Gnomish Pipe

Gnomish Pipe

Wondrous item

These intricate pipes, crafted by inventive gnomish tinkers, have become fashionable curiosities in both refined salons and shadowed back alleys alike. Rather than burning tobacco or pipe-weed, a gnomish pipe vaporizes alchemically prepared liquids, allowing the user to inhale delicately flavored vapors derived from fruits, herbs, or more exotic ingredients. Each draw produces thick, fragrant plumes that can be shaped, blown, or simply enjoyed for their taste and texture.

The pipe is constructed with a small internal chamber designed to hold a sealed glass vial. Swapping flavors is a simple matter of disassembling the pipe, inserting a new vial of liquidized vapor essence, and reassembling the mechanism. A cleverly concealed button within the bowl activates a tiny alchemical heating element, instantly transforming the liquid into a smooth, inhalable vapor. The process is entirely smokeless, leaving behind only faint aromatic traces rather than ash or residue.

Gnomish pipes are often miniature masterpieces - engraved with whirling patterns, inset with tiny gears, or shaped like whimsical creatures. Despite their playful appearance, they are precise instruments of alchemical engineering. Standard pipes cost 100 gp, while individual vials of vapor essence cost 20 gp each and can be crafted by an alchemist with at least 10 ranks in Craft (alchemy). A vial provides 5 + 1d4 sittings, with each sitting lasting 10 rounds.

A masterwork gnomish pipe enhances the efficiency of the vaporization process. In such pipes, vials last 10 + 1d6 sittings. Masterwork pipes cost 300 gp.

Magical Gnomish Pipes

Some gnomish pipes are further enhanced through enchantment, blending alchemy with arcane influence. These pipes often grant subtle mental benefits or produce spell-like vapor effects when used. The vapor itself becomes infused with magic, affecting the user or the surrounding area.

Unless otherwise noted, magical pipes function as masterwork pipes, and their vials last 10 + 1d6 sittings. Refilling a magical pipe requires specially prepared alchemical vials costing 1/5 the pipe’s market price per refill.

Pipe of the Mind

Wondrous item

This elegant pipe is often crafted from pale wood and etched with delicate spirals meant to evoke thought and introspection. When activated, the vapor carries faintly shimmering motes that seem to linger just at the edge of perception.

Those who partake of its vapor often describe a sharpening of thought, as if distracting noise has been gently pushed aside. Scholars, wizards, and philosophers particularly prize these pipes, though some whisper that prolonged use creates a subtle dependence on its clarity.

While using the pipe, and for 30 minutes thereafter, the user gains a +1 enhancement bonus to Intelligence.

Moderate transmutation; CL 9th; Craft Wondrous Item; fox’s cunning;
Price 1,000 gp; Cost 500 gp + 40 XP

Pipe of Obfuscation

Wondrous item

This stout, brass-fitted pipe is heavier than most, with a bowl shaped like a coiled cloud. When activated, the vapor produced is unnaturally dense, spilling outward in thick, rolling masses that quickly obscure the surroundings.

Favored by thieves, smugglers, and those who prefer not to be seen, this pipe transforms idle indulgence into a tactical advantage. The smoke clings low at first before rising and expanding, swallowing light and sound in equal measure.

Once per sitting, the user may exhale a cloud of vapor that functions as fog cloud, as cast by a 5th-level caster.

Moderate conjuration; CL 5th; Craft Wondrous Item; fog cloud;
Price 7,500 gp; Cost 3,750 gp + 300 XP

Amulet of Xarvox

(Note: Format follows Tome Of Artifacts. Eldritch Relics And Wonders)

Major Artifact

Strong Abjuration; CL 20th
Slot: Neck
Weight: —

DESCRIPTION

This rune-etched amulet of dark, matte gray metal bears a complex arrangement of symbols — an interwoven six-pointed star enclosed within a circle, surrounded by concentric rings of indecipherable script. Set at its center is a small, living green eye resembling that of a lizard. Though unblinking most of the time, the eye will occasionally dart in sudden, unpredictable motions, as though tracking something unseen.

The inner ring of runes names twelve guardinals in an ancient celestial dialect, while the outer markings resist all attempts at translation, even by magical means. Despite its celestial origin, the amulet radiates no good alignment aura, only a powerful field of abjuration magic — a peculiarity attributed to the neutral nature of the being that became it.

Whenever the wearer is in proximity to mundane reptiles (excluding dragons and their kin), such creatures display unusual calmness and curiosity, approaching without fear unless provoked.

POWERS OF THE AMULET OF XARVOX

Upon donning the amulet, the wearer does not immediately understand its full capabilities. Over the course of 2d4 weeks, its functions reveal themselves gradually through instinct, sensation, and subtle auditory cues. During this time, any fear or phobia of reptiles is permanently cured.

While worn, the amulet communicates through faint hisses and clicks audible only to the wearer, warning of the presence of evil outsiders within 110 feet. When such creatures are nearby, the central eye animates, shifting and faintly glowing as it seeks them out.

Constant Effects

• Grants a +3 enhancement bonus to natural armor.
• Functions as detect evil, but only for creatures of the outsider type, within a 110-foot radius (constant effect).

Activated Powers (5/day each)

• Banishment (as the spell; CL 20th)
• Control Area (Evil Outsiders) – The wearer may exert supernatural dominion over a 110-foot radius, functioning as magic circle against evil combined with dimensional anchor, but affecting only evil outsiders. Creatures within the area suffer a –2 penalty on attack rolls, saves, and checks, and cannot use teleportation or planar travel to enter or exit the area.

Drawback

Any evil creature that wears the Amulet of Xarvox immediately gains two negative levels. These negative levels persist for as long as the amulet is worn and disappear instantly upon its removal. These levels cannot be prevented or removed by any means while the amulet remains worn.

THE TALE OF THE AMULET OF XARVOX

Hundreds of years ago, Xarvox was a wizard driven not by ambition, but by exhaustion. His homeland had become a hunting ground for fiends — demons and devils spilling into the world through rituals conducted by a reclusive lich hidden deep within a northern mountain range. Countless adventurers had perished attempting to end the threat, and with each failure, Xarvox’s desperation deepened.

The breaking point came not with a battlefield loss, but something smaller — crueler. A favored companion of his, a woman of no renown beyond her kindness, was slain by an imp sent merely to torment him. It was then that Xarvox abandoned conventional magic and began delving into forbidden texts, searching not for power, but for an answer.

One such tome — ancient, fragmented, and dangerously incomplete — spoke of a different kind of pact. Not with the fiends ravaging his land, but with beings of the Upper Planes. Through a ritual whose margins warned “success is neither guaranteed nor survivable,” Xarvox called out beyond the veil… and was answered.

The entity that came was a lacertal, a lizard-like guardinal — a creature of neutrality and vigilance. Rather than bargain in words, the being listened. It understood. And in an act not of service, but of purpose, it transformed itself — body, soul, and will — into the amulet that now bears Xarvox’s name.

With this artifact, Xarvox and a final band of adventurers succeeded where all others had failed. The lich was destroyed, its planar breaches sealed, and the fiendish incursions ended. Xarvox lived out the remainder of his life in quiet obscurity, and upon his death, the amulet was buried with him.

It did not remain there.

Whether guided by instinct, lingering will, or something deeper, the Amulet of Xarvox returned to the world. It does not speak. It does not choose its bearer. But it endures, drawn ever toward the presence of evil outsiders — continuing the purpose for which it was created.

RESEARCHING THE AMULET OF XARVOX

Knowledge of the amulet is rare and fragmented.

DC	Knowledge Gained
15	The amulet was created during a crisis involving a powerful lich.
20	The lich was summoning outsiders; the amulet is particularly effective against them.
25	The amulet can banish outsiders and offers strong protection to its bearer.
30+	The full history, origin, and all powers of the amulet are revealed.

USING THE AMULET OF XARVOX IN A CAMPAIGN

The Amulet of Xarvox is an ideal tool for introducing outsider-focused threats without overwhelming a party. It provides strong defensive utility and situational control, but does not trivialize encounters outside its niche.

Its mute, semi-sentient nature also allows for subtle storytelling — the DM can describe its reactions, eye movements, or auditory warnings as a form of nonverbal guidance.

ADVENTURE SEED

Beware, Fiends! Please?
A well-meaning but dangerously overconfident paladin acquires the amulet and begins hunting fiends far beyond his capability. When the artifact is inevitably lost during one such misadventure, he seeks out the party to recover it — before something far worse finds it first.

DESTRUCTION

The Amulet of Xarvox can only be destroyed if it is worn by a balor at the exact moment of the demon’s death throes explosion. Only in that instant — when abyssal fire consumes both body and soul — is the celestial essence within the amulet finally unmade.