a review of SoBC when this arc wraps.  But inspired by chatting with Random Ape Encounter on their outstanding prep for running this adventure, this week I give you some things I cooked up: d10 magical additions to SoBC. 

These additions are statted for 5e, but easy to port to OSR games. Time to pay the Joesky tax for my last post (if only to make Rise Up Comus and Knight at the Opera fight some more, that was hilarious):

1. Flaming war axe (attunement): orichalcum battleaxe +1, flaming, sentient: “Dol’Kar”). Your standard flaming axe inhabited by a terse, serious, ancient intelligence, Dol’Kar, that absolutely DELIGHTS in fire.  Any wildfire created within 60 feet of the axe is subject to its influence.  It will roll a d20 to make the fire grow: assign a difficulty as you will for success, but on a natural 20 Dol’Kar whips up an absolute inferno.  

GM notes: This +1 weapon follows time-honored Better Treasure advice. I had a cleric player who wanted a weapon to change the tide of battle.  Be careful what you wish for… 

2. Baby Water Dragon Egg: this iridescent egg is damaged. Keep it wet and warm and it will hatch into a water dragon pet made friendly through hand feeding: Baby Water Dragon  HP 6, AC 14, +4 to hit.  +4 on saves good at, +2 on saves bad at.  15 ft mv.  Bites 1d4.  Sprays hot water in face of opponent (1d6 dmg, disadv next action)--Recharge on a ⅚.  Attacks as a bonus action of owner, otherwise dodges (AC 15) or hides.  Cannot breath water.  

GM notes: Her mother is looking for her, but she cannot fix her, only give her Water breathing for one week only.  Each casting of water breathing works for a week on her, but repeated castings work less and less well.

3. The Wind Flute: A simple flute made of a clear glass material as hard as steel.  Playing on this flute causes a very light wind to spring up.  Playing specific songs on the flute with both hands causes wind effects.  You have to know how to play, which I do; I imagine if you don’t, it won’t work as well, or at all? Currently, all I got out of it was a Gust (a transmutation cantrip) with the popular sea shanty “Blow the Orc Down”, and the spell popularly known as Feather Fall with the kid’s song, “Three Blind Wights”.  It seemed to rest for a bit after casting: after I cast Feather Fall, it was quiescent for a day.  Current spells: Gust (unlimited), feather fall (once a day).  Below are my ideas on spells it could one day do, with the right song: I am just guessing here…Warding wind, dust devil?, gust of wind, wind wall, control winds, investiture of wind, wind walk, control weather, Whirlwind…

GM notes: It is always a good idea to give PCs magic items that only respond to singing sea shanties and kid’s songs at the actual goddamn table.  And singing them right!

4. Orichalum greatsword: two-handed sword +1, sentient, Refuses to give its name, won’t talk to you unless you make a DC 14 CHA saving throw. vorpal to dragons and one other group (it won’t tell you, resists).  Its damage cannot be naturally regenerated.  Once per day, can ask the sword what a foe’s tactics or weakness might be. If you get an answer, it’s true; if you don’t get one, use it again later.  

GM notes: It is always a good idea to give PCs magic items that tempt them to do the wrong thing, and that might help them out against very tough enemies they are likely to encounter later.  Also, it’s Better Treasure.

5. Tiny T-Rex: This little guy wandered into the dungeon and just wants to eat.  So what if he gnaws on everything, he’s cute!  Can we keep him?  Tiny T-rex pet: HP 10, AC 13, +4 to hit.  +4 on saves good at, +2 on saves bad at.  30 ft mv. Bites for 1d8 damage, causes 1 bleeding continuing until action to staunch.   Attacks as a bonus action of owner, otherwise dodges (AC 15) or hides.

GM notes: Everyone wanted a pet!  This is for a barbarian PC, from a dino island I plunked down in SoBC.  For me a pet should be a minor helper, something that can get hurt but can be saved by prompt action (this is 5e, the pets get death saves), and, most importantly, a royal pain in the ass.  Pets should not be easy to find, tame, or manage.

6. Carm’s Tooth (attunement): A cutlass, its handguard and hilt are decorated with gemstones in every shade of blue.  Its long curved blade only appears to be metal. When the cutlass is praised by pirates, or touched on the blade by a thinking being, the yellow bone or tooth that is its true blade shows.  That blade has a finely serrated edge, like a shark’s tooth.  

This cutlass is legendary among scoundrels and pirates. Carrying the sword openly will bring on unwanted attention from these people. The owner will be strongly suspected of having found Carmelo’s lost treasure hoard by all who know the legend of Dread Pirate Carm.  It is infamous on the world’s oceans, and when pirates see it, they will cry out “Carm’s Tooth!” or “Dread Pirate Carm!”

Initial properties: This is a magical scimitar (cutlasses are scimitars that can bludgeon for 1d4 damage in a pinch), +1 to hit and +1 damage, or +1 to hit and +2 damage against good creatures.  Due to the various legends around this blade, it grants advantage on intimidation checks against pirates, and at the start of combat, forces common pirate crews to make a morale check. When placed on a ship’s deck, indicates the direction to…something.

Awakened properties:  Intelligence is awakening in the blade… it is hungry.  +2 to hit and +2 damage, or +2 to hit and +3 damage against good creatures. Can speak with dead Carm 1/day.  

GM notes: Why do your PCs go to SoBC?  Are they searching for a lost hoard?  Or is this cutlass won in a game of dice, and pulls you into a dangerous quest?  Is Carm even the real name of the pirate?  This cutlass was made to create and answer questions, and also to be an interesting +1 sword following Better Treasure: you will find its cousin there.

7. Alexander the Skeletal Parrot.  HP 3, AC 12, +2 to hit.  +2 on saves good at, +1 bad at.  Fly 40 ft. Bites 1d2.  Thinks orders are for chumps.  Full of ‘common sense’ that takes persuasion roll to go against–not a total idiot?  Gives advantage on intimidation rolls against fools and the easily spooked.  If destroyed, his bones re-knit together after ten minutes or so.  

GM notes: Last pet, I swear.  Will only join someone who offers him at least a quarter-share of their treasure.  Has no idea what he will do with it, but it’s the principle, damnit.  He's Iago from Aladdin meets Tony Soprano.

8. Quick-jump bracers: copper coils powered by power crystal, enough power for 10 activations.  Casts Misty Step: 30 foot teleport bonus action, within sight.   Can teleport one extra person per charge.  

9. Image-projector lenses:  rainbow monocle powered by power crystal: enough power for 10 activations.  Casts Mirror Image, but if you focus it, it can cast one duplicate instead farther away (up to 60 feet).  

10. Shield medallion:  crystal sphere powered by power crystal: enough power for 10 activations. Casts Shield (coruscating white shield, bright, glow persists for 1 extra round as glowing sphere).  

GM notes: I love creating magical items that require interesting choices.  For these last three, what to use a power crystal for?  If you only have one, which power do you want to have for the next battle?  And each of these items has a further choice and/or minor drawback, adding optional choices.

___________________

Upcoming posts: worked examples of hexframes; an apology to a fellow who likes AD&D very much and thinks I should too (with statistics!); fantasy books my kids read, a return to overloaded encounter dies, and a review and play report of the Black Wyrm of Brandonsford.

Poem of the week:

In the Desert

By Stephen Crane

In the desert

I saw a creature, naked, bestial,

Who, squatting upon the ground,

Held his heart in his hands,

And ate of it.

I said, “Is it good, friend?”

“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;

“But I like it

“Because it is bitter,

“And because it is my heart.”

 

The OSR is not dead, it’s sleeping

When my kids were about 2 and 4 years old, a squirrel jumped onto the power transformer by our house.  It did not go well: the squirrel was blown off onto the road, power went out for our neighborhood, and my kids asked me, staring at the smoking squirrel from our yard, “Daddy, is that squirrel dead, or just sleeping?”

Uh, he’s dead (and yes, this is a real thing made by a real taxidermist).  

By all accounts, the Old School Renaissance is dead, broken into pieces when G+ died back in 2019.  And by all accounts, I mean this thorough one by Prismatic Wasteland, and all the blogs it cites saying the same thing.  Ask other people, and the OSR could be on a fourth-wave, or even a holy toad brain-infection.  

So if the OSR died in 2019, have any innovations happened in the OSR scene since then?  Let me consult a list or two: Black Sword Hack (2020), Cairn (2020), Worlds Without Number (2021), Hyperborea (2021), Vaults of Vaarn (2022), Errant (2022), Dragonbane (2023), Shadowdark (2023), Tales of Argosa (2024), His Majesty the Worm (2024), Mythic Bastionland (2025), Vagabond (2025).  And all the GLoGs and Borgs...

Going by innovation and by market share, OSR // NSR // POSR games (OSR+ games) seem to be having something of a moment.  Rather than tapering off, tons of fresh new OSR+ games have emerged post-2019, showcasing cool new rules, cool settings, and cool new ways to play lethal, simple fantasy adventure games. The OSR blogosphere (and GLoGosphere) also show no signs of slowing down, with the Bloggies and Gloggies going strong.  And while one could argue that the definition of OSR+ games is so general as to be meaningless, it is clearly a genre with touchstone traditions (rules and procedures) and a familiar feel (vibe and principles).  

What is missing from the current wave of OSR+ games is a central sense of community.  But who needs that?  Instead of one community scene, we have dozens, hundreds even.  Across Discord and ENworld the salons of the OSR+ gather for discussion, in the tradition of 16th to 18th century Europe.  Mr. Prismatic Wasteland runs one such salon, the Cauldron another, Phlox a third, Sly Flourish a fourth (and Explorers Design, Dice Exploder, on and on).  Sometimes it seems like every new RPG and artist spawns new salons for discussion of art.  But each day, artists, game creators, and players gather around the electronic beds of their hosts to share, debate, discuss, and create together. 

It's entirely possible that such fragmentation will ultimately lead to the breakup of the OSR+ into many artistic movements. But right now the conversation still flows widely, even as groups develop unique takes and traditions. Artists flit from salon to salon, from one scintillating thread to the next, seeking respite and comfort from the wilds of Reddit and Backerland. Sometimes you buy your host a virtual coffee to sit by their hearth, and many are completely open, a light always burning for guests. Cross-pollination needs variety to be fruitful, and OSR+ creativity is still a burning fever despite the sacking of Rome Google+.

You want to create or blog about RPGs? Please, come in, sit a while. What other ideas have you gathered in your journeys? Have you read that post on 1-hp dragons?

A reading of Molière, Jean François de Troy, c. 1728

For you see, the OSR is not dead.  It's just sleeping.  And while it is sleeping, it is having many strange and wondrous dreams. 

Don’t prep hexcrawls, prep hexframes

Here’s a pair of questions I have been pondering: why don’t I make keyed hexcrawls for wilderness travel in my home game, and which published hexcrawls have I liked and why (hint: they rhyme with “Black Burn of Blandonsford” and “Irate Worg seecrawls”)?  This post is inspired by the Map Blogwagon, a gauntlet thrown down by the Prismatic Wasteland blog that we all come up with something to say about maps in less than 80 days.  Well, it only took me 79! 

Let’s get to it: the reasons I don’t make my own hexcrawls (hint: it’s because I make hexframes, which I like better).  

Hexcrawls are a classic D&D method of handling travel through the wilderness, but they are not as popular as dungeon crawls, for two main reasons.  First, folks often feel the narrative loop of a hexcrawl is not as compelling or satisfying as a dungeon crawl.  Dungeons have a clearly defined end-goal (“kill the monsters” or “return to town with treasure”) while hexcrawls lack “a clear, default goal to provide strong motivation and a reward structure”.  In that post, Justin Alexander states that hexcrawls can be improved by providing clear goals, but I wanted more examples of good hex crawl goals.  What works to make hex crawls exciting?

Second, hexcrawls take a lot of work to prep–hours spent designing a landscape of hexes, numbering them, and keying them all with interesting locations (i.e., linking those numbers to descriptions).  And much of that prep time is likely to be wasted on unexplored hexes (and the smaller the hex (no matter how cool small hexes are), the more likely a GM will waste time creating unused hexes).  Although hexcrawls have their adherents, the prep time requirement is enough to make many GMs throw up their hands and go back to hand-waved travel, pointcrawls, and/or random encounter tables.

Is it possible to solve both of these problems at once?  Yes, and that’s by making hexframes, not fully keyed hexmaps.  Like many good things, I got this idea from Mythic Bastionland (MB) by Chris McDowall.  MB has an efficient system for making hexframes, a made-up term I define here as partially-keyed hexmaps that host one or more clear and compelling challenges that can be solved by the players if they so choose (‘hexgoals’, or ‘hex-situations’).  A hexgoal can be a situation players want to engage with, or a situation they want to avoid.

GM-facing map for MB, from here.  Red symbols denote the hexgoal Myths and Landmarks (the red lines mark barriers to movement).  

Here are the steps in MB.  First, roll up a map (cool generator here), placing terrain and major towns/castles.  Second, partially key the map: place hexgoals by locating Myths in random hexes.  Third, add Landmarks (points of interest, rumor-sources, Seers, challenges) to some hexes.  At the end, you end up with many hexes that are essentially unkeyed, relying on random generation.  Those unkeyed hexes have great potential to be boring–if you were playing another game.  

Because that’s where MB innovates: Myths are hexgoals that interact at a distance–they are the hexframe, in that they affect the entire hex landscape.  I call hexgoals that can interact outside their hex “dynamic hexgoals”, and ones that stay in their hex “static hexgoals”.  The whole premise of Mythic Bastionland is tied to finding dynamic hexgoals: the Knights all swear an oath to “Seek the Myths” to “Honor the Seers” and “Protect the Realm”.  A Myth is usually a threat to the realm of some sort, or a mystical event that needs to be witnessed.  Each time you enter a wilderness hex, you have a 50:50 chance to trigger the next sequenced encounter in a Myth story (either one nearby, or a random kingdom Myth).  So even unkeyed hexes are regularly interesting and rewarding to visit, advancing player goals!

Now Mythic Bastionland is a capsule game, one with mechanics tightly tied to its aesthetics and gameplay.  But is it possible to extend that hexframe-driven play to other games?  

Enter the big list of RPG plots by S. John Ross (and thanks to Conghal for helping me remember what I was looking for when I was brainstorming this post on the Prismatic Wasteland discord).  This list of plot archetypes is generic across many situations, but many archetypes are described as funneling players into specific locations.  However each of them can be quickly adapted to make hexcrawls compelling hexframes, with one or more specific hexgoals for a landscape.

I provide a few examples here, with dynamic hexgoals in red.   Let’s go through the RPG plot list up to letter G (please post in the comments if you want me to do them all, there’s a lot): buckle up.

The Big List of RPG Hexcrawl Plots, A-G

1. Any Old Port in a Storm: The players seek shelter in a landscape that turns out to hide something dangerous, secret, or supernatural.  They may be trapped in that landscape (passes snowed in? Injured friend can’t leave their bed? River flooding? Main road is prime hunting ground?).  

Hexframes: They must hunt down the danger out there before it gets them, or someone they care about.  They must escape by finding an alternate route out, or get others to safety, or lure it away.

Hexgoals:  Signs of the danger, the lair of the danger, ambush raids from the danger, places holding rumors and secrets of the danger, favorable terrain to face the danger, the way out.

2. Better Late than Never: The party gives chase to bad guys, through unknown or dangerous terrain.  Bad guys can lure players into dangerous places, set ambushes and traps, and/or escape if they get across a certain line.  Locals may not be friendly.

Hexframes: Catch the bad guys, and don’t die or get caught in turn.  If they split up, choose which ones to chase (a hard choice with only bad options).

  

Hexgoals: Marks on the trail they are following, elevated terrain for looking ahead, vulnerable or hidden spots for ambushes (river crossings, rough terrain, the main roads), smuggler routes and short cuts, a dangerous swamp or hidden cliff, angry local villages, the border.  

3. Blackmail: A villain blackmails the party into doing their dirty work for him: traveling through a hex landscape.  For exactly what must be done, see other plots.  

Hexframes: Do the villain’s bidding, and either survive or limit the damage–not both.  Find other blackmailed locals willing to help you.  

Hexgoals: Oppressed villages, oases and refuges amid punishing conditions, places holding rumors and secrets of the blackmailer.  Varied, depending on hexframe specifics.

4. Breaking and Entering: The party must nab (or sabotage, or assassinate) an object or a person from a secure location, arriving and then escaping through a difficult hex landscape. 

Hexframes: Get in, get out alive/undetected/unharmed.  Evade or destroy pursuers, circumvent security, acquire or suffer from local terrain knowledge.

Hexgoals: Points of lost access (destroyed bridges, road patrols), secret tunnels, places to spy the target, local village informants, magic ritual sites and active security spell, fortified locations, watchtowers.

  

5. Capture the Flag: The party must storm one or more military targets scattered across a hex landscape.

Hexframes: Take all the strongpoints (sequentially, or at the same time), take most of them, hold them for a set time.  Muster local forces for the attack, locate mysterious allies, avoid enemy forces, gather intelligence, or avoid bystanders. 

Hexgoals:  Strongpoint locations, local patrol routes, settlements, smuggler routes, hidden entrances, vegetation for cover, hidden allies and enemies. 

 

6. Clearing the Hex Landscape: The party must clear out a land where bad things live.

Hexframes: Establish a stronghold by clearing out monsters, protect settlements from mobile threats, gather bounties for bad things, purify and sanctify land against evil curses or hordes, find ways to pacify angry land-spirits, wrangle the land itself into order via map magic or rituals.  

Hexgoals:  Monster lairs, enemy settlements, trails and signs of monsters, raid sites, points and ecosystems of magical power, settlements to protect, hidden allies and enemies, rival groups of enemies, places of wisdom to learn solutions.

7. Delver's Delight: Treasure-hunting, set in a dangerous hex landscape. Dungeon-crawling, panning for gold, poaching, trespassing.

Hexframes: Deal with myriad local threats while looking for fixed or mobile treasure (animal parts, magic?).  X marks the spot, but getting there isn’t easy.  Travel is safe only in certain areas (e.g. no lightning-trees) or at certain times: narrow natural tunnels and barriers.  Plunder obvious or hidden microdungeons (i.e., dungeon rooms) set in a broader perilous landscape.  

Hexgoals: Dungeon sites, places of refuge and/or danger, fast-travel via rivers, signs of nearby dungeons or magic, landmarks on a treasure map.

8. Don't Eat the Purple Ones: Stranded, survive a hostile land, then get back home.  

Hexframes: Find food/water/shelter/monster repellant before you succumb to storms/monsters/poison/bad good/the locals.  Learn about the strange flora and fauna to survive your teleport-gone-wrong.  Figure out how to fix the broken land.  Hide until help arrives. 

Hexgoals: Refuges, natural or magical hazards, monster hunting grounds, places with clean food and/or water, un/friendly locals.  

9. Elementary, My Dear Watson: Solve a mystery, search out clues hidden in hexes.

Hexframes: Find hiding witnesses across a network of villages. Search out evidence that the raiders are a false-flag operation.  

Hexgoals: Hidden settlements, cabins in the woods, old raid locations, relatives of the murderer.  

10. Escort Service:  Go on a journey through a hex landscape to get your valuable object/person to a safe spot.  

Hexframes: Rival factions are watching the main routes: avoid detection as long as possible.  Your Macguffin is trackable, stay in cover/water/earth often.

Hexgoals: Hidden paths, caves, or trusty locals.  Friendly guard patrol areas.

11. Good Housekeeping: Thrust into command of a large organization, you must keep the landscape it controls running smoothly. 

Hexframes: Keep the serf farmers in line, and safe from bulettes.  Manage the magical barony through its weekly dose of near-disasters.    

                 Hexgoals: Hotspots of trouble, magical nexuses, floods, hidden rebel meetings. 

Whew, okay are my fingers tired.  I saw some published hexcrawl-based adventures in those RPG plot prompts, for sure.  Many published short adventures that include hexcrawls have specific hexframes in mind, sometimes even lists of events that happen without PC intervention, because hexframes provide tense motivators that make an adventure memorable.  And Mythic Bastionland?  That’s RPG plot #25, “Quest for the Sparkly Hoozits”--a hexframe where you search for MacGuffins (Myths), with dynamic hexgoals that can act all over the map.  

Using hexframes instead of fully keyed hexmaps, and a combination of static and dynamic hexgoals, one can make compelling and rewarding hexcrawls that can be prepped in a fraction of the time as a traditional hexcrawl.  Don't prep plots, don't prep hexcrawls: prep hexframes.

An example hexframe

The lovely illustration below is by Amanda Lee Franck, and the PW Map challenge says I am supposed to do something with it.  Well, it clearly has a hexgoal in it (that wonderful owl-human-lizard head statue), so let’s talk about the surrounding landscape's hexframe: Capture the Flag.

“Stop belly-aching Jori, all citizens come up here every year despite the danger.  We don’t run back down tails between our legs, we pilgrimage on up to the Statue like proud members of the Crack.  And I don’t wanna hear any more whining about it or you will have the rough side of your momma’s hand when we get back, so help me I will blab like a rat to her.

Now it’s your first trip Up, I get that, but the sunlight won’t kill ya.  The wizards and the dragons and the monsters, now, they WOULD kill ya if we didn’t have the Statue.  You know it’s the whole reason we Crack-folk survive in this crazy world, and why we retreated down there.  Right?  Oh come on, didn’t you learn nothing about the Statue?

Here’s the deal.  Ain’t no magic allowed near it, see, and the monsters get the cramps awful bad, the magic curdling in their guts like overripe snails.  It’s ancient tech, some gizmo from long ago, still sparking.  What are you asking now?  Why we have walls around the Statue, if it’s so safe?  Well, I will answer that as it is a refreshingly good question after the past ten minutes of your blabbering.

We have those walls to keep out the Strangers from the other toeholds of the Folk, the other places with Statues of their own. Same reason we made replica heads, to slow down their raids on our Statue. Yep, from other Cracks, I guess, I never seen em.  But we keep their blimps from landing, and we keep their troops from taking our Statue and making free with its magics.  

What magics could they steal?  Well, I don’t rightly know, but I heard tell that Outsiders can turn off Statues, for a time, and let the howling waste full of monsters do their work, let them clean out the Crack and gibber in its remains.  Then the Statue comes back on, and then those strange Folk can move into our Crack and grow their own society.  Can you imagine some dirty human in the Crack?

But here’s the thing Jori, I heard that our high Crack-mucks also know how to turn off Statues, and this year they are picking a team to head over to the nearest Stranger settlements and turn off a few Statues.  We need breathing room, we do, and Blorb knows I could use a larger house and not have to worry on the regular about foreign attacks.  If we play our cards right, we could be part of that team.  I know quite a few curses, and you are not a bad knife man, when you ain’t blubbering about daylight.  

Just think about it, okay?  If we get lucky, we will see a dragon flying today over our festival.  And if we get really lucky, next year, we’ll both be aldermen of New Crack Town!”

–Lemma, candidate for Strike Team Three, 874 PD (fate unknown)