Bag of Magic Blocks (Patreon)

Wondrous item, rare

This leather bag is filled with magic wooden blocks, which are painted with vibrant colors. There are six types of blocks that can be found in the bag. The GM decides the number of each type of block in the bag or determines it randomly. When found, the bag has 2d6 + 10 blocks inside it.

You can assemble these blocks into various constructions, creating stacks of blocks representative of creatures or objects. You can use an action to tap a Small or smaller construction using the blocks and speak their command word, animating the construction as if by the animate objects spell (no concentration required). The animated blocks can't attack, but are capable of performing simple tasks.

Alternatively, when you tap the blocks, you can cause them to transform into a larger assembled form, with no one side measuring more than 10 feet. At the GM's discretion, the blocks function in a semblance that you'd expect based on the constructed form. For example, four small cylinders beneath a square block would function as a make-shift cart when transformed, despite it not having any axles. A player could also add sides to the cart using planks, but you would need to find a means to pull it separately.

A block remains animated or transformed in this way for up to 4 hours, at which point it loses its magic until the next dawn. You can end the effect on any single block or construction of blocks by using an action to speak the blocks' command word again, provided that you're also touching it. Only one construction of blocks can be animated or transformed in this way at a time. Each construction has AC 13 and a total number of hit points equal to the number of blocks used to create it.

If a block is left outside the bag and more than 100 feet away from it for 24 hours, it permanently loses its magic and becomes a normal wooden block.

None in the wartorn town knew what to think when the toysmith arrived, woodblock carriage demanding attention with its bright hues. His kind eyes and childish cart seemed ill-fit to harsh reality, and most assumed he'd drift in, leave only meaningless trinkets behind, and vanish.

Against that suspicion, he set to work. Here, a handful of planks and a long cylinder grew to fill in for the mill's destroyed waterwheel; there, a wheelbarrow of vibrant red wedges rumbled about on its own, carrying tools and supplies to those rebuilding what they could.

Through it all, the toysmith listened, new constructs and creations ever in mind to meet each need with care.

And in time, the town was cobbled together again, with the toysmith's improvised heart at its core.