The Ladle of the Last Warm Bowl

by Frazer 👁 52 views

This oversized soup ladle is carved from dark, fire-hardened applewood and capped with a bowl of polished copper. Its handle is wrapped in red wool that never singes, and tiny silver scenes of hearth fires, steaming kettles, and snow-laden mountains spiral around the shaft. The inside of the bowl remains perpetually warm, giving off the scent of onions, thyme, fresh bread, and woodsmoke. When winter's favor is invoked, frost gathers along its rim without ever cooling the soup within.

Hearth-Blessed While attuned to the ladle, you have resistance to cold damage and can endure temperatures as low as -50 degrees Fahrenheit without additional protection. You also have advantage on saving throws against exhaustion caused by extreme cold.

Ever-Warm Broth The ladle can create a nourishing, steaming soup when dipped into any nonmagical liquid or empty cooking vessel. Once each dawn, it produces enough soup to feed up to 10 creatures. A creature that finishes a serving gains 2d8 temporary hit points and advantage on its next saving throw against fear or exhaustion made within the next 8 hours. A creature can benefit from this property only once per dawn.

Mercy of Winter As an action, you can present the ladle and call in Winter's favor. For 1 minute, a 20-foot-radius aura centered on you is filled with gentle snow and hearth-warm air. You and friendly creatures in the aura are immune to the effects of extreme cold, have resistance to cold damage, and regain 1d6 hit points at the start of each of their turns if they have at least 1 hit point. Once this property is used, it cannot be used again until the next dawn.

Bowl Against the Blizzard When you or a creature you can see within 30 feet is reduced to 0 hit points by cold damage or while in extreme cold, you can use your reaction to keep that creature at 1 hit point instead. The creature immediately becomes surrounded by a warm, translucent glow and is immune to cold damage until the end of its next turn. Once this property is used, it cannot be used again until the next dawn.

The Collector's Claim The ladle is known to a mysterious collector who always seems to know its whereabouts. While you are attuned to it, the collector can perceive the ladle's general direction and distance from them, provided it is on the same plane of existence. This property has no effect on the ladle's other magic, but the collector may send agents, bargains, or threats to reclaim it.

Lore

Priests of the Hearth Mother say the ladle was blessed during the First Winter, when the young season refused to retreat and buried nine kingdoms beneath ice. The Hearth Mother fed the starving with a single pot of soup, while Winter agreed to spare one warm place in every home until the end of the world. The ladle is believed to be the token of that bargain: a humble utensil carrying the authority of a god and the unpaid courtesy of a season.

History

The ladle was forged in the kitchen of Saint Orra, a mortal cook who fed an entire refugee camp through a winter that lasted three years. When Saint Orra died, the Hearth Mother claimed the ladle and returned it to the world through worthy hands. It has since appeared in monasteries, royal kitchens, besieged fortresses, and the packs of wandering adventurers. Its current location is a matter of intense interest to an obsessive collector known as Vellum-of-Names, who has spent decades acquiring relics connected to divine bargains. Vellum knows exactly where the ladle is, though whether through divination, informants, or a promise made to Winter itself remains uncertain.

Created by Frazer 👁 52 views