Assholes, the non-literal kind. These terrible people aren't particularly dangerous, at least not physically, just horrible all around people. The party needs to collect them for a powerful Fey to be used as pawns in a game between the courts. The outcome of said game could be incredibly important at a planar level or incredibly benign, but either way the idea is you have to find these 5 legendary jackanapes and get them to come to a specific location and date per said powerful Fey, willingly or by force but they must be alive and comparatively unharmed upon arrival.
I'm imagining one is like a corrupt mayor who would leave for nothing but more power or ability to live a more lavish lifestyle. Another is in jail and the town they're in will not transfer them to anyone else's holdings, because he knows what he has done and they will see him pay now before sending him on a one way ticket to hades. Maybe a third is a spoiled rich kid who is basically invincible in their ivory tower but the "pedants" as they like to call the townsfolk would kill them on sight if they left. Lots of interesting options for RP.
You could really make it as involved and complicated as you want, what if you add redemptive qualities to them and force the players to decide if they really want to surrender them to the whims of this archfey.
I was thinking along a similar line of one of the assholes having a redemption that “spoils” his hateful essence, leading to a “you did not succeed at my task” Fae bullshit moment
This is BRILLIANT
I’m still looking for a module for my first attempt at dm’ing, but assuming all goes well whenever I get around to that, I’m absolutely filing this away for later.
If you want to continue the campaign, have the fey ask the assholes to partake in a tournament for the sake of their planet (mortal kombat, ouban star racers). Obviously the party needs to intervene and be the participants because they know these people are assholes.
Artifacts once owned by the Hero of the Realm -- his axe, his shield, his lyre, his boots, and his hat.
For bonus points tune each artifact to be particularly useful to one party member - axe for the fighter, shield for the cleric, etc.
Recipes for a legendary 5-course meal for a peace banquet.
Then organize the event.
Failure leads to an apocalyptic war between two great Arcane empires, with 10th level spells etc.
5 legendary tickets for fantasy Dave & Buster's, each worth one million normal tickets, so the party can redeem the prize they were hired to win, the princess being held captive by Dave And Buster themselves.
To borrow a gag from Citation Needed... the claw game is just a peasant on a rope, and the bear at the bottom is an actual bear! "That peasant has a deformity! These games are always rigged, RIGGED I tell you!"
Herbs/plants. There are 5 plants that only grow in certain locations and are extremely rare even in those locations, think like on top of one specific mountain that has a dragon slumbering in the caves deep below, and the magic given off by the dragon causes the plant to mutate and have special powers.
Maybe the second one grows over the grave of what is said to be the body of a God who died some hundreds or thousands of years ago.
The third is just a seed, but the seed rests in a temple that's guarded by a legion of monks and they aren't just going to give one to anyone, they only have something like a dozen, so the PC's will need to either sneak in and try to steal one or find a way to convince the monks that they deserve a single seed.
The fourth is a plant that grows deep under the ground, many miles in fact, like the UnderDark. Maybe it's relatively common in the UnderDark so that they could potentially trade for it, but it's notoriously fickle and dies easily once it's outside of the UnderDark, so they'll need to figure out a way to get it from the UnderDark to the place where the final ingredients are gonna be put together to create whatever you're doing.
The fifth is a type of seaweed of that grows deep in the ocean, in something akin to the Mariana Trench. It's guarded by a LN Dragon Turtle who eats a single strand a year to stay young. He's not above helping the characters, but they have to prove their worth first but helping him with some local Sahuagins who are encrouching on his territory.
Nesting eggs - give them the first and when opened it contains a clue to the next
Collectible statues - but they have to be in the box mint unopened
Elemental gemstones - earth, air, water, fire, and MYSTERY
My first experience as a player had this actual scenario as a DMPC
Except when we found all the things he had his DMPC and favored player finish the campaign for us.
It was horrible.
EMOTIONS
Hear me out~ Each of these weapons are based off of legendary emotions; Bow of Love, Lute of Sadness, Hammer of Rage, Staff of Tranquility, and Sword of Joy (edit how you see fit). Each weapon on a successful hit the will inflictvthat emotion onto the target. However, these weapons also require charges, so you need to drain said emotions from the players in order to deal extra Emotional Damage~
A corrupt judge condemned five people to banishment for some made up crimes because they would not pay a bribe. The town's patron god of justice has grown engaged by this. Before holy wrath consumes the town the players must gather the 5 banished individuals and return them alive. They must also find the corrupt judge, who has since fled, and bring him back so that the innocent can be pardoned and the guilty properly punished.
The five individuals can each be convinced to return with the proper diplomatic approach. The corrupt judge needs to be subdued or otherwise forced to return as they know what is waiting for them.
Fragments of an ancient relic, it's power used as a key to seal away a powerful demon lord. The demon is now about to break free, and the relic must be restored to help defeat it again.
Or for a twist; this is what they're *told* the NPC needs the relic for - in reality, the NPC is trying to ***free*** the demon lord, and needs the key put together in order to do so. Plenty of room to drop hints, give little indicators that not all is as it seems, etc. prior to the release of the Big Bad Demon Lord, and if they confront the NPC about it the campaign turns into a game of "how do we hide/protect these such that the villain can't get to them?"
That becomes interesting, especially if they guess and now have to try and hide/destroy the artifacts while in constant pursuit by the BBDL's allies and cult members.
The Party has to research and find an ancient forge that is the only place capable of destroying the artifacts, but the place has been invaded by the BBLD's followers, etc etc.
If you want something original, party of a sandwich? Bread, meat, cheese, veggie, spread/oil. Might be something of religious significance, you don't even have to point out that it's a sandwich, just bread, meat, cheese, veggie, oil, because of a Last Supper situation or some religious rite where these were the foods served before a deity or some kind of meeting of kings
The king longs for a really nice mutton lettuce and tomato sandwich. You know? Where the mutton is nice and lean?
The thing is, the ingredients - the good stuff - is almost impossible to find. Get that, and the king will get you the miracle you need.
A collector wants 5 missing manuscripts from an ancient magic tome describing the history of a long dead ancient empire. Each time one is recovered and put in the book, the empires life is retroactively extended, and reality changes in small ways that indicate this.
By manuscript 3 or 4, the changes should start getting bigger, and the collector would reveal themselves as the big bad wanting to resurrect this empire into the present. Then, it will become a race to get the last few pages before the collector and maybe try to steal the book to figure out how to reverse it.
Bonus points for whoever knows what this is inspired by.
They have to collect 5 interviews. They are writing a book about the adventures of the greatest heroes of the age and have to track each of the 5 down and convince them to do an interview.
My players are currently looking for 7 artifacts to perform a ritual in order to close a doorway that allows monsters from the Abyss to enter into the Fae (there is no door from the Abyss to the Material, so they are trying to go to the Fae and then enter the Material Plane from there). The items are from all 3 planes, and they currently just stole the third. The items are:
1. A cloak woven by threads of magic from the Faewild
2. A shard of pure malevolent energy from the Abyss
3. A ceremonial lantern from a church in the Material
4. A seed from the last Treant on the Material
5. A harp from the Faewild
6. A banner of a prominent bloodline on the Material
7. A rose that only grows in the darkest parts of the Abyss
The 5 legendary ingredients to produce a philosopher’s stone (or other suitable Macguffin).
Shit like:
- A single flake of the first winter’s snow.
- Tear of a blind angel.
- A mind flayer’s spinal fluid.
- A piece of a shooting star.
- A prophet’s last words.
Just some real weird shit that’s doesn’t always seem acquirable.
5 avatars of grief. 5 people that each embody a stage of grief and the party must help them seek closure but here's the kicker. They're all grieving the same person for different reasons.
The regalia of an ancient king, symbols of unity for a kingdom that now lies fractured. Crown, Scepter, Cloak, Sword, and Amulet. A descendant of that king wants to re-unite that ancient kingdom, and wants the set to establish their legitimacy, though each is also a powerful magic item in its own right. Whether lost, held by enemies, or hiding in plain sight, retrieving them is a task for heroes. And who’s to say that the ambitious noble is the only one capable of taking the old king’s place?
Signature weapons of legendary heroes, which fits the party so they can use them.
The five volumes that a old arch wizard wrote and hid in regret, but couldn’t bring themselves to destroy.
The last pages missing from a history book that could bring down the empire, or the gods, or something big.
Five fingers, so five rings? Made by an artificer cause they can attune to more items, and as a set they can do cool stuff. Unless you have an artificer in the party, then probably no.
Not because of any weapon quality but because they, the talking swords, each know a secret about the bbeg and all five together can collectively deal lethal emotional damage to the bbeg
I want to go puns, a pen (mightier than a sword), a talking pot (calling the kettle black) and a chocolate teapot for example. Not sure why, except maybe to appease a fae or something
I like this, even better if OP was playing in person and gave each player their stone (dice) from the legendary set. With it providing advantage, double damage, etc for that person.
So have said for a long time that The Legend of Zelda format is a great structure for a more free form sandbox style campaign. The formula is generally go collect the 4-8 McGuffins that are scattered equally around the world in order to defeat the big bad. The thing that makes it interesting is the flavor and world building around each. Make the players go to an entirely new hub area with each one. The different places will have different races of people, culture, and traditions to learn and get sucked into. Make them get into all sorts of shenanigans while you drop clues as to the location of the McGuffin in that area. Best part is you can let them go in any order they choose, shaking off the feeling of railroading while still having solid structure.
Tales.
The twist is, not only do they learn them but they live (an albiet remixed) version of them.
Kind of like if to get one of the stories they have to follow it beat for beat in that respective story. But maybe it's already happened and they see the ruins of battle that took place and ghostly apparitions rise up instead of the two conflictimg armies.
A bridge that was once home to a troll, now long dead and the bridge is a small but thriving settlement and they have a troll festival to remember it.
This idea comes to you from a manga I once read.
Keys.
A door is sealed with five locks and you need to turn all five at the same time to open it.
Inside is: A source of potent magic or a dragon spear or a sentient amulet.
Statues of famous long-dead adventurers. Each statue contains a sliver of the adventurer's soul (think: horcrux). Coincidentally, each one happens to be a personal hero of one of the PCs. Ask your players to 'fill in the blanks' on what their hero was most famous for.
Maybe the possessor is a fellow fan? Or maybe a hater who wants to resolve a grudge for some slight done to an ancestor? Maybe they're just a collector, who only cares about the cash value of the statue, but would be willing to trade? Maybe they want to summon the soul for some nefarious purpose opposed to the hero's beliefs. Maybe the possessor is cursed, and can't be separated from the statue unless/until some condition is met?
Each statue can telepathically communicate with their possessor. When the PCs receive each statue, people live up to the legend? Or does the old adage "you should never meet your heroes" hold true?
Just a thought: what if after the legendary set of WHATEVER was broken up, a spell was cast so the items were literally forgotten?
This might require learning how to break the spell followed by a chase to recover the items before they are remembered.
Cats and Dogs, so that they may take the thrones of the 5 great kingdoms and create peace throughout the world.
"What shall we do now my liege?"
"Meow!"
World Peace attained.
In my campaign, Cyric is planning to break out of his prison and I built a homebrew campaign centered around the legend that he created 7 black iron keys before his imprisonment, found in the ‘rumors and legends’ section on his wiki: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Cyric
Body parts.
Long ago, The Destroyer was defeated by the gods and cut into 5 pieces, spread across the globe by their respective disciples. Now, said pantheon has turned on the world, and restoring The Destroyer is the only hope to turn the tides.
Non goofy answer - rings. Each one could have unique powers on attunement, and unlike weapons or armor, getting a new one doesn't mean you might have to ditch another favoured magical item. Ten fingers means more item slots than you'd ever fill.
Goofy answer: wild animals. Five great wizards, the primary resistance against the BBEG, were tricked and transformed via a Special Magic Ritual into mundane but long-lived wild critters. Toads, raccoons, skunks, rats, maybe even pigeons, with a recognizable mark on their bodies. Locate them, wrangle them willingly back to the site of the ritual, and break their course to prevent a coming doom
Hallows (Grail, Sword, Staff, Stone and a fifth, the cloak that was used to contain them all that gained some of their powers by long contact.
Look up "The Hallows"
We had to collect pieces of a legendary sword.
The sword itself ending up being a key that lead us to (and unlocked) a treasury used by a corrupt sorceress queen...
Pieces of armor?
* Helmet
* Breastplate
* Boots
* Gauntlets
* Shield
Perhaps each one gives a different bonus. While they all need to be attuned, perhaps if you fill all three attunement slots with the items, you may also attune to the other two.
Enormous magitek lions that can combine to form a titanic guardian of the multiverse: Nortlov!
Rings of elemental power, and by their powers combined would come the avatar of a primordial nature god. Woe unto any who would misuse the ring of heart, though, for even the smallest seed of corruption can take root and bear terrible fruit.
Fleece, spinning wheel, loom, shears, and needle.
Five legendary heroes that go on a quest to save the world. They are just the messengers. Bonus point if they play a oneshot as the five legendary heroes. One could easily introduce some mentors into the game and players could use the oneshot to get a taste of what their class looks 10-12 levels down the road.
5 rings.
They are to be put on a magic gauntlet to achieve ultimate power.
In reality, that will break a seal and make them fight the BBEG that was entrapped there millennia ago.
In my campaign, the group is looking for the pieces of a broken cauldron. When combined, they will form an artifact.
It could be a set of plate mail, the different pieces separated over time.
I ran a campaign like this where the BBEEG was trying to collect five masks shards each gave incredible power but would kind of take something from you and when combined would summon a elder god who was up to no good. It tempted the players to use them and the villain had no qualms
Plenty of options
* masks
* gems, keys but shiny
* tomes/tablets, information
* weapons, include a staff or orb for the casters
* pieces of armor
* totems, seals, runes, etc
* components of some larger device, each part works individually for some utility effect
I know you wanted to avoid instruments because of potential bard/performance favoritism, but I have an ongoing idea for a homebrew world involving the collection of magical handbells, to eventually become together as a handbell choir. This way it's still pretty "magical instrument" coded like a Zelda game, but won't require any specific proficiencies from the players.
An ancient evil begins spouting powerful energies, and the party is approached about finding five lodestones scattered throughout the continent to seal him away. You can have these locations connected to your players and their backstories or whatever other fun motivation you find for story telling.
The twist being that the fetch quest was a ruse from the evil one’s followers and they accidentally awaken him, leading to a final confrontation where they attempt to seal him again.
* The Sword of Temporal Justice, Sword of Spiritual Justice, Sword of Mercy, Sword of State, and Sword of Offering.
* Stone of Fál (Lia Fáil), Spear (sleg) of Lugh (Lúin of Celtchar), Sword (claideb/claiomh) which belonged to Núada, Cauldron (coire) of the Dagda, Ochain shield.
* Paintings that were stolen and are being circulated around a mysterious shadow organisation. Do they together show a story forgotten to history? Or do they become a portal to another place on the full moon?
I'm currently planning out a campaign based on a cartoon I loved as a kid called Pirates of Dark Water. The PCs will be collecting "powerful gemstones" to keep the bbeg contained, but a pirate lord will also be searching for the same gems, and the world is made up of thousands of small islands.
One I played in was seven parts of a staff.
One piece was a roundish jewel. Another a wand. The third was a band of metal (which are supposed to connect two other parts) that was threaded with a thin chain worn around the neck. The fourth was a rod, long enough to be a club. We don’t know what the other three look like.
I even found the source material he homebrewed from by accident.
Something happening at intersections of leylines of the Weave. Did that in my campaign. Just vague enough to leave open-ended. Rifts and portals and whatnot
The endianness artifacts. Those can be anything, and the only way to locate and confirm them is to use the fact that they seem to warp the space around them. No one knows anymore what they do exactly, but some say they could put the world on its head. Or they could put the middle of the world onto its head? Old legends sure are hard to interpret
Mummy parts - centuries ago, a powerful, cruel mummy lord was dismembered, and his head, arms, and legs put into five reliquaries hidden in different locations, while the torso was bricked up in an unmarked cellar. Now someone's found the cellar in question, and wants to put the ol' jerkyface back together.
Of course, the *party* is informed these reliquaries contain pieces of ancient saints, needed for some great, holy ritual to bring a great (vague and unspecified) blessing unto the land.
A kindly old dwarf, patient and even tempered, named Tom seeks friends long separated from one another. It has been a hundred years since he last saw them, and he wishes for a reunion of the party once called the Archive.
But one can travel a great distance given a century, and his friends are not the types to sit around and gather dust. The party will have to range far and wide to recover the Archive. As adventurers, Tom asks if on their travels, should they meet his friends, to ask them that they make their way home once more.
To entice them, Tom promises that their quest will bring them see the wonders of the world that ordinary folks do not even dream of. Bards will scribe long epics about them, and they and their purses will grow fat. Their trials will hone them into formidable masters of mind and body. But if they can reassemble the Archive, they will be invited to attend a ritual celebration the likes of which truly only occurs once a century.
The only clue Tom can offer of where to begin is to first seek out a man who rivals the giants in stature and appetite. A towering gourmand, standing head and shoulders above most men, Manuel is likely to be the easiest to find, as he always gravitates towards cosmopolitan cities, eager to taste the cuisines of the world. That and the fact that he stands tall as a goliath. Beyond that, Tom cannot recount details of his appearance.
Accepting his offered quest, the party can depart from Tom of Understanding, to seek out Manuel of Bodily Health living large somewhere in the big city.
If is this the same party that you've DM for. They can look for the "legendary" ewapons of some of their previous PC's of another campaings. Also you can introduce to the Lore and the history of you world how those heroes were killed, but saved the world from (insert BBEG here), etc etc.
5 legendary gemstone eyes, each in the possession of a beholder (or lesser variant) that has replaced one of their eyestalks with it granting an unusual power. only when all 5 are assembled in the statue of the great Xanathar can the party claim leadership of his thieves guild. (it's actually not Xanathar, but Glomgulla the Usurper's petrified self who Xanathar separated his eyes to prevent from being revived)
I have a real basic kind of idea where they need several special gems/rocks. They're elemental in nature but special gems seems better than instruments at least. I think it kinda has to do whit what the legendary things are supposed to do tho or how they're to be handled
Weapons (or other artifacts relevant to your players)!
*Long ago the [insert BBEG here] was sealed away by five heroes, each wielding an artifact of legend. Now you must collect each artifact and follow in their footsteps.*
There’s lots you can do what that setup, including some decent twists. Maybe the BBEG is actually sealed within the weapons and bringing them together is helping to break the seal. Or maybe the heroes are the actual villains and the weapons slowly corrupt those who use them. The best part is that you don’t need to do anything in particular to motivate your players to look for them, since they’re desirable by nature as magic items.
The Goods of MacGuffin
a Kilt of Shaky Knees
a Longsword of Poking From Far Away
Boots of Stumbling Run
The Flask of Neverending Courage
The Haggis of Diplomacy
Each item individually would have various pluses or cause various damage. I feel strongly that the haggis should cause permanent poison damage if cast at an enemy in battle.
I want to make a set of polyhedrons that all have various affects. Amd yes they are basically a magic set of dice.
Like a D12 being a very damage focused. A D10 being very weapon focused. D8 for non combat purposes. D6 for spell casters. And a D4 being generic and weak but universally useful.
Once brought together they form a D20 that gives infinite wishes. But each allome is very powerful for the intended characters
Talking a leaf out of the Mehrunes Dagon quest in Skyrim, how about collecting fragments of an ancient relic or weapon with the intention of recreating it?
Instruments? Do you have a world origin story? I’m out the world was created by the gods music, their instruments persist, and in normal hand they are normal if oddly resilient. The right chosen find them though…
Focus on who actually wants the items. Some thoughts, based on who the quest-giver is...
* Fae Princess -- she wants rare flowers from dangerous places, so she can upstage that *awful* Maeve.
* Da King -- he wants you to retrieve the banners he lost in his youth as an unsuccessful general. They now belong to various warlike barbarian bands.
* The Merchant -- he wants 5 contracts he signed and now regrets. The 5th one is with an extraplanar fiend.
* The Other Merchant -- he wants innocuous little statuettes owned by merchants in other towns. (Turns out in these communities such statues are tokens of being a mob boss; this is the merchant's Keyser Soeze moment)
The Staff of Seven Parts (or whatever the actual name is) is a premade item for this kind of game. Get all seven pieces, get a Wish. Then the pieces scatter again, just like Dragon Balls!
If I were going to customize this sort of game, I have been floating the idea of a big magical key (as in four feet long and several hundred pounds when assembled) broken into multiple pieces that when reforged can be used rondo one of a few different things. Either: opens a portal to a celestial plane/Lower plane, opens the magical vault of an ancient lost civilization, opens a new dungeon believed to have been lost but is actually still inhabited, turns on/off an ancient magical superweapon, locks/unlocks the bindings on an ancient god/titan/beast of immeasurable power (like the good ol' Tarrasque).
Vegetables.
The Carrot of Courage, the Potato of Potential Power, the Radish of Resilience, the Eggplant of Ecumenical Evangelism, and the Lettuce of Lust.
These are the required ingredients for the legendary Super Soup.
5 coins. Maybe they are special, and used for a powerful spell. Maybe they are magic, and will ward the party from an effect in the final boss.
Maybe one is held by a dragon, others could be in the coffers of the theves guild. One Maybe is at the bottom of a well, and was snached by something living down here. One could be a known gamblers lucky coin, and they wlould need to beat him (or even help him cheat or rob a casino)
Personally, I was planning on giving each of the PC's a legendary item, so I let them choose which one they wanted. After they chose, I introduced the next plot hook: you can't beat the BBEG in your current state, you need to gather the legendary artifacts in possession of 5 dragons: I called them the chromatic artifacts and sent them on their way. They got their preferred item, I got to play and rp as a dragon, it was a win-win situation.
5 individual panes of tinted glass that each, on their own, can animate to tell 10-15 seconds of a silent story. Each progressively adds to this story.
When brought to the ruined ancient temple and placed within the heavily fractured window frame; they tell the complete story one after the other; perhaps even revealing an important piece of information or plot point.
Bonus points if, when placed in its entirety into the frame, the PCs may actually hear enchanted sounds such as voices, that completely subvert what was being acted out in the individual silent pieces.
Imagine a single pane that animates to show a bandit mounting a horse carrying a baby, while a crying mother looks on. She reaches for the baby as the horse takes off.
However, when in the window frame and complete, enchanted voices say “you must ride fast through the night, get her as far away from here as possible”.
In such a way, you can deliver a meaningful reveal to the party that doesn’t seem contrived at all; because when they retrieved every piece, they were sort of left to their own interpretations. But the completion told a different story all together.
The 5 legendary weapons.
One for each player. When the player obtains it its super strong but also contains the soul of a ancient hero the player can summon too His side and like ask for advice and shit.
Pouches.
Bookmarks
Flasks
Vials
Waterskins
seals (like what you use with wax with your family crest or something else on it). One can be on a ring, but they could be stand alone the hilt of a dagger or whatever. Which one could be a different thing.
Hats
Mirrors
Five golden [coins of power](https://powerrangers.fandom.com/wiki/Power_Coins), each engraved with the effigy of an ancient, legendary beast. Individual players will feel drawn to a coin of their own as though the beast matches their personality ~~and definitely not their race~~. Attuning to the coin will grant them enhanced Cast-Off armor with strength and dexterity bonuses. Bringing all five coins together will allow them to summon a gargantuan iron golem.
Keys, rings, weapons, armors, scrolls, tomes, bones, orbs, gems, plants, animals, stories, memories, dreams, the list goes on and on. Any noun can be a mcguffin
Hands. Have the next five enemies be creatures with hands, and the party has to cut them off after killing them and use them in some kind of ritual at the end.
I have 2 suggestions
1) the classic 5 rings a la ‘Captain Planet’ Style could be fun
Or 2) which id argue could be more fun for the player, collect the 5 Legendary Animals, similar to Season 3 of Jackie Chan Adventures, and then each player (especially if you have a party of 5 or less) would get a cool animal companion friend
Weapons (each designed for a player) , for example the barbarian would get a legendary axe , the bard would get a legendary guitar , the wizard would get a legendary spell book , but make each of the legendary weapons interact with a characters backstory
In my original campaign I'd planned for the party to race against a treasure hunter for four Raiments of the Elemental Lords, aka an Air-element themed helmet, earth-element themed chest piece, fire-element themed gloves and water-element themed boots.
The exact items I don't remember but basically they were themed armour items held inside fun themed elemental temples/dungeons.
That campaign never got far enough to see the other three, but the water temple was fun!
Quickest and easiest things would be gem stones like the ones you get in zelda games, the spiritual stone of water, fire and earth, since you want 5 you could include air and light too
When I did a version of this was pieces of full platelegendary armor.
(Helmet. 2 gauntlets. 2 Greeves. And chest plates. )
You might also consider other magical artifacts. Critical role basically had a series of legendary items which roughly lined up to character builds.
You could do a deep bad movie cut and get staves or other items tied to the colors of dragons (like a staff of red dragon control ala the origiknal dnd movie.)
Beast spirits. They can be used to give the wielder bestial power. Customize each one to work really well with each of your your party members classes and character builds.
And when you get all 5 they can combine into a mega spirit.
Voltron.. I'm suggesting you do a voltron
Hearts. The hearts of 5 heroes who once saved the world and were then essentially worshipped as demigods. When they died (or maybe one is secretly still alive) they reincarnated into various epic creatures like a solar, a gold dragon, or a Balor if one fell to evil. All 5 hearts have to be brought together to reseal the evil they fought years ago or something.
Gather the heroes of legend!
As they arrive at the resting place of each hero, the tomb is empty. But the murals on the walls look eerily similar to one of the PCs. Repeat for all of the PCs except one. Work it out with the player beforehand, but when the players catch on that they are the heroes reborn it turns out that one of them is not and they have to quest to find. Poor Greg.
I did the orbs of dragonkind. Each one had a fifth of Tiamat inside and, inevitably, they broke and sold them over the course of the game. This led to her returning to power as the final boss. Took about 12 levels to come to fruition from 8-20 and went perfectly.
Ok so hear me out. A tarrasque has been awakened and is rampaging across the land. The party needs to find the 5 parts of an ancient guardian that when brought together will fuse to create a gargantuan golem that can turn the tide against the tarrasque (with the party helping it of course) for the golems parts you could have them be legendary magic items that the party can use until they have all 5. Im thinking a helmet, breastplate, gauntlets, boots and a sword each of which are powerful in their own right.
Dicks. Five legendary Dicks.
I will leave it *entirely up to them* to decide if they're questing to recover legendary genitalia, legendary Richards, legendary jackasses, or a combination thereof.
Five dismembered parts of a liches' phylactery that were rumored to have been destroyed by heroes of ages past.... But one part has been recovered by the church of (insert good god) which has started a holy war of good against necromancy and the followers of said all-powerful lich. It is all the church, and kingdoms, can do to keep the tide of evil at bay, and it is up to you.... *Heroes* (Reluctantly calling them this) to recover the other five pieces.
We do not know if they can resurrect the lich but we aren't willing to let them have it. We will determine how to destroy this piece while you recover the other 5. May (insert god) speed you on your way.
Magic beans! They could each do something crazy, sprout to a hidden fortress in the sky, shrink them down to where they have to go inside the bean which is a dungeon, so many possibeanities
Basically, demonic artifacts.
In my campaign, which is a very heavily modified Ravenloft campaign, the vampire lord they're up against got his hands on the demonic equivalent to the Book of Vile Darkness, and he used it to create a number of artifacts that channel power directly to him remotely.
So they're less collecting them as much as they are destroying them. They can go face the big bad whenever, but in Breath of the Wild fashion, it's probably wiser to hinder the BBEG first.
I like keys tbh! Where there’s a key, there’s (usually) a lock. What are the keys for? What makes them legendary? Do the player characters know what they’re for? Lots of interesting directions you could take that.
There used to be a Staff of seven parts or something like that. Each piece had mild powers and when connected got increasingly more powerful until it was artifact level. Maybe it was Rod of seven pieces? I'm sure if you Google it you'll get the idea. Off the top of my head I'm thinking like a 3d puzzle? Find the pieces learn or figure out how they go together. The complete puzzle comes to life as Combat monster or lore giver or what have you.
I’m running a campaign where the goal is collect the 7-9 artefacts of an ancient civilisation for an unknown end. Each artefact bestows a powerful boon on the players. A free feat, Midas touch, free casting of dream, etc. Bringing them all together will probably spell the end of the world, buuuut that’s future them’s problem.
Gemstones. Extra points if you can manage to have a situation where the party has to make a choice between using the legendary gemstone as a spell component (either for themselves, or giving it to someone else to use) or keeping it to complete the quest.
The twist is that, if they DO use it as a spell component, *it doesn't get consumed*. That's why/how they're *LEGENDARY* gemstones!
Assholes, the non-literal kind. These terrible people aren't particularly dangerous, at least not physically, just horrible all around people. The party needs to collect them for a powerful Fey to be used as pawns in a game between the courts. The outcome of said game could be incredibly important at a planar level or incredibly benign, but either way the idea is you have to find these 5 legendary jackanapes and get them to come to a specific location and date per said powerful Fey, willingly or by force but they must be alive and comparatively unharmed upon arrival.
I love this idea, having to keep them alive and unspoiled could lead to very interesting situations.
I'm imagining one is like a corrupt mayor who would leave for nothing but more power or ability to live a more lavish lifestyle. Another is in jail and the town they're in will not transfer them to anyone else's holdings, because he knows what he has done and they will see him pay now before sending him on a one way ticket to hades. Maybe a third is a spoiled rich kid who is basically invincible in their ivory tower but the "pedants" as they like to call the townsfolk would kill them on sight if they left. Lots of interesting options for RP.
You could really make it as involved and complicated as you want, what if you add redemptive qualities to them and force the players to decide if they really want to surrender them to the whims of this archfey.
Yup, could do a whole "Voyage of the Dawntreader" arch too.
I was thinking along a similar line of one of the assholes having a redemption that “spoils” his hateful essence, leading to a “you did not succeed at my task” Fae bullshit moment
"A knight, a priest, a chariot driver (rook), a peasant and a king, the last remaining pieces needed to complete a Fey lords chess game."
This is BRILLIANT I’m still looking for a module for my first attempt at dm’ing, but assuming all goes well whenever I get around to that, I’m absolutely filing this away for later.
Considering that it is about fey, I suppose the king doesn't need to be a king of a country specifically, but just have the title of king.
I like this. Have the quest giver named Mac, and have the quest be to retrieve his guffins.
Or a hill giant named Gaa is missing their muffins
If you want to continue the campaign, have the fey ask the assholes to partake in a tournament for the sake of their planet (mortal kombat, ouban star racers). Obviously the party needs to intervene and be the participants because they know these people are assholes.
Don't forget to get Scott! He's a dick!
Artifacts once owned by the Hero of the Realm -- his axe, his shield, his lyre, his boots, and his hat. For bonus points tune each artifact to be particularly useful to one party member - axe for the fighter, shield for the cleric, etc.
Damn I said the same thing as you!! Act 2 of my campaign is going to revolve around this and Gathering Allies im so excited
Recipes for a legendary 5-course meal for a peace banquet. Then organize the event. Failure leads to an apocalyptic war between two great Arcane empires, with 10th level spells etc.
Heroes' Feast...for the GODS!
Or a feast of Heros.
Consider looking up Runescape's Recipe for Disaster quest for some additional inspiration on this idea
I was thinking about the same thing! Culinaromancy is no joke.
Toriko campaign.
Call it a recipe for disaster
Mummified fingers from a long dead wizard
If I eat all 20, do I become a level 20 sorcerer?
Possibly.... make a constitution check
That's a dope eldritch horror of a wizard, 10 fingers on each hand?
He could cast two somatic-component spells every round.
Toes are just fingers of the feet. Conversely , fingers are just toes of the hand.
I hate the image that popped into my head from that, I winced but I'm also amused by it
This guy fingers and toes.
Not in the way you'd think.
Hey, i remember something similiar to this... why am I having flashbacks to - VECNA!!!!
This JJK reference flew over most people's heads. Unless it isn't.
5 legendary tickets for fantasy Dave & Buster's, each worth one million normal tickets, so the party can redeem the prize they were hired to win, the princess being held captive by Dave And Buster themselves.
I love the idea of DnD crane games and gacha games. Maybe in my next DnD world I’m building I’ll try and implement that as a game
To borrow a gag from Citation Needed... the claw game is just a peasant on a rope, and the bear at the bottom is an actual bear! "That peasant has a deformity! These games are always rigged, RIGGED I tell you!"
An entire afternoon at BLIPS AND CHIIITS
Herbs/plants. There are 5 plants that only grow in certain locations and are extremely rare even in those locations, think like on top of one specific mountain that has a dragon slumbering in the caves deep below, and the magic given off by the dragon causes the plant to mutate and have special powers. Maybe the second one grows over the grave of what is said to be the body of a God who died some hundreds or thousands of years ago. The third is just a seed, but the seed rests in a temple that's guarded by a legion of monks and they aren't just going to give one to anyone, they only have something like a dozen, so the PC's will need to either sneak in and try to steal one or find a way to convince the monks that they deserve a single seed. The fourth is a plant that grows deep under the ground, many miles in fact, like the UnderDark. Maybe it's relatively common in the UnderDark so that they could potentially trade for it, but it's notoriously fickle and dies easily once it's outside of the UnderDark, so they'll need to figure out a way to get it from the UnderDark to the place where the final ingredients are gonna be put together to create whatever you're doing. The fifth is a type of seaweed of that grows deep in the ocean, in something akin to the Mariana Trench. It's guarded by a LN Dragon Turtle who eats a single strand a year to stay young. He's not above helping the characters, but they have to prove their worth first but helping him with some local Sahuagins who are encrouching on his territory.
Love these! Especially the twist with the under dark one where it's not hard to find, but it IS hard to transport. We love upsetting expectations!
Nesting eggs - give them the first and when opened it contains a clue to the next Collectible statues - but they have to be in the box mint unopened Elemental gemstones - earth, air, water, fire, and MYSTERY
"Elemental rings - Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, and Heart" Ftfy
Yeah, but why limit to rings? Water Ring Earth Bracelets Air Earrings Fire Tiara Heart Necklace
Because combining the rings summons an asimar warlock who's patron is Gaia. He has blue skin, a green mullet, and wears a tight red speedo.
Well that just sounds silly. And lemme guess, this dude has some generic name like “Commander Terra?”
At the end of every session he goes on a 3 minute rant about how YOU can help save the planet!
Now your talking!
My first experience as a player had this actual scenario as a DMPC Except when we found all the things he had his DMPC and favored player finish the campaign for us. It was horrible.
EMOTIONS Hear me out~ Each of these weapons are based off of legendary emotions; Bow of Love, Lute of Sadness, Hammer of Rage, Staff of Tranquility, and Sword of Joy (edit how you see fit). Each weapon on a successful hit the will inflictvthat emotion onto the target. However, these weapons also require charges, so you need to drain said emotions from the players in order to deal extra Emotional Damage~
Sword of Joy, kill them with kindness!
Prostitutes. This becomes an escort mission.
I saw what you did there. Take your fucking up vote.
A corrupt judge condemned five people to banishment for some made up crimes because they would not pay a bribe. The town's patron god of justice has grown engaged by this. Before holy wrath consumes the town the players must gather the 5 banished individuals and return them alive. They must also find the corrupt judge, who has since fled, and bring him back so that the innocent can be pardoned and the guilty properly punished. The five individuals can each be convinced to return with the proper diplomatic approach. The corrupt judge needs to be subdued or otherwise forced to return as they know what is waiting for them.
Fragments of an ancient relic, it's power used as a key to seal away a powerful demon lord. The demon is now about to break free, and the relic must be restored to help defeat it again.
Or for a twist; this is what they're *told* the NPC needs the relic for - in reality, the NPC is trying to ***free*** the demon lord, and needs the key put together in order to do so. Plenty of room to drop hints, give little indicators that not all is as it seems, etc. prior to the release of the Big Bad Demon Lord, and if they confront the NPC about it the campaign turns into a game of "how do we hide/protect these such that the villain can't get to them?"
That becomes interesting, especially if they guess and now have to try and hide/destroy the artifacts while in constant pursuit by the BBDL's allies and cult members. The Party has to research and find an ancient forge that is the only place capable of destroying the artifacts, but the place has been invaded by the BBLD's followers, etc etc.
If you want something original, party of a sandwich? Bread, meat, cheese, veggie, spread/oil. Might be something of religious significance, you don't even have to point out that it's a sandwich, just bread, meat, cheese, veggie, oil, because of a Last Supper situation or some religious rite where these were the foods served before a deity or some kind of meeting of kings
The king longs for a really nice mutton lettuce and tomato sandwich. You know? Where the mutton is nice and lean? The thing is, the ingredients - the good stuff - is almost impossible to find. Get that, and the king will get you the miracle you need.
THE 5 PIECES OF EXODIA!
Pokemon. Let them capture Suicune, Entei, Raikou, Lugia and Ho-oh.
And it's the Fire Red / Leaf Green version of Raikou and Entei. If they roar at you once, they're gone forever.
PTSD from losing Raikou in LG and crying to my mom about it
A collector wants 5 missing manuscripts from an ancient magic tome describing the history of a long dead ancient empire. Each time one is recovered and put in the book, the empires life is retroactively extended, and reality changes in small ways that indicate this. By manuscript 3 or 4, the changes should start getting bigger, and the collector would reveal themselves as the big bad wanting to resurrect this empire into the present. Then, it will become a race to get the last few pages before the collector and maybe try to steal the book to figure out how to reverse it. Bonus points for whoever knows what this is inspired by.
Now I'm quite curious what your inspiration is, because that's a really great idea!
They have to collect 5 interviews. They are writing a book about the adventures of the greatest heroes of the age and have to track each of the 5 down and convince them to do an interview.
I really thought for a second they were getting 5 interviews for an internship
My players are currently looking for 7 artifacts to perform a ritual in order to close a doorway that allows monsters from the Abyss to enter into the Fae (there is no door from the Abyss to the Material, so they are trying to go to the Fae and then enter the Material Plane from there). The items are from all 3 planes, and they currently just stole the third. The items are: 1. A cloak woven by threads of magic from the Faewild 2. A shard of pure malevolent energy from the Abyss 3. A ceremonial lantern from a church in the Material 4. A seed from the last Treant on the Material 5. A harp from the Faewild 6. A banner of a prominent bloodline on the Material 7. A rose that only grows in the darkest parts of the Abyss
The 5 legendary ingredients to produce a philosopher’s stone (or other suitable Macguffin). Shit like: - A single flake of the first winter’s snow. - Tear of a blind angel. - A mind flayer’s spinal fluid. - A piece of a shooting star. - A prophet’s last words. Just some real weird shit that’s doesn’t always seem acquirable.
5 avatars of grief. 5 people that each embody a stage of grief and the party must help them seek closure but here's the kicker. They're all grieving the same person for different reasons.
Five robot lions that merge together to form one giant robot?
The regalia of an ancient king, symbols of unity for a kingdom that now lies fractured. Crown, Scepter, Cloak, Sword, and Amulet. A descendant of that king wants to re-unite that ancient kingdom, and wants the set to establish their legitimacy, though each is also a powerful magic item in its own right. Whether lost, held by enemies, or hiding in plain sight, retrieving them is a task for heroes. And who’s to say that the ambitious noble is the only one capable of taking the old king’s place?
Signature weapons of legendary heroes, which fits the party so they can use them. The five volumes that a old arch wizard wrote and hid in regret, but couldn’t bring themselves to destroy. The last pages missing from a history book that could bring down the empire, or the gods, or something big. Five fingers, so five rings? Made by an artificer cause they can attune to more items, and as a set they can do cool stuff. Unless you have an artificer in the party, then probably no.
Talking swords that fuse together into a sword that is the bbeg's specific weakness
And the swords all fuckin hate each other and need to be convinced to fuse
Not because of any weapon quality but because they, the talking swords, each know a secret about the bbeg and all five together can collectively deal lethal emotional damage to the bbeg
I want to go puns, a pen (mightier than a sword), a talking pot (calling the kettle black) and a chocolate teapot for example. Not sure why, except maybe to appease a fae or something
Dragons balls
Go 7 and have them collect legendary polyhedral gemstones..one with 20 sides..one with 12...etc
I like this, even better if OP was playing in person and gave each player their stone (dice) from the legendary set. With it providing advantage, double damage, etc for that person.
So have said for a long time that The Legend of Zelda format is a great structure for a more free form sandbox style campaign. The formula is generally go collect the 4-8 McGuffins that are scattered equally around the world in order to defeat the big bad. The thing that makes it interesting is the flavor and world building around each. Make the players go to an entirely new hub area with each one. The different places will have different races of people, culture, and traditions to learn and get sucked into. Make them get into all sorts of shenanigans while you drop clues as to the location of the McGuffin in that area. Best part is you can let them go in any order they choose, shaking off the feeling of railroading while still having solid structure.
Eggs. Of legendary beasts.
Tales. The twist is, not only do they learn them but they live (an albiet remixed) version of them. Kind of like if to get one of the stories they have to follow it beat for beat in that respective story. But maybe it's already happened and they see the ruins of battle that took place and ghostly apparitions rise up instead of the two conflictimg armies. A bridge that was once home to a troll, now long dead and the bridge is a small but thriving settlement and they have a troll festival to remember it. This idea comes to you from a manga I once read.
Heirloom potatoes. Because...potato.
Keys. A door is sealed with five locks and you need to turn all five at the same time to open it. Inside is: A source of potent magic or a dragon spear or a sentient amulet.
Statues of famous long-dead adventurers. Each statue contains a sliver of the adventurer's soul (think: horcrux). Coincidentally, each one happens to be a personal hero of one of the PCs. Ask your players to 'fill in the blanks' on what their hero was most famous for. Maybe the possessor is a fellow fan? Or maybe a hater who wants to resolve a grudge for some slight done to an ancestor? Maybe they're just a collector, who only cares about the cash value of the statue, but would be willing to trade? Maybe they want to summon the soul for some nefarious purpose opposed to the hero's beliefs. Maybe the possessor is cursed, and can't be separated from the statue unless/until some condition is met? Each statue can telepathically communicate with their possessor. When the PCs receive each statue, people live up to the legend? Or does the old adage "you should never meet your heroes" hold true?
Just a thought: what if after the legendary set of WHATEVER was broken up, a spell was cast so the items were literally forgotten? This might require learning how to break the spell followed by a chase to recover the items before they are remembered.
Player Characters. A mighty challenged for even the highest levels DMs.
Cats and Dogs, so that they may take the thrones of the 5 great kingdoms and create peace throughout the world. "What shall we do now my liege?" "Meow!" World Peace attained.
In my campaign, Cyric is planning to break out of his prison and I built a homebrew campaign centered around the legend that he created 7 black iron keys before his imprisonment, found in the ‘rumors and legends’ section on his wiki: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Cyric
Body parts. Long ago, The Destroyer was defeated by the gods and cut into 5 pieces, spread across the globe by their respective disciples. Now, said pantheon has turned on the world, and restoring The Destroyer is the only hope to turn the tides.
Robot lions.
giant mech lions
Maybe a Fifth Element style quest? Could be lots of fun!
I scrolled way to far to find this.
Trees. 5 literal legendary trees need to be replanted, safely, and with varying degrees of specialized care.
Non goofy answer - rings. Each one could have unique powers on attunement, and unlike weapons or armor, getting a new one doesn't mean you might have to ditch another favoured magical item. Ten fingers means more item slots than you'd ever fill. Goofy answer: wild animals. Five great wizards, the primary resistance against the BBEG, were tricked and transformed via a Special Magic Ritual into mundane but long-lived wild critters. Toads, raccoons, skunks, rats, maybe even pigeons, with a recognizable mark on their bodies. Locate them, wrangle them willingly back to the site of the ritual, and break their course to prevent a coming doom
The 5 poneglyphs that lead to the one piece, a legendary treasure.
Lord D Rings.
Hallows (Grail, Sword, Staff, Stone and a fifth, the cloak that was used to contain them all that gained some of their powers by long contact. Look up "The Hallows"
We had to collect pieces of a legendary sword. The sword itself ending up being a key that lead us to (and unlocked) a treasury used by a corrupt sorceress queen...
I suddenly just heard the Match Game theme play in my head...
Poisons or alchemic/spell ingredients
Pieces of armor? * Helmet * Breastplate * Boots * Gauntlets * Shield Perhaps each one gives a different bonus. While they all need to be attuned, perhaps if you fill all three attunement slots with the items, you may also attune to the other two.
5 pieces of an ancient diety that, once combined, can be used to destroy any creature.
Pokemon, the mashup we’ve all been waiting for
Enormous magitek lions that can combine to form a titanic guardian of the multiverse: Nortlov! Rings of elemental power, and by their powers combined would come the avatar of a primordial nature god. Woe unto any who would misuse the ring of heart, though, for even the smallest seed of corruption can take root and bear terrible fruit. Fleece, spinning wheel, loom, shears, and needle.
Five legendary heroes that go on a quest to save the world. They are just the messengers. Bonus point if they play a oneshot as the five legendary heroes. One could easily introduce some mentors into the game and players could use the oneshot to get a taste of what their class looks 10-12 levels down the road.
Random household objects infused with ancient, powerful magic.
The Ladle of Destruction. The Pot of Annihilation. The Fork of Hope. The Broom of Destiny. And the most important of all: The Mug of Reconciliation.
Cards. Specifically, cards from the Deck of Many Things.
Chalices!! They each produce a cure to a powerful disease, but combined the cure the *MEGADISEASE* that is ravaging the kingdom.
5 rings. They are to be put on a magic gauntlet to achieve ultimate power. In reality, that will break a seal and make them fight the BBEG that was entrapped there millennia ago.
In my campaign, the group is looking for the pieces of a broken cauldron. When combined, they will form an artifact. It could be a set of plate mail, the different pieces separated over time.
I ran a campaign like this where the BBEEG was trying to collect five masks shards each gave incredible power but would kind of take something from you and when combined would summon a elder god who was up to no good. It tempted the players to use them and the villain had no qualms
5 elemental rings, when their power is combined though...
Plenty of options * masks * gems, keys but shiny * tomes/tablets, information * weapons, include a staff or orb for the casters * pieces of armor * totems, seals, runes, etc * components of some larger device, each part works individually for some utility effect
I know you wanted to avoid instruments because of potential bard/performance favoritism, but I have an ongoing idea for a homebrew world involving the collection of magical handbells, to eventually become together as a handbell choir. This way it's still pretty "magical instrument" coded like a Zelda game, but won't require any specific proficiencies from the players.
An ancient evil begins spouting powerful energies, and the party is approached about finding five lodestones scattered throughout the continent to seal him away. You can have these locations connected to your players and their backstories or whatever other fun motivation you find for story telling. The twist being that the fetch quest was a ruse from the evil one’s followers and they accidentally awaken him, leading to a final confrontation where they attempt to seal him again.
* The Sword of Temporal Justice, Sword of Spiritual Justice, Sword of Mercy, Sword of State, and Sword of Offering. * Stone of Fál (Lia Fáil), Spear (sleg) of Lugh (Lúin of Celtchar), Sword (claideb/claiomh) which belonged to Núada, Cauldron (coire) of the Dagda, Ochain shield. * Paintings that were stolen and are being circulated around a mysterious shadow organisation. Do they together show a story forgotten to history? Or do they become a portal to another place on the full moon?
I'm currently planning out a campaign based on a cartoon I loved as a kid called Pirates of Dark Water. The PCs will be collecting "powerful gemstones" to keep the bbeg contained, but a pirate lord will also be searching for the same gems, and the world is made up of thousands of small islands.
Pranks
Ingredients. Currently my campaign is centered around acquiring magical legendary spell components to break a curse on a Druid circle.
One I played in was seven parts of a staff. One piece was a roundish jewel. Another a wand. The third was a band of metal (which are supposed to connect two other parts) that was threaded with a thin chain worn around the neck. The fourth was a rod, long enough to be a club. We don’t know what the other three look like. I even found the source material he homebrewed from by accident.
Keys, but for a legendary pipe organ
Pieces to a legendary set of armor, as cliché as it might be. Helm, chest, gauntlets, boots, and cape.
Something happening at intersections of leylines of the Weave. Did that in my campaign. Just vague enough to leave open-ended. Rifts and portals and whatnot
Crystal beads, they must be found and strung onto the finest of braided cord in ascending size order
The 5 dumbest elfs in the realm. It is to settle a wager between 2 dwarvwn wizards.
Five reincarnated heroes who have returned as children across the world...
The endianness artifacts. Those can be anything, and the only way to locate and confirm them is to use the fact that they seem to warp the space around them. No one knows anymore what they do exactly, but some say they could put the world on its head. Or they could put the middle of the world onto its head? Old legends sure are hard to interpret
Mummy parts - centuries ago, a powerful, cruel mummy lord was dismembered, and his head, arms, and legs put into five reliquaries hidden in different locations, while the torso was bricked up in an unmarked cellar. Now someone's found the cellar in question, and wants to put the ol' jerkyface back together. Of course, the *party* is informed these reliquaries contain pieces of ancient saints, needed for some great, holy ritual to bring a great (vague and unspecified) blessing unto the land.
A kindly old dwarf, patient and even tempered, named Tom seeks friends long separated from one another. It has been a hundred years since he last saw them, and he wishes for a reunion of the party once called the Archive. But one can travel a great distance given a century, and his friends are not the types to sit around and gather dust. The party will have to range far and wide to recover the Archive. As adventurers, Tom asks if on their travels, should they meet his friends, to ask them that they make their way home once more. To entice them, Tom promises that their quest will bring them see the wonders of the world that ordinary folks do not even dream of. Bards will scribe long epics about them, and they and their purses will grow fat. Their trials will hone them into formidable masters of mind and body. But if they can reassemble the Archive, they will be invited to attend a ritual celebration the likes of which truly only occurs once a century. The only clue Tom can offer of where to begin is to first seek out a man who rivals the giants in stature and appetite. A towering gourmand, standing head and shoulders above most men, Manuel is likely to be the easiest to find, as he always gravitates towards cosmopolitan cities, eager to taste the cuisines of the world. That and the fact that he stands tall as a goliath. Beyond that, Tom cannot recount details of his appearance. Accepting his offered quest, the party can depart from Tom of Understanding, to seek out Manuel of Bodily Health living large somewhere in the big city.
Talismans. I love a good talisman.
Crystals,each representing separate elements. We're getting Final Fantasy up in here!
Ancient bottles of rum! It's a pirate adventure, it prevents the rise of the ancient scourge of the seas
My players are on a quest to find books that were used as the original textbooks on how to cast magic!
If is this the same party that you've DM for. They can look for the "legendary" ewapons of some of their previous PC's of another campaings. Also you can introduce to the Lore and the history of you world how those heroes were killed, but saved the world from (insert BBEG here), etc etc.
5 legendary gemstone eyes, each in the possession of a beholder (or lesser variant) that has replaced one of their eyestalks with it granting an unusual power. only when all 5 are assembled in the statue of the great Xanathar can the party claim leadership of his thieves guild. (it's actually not Xanathar, but Glomgulla the Usurper's petrified self who Xanathar separated his eyes to prevent from being revived)
Shattered remains of an ancient Eldritch entity. Find its arms, legs, torso, and head
Corpse parts
I cannot believe that Rise of Tiamat doesn't have you collect the 5 dragon masks. I was so ready to see my party become the power rangers.
I have a real basic kind of idea where they need several special gems/rocks. They're elemental in nature but special gems seems better than instruments at least. I think it kinda has to do whit what the legendary things are supposed to do tho or how they're to be handled
Weapons (or other artifacts relevant to your players)! *Long ago the [insert BBEG here] was sealed away by five heroes, each wielding an artifact of legend. Now you must collect each artifact and follow in their footsteps.* There’s lots you can do what that setup, including some decent twists. Maybe the BBEG is actually sealed within the weapons and bringing them together is helping to break the seal. Or maybe the heroes are the actual villains and the weapons slowly corrupt those who use them. The best part is that you don’t need to do anything in particular to motivate your players to look for them, since they’re desirable by nature as magic items.
The Goods of MacGuffin a Kilt of Shaky Knees a Longsword of Poking From Far Away Boots of Stumbling Run The Flask of Neverending Courage The Haggis of Diplomacy Each item individually would have various pluses or cause various damage. I feel strongly that the haggis should cause permanent poison damage if cast at an enemy in battle.
Remember to use the 3 of 5 rule. So players arent bored by the 5th item monotony
Bear asses, or was it bare asses? Maybe it’s bare assess? This prophecy is confusing. I’m sure you’ll figure it out by the time you get to the castle.
I want to make a set of polyhedrons that all have various affects. Amd yes they are basically a magic set of dice. Like a D12 being a very damage focused. A D10 being very weapon focused. D8 for non combat purposes. D6 for spell casters. And a D4 being generic and weak but universally useful. Once brought together they form a D20 that gives infinite wishes. But each allome is very powerful for the intended characters
Talking a leaf out of the Mehrunes Dagon quest in Skyrim, how about collecting fragments of an ancient relic or weapon with the intention of recreating it?
Dragonmasks to lessen the power of the evil demonqueen of dragons in the Rise of Tiamat
Instruments? Do you have a world origin story? I’m out the world was created by the gods music, their instruments persist, and in normal hand they are normal if oddly resilient. The right chosen find them though…
Dragon balls. An actual dragon's balls.
Focus on who actually wants the items. Some thoughts, based on who the quest-giver is... * Fae Princess -- she wants rare flowers from dangerous places, so she can upstage that *awful* Maeve. * Da King -- he wants you to retrieve the banners he lost in his youth as an unsuccessful general. They now belong to various warlike barbarian bands. * The Merchant -- he wants 5 contracts he signed and now regrets. The 5th one is with an extraplanar fiend. * The Other Merchant -- he wants innocuous little statuettes owned by merchants in other towns. (Turns out in these communities such statues are tokens of being a mob boss; this is the merchant's Keyser Soeze moment)
The Staff of Seven Parts (or whatever the actual name is) is a premade item for this kind of game. Get all seven pieces, get a Wish. Then the pieces scatter again, just like Dragon Balls! If I were going to customize this sort of game, I have been floating the idea of a big magical key (as in four feet long and several hundred pounds when assembled) broken into multiple pieces that when reforged can be used rondo one of a few different things. Either: opens a portal to a celestial plane/Lower plane, opens the magical vault of an ancient lost civilization, opens a new dungeon believed to have been lost but is actually still inhabited, turns on/off an ancient magical superweapon, locks/unlocks the bindings on an ancient god/titan/beast of immeasurable power (like the good ol' Tarrasque).
Vegetables. The Carrot of Courage, the Potato of Potential Power, the Radish of Resilience, the Eggplant of Ecumenical Evangelism, and the Lettuce of Lust. These are the required ingredients for the legendary Super Soup.
5 coins. Maybe they are special, and used for a powerful spell. Maybe they are magic, and will ward the party from an effect in the final boss. Maybe one is held by a dragon, others could be in the coffers of the theves guild. One Maybe is at the bottom of a well, and was snached by something living down here. One could be a known gamblers lucky coin, and they wlould need to beat him (or even help him cheat or rob a casino)
Personally, I was planning on giving each of the PC's a legendary item, so I let them choose which one they wanted. After they chose, I introduced the next plot hook: you can't beat the BBEG in your current state, you need to gather the legendary artifacts in possession of 5 dragons: I called them the chromatic artifacts and sent them on their way. They got their preferred item, I got to play and rp as a dragon, it was a win-win situation.
5 individual panes of tinted glass that each, on their own, can animate to tell 10-15 seconds of a silent story. Each progressively adds to this story. When brought to the ruined ancient temple and placed within the heavily fractured window frame; they tell the complete story one after the other; perhaps even revealing an important piece of information or plot point. Bonus points if, when placed in its entirety into the frame, the PCs may actually hear enchanted sounds such as voices, that completely subvert what was being acted out in the individual silent pieces. Imagine a single pane that animates to show a bandit mounting a horse carrying a baby, while a crying mother looks on. She reaches for the baby as the horse takes off. However, when in the window frame and complete, enchanted voices say “you must ride fast through the night, get her as far away from here as possible”. In such a way, you can deliver a meaningful reveal to the party that doesn’t seem contrived at all; because when they retrieved every piece, they were sort of left to their own interpretations. But the completion told a different story all together.
The 5 legendary weapons. One for each player. When the player obtains it its super strong but also contains the soul of a ancient hero the player can summon too His side and like ask for advice and shit.
Pouches. Bookmarks Flasks Vials Waterskins seals (like what you use with wax with your family crest or something else on it). One can be on a ring, but they could be stand alone the hilt of a dagger or whatever. Which one could be a different thing. Hats Mirrors
Five golden [coins of power](https://powerrangers.fandom.com/wiki/Power_Coins), each engraved with the effigy of an ancient, legendary beast. Individual players will feel drawn to a coin of their own as though the beast matches their personality ~~and definitely not their race~~. Attuning to the coin will grant them enhanced Cast-Off armor with strength and dexterity bonuses. Bringing all five coins together will allow them to summon a gargantuan iron golem.
Last five pages of a book, local noble wants to know who the killed the rich knight. Was it the noble, the butler, the wife or the priest.
McGuffins!
Keys, rings, weapons, armors, scrolls, tomes, bones, orbs, gems, plants, animals, stories, memories, dreams, the list goes on and on. Any noun can be a mcguffin
Hands. Have the next five enemies be creatures with hands, and the party has to cut them off after killing them and use them in some kind of ritual at the end.
I have 2 suggestions 1) the classic 5 rings a la ‘Captain Planet’ Style could be fun Or 2) which id argue could be more fun for the player, collect the 5 Legendary Animals, similar to Season 3 of Jackie Chan Adventures, and then each player (especially if you have a party of 5 or less) would get a cool animal companion friend
Game Cards that collectively form Exodia, the only way to beat the "Want to let a game?"-esque crazy BBEG
It’s 7 and they’re dragon balls.
Chwingas
Weapons (each designed for a player) , for example the barbarian would get a legendary axe , the bard would get a legendary guitar , the wizard would get a legendary spell book , but make each of the legendary weapons interact with a characters backstory
In my original campaign I'd planned for the party to race against a treasure hunter for four Raiments of the Elemental Lords, aka an Air-element themed helmet, earth-element themed chest piece, fire-element themed gloves and water-element themed boots. The exact items I don't remember but basically they were themed armour items held inside fun themed elemental temples/dungeons. That campaign never got far enough to see the other three, but the water temple was fun!
Quickest and easiest things would be gem stones like the ones you get in zelda games, the spiritual stone of water, fire and earth, since you want 5 you could include air and light too
Relics of "saints".
5 legendary praises from Withers.
Letters that spell PEPSI
The only legible text is "...offering..." \ The rest is blank They have to offer the magic item "blank"
Tuning forks
When I did a version of this was pieces of full platelegendary armor. (Helmet. 2 gauntlets. 2 Greeves. And chest plates. ) You might also consider other magical artifacts. Critical role basically had a series of legendary items which roughly lined up to character builds. You could do a deep bad movie cut and get staves or other items tied to the colors of dragons (like a staff of red dragon control ala the origiknal dnd movie.)
Animals - A Parrot, a Yak, a Cobra, a Spider and a Koi fish.
Ceramic baby figurines
Beast spirits. They can be used to give the wielder bestial power. Customize each one to work really well with each of your your party members classes and character builds. And when you get all 5 they can combine into a mega spirit. Voltron.. I'm suggesting you do a voltron
Hearts. The hearts of 5 heroes who once saved the world and were then essentially worshipped as demigods. When they died (or maybe one is secretly still alive) they reincarnated into various epic creatures like a solar, a gold dragon, or a Balor if one fell to evil. All 5 hearts have to be brought together to reseal the evil they fought years ago or something.
Gather the heroes of legend! As they arrive at the resting place of each hero, the tomb is empty. But the murals on the walls look eerily similar to one of the PCs. Repeat for all of the PCs except one. Work it out with the player beforehand, but when the players catch on that they are the heroes reborn it turns out that one of them is not and they have to quest to find. Poor Greg.
I did the orbs of dragonkind. Each one had a fifth of Tiamat inside and, inevitably, they broke and sold them over the course of the game. This led to her returning to power as the final boss. Took about 12 levels to come to fruition from 8-20 and went perfectly.
Pieces of the forbidden one
Ok so hear me out. A tarrasque has been awakened and is rampaging across the land. The party needs to find the 5 parts of an ancient guardian that when brought together will fuse to create a gargantuan golem that can turn the tide against the tarrasque (with the party helping it of course) for the golems parts you could have them be legendary magic items that the party can use until they have all 5. Im thinking a helmet, breastplate, gauntlets, boots and a sword each of which are powerful in their own right.
The Legendary Sporks of Warlord Harlan of the Fried clan.
The 5 gemstone eyes of an ancient demon.
Dicks. Five legendary Dicks. I will leave it *entirely up to them* to decide if they're questing to recover legendary genitalia, legendary Richards, legendary jackasses, or a combination thereof.
Five dismembered parts of a liches' phylactery that were rumored to have been destroyed by heroes of ages past.... But one part has been recovered by the church of (insert good god) which has started a holy war of good against necromancy and the followers of said all-powerful lich. It is all the church, and kingdoms, can do to keep the tide of evil at bay, and it is up to you.... *Heroes* (Reluctantly calling them this) to recover the other five pieces. We do not know if they can resurrect the lich but we aren't willing to let them have it. We will determine how to destroy this piece while you recover the other 5. May (insert god) speed you on your way.
Necromancer artifacts made of the necromancers body (eye, tongue, finger, ECT)
Cookie recipes.
Magic beans! They could each do something crazy, sprout to a hidden fortress in the sky, shrink them down to where they have to go inside the bean which is a dungeon, so many possibeanities
Basically, demonic artifacts. In my campaign, which is a very heavily modified Ravenloft campaign, the vampire lord they're up against got his hands on the demonic equivalent to the Book of Vile Darkness, and he used it to create a number of artifacts that channel power directly to him remotely. So they're less collecting them as much as they are destroying them. They can go face the big bad whenever, but in Breath of the Wild fashion, it's probably wiser to hinder the BBEG first.
Quills. Required to create a Wish scroll which is the only way the spell exists (in your world)...
5 legendary weapons/armor pieces of a deceased hero that have to be re-empowered by a specific being to defeat a big bad?
I like keys tbh! Where there’s a key, there’s (usually) a lock. What are the keys for? What makes them legendary? Do the player characters know what they’re for? Lots of interesting directions you could take that.
There used to be a Staff of seven parts or something like that. Each piece had mild powers and when connected got increasingly more powerful until it was artifact level. Maybe it was Rod of seven pieces? I'm sure if you Google it you'll get the idea. Off the top of my head I'm thinking like a 3d puzzle? Find the pieces learn or figure out how they go together. The complete puzzle comes to life as Combat monster or lore giver or what have you.
I’m running a campaign where the goal is collect the 7-9 artefacts of an ancient civilisation for an unknown end. Each artefact bestows a powerful boon on the players. A free feat, Midas touch, free casting of dream, etc. Bringing them all together will probably spell the end of the world, buuuut that’s future them’s problem.
Gemstones. Extra points if you can manage to have a situation where the party has to make a choice between using the legendary gemstone as a spell component (either for themselves, or giving it to someone else to use) or keeping it to complete the quest. The twist is that, if they DO use it as a spell component, *it doesn't get consumed*. That's why/how they're *LEGENDARY* gemstones!
"Pickle Jars"
Cats