Thursday, May 25, 2017

1d6 Random Ancient Minor Treasures of Clark Aston Smith's Tomb's & Necrotic Vaults Table For Your Old School Campaigns

Some treasures get passed from hand to hand along the path of adventurers going along the path of travelers. These items are too valuable to lose but sometimes move in odd ways from place to place. Hands hold them for a time and sometimes they acquire an aura of magick & mysticism. An aura that comes down from legend or made up on the spot by some fool.  These items are not the stuff of legend but instead the minor treasures of a thousand adventures. Past around in taverns to pay gambling debts, given to pawn brokers for the debt to a flop house or brothel. These items not the less maybe far more then they appear.


Image from here http://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/V0019210.html



There are minor treasures that have been left behind in the wake of ages past in the vaults & tombs of ancient & vastly dangerous peoples. These items are tinged with the irony of ages past & wreathed in the mystique of forbidden history.
“Stern and white as a tomb, older than the memory of the dead, and built by men or devils beyond the recording of myth, is the mansion in which we dwell.”
― Clark Ashton Smith, The Return of the Sorcerer



Balkis feeds
Topaz grain and ruby seeds
To an uncouth fledgeling roc.

Untold Arabian Fable by Clark Ashton Smith

These treasures & relics will be worth at least 200  to 2000 gold pieces or more depending up if these items are found in an urban or country setting. There will be 1d6 NPC's who might latch on to the aura of value that these items or relics carry with them.

1d6 Random Ancient Minor Treasures of
Clark Aston Smith's Tomb's & Necrotic Vaults Table
  1. A dagger of mother of pearl, with a emerald like stone set into the hilt. The blade is wrought with all kinds of 'mystical writing'. It is actually a story dagger of Hyperborean make that tells the story of a wizard & his treasure including locations, monsters,etc. Worth 700 gold pieces. 
  2. A wrought golden pitch for exotic wines & strange syrups that turns many colours when the vintage or material is poured into it. The thing turns black if poison is poured into it. Worth five hundred gold pieces it has the name of an infamous wizard hammered around the outside of it
  3. This silver seal of some noble ancient king that was used to seal important documents & royal decrees. It can also be used to seal a demon inside a pentacle with a Hyperborean symbol of command in an emergency. Worth 300 gold pieces to a wizard of the white school or the lawful. 
  4. A fist sized stone of cut crystal that is actually a decoration from a wizard's tower that shows its owner their heart's desire. Worth 600 gold pieces to the right collector. 
  5. Rod of crystal from a dead world made to fit an inhuman hand, this rod can be used to point to the nearest treasure or valuable when the command word is spoken in the new moonlight. The word is writ on the side of the rod in high Hyperborean. Worth 500 gold pieces 
  6. A skull of a wizard with a ruby in the right eye socket, the thing is wrought with springs and muscles of metal. The lower jaw bone has been replaced by gold and silver. It is worth 500 gold pieces for it carries with it a legend of horror and greed. The thing will recite a poem of the dead under the new moon and cast two second level black magic spells at a target within twenty feet. 
 Austerest Beauty, terrible, sublime,
Has claimed my lips with solemn kiss of snow;
Now through my harp the tremors come and go
Of things not stirred with urgencies of Time.
Now must I tread the snows of lonely moons;
Pale rigors of dead planets desert-girt
Enthrall my dreams--solicitous, alert
To keenest colours of supernal moons.

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