Attraction/repulsion: magic items as NPCs

Following yesterday's post, I was thinking a bit more about the reappearance of the Drinker in our Whitehack campaign. This is a lethal magic sword - d20 damage - but it will attack its wielder's friends or even its wielder if it does not draw the blood of a living foe after being drawn from its scabbard.

When the PCs rediscovered it on the corpse of a knight that was slowly being turned to wood by a sinister giant tree, their reaction was characterised by terror and greed. The PC who had last owned it wanted it back, but when it was clear that finders keepers applied, he was desperate to keep his distance. And when the party was attacked by rootlings a few minutes later, the new owner was sharp enough to realise that the Drinker posed a greater threat to her than to creatures whose veins ran with sap rather than blood. So the sword stayed sheathed in favour of a much less effective weapon.

Like Ollam's Ring, the Drinker is exactly the kind of magical item I want in my campaigns: something that fades in and out of the story like a well-drawn NPC. The competing urges of attraction and repulsion that my players experienced when re-encountering the Drinker are precisely what I want them to feel in the presence of magical power.