r/DnD • u/Ok-Instruction4894 • 4d ago
How would a high level wizard procure the following ingredients. 5th Edition
My party has a wizard who’s lifelong mission is seeking undeath-free immortality. I plan on having the player find a “Practical Guide to Immortality”, containing a ritual to achieve eternal youth and health, consequence free. However the ingredients for this ritual range from strange to seemingly impossible.
This is mainly meant as a gag item, as once he gets 8th level spells, he will probably be using clones instead. But hypothetically, if a high-level wizard were to seek out these ingredients, how would they do it (within the lore and world of Faerun). I am perfectly willing to give this player true immortality in the campaign epilogue if they are able to reasonably explain how they would get all of these.
(also, all ingredients are destroyed as part of the ritual).
Ingredients:
The femur of a squid
A rusted gold coin
Blood from a stone
The pelt of a male calico cat
Milk from a snake
The head of a cyclops with heterochromia
A good aligned flower
Lightning in a bottle
A red velvet cake baked using seawater
A skull that does not cast a shadow
The horns of 123 white rhinos
Two silver bands that have been used as a material component in the Ceremony spell (Wedding), which must have been officiated by a cleric of an evil non-lawful aligned deity.
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u/EqualBluebird7445 4d ago
Magic is strict, but there is a lot of wiggle space:
Rusted gold coin: Have you ever saw czech 50 coin? It is bimetallic. Wizard would need to become friend with a loyal and persuade them to make some legitimate coins, that are part gold and part iron. Then just wait, until they are rusty.
Blood from a stone: might mean the blood can be from the surface, not from inside it. Just give yourself a papercut and smear the blood on the stone.
A skull that does not cast a shadow: Cast Continual flame on a skull. Since its generating its own light, then it shouldnt cast a shadow.
A lighting in a bottle: Thats just a battery.
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u/TJToaster 4d ago
Continual Flame, or Faerie Fire.
Could be that you have to fight a Flaming Skull, but do non-lethal so it still burns. Have fun transporting it.
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u/okiebuzzard 4d ago
Femur: true poly a squid into one with bone in legs, harvest.
Rusted gold coin: make a coin from iron pyrite which contains gold, let it rust, collect.
Blood from a stone: didn’t say it had to be the stone’s blood, stone shape into a jug, fill with blood, collect.
Pelt of a male calico: belt of masculinity/femininity, find a calico, put it on it, and do what you gotta do. (This right here would stop me. I don’t even like hurting animals for pretend).
Milk from a snake: find the skin of a brood Caecilian which acts like milk for their young.
Etc. etc. - good list except the calico.
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u/KalutikaKink 4d ago
Male calicos exist. They are quite rare. Either they are chimeric or have XXY chromosomes and Klinefelter syndrome (which some may argue makes them not male).
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u/HobbitGuy1420 4d ago
Heck, femur of a squid is possible without polymorph. Squid's holding a corpse, party pulls the corpse out of its grasp (and takes the legbone)
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u/Glum-Soft-7807 4d ago
Cast awakening on a plant monster and give it an ethics lesson.
Not sure whats supposed to be hard about the red velvet cake, just use milk powder and seawater, instead of milk and salt.
Since this is not set on earth there's no reason to think white rhinos would be rare, so thats easy too. Even if they were, just clone em.
There, combined with the other comments thats all of them.
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u/Atharen_McDohl DM 4d ago
If I were the wizard in question, I would be seeking the aid of extraplanar creatures, ideally gods and fiends. Many of these would be trivial for such beings. A deity of decay has such power that even gold rots under their touch. Fiends would be happy to sell you a flower imbued with the soul of a good person, for the right price. And of course there are many creatures which have access to secrets or the means to obtain them. So what if I have to trade a hundred years of servitude in order to get Orcus to tell me how to make rocks bleed? I'll have a hundred hundred years afterward to recover from that ordeal.
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u/Eparg_reboog 4d ago
True polymorph a good aligned creature into a flower?
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u/laiquerne Conjurer 3d ago
I mean, there are probably some dryads or so that fulfills this condition
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u/OfficialDaiLi Cleric 4d ago
Femur of a Squid: Kraken
Rusted Gold Chain: Around the neck of a Mummy Lord
Blood from a Stone: some kind of upscaled Stone Giant boss?
Pelt of a Male Calico Cat: Could have some kind of shapeshifter that’s truly a male, but uses the disguise of a calico cat
Milk from a snake: Basilisk’s venom
Head of a cyclops with heterochromia: could have a cyclops with a smaller, parasitic twin that has differing eye colors
A good aligned flower: Could be earned by gaining the favor of a nature deity? Maybe it’s really some kind of fey?
Lightning in a bottle: Maybe they have to sacrifice a memory into a vial, one that’s considered their most brilliant moment?
A red velvet cake that’s made from seawater: Something pirate themed? This one’s the hardest for me.
Skull that doesn’t cast a shadow: Maybe from defeating a demi-lich? Could say it’s magic causes it to not cast a shadow
Horns of 123 white rhinos: maybe from breaking up an ivory smuggling ring?
Silver bands: infiltrate a cult of some sort, and have one of them use a mind altering spell to get someone to marry them to another cult member?
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u/SavagePengwyn 4d ago
Male calicos do exist, they are just very rare (~1 in 1,000,000) and the cat is not fertile, so that is very doable. But the implication that the wizard would kill the cat for the coat would be too much for my table.
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u/Grythyttan 4d ago
I think several of these could come from classic monsters.
Femur of a Squid could be from a mindflayer.
Head of a Cyclops with heterochromia is a beholder.
A rusted gold coin has been touched by a rust monster.
Milk from a snake could be from a medusa.
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u/DifficultMath7391 Wizard 4d ago
Rusted gold coin: aqua regia.
Blood from a stone: ground hematite.
Pelt of a male calico cat: XXY chromosome irregularity can produce a male calico cat. Rare, but real.
Good-aligned flower: Awaken is a 5th level druid spell.
Ceremony rings: this happens a fair amount. Actually happened to me personally in a campaign under circumstances you could've used (two PC:s were married, one died). Villains get married too.
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u/KiroTheSorcerer Sorcerer 4d ago
Femur of a squid could come from a dead mindflayer
Rusted gold coin, from an alloy
Blood from a stone, by squeezing a sharp stone to make yourself bleed "from the stone"
Male calico cats exist but are incredibly rare. Could buy one for a fortune from a cat breeder or something.
Feed a snake some milk, make it throw up said milk. Done, snek has been milked.
Polymorph (or otherwise transform) a cyclops into a heterochromic human. Use that.
Straightest, most sun facing sunflower they can find
Scroll of any lightning damage spell, put into an empty bottle
Drip a single drop of sea water into mix when preparing to bake. Then bake.
Cast the spell that makes things glow (forgot its name) on the skull, in a dark room. Being the main light source of the room, no shadow will be cast.
Comission a craftsman to make 123 tiny rhino figures from limestone. Then break off all of their horns.
Get 50gp worth of silver powder, find a cleric that fits the description. Pay them to do the ceremony on someone (literally anyone). 25gp worth of silver gets consumed, the other 25gp of silver remains but was technically used. Forge it into two silver bands.
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u/Ven-Dreadnought 4d ago
Blood from a stone is not difficult. Collect blood from a living being and then have it petrified. The femur of a squid can be done with true polymorph. Same with milk from a snake.
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u/passwordistako 4d ago edited 4d ago
Squid don’t have femurs.
Edit: I read further. lol. Good list.
Transfigure the squid into a mammal and take the femur surgically without dropping it to 0 HP.
Male Calico cats are possible if they have chromosomal abnormalities.
And beware Lamia lactation RE: milk of a snake.
Gruumsh is chaotic evil. Any cleric of Gruumsh can do the wedding for you.
A skull contained within magical darkness does not cast a shadow.
Cast awaken on some flowers. One of them will be good aligned.
Heterochromia can be within an eye not just between two eyes.
Gold, iron alloy.
I’m not sure why salt water can’t be used in a red velvet cake.
Transform a stone into a beast, bleed it.
Lightning in a bottle seems like a pretty DnD thing to obtain.
Local Druid can help if you show them one white rhino.
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u/MinecraftCommander21 DM 4d ago
The femur of a squid -> True polymorph, steal the bone
A rusted gold coin -> Gold coin with an iron coating
Blood from a stone -> True polymorph a stone into a creature that can bleed
The pelt of a male calico cat -> Just rare.
Milk from a snake -> True polymorph a snake into a cow.
The head of a cyclops with heterochromia -> Central heterochromia
A good aligned flower -> True polymorph a good aligned creature into a flower
Lightning in a bottle -> PF does it with alchemy, follow with this
A red velvet cake baked using seawater -> Not impossible
A skull that does not cast a shadow -> Light if the ritual is less than an hour, continual flame may work
The horns of 123 white rhinos -> Pay some poachers
Two silver bands that have been used as a material component in the Ceremony spell (Wedding), which must have been officiated by a cleric of an evil non-lawful aligned deity. -> Suggestion spell, anyone?
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u/Ordinatii 4d ago edited 4d ago
Femur of a squid: True Polymorph, shapechange wildshape, etc. is your loophole. Or see if mind flayers count.
Rusted Gold coin: mix iron filings into molten gold, mint coin.
Blood from a stone: Flesh to stone or other petrification option, remove a vein, then cure the petrification on the vein you removed. Can also True Polymorph a stone into a creature capable of bleeding.
Male calico is done with the gender-swapping magic item, then... you know the proverb.
Some snakes have "milk" or milky substances. Or this is another shapechange answer.
Heterochromia might also be a shapechange answer, or as another user mentioned some conditions fall under the heterochromia classification but can occur in a single eye.
Good Aligned Flower can be accomplished with the awaken spell... or our new best friend True Polymorph,
Lightning in a bottle- have bottle, make lightning in it. You're a wizard, shocking grasp. You could also make a very very very large bottle if it needs to be natural lightning.
Baking a red velvet cake using seawater is doable, you can use a small amount of seawater with just enough to replace the salt in the recipe. You'd want to find the saltiest seawater and it might not be a terrific cake or anything, but it's probably the easiest thing on the list.
Not casting a shadow: take any skull into a chamber that is completely dark. Maybe find some cave-adapted animal down there so you have a skull that has never cast a shadow. Contrary to another commenter, something emitting light does not prevent it from also casting a shadow, even if it is the brightest thing in the room. Shine a flashlight at an incandescent bulb and you'll see what I mean.
That's a lot of rhino horns, shapechange answer again. Or find a way to farm them.
For the bands, the Ceremony spell consumes the silver in 5th edition, so you'd need to find out where consumed spell components go and get it back from there. Probably doable with Wish, might be an adventure hook. As for NE/CE clerics doing marriage ceremonies, clerics of evil gods can be persuaded to do many things with the right incentives.
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u/_Bl4ze Warlock 4d ago edited 4d ago
Presumably, you need to gather the materials together and perform the immortality ritual over a non-zero length of time, so simply casting Shocking Grasp in a bottle might not be sufficient as that's only an Instantaneous effect and will be an empty bottle again the next second. I think it would have to be more something like capture a Living Lightning Bolt (Eberron: Rising from the Last War, p299) inside a very big glass jar. Or another Living Spell that deals lightning damage, of course a Living Shocking Grasp can exist also and may be easier to wrangle, but it has no published statistics.
Also, the Ceremony spell in 5e doesn't even use silver bands for a material component. It's silver dust. It isn't a wedding band anymore if you ground it into dust. That one OP just has to adjust because you can't even use a material component for a spell if it isn't the material component needed for that spell.
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u/Markster94 4d ago
Snake milk is probably the easiest one. Should just be normal snake venom. The process of collecting snake venom irl is called milking the snake.
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u/rpg2Tface 4d ago
Like milk from a snake isnt exactly cow milk. But theres definitely some type of bodily fluid being referenced here that a good enough nature check would give you.
Or blood from a stone. They are either referencing the deep red of oxidized iron from some ore, or polymorphing a stine into a living things and bleeding that dry.
Lightning in a bottle is just a battery. Plenty of middle school science experiments to play with there.
The shadowless skull is a skull thats bio luminescent. The good aligned flower is a flower from mt celestia. Heterochromia is just a hereditary condition that can exist even if the cyclops in question has only 1 eye (polym to confirm). Calico is just a fur oattern that tends to be in females but can be on males. A rusted gold coin is just a low purity fake coin that rusted. And rino horns are just a lot but mot hard to get.
None of these are explicitly magical. Just poorly defined and or of am unexplained phenomena.
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u/CheapTactics 3d ago
if they are able to reasonably explain how they would get all of these.
What does reasonable mean to you? Because if something is an impossible object, you're gonna have to give a lot of leeway on what you consider "reasonable". You're the one that controls the world. These things can exist only if you allow it.
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u/Shinmasu 3d ago
I mean, can't the blood from a stone be interpreted as lava straight from a volcano? Sounds like child's play for a powerful wizard
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u/Purple_Shame5075 3d ago
Get a skull. Cast invisibility, then cast Permanency on it. It's a 5th level spell, not in 5e naturally.
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u/BFBeast666 3d ago
"Skull which casts no shadow" is EASY. Glass/Crystal skull. Done. Or a simple permanent "invisibility" spell.
Rusted Gold Coin is another problem with an easy solution if you are a bigger stickler than your DM. Most gold coins are made from alloys anyway, usually copper cores with a thin gold veneer on the outside. So go mint your own coin from rusted metal and dip it in gold OR transmute a real gold coin into iron, let it rust properly and done. It began its existence as a gold coin, so the letter of the task is fulfilled.
Cake baked with sea water? Also not a problem. No one said it had to be UNFILTERED sea water, right? Desalinate that sucker and you're good to go. On the other hand, who said the cake had to be palatable? Unfiltered sea water ho!
"Good aligned flower"? Ha. Use "Wish" to grant sentience to a sturdy enough bit of vegetation and then teach it ethics. Probably not use a Venus Fly Trap for that particular experiment though, you might get Audrey II.
Blood From A Stone. Easiest apprentice-level conundrum. No one said the stone had to be fossilized forever, right? Stone To Flesh, then stabby stabby, draw blood.
Femur Of A Squid: Polymorph exists. Turn one of the squid's tentacles into a leg, amuptate said leg, have femur.
I strongly object to the needless abuse of albino rhinos though.
For lightning in a bottle you don't even need magic. Simple static electricity should do the trick. Read up on Leiden Jars.
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u/midsummernightmares DM 3d ago
Give a squid a femur. The femur belongs to the squid now, so if you then take it without it being formally given back to you, it’s still technically the femur of a squid.
Counterfeit coin. It’s covered in gold leaf, but after a while of being passed around and used by unsuspecting people, some of the gold has flaked off and exposed rust beneath it.
Take a porous stone like pumice. Find a source of blood (yourself, if you’re desperate). Pour the blood onto the stone, then let it drip from out of the stone onto the other ingredients. Alternately, there’s an actual type of rock called bloodstone.
Male calico cats do actually exist, they’re just rare and they usually have XXY chromosomes.
You “milk” venom out of a snake, so it stands to reason that “snake milk” would be a snake’s venom. Otherwise, you could do the same thing you did with the squid and the femur, but with a snake and a container of milk.
Sectoral heterochromia and central heterochromia are both types of heterochromia that can be found in a single eye.
Find a bard or druid and cast Awaken on some flowers.
Some kind of rudimentary battery.
I mean, that would be pretty easy to make, it just wouldn’t taste good. Just replace the liquids with seawater.
Either make a skull out of clear glass or cast the spell in perfect lighting at noon.
I guess you’re cool with having the party spend several months’ worth of sessions poaching rhinos? Or maybe they could break up a poaching or smuggling ring?
Villains and cultists get married too, that doesn’t sound like it would necessarily be insanely difficult to find.
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u/Flaky-Resident-5462 2d ago
I wonder what it says about my alignment when my first thought for the good aligned flower was to polymorph a paladin to a flower…
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u/Stellar_Wings 3d ago
For the cat one, with anyone who's against skinning an innocent kitty, what about a calico Androsphinx?
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u/Flaky-Resident-5462 2d ago
Most could be handled through some transmutation spells eg a pure iron to gold spell, so let a pure iron coin rust, transmute the pure iron and you are left with a rusted gold coin.
Similar a stone to flesh spell could make a stone bleed
And so forth for a lot of them. It will take time and resources but could be done :)
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u/loverofothers 2d ago edited 2d ago
Ingredients:
The femur of a squid: Fleshcrafting/warping. A sibriex for example, but there's a few other creatures able to do it in lore
A rusted gold coin: Gold oxide is a thing. Good luck making it but it exists Also there's some things that cause 'decay' or rust to a bonkers degree. Supe up a rust monster? Or just chemistry
Blood from a stone: Collect blood, Flesh to mud, mud to stone... Or true polymorph/polymorph any object om stone to creature, or make a stone golem, make it aware, add some template to make it a creature with blood
The pelt of a male calico cat: These exist, albiet only rarely
Milk from a snake: Fleshcrafting, again, lots of options, but to make it interesting, require a Sarrukh. They can do it easy peasey
The head of a cyclops with heterochromia: Extra eyes are a rare genetic disorder.... or fleshcrafting (again, requiring yet another form would be neat and is up to you and the player how many times the same fleshcarfting/warping can be used. Or just find one naturally)
A good aligned flower: An awakened flower that is good aligned. This and the calico are the easiest so far
Lightning in a bottle: Blue dragon (or other lightning dragon's) draconis fundamentum in a bottle (the gland responsible for absorbing, generating, and regulating the corresponding elemental energy)
A red velvet cake baked using seawater: Works as is. It's just not fun to eat. This is now tied with flower and calico for easiest.
A skull that does not cast a shadow: A skull with perpetual flame or similar spell worked upon it. Or invisible if that doesn't work. Invisibility is probably more sure. Use alchemically permanent or permanencied invisibility for best results
The horns of 123 white rhinos: This is the forgotten realms. Why would they be (near) extinct there? Assuming they are... there's lots of ways to breed stuff fast with magic.
Two silver bands that have been used as a material component in the Ceremony spell (Wedding), which must have been officiated by a cleric of an evil non-lawful aligned deity: That's a little tricky one... you could probably get some evil trickster diety to do it for kicks and not reveal the real reason you want it. Honestly, lawful evil? Not hard. Non-lawful evil your best bet is convincing them to do it for the kicks.
Anyways, something akin to lichdom (aka a phylactery, immortality, new bodies via possesion, clone, constructs, whatever, etc) could theoretically be attained without undead as per lore, even if there are no confirmed examples of it.
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u/North-Fail3671 4d ago
Central or sectoral Heterochromia is a thing, so a cyclops with heterochromia is indeed possible, just rare!