Item Cards — The Night of Open Jars & The Pomegranate Dead

To the honoured travellers: Elpida keeps the jars open three nights this spring, and would count it a kindness if you kept them with us. Come for the wine and the swings; stay for the feast of the dead. Bring nothing but your appetites.

— Kleio, Archon of Elpida

Lit for you at the gate by the lamplighter: "Keep it lit all night."

• The dead see you by it. They prefer the ones in the dark.
• If it goes out, you are Unlit: disadvantage on saves against being frightened, and the dead find you easier to hit.
• Relight it with the Lantern of Elpis, with an offering to the dead, or by telling a true story about yourself, aloud.

Keep a real candle in front of you. When it goes out, it goes out.

A palm-sized clay lamp shaped like a tiny jar, a hooded gold flame burning without oil. It smells of beeswax and ozone. A note is tied to the handle:

"Hope was the last light in the jar. Keep it burning through the dark. At the source, say the old words: Out, Keres."

• Light: bright 20 ft., dim 20 ft. more. Only its bearer can put it out. The restless dead have disadvantage on attacks in its bright light.
• Relight (action): touch it to a snuffed lamp.
• Keep it close: if it leaves the party's hands, a lamp goes out.
• Flare (action, once): open the shutter fully — fear ends within 30 ft. — and the flame is spent.

A crown of ivy and grape leaves, slightly crushed, still smelling of the jug you drank in silence.

You won the silent drinking contest of Anthesteria. Old Myrrhine shakes your hand; she has not lost in eleven years.

You have Heroic Inspiration. Spend it to reroll one d20 and use the new roll.

It also makes a fine gift, to the right door.

A painted theatre mask of Dionysus, laughing on one side and weeping on the other, tied with a purple ribbon.

The procession named you its best mask. Until dawn, the crowd and the dead alike remember your face — whichever one you are wearing.

Once before dawn: advantage on one Charisma check.

You have Heroic Inspiration.

A black clay pot of boiled seeds and honey, cooked for Hermes of the Underworld and the dead. The living do not eat it.

• Six portions:
• Feed the hungry (action): offer a portion to one of the restless dead within 5 ft. — it eats instead of attacking that turn.
• An offering: a portion left for the dead may bring a light back.

"Don't eat the porridge in the black pots."

A squat black-figure jug sealed with pitch, Dionysus and his panther on its belly. The wine is dark as a bruise and smells of ivy and smoke.

• Six anointings:
• Anoint (bonus action): pour a little over a weapon, or your hands for unarmed strikes. Until dawn its attacks are magical and ignore resistance and immunity to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing.

The first jar opened at the festival belongs to Dionysus, who went into the Underworld and came back. The dead know his wine.

"Steel didn't touch them. This will."

Glossy, bitter leaves from the hedge by the old temple. Children chew them every Anthesteria.

• One per traveller:
• Chew one (bonus action): for 10 minutes you have resistance to necrotic damage and advantage on saves against being frightened.

"Chew the thorn and pitch the door."

A small clay pot of black pine pitch and a stiff brush. It smells of resin and smoke.

• Three marks:
• Paint a mark (action): a doorway or a line up to 10 ft. long. For 1 hour the restless dead — keres, shades, shadows, specters — cannot cross it, and it glows dimly.
• Pitch seals things. It may seal more than doors.

"Out with the Keres — come no more."

Chew the thorn and pitch the door,
Out with the Keres — come no more.
Honey for the hungry dead,
Light for the road, and home to bed.

And on the last night, at the threshold:
"Out, Keres! It is no longer Anthesteria!"

A pale-flowered sprig of asphodel — the flower of the dead, and of passage through the Underworld's borders.

• Present it to a guardian, an undead creature or an oath-bound thing: it recognises you as travelling with divine passage. Then the sprig wilts and crumbles.
• While carried: advantage on saves against being charmed by the undead.

"There is a door below that asks for something. Give it something."

A worn bronze disc on a braided leather cord: a labyrinth etched on one face, a minotaur on the other.

• While attuned: advantage on saves against being charmed or frightened.
• Never Lost (once per day, at dawn): for 1 hour you can't become lost, and you always know the direction to any named place or exit within 1 mile.

"The jar holds worse than any maze. This will steady you."

A palm-sized shard of a clay lamp, glazed gold on the inside, one edge carved with half a grin, still smelling faintly of beeswax and ozone.

Once per long rest, as a bonus action, you or an ally within 30 feet who can see the shard ends the Frightened condition and gains advantage on Wisdom saving throws until the end of your next turn. Once per short rest, when you fail a Wisdom saving throw, you can reroll it and must use the new roll.

"Hope was the last light in the jar. Keep it burning through the dark." — Note on the Lantern of Elpis

A thin cord of white wool wrapped in a single golden eagle-feather filament.

When Zeus thanks the party for mercy, each PC may take a short gold-and-wool cord. Once, before making a saving throw, you may snap the cord to gain advantage on that save. If the save is against being frightened, charmed, or despairing divine compulsion, you instead automatically succeed. The cord is then gone.

"Hope is not enough. Hope was never enough." — Pandora, before choosing anyway

A black-iron coin stamped with a closed eye, warm like living blood.

"When the queen's garden sings with stolen breath, press this eye to the ferry-bell — the husband hears iron before lies."

• The fare home: it pays the ferryman for all of you.
• Burning eye: while you hold it, your nonmagical weapon and unarmed attacks can deal radiant damage instead (your choice, each hit).
• The ferry-bell (action, once): strike it on a ferry-bell, and the King will come. When he can.

A black-iron coin stamped with a closed eye, warm like living blood.

Once per long rest, as an action, strike the Obol against a bell, gate, or ferry within 30 feet: for 10 minutes, you and up to five allies are treated as having lawful passage by undead guardians of CR 5 or lower (they won't attack first unless attacked). Once per short rest, offering the Obol as a scent-token (action, not consumed) grants advantage on one Animal Handling or Persuasion check against an underworld beast or psychopomp. Once, press the Obol to the eyes of a creature that died within the last minute: it returns to life with 1 hit point, as the revivify spell (no material component). The eye then closes for good and this property is spent.

Kept, at the Queen's request, because nobody said a word.

"The husband hears iron before lies." — Obol of True Passage

A single pomegranate seed, red as a heart, that does not dry out and does not rot.

The Queen of the Dead asked her husband to let you keep the coin, smiled, and retired to her chambers. You said nothing. She noticed.

Persephone owes you a favor. Ask, in the right season, in the right way, and she will remember. She always remembers.

"Not a word."

Nothing you can hold. Only the memory of a tall, tired man saying it quietly, once his wife had gone.

"I saw all of it, of course. Every moment. Not a word — and I owe you one. I will pay it on the day the sky is on fire."

Hades owes you a favor. He will choose the day.

You went into the river of the dead. You came out colder, and missing something.

The river took a memory:

Exhaustion 1 until it is given back or you finish a long rest.

"The river keeps what it takes."

You went into the river of the dead. You came out colder, and missing something.

The river took a memory:

Exhaustion 1 until it is given back or you finish a long rest.

"The river keeps what it takes."

You went into the river of the dead. You came out colder, and missing something.

The river took a memory:

Exhaustion 1 until it is given back or you finish a long rest.

"The river keeps what it takes."

You went into the river of the dead. You came out colder, and missing something.

The river took a memory:

Exhaustion 1 until it is given back or you finish a long rest.

"The river keeps what it takes."

You went into the river of the dead. You came out colder, and missing something.

The river took a memory:

Exhaustion 1 until it is given back or you finish a long rest.

"The river keeps what it takes."

You went into the river of the dead. You came out colder, and missing something.

The river took a memory:

Exhaustion 1 until it is given back or you finish a long rest.

"The river keeps what it takes."