Ideas for Magical Food Items in D&D #5

Dueling Delicious, Tangerine Diaspora, and Leyden Pwer (Yes that's how it's spelled)

In the last D&D post I went over the disturbing Eet Mees and practical Slow Time Tea. This time the strange theme will continue with a showy piece, a non-harmful explosion of flavor, and a shockingly dangerous reference.

First up is the Dueling Delicious which features a box bearing stylized Japanese samurai and cartoony shurikens and random kanji adorn the box. The front of the box showcases 2 hard candy samurai inside colored red and black. Upon opening the box the two samurai will emerge, bow, and duel until 1 samurai is defeated. Upon the duel finishing (determined by a coin flip) the 2 samurai will lose animation and just be regular hard candy. The red candy tastes of raspberry and the black of black raspberry. I valued this one at 10 gold since it’s a mini spectacle and non-threatening to NPCs so it could be affordable for them.

The idea for Dueling Delicious came from what a tourist shop, that an adventuring party would visit, in a land clearly inspired y Japan’s history. New uses for established schools of magic would be seen in the land which would change their outlook on what makes food interesting. So I thought “things moving on their own is a pretty universal ‘that’s not normal"‘ indicator'“ so the trend of animated food continued there. However, I added some randomness as a nod to the really popular Plinko parlors in Japan and some harmless visual violence in reference to video games like Mortal Kombat. The randomness would be in choosing which samurai wins the mini duel in your mind and hoping that one wins while the 2 samurai fighting would be enough of a spectacle to keep kids entertained or attract attention from adventurers.

The next idea is called Tangerine Diaspora which features a small bronze box with a big red button on top. When pushed the box detonates in a puff of sparkles and a cloud shaped like the sun is seen. Immediately noticeable to anyone in a 1-mile radius is the taste of orange and or citrus is all they can taste, constantly, for 1 hour. The box vanishes after use. I priced this one at 80 gold since it not only impacts the user, but also the entire party and a small part of whatever area they are in. Additionally, the non-harmful explosion would be a unique use of evocation or illusion based magic while paired with the trade of non-permanent or ephemeral enchantments; this case enchanting all individuals in the blast radius with a coated tongue of orange or general citrus for an entire hour.

The scenarios I imagined for the Diaspora would be either an overcomplicated joke or creating a false sense of danger. What makes this one complicated is the combined knowledge of 2 separate schools of magic as well as the material components. What’s inside the bronze box? Not quite sure since it disappears after detonation, but I imagine requiring a whole field of oranges or fruits as fuel for the enchantment. For a false sense of sinister danger, one need only place the box in a room that is dark, suspicious, and owned by questionable characters. Imagine this, you and your party infiltrated the lair of a minor villain in your campaign. He’s not harmless, but also not a big enough threat to denounce publically. Now you come across this large, bronze box with a large, enticing red button on top; begging to be pushed. A reckless dare-devil in the party will instigate the situation, press it, and alert the whole lair via suddenly and uncontrollably tasting orange for no good reason. Or perhaps the curious smarty-pants in the group says there is some danger in pressing unknown buttons, but out of sheer boredom and lack of options they’ll hold onto it for later thinking its a bomb, but find out it’s a non-damaging enchantment.

Lastly is Leyden Pwer which a glass jar with a tin top and a metal rod sticking out of the lid. A label on the front depicts a crudely drawn teenager being struck by lightning and above him the name “Leyden Pwer” in an animated bubble with jagged edges. Inside the jar is a clear liquid with almost cartoonish looking lightning bolts arcing throughout it. When opened the consumer is shocked for 4d8 lightning damage. If consumed, the consumer gains the power to strike an enemy, once, for 4d8 lightning damage when attacking with a metal melee weapon or with a physical attack. This one is priced at 180 gold since it can outright kill an NPC and is probably not mass produced by a professional.

The inspiration for this came from learning about primitive forms of batteries during my physics classes in college. One of the earliest versions of power storage is a clay jar, filled with an oily substance, with a thin metal rod housing a non-conductive substance inside, poking through a small hole molded at the top. Using wool or other course materials with loose electrons, one could rub the top of the metal rod and store electrons on the rod submerged in the 2 different liquids and then connect the battery in a circuit somewhere else to move electrons for a reasonable amount of time, thus creating a closed circuit with a power source. For the food item, the canon way of producing the battery would be the same for some primitive culture that needs something like this. However once figured out by a magician or guru they could produce these at about 1 per day and charge them with actual lightning for more “kick”. For players, they would charge themselves with the stored lightning, hurting them greatly, but it would grant them a one time use of a lightning bolt at their discretion; creating a high risk, high reward scenario for them. Also, to add to the science history a little more, this form of the battery is known as the “Leyden Jar” and the wordplay would be evoking “latent power” in a player that could be stored, like a battery, but produced primitively for whatever purpose.