Sunday, December 29, 2024

On the Fifth Day of Christmas, the Dragon Gave to Me...

Five Gold Rings
The Five Gold Rings is among the rarest of Christmas gifts: It is intended to be re-gifted. In fact, the person to whom Brigid the Christmas Dragon gives the Five Gold Rings will benefit if he or she chooses to give most the gold rings to others.
   The Five Gold Rings are each different in appearance, with four being slender and delicate and one being hefty. This larger ring is decorated with a representation of a red dragon's head and the phrase "Christmas Blessings" in a long-lost language that can only be deciphered through the use of a read magic spell. If the rings are subjected to a detect magic spell, they are found to radiate abjuration magic with a slight accent of divination magic. 


   Function: When the Five Gold Rings are first given to a character, each functions as a +1 ring of protection. Each time the recipient gives one of the slender rings away to another person as a gift, the hefty ring with the dragon's head gains an additional +1 bonus to its enchantment. Once all four of the other rings have been regifted, the fifth ring is a +5 ring of protection. The other rings remain +1 rings of protection.


    If the character to whom the Five Gold Rings is gifted give away rings with conditions attached or expectations, or tries to sell any of them, all rings immediately lose their enchantments. The slender rings can be sold to jewelers for base values of $25+2d10, while the heavier, ornate ring can be sold for $50+2d10. The ornate ring can be sold to a character who has knowledge of dragon magic and dragon society for a base value of $200.

Saturday, December 28, 2024

On the Fourth Day of Christmas, the Dragon Gave to Me...

Four Calling Birds
This piece of artwork is perfect for mantlepieces, coffee tables, or shelving units that aren't completely filled with books. It consists of four blackbird statuettes made from carefully shaped obsidian that are mounted on a slab of polished marble. If subjected to detect magic, the item radiates moderate illusion magic.



   Function: When placed inside the home or place of work of the owner of the Four Calling Birds, if he or she, or any person there with permission, says the word "Sing", the sculpture starts playing the speaker's favorite genre of music at a soft volume. By saying "Louder" or "Quieter", the character can adjust the volume up or down. The music continues until the character leaves the location or he or she says "Silence".
   The user of the Four Calling Birds can direct it to play music by a specific composer, band, rock group, singer--any music performed by any human, anywhere on Earth, at any time. The user must say "Sing and Play Falco".  The music doesn't even have to exist as a recording anywhere, nor does the performers of it need to be well-known. Any music that has been performed anywhere by anyone can be channeled through the magic of the Four Calling Birds.
   If the music exists (or existed at one time) as recordings, the user can specify collections by title, or series of albums and performances by mentioned specific years, such as "Sing and play music composed by Mike Oldfield from 1985 through 2015." In this example, the selection will be random, but it will all be performed by Mike Oldfield together with supporting vocalists and musicians. Also, when genres or a broad selection of a particular band or artist is played, any Christmas music that falls under those parameters is mixed in among the rest, no matter what time of year it is.
   If a user asks the Four Calling Birds to play Christmas music, the recording you can hear by clicking below is always in the mix somewhere. It also happens to be "Brigid's Happy Christmas Theme" if the film version of The Dragon Who Loves Christmas ever gets made!

Friday, December 27, 2024

On the Third Day of Christmas, the Dragon Gave to Me...

Three French Hens
This is one of twelve magic items that Brigid, the Dragon Who Loves Christmas, has invented after being inspired by "The Twelve Days of Christmas song. It is one of the more powerful ones, but it also leaves those upon whom it is gifted a little confused when they initially are gifted with it.

Brigid, the Dragon Who Loves Christmas, also loves kindhearted humans.
She gets enjoyment out of creating magic items and giving them as gifts.

   The Three French Hens is a finely crafted feather duster with an ornate dowel handle made from stained hard wood and a brush consisting of cockatrice feathers. When first acquired, it radiates a strong auras of summoning and transmutation magic with a hint of divination magic present also.


   Functions: To activate the Three French Hens, the character must be inside a place of residence or business. He or she then swipes its feathers once over a flat surface that might accumulate dust. The feather duster then disappears and three young women in French maid outfits, carrying a variety of housekeeping and cleaning items, appear in the room. They greet the character in French and then go about cleaning the home, office, or business.
   It takes the maids ten minutes to clean each room in the residence or commercial space, no matter how messy, filthy, or large it is. Each hallway and stairway takes five minutes. The maids leave each area they access exceptionally clean with everything organized and in its proper places. Whatever dust, dirt, debris (or worse) that the maids clean and sweep away is transmuted into magical energy and used to power the enchantments on the Three French Hens.
   The maids clean the entire residence or business area, but not the entire building if it contains multiple homes or business spaces operated by others. Once their work is done, the three maids vanish as suddenly as they appeared, and the Three French Hens reappears on the surface it was being used upon to trigger the summoning.
  The physical appearance of the French maids vary from summoning to summoning. Here are some examples:


 
 
 
   While the three maids are cleaning, they are constantly talking to each other in French. Some of the conversation is about their latest dates, but some of it is about celebrity scandals that are unfolding or some politician's transgression against his or her self-declared morals. (This constant chatter is where the name of the item is drawn from; Brigid thought it was an amusing idiomatic pun. Another joke that Brigid has built into the item is that there's a small chance that one of the magical maids bears a strong resemblance to her human form. Whenever the item is used, one of the Three French Hens looks like Brigid if 30 is rolled on 3d10.)
   If the owner and user of the Three French Hens knows French, he or she will be able to ask the maids one question per Charisma bonus point. They will chatter and gossip about the topic for 1d6+2 minutes before providing an answer. The quality of the answer varies randomly according to a random d6 roll.

Roll    Three French Hens Answer
1          Completely accurate.
2          Somewhat accurate but with random rumor added.
3          Somewhat accurate but with false sexual aspect added.
4          Completely inaccurate and very salacious.
5          Completely inaccurate and so ridiculous it is obviously not true.
6          Completely accurate.

   The summoned maids clean the domicile or commercial space they've been summoned into without question or hesitation, be it picking up the aftermath of a rave or cleaning up the site of a gory mass murder. Their cleaning and straightening methods are marked with the sort of precision that a dragon inventories his or her hoard.
   The maids will never initiate combat. If even one of them is attacked, all three vanish. The attacker is subjected to a curse that inflicts a -3 to all skill checks and attack rolls until the attacker finds a dragon to cast remove curse on him or her.
   During a 12-month period that goes from February 1 through January 31 (roughly, with about a two-week window of variance from the third week of January through the first week of February), the Three French Hens can typically be used a total of 12 times. Whether the owner uses the item once a day or once a month, it stops working after its 12th use. However, on December 25, it becomes active again and is recharged with 12 more uses/charges. (The item never has more than 12 charges. Even if charges remain on December 24, the number resets to 12.)
   
Brigid always needs to call upon the Three French Hens on Christmas Day.

 

Thursday, December 26, 2024

On the Second Day of Christmas, the Dragon Gave to Me...

Two Turtle Doves
This pair of small silver lapel pins are identical representation of a dove in flight. If detect magic is used on them, they radiate abjuration and summoning magic. The two turtle doves is treated as one item, but the two pins that it consists of it is intended to be used by two different individuals.


   Function: When worn on a character's collar or lapel, it grants a +1 bonus to all Bargain, Bluff, and Diplomacy skill checks, as the item's enchantment makes the wearer seem inherently more likable.
   Perhaps an even more important function of two turtle doves is that it provides a magical link between the person to whom two turtle doves was gifted by Brigid and a person that is given one of the two pins to wear. The two characters can, by taking a full round action and picturing the other person in his or her mind, get a sense of how that person is physically and mentally--whether they are injured, scared, sleeping, unconscious, and so on. On the round immediately following, the character may take a second full round action to cause him- or herself to be magically transported to a safe location within line-of-sight of the other wearer of a turtle dove pin. If it is not possible to appear in a safe location within line-of-sight, the character appears as closely as possible. A successful Listen or Search skill check (DC dependent on location) will give him or her enough clues to discern where the one they've come to help is.
   Trivia: Brigid created this item to partially mimic a dragon's ability to locate things they are very familiar with and very fond of (a particular coin, a favorite magic sword, a loyal friend, and so on).


"Friends look out for each other. Friends are the greatest treasure!"


Wednesday, December 25, 2024

On the First Day of Christmas, the Dragon Gave to Me...

A Partridge in a Pear Tree
This item is five inches tall and two inches wide at the top. It is a glass figurine of a tree attached to a shallow silver dish that's just slightly over two inches in diameter. 
   The glass tree a lightly leafed tree with tiny yellow drop-shaped objects hanging from its branches. A representation of a partridge sits in the crown of the tree.
   If detect magic is used on the item, it radiates summoning and protection magic.
   Functions: Once per day, at Sunrise, a perfectly ripe pear appears on the silver plate. It can be cut into up to four sections, and each person who eats their part of the pear gains 1d4 bonus hit points above and beyond the character's normal maximum (or heals that number of points if already injured). The bonus points go away at Sundown.
   When the item is placed where the person to whom the partridge in a pear tree was gifted is residing (either temporarily or permanently), it starts making loud squawking noises whenever someone that has harmful intents toward the character and his or her property (including theft). The noise is loud enough that any sleeping characters are awakened and anyone just outside the dwelling or anywhere within it will hear.

Brigid, the Dragon Who Loves Christmas posing as human.
Click here for a little information about her.


This post is part of a series describing twelve magic items created by an ancient red dragon who loves Christmas. Click here for background and context.

The Twelve Days of the Christmas Dragon

Brigit is what an ancient red dragon calls herself when she assumes human form to interact with mortals. Although she spends most of her time in her isolated dwelling in the mountains of northern Arizona, every December and January, she travels the Earth non-stop to visit as many places and share her love of Christmas with as many people as possible. 

The Dragon Who Loves Christmas with her treasure hoard.


Unlike most of her kind, Brigit is fond of humanity and their ever-changing ways and seemingly boundless creativity. She has always enjoyed taking part in their Winter Festivals, and has loved Christmas since villagers invited her share their celebration early in the 9th century A.D. If she visits a town or attends a dinner or party where the Christmas spirit is in the air, things become so magical and festive that those who were present will tell stories about it for years. There will likewise be talk if she comes to a town or enters a home where the spirit of Christmas is being violated with cruelty and selfishness. When encountering such, Brigit first tries to convince the wrong-doers to mend their behavior and outlooks. When that fails, which it almost always does, because Brigit's human form is that of a cute and unimposing young woman with messy red hair and lots of freckles, she reveals her true self and brings a level of terror and destruction to that time and place such as only a red dragon is capable of.

"You better watch out. You better be nice. You won't like me when I'm angry."

Centuries ago, a rhyming game played by human children at Christmas time inspired Brigid to create a set of 12 magic items that reflect the game. As with almost everything Christmas related, her source of inspiration has morphed and changed over time and it is now the Christmas carol known as "The Twelve Days of Christmas".

Brigid makes one or more of the items every month during the year, and, at Christmas time. She gives them out as presents to mortals that were either particularly generous to her or selflessly sacrificing to promote the well-being of others, or to individuals she feels could benefit from and deserve the help the magic item can provide.


Click on the links below to read descriptions and RPG mechanics for each of Brigid's "Twelve Days of Christmas"-themed magic items.
 
THE TWELVE MAGIC ITEMS OF CHRISTMAS
First Day           Second Day           Third Day
Fourth Day        Fifth Day               Sixth Day
Seventh Day      Eighth Day            Ninth Day
Tenth Day          Eleventh Day        Twelfth Day



NUELOW at Christmas: Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus has finished his annual rounds and all the stockings of the good kids have been stuffed! Now, he is spending some time relaxing with Snoop Dogg before heading over to their mutual friend Brigit's place to meet up with Mrs. Claus to begin their annual vacation.