Village

D10: Unusual Items Owned by Villagers

VillageJust because the characters are in a village doesn’t mean that none of the inhabitants has anything unusual in their homes. Here are ten items that range from probable heirlooms to oddities that have been found for different villagers to own, some of which might be dangerous, others valuable.

  1. A gold signet ring that is normally kept hidden away in this villager’s home, due to its value, if examined proves to bear the coat of arms of a noble house that’s believed to have died out generations ago after being targeted by assassins. The current owner doesn’t know that, and certainly doesn’t believe they are descended from nobility. They may not be; they may be descended from a thief, or even an assassin.
  2. A shield whose symbol appears to have been carefully removed at some point hangs on a wall in the villager’s house. Despite the removal, the shield itself is in good shape, highly polished and bearing neither dent nor scratch. The villager doesn’t know much about the shield’s history, only that it is an heirloom that has been in the family for generations. Given how long it’s apparently been owned, its current condition is impressive.
  3. A strange lump of stone is being used as a doorstop at this villager’s house. The stone has a strange greenish hue to it, is oddly heavy and looks like it was at least partially shaped in the past, though only barely. It was brought up when a field was being ploughed and has since resided in its current place as a curiosity. Some of the other villagers find the rock slightly disturbing, but not greatly so.
  4. A wood and iron chest stands out in this villager’s home for both its sturdiness and condition, though this is because it isn’t a chest. Instead, it’s a creature known to disguise itself as such, but one that was put into a semi-permanent slumber many decades ago, though the villager doesn’t know this. In its current condition, the creature can be used just like a normal chest.
  5. An extensive herb garden surrounds this villager’s home, and inside, if an individual knows what they are looking for, a number of different poisons can be found. The villager is an amateur herbalist with an interest in poisons, though they don’t go around advertising this fact, as it could lead to problems. This doesn’t mean they won’t be willing to sell poison for the right price.
  6. Hanging over the fireplace in this villager’s home is an unusually well-maintained longsword. It clearly has pride of place, though the mounting for it is rather amateurish and the blade isn’t positioned as well as it could be. The sword looks to be worth far more than anything else in the house, and perhaps more than the house itself. The villager stumbled across a dead body whilst out in the woods one day and, amongst other things, found the sword.
  7. In pride of place in this villager’s home is a stone idol, though not of any known religion. Nor is it a religion that the villager follows; they don’t pray to the idol, they just think it’s a nice ornament. The idol is made from a pure white stone and is almost formless, being roughly humanoid in shape but with little in the way of features. There seems to be a large sword held point down from the figure’s chest to its feet.
  8. In this villager’s shed is an enormous siege ballista. The ballista is currently non-functional, and the villager tinkers with it when they have time as a hobby. They found it in pieces in a ruined building, where it had evidently been stored for years, and brought it back home to try to fix it as a hobby. The villager hasn’t truly tried that hard yet, just enjoying the tinkering, but someone who knows what they are doing could easily get it working.
  9. This villager does some of the gardening in their vegetable and herb patch with a tarnished sickle. The sickle doesn’t look like much, as it is stained and the handle has clearly been replaced at some point with a crude one made from a couple of pieces of wood bound with twine, but a knowledgeable eye will notice that the blade is silver and, if cleaned, a druidic symbol can be found. What is most notable about the villager’s garden is how lush the plants in it are.
  10. This villager never has any problems with fresh water, as they have a magic item that regularly produces it on demand, which has been linked up to various plumbing fixtures. Even in the driest seasons, they always have enough, and will often share it. The villager won’t say where they got the item, which is clearly worth quite a bit, but it was found outside a recently-plundered tomb that they blundered across.

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