Ten Treasures that Offer Advancement

In the vein of Advancement that isn't leveling up, here are some items which are designed to feature as treasure in a standard dungeon, fortification, settlement, or company. Common to each of them is a way for an interested PC to develop in ways they may not have initially anticipated. Often this involves a quest or quest hook of some kind. Ideally you can tailor this to lead into the dungeons or regions you wanted to set your story in anyway.

1. The Hand of Ransem, a stone hand covered in a thin black glove. This hand contains 3 MD that can be used to cast the spells silence, teleport through shadows, and mutually charm spooky creatures. Both the wearer and the Hand (which is intelligent) can be cast these spells at will. The Hand will attempt to use these powers to get the character in touch with members of the thief anti-nobility and (using its knowledge of rogue-sign and its own dread reputation) set them on the path to recover three other artifacts from its original master: the Eye of Ransem, the Cup of Ransem, and the Stone of Flenilla.
2. The Staff of Swords, a thin staff of mopane wood with an insert at the top to fit a candle. Whenever the owner defeats a true warrior, write down that warrior's name. The owner gets +2 to a d20 roll to emulate that warrior each day, and may elect to get this bonus after learning the result of the roll. You can only get this bonus once per warrior per day.
3. Calling Song for Comets, a scroll describing how to call falling stars down to your location. This is explicitly dangerous, and the author recommends you ensure you are perfumed with incense and free of sin.
1. a giant lump of iron falls to the ground, leveling everything within a mile, sparing only its worshipers and those with a notable magnetic field around them.
2. a floating island is pulled to the ground; it is covered in ancient ruins. Grab a medium-sized dungeon from your binder.
3. a lichjammer is pulled to the ground; a confused lich, flesh golem, and skull serpent look around confused.
4. the angel Perturabiel comes to you. He has little patience for those less pure than a saint, but seeks to do good.
5. a liquid rock the size of your fist floats down to greet you. It is as intelligent as a Very Good Dog and has the personality of a loyal goose.
6. a UFO lands nearby. The author of this scroll and all their friends wave from the window.
4. St. Julaman's Maul, a mace with seven empty facets running along the handle. Anyone holding it can detect if someone is remarkably guilty of one of seven sins. Killing such a person with the Maul sets a new gem in one of the facets and gives a new power. Once you've killed seven such people, the facets empty again, you can use the powers without holding the mace, and you become a Saint yourself, whatever that means in your setting.
1. Wrath - ruby - Give off fiery light. Deal +1d4 damage.
2. Sloth - amber - enter a trance for a set period, during which nothing can harm you.
3. Gluttony - turquoise - Eat a second lunch a day to heal 1d6+level HP.
4. Greed - jade - track anyone who has something you gave them, or something that comes from a hoard you inspect.
5. Envy - emerald - become unrecognizable at will.
6. Pride - opal - Anyone who listens to you is immune to the sunken cost fallacy, even when considering their own life direction.
7. Lust - amethyst - if charmed or enchanted, ignore the effect every other round.
5. The Dream of Age, a book describing a saga in which a major character summons their own infant self from the past and gives it up to a "Wild Lord," Canyieron. The ritual to summon your past self and to summon the Wild Lord are both described, and if you follow in the character's footsteps you immediately gain a template of an appropriate class and cannot advance in any other until your service ends. Bonus points if the last level of that class kills you.
6. Calumna's Cup, a silver hobgoblet. When two people drink from this cup, they switch bodies and the cup is teleported Somewhere Else. This effect is permanent unless they both drink from the cup again or are both are present for a remove curse spell.
7. Gigre of the Moral Frame, a recipe for a drug which is said to be able to remove unfavorable aspects of a personality, guiding them either to evil or good. If you create the gigre according to the recipe, roll a d4, with a penalty of 1 if you are unfamiliar with drugs and alchemy and a bonus of 1 if you are fully trained.
1. Exact opposite of intended alignment or personality change.
2. Entire person splits into two mostly identical people with exact opposite personalities. They are natural enemies but will not try to kill each other until all other options have been exhausted.
3. Personality splits into two, trading off control of the same body, Jekyll and Hyde Style.
4. Intended alignment or personality change.
8. Hadriana's True Process for Creating a Chemic Man, a set of fourteen stone tablets describing how to create a form of homunculus. It requires flesh from a creature it is shaped to resemble, which confers its templates and/or HD. It requires a three-word set of values to be scratched into its skull with a diamond-tip. It requires the sacrifice of a loving relationship. Other than these, the ingredients are not expensive. You can create powerful followers by these means.
9. The Elixir of Zoë, a potion said to be brewed by the daughter of King Midas. By swallowing a rose petal soaked in this elixir, you become immune to harmful transformations. This also makes the gold-themed tomb of Midas a cakewalk. Unfortunately, it also makes you the eternal enemy of the reaper king Lityerses.
10. Hurward's Brew, a recipe for a simple but tasty beer. Spend a month of downtime brewing and for the next month of adventuring you roll with advantage when recovering hit points from taking lunch.

GLOG Fighter Discipline: the Swordwife

Another quick entry into the list of fighter disciplines. This one is fairly straightforward, but leans into the bronze age setting I run. in many settings, the sword is the default weapon, but on the savannah of Holy Selmat or the heath of Mesomergos, it is notable in itself. This discipline also has its own built-in collecting minigame, as players try to gather interesting materials to alloy weapons with at level three. I imagine at that point a character might be carrying several weapons-- a main weapon, a backup, some effective against specific foes, and phosphorus daggers to act as magical torches.

art by Christian Sloan Hall

-SWORDWIFE-

Dedicated to the study of combat, you take violent work as a means of developing your skill. You seldom have the clarity to realize that your relationship with your sword is more important than your relationship with any other person.

Starting equipment: a khopesh or grip-tongue sword, a mattock, a hemione with a lead (treat as a donkey that can carry 2 less equipment slots)

Starting ken: artifice

A: Desperate dodge, Find the opening

B: Bronze tongue

C: Alloy

D: 'Til death do we part

Desperate dodge: Once per combat, you may drop 1d4 items to negate the damage of an incoming attack. These items are randomly selected from among what you are carrying, other than your held weapon and any armor. If you do not have enough items to drop, you fail to dodge.

Find the opening: When attacking foes who attacked you on their turn, deal +1d6 damage and choose whether to strike against their block or dodge score.

Bronze tongue: you can speak with metal weapons of all types, and have a natural affinity with all blades. 

Alloy: You can freely mix multiple different substances in any weapon you forge or reforge, gaining new abilities with each. For each substance beyond what is typical, your weapon gains a point of brittleness. Upon rolling a 20 to make an attack roll with the weapon, it is shattered. For each further point of brittleness, this range increases by one. If you can collect all of the weapon’s pieces, it can be reforged.

Example alloy substances and effects:

1. Aluminum: weapon can be folded, taking up half the usual inventory slots.
2. Antimony: you have this weapon with you in all dreams and visions.
3. Arsenic: target rolls with a +1 on all injury rolls per arsenic strike.
4. Bismuth: weapon as reflective as a mirror
5. Bone: +2 to maneuvers used to sunder.
6. Gold: +1d6 damage against ordena.
7. Gigre particulate: +1 to hit while under the effects of drugs
8. Iron: as iron, but requires 1/3 the usual amount of metal.*
9. Lead: takes up an extra inventory slot. Target saves or takes 1 fatigue.
10. Mercury: a day later, target tests their constitution or suffers from madness.
11. Mithril: as mithril, but requires 1/3 the usual amount of metal.*
12. Phosphorus: weapon now glows in the dark, as a torch.
13. Silver: +1d6 damage against werewolves and preskeletons.
14. Zinc: no longer naturally tarnishes

'Til death do we part: As long as you are holding a sword of your own power, you may ignore fatal wounds.

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*Mithril can cut through anything softer than iron, which is somehow remarkably strong. Iron can do likewise, and severs the soul of all it kills.

Mesomergos Generators

Primarily for my own convenience, but feel free to explore this strange region of a strange world if you wish.