Magic Mirror encounter ideas

encounter
#1

I set up my players on a mission to locate a stolen dressing mirror and I am wondering if anyone had fun ideas of what the mirror could do once found. My current idea is that it acts like a doorway to a twin mirror and will lead to a room that is locked from the outside. Goblins have stolen the mirror and have been using it as a way to store goods and troops but once the PC’s clear the room and take some time leveling up they will be able to use it as fast travel/ a secret entrance to an end game or big bad fortress (if they can figure out the whole locked door situation).

I was wondering if anyone had any better ideas or a way to spice this up.

#2

The mirror once belonged to a famous wizard. He used it as a sort of battery to store his favorite spells. Any spell cast within near of this mirror (or magical seals/weaves/wards/protections) will be consumed by the mirror. In simple terms, it eats magic. It will also turn even legendary magical items and artifacts into their plain counterparts, ie, a magic sword becomes just a sword.

The goblins have been using it to bypass the magical wards on wizard towers, large banks, fortresses, and wizarding schools, allowing them to steal all sorts of riches and treasure for their goblin king, Ugroot.

The problem: this delicate mirror is now in effect a magical bomb. If it ever breaks, all of the magic within will detonate and level an entire kingdom. And of course, the goblins don’t treat it gently.

#3

I’ve used this idea before. The mirror created an evil duplicate of the first person who looks into it by him/herself and the party member is trapped in the mirror. The clone then tries to secretly convince each party member in to look into the mirror so the clone’s fellow evil friends can come through the mirror. If someone catches on to what he is doing, he kills them by making it look like an accident.

#4

ohhhh I really like this quite a bit.

#5

That’s dark, I love it.

#6

I wanted to branch away from portal or reflection being the obvious choices.

This thing eats magic. And. This thing is a massive bomb, both felt fun to me.

#7

Yeah, I really dig that. Especially the fragility of it. Who knows how many spells it has eaten and what repercussions may come when it finally breaks. The fusing, pent up energy of countless spells won’t be anything good, that’s for sure.

#8

A fun solution might be if they can find a way to siphon any of the magic back out in a safe way. ie, your spellcasters may level up in a big way, unless the torrent is too great to absorb — this thing’s lower limit is way above their upper limit. It might turn their hair white and change them for all time. On the other hand, the world doesn’t explode, so trade offs. Lol.

#9

lol heck yeah!..or find a clever way to aim it at the big bad…

Maybe even an industrializing city might need to find a powerful magical force to run some huge contraption or power their indoor illumination orbs

#10

Beautiful! Meanwhile, every evil entity with any kind of desire for unlimited power is now drawn to this thing, like an unholy beacon, especially if the PCs have it. These goblins have no clue what they have done. Power of this magnitude could split the realms and allow Cthulhu to slither out.

#11

If it captures spells, then it aught to be able to spit spells back out. But players can’t control which one comes out. Roll on a big table!

#12

There were multiple concepts of magic mirrors in the made-for-TV film/mini-series “The 10th Kingdom” though the film has not aged well the concepts of the magic items, curses, and adventure still influence some of my games.

The Traveling Mirrors
The Spying Mirrors
The “Mirror to Remember”
The “Mirror to Forget”
The “Mirror to Rule the World”

#13

That would be a good way to do it. I was thinking just spells characters cast but if this thing has been doing it for ages it would have all sorts of things locked away.

#14

Thanks everyone for some really great ideas!

#15

But they were, all of them, deceived, for another Mirror was made. In the land of Dur Olo, in the salt marshes of The Black Keep, the Dark Lord Manac forged in secret a master Mirror, to control all others. And into this Mirror he poured his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life ….

#16

I actually love the idea that there are more than one mirror in existence connected to the same ‘mirror realm’

#17

How about a talking mirror that contains all knowledge collected from all mirrors across the world but will only respond if you speak in rhyme, and offer its answers in the same.

By collection I mean anything observed from the perspective of the mirrors where ever they may be.

#18

yeah, kind of like a portable doorway that you don’t really have much control over. Maybe it’s a bit like the Palantir if LoTR where the danger lies in not knowing where the other mirrors are or who owns them. The more made (and possibly one made in secret) means more unknown connection points.

#19

This is fun until I have to make up rhymes on the fly lol. I can see this being a lot of fun!

#20

I have a Time Mage who makes appearances in some of my homebrew games who’s whole shtick is Sand Glasses all his non-combat magic items are made in the form of these hour/minute glass items. Each end is etched or carved with an arcane symbol that represents the spell to be used. The act of spreading ink on the empty side of the hour glass activates the magic, then stamp the thing, place, or person with it and and when you want the magic to activate turn the glass over so the sand begins to flow. When the sand runs out it either ends the ongoing effect, or triggers the instantaneous effect. My favorite is the Hour Glass of Recall, stamp the room you wish to return to and the members to bring back and then turn over and wait x amount of time when you wish to go home.