In case it's not clear, I've been working on magical rods. I started off doing magical items in general, but turned out to be easier to focus on one kind of item at at time, and rods seemed like an easy choice to do "entire". Frankly, anyone that knows me would be utterly baffled by the completest tendencies that have gone along with my OSR conversions, and I don't understand them myself. I've got roughly fifty magical rods written up, and that number plus noted down. At least half, and probably more, are new items; the rest are conversions from various sources. I'm consoling myself with the knowledge that rods, with their varied functions and lack of direct-spell-effects probably take the most writing of any class of magic item (followed by rings and wondrous items).
Rod of the Great Beast
This fearsome-looking bone rod can be wielded as a +3 mace. More importantly, when the command word is spoken, the wielder can bend a dinosaur to his will. The dinosaur gets a save; if the save is unsuccessful, the dinosaur will accept and carry the rod-holder as a rider. The effect lasts for as long as the rod-holder owns the rod and keeps it about their person, although actually guiding the dinosaur requires the rod to be held in one hand. Controlled dinosaurs are slightly but not greatly more docile than usual when the rod-holder is not about: using carnivorous great beasts as mounts is likely to result in the loss of stablehands (assuming one can find help willing to approach such a creature).
A variant on "Dragon Rider," eh?
ReplyDeleteNice!