The Cloak of Wonderous Items

The Wizard Dallehm is a long-dead character in my campaigns. But he was the owner of many magic items and the inventor of several spell ideas. He did not live long enough to create new items or spells.  

Besides the famous crown, Dallehm also owned the Cloak of Wondrous Items. One of the Cloaks is in the possession of Sybil, and is a copy of one her father owns. How Sybil's father came by it is unknown. 

The Cloak of Wonderous Items is similar to a Robe of Useful Items, but with the ability to return non-living, non-burning items back to the cloak for later use. This is done by covering the item with the cloak or brushing the cloak over the item. 

New items cannot be added. Nothing that comes from the cloak is lit or on fire. Burning items must be extinguished before being returned. 

I stole this idea from the Many Colored Lands series. One of the characters has an outfit festooned with tiny pockets with components to assemble devices that are not otherwise allowed where the owner is going. The implication is that searching a cloak is tedious and would only turn up items that are allowed because the individual components are benign. It's the combining of items that makes them useful and dangerous. 

The cloak always has 2 of the following: 

• A pair of daggers, one silver and one cold iron, 
• A 12-foot tent pole, 
• 8 iron spikes,
• 1 large wooden stake, 
• A torches,
• A tinderbox, 
• A waterskin, full, 
• A mallet, 
• A hatchet
• 1 shirt, 1 pair of pants, and boots, all sized to the owner. These are neatly folded in one package.

There are 3d6 other items found on this random generation table: 

01-04    A pair of war dogs. 
05-08    A riding horse, with saddle and bags.
09-15    A bottle of wine or brandy with four wooden cups
16-22    A rowboat with anchor and oars. Holds 8 people. 
23-30    Logs and tinder, suitable for a campfire lasting all night in the coldest winter. 
31-44    A wicker mantlet. It's a siege shield with wheels and is usable by anyone. 
45-51    100 feet of rope.
52-59    A trestle table with two benches, and bowls of bread and water for 8 people. 
60-68    A rack with 6 crystal vials. 2 are holy water, two are oil, and 2 contain a powerful acid. 
69-75    A round shield, not usable by the Magic-User.
76-83    A lantern full of oil, unlit. 
84-90    A potion of healing with 8 doses. Returns 1d4+1 hp per dose. 
91-94    An 8-man tent, unassembled. It has its own spikes, mallet, and tent poles. 
95-00    A pig on a spit, ready for roasting. Serves 3d12 people. 

Alternatively, you may simply choose to have every item available once. 

The healing potions are unique and can't be returned. The same for the oil, acid, and holy water vials in the rack. The horse and war dogs also cannot be returned to the cloak. They are permanent and genuinely love the cloak's owner. 

Returning the table, waterskins, wine and brandy bottles, and roasting spit, emptied, will regenerate the food and liquids 24 hours later. Returning torch nubs or empty lanterns will regenerate the tinder, oil, wicks, and torches in 12 hours. 

Broken or lost mundane items may be replaced with an exact substitute. Characters may not replace items with substitutes if they still have the original item. 

The owner of the cloak always knows the properties of the various liquids. They will never mistake a vial of acid for a healing potion or holy water. 

This cloak is limited to Magic-Users and Illusionists; however, anyone can use the items. 

You may wish to add the following details to the items:  

• The tent is labeled, "Camp Crystal Lake, NJ". 
• The table is bright green and stamped with the words: "Property of Erie County Public Works". 
• The rowboat has a number on it and the name: "Sandusky, OH". 
• The vial rack is labeled: "Fr. G. Sarducci". 
• The brandy is labeled "Thunderball" and the wine is branded "Dom Pérignon, 1955". 
• As with all tents, no magic in the world can restore lost parts even if returned to the cloak. The rope, pole, mallet, and spikes are all intended to work with the provided tent. 
• The rope must be neatly wrapped before returning. Be kind, rewind. 
• The round shield has a white star with blue and red stripes. 

Stat'ing Up Sybil

I have decided that Sybil is the new Magic-User to join the party. In this post, I generated her stats using the OSE NPC Generator. As I promised, I would be flipping her stats to put that 7 in Wisdom. This is to slightly counteract the ring of 4 wishes. She isn't wise to be devious. 

As I did for all other randomly generated characters, I rerolled any stat of 11 or under. If I were able to beat the original score, it would be increased. If I did not beat that score, it stayed the same. Here is what I got: 

STR: 11 (unchanged, I rolled lower.)
INT: 13 (no reroll)
WIS:  7 (unchanged, as I decided I wanted this score.)
DEX: 14 (was 7)
CON: 10 (was 9)
CHR: 13 (was 9)

That seemed fair. She is quick and quick-witted, and good with people, but perhaps naive. 

As the ring of 4 wishes, which is completely ridiculous on the surface for a second-level character, I used OSR Solo to adjudicate the wishes. This is modified by my general rules of thumb for wishes in my campaign. 

In the generic, rings of wishes are much more limited in their ability to suborn wishes, at the same time as being mechanically resistant to harming anyone. Magic rings don't have agency. 

If I deem a wish to be out of bounds, a magic ring gets physically hot. It will not operate for a time, at least for that person. I decide how long and for whom. It does not waste a wish because the last wish causes the ring to stop being magic. Magic rings have enough agency not to destroy themselves needlessly. I also have a tradition that all rings of wishes are white gold and transform into lead rings when expended. Click the link to see a scenario where that happens. 

Should a wish be granted by a creature, these rules of thumb go right out the window. Creatures do have agency and agendas. For example, a god or demon may desire to bring certain people back to life and may twist a badly worded wish to do as THEY desire. The key bit is that the wish is the expression of their power, which may benefit the PC's. 

Anyway, I already determined one wish was "A Magic Dog!" I made that wish #4. The wishes were: 

1. A copy of all of her father's adventuring equipment. 
2. A magic dagger or shortsword that is almost exactly like Sting from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Click the link to see Sting in action on YouTube. 
3. A doubling of Sybil's current powers and abilities. 
4. A Magic Frickin' Dog!

The first wish is pretty good; she wished for a copy of her father's items. That would prevent harming her father. If this were worded in other ways, it could cause her father to lose the use of his equipment or maybe cause Sybil to inherit his stuff after he dies. That second possibility could be useless if he has a long life, or worse, it causes his death, so she inherited his stuff. 

I hate it when a wish would cause a paradox. If her father were already dead, she would have his stuff through inheritance, so why would she wish for this? I try to avoid that at all costs with wishes. It's also a good reason not to hose PCs in with the worst possible outcomes of wishes. 

The second wish is meta. I would expect and accept this from a player character. Sting-like swords are cool and do exist in my campaign, so I'd let it go. 

The third wish is well-worded to prevent it from being meta while also being something I would expect from a PC. 

OSR Solo has a great likelihood table that goes beyond yes and no. You can click this link to buy a copy at DriveThruRPG. I personally like the physical books, but there is also a PDF for less.  

For the first wish, she rolled a 6. That is "yes and...". This is an excellent result and grants more than the equipment she knew about. She also has a copy of her father's spell book and magic robes. I decided there is a limitation on the spell book. It contains spells she doesn't know and can't read yet. 

I rolled a 4 for the second wish. That is a flat yes. She has a +1 dagger or small shortsword. It does 1d4+1 and glows in the presence of goblinoids and giant spiders. That is basically Sting in a nutshell. 

Were I dealing with a PC who made this wish, I would troll them. "Funny, your dad has a sword just like it. It's a shame you wished for his equipment but not his weapons." 

For the third wish, "double my power," I rolled a 3, which is "yes but..." There is a hindrance to this wish. This is really straightforward for this wish. She has doubled her power, from level 2 to level 4. BUT, she didn't gain the experience. She has all of the benefits and abilities of a 4th-level Magic-User in all ways, but won't gain any more power until she has the experience points to reach 5th level. Painful, but easily implementable. I don't like wishes that cause paperwork. 

Where she really won was in hit points, which are simply doubled. I give max hit points for the first level, and require a roll for higher levels, rerolling ones. Sybil has 16 hp as she rolled a 4 for her second level. The character generator shows a lower HP value, but I did reroll everyone else's hit points to drop ones and include max hit points at level 1.  

The Magic Dog is crazy and fun. I decided to ask a series of questions:

• Is it really magic? The result was "yes". 
• Is it a Blink Dog? "No". 
• Is it a Hell Hound? "No, and..." it is afraid of Hell Hounds. This choice of modifier is easy and natural. Everyone is afraid of Hell Hounds. 
• Can it talk? "Yes... but". If I did this to PC, I would again troll them by saying the dog speaks in a Scottish brogue... and only understands you if YOU speak in a Scottish brogue. This doesn't make sense in this context of a text-only experience, so I'll let that one go. At a table full of players, it would be funny.  

I stopped asking questions at 4. Four wishes allows for 4 questions. It looks good enough to me. 

In doing this exercise, I also determined something else about Sybil. She might be neutral as she sees Blink Dogs and Hell Hounds as attractive and useful. Her father also imparted some lore about his time adventuring and is encouraging of her. 

OSR Solo is really handy book for off-the-cuff items. 

Observations from The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 All Sessions - Part 2

Here is part of my observations on all sessions to date for B2 Keep on the Borderlands. I really hope you bought a copy, so I can stop posting the link to DriveThruRPG. 

I have mentioned the map scale several times and the headache that it gives. The valley for the Caves of Chaos is far too small, and the distance from the Keep is tiny. The module gives travel times as 1 square (100 yards) per hour when searching, which seems fine, but then gives non-searching speeds of 300 yards per hour. That's 0.17 miles per hour or less than 6 hours to cover one mile. 

I'm a little chubby and I walk much faster than that. 

Keep on the Borderlands was published a year before the Basic and Expert sets. These sets combine to codify indoor and outdoor travel speeds. It was a welcome choice and a great option. I politely ignore the travel times in the module, and as a consequence, I don't let much happen on the road. 

The next issue with scale is the sheer number of people inside the Keep itself. I counted 239 fighting men and 47 non-fighter types. I will not die on these numbers. I am probably wrong because I counted quickly. Gary Gygax's writing can be obscure or unclear, to say the least. But I did my best. If I had read it more slowly, I would have gotten it right because I'm sure it is all there. 

A castle similar to Bodiam Castle

This population fits my historical thinking. In keeping with my quick, back-of-the-envelope calculations, the Keep is roughly 3 times bigger than Bodiam Castle. This "castle" is more of a fortified estate, a family home over fortification. Much of its defences revolve around big walls and surrounding features instead of manpower. The walls and moat were two defences, but it also had satellite ponds designed to slow someone down and force them to take in the grandeur of the site. That was the intent: to slow an attacker so everyone got a look at everyone else. Sometimes, that is all you need to stop an opposing force. 

I found a notation that Bodiam Castle was 1/3 the size of the Keep in B2 and that it could support up to 80 people for a limited time. Those would have been guests and merchants, not fighting men, most of the time. If the Keep is 3 times bigger, the number of troops is perfect. The Keep is not overpopulated; it's overmanned by soldiers. I tend to describe it as an up-and-coming Keep, where the 47 non-fighting types are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to population. They are the people the characters notice, not all of the people. I often introduce several huts, a few camping fishermen by the river, a small farm, and a woodsman's shack near the Keep. This is flavoring and landmarks for the party, so they know roughly where they are. 

This also gives me something to do with the raiders and spies south of the Keep. They sit near the road, the only road to the Keep. This road has to bring in thousands of gold pieces of cash and goods to the Keep, because the Keep has no means of support in the surrounding empty territory. The raiders could actually steal a wagon or bribe the caravan guards and do serious harm to the Keep, even if they only stole food. That's a really good plot point. One quick raid hands the Castellian a big loss. 

Better yet, the raiders already have something in their description that hints at a possible avenue of profit and, in a way, an economic attack. Since they hunt the forests, they have fresh game meat to trade. They don't want to walk into the Keep to do this; they sell it to the caravan, which in turn sells it to the people in the Keep at a good profit. Everyone knows what is happening. There is no real surprise that the Castellian doesn't try to remove them if he discovers them, because everyone loves fresh food. 

As spies, they don't have to do too much. I would imagine the captain and lieutenant would try to spy and make contacts in the Keep itself. There is not much to keep them out. The rest of the "raiders" would also venture to the Keep for major news. They wouldn't do anything nefarious. They simply want to know if something "big" is happening in the Keep so they don't surprise themselves. 

As described, the raiders do represent a minor threat to a party of about equal size. They can't really get a TPK, but they can brain-drain a party by wiping out Magic-Users, Clerics, and Thieves. 

One thing that WILL cause a TPK is giving the raiders horses if the party is on foot. Those spearmen become very deadly on horseback. The same happens if more than 2 guys have bows or crossbows. Gary Gygax must have thought this out with the intent of a fair, but tough fight. 

I'll need to create a plotline for the raiders in one of the upcoming sessions.  

The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 - Session 6 - Book Keeping and Wishes

I had planned on doing a longer session today, but my blood sugar bounced. It tends to put me in a reflective mode. 

My main goal was to update the character sheets for Rety and the Clerics. Rety is level 2, finally, and the Clerics are level three. I had planned to have Rety hire a second Magic-User and something funny happened. 

I used the OSE NPC Generator. It is super easy. I must have clicked on "create" 2 dozen times, looking for the right combo of stats, spells, and magic items. As per normal, I wanted this character to have a Bag of Holding or a Ring of Protection. 

This is what I got: 

Wow. A ring of wishes on a second-level character. That is fun! Since I am in charge here, I decided to change that to 2-4 wishes instead of the original 1-2. 

Why? 

It's my game, plus I am the referee AND the player characters. Who wouldn't want a ring of 4 wishes? I have every intention of swapping this character's Wisdom and Dexterity before he starts making wishes. 

Additionally, it gives me a chance to tell a really offbeat story. 

I had a bunch of players who refused every adventure hook, running around town doing everything they wanted and nothing that I planned. Because: PLAYER CHARACTERS!

They were having the time of their lives, and I was going out of my skull planning stuff that would never be used. I came up with a great idea that I stole from Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures. You can purchase this book on Amazon.com with this link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Someone offered to sell them a great mansion in a nice location. The party declined and selected a smaller place in a horrible part of town. Since I was reading a lot of Robert Asprin, this town was a lot like Sanctuary in the Thieves World books. 

(Again, you can purchase this book on Amazon.com with this link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.) 

Basically, the town was hell on earth, and the party decided to move into the worst circle of that hell. Of course, since this was a railroad, I used the same floor plan as the original house I had thought of, with all the tricks and secrets I had originally planned. 

This house had doors and cubbies that led to other places like mines, and dungeons, and a castle in the sky. Somehow, the party avoided investigating them all. It wasn't like they were trying; they were having too much fun doing their own thing to look in cabinets and cubbies. 

Instead of trying to trick them or kill the party off, I spent most of my time gentrifying the neighborhood. Sanctuary is a hard city to have fun in, and it really didn't fit with what the party was doing. 

I threw in a gag where the party was robbed, but the robbers noticed the cleric, and covered their ill-deeds with an offering to the priest. Then, it happened again right after they spent all of their cash on workmen to clean up the house. The thieves took pity on their lack of funds a second time and gave them a few coins for soup. 

Once the house was in order, I decided to inflict a comical plague on them. Their neighbors were the Bumpuses from A Christmas Story, complete with the pack of hounds. The hounds and thieves became minor backing characters in the party's wild rumpus throughout my wrecked campaign. 

I'm sorry, I get overly wordy and ramble when my blood sugar drops and bounces back. 

We are finally at the part where the party gets a ring of wishes. It was a random treasure roll, nothing I had planned, but I foolishly let it happen anyway. And comedy gold ensued. 

Two different characters wished for two very useful and interesting things. I wish I could tell what those exact wishes were, but besides being well thought out and sincere, I can't remember because the third wish blew them right out of my memory. 

Forever.

The Fighter snatched up the ring and wished for: "A Magic Dog!" 

No stipulations, no modifying phrases or clauses, and no explanation at all. Just "A Magic Dog!" at a time when the party was surrounded by dogs. 

What the hell, Fighter! 

So, obviously, our new Magic User character will burn that fourth wish on "A Magic Dog!" 

I will be back when I feel better and explain what happened once the party rejoins the adventure at The Keep on the Borderlands. I am sick of posting this link to DriveThruRPG, so why don't you try Return to Keep on the Borderlands for 2e? 

Book Review - A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle

Title: A Fine and Private Place
Author: Peter S. Beagle
Year: 1960
Pages: 272 pages
Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Peter S. Beagle’s A Fine and Private Place is a novel that doesn't fit neatly in a category. Part fantasy, part meditation, part quirky slice-of-life, it’s the sort of story that sinks its teeth into you. This is Beagle's first book, published about 8 years before his best-known book, The Last Unicorn. 

The links above are to AbeBooks, I earn money from your qualifying purchases. 

Honathan Rebeck was a former pharmacist who transferred to the Yorkchester Cemetery in an unknown big city for reasons unknown. While reading the book, I kept flip-flopping between Chicago and New York City in my mind, but it isn't either. It's a snapshot of a bustling city wrapped around green spaces, subways, museums, and cemeteries. It's anywhere in the 1960s. 

The setting is brilliant: Yorkchester Cemetery. It’s here that Jonathan Rebeck, who has withdrawn from the world, has chosen to live. His home is a mausoleum. He is befriended by a talking raven that delivers food and news as needed. The raven is one of my favorite characters in the book. He’s blunt, greedy, funny, and oddly wise in his way of constantly reminding Rebeck that, no matter how withdrawn from society you become, the living have daily needs. 

The cemetery is also home to the newly dead, who linger as ghosts for a while. Among them are Michael and Laura, two spirits who meet after death and fall in love. Their romance is heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. They know their time together is limited. They will eventually move on and fade to an unknown fate, but they cling to one another anyway. Their relationship is the emotional anchor of the story. 

Gertrude Klapper, a widow who visits her husband’s grave and ends up entangled in Rebeck’s strange little world. Unlike Rebeck, Gertrude isn’t hiding from life. At least not exactly. She’s practical, witty, and a little sharp-tongued. She offers Rebeck something he hasn’t had in years: real conversation, companionship, and the possibility of a future. The romance between them unfolds slowly, but it feels real, grounded not in passion or youthful idealism but in shared loneliness and the desire to live again.

As much as Rebeck has withdrawn, Gertrude only superficially interacts with the living beside Rebeck. Appearing more engaged, Gertrude is looking and failing to find more in life outside of the cemetery. But inside, she joins Rebeck's weird little clan and demonstrates rather than learns acceptance. 

The title of the novel is from Andrew Marvell's poem, To His Coy Mistress: “The grave’s a fine and private place, but none, I think, do there embrace.” Beagle takes that line and asks: What if people do embrace them? What if love and hope could still flourish after death? That’s the novel’s central question, and answered well. 

And that’s what I love most about A Fine and Private Place: it isn’t about excitement, instead focusing on characters and adventure. There are no battles, no magical systems, no apocalyptic stakes. The drama comes from conversations, small choices, and fleeting connections. It’s a novel about people learning, very quietly, how to live, how to let go, and most importantly, how to love.

The ending manages to be both sad and hopeful. Some characters move on, both literally and figuratively, while others take tentative steps back into life. There’s no neat bow tied around everything, but that’s exactly the point. Life and death don’t work that way. What Beagle offers instead is a reminder that impermanence doesn’t make love or connection meaningless. It makes them precious and joyous. 

You can also purchase this book on Amazon.com with this link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.