Items · Wand/Staff/ Arcane · Magical
Rhojin's Tower
Wizards have unique needs while traveling in adventuring parties that are often difficult to overcome. Many interesting and unusual solutions have been created to deal with the specific needs of an adventuring wizard. Many wizards find having a study or wizards tower of some sort quite useful for the collection and storage of spells and other knowledge. Rhojin decide to share his tower with his sparrow familiar, Gebs, in an unconventional way.
Rhojin was an adventuring wizard, but for many years he did not adventure far from his study, and once the local dungeons were cleared out and intrigues foiled, Rhojon found he had worked himself out of a job, at least locally. After a few mishaps adventering farther afield, he decided he simply could not adventure apart from his study for a length of time. To that end, he created a new staff to travel with, one lacking the usual crystal or other magical focus at the tip and in its place, a rather plain and home made birdhouse.
The wood of the staff is rather obviously the better part of a small tree, roots up and cradled around the birdhouse. The birdhouse itself if made of split plant wood with a fine grain but rough hewn surface and a wedge shaped roof, with the sides bleached in white wash and the roof covered in a thin and chipped red paint. There is a mostly round hole on the front face with a short twig pegged into the wood below it, and a rough black cloth hanging to cover the hole as an interior flap. While the staff itself seems to be just an eccentric wizard's staff in appearance, the birdhouse contains an extradimensional space that Rhojin has set up his study inside of.
With the staff in a stable position, be it planted in the earth or leaned against a wall for the night, Rhojin can simply grab the twig on the front face and "leap" inside the study. The study has one face of the lower level dominated by a large and very coarse black wall hanging, covering a large and mostly round hole. There are stairs leading to an upper level with a four post bed and small table an chairs to read at, while the lower level has a fireplace flanked by two couches and a larger table surrounded by several chairs, and a sparrow's perch in a corner. The sparrows perch is a birdhouse, strikingly similar to the very one on the top of the staff. Except for the one wall with the cloth hanging, all the other walls are covered floor to ceiling with shelves for books and scrolls of all sorts. Only a handful of things still reside on those shelves however.
Although he never revealed the specifics of the staff's creation, being either a study constructed within the space or a space that links to a remote location, it is evident that the extradimensional study is not completly seperate from outside influences. It is not subject to the winds, rains or other enviromental effects, even remaining dry inside if the staff becomes submerged, motion of the staff does translate, in a fashion, to motion of the interior. Such motion is not to scale as one might expect. A movement of the staff of a foot outside translates to a foot of motion inside. Rotional orientation does produce effect inside, but only in a minor way, so spinning the staff does not spin the occupants, but may make them stumble a bit. This effect may have even been intentional, as it allows the user to be aware in some small part of the staffs interaction of the outside world while not being completly subject to it, all but eliminating fatal falls on the interior.
Although Rhojin did create a way of taking his study with him, he had created a new problem unique to his situation that the movement of walking with the staff toppled books and scrolls from shelves, leaving his study in complete disarray. A resourceful magician, Rhojin enchanted the furniture, except the bed, to bring documents to hand with a thought. So long as you knew what you were looking for, you could call the full details and review the original document simply by thinking of it, provided you were seated at a table or couch.
Rhojin can also "invite" willing persons inside the staff for a period of up to 12 hours a day per person. With accomodations excluded from the weather and a fire to cook by, Rhojin's tower has seen many a planning session before an adenture takes place. The fire is magical in nature as well, providing warmth and a cooking source, but is unable to burn any paper goods. Alert individuals will notice that the exterior of the birdhouse does not have a chimney, but if asked, Rhojin simply states that it's handled.
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Another fun idea that makes me wish I had thought of it. While in function no different from existing items like a portable hole or folding house, the thematic link with the sparrow-familliar raises it above the fold. I would just like to have some twist or drawback added, to prevent it from begin too good.
Maybe after exiting, one must make a willsave or one believes to be a bird for an hour? Or cats are attracted to the birdhouse, and can attack trough the hole?
Otherwise, 4/5
I might not have made it clear how much of a mess it is inside. I wrote this on the verge of sleep, and after some more, may consider clarifying the dunes of loose papers and scrolls that cover the interior... A wizards study does not handle continuous jostling well.
Phaidros, your vote didn't go through or you forgot to vote.
I want one of these.
Dear Cheka,
For some reason I do not see a voting button, only the possibility to leave comments. I thought that was the way everyone votes, in the comment-box.
You need to click on the 'Vote' thing just above to vote.
Sorry, I do not get to see a vote button, only the comment-box. Something wrong with my browser? This website is one of my favorites to visit on my mobile when in train or bus...
It might be a problem with your browser, or it could be that the site is designed almost-exclusively for computer browsers. If you go to yonder forum, you can make a post asking Strolen about it.
http://strolen.com/guild/index.php/board,3.0.html
But yes, you should have a voting dropdown box right above the comment box.
It's funny in an "I can imagine one of my players coming up with this" way. Quirky and original, too. Not entirely practical, but for a lighthearted campaign quite useful. Have a 4/5
On a side note, imagine super magical birds being the supreme rulers, and their envoys carrying their bird houses hence and forth. Perhaps the UberBird has its BirdPalace linked to a hundred portable StaffBirdHouses!
.. Amusing, and well characterized. These are the kind of 'personalized' touches a crafted item should have, imo.
I think this is a brilliant item - a wonderful take on a portable extradimensional space.
An elaboration on the enchanted furniture would be a sentiant construct or more, that were responsible for maintaining order. These would be named and have real personalities, and get annoyed when the staff was signifcantly disrupted.
I would reduce the impact of using it as a walking stick as otherwise the constructs would go batty :)
Now, if the mage happend to take a tumble from a horse, or had to use it in combat, he would fret about having to deal with his annoyed servants.
I agree with Siren, this fits my idea of how custom items should be. They should definitely have personalized touches.