Pouch of the Bound Phial

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Pouch of the Bound Phial


Aura faint conjuration and abjuration; CL 5th
Slot —; Price 5,400 gp; Weight 1 lb.

DESCRIPTION

This black, studded leather belt pouch bears an etched sigil circle that seems to shift slightly when not directly observed. A fitted loop on its face secures a small glass vial stoppered with cork. While the vial is empty, the pouch functions as a minor extradimensional container, holding up to 20 pounds of material not exceeding 2 cubic feet. Retrieving a stored item is a move action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

The bound vial is the true heart of the item. As a standard action, the wearer may unstopper the vial and speak a command word to draw a single, willing potion or alchemical liquid (up to 1 pint) from the pouch’s interior into the vial. Liquids stored within the pouch remain perfectly stable - they do not evaporate, separate, or degrade over time.

If no suitable liquid is present, the pouch instead condenses ambient magical residue into a faintly glowing draught that functions as a potion of cure light wounds (caster level 1st). This effect can occur up to three times per day. The conjured liquid is clear and softly luminous, vanishing harmlessly if not consumed within 1 minute.

Any attempt to place a creature, construct, or active magical effect (other than potions or inert alchemical substances) into the pouch fails, and the item is harmlessly ejected.

LORE

Items such as the Pouch of the Bound Phial are often attributed to careful practitioners of practical magic - individuals who valued consistency and control over spectacle. Rather than creating tools of overwhelming power, these artisans focused on refining the interaction between containment and use, ensuring that what was stored could be relied upon without degradation or loss.

The earliest examples are believed to have originated among alchemists and traveling healers, who required a dependable method of transporting volatile mixtures across long distances. In unstable environments, where heat, motion, and time could easily ruin delicate preparations, such a pouch offered not just convenience, but survival. Its ability to preserve liquids in perfect stasis made it especially prized among those who worked far from established laboratories.

Over time, the design spread beyond its original circles, finding use among adventurers, scholars, and field medics alike. Though never considered a particularly powerful item, it gained a reputation for quiet reliability. Many who carried one came to regard it as indispensable, not because it performed extraordinary feats, but because it never failed to perform the simple ones.

CONSTRUCTION

Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, secret chest, cure light wounds; Cost 2,700 gp, 216 XP

Kelwyn’s Notes

Ah. Yes. This one I keep close - and not merely out of habit.

There is a particular elegance to an object that understands restraint. Most magical implements are rather… eager, in their expressions. They flare, they surge, they impose themselves upon the world with all the subtlety of a shouted declaration. This pouch, however, does nothing of the sort. It waits. It listens. It intervenes only when invited, and even then, with a precision that borders on courtesy.

I find that I trust it. Not in the naive sense - trust, after all, is rarely afforded without condition - but in the measured, observational way one comes to rely upon a well-behaved constant. It does not surprise me. It does not exceed its role. In a world so thoroughly populated by excess, that alone is… refreshing.

There is also the matter of its philosophy, if one can be so indulgent as to assign such a thing to leather and glass. It does not manufacture wonder from nothing in the grand, ostentatious sense. Rather, it gathers what is already present - faint, overlooked, ambient - and renders it useful. That is a far more honest kind of magic than most are willing to practice.

And, I confess, there is a quiet satisfaction in knowing that even in absence, one is not without recourse. The world is rarely empty… merely inattentive.

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