Stone Age Magic Items

I'm writing a Stone Age hexcrawl for The Vanilla Game based on the Outdoor Survival map. Before I got too far ahead of myself, I realized I should write treasure stocking tables for the villages and monster hoards. And before that, I decided to do the Magic Items tables. One of the features of fantasy paleolithic life I wanted to add are Conanesque fallen evil snakemen structures all around, so the Snakeman Treasures are just normal, "modern" dungeon-crawl treasures given an ophidian bent. Mostly they're just "as X Treasure in The Vanilla Game". I'll add them once I finish them all.

One invaluable source for inspiration was Sofinho's 3d100 Items for Pariah. I'll be honest, the research I conducted before deciding to write my own Stone Age hexcrawl setting consisted of me googling "Stone Age Equipment TTRPGs" and "Prehistoric Encounters by Biome D&D" and not getting much back, so I didn't know about Pariah until after starting. But it's sick as hell and I almost certainly stole from it after losing inspiration, getting it linked, reading it, then forgetting what I read after a week and a half of not writing anything. 

Magic Items

1. Carven Eye. An agate, carved and polished cunningly into the exact shape of an eyeball. When placed in an empty socket, grants sight, no matter how far from the wearer it gets. A new wearer can claim it by cutting out their own eye. The previous owner will certainly want it back.
2. Cave Bear Skin. The pelts of a cave bear, worn as a cloak. Still carries the vicious strength of the beast in its animus. Wearing it confers +3 to Strength and +2 to melee attack damage, but the wearer reduces their Intelligence by 3 and cannot speak or differentiate friend from foe. After being taken off, the skin causes its wearer to fall into a pseudo-hibernation (save vs sleep) for 2d6 hours or until their calorie deficit is addressed.
3. Dancing Drum. Worn and small enough to carry on a belt or sash, made of old coconut shells stretched with red-monkey skin, still furred. When beaten, all within earshot must save or dance uncontrollably, including the musician. Fighting while dancing is nearly impossible.
4. Elephant Headdress. A fearsome skull-helmet, made from the sacred tusks and bones in a hidden pachyderm graveyard. Allows understanding of all elephant-like beings. -5 to reaction rolls vs. Sabre-Toothed Cats.
5. Eternal Light. A jag of tar-soaked wood from an ancient lightning-struck oak. When burnt as a torch, the light shines brighter than others, and the wood remains unconsumed.
6. First Weapon. A polished hunk of granite that sits invitingly in the hand. The first ape who slew another hefted this stone and used it to crack his brother's skull. +3 to AV and Damage against primates.
7. Flowing Ewer. A rough-hewn stone ewer, capped by a hardened leather lid. Sloshes when shaken. Can produce vinegar, salt or fresh water, urine, oil, alcohol, or poison.
8. Headsplitter Axe. Armor is crude still, echoes of the skull protecting the brain. The stone axe joyously disregards such frivolities, eager to taste the gray matter hidden beneath. When rolling your Attack Value exactly, the axe buries itself in the skull of the enemy, dealing an additional 3d6 damage or killing them instantly. Test Strength to pull the axe back out.
9. Invisibilty Ring. Chatoyant stone, drilled through to form a ring. The wearer becomes invisible while the ring is on, save a catlike glimmering of their eyes. Made in secret to slip away from snakeman masters ages long gone.
10. Profane Idol. Delicate ivory figurine, the shape of a spindly, spider-curled man with an erect phallus. No facial features except a leering grin. Absorbs curses thrown against the bearer, but gives them terrible nightmares as a price (no longer gain benefits from resting, unable to regain Grit). Followers of the Venus Cult seek the destruction of their sinister obverse heresies.
11. Scaled Spear. The haft is carved with delicate traceries of scales, the head knapped from a giant serpent's tooth. The dried venom in the poison channel remembers being whole, and seeks to reunite with reptilian stock. Does +2 damage against scaled beings, and unerringly hits reptiles when thrown. Seeks to turn on the upstart mammals that created it in mockery of their fallen ophidian overlords.
12. Shaman Jar. Specially prepared ritual canopic jar. The shaman who uses it must be sacrificed, their heart and entrails interred inside. The body walks, immune to damage. If the organs are destroyed, the body dies and the soul is annihilated
13. Spirit Bowl. A ritual bowl, wide as one forearm. Expertly crafted from iron-rich clay, rust spots leaking from the glaze. When filled with a medium and rang, compels a nature spirit of the same kind to arrive. Does not guarantee safety, only audience.
    

    1. An ember from the hearth of a slain tribe. A fire elemental appears from the coal in 1d20 minutes.
    2. The sand from a canyon previously untrod by men. An earth elemental coalesces from the surrounding soil in 1d6 hours.
    3. Water gathered from a subterranean river. A water elemental draws itself out of ambient moisture in 2d6 turns.
    4. The feathers of a hunting bird, a singing bird, a carrion bird, and a speaking bird. An air elemental appears immediately.

14. Thirsting Knife. A cave-bear femur, sharpened to an edge and a point. Alive. Successive attacks add a cumulative +1 to damage rolls. If a strike fails to hit, the knife jerks and turns on its wielder and loses its bonus.
15. Tooth Arrow. Pulled from the skull of a sorcerer and fitted to a shaft. Those struck by the arrow are similarly struck dumb for 1d6 rounds as taboo knowledge fills their heads. There are 32 of these arrows in existence. Victims of the teeth, should they survive, recover with an additional 1d3 spells.
16. Trepanning Tools. Chisels, knives, and needles made of meteoric metal, soaked in clear cave water. After the procedure (save or die, unless performed by a very skilled medicine-person), the one trepanned can walk forth from their body once per day.
17. Watchful Hood. A scrap of molded leather, which fits on the head of a bird. Anything so hooded is tamed and obeys the owner, until the hood is removed.
18. Witch-Hair Rope. Strands of witch's hair, woven into a rope with ornaments of bone and silver. Can only be untied by the one who knotted it. 
19. Roll on the Potion Table.
20. Roll on the Snakeman Table.

Potions 

1. Balm-Milk. Extracted poppy-oil and human breastmilk, as well as other, more secret ingredients. Sanctified in a henge while the Mother Star is in the sky, one of the Venus-cult rites. Heals Flesh for 2d6 points.
2. Birdtongue. A songbird's tongue is boiled in drake-blood, the resulting mixture cut with wine to preserve the effects. Allows the drinker to listen in to the conversations of avians for 2d6 hours.
3. Cat's Eye. The ocular jelly of a sabre-toothed cat, swimming in a wine made from the juices of an orange, conical tuber. Grants enhanced night vision to the drinker.
4. Elixir of Immortality. The unclean blood of a Tainted One of great age carries the curse of Lightless Undeath within itself. Those who drink it become savage, blood-drinking, day-shunning undead, under their sire's sway, but no longer age or die by most mortal means.
5. Flying Ointment. An evil witch-medicine from the far north, across mountains where the snow never melts and ice covers the land. The fat of a newborn, mixed with datura, belladona, and lead, sanctified by a shaman of the Winking Stars. Smeared on the body, grants +3 to saves vs. cold, wavering prophetic visions, and the ability to levitate and hover until the mixture is washed or wears off.
6. Golden Mead. The ingredients of Golden Mead are jealously guarded, the preparation known only to sorcerers. Allows contact with the Spirits From the Winking Stars, to the detriment of Charisma. Stronger doses are said to induce coma and invulnerability to the forces of the Great Black beyond the sky. A holdover of snakeman technology.
7. Grave Herbs. A special shamanic blend, bundled together and sealed with innocent blood and wax. When burnt, quiets the undead until the smoke disippates.
8. Hidden Incense. Sprinkled onto flames, the steam produced coats everything in a shiny, semi-sticky mist, revealing any invisible or intangible spirits nearby.
9. Rotting Poison. Can only be eaten or drunk, not applied. Causes the skin to painfully swell yellow and pus-filled, then slough off. Non-lethal, but infections will be. Three doses are enough to poison a communal stew-pot.
10. Shaman Wax. An orange wax, gathered from a certain kind of stout palm tree then mixed with shamanic ingredients. A person coated in the wax is invisible to spirits (+2 to Saves against Magic), but is extremely flammable.
11. Shapechange. When drunk, the drinker transforms into the kind of animal whose blood is in the mixture. Save or stay that way after 24 hours. Reviled in most tribes as the rumored source of the curse of lycanthropy, along with divinely-punished hubris, cannibalism, or bestiality.
12. Split-Tongue. For 1d4 turns, the drinker can understand all spoken languages. They get +2 to all reaction rolls made by sentient beings, and any lies they tell are believed unless the listeners make a Save. Afterward, the drinker must Save or their tongue splits down the middle, making speech impossible.
13. Stoneskin Lacquer. Dumped on a person, their skin roughens and hardens into nodules and leather. Count AC as 2 higher, but become unskilled at dextrous tasks. Lasts 1d6 hours, then the shell falls off, revealing unscarred, delicate raw flesh.
14. Sweetwater. Liquid taken from the hidden spring of a water-spirit. A few drops purify all other fluids into cool, clean water.
15. Tree-Friend. The sap-blood of an old tree-spirit must be drained in secret, away from all plant-materials. Boiled, the remaining syrup may be imbibed to pass through plants as they recognize themselves in the drinker. If any plant or object made of plants sees the ritual, they act in hatred towards the sorcerer and drinkers involved, moving into their paths.
16. Trembling Poison. Causes violent shaking in victims. Usually coated on arrows or bladed weapons, all who suffer the trembling sickness have their Attack Values reduced by 3. Lasts 1d6 days, after which you must save or the effects are reduced but permanent.
17. Truthspeak. A silvery, viscous liquid that coats the tongue. Anyone speaking falsehood within earshot causes it to curdle. Lasts 1d10 turns.
18. Two-Step Poison. A potion made by coagulating the blood of a wild plains horse with snakeman venom, then sprinkling the dried cot into coca-water. Imbibed, has the same effects as a Fast spell, but the drinker takes 1 damage every round.
19. Wine of Sleep. Grapes fertilized by the fecal plugs of cave bears can be fermented into a greenish liquor that induces sleep to those who smell its fumes or drink it. The sleep lasts until they are attacked, or for 2d6 turns or hours depending on how it was administered.
20. Wolfshowl. The saliva of a dire-wolf, mixed with gall. Tattooed on the throat in the pictograms of the Hunt-God, allows the wearer to howl as a wolf, striking fear into the hearts of any prey animals within a mile on a failed save. All creatures are prey to the wolf, except other wolves. They arrive in 3d6 turns, a procession ready to hunt; refusal is cowardice and betrayal. The tattoo fades on the next full moon. The God of the Hunt is fickle and cares not to bind any of its worshippers to creeds or covenants. There is blood to be spilled.

I'm currently working on the stocking tables for treasure hoards writ-large, based a lot on the &Treasures tables by Luke "Gearing" Wolves Upon the Coast. One of the sticking points is how to translate an economy based on hacksilver (which is measured as coins in WUTC) to one without money. GURPS Ice Age had an interesting (and partially insane*) take on it with "$kins", which are a unit of labor equal to an hour's work, represented by small, prepared hides. I might do something similar, with each good being given a corresponding amount of "hours" it takes to produce them and stocking them with a total amount of labor invested into the hoard, but I'm still noodling. I'm not sure if I'll just update this post with all the treasure stocking stuff or make a new one, but I also have a lot of other dressing and stocking stuff I'll be posting too (like how the neolithic magic works, example spells and rituals, hexfill procedures, prehistoric encounters by biome and bestiary entries, etc.).

 

*The insanity comes from them calling the unit "$kins" with a dollar sign, like a 90s brand, and utilizing the symbol for the USD in a paleolithic splatbook. Ah, yes, a bone atlatl carved with reindeer is 15$, thank you GURPS.