One of my favorite things about generating these is looking up things that are relevant. The different views of different mythologies on cherry wood, discovering a new modern mythology that makes a claim I've never heard before. I think that is super interesting and just rolling one of these up and doing the research on them has brought something to the games, even if I never use the staff. I reference things like the first edition DMG, for gems, Volo's guide to the Sword Coast for some metals. Sometimes it leads me down a rabbit hole of reading about the Mistborn magic system. Sometimes I'll find a post about a specific number on the the numerology subreddit. It always gives me something interesting to take back to my table and I encourage others to give this a try when you next make something like a magic staff or sword.
The Winter Heart
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| via Heromachine 3 |
Core: Troll blood
Binding: body embedded with gold (shards, screws, pins, or inlay)
Odd phyical features: Signs of resistance (energy type)
Cosmetic effect: 2 crystals float around it when it is used as a focus for magic length
76 inches
Cherry wood: tied to romance, checks to romance or seduce are rolled at +1d
Troll Blood: fortitude, +1 on fortitude saves
Gold Inlay: Healing, heal target or bearer for 1d4 hp once each day, renews at dawn
Staff has rimed with frost that never melts: bearer casts cold based spells at +1
76 inches: introspection and mastering oneself, +1 to checks related to peasant profession
The staff known as “The Winter Heart” has gone by many names, “The Frozen Mercy”, “Heartbranch”, “Life Frost”, and “The Healer’s Winter”. Each of these are just a different appearance of The Winter Heart appearing in history in new hands, not different staffs with similar properties, as some scholars suggest.
Under the name “The Frozen Mercy” this staff saw a brief rise to fame in the hands of a skilled but hopelessly romantic mage by the name of Allister of Jarlrock. Allister studied the staff more than most magicians who have carried it, drawing on it as the source of inspiration for much of the magic he practiced later in life. Much of his magic focused on fortifying others and speeding up their recovery, this made him something of an odd duck to the community he lived in, magic seen as something to be feared made him remain at arms length but turning it towards healing made him a sort of last resort for the sick or injured. Unfortunately his romantic nature proved to be the end of his history with the staff when he fell for a woman passing through the town. She remained for a few weeks before he woke one morning to find his estate had been robbed and the staff was gone.
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