Seas of Amphora: Four magic items my players have earned sailing the high seas.

Four magic items my players have earned sailing the high seas.

Shell Armor: This armor was made for a leviathan hunter who risked being swallowed whole by the great beasts they hunted. The edges of each panel are razor-sharp to cut and scrape anything that enveloped the warrior. Unfortunately, the armor did not protect from paralytic octopus venoms, nor did it protect from the flesh-eating swarms of fish that devoured the helpless hunter after an unexpected visit from an octopus.

Poisoner’s Jacket: This slick leather jacket emblazoned with a cobra belonged to a notorious poisoner who was never officially connected to any of their alleged victims. Their secret was a jacket with magical pockets where they could hide the tools of the trade. The jacket’s extra-dimensional pockets can only be accessed by its rightful owner.

Chaotic Grasp: After direct exposure to primordial chaos, your arm has begun to act strangely. Without realizing it, you find yourself flipping switches, throwing levers, and stealing knives. It is almost as if it has a mind and goals of its own.

Swan’s song: A double-barrelled pistol engraved with musical motifs was made specifically to commit murder. Fortunately, the lengthy process of making the gun was long enough for the murderous passion to fade. Now the gun is simply an ugly reminder of a time the gunsmith would rather forget. 

Thank you all for checking out all the work I put into the item cards from Four Swords. Next week is another week of items from my home game and then after that, we will start to explore the items from Wind Waker.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a terrible tragedy of Russia’s making. I hope we can find a way to move past bloody-handed war before we wipe ourselves off the face of the Earth.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

 

Cards: Every item from Four Swords collected in one complete set.

Every item from Four Swords collected in one complete set. 

Here they are, every item I drew for The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords. Presented in both vibrant color and in black and white to suit your preference. The links below will take you to PDF’s containing all the items in the order they appeared.

Holiday: A superb owl with a romantic message.

A superb owl with a romantic message.

Bubo: This superb mechanical owl brings you a message from someone that loves you. The original messenger was a real live owl, but the woman who owns it said she'd never send her precious companion on "such a fool's errand."

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and today is one of the most poorly placed football games in recent history.

If you aren't sure who this superb owl is, you should watch the 1981 Clash of the Titans.

If you've got someone you want to send a special message to, send them here and let our friend Bubo do all the talking.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Four Swords: The quintessential blade from Four Swords.

The quintessential blade from Four Swords.

Five Sword: We officially explored the Four Sword last week, but I drew five versions of the completed blade. Each has a different rune in the hilt of the blade and glows in a unique color. These colors and runes are intended to represent the four classical western elements as well as a fifth element of spirit, represented in the set with the triforce symbol.

In times of great need the bearer of this blade can call forth four elemental infused copies of themself by holding the sword aloft in salutation to the goddesses and then making a great circular slash through the air. With five heroes when there were one before, few challenges remain insurmountable. After the threat has been vanquished the copies must return to the blade until summoned again. 

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I always have an idea for a campaign, or at least a series of one-shots, where the players are all different copies of the single hero that used the Four Sword, but then somehow lost it before they could rejoin. Now the players journey to find the four Four Swords so that they might be able to become whole again.

A fun twist on this idea could be if one of the copies didn’t want to join back together. The villain of this campaign would be a copy of the same hero that would need to be conquered without being killed so that they could all rejoin again. Maybe each copy hero is actually one aspect of the whole hero which gives a reason why each of the player characters is different. This is effectively Inside Out if there was a more active antagonist.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to run an entire game centered on the Four Sword/Five Sword, the sword could simply be a high-tier artifact that gives the bearer the ability to make phantom copies of themself as if using mirror image.

These could also just be a set of five swords. One with power over one of the five elements. The fifth essence, or quintessence, could be a secret element that must be discovered.

I think a lot about games I’d like to run but probably never will. Many of these ideas work their way into whatever game I’m running at the time or whatever section of my homebrew I am fleshing out, but you can get inspired by these ideas and run with them.

Next week is Valentine’s Day so I will be posting something drawn to note that day instead of our normal Zelda based content. You can expect the collected set of item cards for Four Swords to come out the week after that.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Holiday: A lucky gift for the new year.

 A lucky gift for the new year.

Red envelope: Have a lucky envelope filled with crisp new cash to invite good fortune in the new year.

Happy lunar new year!

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph