The Burning Mountain | Tower Wood | Iode’s Wondrous Emporium | The Witterings | Six Magic Items with a Secret
The Burning Mountain
Island | Volcano | Mysterious Place
This isolated island looms large in mariners’ tales. The Burning Mountain is aptly named and is a well-known waymaker for vessels plying the farthest reaches of the Bitter Sea. A perpetual plume of grey and black ash and smoke hangs over the island and is visible for scores of miles in all directions. At night, mariners sailing within a score of miles of the place report an eerie glow on the horizon.
The island comprises a single, steep-sided peak surrounded by tapered lowland flanks. It is from this peak that the smoke rises. Vessels coming within sight of the island report that it is now a barren wasteland of ash and bare rock. It was not always thus; even 20 years ago, logbooks and travelogues described the island as densely forested and teeming with life. Vessels often stopped there for refit and reprovisioning. Several sheltered anchorages provided havens for storm-battered vessels, and the hunting on the island and fishing in the surrounds were plentiful. Several cascading freshwater streams provided potable drinking water.
Some learned folk believe that the Burning Mountain could be a portal to the legendary Elemental Plane of Fire. Others think that a lurking evil or ancient power has awoken—or been awoken on the island. Such folk point to the curious ruin—once hidden by dense forest—reported clinging to the island’s peak as the source of the destruction. They whisper that the ruin is an ancient tomb-prison and that somehow—perhaps through the actions of meddling adventurers or treasure seekers—the wards holding whatever was bound within have been sundered.
Towers Wood
Wood | Elves
Blanketing the low, rolling hills that run down to Shimmerwater Lake’s shore-fringed flanks, Towers Woods is named for the five slender stone towers thrusting skyward within. The towers are of ancient but delicate design; magic woven into the very fabric of their vitrified stones conspires to keep time’s remorseless influence at bay. The towers—each six stories high—yet thrust through the forest canopy, so that those climbing to their summits enjoy an unrestrained panoramic view of the fecund, primal forest and glittering lake.
The towers’ origins remain a baffling mystery to scholars and locals alike. While the towers remain in excellent condition—as if they were completed mere days ago—no original furniture or decoration of any kind survives inside. The towers appear in the earliest accounts of the area and have been repeatedly picked over and explored by waves of explorers, adventurers and locals. Sometimes, one group or another—bandits, foresters, adventurers or want-to-be lords claims one of the towers, but they never stay long. Some speak of strange lights in the sky, while others tell of odd scratching sounds that fill the quiet nights. Others disappear. For all that, folk still visit the towers. During daylight hours, they are pleasant and peaceful places to while away a few hours, and the views from their zeniths are unmatched.
Iode’s Wondrous Emporium
Adventurers | Extraplanar | Shop
Iode’s Wondrous Emporium is that rarest of rarities—a shop that deals almost exclusively in the buying and selling of wondrous magical items. While many folk have heard of Iode’s Wondrous Emporium, few have visited its true location because the shop fills a tiny demi-plane wrought by a magnificent mansionspell rendered permanent with a wish.
To Iode, opening her home and business to anyone and everyone is madness; well does she know adventurers’ propensity for violence and theft. Thus, she maintains several “front” businesses in major towns and cities scattered across the continent, run by trusted staff able to contact her with a sendingspell. (In fact, so far flung are her shops that only her most widely-travelled customers realise there is more than one Wondrous Emporium.) In this manner does the ever-cautious Iode keep her business, stock and person safe from those who would prefer not to pay for her services or goods. It is well that she does, for over her long life she has accumulated a stock of wondrous items, books of ancient lore, curious artefacts and so on to make even a great wyrm jealous.
To those who have dealt with her, Iode is known as the Masked Wizard, for she wears a beautifully wrought silver-and-gold mask depicting a gorgeous elven woman. Her slender frame and lilting, melodic voice suggest elven ancestry.
The Witterings
Urban | Landmark | Well
Named for the townsfolk who gather here to gather water of a morning, this old square stands at the heart of the oldest part of town. The well at the square’s centre is reputed to have never run dry and is surpassingly deep. A beloved and well-known local landmark, the square and its well are often busy. Water is brought forth from the depths via an old iron step pump, and a brawny, bored youth or two are always nearby to operate it—for a copper or two.
A weekly market fills the Witterings in all but the foulest of weathers, and popular shops and taverns line the square’s precincts. Decades ago, the local businesses paid a subscription to cobblestone the square, but since then, some of the stones have subsided, creating small dips to trip the unwary. After heavy rain, puddles dot the square. Many folk mutter that something must be done, but few are willing to put their hands into their pockets.
Six Magic Items with a Secret
Six Things | Magic Items
Fetish of the Crescent Moon: This amulet of hardened clay looks to be a simple fetish crafted by a primitive race, but in reality, it hides an enchanted silver holy symbol of the Mother within. If worn, the fetish bestows great power upon the wearer, enabling them to once per day call down a beam of pure moonlight equal to a flame strike to smite their enemies. Additionally, the wearer can see in the dark as an elf.
The Jade Dragons: Painted grey to appear to be nothing more than fine stone statuettes of crouching dragons suitable for a noble’s garden or for use as a doorstop, great power lurks in these statuettes. They are unique and atypical, wondrous figurines that on command transform into a pair of green dragon wyrmlings for up to one hour. Once summoned, the Jade Dragons can’t be used for seven days.
Rod of Punching: This rod of iron and ivory has a bulbous head shaped like a clenched fist. A secret compartment within the rod’s head holds an iron ring shaped like a ram’s head; this is a ring of the ram and it gives the rod its singular and atypical powers.
Ring of Three Wishes**: Stolen by a master thief long ago and coated in lead covered in a silver wash until it could be delivered to the thief’s patron, the ring—enchanted with an efreeti’s bound soul—has passed through many unsuspecting hands since its theft. The lead coating suppresses the ring’s magical powers, and everyone associated with the ring and its theft is long dead. Thus, does the ring and the bound sentience within await its freedom.
Fang Dagger: Exquisitely carved from a thigh bone taken from the corpse of the long-dead elder great wyrm Sigarax, the Fang Dagger is a dagger of venom. The blade is as hard as adamantine and topped with a glimmering red ruby drenched in the dragon’s heartblood. As such, the ruby holds a fragment of the dragon’s consciousness and soul. (See also: Sigarax, Elder Red Wyrm.)
Adamantine Amulet: This thick and heavy gem-encrusted adamantine amulet ostensibly functions as an amulet of proof against detection and location. However, the amulet is also the phylactery of the Dread Lich Lord Alulim Kish, stolen from his dismal labyrinth-tomb by the daring halfling thief Elmo Swiftfoot. Alulim’s minions yet search for the amulet, but its magical properties have thus far stymied their efforts.
Campaign (noun): a connected series of adventures; Component (noun): a constituent part
Thank you for reading the Sunday Supplement; I hope some of this week’s Campaign Components make it into your game or sparks your creativity.
Want the Markdown Files? Every member of our Patreon campaign gets the markdown files for the new-look Sunday Supplements to make it even easier to add them to their campaign.
Remember, Everything is Better with Tentacles!
Get all of 2025’s Sunday Supplements in One Handy Download
Members of our Patreon campaign pledging as little as $5 a month got this download as just one part of their rewards. Join today.
The Miscellany of Many Things comprises almost 200 Campaign Components—personalities, items, adventure locations and more—taken from Raging Swan Press’s Sunday Supplement.
If you need a starting point for your imagination and inspiration, the Miscellany of Many Things is for you.
The Miscellany of Many Things is a System Neutral book. The download for this book comprises the Miscellanies PDF and the individual markdown files for all the Campaign Components featured therein.