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Treasures

Faerie Treasures
Bendith Y Mamau Puzzles
Dryad Tears & Nymph Tears
Dwarven Standing Stones
Ent Geld
Fairy Rings & Fey Sticks
Fairy Tears
Goblin Runesticks
Gnomish Treasure Runes
Leprechaun Cakes
Leshy Gourds
Silver Seeds of Eidenhomme
Sprite Shells
 

The bendith y mamau are a cross breed race between elves and goblins. These beings possess some of the best of both races; the keen hunting instincts of the goblin, and the sharp intellect of the elf, the physical savage might of the goblin and the magical prowess of the elf. Travelers should stay clear of these violent, mad beings.
The bendith love gems and hide their hordes through out the woodlands, and leave themselves puzzles on old tree stumps, so that they can find them again. The puzzles are only visible to their owners, unless the bendith y mamau dies then it becomes visible to all. Since the puzzles are written in the bendith hybrid elven / goblin language they did little good to the travelers who come across them. Recently though, ciphers used their knowledge of goblinish and fairy-script to translate the writings. Travelers who possess the translation said these puzzles led to gem caches of considerable worth of about 15 CP.

Dryad Tears and Nymph Tears

There are many types of nymphs that inhabit the world but one common trait is that when they weep their tears form gemstones. These stone tears allow mortals to commune with the element of the natural world that the nymph is connected to. These gems may be utilized for communing with nature or exchange for 4 copper pieces. Like must faerie treasures a curse is incurred if a person carries more than one Nymph’s Tear from a single cache.

Dryad Tears are emerald, crystalline gems that are found on the trunks of Dryad trees. These gems allow their possessor to commune with the natural world and perceive the land as dryads do. The purpose for the dryads creating these strange gems is not to hoard treasure, as so many other races do, but instead to create a device of empathy and understanding.

Nereid Tears are shed by nymphs of the deep. They are blue in color and found near water sources where the Nereids surface and weep. The tears can be sold for a few coppers or used to evoke a Commune with Water spell. This enchantment allows the evoker of a Nereid Tear to gain a mystical sense of waters, wetlands, or items of water elemental magics.

Oread Tears are created by the weepings of grotto nymphs that dwell in the earth. These small brown gems are left on stone outcrops and on rock walls. Oread Tears are semi-precious stones that hold a Commune with Earth spell that allows the evoker to commune with an area of land, sense things buried in a small area or get a feel for items infused with elemental earth energies.

There is a rarer type of Nymph Tears, known as Spirit Tears. These gems are clear or opaline in color and allow the possessor to commune with the spiritual world. The possessor can see what the spirits of the land perceive. These gems are believed to be created by the spirits of deceased nymphs.

There are other types of nymphs, such as Slyphs, Napaeae or Firesprites, that produce such tears with a power to commune held within them. Each Nymphs Tear communes with a different primal force. The color scheme is as follows:

Green - Commune with Nature
Clear - Commune with Purple Magic
Black - Commune with Void
White - Commune with Fay
Sky Blue - Commune with Air
Solid Yellow - Commune with Fire
Tan - Commune with Earth
Dark Blue - Commune with Water
Opaline - Commune with Spirit
Clear Yellow - Commune with Corruption
Indigo - Commune with Night
Solid Purple - Commune with force of the evoker’s choice

Dwarven Standing Stones

While most of the assumptions of why dwarves come to the surface are unproven, one fact is known. Dwarves journey to the surface on moonless rainy nights to leave nuggets of golden ore in caches on the surface world. These caches are used by the dwarven spirits during Surface Time so that the surface walker may buy supplies and goods in human towns. Each nugget is worth 1 SP exactly. To mark the site of the cache the dwarves balance a column of rocks known as Standing Stones. The caches of nuggets lie under a rock within 10' of the Stand Stone. To deter humans from pilfering these caches of nuggets dwarves occasionally place within these caches a lump of Fools Gold. These lumps of false gold have no worth what so ever and are at times enchanted by dwarves with a metallurgic spell that turns 1 to 5 silver coins to copper coins. Dwarves have an innate ability to recognize Fool's Gold. Detect Curse magic will not reveal the presence of enchanted Fool's Gold.

Ent Geld

Long ago, the trees themselves had masters who stalked the forest. These were known as the Ents. They were generous beings to any who treated their charges with consideration. They had only one sworn enemy, Arboleth. The God of the Goblinkind hated the Ents, seeing there resemblance as a vicious slight to himself. He commanded his hordes to seek out and destroy the tree-beings. In time the number of Ents dwindled until all thought they were extinct. Instead they have hidden themselves, appearing as ordinary trees. Quietly they have nursed their hatred of the Dark Arboleth.
Recently they have given signs they still exist. Small bags or large pine cones have appeared throughout the woods hanging from the trunks. These have been placed by the Ents, though rarely on their own barky hides. It is said that these treasures are drawn from the earth. They are often precious stones worth up to 8 CP but sometimes they are from the remains of some fallen traveler whose wealth has worked its way into the soil. Any man is free to take the geld, as long as it its place he hangs two goblin amulets, a payment for all their numbers slain by the brutes hands.
So wherever you find a purse or a giant pine cone on the trunk of a tree you can be sure an Ent is close by. Be warned though. Terrible is said to be the vengeance of the Ents if their riches are taken without paying the due owed to them. This payment can be made at the Woodland Altar through the Ritual of the Ents.

Fairy Rings and Fey Sticks

Fey sticks are a strange plant-like growth found in various places in the forests of the Shadowlands. They are magical in nature, as they seem to draw some of the magic essence of the area into themselves. Also, they tend to extract power from any local magical focal point, and react accordingly, i.e. take some of that resident power into themselves. This flexible power absorption is manifest in the different colors of the fey sticks themselves. Each of the various colors of the fey sticks usually represents a different and basically consistent power, although there have been isolated cases of different power effects from similar colored sticks. For these reasons, fey sticks are greatly prized by both wizards and alchemists, who will usually pay for any fey stick that a wandering adventurer may bring back to town. However, there is a danger to taking the fey sticks from their places. The Druids of Fallenstar have discovered that any human who takes more than one fey stick of the same color is usually afflicted with a random curse. This curse also renders the magic of the fey sticks useless, and negates their salvage value. Therefore, all wise adventurers and botanists should never be too greedy and try to take more than one stick of and one color.
One other point of importance. It is widely known that there is a patch of black Fey sticks that grow in the Fairy Woods. The Fairie have decreed that none of these sticks are to be taken from their woods without their express consent. Any person who takes one of these black Fey sticks without the approval of the Faerie risks their wrath....a terrible fate indeed. If a black ring is found growing outside the Fairy Woods they are fair game.
Under no circumstance are the silver fey sticks and mushrooms to be taken unless the fairies give their permission. As a final note the white fairy rings and their fey sticks are very dangerous for they were once a colored fairy ring, but grew in a cursed woodland and were drained of their magic. Being devoid of magic endows them with a powerful curse if they are handled. White Fairy Rings can not be used as Fairy Gates to Eidenhomme unless a fairy is supplying massive amounts of power to the ring, to keep the portal open.
It is commonly accepted that Fey sticks earned their name because of their growth place; they are almost invariably found growing very near to a fairy ring.

Effects of Fey Sticks:

These are the "known" effects of the commonly found fey sticks of the Fallenstar local.

Red Fey Sticks: Red fey sticks are known for their use in creating potions and spells that have to do with the flesh. They are most commonly turned into healing potions by the Alchemists guild, but oftentimes will be used in other flesh altering forms by the mage's guild... polymorphing for instance.

Green Fey Sticks: Green fey sticks have demonstrated two separate powers. First, some of them are best used in magics that hide things. They are very useful in creating ink for Doppleganger spells, or camouflage spells such as invisibility. Their second power is used in growth or plant based spells. It is nearly impossible to tell which of the powers is latent in a green fey stick, but both are considered valuable.

Orange Fey sticks: Orange fey sticks are used in poison based magics, while the mushroom is not poisonous to the touch it can be used to formulate lethal posions. It has also been said that they may be used concoct cures for venoms and poisons.

Gold Fey sticks: Gold Fey sticks were discovered by Chells in 396 AF but their sphere of influence has yet to be determined.

Blue Fey Sticks: Blue fey sticks are usually used in any type of water based magics, although some mages have found ways to manipulate them into yielding some minor air influencing spells.

Purple Fey Sticks: Purple fey sticks are the most malleable of the various colors, and can be used in most power based spells potions and inks. Very few types of magic cannot be accomplished using the purple fey sticks.

Gray Fey Sticks: Gray fey sticks are prized by battle mages of all denominations, for they are very effective in evoking the powerful area effect damage spells that these wizards rely on. Their second sphere of influence is stone magics.

Yellow Fey Sticks: Yellow fey sticks are often used in magics that effect spirits or undead, although they are only able to effect the weakest of the dead. They are much more effective in spiritual or divinatory magics.

Pink Fey Sticks: Pink fey sticks are used in many types of wound inducing magics. Most of the time, battle magic type spells that effect the flesh are derived from this type of fey stick.

Black Fey Sticks: Black fey sticks are infused with a number of powers, most of which are used by less scrupulous mages and alchemists. Black fey sticks are used in controlling and creating some types of undead, and can be extremely useful in the use of curses and cursed magic. Very little else is known about their use, for they are dangerous to the person owning them as well as the person studying them, for their magic tends to "leak" into the world. It is speculated that the Fairy may have used the black fey sticks to effect the curse upon the Goblins that polymorphed them into the now famous amulets retrieved last year by various adventurers.

Silver Fey Sticks: Silver fey sticks are infused with potent magics having to do with illusions, and gateways. These fey sticks are readily covetted by Deceivers to improve their illusionary magics, or to smith their deceptive magic items. They also can be used by mages or scholars, who wish to travel to, or gain protection from other planes. Their prescence near magic mirrors are said to improve the mirrors scrying powers. It is said that the silver fairy ring and its fey sticks are the most sacred to the fairies, and the fey sticks and their mushrooms must not be taken without the permission of the fairies. The fairies are so protective of this ring, because it is a direct portal to the Fairy Queen's court in Eidenhomme.

Fairy Tears

When spring has come and all is puddle-luscious, the wee children of the Fay will dance around the first born seedlings that have sprouted up. They will weave protective magics on them so to keep them from being trod upon and eaten by the forest animals. When the tree outgrows the magic shielding the spell will break leaving the magical residue of Tears.
The tears are much like the Dryad Tears found in the trunks of their trees. They are smooth glass like gems of a wide range of color. Unlike the Dryad's Tears, the Fairy Tears have no inherent magic but are very useful as magical spell components and for jewelry. They are cursed but one can ask permission by doing the Ritual of the Fay. That one silver ritual will protect you for a week. Remember that one should only take one per tree as is the law of the forest.

Goblin Runesticks

Runesticks are magically crafted items that carry a potent charge of energy. This energy remains stored by a binding formula that links it to runes written on the stick. When the runes are translated and read in a language understood by the finder, the magic energy of the stick is released, thus performing the intent of the creator. Runesticks are dangerous items, for in order to understand what their purpose is, one must activate the charge. Most types of identification spells seem to fail when attempted upon a runestick. The magic of the runestick is sometimes recharged after a suitable period of time, though this is not necessarily the case. The runesticks are also repositories of both good and harmful magic energies.
Runesticks appear to be primarily a creation of the goblins. They are created with multiple effects, but only one true purpose- to bring adventurers into the Goblin Woods. Most adventurers wisely avoid areas where the goblins mass, for the creatures are especially deadly in numbers. Avoid them, that is, if there is no clear path to wealth. But Adventurers will take almost any risk in the pursuit of wealth and power, and these rune sticks thus become the bait for adventurers.
The runesticks are usually produced in nearly equal quantities of good and bad rods. The sticks with good results serve to whet the appetite of any adventurers who find them, as well as drive in more people who are desperate for money. The bad sticks have effects which generally increase the wealth of the goblin tribe.
For example, a stick which causes a suit of leather armor, or a dagger to disappear will make it reappear in the goblins horde. A stick that makes money disappear also adds this money to the treasure of the Goblin King. Sticks that make items, coins, or weaponry appear, take these items from the Goblin's horde. Sticks that kill adventurers transport their bodies to the Goblin Woods, and those that sicken them cause them to be infected with a wandering disease that makes them rove back to where the goblins live; making them easy prey for the goblins or other forest denizens. Thus can the goblins plunder the newly made corpses. Perhaps the most important function of the runesticks is simply to bring people INTO the Goblin Woods so that the goblins can ambush and kill them. Many people whose fortunes are down to the last two coppers that they can pay for a translation at the library or a Tongues spell at the Temple have crept into the Goblin Woods. They hope to bring back the runestick that will lead them to a treasure horde, or deliver a pouch full of coins into their hand, only to have their blood spilled and their coppers taken and added into the Goblin King's horde. But, it is a gamble, and most people always take a chance in order to easily increase their wealth.
This setup appears to be the main way that the goblins generate their wealth, which they are constantly trying to increase. It is thought that they do so in order to sacrifice part of their wealth to their gods in the never ending attempt to stay alive and increase their powers. The runestick magic also carries one other known danger, particularly to diviners. Runesticks are created with a power that warps any type of scrying spell, and always makes the result appear positive. Many a diviner has been sucked into the trap of trying to scry the results of evoking a runestick,, only to be fried to a crisp when their predictions are wrong. Beware, any scrying attempts will reveal that the sticks are lucky.
Recently, there have been four types of runesticks found in the woods those that are created by the shamans of Arboleth, which are red, orange, and brown colored, and those that were enchanted by the shamans of Thaleus, these are black with silver runes. Red Runesticks hold first level boons and curses. Orange runesticks contain second level powers and brown carry third level magics, while black sticks retain fifth level spells. Each deity grants a boon or curse that is within their province of power. Vine the Lord of the Wood created green runesticks which are always helpful to his human allies and hold about a second level boon.

Gnomish Treasure Runes

Many travelers are both surprised and thrilled to stumble upon the markings of a rune of treasure, for they known that somewhere within a short radius of the rune is a small container with treasure in it. Unless another person has already plundered the little treasure horde, it is there for the taking. The hordes have never been known to be trapped in any way and usually hold 3-5 Copper Pieces worth of treasure. The marking of a treasure appears as a large triangle made up four smaller triangles.

Leprechaun Cakes

Leprechaun cakes are a strange commodity found scattered about any magic wood. They are baked by the Leprechaun, who are the most reclusive of the Fairie races by nature, though the Dwarves are rarer and less frequently spotted. Leprechauns bake the cakes with some small cryptic message or map within. These messages will lead the reader to a small treasure of 3 Copper Pieces. The treasure can be freely taken by whoever finds it. The cakes are meant to be eaten and are fairly good energy sources for travellers, except for those who have lack the ability to digest certain sweets. On each cake is a single magic candle. This magic candle is used at a later time to complete the bargain that the Leprechaun force upon those who take their cakes and treasure. Those who take three cakes (each time) are required to go to a place of power and perform the ritual of the Leprechaun. During this ritual, the person must name one of his companions. This companion will automaticly lose whatever the treasure the invoker performing the ritual and having the three candles. Needless to say, this can be a frustrating and angering experience, and has been the cause of many a fight or duel between former friends within the town. However, it does motivate adventurers to find as many cakes as they can to make sure that they are on the giving end of the Ritual of the Leprechaun, as well as create a good black market for the unused magic candles. For the one who finds cakes and performs the ritual wins on both ends. Money changers are very fond of this bargain of the Leprechaun, for it throws many otherwise successful travellers into instant debt, thus providing an easy opportunity for them to make money in interest.
It is rumored that the Leprechaun actually profit from this bargain and have great treasure troves hidden about to receive their booty. It is also believed that this is why the Leprechaun are so reclusive; for fear that they will be caught and forced to divulge the whereabouts of one of their vaults.

Leshy Gourds

Leshy are woodland faerie closely related to Gnomes and Booka. They hide their treasures in dry gourds. Inside the gourds are 1 Silver Piece and sometimes they also a contain leshy spell word that gives a minor trick or a treat and on rare occasions a Word of Power. Much like their gnomish cousins, the prescence of these gourds is indicated by a treasure rune. Their treasure runes are left an rocks and look like a L with a diamond.
The Leshy like their urban cousins, the Booka, also have sacred idols that hold clues to their treasures. The Leshy Idols will only be revealed if the Ritual of the Leshy is read at the Woodland Altar and one of the Leshys’ Word of Power is spoken.
Unlike other their faerie-cousins the gnomes who had to content with the Crone’s familar, Skulk, and the Booka who have feuded with Hergyn for decades, the Leshy have had little to no contact with humans. Nothing so far is known of the Leshys’ history. Why they leave their treasures for advetures to find rather than placing it in a secure hoarde is unknown.

Silver Seeds of Eidenhomme

The silver seeds of Eidenhomme are the mysterious nut of the silver trees that thrives in the faerie realms. These trees are mutated specimens that were from the original wild species that once flourished near the Saarden Forest before the Great Sundering. True to their heritage in the normal world, these seeds fall from their faerie trees into the world at large, when the barriers between the realms are weakened. The seeds are revered by alchemists, wizards, and farmers alike, for the seeds house a special fairy magic that can be used in the traffic of any of the above craftsmen. They sell for up to 1 Sivler Piece.

Sprite Shells

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