I'm currently running a small party through Anomalous Subsurface Environment using Electric Bastionland (having placed Mount Rendon and Chelmsfordshire into a patch of Deep Country).
Because character abilities in Electric Bastionland are mostly based around what they're carrying, and also that I've found it's easier to encourage players to look for clever solutions when they have things to be clever with, I wanted to put together a list of Oddities (Electric Bastionland's version of magical items) to be found within the ASE.
These are all intended to be found within the Gatehouse level, and so are things the military or scientists working there would have found useful to make. Or more commonly they are the sort of things a bunch of scientists would decide to create if they were given access to a massive budget, advanced fabrication technology, and apparent magic (along with little to not oversight).
Some of the items are immediately useful, some will be useful in the hands of clever players, some I have no idea how they could ever be put to a productive use.
Although designed for Electric Bastionland, the items are mostly system agnostic. Specific damage, HP, or stat references should be easy enough to adapt to your preferred system. Where items have effects that last 10 minutes the assumption is that it will last for the duration of a single exploration turn, so adjust as necessary. Protonium is a virtually indestructible and magic proof metal; Argonium is the slightly less indestructible plastic version of it.
Ancient MRE
 |
| "Let's get this out onto a tray. Nice!" |
A Meal Ready to Eat with a Best By date in a format you don't recognize, but it looks to be in surprisingly good condition aside from the faint glow.
Upon consuming reroll your STR with 3d6 and consult the table below:
2-4: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, metaphorically anyway. You are fully immune to all poisons and toxins, and can consume spoiled food with no negative consequences.
5-11: Your saliva is now corrosive. Given enough time you could spit your way through most materials.
10-15: You are Deprived for 24 hours from extreme nausea.
16-18: Your eyes have been opened to the joys of preserved food. Eating fresh food causes you to become Deprived.
Quantum Adventuring Gear
Leather satchel with "Adventuring Gear" branded onto the surface alongside an atomic symbol.
When you say out loud, "It'd sure be useful if we had a [thing]" where there [thing] is a mundane item that would fit inside the satchel, the item will be found within the satchel.
The item exists for 10 minutes before decohering, and that item can never be found within the satchel again (write down items as they are pulled from the satchel).
Universal Meter
Small protonium box with two slots, an analog dial, and a flexible probe tip. In the case with it, are a series of punchcards with single word descriptions.
When two punch cards are inserted into the slots and the probe is touched to any object, the dial will indicate roughly where that item falls between the two words.
Exact details are impossible to discern and any ambiguities will cause the dial to swing back and forth between possible answers.
The punch cards are labeled:
1) Alive
2) Cold
3) Good
4) Plant
5) Honest
6) Mundane
7) Anomalous
8) Bird
9) Dead
10) Old
11) Edible
12) Dangerous
13) Dog
14) Weapon
15) Benign
16) Functioning
17) Exciting
18) New
19) Evil
20) Hot
Roll a d20 10 times. The first time a punch card is rolled all but 1 letter of its label is illegible, if it's rolled twice only the number of letters can be made out, if a card is rolled a third time nothing useful can be made out from the label.
Also included are 6 blank punch cards, which a clever enough person might be able to program themselves after studying the labeled ones (and determining what the cards with unreadable labels are).
If you're nice, replace some of the more esoteric descriptions with useful ones. If you're mean do the opposite.
Smart Vacuum
Small hemispherical robot vacuum. When found has a small blinking green panel on the top, which if touched will bio-metrically bond to the person who touched it. After this the vacuum will follow that person around, attempt to complete instructions from its owner, and if left unattended will attempt to clean the floor of whatever area it's in.
2 HP, can store roughly 1 liter of material (wet or dry) and can perform basic analysis of whatever it is carrying (although its only forms of communication are simple emojis along with chirps, trills and beeps).
Inverted Observer Effect Pocket Barometer
Brass barometer which can be used to predict future weather with 5 in 6 accuracy. Inscribed on the back is the phrase "Inverted Observer Effect".
It also has an extra red dial not usually found on a barometer, which can be set to each of the following locations
- Storm
- Heavy Rain
- Rain
- Fog
- Fair
- Dry
Results if operated indoors will be more dramatic (and dangerous).
Novelty Wand
A wand made of flexible Argonium styled to look like wood. Contained in a protonium case along with a note that reads
"I know I've been away from home for a while, so to make up for that I had the guys down at the collider help me put together something for mommy's little witch. You can cast spells just like in those books you like so much!"
When the wand is *swished* and *flicked* and a suitably magical phrase is spoken, it will cause one of the following effects (at random) to whatever it was pointed towards
1) Turn Invisibility
2) Float In Place
3) Turn a Random (but Vibrant) Color
4) Shrink to One Quarter Size
5) Grow to Double Size
6) Be Totally Silent
Each effect lasts for 10 minutes, and only one instance of each effect can be active at a time.
Non Copyright Infringing Plasma Sword
Six inch rod of protonium, covered with complicated tech-y looking detailing, and a metallic thumb panel. Stored in a protonium case with a note attached to it.
"Look, I appreciate you guys trying to make something that Billy would like, but I can't let him play with this! He'll cut the dog in half!"
Can be activated once a day to cause a tube of plasma to be projected out of one end (1d8, ignores armor). The beam of plasma can cut through just about anything, but can only be activated once per day and can only run for 10 minutes once activated.
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