Seiðr 12 of the Horn of Intangible Draughts

Slot: Held / Belt

Lore: Among the early communities of avatars on Saṃsāra, there was a settlement famed for its great mead halls and the wisdom of its seer, a völva named Gudrun. She found that the potent, honey-sweet mead they brewed helped quiet the conscious mind, making it easier for the spirit to travel in the trance-state required for Seiðr. To share this gift, she and the hall’s master brewer worked together, not to create a stronger drink, but to enchant the vessels from which it was drunk. They took the horns of the great mountain goats that watched over their valley and inscribed them with runes of clarity and communion. These horns became common tools, passed out during feasts. To an outsider, it looked like a rowdy celebration; to the initiated, every sip from the horn was an opportunity to quiet the flesh, heighten the spirit, and glean a hidden truth from the shimmering depths of their drink.

Description: This is a simple but masterfully crafted drinking horn, polished to a milky-white sheen by years of handling. It is carved from the horn of a large mountain goat and capped with a simple, unadorned rim of beaten bronze. When empty, it appears unremarkable. However, when any liquid is poured into it, faint, shifting knotwork patterns seem to writhe and swim across its outer surface, and the liquid itself appears to shimmer with a faint, pearlescent internal light. The horn feels pleasantly warm when filled.

Detailed Stats

• Capacity: Holds a standard draft of liquid.
• Durability: Sturdy, as one would expect from a well-made drinking horn.
• Bonus: Fortitude +1 (specifically against the negative effects of mundane intoxicants). The user finds they can drink copious amounts of normal alcohol without suffering the usual debilitating effects, maintaining their clarity.

Tags: Common, Tier 1, Seiðr, Divination, Held, Horn, Consumable-Interaction, Magical, Divine, Fey-touched, Draconic, Shield, Focus, Acid, Religious, Tool

Passive Magics

• Filter of the Mind: The horn possesses a purifying magic. Any non-magical liquid poured into it is instantly cleansed of mundane contaminants. Dirty water becomes potable, sour wine tastes fresh, and common poisons are rendered inert. This allows the user to drink safely from questionable sources like streams or offered flagons. This ability has no effect on magical potions, curses, or alchemical poisons.
• Social Lubricant: When drinking from the horn in a group social setting, such as a tavern or around a campfire, the vessel seems to create a subtle aura of camaraderie. The user finds their words flow more easily, and others are more inclined to speak freely and openly with them. This provides a distinct advantage in gathering information and making friends through casual conversation.

Activable Magics

• Draught of Scrying (Active): The user can fill the horn with any liquid and, as an action, focus on a specific question while performing a quiet chant or tracing a rune on the horn’s rim. Upon taking a deep drink, the taste of the liquid is replaced by a flood of symbolic, sensory information. This is a divinatory trance that provides a cryptic vision related to the question. The nature of the liquid can influence the vision: drinking clear water might grant a simple, stark image, while drinking a complex, aged wine might produce a more detailed and nuanced, if more confusing, vision.
• Drink the Unseen (Active): Once per day, the user can perform a ritual to “drink” an intangible, ambient substance. By holding the horn aloft and chanting for a minute, they can draw a nearby essence into the horn. This can be the morning mist from a river, the smoke from a specific campfire, the steam from a factory forge, or even the palpable sorrow in a room of mourners. The horn will appear to be empty, but when the user “drinks” the captured essence, they are struck with a powerful vision directly related to its source. Drinking the campfire’s smoke might reveal who sat there hours before; drinking the mist might reveal what creatures hide within it.

The Seiðr 12 of the Horn of Intangible Draughts, as a tool of both social ritual and folk magic, would be found in places that value tradition, community, or practical mysticism. It is not an item of high power, so it would rarely be found in an archmage’s tower, but would be a treasured object in the right circles.

The Great Mead Hall

In many of the larger towns and cities, life revolves around a Great Mead Hall—a center for community, feasting, and storytelling. These halls often have a quartermaster or “lore-keeper” who curates items of cultural significance. The air inside is thick with the smells of honeyed mead, roasting meats, and woodsmoke.

To purchase the horn here, one would not simply order it from a barkeep. You would need to seek out the lore-keeper, likely a venerable elder or a skald. The transaction would be a conversation. They would want to know why you seek such an item and would explain its history and proper use, emphasizing its role in fostering camaraderie and seeking wisdom, not just in revelry. The sale would feel less like a purchase and more like an induction into a piece of their culture. Selling such a horn back to a hall would be seen as a respectful act of “bringing it home.”

• Cost to Buy: The price reflects its cultural value. It would be sold for around 5 Gold.
• Cost to Sell: A mead hall would happily buy a horn to add to their collection, offering a fair price of 3 Gold to a traveler.

A Traveling Skald’s Tent

At a crossroads between countries or on the periphery of a large festival, a traveling skald might set up a small, cozy tent. The space would be filled with maps, old books, musical instruments, and the scent of herbal tea and road dust. These storytellers and seers are the living history of many communities, and they often trade in items that aid their craft.

The Horn of Intangible Draughts would be a personal tool of the skald. They would not have a large stock, perhaps only one or two to spare. A sale would be a personal affair. The skald would likely share a drink with you from their own horn, telling you a story of the item’s origin. They would be more interested in your character and your reasons for wanting the horn than in your coin. A good story or a promise of a future favor might be worth more to them than gold.

• Cost to Buy: The price would be negotiable and personal. The skald might ask for 3 Gold, but could also be persuaded by a compelling story, a rare poem, or a trade for another useful, low-tier magical trinket.
• Cost to Sell: A skald would not be wealthy but would recognize the horn’s spiritual value. They might offer 1 Gold, 8 Silver and a warm meal, or perhaps a treasured map to a hidden ruin in trade.

A Port City Ship Chandler

In the bustling port cities where airships and galleons dock, the shops of ship chandlers supply crews with everything needed for long, perilous voyages. These shops are crammed with practical goods, smelling of salt, tarred rope, canvas, and strange spices from afar.

The chandler, a pragmatic merchant, would market the horn based on its most utilitarian functions. The primary selling point would be its ability to purify drinking water, a massive benefit on a long sea voyage. Its divinatory aspects would be pitched as a practical tool for sailors: “Let a real Seer read the future; you can use this to ‘taste’ the fog for a coming squall or ‘drink’ the smoke from a distant ship to see if it’s friend or foe.” The transaction would be professional and focused on survival and practicality.

• Cost to Buy: Marketed as a high-end piece of survival gear, it would sell for 4 Gold, 5 Silver.
• Cost to Sell: Recognizing its utility for their clientele, a chandler would offer a decent price, likely 2 Gold, 5 Silver, knowing they could sell it quickly.

An “Isekai Trinkets” Shop

In a diverse metropolis, a peculiar shop might be run by an avatar with vivid memories of a different world—perhaps a classic fantasy realm or even a world like our own. The shop would be an eclectic mess of items that the owner finds novel or nostalgic.

This is where the horn would be sold with a layer of pop-culture interpretation. The owner, perhaps a former fantasy game enthusiast, would sell it as a “Genuine Viking Scrying Horn” or a “Barbarian Skald’s Cup.” Their understanding of its magic would be enthusiastic but possibly incomplete, focusing on the “cool factor” of drinking and seeing visions. The sales pitch would be full of excited, slightly inaccurate descriptions, comparing its function to things from other worlds.

• Cost to Buy: The price is based on its perceived novelty value. The owner would likely price it at a solid 4 Gold.
• Cost to Sell: The shopkeeper would be thrilled to buy such a “thematic” item. They would offer a fair price, around 2 Gold, and would be very interested in hearing the story of where the seller found it to add to their sales pitch later.

The Seiðr 12 of the Horn of Intangible Draughts is a subtle tool, and its use in conflict is one of information and influence rather than direct force. Its role in offense and defense is about outwitting opponents, avoiding danger through foresight, and turning the social or physical environment to your advantage.

In a Tense Diplomatic Feast or Noble’s Court

This environment of social combat, where a misplaced word is deadlier than a sword and poison is a common spice, is the horn’s natural habitat.

Roleplaying Defense: Defense here is the prevention of social or physical harm through cunning. When a rival offers you a celebratory toast from their own flagon, you would graciously accept. You would roleplay the defensive act by saying, “A toast to our new friendship! Allow me to pour it into my own horn, as is the custom of my people.” As you drink, the horn’s Filter of the Mind passive renders any mundane poison inert. You hold your rival’s gaze as you drink deeply, a silent and powerful message that you are not so easily dispatched.

To defend against a political plot, you can use the Draught of Scrying. During a tense negotiation where you suspect the opposing party is lying, you would take a thoughtful sip of water from your horn. You would roleplay this by saying, “Let me consider your generous offer.” In your mind, you ask the horn, “What is their hidden agenda?” The cryptic vision you receive—perhaps of a hand passing a bag of gold under the table—arms you with the truth. Your defense is the knowledge that allows you to sidestep their trap.

Roleplaying Offense: Offense in this setting is the gathering and weaponizing of secrets. Using the horn’s Social Lubricant passive, you can target an opponent’s talkative aide. You would roleplay this by being generous and friendly: “Your lord speaks well, but you must be the one who truly keeps his estate running! Share a drink with me.” As you share a drink from your horn, its magic loosens their tongue, causing them to gossip freely about their master’s finances or secret meetings. You have just launched a successful intelligence-gathering operation.

For a more direct offensive action, you can use Drink the Unseen. You see a rival diplomat emerge from a secret meeting, smoking a pipe of expensive tobacco. After they leave, you approach the still-smoldering pipe. You would roleplay the ritual: “I hold the horn over the bowl, drawing in the last wisp of smoke. I drink deeply of the empty air.” The vision you receive is of the other conspirators in the room, revealing the secret alliance you needed to expose.

In a Grimy Under-city or Criminal Hideout

Here, dangers are more direct. Trust is non-existent, and a knife in the dark is as common as a handshake.

Roleplaying Defense: Defense is about situational awareness. Before entering a shadowy warehouse rumored to be a rival gang’s new base, you could use Drink the Unseen. You would hold your horn up to the thick smog rolling out from under the door. “This smog smells of rotgut and misery. Let’s see what else is in there.” After a moment of ritual, you would drink from the horn, and the vision would reveal the number of guards hiding inside and their general locations, allowing you to avoid walking into an ambush.

The Filter of the Mind is also a constant defense in an environment where being drugged is a common tactic. You can accept a drink from anyone without fear, which in itself can be a powerful negotiating tool, showing you are either fearless or well-prepared.

Roleplaying Offense: Offense here is about tracking and discovery. A key witness has been murdered, and the trail is cold. You arrive at the scene and find a pool of the victim’s blood. You would roleplay the grim act: “This is a dark ritual, but the spirits of the dead deserve justice. I will ask the blood itself to tell me its story.” You would scoop a few drops into your horn with a bit of water, perform the Draught of Scrying, and ask, “Show me your killer.” The vision would be a terrifying, first-person glimpse of the murderer’s face from the victim’s final moments, giving you the clue no one else could find.

While Exploring the Wilderness or Uncharted Islands

In the wild, the threats are starvation, disease, and unknown creatures. The horn becomes a vital survival tool.

Roleplaying Defense: The most crucial defense the horn offers here is the Filter of the Mind. You would roleplay this as a source of confidence and leadership: “The rest of you can spend an hour boiling your water. I’ll take first watch.” You can dip your horn into any stagnant pool or murky stream and drink deeply, secure in the knowledge that you are safe from mundane sickness, saving time and resources for the entire party.

To defend against an unseen natural predator, you could use Drink the Unseen. You come across a strange, sweet-smelling fog blanketing a ravine. “This fog is not natural. I will taste its secret.” After drinking the essence of the fog, your vision reveals that it is the digestive vapor exuded by a massive, carnivorous plant that waits below. The knowledge allows you to bypass the danger completely.

Roleplaying Offense: In the wilderness, offense often means a successful hunt. Your party has been tracking an elusive, horned beast for days. You find its fresh tracks but not the creature itself. You find where it has scraped its horn against a tree, leaving behind some residue. You could use this for a Draught of Scrying. You would scrape the residue into your horn with some water and perform the rite, asking, “Where does this creature make its lair?” The resulting vision might show you a specific cave hidden behind a waterfall, allowing you to

Perception of Activation:

Sight (Vision)

• User’s Perspective: As you begin the ritual chant and raise the horn to your lips, the faint, shifting knotwork patterns on its surface blaze with a soft, internal light. The liquid within churns, its pearlescent shimmer intensifying into a swirling galaxy of light. The moment you drink, the physical world blurs and fades into a muted backdrop. Your inner vision is flooded with a torrent of symbolic images, colors, and sensations that constitute the divinatory answer. The vision is not like watching a screen, but like being immersed in a waking dream.
• Observer’s Perspective: An observer sees you hold the horn, at which point the faint patterns on its surface become clearly visible as they glow and writhe like living tattoos. The liquid inside shimmers brightly. After you drink, your eyes glaze over, unfocus, or even roll back slightly. You become still and unresponsive, clearly lost in a trance state.
• Positives: The visual effect is beautiful and mystical, a clear sign that powerful magic is being channeled. The trance state allows you to focus completely on the vision without external distractions.
• Negatives: You are completely blind to your physical surroundings while in the trance, leaving you utterly vulnerable to attack or danger. The glowing horn is also an obvious beacon, announcing to anyone nearby that you are performing a magical rite.

Hearing (Audition)

• User’s Perspective: As you drink, the sounds of the world around you become muffled and distant, as if you were sinking underwater. This physical silence is replaced by the sounds of your vision—the whisper of a secret, the roar of a distant battle, the sound of a key turning in a lock. A low, resonant hum underpins the entire experience, feeling as though it emanates from your own bones.
• Observer’s Perspective: An observer would notice that you have become completely unresponsive to sound. They could call your name or shout a warning with no reaction. If they were extremely close in a silent environment, they might be able to hear a very faint, low-pitched hum coming from the horn itself.
• Positives: The muting of the outside world allows for total immersion in the auditory landscape of the vision, providing another layer of detailed, secret information.
• Negatives: You are deaf to the real world, unable to hear an approaching enemy, a shout of warning, or the sound of a collapsing roof. You are completely at the mercy of your surroundings.

Touch (Somatosensation)

• User’s Perspective: The pleasant warmth of the filled horn intensifies as you activate its magic. The warmth spreads from your hands up your arms and suffuses your entire body, creating a feeling of safety and stability. It acts as a grounding anchor, reminding you of your physical body while your spirit is adrift in the vision. The liquid itself has no temperature as it goes down; it feels like swallowing pure thought.
• Observer’s Perspective: An observer would see nothing. However, if they were to touch you during the trance, they would feel an unusual and steady warmth radiating from your skin, even on a cold day.
• Positives: The warmth is comforting and makes the potentially frightening experience of a psychic trance feel safe and controlled.
• Negatives: There are few negatives to the sensation itself, but the unnatural body heat could be a giveaway to an observant person who touches you that you are under a magical influence.

Smell (Olfaction)

• User’s Perspective: The mundane scent of the liquid in the horn (mead, wine, water) is the last normal thing you perceive. As the vision takes hold, it is replaced entirely by the smells of the divination. If the vision is of a person, you might smell their perfume or the scent of the forge on their clothes. If it is of a place, you might smell the salt of the sea or the dust of a tomb. The sense of smell is fully integrated into the psychic experience.
• Observer’s Perspective: An observer would only smell the actual liquid that was poured into the horn.
• Positives: The olfactory information adds incredible richness, context, and detail to the divinatory vision, providing clues that sight and sound alone might miss.
• Negatives: A vision of a foul place (a sewer, a battlefield) would be accompanied by its nauseating stench, which could be overwhelming and physically sickening for you.

Taste (Gustation)

• User’s Perspective: This is the core of the activation. The moment the trance begins, the physical taste of the drink is gone. It is replaced by a synesthetic, conceptual “taste” of pure information. It might be described as the taste of static electricity, the sharp tang of a sudden realization, or the clean, cold flavor of a mathematical equation. When using the horn to “drink” an intangible like smoke, this is the only taste you perceive.
• Observer’s Perspective: An observer simply sees you take a drink from a horn.
• Positives: It is a unique and profound sensation that confirms the transfer of knowledge is occurring. It is the most direct form of sensory feedback from the item.
• Negatives: The experience of “tasting” pure data can be disorienting and overwhelming to a mind not prepared for it.

Extra-Sensory: Spiritual Perception

• User’s Perspective: You feel your spirit, your consciousness, become “unmoored” from your physical form. It is a sensation of profound lightness and detachment, as if you are a single point of awareness floating on a great river of time and fate. You feel the horn acting as an anchor, preventing you from being swept away entirely, while allowing you to dip into the current and pull forth the information you seek.
• Observer’s Perspective: A magically-aware observer would see your aura flare and then expand, its edges becoming hazy and indistinct as your spirit strains against the confines of your body. They would see the horn’s own aura of divination magic flare brightly, acting as a gateway and a tether for your spiritual journey.
• Positives: The experience is the heart of Seiðr—a deep, spiritual journey that provides profound insight. It is a powerful and enlightening feeling.
• Negatives: The feeling of detachment can be terrifying, especially for a novice. There is a palpable sense of risk, a feeling that if the horn’s magic were to fail, your spirit could become lost, adrift forever outside your body. The overt display of spiritual magic is an unmistakable beacon to other magic users and supernatural entities.

Recipe: Horn of the Mystic’s Draught

This document details the ritualized crafting process for creating a magical drinking horn, a common tool used by Seiðr practitioners, skalds, and seers to aid in divination and social communion. The process balances mundane craftsmanship with alchemical and magical rites.

Materials Needed:

• One Horn of a Cloud-line Goat: The horn must be taken from a mature mountain goat that has lived its entire life at an altitude above the natural cloud line. It is believed such horns are more attuned to the sky and the spirits.
• A Billet of Bronze-Silver Alloy: A small ingot of bronze that has been alloyed with a trace amount of purified silver, for the horn’s rim.
• A Piece of Lightning-Struck Oak Charcoal: The charcoal must be sourced from an oak tree that was struck by lightning and survived. This component is crucial for the horn’s purifying properties.
• Three Drops of Spider-Web Dew: The morning dew collected from the center of a large, complete spider’s web. The web is seen as a small mirror of fate’s loom, and its dew holds divinatory potential.
• One Chalice of Ceremonial Mead: A high-quality, potent mead that has been previously blessed or used in a community ritual or feast. This provides the social, connective element.

Tools Required:

• A Master-Crafted Set of Carver’s Knives and Polishing Stones: For shaping and finishing the horn’s surface to a perfect sheen.
• A Metalsmith’s Hammer and Small Anvil: For expertly shaping and fitting the bronze-silver rim.
• A Rowan Wood Bowl and Whisk: Rowan wood is required for mixing the magical components, as it is resistant to magical contamination.
• A Silver-Tipped Brush: For applying the magical lacquer.

Skill Requirements:

• Journeyman Level Skill in Horn Carving: The physical vessel must be expertly shaped and polished, as any flaw will disrupt the magic.
• Jouryman Level Skill in Metalsmithing: Required to create and fit the seamless metal rim.
• Basic Skill in Alchemy: Needed to properly handle the magical reagents and understand their interactions.
• Innate or Trained Magical Ability: The crafter must be able to channel their will into the horn during the final stages, specifically with an intent focused on clarity, vision, and communion.

Crafting Steps:

1. Shaping the Vessel: The first step is purely mundane craftsmanship. The goat horn is painstakingly scraped, shaped, and sanded. It is then polished for hours with a series of finer and finer stones until its surface is smooth and has a milky, lustrous sheen. Concurrently, the bronze-silver billet is heated and hammered into a simple, unadorned rim that fits the mouth of the horn perfectly. These two pieces are then set aside.
2. Preparing the Seer’s Lacquer: The crafter takes the lightning-struck oak charcoal and grinds it into a fine, black powder in the rowan wood bowl. The three drops of spider-web dew are added, followed by the ceremonial mead. The mixture is then gently whisked with the rowan whisk, not to mix it physically, but to combine the magical properties of the ingredients into a single, potent elixir. The resulting liquid will be a dark, shimmering lacquer.
3. The Runic Inscription: This step must be performed in a quiet, focused state. Using the silver-tipped brush, the crafter paints the Seer’s Lacquer onto the inside surface of the horn. The crafter does not paint pictures, but rather invisible runes of perception, clarity, and communion, chanting softly with each brushstroke. The lacquer must coat the entire interior of the horn. Once applied, the bronze-silver rim is fitted into place, sealing the lacquer within.
4. The Lunar Baptism: This is the final and most crucial step of the ritual. The horn, now fully assembled, must be taken to a place where it can sit undisturbed and see the open sky. It is filled to the brim with pure, clean spring water and must be left to bathe in the light of a full moon from dusk until dawn. The moonlight acts as a catalyst, causing the Seer’s Lacquer to fully dissolve and absorb its magical properties directly into the material of the horn itself. When the sun rises, the water within will be clear once more, the lacquer gone, and the horn’s magic will be awakened.

Woman Who Gave Drink to Spirits

This is the story that is known, as it was written down by a man who heard it from a skald, who learned it from the markings on a very old stone. The meanings of some words are not certain now.

There was a People who lived in a great hall made of wood. The hall was called the Hall of the Mountain-Goat, and the people in it were happy. They had much food and much of the sweet honey-drink they made. Their hearts were big, but their eyes were small. They could not see things that were far away, or things that were to come. This made them sometimes have troubles.

The wisest among them was a woman, Gudrun. This name means Good-Rune. She was a seer, a seiðkona. She tried to see the far-things for her people, to know if the winter would be hard or if their neighbors planned war. But her work was difficult. Her spirit had to push very hard to leave her body to see these things. The journey made her tired.

Gudrun watched her people in the great hall. She saw that when they drank the honey-drink, their spirits became light. They laughed loud, and they sang songs of old heroes, and their hearts opened like unlocked doors. A thought came to her then, a strange thought. If the drink makes the spirit light, can the spirit use the drink to see?

So she began her work. She went to the highest mountain, the one that touches the sky, and she took a horn from a great goat that had lived there. The goat had watched the whole world from its high place. This horn remembered what it saw. This was the first part of the cup.

She took metal that is like the sun, but not gold. The hard sun-metal. She made a ring for the mouth of the horn. This was the second part.

She went to a great oak tree that the lightning had kissed but not killed. She took its black charcoal bones and made a fine dust. This was for making things clean. This was the third part.

She went out in the morning before the sun was awake. She found the web of a spider, a small weaver of fate. She took the water from the spider’s weaving, three drops. This was for seeing the threads of things. This was the fourth part.

She took all these things and a cup of the best honey-drink. In a special bowl made of a rowan-tree, she mixed the charcoal dust and the spider-water into the honey-drink. She painted this on the inside of the horn. Then she took it out into the night and filled it with clean water and let the moon wash it with its white light. When morning came, the horn was a horn, but it was also now a Seeing-Cup.

That night, there was a great feast. Gudrun the Good-Rune Woman brought out the new horn. She went to the loudest warrior in the hall. His name was Hrolf the Loud. His mouth was big, but his knowing was small. He boasted of his strength. Gudrun filled the horn with the sweet honey-drink and gave it to Hrolf. She said, “Hrolf, you are a great warrior. Drink this and tell us what you see at the bottom of this cup.”

Hrolf laughed and took the horn. He drank it all in one long drink, for he was very thirsty. But when he put the horn down, he did not boast. His face was strange. His eyes were cloudy like the sky before a storm. He was quiet for a long time. The whole hall was quiet, for they had never seen Hrolf be quiet before.

Then he spoke. His voice was not loud. He said, “The river will be angry in three days.” He said, “My brother’s axe that was lost is under the big flat rock by the waterfall.” He said, “There is a sickness in the grain in the south field. It is a brown-colored sickness.”

The People laughed. They thought Hrolf the Loud was making a new kind of joke. But Gudrun watched him, and she knew he was not joking.

Three days later, the river flooded its banks, just as Hrolf said. His brother went to the waterfall and looked under the flat rock, and there was his axe. Some men went to the south field, and they saw the brown sickness on the grain, and because they knew early, they were able to save most of it.

Hrolf the Loud was no longer just called Hrolf the Loud. Sometimes they called him Hrolf the Seer. Gudrun made many more of the horns, so that anyone who drank at the feast might also have a chance to drink a little bit of knowing. And the Hall of the Mountain-Goat became famous not just for its drink, but for its wisdom.

---

The Moral of the Story: Wisdom can be found at the bottom of a cup, but only if the cup knows how to look.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu, 7th Edition

The Vessel of Voices

High-Level Overview: In the sanity-blasting world of Call of Cthulhu, a ritual object tied to trances and drinking is not a tool for gentle divination, but a dangerous conduit. The Vessel of Voices does not grant the user visions; it invites other consciousnesses to speak through them. The knowledge gained is not a prize but a side effect of temporary possession, and the entities it channels are rarely benevolent. Using the horn is a desperate gamble, trading control of one’s own body and mind for a sliver of forbidden knowledge.

Description and Mechanics: The Vessel of Voices is an ancient, yellowed drinking horn capped with tarnished bronze. The inside is stained black from centuries of ritual use. Liquids poured into it seem to whisper and bubble faintly.

• The Invitation: To use the horn, the Investigator must pour a libation (alcohol is traditional) and state aloud what knowledge they seek. They must then drink the entire contents and succeed on a POW x 5 roll.
  • Success: A spirit with relevant knowledge—often the ghost of a deceased person, but sometimes something stranger—accepts the invitation. For the next 1d6 minutes, the spirit speaks using the Investigator’s voice, answering the question and often revealing other unwanted, dangerous truths. The Investigator has no memory of what their body said, but hearing the second-hand accounts of the truths they spoke costs 1/1d4 Sanity points.
  • Failure: A hostile or alien entity hijacks the connection. It may lie, taunt the other Investigators with their deepest fears, or force the user’s body to perform a single, harmful act (attacking an ally, destroying a clue, etc.). This experience costs the Investigator 1d3/1d6 Sanity points.
• Purifying Draught: As a strange side effect, the horn renders any mundane poison in the libation inert. The entities it channels are not concerned with such petty mortal frailties.

Blades in the Dark

The Horn of the Thirsting God

High-Level Overview: In Duskvol, religion and ritual are often personal, desperate, and strange. This horn is not a general-purpose tool but a specific ritual implement for a Cult crew. The act of drinking from it is a sacrament, a way of communing with the crew’s chosen forgotten god or entity. It solidifies the crew’s identity and provides tangible benefits, but always at the cost of drawing them deeper into the influence of their inscrutable patron.

Description and Mechanics: A drinking horn made of blackened wood, etched with the forgotten symbol of your crew’s patron deity. It is used as a central implement in your sacred rites. This is an artifact available to a Cult crew.

• Ritual of Communion: When you perform a crew-wide ritual and use the horn to serve a specially prepared libation to the participants, you may add +1d to your roll.
• Glimpse of the God’s Mind: As part of the Ritual of Communion, you may ask the GM a single question related to your deity’s desires, hidden knowledge, or enemies. The GM will provide a truthful, though perhaps cryptic, answer.
• The Price of Prophecy: Any character who drinks from the horn during the ritual must suffer 1 Stress as their mind is briefly touched by an alien consciousness.
• Special Ability: Drink the Unseen: You can perform a special ritual to “drink” an intangible essence from the environment (e.g., the lingering sorrow from a fresh grave, the smoke from an alchemical fire, the palpable fear from a torture chamber). Doing so starts a 4-segment clock: “Gain a Vision from the Essence.” The GM will tell you the potential consequences of imbibing such a strange substance. When the clock is filled, you receive a detailed vision related to the essence’s source.

Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition

The Skald’s Tasting Horn

High-Level Overview: This magic item is designed to be interactive and encourage creative thinking from the players. Rather than providing a static daily spell, the horn grants temporary boons based on what the character chooses to drink from it. It’s a versatile tool for a bard, barbarian, or cleric in a campaign that features varied environments and substances, rewarding players for experimenting with their surroundings.

Wondrous item, uncommon

Description and Mechanics: This is a large, well-made drinking horn, polished to a milky sheen and capped with a simple bronze rim. Faint runes glow along the rim when it is filled with a particularly potent or magical liquid.

• Purifying Agent (Passive): The horn neutralizes any non-magical poison or disease within any liquid poured into it.
• Draught of Power (Active): Once per day, you can use an action to drink a significant amount of a liquid from the horn and gain a temporary benefit that lasts for 10 minutes. The benefit is determined by the nature of the liquid consumed. The GM has the final say on the effect of any unusual substance.
  • Strong Ale or Wine: You have advantage on saving throws against being Frightened.
  • Water from a Holy Font: You can cast the bless spell once during the duration, requiring no components.
  • Blood of a Creature: You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks made to track that creature or other creatures of its specific kind (e.g., goblin blood helps track goblins).
  • A Potion of Healing: You gain the normal effect of the potion, and you can also cast the spare the dying cantrip for the duration.

Knave, 2nd Edition

The Seer’s Grog-Horn

High-Level Overview: In Knave’s gritty, inventory-focused system, items should have clear, tangible uses and risks. This horn is a straightforward tool for survival and information-gathering, but it comes with a direct, physical cost. It forces a resource-management choice upon the player: is the answer to a question worth the risk of a magical hangover that could cost them precious hit points?

Description and Mechanics: Slots: 1 Description: A sturdy, well-used drinking horn that smells faintly of old mead and ozone. It can be hung from a belt.

• Abilities:
  • Iron Gut (Passive): You can drink any non-magical beverage (stagnant water, questionable ale, etc.) without needing to make a saving throw to resist disease or mundane poisons.
  • Scry the Draught (Active): When you drink a full horn of an alcoholic beverage, you may ask the GM a single “yes” or “no” question about a hidden truth. The GM must answer honestly. Immediately after receiving the answer, you must make a saving throw. On a failure, you are wracked by a magical hangover and lose 1d4 HP.
  • Drink the Air (Active): Once per day, you can declare you are “drinking” the ambient essence of your immediate environment (e.g., the fog, smoke, palpable fear). The GM will give you a single, one-word clue about the source or nature of that essence (e.g., “Creature,” “Alchemical,” “Murder”). However, this psychic jolt is disorienting and immediately costs you 1 HP.

Fate Core System

The Ale-Horn of Open Hearts

High-Level Overview: In the narrative-driven world of Fate, items excel when they influence social situations and character interactions. This adaptation of the horn positions it as a premier tool for social engineering. It’s not about big, flashy magic, but about the subtle art of lowering inhibitions and building a rapport that can be used to gather information, make allies, or uncover secrets, all under the guise of friendly camaraderie.

Description and Mechanics: The Ale-Horn of Open Hearts is an Extra that grants the character the following stunts and aspect.

• Aspect: In Mead, There is Truth
• Stunts:
  • Share a Drink, Share a Secret: When you share a drink with a character from the horn, you gain a +2 bonus when you use the Rapport skill to Create an Advantage on them by learning their desires, secrets, or motivations.
  • A Toast to Clarity: Once per scene, after taking a drink from the horn, you can ask the GM a single question about a social obstacle you are facing (e.g., “What does this person really want from me?” or “What is the source of the tension in this room?”). The GM will give you a short, honest answer. This does not cost a Fate Point but requires the in-game action of stopping for a drink.
  • The Unseen Draught: You can spend a Fate Point to perform a ritual to “drink” an intangible essence (smoke from a secret meeting, fog from a haunted river). When you do, you can ask the GM one question about the origin or nature of that essence, and they will answer truthfully.

Numenera & Cypher System

The Intangible Essence Taster

High-Level Overview: In Numenera, not all pieces of the past are powerful artifacts. Many are simply Oddities—strange devices with peculiar, often non-utilitarian functions. This version of the horn is presented as an Oddity, fitting its “common” rarity, with an optional rule for the GM to upgrade it to a full Artifact. This grounds the item as a strange but relatively harmless curiosity that might, with a bit of luck and ingenuity, prove to be something more.

Description and Mechanics: Form: A drinking horn made of a strange, lightweight, polished material that is unnaturally smooth and warm.

• Oddity Effect: When the user mimes the act of “drinking” from the empty horn while in a place with a strong ambient quality (e.g., a smoky forge, a foggy field, a perfumed garden), they experience a vivid, harmless synesthetic sensation for a moment. They might “taste” the color green, “see” the sound of bells, or “feel” the scent of flowers on their skin. The effect is bewildering but has no direct mechanical benefit.
• Optional Artifact Upgrade:
  • Name: Psycho-Sensory Interpreter
  • Level: 3
  • Effect: In addition to the oddity effect, the user can attempt to make sense of the synesthetic experience. This requires an Intellect action with a difficulty equal to the artifact’s level. On a success, they gain a single, useful piece of information about the source of the intangible essence (e.g., tasting the smoke reveals the alchemical compound being burned; seeing the sound of bells reveals the number of people in the next room).
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d20.

Pathfinder, 2nd Edition

Skald’s Alchemical Horn

High-Level Overview: This adaptation reframes the item not as an inherently magical object, but as a masterfully crafted Alchemical Tool. Its power comes from its unique ability to interact with and enhance the effects of alchemical items like potions and elixirs. This gives the horn a distinct niche, making it a valuable piece of equipment for an Alchemist, a Chirurgeon, or any character who relies on consumables for their utility and power.

Skald’s Alchemical Horn — Item 2 Traits: Alchemical, Tool Price: 25 gp Usage: Held in one hand; Bulk: L

Description This drinking horn is crafted from the horn of a mountain goat, but it has been treated with special alchemical resins and polished to a milky sheen. Runes for “purity” and “potency” are subtly carved along its bronze rim.

• Abilities:
  • Purifying Vessel: If you pour a non-magical liquid containing a mundane disease or poison into the horn, the horn’s resonant properties neutralize the contaminant after one round, rendering the liquid safe to drink. This has no effect on magical or alchemical afflictions.
  • Potent Potable: When you drink a potion or elixir from this horn, you gain a +1 item bonus to any saving throws the alchemical item allows you to make.
  • Activation [one-action] (Interact)
  • Frequency once per day
  • Requirements You are about to drink a potion or elixir from the horn that has a duration.
  • Effect You swirl the alchemical liquid in the horn, activating the runes along the rim. The duration of the potion or elixir you are about to drink is increased by 1 minute.

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition

The Horn of Good Fellowship

High-Level Overview: This adaptation focuses on the social and luck-based aspects of the horn, tying it directly into one of Savage Worlds’ core mechanics: Bennies. The horn becomes a tool for leadership and camaraderie, allowing its user to manipulate the flow of fortune for their entire group. It’s an item that encourages teamwork and reinforces the “heroes supporting heroes” vibe of the system.

Description and Mechanics: A large, inviting drinking horn, polished from use and capped with a simple bronze rim. It always seems to be at the center of a good time and makes any drink taste a little bit better.

• Rules:
  • Social Centerpiece: When you use this horn to share a round of drinks with your allies in a social setting (such as a tavern or at a campfire), you are seen as the heart of the group. For the rest of the scene, you gain a +1 bonus to any Persuasion checks made to lead or inspire your allies.
  • A Toast to Fortune: Once per session, you can lead your allies in a great toast. To do so, you must place one of your own Bennies back in the GM’s pot. After you do, you and every one of your allies who participated in the toast may immediately draw a new Benny from the pot. Any player who already has 3 or more Bennies cannot benefit from this ability. This is a powerful tool for refreshing the party’s luck at a critical moment.

Shadowrun, 6th World

The Skald’s Horn

High-Level Overview: In the corporate and street-level battlegrounds of the Sixth World, trust is a weapon and rapport is a key that unlocks doors. The Skald’s Horn is a specialized piece of magical gear for the social infiltrator, the face, or the con artist. It uses a sympathetic magic approach, creating a temporary magical link through the shared act of drinking, which lowers a target’s social defenses and makes them more susceptible to manipulation.

Description and Mechanics: Availability: 8R Cost: 7,500 Nuyen

The Skald’s Horn is a drinking vessel made from magically treated and polished synth-horn, capped with a simple bronze rim. It is a popular affectation among Ork crews who follow a traditionalist or “Skraacha” culture, but it is also a powerful tool for corporate espionage.

• Game Effect: When the user and a target drink from this horn (either by sharing the same horn or by pouring a drink from it into the target’s glass), the horn establishes a subtle magical rapport between the two. For the next hour, the user gains a +2 dice pool bonus to any Con or Etiquette tests made against that specific target. This effect can only be active on one target at a time; establishing a new rapport breaks the previous one.
• Divinatory Draught: Once per day, the user can fill the horn with an alcoholic beverage and spend one minute in quiet concentration, performing a small ritual chant. After drinking, they receive a cryptic, symbolic vision related to a single question they ask about the target with whom they currently have a rapport. This vision may provide a clue to the target’s secrets, weaknesses, or immediate intentions.

Starfinder

Social Nanite Diffuser

High-Level Overview: This adaptation re-imagines the horn’s magic as advanced technology, specifically a nanite-based system. The horn is a discreet delivery device for a cloud of microscopic machines programmed to influence social behavior. It is a high-tech tool for diplomats, spies, and merchants, allowing them to subtly alter the mood and receptiveness of a target or a room, making deals and deceptions easier to perform.

Description and Mechanics: Level: 3; Price: 1,500 credits; Bulk: L Hands: 1; Capacity: 10; Usage: 1/hour

This drinking horn is constructed from a matte-black smart polymer. The interior is coated with a slow-release colony of social-interaction nanites.

• Effect: When a liquid is poured into the horn, the user can choose to release one charge of nanites into it. Anyone who drinks the liquid (including the user) is infused with the nanites for one hour. The nanites release pheromones and mild psychoactive compounds that foster a sense of camaraderie and openness.
  • Creatures affected by the nanites take a –2 penalty on saving throws against charm and emotion effects.
  • Creatures affected by the nanites take a –2 penalty on Sense Motive checks made to discern lies.
• Data-Drink: The user can use the horn’s built-in sensor suite to take a “sample” of an ambient essence (such as smoke, fog, or airborne particulates). This expends 5 charges from the horn’s capacity. The nanites analyze the sample and provide a detailed chemical and particulate breakdown to the user’s comm unit, which may provide clues about the sample’s origin.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Diplomatic Rapport Enhancer (DRE-Horn)

High-Level Overview: In the hard science-fiction setting of Traveller, this device is not magical at all. It is a piece of standard, high-tech equipment issued to some Imperial diplomatic corps members. It functions as a sophisticated computer-assisted social tool, using a suite of sensors and subtle emitters to analyze and influence a target, giving the user an edge in tense negotiations or social gatherings.

Description and Mechanics: Tech Level: 12 Mass: 0.5 kg; Value: Cr 25,000

A drinking horn made of a lightweight, polished composite material, often presented as a “cultural gift” during diplomatic missions. It contains a suite of subtle sensors, a pheromone emitter, and a micro-filtration unit. It is powered by a standard power pack, which lasts for one week of continuous use.

• Function (Rapport Analysis): When drinking with a target, the device uses its sensors to analyze the target’s micro-expressions, speech patterns, and vital signs. It provides real-time feedback to the user via a subvocal comms link (e.g., “Subject is deceptive,” “Subject shows elevated heart rate”), granting a +1 DM to all social checks such as Persuade, Deceive, and Diplomat against that target.
• Function (Pheromone Emitter): On command, the user can activate a subtle pheromone emitter built into the horn’s rim. The emitter creates an aura of trust and placidity in those within two meters. This provides an additional +1 DM to Persuade checks but can be detected by individuals with advanced sensors or certain biological traits.
• Function (Purification): The horn contains a standard TL 12 water filtration unit, capable of rendering most water sources potable.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 4th Edition

Horn of the Whale-Road

High-Level Overview: In the grim and perilous Old World, this item is a ritual tool of the Norscan Vitki, or shamans. The Norscans are a culture of seafaring raiders and traders, and their magic is as wild and unpredictable as the seas they sail. The horn is not a subtle tool of courtly intrigue but a rugged implement used to commune with the spirits of the sea and sky, to predict the treacherous weather of the north, and to ensure survival on long voyages. Its magic is raw and carries inherent risks.

Description and Mechanics: Enc: 1 Price: Unsalable in the Empire; a priceless relic in Norsca. Availability: Rare Norscan Artefact

A large, salt-stained drinking horn, supposedly taken from a great sea-beast of the northern oceans. It is covered in scrimshaw carvings of swirling Norscan runes depicting waves, whales, and krakens.

• Properties: Magical
• Effect:
  • A Seaman’s Gut: Any potable liquid poured into the horn is instantly purified of any mundane spoilage or natural disease. Furthermore, any character who takes a drink from the horn becomes immune to the effects of seasickness for the remainder of the day.
  • Scry the Mists: A user can drink a potent alcoholic beverage from the horn and attempt to divine the future, a practice known as “drinking the sky.” This requires the user to pass a Difficult (–10) Channelling (Azyr) Test. On a success, the GM gives the user a short, cryptic vision related to a future journey, the coming weather, or a hidden danger at sea.
  • The Price of Vision: Using the Scry the Mists ability is spiritually and physically taxing. Whether you succeed or fail the Channelling test, you must subsequently make an Average (+20) Endurance Test or gain 1 Fatigued Condition from the ensuing magical hangover. If you Fumble the Channelling Test, you have insulted a fickle sea-spirit, which may result in a terrible omen or a Minor Mutation at the GM’s discretion.