Pickled Giant Toe Jar

Wondrous item, rare

Brewed up by hags who live in lands where even titans fear to tread, this hefty jar could be confused for a kindly grandmother’s own jar of preserves were it not for the single giant’s toe bobbing up and down in the thick brine.

A pickled giant toe jar grants several potent abilities, though using one may preclude using the others.

• Drinking the brine within the jar confers the ability to speak giant and grants advantage on all Charisma-based skill checks made against giants. These effects last for one hour. Without brine, the giants toe spoils after one day.

• Consuming the giant’s toe grants 3d10 temporary hit points and advantage on attack rolls and Strength-based skill checks against giants. These effects last for one hour. Without the toe, the brine spoils after one day.

• If the jar contains both toe and brine, you may smash it against the ground as an action to summon a ghostly giant (use hill giant statistics, but the giant is undead and has the damage resistances, damage immunities, condition immunities, and incorporeal movement of a ghost). The giant obeys your commands, though it may take your commands literally or interpret them in the cruelest, most violent ways possible. The ghostly giant vanishes at sunrise, sunset, or if reduced to 0 hit points, whichever comes first. Smashing the jar spoils the brine and toe instantly.

Because some uses for a pickled giant toe jar do not immediately spoil its constituent parts, it is possible to “restock” the jar to prolong it’s usefulness. It is said some hags and unscrupulous druids have made repeated use of the same jar for centuries. So long as the toe is unspoiled, the jar can be refilled with brine with a DC 15 Arcana or Nature skill check and 10 gp worth of noxious, if natural, pickling agents. So long as the brine is unspoiled, a fresh giant’s toe can be added to the jar with a DC 15 Arcana or Medicine skill check. In either case, the replacement brine/toe does not take on the jar’s magic for 1d12 months, though hags are thought to possess a secret craft that vastly reduces this time.

If a hag possesses one pickled giant toe jar she likely possesses as many as nine more and may be willing to trade for the usual grisly price. For their part, giants are slow to trust those who carry pickled giant toes, though this matters little after one drinks the brine. While a pickled giant toe jar can inspire a mix of fear and respect among giants, it also inspires jealousy. Legends persist that if a giant consumes a pickled giant toe jar, downing its contents in one gulp, a great boon shall be granted them.

This wondrous item was inspired by an entry in The Jester Dragon’s Trove of Trinkets.