Arms and Artifacts of Zul – Tome 1 by Cliff Dunn is a role playing game supplement published by Zeal Zaddy for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as a 10 page Pay What You Want supplement from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, one the front matter, one the Contents and one the Open Game License.
The first two pages of content are taken up by some links to Free City of Vadashar material, a sidebar, Welcome to the Free City of Vadashar, that is duplicated from other supplements and gives background and history of the city, its present and future.
This is a collection of three different magical items from the Zul setting, each of which has some introductory paragraphs giving details of the item. The first, the Bowl of Malphas, is a bronze vessel to which is bound a spirit entity. The bowl, once 20 hp of humanoid blood has been sacrificed to it, allows the use of scrying and detect thoughts, and also increases Wisdom and grants truesight.
The Sword of Ardaxir is an enchanted weapon with the additional properties that cause more damage on a (presumably natural, though it’s not outright stated), 20, and then has a small chance of chopping off a limb or other part of the body.
River Elf Wine is a modified wine that allows waterbreathing, with a cumulative effect on duration, but more than one glass causes the imbiber to suffer the effects of alcohol (it’s noted that undead, constructs and creatures immune to the effects of alcohol or sleep are not affected at all).
Arms and Artifacts of Zul – Tome 1 in Review
The PDF is bookmarked but only the Welcome to the Free City of Vadashar material and OGL are linked, not the items. The Contents are more thorough. Navigation could be better, though the supplement is short enough that this isn’t a real problem. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors (though clarity could be used for the sword as mentioned). There are a number of colour stock art images, up to full page in size, including one for each item. Presentation is decent.
The Bowl of Malphas is a decent item, though there’s a definite feeling you could add negative consequences for sacrificing blood to a possibly demonic entity. The Sword of Ardaxir is, the majority of the time, just an enchanted weapon with a detailed history, that sometimes does serious damage. River Elf Wine is an unusual twist on a potion. The magic items are also generally useful; though this will mean modifying or ignoring their histories, they can easily enough be dropped into another setting. Arms and Artifacts of Zul – Tome 1 has a decent collection of items and it can be found by clicking here.
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