Wondrous Wednesday: Arrow of Sleighing & Wand of Lightening Bolts

For this installment, I’m going back to an early issue of Dragon. When they were editing the AD&D 1st edition Dungeon Master’s Guide, there were a number of typos. Allen Hammack did an article in issue #35 (March 1980) called “The Lighter Side,” where he came up with stats for magical items based on his favorite typos. Here are two of them.


Arrow of Sleighing

Weapon (arrow), rare

An arrow of sleighing is a magic weapon meant to provide transportation; engraved along the shaft is a command word in an old Northern language. When this item is drawn and fired, it immediately expands and unfolds mid-flight into a toboggan. While initially sized for one, people within 120 feet of the toboggan may speak the command word in the first round after it has been fired and be instantly transported into the toboggan while it is in motion. As others speak the word the toboggan lengthens to accommodate the extra passengers, up to a maximum of six people.

The toboggan can achieve speeds of 60 feet per round when going downhill on snowy or slippery slopes. It does not function on other kinds of terrain, and must be pushed or pulled to move on a level snowy or slippery surface. Once the first round has elapsed after being fired, the toboggan loses its magic and becomes mundane.

Other types of magic ammunition of this kind exist, such as bolts of sleighing meant for a crossbow, though arrows are most common.

Wand of Lightening Bolts

Wand, uncommon (requires attunement by a spellcaster)

This wand has 7 charges. While holding it, you can use an action to expend a charge to cast the levitate spell (save DC 15) from it. The spell does not require concentration, but only lasts for 1 minute. Since the wand causes the target to actually become lighter, it may be moved about by air currents depending upon local conditions.

The wand regains 1d6 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn. If you expend the wand's last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the wand crumbles into ashes and is destroyed.

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