Apotropaics
The influence of the plane Amrou has enhanced the effectiveness of mundane items in fending off the supernatural. What once were mere superstitions now can have meaningful effect, such as using a line of salt to block the advance of a ghost, or ringing a bell to drive back a demon.
Nonmagical items that possess the ability to avert evil influences are collectively called apotropaics, and they are particularly common in Crisillyir, where such threats are most famous.
Below are common apotropaics, some of which are duplicated from the normal equipment list in the core rulebook.
Holy Symbol. A holy symbol is a representation of a god or pantheon. A brandished holy symbol can briefly hold back fiends and undead.
Holy Water (flask). As an action, you can splash the contents of this flask onto a creature within 5 feet of you or throw it up to 20 feet, shattering it on impact. In either case, make a ranged attack against a target creature, treating the holy water as an improvised weapon. If the target is a fiend or undead, it takes 2d6 radiant damage.
Jade (pendant). A small pendant of green stone. Jade repels and can injure aberrations. If jade touches an aberration, it deals 2d6 radiant damage, and then the object shatters.
Jade-Accented Weapon. A weapon accented with jade (such as on its blade or a striking head) deals an extra 2d6 radiant damage to an aberration, but after one strike the jade is expended. The cost listed is in addition to the weapon’s normal price.
Jade, Powdered (bag). Collected dust from a workshop that polishes and sets jade. As an action, you can pour out the powder to draw a line across three adjacent squares.
Alternately, you can spend an action to throw a handful at a creature within 5 feet of you. Make a ranged attack against a target creature or object, treating the dust as an improvised weapon. On a hit, if the target is an aberration it takes 2d6 radiant damage.
The bag has sufficient dust for ten uses – ten thrown handfuls, 150-ft. worth of lines, or some combination.
Oil (pint flask). Oil usually comes in a clay flask that holds 1 pint. As an action, you can splash the oil in this flask onto a creature within 5 feet of you or throw it up to 20 feet, shattering it on impact. Make a ranged attack against a target creature or object, treating the oil as an improvised weapon. On a hit, the target is covered in oil.
If the target takes any fire damage before the oil dries (after 1 minute), the target takes an additional 5 fire damage from the burning oil. You can also pour a flask of oil on the ground to cover a 5-foot-square area, or to draw a thin ring 10 feet in diameter, provided that the surface is level. If lit, the oil burns for 2 rounds and deals 5 fire damage to any creature that enters the area or ends its turn in the area. A creature can take this damage only once per turn.
Burning oil lines and rings can block the movement of celestials. A celestial that is covered in burning oil is entangled.
Portable Chiming Clock. A dense and durable clock in a wooden frame designed to be held with relative ease. Built as an adventurer’s tool to keep fey away, its chimes are as loud as a grandfather clock’s. You can flick a switch as a bonus action so that it begins to chime, which lasts until the end of your next turn. During that time, fey within 30 feet are repelled. Afterward, it must be wound before it can be used again, which requires an action.
(Chimes that aren’t part of actual clocks do not repel fey, but might annoy them.)
Portable Tolling Bell. Four feet tall, with wheels to help move it, this adventurer’s tool resembles a wooden saw horse with an iron bell hung from the middle. As an action, you can pull a lever to toll the bell, which repels fiends within 30 feet. This lasts until the end of your next turn.
Salt (bag). Normally used with food. As an action, you can pour out the powder to draw a line across three adjacent squares. Salt repels fiends and undead.
Alternately, you can spend an action to throw a handful at a creature within 5 feet of you. Make a ranged attack against a target creature or object, treating the salt as an improvised weapon. On a hit, if the target is undead or a fiend it takes 2d6 radiant damage.
The bag has sufficient dust for ten uses – ten thrown handfuls, 150-ft. worth of lines, or some combination.
| Item | Price | Weight |
| Holy symbol | - | - |
| Holy water (flask) | 25 gp | 1 lb |
| Jade (pendant or ammunition) | 5 gp | - |
| Jade-accented weapon | 100 gp | - |
| Jade, powdered (bag) | 100 gp | 5 lb |
| Oil, pint (flask) | 1 sp | 1 lb |
| Portable chiming clock | 100 gp | 20 lb |
| Portable tolling bell | 20 gp | 40 lb |
| Salt (bag) | 1 sp | 5 lb |
Apotropaic Mechanics
Various items are anathema to different types of creatures, and can repel and in some cases even harm those creatures. However, whenever a creature is attacked, it can ignore any repelling effect until the end of the encounter in order to approach and attack the creature or group that antagonized it.
Apotropaics function in coexistent planes, bleeding from Waking to Dreaming and to the Bleak Gate, and from any world into the Ethereal Plane, which can keep ethereal creatures like ghosts from bypassing them.
Harm. A harmful item has an effect similar to holy water on undead and fiends, dealing 2d6 radiant damage on impact. Each such strike uses up roughly a handful of the substance, or causes larger objects to crack after one use.
Using excessive amounts of the material might cause ongoing damage (such as by burying a fiend in a mound of gold), but not more than 2d6 per round.
Repel. Creatures cannot willingly touch materials that repel them, nor even use tools to manipulate such items. They can, however, create circumstances to move the repellant item. For instance, a ghost might telekinetically shatter a window so a breeze from outside disperses salt.
If a material repels a creature, a line of that material prevents a creature from crossing. For the purpose of blocking flying creatures, the effect of a repulsive line extends as far vertically as the line is long, and if the material is in a ring, it functions as a dome of the ring’s radius.
A character can spend an action to brandish a repellant item, which prevents the repelled creature from approaching within five feet and from making melee attacks against it for one minute. When you use this action, you can make an opposed Charisma check against the creature, and if it fails it must move out of your path if you come within 10 feet of it.
A creature can attempt to overcome this repellent effect, such as by trying to cross a barrier or attack a creature brandishing the item. If it succeeds a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw , it can ignore the repulsion from that particular item – and anything similar within 30 feet – for one hour. If they fail, their turn ends and they cannot try again in that area for a day.
However, if a creature is attacked in any way by a creature protected by a repellant item, it can freely ignore the repellant effect as if it had succeeded its saving throw.
Aberrations
Aberrations are hurt and repelled by jade.
Celestials
Celestials are repelled by burning oil.
Fey
Fey are repelled by the sound of chiming clocks for as long as the chimes ring. This was always the case, even before Amrou appeared in the night sky, but the plane’s influence has strengthened the effect.
The ticking of a small pocketwatch will bother but not actually repel anyone. A grandfather clock chime affects a 30 foot radius, and something the size of a clocktower toll affects hundreds of feet. Experts on the Dreaming suspect that this is because that plane has an unsteady flow of time, and the presence of a clock forces time into a specific pace.
Whirring gears often repel fey in Risur, though many fey in other parts of the world have no problem with gears, nor any sort of non-timepiece technology, suggesting that the reaction is based either on what the fey believe, or what the people in those lands think the fey believe.
In addition to these more concrete defenses, fey still respond to the same favors they always did. Leaving out offerings of food or milk can earn small boons, or simply attract cats.
Fiends
Fiends are repelled by salt and by brandished holy symbols. They also are repelled by ringing bells the same way fey are repelled by chiming clocks, with larger bells affecting a wider area.
Holy water still hurts fiends, but that is due to its own magical properties, not because of Amrou.
Gold hurts fiends, but only if it is a pound or more (worth at least 50gp). If a fiend is damaged this way, it cannot teleport for one round. However, after a strike damages a fiend, the gold turns to lead.
Undead
Undead are repelled by salt, and can be repelled by brandished holy symbols the same as fiends.
Holy water still hurts undead, but that is due to its own magical properties, not because of Amrou.