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Devouring Beds
A handsome bed set, obviously expensive and likely both old, and imported.
Codex introduction
Full Item Description
Devouring Beds are a devious magical item of villianous disposition. The headboard and footboards are made of high quality hardwood, complete with top quality staining and carven posts and decorations. The mattress is filled not with straw or down, but with horsehair taken from mane. These beds come in two types, with one being of a larger size and bearing the inscription Master in highly ornate and archaic writing, and the smaller beds bear Guest in the same style.
Magic/Cursed Properties
Devouring Beds are made in sets, and without at least one Master bed and one Guest bed surviving, the magic behind the beds is broken. The Guest beds are the devourers, sapping the life force from those who sleep in them, transferring this vital essence to whomever is sleeping in the Master bed.
Devourering Beds can come in degrees of power, but a bed that leaves an occupant a withered and dry husk through the course of one night, or a few hours is going to be very rare. Most of these beds steal years from the end of someone’s life. If a game system has a set maximum age, the bed takes from this number at a steady rate, generally a few months of life a night. Unless someone uses a devourering bed for months on end, they will not notice anything other than that their sleep is uneasy and they are not well rested. The occupant of the Master bed adds these stolen months and years, minus a small amount for the bed’s magic, to their own lifespan.
Plot Hooks of Devourering
Also in
Codex hubs that gather this piece with similar work.
- Garage Sale from Hell MoonHunter
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Links to this article 1
- Garage Sale from Hell MoonHunter linked by Scrasamax
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Very useful, and the owner might not even know of the magic.
I really like the idea (Thom sounds like a great character) But to close the deal, i'd have to know why these beds were made (necromancer, curse, evil bedmaker)
Not bad at all. There just have to be items of this kind, and their power is nicely scalable. Personally, I would add (or just pronounce) that both beds need to be owned by their user to work their power, sounds even more like ritual magic.
Good one! Added the Healing freetext.
Okay, this is just rad. Not only is it something completely subtle, believable, and imaginative, it also leads to a whole host of extra plot lines. Best idea of seen in a while.
Yes, a nice evil 'set'? :)
what Inc said!
subtle, imaginative, believable, and usable in sooooo many interesting ways.
this is insidious.
A mage and his gaggle of young apprentices...'Your lessons are over for this night, my lads. Off to your beds, tomorrow we will learn of chronomancy! Sleep tight.'
the name rocks too, Devouring Beds...makes one stand up and notice!
Argh! Imagine IKEA selling guest beds :D
Perhaps there could also be improved ones which can operate without the guest beds, - affecting any who sleep within a given radius, or others that get 'greedy' on occasion, and completely drain a sleeper overnght without transferring any energy to the master. Oops!
I've finally figured out how queen Elizabeth is still alive.
A lover could deliberatly sleep in the guest bed and let his/her loved one sleep in the Master one to strengthen his/her lover.
These might not even have been originally intended as sinister items, but instead as a means of healing.
It just occurred to me, is there a maximum range on these things? I suddenly had the idea of a hotel-cain magnate hiding guests' bed in hotels all over the world while he keeps the Master bed...
An immortal Tycoon!
I would say they need to be within the same building to work.
This has a mad scientist kind of feel, and it is quite insidious.