The lair of a sorcerer is supposed to be cluttered with the bizarre implements of his unholy trade- we've all seen paintings of a wizard's sanctum cluttered with occult brick-a-brac. -But if your players are anything like mine, vague descriptions of esoteric items will not be sufficient. They want a detailed accounting of the sinister paraphernalia found in a warp-dabbler's secret abode. Toward that end, I'm trying to put togeather a percentile chart of occult items (non-'magical' items used in rituals, not warp-artifacts!) to make detailing a sorcerer's lair quick and easy.

Ideally, I'd like a list of 100 items; alas, my creative juices slowed to a trickle just shy of the 30-mark. I'm hoping my fellow GMs can recommend some ghoulish bits to fill out the chart. Here's what I have so far:

• Shrunken Heads
• Dried length of umbilical cord, tied into an elaborate knot
• Necklace of finger bones
• Carved wooden shaman mask
• Jar containing the pickled fetus of a mutant
• Tambourine made from stretched human skin
• Corpse fat candles
• Ceramic rattle containing human teeth
• Cut obsidian chalice
• Dried lizard
• Blood-fed root shaped like a man
• Large fossilized egg
• Black velvet bag containing 13 coins of outdated denominations
• Glass jar full of eyes
• Ornate sacrificial knife
• V ials of various forms of animal venom
• Brass brazier engraved with unholy symbols
• Scrimshawed leg bones
• Small stone idol from a feral culture
• F eathers from an extinct species of bird, bound by their quills with copper wire
• Carved wooden juju stick
• Urn containing the ashes of a cremated psyker
• L arge insects skewered on long pins
• Mummified cat
• Clay vessel containing a carefully preserved vital organ
• Hangman’s noose, used
• Cup full of small tiles inscribed with runes in the Unholy Tongue
• Skull of a carnivorous beast

Thanks in advance for any suggestions- I'll post the complete list for everyone to use.

Hallucinogens

Candles of human tallow

Quills with Tattooing Ink

A defaced Aquila

Casting Runes carved from ribs

Miniature chaos rune carvings (to be hidden on cultists in order to identify each other)

Basin containing fine razor blades (used for ritual scarification)

Small mutated flora

• Animal skull (could be multiple items if you want to specify)
• Vials of blood
• Tears of an innocent
• Tongue of a guilty man
• Voodoo doll
• Ivy cut in moonlight
• Grave earth
• Grimoire (human skin bound optional)
• Strong spirits
• Herbs and spices
• Flash powder
• Inks and dyes
• Last confession of a saint
• Piece of meteorite rock

Keep 'em coming- 100 is a long way off (-and some of these suggestions are duplicates of my own, or things that are only tangentially 'occult'…)!

Claws from various beings, maybe tyranid

Pointy teeth from various carnivorous beings

Milk-teeth of from a child

Burned-out wiring from a tech-priest

Glass jar with the heart of a virgin

Moss collected from a tombstone

Bone fragments

Vial of stagnent water

A decapitated hand wrapped in barbed wire

A small leatherbag containing the fingerbones of a newborn baby

Anyone else? I still have a lot of 'slots' to fill…

-And keep in mind that I'm looking for 'set dressing', not major items that should be placed by the GM and not left to random chance (I include books in that category). And ideally nothing that requires an explanation. Fearn 's suggestion of 'Moss collected from a tombstone' sounds really cool- until you realize that the PCs will have no way of knowing it comes from a tombstone; to them it's just a clump of moss…

A painting of Sebastian Thor with a devilish knowing smirk.

Seven silver plated bolts for (a bolt pistol) each etched with an innocuous name. "Marius" "Anton" "Rykehuss" you know just names…

A black cat which appears alive (breathes, has a pulse, blinks) but does nothing is otherwise inanimate and smells of rot.

A collection of feminine ring fingers with wedding rings still attached.

A black turtleneck. Ordinary looking on the outside on the inside razor thin gold strips form occult symbols.

You claim Acolytes wouldn't know moss is from a tombstone. Well, neither would a would-be Sorcerer without it being labeled in some manner

Abacus
Ant Farm
Bark of Dog
Bumblebee Fuzz
Charcoal
Crystal Prism
Door Knob
Dye (various colors)
Ear of Bat
Eye Liner (Woad)
Fish Scales
Frost Melt
Gold Fork
Grease (bucket of)
Hair Pins
Hanger (twisted and bent)
Igniter (common, Bic)
Itching Powder
Jelly Beans
Junkyard Stench
Kiss 8-Track (Love Gun)
Kettle (Tea, black)
Licorice Root
Lye
Magnifying Lens
Metronome
Newton's cradle
Oil of Vitriol
Ozone Chamber
Pendulum
Pot (also black)
Quartz
Quilting (Padding)
Rain Drops
Red Chalk/Crayon/Wax
Sex Toys
Stamp Pads (like smiley faces and Hello Kitty)
Timex Chrono (it takes a licking…)
Tympanic Membrane (Eardrum)
Unicycle
Untied Shoe
Velvet Gloves
Vitamins (sure they are)
Wind-up toy
Wreath…

I think I just saw my first troll post on these forums…

Regardless I think the Kiss 8-track would be an essential material component along with the reverse-play-eight-track-archive-player (For Ezekiel to find). Combined with it's arcane focus the reverse lyrics would provide a suitably powerful sorcerer a means to summon a hideous chaos champion chapter of noise marines directly from the Eye of Terror.

An ancient portrait of Warmaster Horus Lupercal. (very heretical and there must have beeen plenty of them)

An "annotated" copy of the Lex Divinatus, where Logar's "real meanings" have been deduced.

A sculpture of the emperor debased and violated. (heretical tentacle hentai?)

An arbites badge impaled with a black knife.

A noose woven from the hair of judges.

A knife made from a child's femur.

A loose necklace of vertabrae.

A twisted Aquila.

A preseved human face.

A bag of eyelids.

A cauldron (preferably bubbling with some unholy goo)

A chemistry set-up with beakers, boilers and numerous vials

An altar or perhaps even 4 altars to the main chaos gods

Books on the occult, with a nice progression of scholarly to downright evil

(Forbidden) Biographies of infamous heretics

A few dozen volumes of the the Lex Imperialis (labelled under ‘know your enemy’),

A copy of SOP of the Arbites (labelled under ‘know your enemy’)

A wardrobe filled with official ‘uniforms’ for a Munitorium scribe, IG major, minor court official etc.

A faded painting of a noble family (father, mother and young son) with newspaper clippings of the Inquisition (or similar organization) executing the parents for heresy. No mention of the young son…

A series of art works, from mediocre to stunning (highlighting a mediocre artist’s fall to Slaanesh in exchange for greater artistic ability)

Newspaper clippings or official reports on seemingly random (gruesome) murders

Vats with acid to dispose of bodies

Vats of water to boil flesh from the bodies

A series of journals

A series of diploma’s from a Schola Progenium

Newspaper clippings or official reports concerning a large breakout from prison of wyrds awaiting transfer to a black ship

A set of scales

Several servitors with their brains/cogitators removed

A space marine helmet

Body paint

Maps of the imperial compound/imperial quarter with the abodes of senior officials marked on the map.

Books on poetry or poetry volumes (when read in a certain way or under certain light, chaos truths are revealed)

Just came up with another idea….

Star charts to chart the movement of the stars to find the most propitious moment for some nefarious bit of sorcery or ritual….

You could add geographical apparatus showing planets revolving around the planet in question or when the next solar eclipse will take place. Add crumbling books describing ancient prophecies…

Throw in a gold crown for the new King of Hell (or similar descriptive name) to be raised in some kind of ritual and stuff to create a proper pentagram for on the floor. Or take it to the next level with a pentagram or ward laid out in a mosaic on the floor and walls….

Ranoncles I like the newspaper clippings idea but considering that the majority of humanity in 40k is illiterate I would be surprised if many worlds had newspapers at all. Maybe a recording of the execution announcements? (The family painting example) or clips of stolen reports would make more sense.

Recently I had a great moment when I finally nailed this point of dark feudal setting. My players were investigating the suspected hideout of a terrorist base. They asked a henchman there to pass on a written warrant unsealed. The suspicious henchman unconciously inspects the warrant but his eyes give him away. One of my players immediately interuppted "Wait he's reading?" ME: "Sure you can see him thoroughly scanning it over. He seems really surprised by your visit." PLAYER to other PLAYER out of character: "This is where the heretics are hiding. Not likely some door flunky can read."

I've read dozens of warhammer 40k books and 95% of the characters depicted there knows how to read; the nobility sure knows how to read; a great deal, even a majority of the imperial citizens do not know how to read nor write when it comes to Hive Worlders and Feral Worlder, but in more civilized societies, they generally know how to.

InquisitorAlexel said:

Certainly up for debate. Consider that classes like guardsman do not gain literacy until rank 3. Obviously nobles and any one connected to the Adepta would read. Many heretics and bad guys too. I doubt that the 40k books spend a lot of time focusing on the specific capabilities of serfs. It must be the case that those selected for service in the Inquisition would be those likely to be the most suited to the work but even a starting assassin must spend 200xp to get the skill. Let's not forget that the Imperial Creed actively promotes ignorance as a blessing constantly reminding people that curiousity will lead them to trouble. The basic masses of humanity have no need to read and few would take the time to teach them for to do so will almost certainly lead to heresy.

But my original post has bordered on derailing!

• A 2ft tall bird cage which holds small still bird cage within side. Another within side that and so forth. A small inanimate copper raven figurine lies within the center.
• A small vial of invisible ink. Blank unruled pages stacked neatly nearby.

I don't have the Rulebook handy, but I seem to recall that the Imperial World background starts with Literacy- it could be argued that that represents 'the majority' of the Imperium (not that any player ever chooses that background over the 'sexier' options!).

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Like I said earlier, no book suggestions, please- I'm just going for 'set dressing' with this particular list, not scenario-specific clues. A 'Random Book Generator' for fleshing out libraries would make for an interesting future project, though…

Also, I'm looking for stuff that screams occult , not just heresy- more "Boil, boil, toil and trouble", and less "He's a commie!"

Adeptus-B said:

Derailing your own thread! HERESY. The ability you're thinking of is called Liturgical Familiarity which makes it so that people from those worlds can check on literacy as a basic skill (half your intelligence). Even these poor schmucks surrounded by priests day in and day out can just barely make a passing effort at reading 750 words a minute. This was why I felt that newspapers just seemed unlikely. Sure there's plenty of people who can read. But Newspapers by their inherent nature require a populace that is overwhelmingly literate which the Imperium presented by Fantasy Flight is far far far from. Ever play the video games too? Notice how every one leaves behind recordings and video logs? At first I just thought it was funny but I got it later… Even an Inquisitor has to assume that whoever finds his final message might not be able to read it.

• Blood red magnets each in the shape of half a broken dog. If clicked together a little electric bolt zips down the seam and suddenly a drop of blood appears.