To celebrate this month’s launch of The Trouble with Dreams (and Wake Up Sheeple), WatcherDM presents you with eight dream-themed magic items. Sprinkle these throughout the two-page dream delve, or use them in your own dream-based adventures! If you are looking for more Magical Items please check out our article here or follow us on Instagram to get a Magic Item every Monday.
Sandman’s Pouch
Wondrous Item, Rare (requires attunement by a creature that can dream)
This pouch is woven from the fabric of the night sky, and its silvery drawstring is composed of forged links of moonlight. The fine-grained sands within change color every dawn. The pouch smells like an old book and feels slightly cool to the touch.
The Sandman’s Pouch acts as an Arcane Focus. In addition, the Pouch has five charges for the following properties. The Pouch regains 1d6 expended charges each night, while its user dreams.
Sleep. As an Action, you expend one charge and cast Sleep with a range of 30ft.
Summon Sandmen. As an Action, you expend two charges and summon a Sandman, one of the servant-enforcers of the Dreaming King. These vaguely bipedal sand-dunes are always shifting, their mutable proportions mocking the real. Their eyes are empty craters. Their mouths have no throats. They fight as Ghouls, though they are constructs, not undead.
Pocket Sand. As a Bonus Action, you expend one charge and throw a handful of sand in your opponent’s eye. Roll a Dexterity (Deception) check opposed by your opponent’s Dexterity (Insight) check. If you beat them, they are Blinded until they take an Action to rub their eyes. SHA-SHA!
Dream Master. As an Action, you may cast any Conjuration spell on the Wizard spell list without using a spell slot, expending one charge per spell level. This ability only functions within the Realms of Slumber.
Night Cap
Wondrous Item (Headwear), Legendary (requires attunement)
This droopy white sleeping cap bends a little at the tip. Faint blue moons and stars are embroidered across it, deeply faded by time. It smells vaguely of bed sheets. For some reason, NPCs keep calling it a crown. They can never explain why.
The Cap of the Dreaming King has been stolen in the past, as myth will tell you. Those same myths take special glee in detailing the Dreaming King’s revenge.
In any case, the Cap is a highly powerful artifact. It allows you to cast Clairvoyance once per long rest, while you sleep. It is rumored to have greater powers still, though all mortals who have attempted to access them have fallen asleep and never woken again. Some people say they live as lords in the Realms of Slumber, but none can say for sure.
Rolling Dice Eyes
Wondrous Item, uncommon (requires attunement)
Bone white with a greenish tinge, these horrifying artifacts would be almost indistinguishable from any other set of knuckle dice if it weren’t for the strange reptilian eyes staring out from the one-side.
Say the name of the man you’re chasing and roll the dice. They will tumble in the direction of your quarry, rolling uphill, upstairs, underwater, and through planar gates to always find their mark. They travel at 20ft each round and never stop.
In addition to their uses as a tracking device, they grant proficiency in Dice Games, so long as their user has killed someone earlier that day.
Dreamer’s Chariot
Wondrous Item, Rare
This animated bed trots about on its bed posts, bowing its headboard and pawing at the ground if approached. Taming the Chariot requires a successful Wisdom (Animal Handling) check (DC 15). If it can be befriended, it acts as a loyal steed. It is capable of leaping into the night sky and carrying its rider wherever they wish to go. If the Animal Handling check fails, it fights as a Giant Elk.
It acts as a 5ftx7ft Carpet of Flying, carrying 600 pounds and moving 40ft a turn. Additionally, the Dreamer’s Chariot may bodily transport its riders to the Realms of Slumber, as though they’d be transported by a Somnomancer. This journey takes three days, as the bed journeys across the pale, misty approach to Dreamland.
A creature sleeping in this bed has no nightmares, and always wakes feeling rested.
Clock from the Ticking Tree
Wondrous Item, Very Rare (requires attunement)
The Clock at the heart of a Ticking Tree is a strange and oft sought artifact. Ticking Trees have been endangered since the end of the Anachronism Wars, and those specimens that survive are now found mostly in dreams. It resembles a great knotted whorl of wood, inset with a large, elegant wall clock made of glass, quartz, and silver.
The Clock grants amazing power, but at a high cost. A mortal being attuned to this artifact may take a Short Rest in only ten minutes. This power may be activated once a day, but ages its user by 1d10 years. Additionally, the Clock cannot be used by Elves and other ultra-long lived species. Dwarves may use the Clock, but require a half-hour to Short Rest rather than ten minutes.
In addition to the high cost of its ability, the Clock ticks. Loudly. Anyone carrying it has Disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
The Clock keeps perfect time and does not drift, even at sea. It starves if it is not exposed to sunlight at least once a day.
Cobweb Dress
Fine Clothes, rare (requires attunement)
Gossamer thin, this loose weave of semi-translucent threads would scandalize most mammalian courts. Judging from the number of arm-holes in the dress, it was never intended to be worn by humans. Nonetheless, it does wonders for your abdomen.
This dress partially exists in a higher dimension. These parts of it are highly adhesive and intended to moor the wearer in time. Highly valued by phase-spiders, ettercaps, and other time-traveling intelligent spiders, while wearing this dress, the wearer is immune to Chronomancy, including Haste, Slow, Time Stop, and the trap designed by Mrs. and Mrs. Cobweb.
Somnomancer’s Top
Wondrous Item, Uncommon (requires attunement)
This small metal spinning top only looks like a child’s toy; its purpose is deadly serious. If spun on its point, it will eventually wobble and fall – unless you’re dreaming. If you are in the Realms of Slumber (or any of its sub-dimensions), the Somnomancer’s Top will spin on its point forever, signaling the unreality of the world around you.
Brimshade, the Hungry Hat of Disguise
Brimshade the Lamia haunts the Nightmare dunes of Dream Country, terrorizing dreamers with her iridescent black eyes, long needle fingers, and an entourage of carnivorous hats. Yet this is not her only form. If bested in combat, she will seek to join her conquerors by becoming a Hat of Disguise and swearing to serve ‘as long as you walk the waking world’. She intends to terrorize the Material Plane while the hero hosting her slumbers.
As a Hat of Disguise, she is mutable in appearance. If left to pursue her own sense of fashion, she prefers a wide-brimmed and low-peaked style, typically in dark, velvety materials. If confronted with ornate hats, she will attempt to match them by producing false rubies, though this will not fool most fashionistas. Should her ruse be uncovered, she reacts with violent embarrassment.
A Violent Companion
In addition to the normal functions of a Hat of Disguise, the Hungry Haberdasher retains the Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma of its Lamia form. She communicates with her wearer via telepathy and encourages them to perform violent and criminal acts, always with hat-based justifications. For example, it will encourage violence against peasants on the grounds that they are hatless, and therefore basically animals. On the other hand, it will encourage violence against nobles on the basis that they are foolishly trying to ‘out-hat you’ and thus deserve a painful death.
If a character receives a Critical Hit while wearing the hat, they may (one time only) opt to gain Resistance to the damage in exchange for damaging the Hat. A Hat damaged in this way has a 50% of malfunctioning at a key moment. It does this intentionally, out of vengeful spite.
Brimshade can cast Identify on any headwear object (she knows her business) but will not volunteer this ability unless her hat-motivated bloodlust is slaked by the attuned wearer.
What Dreams May Come
The Trouble with Dreams is only the beginning of our Dream-related content! Queen Aisling’s dream troubles have only begun. Stay tuned for ‘A Kiss to Build a Dream On’ by signing up for our mailing list.
Don’t forget to check out Wake Up Sheeple! This companion piece to the Trouble with Dreams will fill you in on everything your players missed in the Waking World while they were chasing dreams.
If you’ve enjoyed these magic items, consider checking out our Lunar Magic Items.
Help us dreamers here at WatcherDM out a bit, and tell your friends! Our dream is to produce more of this content for you, and every pair of eyes helps.