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Meepwizard
2017-11-05, 10:50 AM
Soon to be first time Dm here. I plan on having the party work with a magic item dealer for quite some time( they collect magic items which inadvertently help power their employer's world domination weapon), and I need to think magic items they need to find, how they find them, who else wants them, etc... any help is appreciated

Aneurin
2017-11-05, 11:15 AM
Information dealers are a good way to learn things - they'll sell the information to the characters, and may even contact them to let them know they have an offer. Of course the information they sell isn't an exclusive offer... unless the characters are willing to pay an additional fee.


Without information on the setting (and to lesser extent system) you're using, it'll be hard for anyone to help with what magical items the PCs could encounter, simply because different systems have different ideas of what's considered reasonable - a powerful magic sword would look very different in, say, the Forgotten Realms (which is very high magic) compared to Warhammer's Old World (which is very low magic).

Who else is after it? Well, rival dealers. Other groups of tomb-robbers and bandits - sorry, adventurers - who want it for themselves. Local nobility, regional nobility if it's valuable enough.


General advice, though? Have a reason for the PCs to hand the items over, rather than hang on to them... or start looking for a better deal somewhere else. Make sure they like their boss, too, otherwise they might just go looking for somewhere else to fence their loot, or just assassinate their employer and nick all the stock. Also, have a plan for if the PCs decide whatever they've found is too awesome/terrible to hand over no matter the incentives... this doesn't mean the employer forces them to hand it over, mind, they might just shrug and say okay then because the PCs' goodwill is more important to the dealer than the item itself - or they might send them after less valuable things, or on more dangerous assignments, for a while as an indicator of their displeasure.

Meepwizard
2017-11-05, 11:38 AM
It's a 5e homebrew high magic campaign. There is a magic item monopoly that controls most of the magic items in the world or at least keeps tabs on anything important. I've created a gamble system where you can spend "x" gold to roll for a magic item. In fact several kingdoms have gone bankrupt because either the nobility or the king have gambled away all their gold in the hopes of a good magic item. The employer doesn't care about the stuff that can be rolled for he does care about the more powerful magic items that I make, and by extension steal. Feel free to create as powerful magic items as you can think of. I'm simply looking for inspiration/stuff to steal. The incentive is an employee discount on rolling, and the employer is willing to give more powerful magic to his favorite employees

Honest Tiefling
2017-11-05, 01:18 PM
Remember the best way to jumpstart a plot: Have something be stolen from the party. Perhaps a rival group of treasure hunters steal (or attempt) to steal something from the party.

The employer, hearing this, immediately cancels their contract with the rival group and gives the party a few bits of gear to make up for the loss. Toss in a personal foe from a PCs backstory, and you have yourself a plot. This way, the players might take the betrayal harder because he seemed so helpful at first.

Vogie
2017-11-06, 12:25 PM
Two things that will help

1)General Setting - A collection of powerful artifacts look different depending on a theme. High Fantasy? Low Fantasy? PseudoScifi? Steampunk? Pirate? Post Apoc? Ancient? Is the pantheon of the world a nod to any existing mythos?
2)Types of artifacts - are these going to be specifically Cogs in a world-domination machine? or are they powerful artifacts in their own right?



Feel free to create as powerful magic items as you can think of. I'm simply looking for inspiration/stuff to steal.


Darkness Lantern
When lit, this lantern gives the bearer Devil's Sight and casts darkness.

Heart of Gold
It's an Instant Fortress that folds into a chariot, that can summon a Phantom steed to pull it along

Triton's Sword
The wielder of this scimitar can control the rigging of ships, allowing the bearer to control their own ship as though it was fully crewed, or take control of another's ship within 100 yards.

Skyshaper
When mounted on a vehicle, of any size, it gives it a fly speed equal to its normal travel speed.

Thaumatic Compass
This compass guides the bearer on the path of their greatest desire. Requires attunement.

Draupnir
This enchanted Ring of sustenance also creates 8 gold rings of great value on the ninth night of wearing it. Requires attunement.

The Tesseract
This 5 inch cube warps space around it and thrums with the power of the void. If a person creates a masterwork device of at least 2,500 gp in value to place it in, they can tap into the space warping power, allowing the bearer to create interplaner portals once a week.

wobner
2017-11-07, 01:43 AM
Soon to be first time Dm here. I plan on having the party work with a magic item dealer for quite some time( they collect magic items which inadvertently help power their employer's world domination weapon), and I need to think magic items they need to find, how they find them, who else wants them, etc... any help is appreciated

A thought i had you might be able to do something with. It was a dungeon that hadn't been explored much on account of usually all but the first level or two are underwater, However, record droughts have caused the lower levels to become accessible(perhaps also tapping into, diverting, the water sources that sustained it). As rumors of this have spread its become a mad dash to A) find out whats there before everyone else, and B) find whatever is there before the rains come and drown the place again.(could also be an ice age ending or something, sea levels expected to rise.
The idea is to leave the players wondering if the structure was flooded due to a screw up of its design, natural disaster after the construction, or if the intention the whole time was to flood it to keep anyone from going into the lower levels. This may work better if the intent is not to take something out, but put something in, like a lich's phylactery or the employers heart, his vampyric coffin, or whatever immortality scheme you employ. So he doesn't care whats there, he just wants the place cleared out.

its rather generic i admit, who wants it is really every adventurer but depends largely on whats there, and whats there depends on what you decide the place is: prison, vault or city.

just thought i'd throw that out there.

lukitux
2017-11-10, 01:28 PM
The Frosthammer. This magical hammer was forged and wielded by the goddess of frost. It creates an aura of cold around it, which expands by a few feet every day. The wielder of the hammer can use it to create a blast of freezing cold energy. The power of the blast is based on how large the aura is. It lies abandoned in the southern mountains. It has not been used for fifty years, and now the aura covers the entire mountain range. The mountains are now an icy tundra, inhabited by only the hardiest plants and animals. Our heroes must survive the cold of the mountains, the dangerous monsters that live in this cold environment, and the roving tribes of frost-orcs that patrol the mountains.

Who wants it:
-The frost Druids want to protect it, because it's aura is the only thing keeping the mountains this cold.
-The local kingdom wants to use the ice blast to destroy one of the cities if a rival kingdom
-a cabal of wizards wants to destroy it because it is too dangerous.
-a white dragon wants to bring it back to his lair
-the cult of elemental fire wants to use it to freeze the armies of the cult of elemental water