Dungeon Discoveries: An Emerald-Inlaid Branch Flute

Want to remind players of the power of nature in your next tabletop roleplaying game? Here’s a wondrous item to drop right into your campaign world for your players to discover, complete with a history and quest hook!

The History

This wondrous item belongs to an ancient forest god, who occasionally lends it to druids who earn her favor. The last druid to possess the flute attempted to use its power to drive out the residents of isolated towns by filling their settlements with greenery.

The Flute

The flute is carved from the smooth white wood of a birch branch and has six finger holes. Intricate leaf-and-vine designs have been carved around the holes, imitating creeping ivy crawling up the instrument. The underside is studded with six thumb-sized emeralds.

When played, plants and tree saplings will begin to grow in a five-foot radius around the creature playing the instrument. If the foliage isn’t destroyed, it will continue to spread to 1d4 adjacent squares each turn. The foliage cannot penetrate surfaces such as solid stone or metal.

The foliage and saplings will continue to grow over the course of 5 minutes. By the end of this period, the foliage will grow into ferns, tall grass, flowers, and bushes, while the trees will grow to a height of 20 feet. These areas create difficult terrain, and will wither and die within 1 hour of being created.

The Quest Hook

If a party member or NPC plays the flute, the forest god will take the form of a giant treant and begin tracking down the possessor of the flute. Once the god finds the party, it asks for the flute back or threatens to take it by force. If the party convinces the god that they will use the flute’s power to spread new life to distant regions, the god allows them to keep the flute.

Want to Create Your Own Unique Items?

We hope this wondrous item adds some laughs and interesting roleplaying to your game – feel free to use it as a jumping-off point for new adventures or tweak it to fit your own plans!

The idea for the item was generated using our Curious Treasure Dungeon Discoveries Deck. Every deck contains 50 cards, each of which has four items and four potential descriptors, which can be mixed and matched to create over 40,000 unique items!

Creating the histories and quests attached to an item is entirely up to you, but a Dungeon Discoveries deck can be a fantastic prompt to get your creativity flowing. You can check out our full selection of Decks here!