These little buggers are the bane and blessing of adventurers. If you find a location with lots of ogone's, you know there is magic and magical treasure about. However, since the average adventurer has more magic items than the normal area, the flies will hang around the adventurer and their items.
Full Description
These tiny mites are "normal" insects for a fantasy world. They absorb ambient magical energies, creating a small glow- like a lightning bug. They only do this for the last seven days of their 21 day lives. Ambient energy is created by any enchanted object, any magically charged place, or for a short time, anywhere a magical non clerical spell is cast. The more energy they absorb, the brighter they glow. The brighter they glow, the more mates they attract. Soon after mating, they lay tiny eggs, smaller than grains of sand. 7 days later the hatch.
These little buggers are the bane and blessing of adventurers. If you find a location with lots of ogone's, you know there is magic and magical treasure about. However, since the average adventurer has more magic items than the normal area, the flies will hang around the adventurer and their items.
Note: magic items that can be turned on and off, and can not be noted by detect magic spells, do not attract Ogone flies, except when they are on.
Also remember that magic swords glow when pulled.
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A wise player would keep a few of these in a jar to detect magic items when dividing treasure. They remove the need of a detect magic spell.
Do the flies follow wizards also, or just items?
I would expect they would follow wizards, if the wizards were not 'careful' about cleaning up their spell remnants. So if they did not make good skill checks, they might pick up flies, until they can 'cleanse' themselves.
The jar concept only works if you have fewer magic items than the surrounding area. So if you have no items, the jar would work. If you have more, then it does not work.
The only way to be sure, is to put said item and the visable jar, the walk a good distance away. Then wait for the bugs to reach the 'current level of magic', anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes. Then repeat for each item.
Also remember that the flies are attracted to those magic wielding stealthy character, as well as all the adventurers. Hard to sneak around when you are lit up like a christmass tree. Also, the monsters now have a fix on you because of all the light the bugs give off. They can avoid or ambush the adventurers.
I like these. It is the magical equivalent of the 2 day scruff of a dirty PI, or the flies that follow pig pen. It allows the GM to show who is a good magic user and who is a stinky one.
It also is a great way to lead people to a search,
'Hey, look, I found some dead ogone flies. They were blown in here from upwind. '
'That means there is magic upwind, could it be that we are looking for 'insert magic item of the quest' in the wrong place?'
Ranger and Lore people would have another 'clue' to find when looking about with these critter.
Thank you. Someone 'got it'. In addition, they (and animals/ plants like them) are the reason of why you would take animal/ plant lore and have it be useful.
A fun little bug. I can see these adding color more than as a reliable way to detect magic.
...Corvus the Mage batted the tiny insects away from his face again as one of his druidic allies tried to find an herb that would repel the little pests...
Do they bite?
Not in this write up.
However, if you have ever been pestered by a cloud of gnats, you know that insects don't have to bite to be a bother.
And these glow. So it makes "stealthy sneaking around" in the dungeon or trying not to appear as an "uberpowerful magic wielding person" a non option.
Woo. Magic gnats to annoy spellcasters. As a general rule, I would think that these and manna fleas should be immune to bug-warding spells.
Good! For me these things make me overthink - how do such creatures come about? Did they recently adapt to draw energy from magic? If not, what did they use before intelligent races evolved and developed magic?
Where they the creation of some asshole god, or a wizard who wanted bugs to seek out magic items?
:)