Written by
on 

Runecaster's Bag

This post was inspired by one of my players, Astrid, who is always an unpredictable delight in our sessions. In particular, this was inspired by an entertaining misunderstanding about what a “box of letters” was during our last session.

The runecasters of the Shattered Isles know the secrets of how to create these bags, and how to use them properly. They look like small, unremarkable leather bags at first, but looking closely you may notice there is no seam on them at all.

What they’re made from, and what kind of leather it is, is also a closely guarded secret. It’s probably best not to know.

Runecasters spend years mastering these items, and a skilled caster can use them to perform some impressive feats. The bags do sometimes make their way into the hands of people who are not highly skilled runecasters, however, and that’s what these rules are for.

The bag is filled with small stones or pieces of wood, each with a rune painted on it in dried blood. Reaching into the bag with a naked hand (or other grasping appendage) and pulling out one of the items inside allows you to cast the spell or effect associated with it.

This would be extremely powerful, except that the bag also contains something else that provides the power for the runes. Again, a skilled runecaster would be able to maintain and placate it; without this, it’ll just grab your hand sometimes and feed on your blood.

When you dip your hand into the bag and pull out a rune, roll on the following table. If you don’t like what you got, you can replace the rune and try again. You can try up to three times on your turn, or until the entity decides to have a snack.

# Rune Effect
1-4 N/A Something sinuous and sharp wraps itself around your hand, puncturing the skin and draining your blood. Take 1d6 damage and spend the rest of your turn trying to get your hand free.
5 ᚠ Something that isn’t being carried by anything is teleported from nearby to your feet.
6 ᚢ Cast striking.
7 ᚦ Cast lightning bolt.
8 ᚬ Cast bless.
9 ᚱ Cast levitation.
10 ᚴ The target must make a constitution save or be wracked with pain for 1d6 rounds.
11 ᚾ Either summon a useful, non-magical item, or destroy one that you can see.
12 ᚼ Creates a freezing wind coming the bag any direction you choose. Anyone hit by the wind will need to make a strength check to move into the wind, and small creatures may need to save to avoid being pushed back. If you pour liquid into the air current, it will freeze and deal 1d6 damage to anyone in front of it from ice shards.
13 ᛁ Cast ice ball (as fireball but with cold damage).
14 ᛅ Creates a small gem, item of jewellery or pile of coins out of thin air, up to 1d100gp in value. Guaranteed to add an interesting twist to any fight.
15 ᛋ Cast light.
16 ᛏ Cast cause light wounds on yourself, and then cast cause serious wounds on any target you can see. You don’t get a save, but they might.
17 ᛒ Removes one layer from the target. Depending on the tone of your game, it almost certainly removes armour, but may also remove clothing and skin (GM has the final say, as always). For creatures used to wearing clothes, fighting while naked gives disadvantage; fighting without skin is impossible and they will probably die soon1. Has no effect on creatures that don’t have any layers to lose (like a gelatinous cube).
18 ᛘ Creates a roughly humanoid shape out of any loose items or detritus around you. This creature will follow simple instructions and has the stats of a bandit. When there are no more enemies in sight, it crumbles back into a pile of whatever it was made from.
19 ᛚ Gives one creature the ability to breathe water, and can remove their ability to breathe air at the same time if the caster wishes.
20 ᛦ The target must make a constitution save or become poisoned. While poisoned, the target is confused, dizzy and lethargic, and after two rounds will start to have difficulty breathing. After another round, they will fall unconscious.

Conditions

Looking in the bag doesn’t work; if you do, it just seems to be full of mundane rocks and twigs. Similarly, if you tip them all out, there’s nothing magical about any of the items, and you’ll probably have ruined the magic that makes the bag work.

Finally, you have to put a bare hand or whatever into the bag to pull out a rune. The entity will refuse to co-operate if you try it with a gauntlet on to stop it from biting you.

  1. I’m not sure if it’s possible to survive being flayed, and I’m not looking it up. Ask your GM or Google it yourself if you really want to know. ↩