Spes Magna Games

While it’s never been a thing in my home, in other homes folks wake up Christmas Day to discover oranges in their stockings. There are competing ideas about how this custom arose. Probably most of those ideas are true. One idea about Christmas stocking oranges hinges on the fact that oranges can be segmented and shared. It’s like each orange peel holds several little juicy presents.

1E Stats

Some druids know a special ritual. By spending about an hour preparing the proper symbols and materials while chanting hymns to the sun and the trees, the druid infuses the energy of a cure light wounds into a fresh-picked orange. For one day, the orange retains healing power, which is activated when the orange is peeled and segmented (taking one round). The orange will have d4+8 segments. When consumed, a segment restores 2 hit points. Segments must be consumed within 1 turn of peeling. After that, the healing power fades. The ritual can be performed once per day.

5E Stats

Some druids above 2nd-level can cast cure wounds as a special ritual. By spending about an hour preparing the proper symbols and materials while chanting hymns to the sun and the trees, the druid casts the energy of a cure wounds spell into a fresh-picked orange. For one day, the orange retains healing power, which is activated when the orange is peeled (as an action) and segmented (another action). The orange will have d4+8 segments. When consumed, a segment restores hit points equal to the druid’s Wisdom modifier plus the spell slot level of the cure wounds used in the ritual. Segments must be consumed within 10 minutes of peeling. After that, the healing power fades. The ritual can be performed once per day.

Tags: 1E AD&D, 5E D&D, OSR Christmas Calendar, spells

The Oneiric Order serves the deity of dreams in both the waking world as well as in the shadowy realm of Morpheus. The order’s clerics and paladins make use of dream candles to communicate with each other over vast distances. Some say that more powerful dream candles can alter reality and reveal secrets.

1E Stats

When lit, a dream candle sheds light as normal for a candle and burns for up to 8 hours. The one who lights the candle must sleep in the candle’s light for not less than 8 hours. While sleeping, the one who lit the candle may dream in such as way to shape reality, causing one of the following effects 1-4 hours after the dreamer awakens:

* Full recovery an individual’s lost hit points.
* Restoration of a lost body part. Restoring a lost head does not restore life as well.
* Learn the location of some object or creature not heavily guarded by magical wards and protections.
* Discovery of a means of ingress or egress.
* Location of a safe path through a wilderness.
* Approximate strength of enemy forces. Note that creatures with 7+ or more Hit Dice may make a saving throw versus spell to avoid detection.

No single creature can use a dream candle more than once per week. Attempting to do so not only fails automatically, but ages the user 1-10 years.

5E Stats

Dream Candle
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)

This magic of this candle, dedicated to the deity of dreams, activates when the candle is lit, which requires an action. After burning for 8 hours, the candle is destroyed. You can snuff it out early for use at a later time. Deduct the the time it burned in increments of 10 minutes from the candle’s total burning time.

When lit, the candle sheds dim light in a 10-foot radius. The attuned creature rests (short or long) within the light of candle. Its magic shapes a creature’s dreams. Choose a creature known to you. The target must be on the same plane of existence as you. Creatures that don’t sleep, such as elves, can’t be contacted by means of a dream candle. You enter a trance state, acting as a messenger. While in the trance, you are dimly aware of your surroundings; you make Wisdom (Perception) checks with disadvantage. Also, you cannot take actions or move.

If your target is asleep, you appear in the target’s dreams and can converse with the target as long as it remains asleep, but for no longer than the candle burns. You can also shape the environment of the dream, creating landscapes, objects, and other images. You can emerge from the trance at any time, ending the effect early. The target recalls the dream perfectly upon waking. If the target is awake when you activate the candle, you know it, and can either end the trance or wait for the target to fall asleep, at which point you appear in the target’s dreams.

Tags: 1E AD&D, 5E D&D, magic items, OSR Christmas Calendar

Illness over the weekend that lingered into the work week derailed my train heading toward Caught Up Station. Fortunately, I’m now on Christmas vacation. As I quip to my French-major wife, say, “La vee.”

“La vee,” she’ll dutifully reply.

Here’s day ten on day sixteen.

Guiding Light
1st-level divination (ritual)

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 10 minutes

You touch one object small enough to be carried in one hand. Until the spell ends, the object sheds dim light in a 20-foot-radius. The light can be colored as you like. Completely covering the object with something opaque blocks the light and prevents the light’s divinatory powers from functioning. The creature carrying the light makes Intelligence (Investigation), Wisdom (Insight), Wisdom (Perception), and Wisdom (Survival) checks with advantage. The spell ends if you cast it again or dismiss it as an action.

Tags: 5E D&D, OSR Christmas Calendar, spells

For a great recipe for mulled wine, check this out. To add this magical elixir to your game, read on.

“Come boy, and pour for me a cup
Of old Falernian. Fill it up
With wine, strong, sparkling, bright, and clear;
Our host decrees no water here.
Let dullards drink the Nymph’s pale brew,
The sluggish thin their blood with dew.
For such pale stuff we have no use;
For us the purple grape’s rich juice.
Begone, ye chilling water sprite;
Here burning Bacchus rules tonight!”
— Catullus

While encamped, the party’s cook brews up some mulled wine using a recipe found in an ancient tome. He needs red wine, sugar, an orange, a lemon, one star annise, one cinnamon stick, about a half dozen cloves, and small amount of nutmeg and ginger. The sugar and spices and a small amount of wine are cooked first, enough to melt the sugar and infuse the spices. Then the rest of the wine is heated for just a few minutes. While the mulled wine is poured into mugs, the cook recites a simple blessing in a forgotten tongue.

Those who imbibe the mulled wine are filled with good cheer and a measure of peace of mind.

1E Info

Those who share the mulled wine gain a blessing. Roll 1d6.

5E Info

Those who share the mulled wine gain a blessing. Roll 1d6.

Tags: 1E AD&D, 5E D&D, OSR Christmas Calendar

St. Boniface again spoke to the people, “This little tree, a young child of the forest, shall be your holy tree tonight. It is the wood of peace, for your houses are built of the fir. It is the sign of an endless life, for its leaves are ever green. See how it points upward to heaven. Let this be called the tree of the Christ-child; gather about it, not in the wild wood, but in your own homes; there it will shelter no deeds of blood, but loving gifts and rites of kindness.” — Father William Saunders

1E Effects

A good-aligned cleric of at least 9th level may perform a special ritual during hours of darkness. The ritual requires 10 minutes. During this time, the cleric prays and sings, casting both bless and continual light on a living tree. Once the ritual is complete, the tree glows with soft, multi-colored lights that bathe a 30-foot radius for 12 hours or until the cleric leaves the radius of effect. These lights soothe, protect, and heal those who camp within the radius of effect.

* Soothe: The holy light of the blessed tree suspends baleful physical and mental effects so long as the affected creature remains within the radius of effect. These effects include, but are not limited to, disease, insanity, charm, et cetera.

* Protect: Any opponent must make a saving throw versus magic in order to strike or otherwise attack someone protected by the tree. If the saving throw is not made, the creature may attack another creature not protected by the tree and totally ignore those protected by the spell. If the saving throw is made, the target is subject to normal attack process including dicing for weapons to hit, saving throws, damage. Note that this protection effect does not prevent the operation of area attacks (fireball, ice storm, etc.). During the period of protection afforded by the tree, the cleric who performed the ritual cannot take offensive action without immediately ending this effect for the duration of the ritual. He or she may use non-attack spells or otherwise act in any way which does not violate the prohibition against offensive action, This allows the cleric to heal wounds, for example, or to bless, perform an augury, chant, cast a light in an area (not upon on opponent!), and so on.

* Heal: A creature that rests for at least eight hours in the tree’s radius of effect heals as if a week of continual rest had passed. The creature regains 7 hit points, modified by poor Constitution as applicable. A second consecutive night of rest within the radius of effect heals another 7 hit points, this time modified by poor or exceptional Constitution, as applicable. Regardless of the number of hit points a creature has, four consecutive nights resting within the radius of effect of a blessed tree restores any character to full hit points.

5E Effects

A good-aligned cleric of at least 9th level whose divine domain is Light may cast daylight on a living tree as a special ritual during hours of darkness. Once the ritual is complete, the tree glows with soft, multi-colored lights that bathe a 30-foot radius for 12 hours or until the cleric leaves the radius of effect. These lights soothe, protect, and heal those who camp within the radius of effect.

* Soothe: A creature that completes a short or a long rest within the blessed tree’s radius of effect is cured of the following conditions: charmed, frightened, and exhaustion (up to one level).

* Protect: A creature that is within the blessed tree’s radius of effect when the ritual is completed gains the protection of sanctuary that lasts until the creature leaves the radius of effect or makes an attack or casts a spell that affects an enemey creature.

* Heal: A creature that takes a short rest within the blessed tree’s area of effect can spend one or more Hit Dice at the end of the short rest to regain lost hit points as normal. Add the Wisdom modifier of the cleric who performed the ritual to each Hit Die spent in this way to determine how many hit points are recovered. A creature that completes a long rest within the blessed tree’s area of effect regains all lost hit points as normal. The creature also gains inspiration.

Tags: 1E AD&D, 5E D&D, Catholic, OSR Christmas Calendar, spells