Consumables¶
Consumables are treasures that can be used a limited number of times before they expire, losing whatever makes them supernatural. You can drink a potion once, and when you do so, that's it. It's consumed. Other consumables might have a specific number of charges that can be spent. Once those charges are gone, the treasure is useless.
Consumables are organized by echelon to make life easy for the Director handing them out (see Echelons of Play in Chapter 1: The Basics). As a guideline, a hero should always be able to find consumable treasures or the materials required to craft consumables of their echelon and lower. For example, heroes who are 5th level should be able to find consumables of 1st and 2nd echelon. In some cases, the Director might decide to award consumables of an echelon higher than the heroes' echelon, but such a choice means giving the heroes more power than the encounter-building guidelines in Draw Steel: Monsters accounts for.
Your character can carry any number of consumables at a time.
Other Sections
The rules for using treasures refer to lots of other parts of the game. You can find information on specific topics as follows:
Recoveries, respites, Victories: Chapter 1: The Basics
Languages: Chapter 4: Background
Abilities, conditions, potencies, surges: Chapter 5: Classes
Skills, tests: Chapter 9: Tests
Item creation rules, crafting and research projects: Chapter 12: Downtime Projects
Main actions and maneuvers, creature size, damage and Stamina, dying and death, movement and forced movement, winded: Chapter 10: Combat
Negotiation rules, motivations, pitfalls, interest, and patience: Chapter 11: Negotiation.
1st-Echelon Consumables¶
This section presents 1st-echelon consumable treasures in alphabetical order.
Black Ash Dart¶
A diamond-shaped dart holds a shimmering black vial at its core.
Keywords: Magic
Item Prerequisite: Three vials of black ash from the College of Black Ash
Project Source: Texts or lore in Szetch
Project Roll Characteristic: Agility or Intuition
Project Goal: 45 (yields 1d3 darts, or three darts if crafted by a shadow)
Effect: As a maneuver, you make a ranged free strike using a black ash dart. The strike deals an extra 1 damage and adds the following effects to the tier outcomes of the power roll:
- ≤11: You can teleport the target up to 2 squares.
- 12-16: You can teleport the target up to 4 squares.
- 17+: You can teleport the target up to 6 squares.
Blood Essence Vial¶
A brittle glass tube has a ruby set atop it, attached by a hinge.
Keywords: Potion, Psionic
Item Prerequisite: A ruby purloined from a vampire
Project Source: Texts or lore in Proto-Ctholl
Project Roll Characteristic: Agility or Reason
Project Goal: 45
Effect: When you damage an adjacent creature who has blood, you can capture the target's life essence in this vial (no action required). Record the damage you dealt. You can capture life essence in the vial only once. As a maneuver, you drink the contents of the vial to regain Stamina equal to half the damage dealt. If you spend 1 Heroic Resource while you drink, you regain Stamina equal to the damage dealt. Once you drink from the vial, it crumbles to dust.
Buzz Balm¶
This cooling orange salve crackles and pops when exposed to the air.
Keywords: Magic, Oil
Item Prerequisite: An ounce of demon honey
Project Source: Texts or lore in Kalliak
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 45
Effect: As a maneuver, you rub the balm on your body and feel it tingle across your skin. You immediately end the bleeding and weakened conditions on yourself, and you gain a +2 bonus to speed until the start of your next turn.
Catapult Dust¶
A small leather pouch is filled with this fine blue powder.
Keywords: Magic
Item Prerequisite: An ounce of witherite crystal
Project Source: Texts or lore in Caelian
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 45
Effect: Catapult Dust was developed as a cost-effective magic siege weapon. As a main action, you pour the dust out in an adjacent unoccupied space to fill an area as large as a 2 cube. At the start of your next turn, the ground at the bottom of the area erupts violently upwards and in a direction of your choice. Any unattended objects in the area, or creatures who have entered the area since the dust was poured, are launched in an arc that is 6 + 1d6 squares long and 3 + 1d6 squares high.
Giant's-Blood Flame¶
A small pot is filled with a viscous, ochre oil that smells of sulfur and burnt hair.
Keywords: Magic, Oil
Item Prerequisite: One vial of fire giant blood
Project Source: Texts or lore in Caelian
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 45
Effect: As a maneuver, you coat a weapon in this oil and ignite it. The weapon burns persistently and without harming itself until it is extinguished as a maneuver. Whenever you use a weapon ability that deals rolled damage using a weapon that is ignited this way, the ability deals an extra 2 fire damage.
Alternatively, you can use a maneuver to throw the pot up to 5 squares, coating the square where it lands and any creatures or objects in that square with a sticky flammable oil. If the oil takes any fire damage, it burns persistently and deals 5 fire damage at the end of each of your turns to anything it has coated. A creature covered in the oil or who can reach it can use a main action to extinguish the flames and end the effect.
Any fire caused by the oil is extinguished after burning for 1 hour.
Growth Potion¶
This thick green liquid tastes of licorice and potatoes.
Keywords: Magic, Potion
Item Prerequisite: A half-pound of seagrass
Project Source: Texts or lore in Caelian
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 45
Effect: As a maneuver, you can drink this potion or pour it over an object of size 2 or smaller, causing the target's size to increase by 1(to a minimum size of 2). If you are the target, your Stamina maximum and Stability are doubled, you gain an edge on Might tests, and your weapon abilities that deal rolled damage gain a damage bonus equal to your highest characteristic score. You shrink back to your original size after 3 rounds, halving your current Stamina maximum and Stability, and losing the potion's other benefits. Objects maintain their new size permanently.
Healing Potion¶
Thick and red, this liquid tastes of sour beer.
Keywords: Magic, Potion
Item Prerequisite: An ounce of costmary leaves
Project Source: Texts or lore in Caelian
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 45
Effect: When you drink this potion as a maneuver, you regain Stamina equal to your recovery value without spending a Recovery.
Imp's Tongue¶
The tongue of an imp has been dried and preserved. Yuck.
Keywords: Magic
Item Prerequisite: One imp's tongue
Project Source: Texts or lore in Caelian
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 45
Effect: As a maneuver, you place the imp's tongue on your own tongue, causing it to reconstitute and attach itself to your tongue. While attached, the Imp's Tongue allows you to speak any language and understand any language spoken to you. This benefit ends after 1 hour, when the tongue is absorbed into your body.
Lachomp Tooth¶
A thumb-sized serrated tooth manages to scratch your flesh in some way whenever it is handled.
Keywords: Psionic
Item Prerequisite: A leftover carcass of a lachomp meal
Project Source: Texts or lore in Caelian
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 45 (yields 1d3 teeth)
Effect: As a maneuver, you attach a lachomp tooth to a weapon, allowing that weapon to supernaturally flicker in and out of reality. Your next strike that uses the weapon can tear through multiple targets in a line (for a ranged strike) or surrounding you (for a melee strike). The strike adds the following effects to the tier outcomes of the power roll:
- ≤11: You can affect one additional target with this strike.
- 12-16: You can affect up to three additional targets with this strike.
- 17+: You can affect up to seven additional targets with this strike.
Mirror Token¶
A gold-rimmed, mirror-faced coin trembles in the hand as if it were repelled by your touch.
Keywords: Psionic
Item Prerequisite: Three sheets of glass, sunbaked gold dust
Project Source: Texts or lore in Variac
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 45
Effect: While the Mirror Token is on your person and you are targeted by a ranged strike, you can use a triggered action to crush the token and ignore the strike. Half the damage you would have taken and any effects of the triggering strike are imposed on the creature making the strike.
Pocket Homunculus¶
A densely interlocking sphere of clockwork gears features facets that show the countenance of the item's wielder.
Keywords: Psionic
Item Prerequisite: A strip of starmetal coated in the blood of the item's crafter
Project Source: Texts or lore in Zaliac
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason
Project Goal: 45
Effect: When activated as a maneuver, this item erupts in a bright flash, you can shift 1 square without your enemies noticing your movement, and a homunculus perfectly resembling you appears in an adjacent space. The homunculus is a creature with Stamina 15, a 0 in all their characteristics, and a speed and stability equal to yours. They appear indistinguishable from you but can't use any abilities.
While you have line of effect to your homunculus, you can use a maneuver to issue them a telepathic command. The homunculus performs the command to the best of their ability. If not commanded, the homunculus mimics your movements and speech. When you move, the homunculus moves with you, matching your pace. The homunculus crumbles to dust after 1 hour or if reduced to 0 Stamina.
Portable Cloud¶
This thin glass sphere holds a tiny roiling cloud.
Keywords: Magic
Item Prerequisite: A cup of rainwater from a sacred fey grove, plus an optional prerequisite (see below)
Project Source: Texts or lore in Caelian
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 30 or 45 (see below)
Effect: As a maneuver, you throw this delicate glass sphere up to 5 squares, breaking it and creating a 4 cube of fog. The fog dissipates after 10 minutes or if a strong gust of wind created by a storm or magic passes through the area.
Enterprising mages within various thieves' guilds have developed variations of the Portable Cloud. Each variation has a secondary item prerequisite and a project goal of 45.
Noxious Cloud: Filled with a green or putrid yellow haze, this sphere spreads a choking, foul-smelling mist when broken. Each creature who enters the cloud for the first time in a combat round or starts their turn there takes 5 poison damage. Additionally, any creature is weakened while in the fog.
Item Prerequisite: An ounce of undead flesh. Thunderhead Cloud: Small lightning bolts arc around the black cloud in this sphere, which creates a 3 cube of cloud and lightning when broken. Each creature who enters the cloud for the first time in a combat round or starts their turn there takes 5 lightning damage. Additionally, any creature is slowed while in the cloud.
Item Prerequisite: A spool of copper wire.
Professor Veratismo's Quaff 'n Huff Snuff¶
This tiny compact holds a colorless powder with the slightest astringent smell.
Keywords: Potion, Psionic
Item Prerequisite: The roots of a just-budded nightshade
Project Source: Texts or lore in Caelian
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason
Project Goal: 45
Effect: As a maneuver, you sprinkle a dose of this powder onto food or drink, or blow it at an adjacent creature who is grabbed, restrained, or unconscious. A creature who is exposed to blown powder (even if they hold their breath) or consumes a dose of the powder must communicate in only true statements for 1 hour. Additionally, other creatures gain an edge on Intuition and Presence tests made to convince the target to communicate, or to read the target's emotions. Any such creature has a double edge on the test if the target doesn't realize they've been affected by the snuff.
Snapdragon¶
This delicate orange blossom has a sickly-sweet smell.
Keywords: Magic
Item Prerequisite: Fifty snapdragon seeds
Project Source: Texts or lore in Yllyric
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 45 (yields 1d6 + 1 snapdragons)
Effect: As a maneuver, you sniff a magic snapdragon blossom, causing it to whither and making your movements more forceful and explosive. The next damage-dealing ability you use deals an extra 5 damage and gains a +2 bonus to the distance of any forced movement it imposes. If the ability does not impose forced movement, you can push each creature targeted by the ability up to 2 squares.
2nd-Echelon Consumables¶
This section presents 2nd-echelon consumable treasures in alphabetical order.
Breath of Dawn¶
A glass flask contains a whirl of gentle sunlight.
Keywords: Psionic
Item Prerequisite: The breath of a mystic sage captured at sunrise
Project Source: Texts or lore in Hyrallic
Project Roll Characteristic: Intuition or Presence
Project Goal: 90
Effect: As a maneuver, you inhale the Breath of Dawn and are overcome with tranquility. You immediately end the frightened, slowed, and taunted conditions on yourself, and you gain a +8 bonus to Stability until the end of the encounter.
Bull Shot¶
Tiny chips of white bone float within this dark potion, which carries the scent of beef broth.
Keywords: Magic, Potion
Item Prerequisite: One vial of pure bovine essence
Project Source: Texts or lore in Caelian
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 90
Effect: When you drink this potion as a maneuver, you sprout 3-foot sharpened horns from your forehead. Whenever you use the Charge main action, the target of your strike is gored upon your horns and grabbed. While grabbed this way, the creature is bleeding. You can also grab another creature with your limbs. The horns harmlessly fall off your head at the end of the encounter.
Chocolate of Immovability¶
This decadent-looking treat feels strangely heavy in the hand.
Keywords: Magic
Item Prerequisite: A chocolate made by a gnome confectioner
Project Source: Texts or lore in Caelian
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 90
Effect: When you consume this delicious piece of candy as a maneuver, you gain 15 temporary Stamina and a +10 bonus to stability. Additionally, if you don't use your movement during your turn, any strikes you make on that turn deal an extra 5 damage, and any strikes against you take a bane until the start of your next turn. This effect and the bonus to stability lasts until the end of the encounter, after which you are sleepy. If not reduced beforehand, the temporary Stamina lasts until the end of your next respite.
Concealment Potion¶
This dark, viscous liquid tastes like burnt leaves.
Keywords: Potion, Psionic
Item Prerequisite: An ounce of sap from a tree damaged by psionic fire
Project Source: Texts or lore in Yllyric
Project Roll Characteristic: Agility or Intuition
Project Goal: 90
Effect: When you drink this potion as a maneuver, light shifts around your body, letting you blend into the environment around you for 10 minutes. While this effect is active, you have a double edge on tests made to hide and sneak, and you can use the Hide maneuver even while you are observed.
Float Powder¶
A glass vial holds translucent flakes that twinkle in the light.
Keywords: Magic
Item Prerequisite: Several strands of hag hair
Project Source: Texts or lore in Khelt
Project Roll Characteristic: Intuition or Presence
Project Goal: 90 (yields 1d3 vials)
Effect: Dousing yourself in this powder as a maneuver causes you to weightlessly float off the ground. For 1 hour, your stability is reduced to 0, and you can fly and hover. Additionally, the hag that the powder is sourced from knows exactly where and when you use it.
Purified Jelly¶
This clear, pasty substance has a bitter aroma.
Keywords: Potion, Psionic
Item Prerequisite: A cup of algae from glacial water
Project Source: Texts or lore in Yllyric
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 90 (yields 1d3 doses)
Effect: Consuming this potion as a maneuver causes your skin to shimmer and a set of tiny gills to appear on your neck or shoulders. For 1 hour, you can breathe in any environment, and you ignore the effects of harmful gases, vapors, and inhaled poisons.
Scroll of Resurrection¶
This scroll is marked by sigils of power, death, and life.
Keywords: Magic, Scroll
Item Prerequisite: A sheet of paper infused with the dust of a painite
Project Source: Texts or lore in the First Language
Project Roll Characteristic: Intuition or Presence
Project Goal: 90
Effect: As a respite activity, you repeatedly chant the contents of this scroll over the remains of a creature who has been dead for less than 1 year. The creature's soul must be willing to return to life for the scroll to work. If they are not willing, you instinctively understand that as you start the respite activity and can cease it immediately. The scroll is not consumed, and you can undertake a new respite activity.
A creature with a willing soul returns to life at the end of the respite with full Stamina and half their Recoveries. You regain only half your Recoveries at the end of the respite, and the scroll is consumed.
Telemagnet¶
A short iron wand shaped of interlocking segments leaks greasy black oil from its joints.
Keywords: Psionic
Item Prerequisite: A shard of prismacore, an ounce of ferrous metal
Project Source: Texts or lore in Zaliac
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 90
Effect: As a maneuver, you snap this wand in half, letting you vertically pull one object or creature of size 3 or less a number of squares based on that target's size:
If you pull a size 1T object adjacent to you, you can catch it. This treasure can affect any target within line of effect.
Vial of Ethereal Attack¶
Clear liquid seems to constantly churn within an obsidian vial, even when at rest.
Keywords: Psionic
Item Prerequisite: A signed agreement with a ghost, a large obsidian disk
Project Source: Texts or lore in Anjali
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 90
Effect: As a maneuver, you throw this vial up to 10 squares, destroying the vial and creating a 2-cube ethereal vortex centered on the spot where it lands. The vortex dissipates at the end of the encounter or when you dismiss it (no action required). Any creature who enters the vortex for the first time in a combat round or starts their turn there takes 10 psychic damage. At the start of each of your turns, you can move the vortex up to 5 squares (no action required).
3rd-Echelon Consumables¶
This section presents 3rd-echelon consumable treasures in alphabetical order.
Anamorphic Larva¶
A cloudy glass vial holds a writhing monstrous grub.
Keywords: Psionic
Item Prerequisite: A grub steeped in voiceless talker bile
Project Source: Texts or lore in Variac
Project Roll Characteristic: Might or Intuition
Project Goal: 180
Effect: When you release the larva as a maneuver, it feeds on psychic energy to grow exponentially, creating a 10 wall of larval flesh adjacent to you. The wall can't be created to fill any square occupied by a creature with stability 1 or higher. Each other creature in the wall when it is created is pushed to the nearest unoccupied space.
At the start of each of your turns, each creature adjacent to the wall takes psychic damage equal to three times their Intuition score, and you can add 1 square to the wall for each creature who takes this damage. If no creature takes damage at the start of your turn, the larva dies and the wall disappears.
Bottled Paradox¶
Liquid constantly swirls within a cut glass bottle that is ice cold to the touch.
Keywords: Magic, Potion
Item Prerequisite: A month's lifespan from the creator or another willing creature, ground sapphire
Project Source: Texts or lore in Caelian
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 180
Effect: As a maneuver, you can drink this potion or throw it up to 10 squares. If you drink it, you choose a test you made in the last minute, then reroll that test repeatedly until the outcome changes. If the potion is thrown, it creates a 3-cube area of shimmering magic. Any event that took place in that area in the previous minute changes at the discretion of the Director, who has full freedom to decide what happens. The energy then dissipates.
G'Allios Visiting Card¶
A card bearing the Eighth City Advocacy Services crest smells faintly of smoke and spices.
Keywords: Magic
Item Prerequisite: One vial of archdevil's blood, an expired contract
Project Source: Texts or lore in Anjali
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 180
Effect: Whenever you would take damage, you can use a triggered action to tear the card and summon a devil. You avoid the damage and any accompanying effects, and the devil redirects the triggering effect to a target of their choice anywhere on the same manifold. You are treated to a clear vision of whoever suffers the damage. The devil then disappears.
Personal Effigy¶
This tiny humanoid effigy appears unnervingly lifelike and is always warm to the touch.
Keywords: Magic
Item Prerequisite: A brief period of contact with the creature the effigy is tied to
Project Source: Texts or lore in Khemharic
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 120
Effect: The Personal Effigy is crafted to depict a specific humanoid creature it is tied to, and activates only for the first minute after the creature dies. While you are within 5 squares of the remains of the creature the effigy is tied to, you can use a maneuver to manually light and burn the effigy and bring the creature back to life. The creature returns to life with Stamina equal to their winded value and 10 temporary Stamina that lasts until the end of their next respite. If the creature has been dead for more than 1 minute, they remain dead and the effigy dissolves into dust.
Stygian Liquor¶
This muddy brown whiskey tastes of peat and death.
Keywords: Magic, Potion
Item Prerequisite: An ounce of scrapings from a coven's used cauldron
Project Source: Texts in Anjali
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 180
Effect: When you drink this potion as a maneuver, you gain a tenacious will to cling to life for 24 hours. If you are dying during this time, you don't die until you reach the negative of your Stamina maximum rather than your winded value. Additionally, while you are dying, you gain on edge on power rolls and you take half the damage dealt by the bleeding condition. Once the potion's magic is triggered, it ends when you are no longer dying.
Timesplitter¶
This spiked crystal makes a beautiful ringing sound when first touched.
Keywords: Psionic
Item Prerequisite: A time crystal
Project Source: Texts or lore in Voll
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 180
Effect: As a maneuver, you make a ranged free strike using the Timesplitter, which shatters upon impact. The strike deals an extra 1d6 psychic damage and adds the following effects to the tier outcomes of the power roll:
- ≤11: The target and each creature within 3 squares of them a slowed (save ends).
- 12-16: The target and each creature within 5 squares of them is slowed (save ends).
- 17+: The target and each creature within 8 squares of them is slowed (save ends).
Ward Token¶
This smoothly polished quartz stone feels strangely warm to the touch.
Keywords: Psionic
Item Prerequisite: A small quartz
Project Source: Texts or lore in Zaliac
Project Roll Characteristic: Might or Intuition
Project Goal: 180
Effect: As a maneuver, you toss this stone above you and it shatters, showering you in dust. Until the end of the encounter, any enemy ability that targets you has a double bane.
Wellness Tonic¶
This thick purple liquid has a bitter scent that lingers.
Keywords: Potion, Psionic
Item Prerequisite: An ounce of troll's blood, raw honey
Project Source: Texts or lore in Variac
Project Roll Characteristic: Might or Intuition
Project Goal: 180
Effect: When you drink this tonic as a maneuver, you feel a surge of physical and spiritual immunity. You can immediately end up to three conditions or effects affecting you. Additionally, until the start of your next turn, you can ignore any effect that would last until the end of your next turn or be ended by a saving throw.
4th-Echelon Consumables¶
This section presents 4th-echelon consumable treasures in alphabetical order.
Breath of Creation¶
A glass flask holds a roiling storm of astral plasma.
Keywords: Psionic
Item Prerequisite: The captured breath of a god, an ounce of condensed dreams
Project Source: Texts or lore in the First Language
Project Roll Characteristic: Intuition or Presence
Project Goal: 360
Effect: When you inhale the Breath of Creation as a maneuver, you are imbued with cosmic power. You earn 1 Renown, and you create a size 2 portal to a new demiplane in an adjacent square. The demiplane is a 20-cube area whose form and mundane features are chosen by you. The portal appears only to you and creatures you designate, and only you and those creatures can enter the demiplane. When a creature moves into the portal, they emerge from a corresponding portal inside the demiplane, and vice versa. Objects created within the demiplane turn to dust if removed from it.
Each time you use another Breath of Creation, you can create a new demiplane or expand a demiplane you have already created or visited. The size of an expanded demiplane increases by 20, and you create a second portal to the demiplane with a corresponding portal inside.
Elixir of Saint Elspeth¶
This thick red liquid smells of cinnamon.
Keywords: Magic, Potion
Item Prerequisite: An ounce of the blood of Saint Elspeth
Project Source: Texts or lore in Caelian
Project Roll Characteristic: Presence
Project Goal: 360
Effect: When you pour the elixir onto your forehead as a maneuver, it vanishes and you protect yourself against effects that might harm your body, mind, or soul. For a number of rounds equal to your current Victories, any enemy ability targeting you automatically obtains a tier 1 outcome against you. Additionally, the ability can only deal damage to you, letting you ignore its other effects.
Page From the Infinite Library: Solaris¶
This page is covered with writing and diagrams detailing the release of limitless energy—and the dangers of that process.
Keywords: Magic
Item Prerequisite: One vial of sacred ink, blessed parchment
Project Source: Reference materials in the First Language from the
Infinite Library detailing incomplete instructions for building a sun
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Intuition
Project Goal: 360
Effect: As a maneuver, you spend 1 Heroic Resource to destroy this page and create a 4-cube area within 20 squares. The area is filled with the energy of a tiny sun that lasts until the end of the encounter. Any creature who enters the area for the first time in a combat round or starts their turn there takes 20 fire damage and is dazed until the end of their turn.
Restorative of the Bright Court¶
An ornately decorated golden vial smells of summer rain and subtle zesty fruits.
Keywords: Magic
Item Prerequisite: A year's lifespan from the creator or another willing creature, the laughter of a young hero
Project Source: Texts or lore in Khelt
Project Roll Characteristic: Reason or Presence
Project Goal: 360
Effect: When opened as a maneuver, this vial bursts into a storm of multicolored lights. You and each ally within 5 squares of you regain 1d6 Recoveries. However, any mortal using this treasure draws the interest of a powerful fey noble.