Friday Encounter: The Shrine of Blood

Here's an encounter I used in a recent session. It was originally designed as a dungeon room, but it could easily work as a feature on the road or in the wilderness as well.

I generally hew to the wisdom that magic items that just give flat bonuses to rolls are the most boring kind of magic items there are, and don't feel particularly magical. Case in point, it was only a few years ago that I realized that +1 weapons and armor were actually supposed to be magical, and not just a way to represent superior craftsmanship (maybe video games have spoiled me). If I'm going to use a magic item, I think it should always have special properties, abilities, and limitations that make it more than just a flat bonus. If you can abstract a magic item into the calculations of your attack roll, then you forget that you have the item in the first place, and magic should never be forgettable.

However, I can't deny there is a use for flat bonuses to attacks some times - it just makes for a really underwhelming treasure or quest reward. Here's a way you can make +1 weapons more interesting by giving them unique conditions to attain them, and limitations on their use.

The Shrine of Blood

The PCs should come upon a shrine where the statue of a god of war and battle (Kerne, Estark, Ares, Crom, or whoever fits the role in your setting) is stood with a shallow wide-brimmed bowl at its feet. Engraved in silver along the bowl's rim are the words "My champions shall be anointed in the blood of their enemies." A DC 10 Religion check will identify the god and their nature as a god of war; clerics, paladins, and characters with the Acolyte background or similar will know this automatically. Additionally, a follower of the god who prays in front of the shrine will receive a vision of the statue coming to life and dipping one of its weapons into the bowl.

If anyone fills the bowl with blood from a creature they have slain within the day and then dips a weapon into it, the statue's eyes glow, followed by the weapon glowing for a few seconds. That weapon then becomes a +1 weapon of the appropriate type until the next long rest, at which point it reverts to its original state. The blood is consumed through this ritual, but the bowl can be refilled an unlimited amount of times. The ritual will not work if the blood is not fresh, or if the user did not land the killing blow on the creature the blood came from.