OOC

I'll be RPing the Artifacts myself unless any of you really want to control the voice in your head. Would you all like said voices to be public for all to see, private, or conditional depending on exactly what is being relayed?

It would be interesting to see, unless what was being conveyed must remain unknown by the players for some reason (DM's discretion, obviously). So I vote conditional.

I vote for conditional but generally public. By now our party would know of each of the voices and their general personalities, so keeping the voices personal would end up being "Hat says that it thinks that the squirrel is rabid and that we shouldn't pet it".

Maybe they have the ability to speak in our characters' heads at the same time, like a big shared conversation, but only if nearby. If they want to talk to someone personally, I'm sure they could manage that.

Even if Presto and his Hat were having a private conversation I'd still be interested in that. It'd be interesting (for me anyway) to see whether Presto reveals some or all of the details, or changes anything (intentionally or not). I, for one, trust everyone will be good at keeping player knowledge and character knowledge separate.

While each Artifact can only speak with its wielder, the Artifacts actually have a group chat. Do they secretly trash talk all of you or just share inappropriate memes? :P

Agreed. It's not like as a player have any secrets to keep.
I feel like if Presto's head wasn't full of useless facts about inter-planar magics he'd have some dank memes to share.

I'm preparing the first scene now.

What does Presto's tower look like, @Ezz.?

Presto's tower is modeled after Elminster's. His master's tower had multiple floors dedicated to certain roles (sleeping, eating, storeroom, library, lab, study, trophy/collection room, etc), but Presto's is different in a key way: It's only two stories tall, and looks rather squat and broad rather than high and imposing. When he designed it, Presto had a rather acute fear of heights. He's learned to get over his fear (he can fly, after all), but there was no point in redesigning an entire wizard's tower, so what's done is done.

The place was a bit of a mess for a while, but as he got older Presto saw the value in every item having a place. He can still be a bit scatterbrained, and things get lost if they are set down randomly. These days he's a bit overzealous about it, with labels on nearly everything to make organization easier.

While some of the decor clearly came from a magical bulk-supply store (It's called Abracadabra Ikea-khazam), Presto requests his friends bring him cheap or easy-to-access items from his home plane. Obscure and odd-looking plants share shelf space with picture frames with photos of his friends and their families. Planar maps are mounted on walls next to movie posters from Presto's childhood and band posters. There is a section in his library for magical tomes and well-read paperbacks of Louis L'Amour, among a lot of other, more modern, reading. There is a stack of Time magazines and piles of newspapers, some going back decades (he'll reread them eventually, he assured you). There is an entire Encyclopedia Britannica set, though the books are from different years and versions. There are many little signs of his former home, all brought by his friends. To help return the favor, there is a shared, very comfortable sleeping area where the group can stay. Presto sleeps in the same room with them whenever they visit, though the visits are becoming more sparse. Even so, he has his Unseen Servants keep the beds clean and turned down with fresh flowers on each bedside table just in case someone wants to drop in.

He's gone to great lengths to keep up with his home plane's modern sensibilities, though it can be complicated to try to match the modern world's infrastructure. After Bobby brought him an iPod as a gift, Presto realized he had no way to charge the device once it died. So now one corner of his lab is dedicated to a complex arcane circle that can turn back time on a single item it is tuned to. The device de-ages, the charge returns, and also looks brand new as an added bonus. (No one will ever know how often he's dropped it dancing to Taylor Swift).

Abracadabra Ikea-khazam!

That third one seems perfect, though with the addendum that, like all wizard towers, it's bigger on the inside than it should be.

You all have a home base!

Speaking of the Tower... You all can load up on lotions and potions and minor magical items there before you head out on your quest. What are some things you'd like to have?

Magical lotions a-plenty!

I'm not sure how many items are too many, but here are some fun ones I could see Presto (+friends) running around with:

Bag of Tricks (Gray seems fun)
Portable Hole
Bag of Holding
Rope of Climbing
Sending Stones
Immovable Rod
Decanter of Endless Water
A couple Driftglobes (for light)
Eversmoking Bottle
Eyes of Minute Seeing/of the Eagle
Lantern of Revealing

I tried to find ones that are generally useful out-of-combat and allow for creative solutions to problems.

Regarding consumable items like potions/scrolls (and lotions), I think some big fat healing potions would be great. As well, support-based potions (like Elixir of Health) would be really helpful since we don't have any any support casting. Presto can do some, but nothing like a cleric or druid would.

I glanced through the potions/scrolls, and the Elixir of Health, Supreme healing potion, and the Oil of Slipperiness are all pretty handy, but there aren't many more that offer anything Presto can't do. Other than crazy-strong stuff like the scroll that gives a permanent +2 Int or summons a tarrasque, of course.

Healing potions and items. Sheila has the lowest HPs in the group.

Really? I didn't look when your sheet was public. Your Con must be through the floor if you've got less than the wizard.

I'll be whipping up a hand-dandy sheet with everyone's HP, AC, Saves, Conditions, etc. which we'll use in combat.

I have to clean up the formatting a bit but please make sure everything here is correct.

Sheila has a +1 additional to all her savings throws from her cloak

I screwed up the saves on Presto's sheet. I've corrected them, Presto's saves for your custom sheet should be:

Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha

1/+2/+9/+11/+7/0