Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Never-Dry Bottle, A System-Agnostic Magic Item

Never-Dry Bottle

Description:  This appears to be perfectly normal bottle, usually empty except for just a trace of wine.  Magical senses reveal a distinct aura of divinity about it.  More intrusive magical identification attempts will leave the examiner in a drunken stupor for 1d12 hours, after which they wake with an agonizing hangover that lasts another 1d12 hours.

Powers:  Once from dusk to dusk you can pour just enough wine from the bottle to fill a single container to the brim.  This can be of any size but the quality of the wine varies inversely with the quantity produced.  A tavern keeper filling a 6' diameter barrel will get some dreadful stuff, while a single wine glass would be the very best of the best.  The bottle won't tolerate cheats - trying to fill a lake or canal with vinegary wine will get you a single spiteful drop, for example.  

Oddly, it does count a mouth as a "container" and will pour until the drinker stops swallowing, although the quality decreases the more you guzzle.  You may not notice after you've imbibed enough for that to start happening, of course.

Possible Origins:  Most likely these are a divine gift left to a devout worshipper (whether they know they're a worshipper or not) from the God of the Grape, whoever that may be in your game.  There is only one Never-Dry Bottle in the world at a time, but a new one will appear somewhere if the current bottle is destroyed or lost beyond recovery.

Complications:  Magical though it is, the bottle is no more durable than any other of its kind and ceases to function if smashed.  It may work one last time to pour a congratulatory drink if it was broken for use as a weapon in a bar fight, though.

Design Commentary:  This is another re-post from a comment over on Telecanter's Receding Blog, part of an effort to rescue ideas I'd rather not lose track of. 

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