Friday, December 20, 2013

OSR Christmas List item #1: Treasures of the Insect Cult!

First comes the stocking of Arnold K., who asked Santa Ghoul for
I would like a list of beautiful jewelry/treasures made by insane, insect-worshipping cultists.
So, here goes nothin'.

Roll 1d12 and consult the following table:
1
Perfectly-formed chrysalis made of real gold instead of silk. A caterpillar broken out of its native chrysalis and sealed inside will turn into a butterfly with wings of pure gold
2
Deedly-bopper-like antennae of silver wire. The balls on the end are made of pure rubies
3
The Knee-fiddle, an experimental musical instrument made in imitation of the cricket. A skilled performer can dance and caper about while playing it, but currently none of them have more than mastered the basics
4
The Amulet of Hammond: A pendant of magically-treated amber: the mosquitoes inside are alive and wriggle about in it. Rumors persist that this item was stolen from the cult of the Reptile God, whose priests use it to summon dinosaurs.
5
A pair of jade double-rings, long scything scalpels jut beyond the finger of the wearer. These are used to cut the veins of sacrifices.
6
Clicking mandibles of copper inlaid with platinum. When worn across the tongue, they make normal speech impossible but facilitate speaking the languages of phraints/thri-kreen/formians/what have you
7
A cunningly-made crinoline that, when worn under the black and white robes of a priestess of the insect cult, makes her look like a gravid queen ant.
8
An ant farm-- the world's first-- made with dwarven mithril frame, gnomish glass, and sand of crushed rubies
9
A tank of pygmy ankhegs and rust monsters, each the size of human hands and fed on a diet of iron filings and expensive sausage.
10
A map to the purported burial sight of the world cicadas, horse-sized things that are said to awaken and breed for only a single day every seven thousand years.
11
Giant flowers for the cultists to crawl in, that they might know the purposeful joy of the worker bee.
12
A holy text made from the paper of a giant wasp's nest, the letters written in their venom.

4 comments:

Arnold K said...

I really like the the Knee Fiddle and John Hammond's Necklace.

Fun fact: after they build a chrysalis, caterpillars pretty much liquefy themselves and then build the butterfly from scratch. So if you cut open a chrysalis at the right time, it's just full of living bug-slime.

THANK YOU SANTA GHOUL! My insect cultists will never be the worst-dressed ones in the room again!

Rachel Ghoul said...

Glad to be of service! My favorite item on the list is the mandibles.

Blue Tyson said...

So what about jewellery made by the Insect Lords _out of_ their cultists?

Rachel Ghoul said...

Well now, Tom, that wouldn't look very insecty, would it?

Besides, I kind of like insect cults, so I deliberately went for a weird and inhuman but not inherently evil angle on them.