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26.     A small ball of white marble – roughly three inches across – which hovers in the air until it is touched or disturbed, at which point it falls to the floor and ceases to exhibit any supernatural properties.

27.     A sundial which runs backward.

28.     A bowl full of golden apples found in the midst of ruins which have long been left desolate and uninhabited. They are quite edible and unspoiled. If they are taken beyond the ruins, they will lose their golden sheen and appear – in all respects – as normal, red apples. So long as they remain within the ruins, however, they are golden, and will not age or rot.

29.     Within an elegant hinged case of black onyx, the characters find a set of masterwork gaming darts. Although useless for combat, the darts will give a +2 skill check bonus to anyone using them to play a game of darts (due to their superb balance and construction).

30.     A lucky rabbit’s foot which hangs from a golden chain. Although separated from the rest of the rabbit, the foot magically lives on: It will respond to touch, bleed if injured, and so forth.

31.     A decorative fountain, crafted elegantly from a single block of jade and decorated with gold leaf, in which the water flows in the wrong direction.

32.     A plain mirror with a frame of pale ashwood. Whenever someone looks in the mirror, however, they perceive an elven face in place of their own.

33.     A ring composed of a simple gold band, inscribed with a complex set of blackened runes, which appear to signify nothing at all.

34.     A large tome, bound in leather and clasped with gold. A closer inspection of this volume will reveal that each page is a perfectly preserved dragon scale, which has been inscribed with the black blood of a fiend. The book describes the four spirits (quicksilver, orpiment, sal ammoniac, sulfur) and seven bodies (gold, silver, iron, quicksilver, lead, tin, copper) of traditional alchemy.

35.     A large spectacle, designed for a creature possessed of only a single eye in the middle of their head.

36.     A peg leg inscribed with a pirate’s treasure map. The map is either false or its treasure has long since been plundered. If you wish to provide the PCs with a true map, then one may be found in the hollow compartment within the leg.

37.     A small ivory case, filled to the brim with the wings of fairies.

38.     A delicately carved hope chest of polished cherry wood. The box contains nothing but a remarkably fine, gray sand drawn from some unknown locale. Beneath the new moon, this sand glows a faint blue.

39.     A small, heart-shaped token carved out of rose-colored sandstone, holding the mad soul of a princess who was trapped there by a sorcerer many centuries ago. Her body remains in the hidden royal sepulchers of her homeland, perfectly preserved by ancient magic.

40.     A prismatic crystal which echoes back – in a deep, melodious voice – every word which is said around it two seconds after it has been said.

41.     Within the ruined remnants of a ruined fireplace, an everburning flame still flickers with eternal life. At night, the light of this flame dances across the ghostly forms of those who once lived in the room this fireplace once warmed.

42.     A disk of finely polished stone. On one side, the elvish rune for death is inscribed in blackest obsidian. Upon the other, the dwarven rune for life is inscribed into the palest ivory.

43.     An ancient waterwheel which rests within a dry riverbed, but which still turns with a creaking memory of its ancient motion.

44.     Deep in ruins which predate the characters by generations, they uncover a forgotten account of history. Anyone familiar with the kingdom’s history who studies this text will find references to a king who has apparently been excised from the modern records.

45.     Two disks of hardened quicksilver laying atop one another. If they are separated, a tornado springs up between them – anchored on each end to a disk.

46.     Only a few crumbling bricks standing in the midst of a grassy plain stand as testament to what once must have been a mighty wall. Looking through a small chink in this wall, however, reveals not the plain which sweeps away upon the other side, but, instead, a strange desert with dunes of multi-colored sands.

47.     A mask carved to look like the face of a man, but which has been fitted for something wholly other.

48.     Coming to a door which has long been sealed, the PCs find a tiny toy soldier which marches ceaselessly back and forth – eternally vigilant against those who would disturb his portal.

49.     A statuette of a dragon, forged from the finest mithril, which responds to yes or no questions which are posed to it in draconic. The answers given may appear prophetic or oracular, but are actually random.

50.     The Erian Tapestry. A famous (or forgotten) tapestry depicting the Fall of Erian. The figures upon the tapestry move and change, re-enacting – in an artistically abstracted form – the legendary battle over the course of half an hour.

Continued tomorrow…

This article was written in 2002 and originally published in Campaign Magazine.

The worlds of a D&D campaign should be places of myth and mystery. There comes a point in, time, however, when a sense of complacency can begin to haunt your players: Orcs are no longer monstrous brutes, but a matter of routine; skeletons have become curious tactical problems without the faintest hint of horror about them; and even dragons may have acquired a certain taint of the mundane.

Sometimes what you need to reinvigorate a sense of wonder in your world can be found in the smallest of packages: A rune-inscribed parchment which describes the fall of an ancient city belonging to an empire which has been lost to the annals of history; fairy lights within the forest which escape description or explanation; a broken sword inscribed with the names of ancient heroes in the elder runes of elfish script.
For your consideration, then, we offer 101 curious items. Some of these might be used as the key to unlock deeper mysteries, explore unknown depths, or provide the seed of untold adventure. But, if nothing else, they will serve as a reminder to character and player alike that the worlds in which we game are places of pervasive magic, ancient history, and limitless wonder…

1.     A miniature crystal – small enough to lie upon the outstretched finger of a halfling child – glows softly, and pulses whenever an object colored red is brought near.

2.     An ancient, leather-bound volume written in an archaic script describes the composition and arrangement of the Outer Planes. Strangely, a rather substantial section of text – consisting of an entire chapter if you are translating the numbering correctly – has been torn out of the book. Despite this fact, you can detect no obvious gaps in the volume’s coverage of its subject matter. What unknown plane did that chapter describe?

3.     A tattered, and sadly unusable, scroll fragment, inscribed with a spell unknown to any living mage.

4.     A plain, and otherwise unremarkable, stone room contains one remarkable feature: Upon the floor shattered, multi-colored shards of glass have been carefully arranged into a perfect circle.

5.     A weatherworn wooden board, inscribed with patterns which make it clear that it was once used for a game whose rules have long since been lost to time.

6.     A clock which regularly keeps time… just not the time of this world. Although it is clear that the clock works to a clear pattern and purpose, attempts to decipher the method of its madness fail – as if it had been crafted upon rules of logic which no human mind can comprehend.

7.     A blood-stained dress which, despite being found in ruins which have lain undisturbed for centuries, is still a vibrant, stunning blue.

8.     An elegantly carved comb of oak, engraved with the name Aethelren and decorated with twin dragons. Elsewhere, a similar comb of ash, engraved with the name Ilthorien and decorated with twin unicorns, can be found.

9.     What appears to be the original, handwritten manuscript of the Saga of the Warrior Prince Augustin – a classic ballad composed by the legendary bard Dathorn, famous for its lyrical quality and epic subject matter. A careful perusal of the text, however, reveals strange differences from the version of Augustin known to the bards of today…

10.     A broken holy sword, inscribed with the name of a legendary Paladin.

11.     A ruby the size of a man’s fist which sparkles and gleams with the promise of untold wealth in the faintest of lights, but which crumbles to dust upon the lightest touch.

12.     A child’s poppet which is normal in all respects, except for the third eye to be found upon its forehead.

13.     A long, black lock of woman’s hair, tied with a scarlet ribbon. When touched by human or elf, however, it changes color to match the holder’s own hair color. When touched by a dwarf, a scream of utter agony and anguish fills the air.

14.      The holy symbol of a god long thought dead and gone. Although wrought in iron, it resists any normal attempts to damage it.

15.     A map of a city which claims to be of a city the PCs know well, although the pattern of streets and names on the map are utterly different from the city of today.

16.     A collection case holding fifty spent wands – crafted by the finest craftsman and enchanted by the mightiest wizards of a bygone age, but now reduced to mere wood, bone, and glass.

17.     A small, granite pebble which registers faintly to detect magic and similar spells, but which is otherwise wholly unremarkable.

18.     A cane of the purest white ivory, decorated with runes unknown to modern scholars, and topped with a handle of polished amber. Trapped within the amber is a strange creature unlike any the PCs have ever seen before.

19.     A miniature, mechanical model of a city. When properly wound, its complex mechanisms set its tiny inhabitants into motion, simulating for them a rotating cycle of activities which last for seven days before seamlessly repeating.

20.     A telescope of jade and banded with bloodstone. A character looking through the telescope sees not the world around them, but a strange, alien vista which – nonetheless – follows the motions of the telescope.

21.     A large snow globe, with a sturdy base of polished oak, depicting a small farmhouse in the midst of a forest clearing. Shaking the globe causes the snow to gently fall, and as it does miniature figures exit the house and begin performing chores about the farmyard. The figures return to the house as the last flake falls.

22.     A wood chip which acts as a magnet, despite its non-metallic nature.

23.     A broken music box which still plays a hauntingly familiar, but unrecognizable, tune if it is wound beneath the rays of the full moon.

24.     A complex set of interlocking gears which, if followed by the eye, seem to… twist at some point, as if they were not strictly bound by the geometry of this world. Although the device functions as a perpetual motion machine, it is not magical in any way.

25.     A finely crafted compass of gold and silver, decorated and labelled with ornate, dwarven and draconic runes. Once every 1d4 hours it randomly changes the cardinal direction to which its arrow points.

Continued tomorrow…

Dragon winds are hot, dry winds which blow suddenly, strongly, and unexpectedly against the prevailing winds. They are taken to be signs of ill-omen and bad fortune. In the Low Countries they are more explicitly called dragon’s breath, and perhaps that’s why, in the crag villages of the Killorn Peaks, they are believed to be the sulfurous breath of the Red Maiden, the most-feared of the eighty-seven fates.

Loremasters, however, trace the origin of the term back to the tribute flights of the tyrant dragon Cinderheart. It is written that he possessed wings of crawling magma and that the terrible heat swept forth by the beating of those wings could be felt for miles as a harbinger of terror.

It’s interesting watching PCs (and their players) slip through a varying appreciation of cash. The same folks who will cheer at a 100 gp payout at 1st level will gradually become far more jaded towards their bank accounts as the levels tick past.

“I’ve only got 2,000 gp!”

Ah, yes. You poor dear. You’ve only got as much money as the average person makes in two lifetimes.

Of course, this might all be funnier if it didn’t happen in real life and with real money all the time.

In the Middle Ages, the wealthy were known to sponsor holy pilgrims. Like modern millionaires funding a NASCAR team, the sponsors would share in the reflected glory of the pilgrimage. Of course, as in all matters of salvation and piety, there were also deeper spiritual entanglements to consider in such things: Acting in their name and as their agents, the pilgrims would receive blessing not only for themselves but for the lords and ladies in whose name they journeyed.

Historically speaking, the sponsoring of pilgrimages were partly a matter of holy duty (like any other form of tithing) and partly a matter of expediency (for those too busy to make the journey for themselves). In a fantasy setting, however, it would be fairly easy to imagine a third parameter: Danger.

Enter the adventurers.

Imagine, for example, an ancient holy site which is now located in the upper lairs of the Bloodreaver Dragons. Or in the Lava Caverns of the Myrmarch. Or lost in the eddies of the Astral Sea.

And in a world where the gods are active (and perhaps even malevolent) forces, the stakes for successfully performing such pilgrimages might be incredibly high. Thus those who have proven that they can make the greatest dangers into their play-things could easily find great profit in performing such journeys.

A sponsored pilgrimage could be a fun, exploratory travelogue (an appropriate sub-structure for any hexcrawl); it could be tied into a larger scenario (“we need guidance from the Forgotten God of the Purple Seas, and you must journey to his Broken Temple lost among the Steppes of the Black Wight”); or it could be the seed for even larger adventures (“we went to Thor’s shrine for you, but now we all seem to be having visions of Ragnarok”).