Escaped gaming meme

[mithriltabby]

Bathrobe and Slippers of the Archmagi

This set of items was enchanted by an archmage sufficiently powerful that he didn’t care what other people thought of him any more. (It’s something of a parody of the Robe of the Archmagi in AD&D.)

The Bathrobe is a fuzzy plaid terrycloth bathrobe, and the Slippers are a pair of rabbit-fur slippers, with the bunny faces still on the fronts. The Robe provides personal force field based defense similar to a typical Cloak of Protection or Bracers of Defense (but will not work in conjunction with a defensive garment), and also adjusts the environment within the aura of the wearer to be comfortable, even while walking through a raging blizzard or desert heat. The two pockets have extradimensional spaces attached, each about the size of a large backpack; if the wearer names the items upon inserting them into the pockets, they can be retrieved under that name. (Getting at them otherwise involves sticking your arm all the way into a pocket that looks like it should only hold a paperback book and rooting around for the thing you want.) The Slippers have a subtle levitation enchantment that allows the wearer to walk on any solid surface without quite touching it, including dry leaves, tall grass, and powder snow; this silences footsteps, leaves no footprints, and avoids triggering pressure traps, but does not guarantee absolute silence. (The archmage enchanting them was tired of being nagged by the party ranger about crashing through the wilderness.)

If a player character wears these, make sure to play up the reactions of NPCs to an adventurer wandering around in their pajamas. Helpful sorts will say, “Did you lose your clothes, perhaps fording a river? Allow me to lend you some...” while nobles may take such garb as a sign of disrespect, and even status-conscious wizards might look askance at someone who isn’t doing much good for the professional image. (This isn’t a dignified robe; it’s comfortable. Imagine the expressions of Saruman the White and Gandalf the Grey when Borjik the Plaid ambles into Isengard to say hi and bum some pipe-weed.)

The Cat’s Pajamas

A set of dove-grey pajamas woven of a mixture of silk and cat fur. The pajamas enable the wearer to curl up comfortably and sleep, any time, anywhere, as lightly and well as a cat. In Ars Magica, treat them as granting the wearer Light Sleeper (allowing the wearer a bonus to noticing happenings while asleep and to waking up to react to them) and Versatile Sleeper (able to get their day’s sleep as an irregular series of naps instead of long solid stretches of snooze), along with the ability to sleep in apparently contorted positions while still waking up refreshed and flexible.

These are pure luxury, and a good match for the Bathrobe and Slippers. The disadvantage of these for an adventurer is that they only work when being worn as pajamas— you can’t wear them as padding under your armor and expect to have any effect. So while a character wearing these may be able to react swiftly when the nighttime encounters come trundling into the campsite, they’ll only be wearing their pajamas when they wake up, and will only have a chance to snatch up a weapon rather than having their full adventuring kit available.

Comments

[rhylar.livejournal.com]

I once gave out an infinite wine-rack as loot. Based on the fairly common extradimensional bookshelf, it holds wine instead of books. Or at least, I think I gave one out.

I've had great fun with the "glove of holding" item in d20 3rd ed. Holds one small item. Often used to hold thiefly weapons, I tended to use it to hold flowers, chocolates & other swashbuckly gifts. Hey, utility is nice, but flair is better. The standard "hat of disguise" is also really cool when you want to be a clotheshorse.

[mithriltabby]

Style! I love it!

[wicketbird.livejournal.com]

Sort of the "Arthur Dent" look for wizards :) Now, can they sleep in the jammies with the robe on too? My son often does - of course he wears that poor robe all the time...
-Mary