I totally dig this idea +Edgar Johnson came up with in his post The Shadow that Magic Casts.
Basically what (I think) he's saying is that wizards carry with them mundane items that, with time and after successive spells being cast, become magically imbued with the wizard's essence. Then, the can wizard use them as decoys so that the Ones Who Dwell Between couldn't get to him. But you better go and read the whole article yourself.
I can see everyone with wizards in their campaigns start building up these unique magical items. So, how would this work in your DCC game? The way I see it, the player will need to keep track of what items are being getting affected. Every time the wizard casts a spell, make a roll on his equipment list to randomly determine the affected item.
- If the casting was a success, make a mark on the rolled item.
- If the casting was a critical success make 1d3 marks.
- If the casting was a failure and the item has been previously affected, erase a mark.
- If the casting was a failure and the item hasn't been previously affected, leave it alone.
- If the casting was a critical failure and the item has been previously affected, erase all the item's marks.
- If the casting was a critical failure and the item hasn't been previously affected, the item is then rendered useless for further enchanting.
Maybe in case of a critical failure the wizard could spellburn to prevent the outcome.
The DM would need to set how many marks are needed for the item to reach the status of magical. For example, to be powerful enough as to be detected by the Detect Magic spell.
And now, a couple of questions: What situations attract the attention of the Ones Who Dwell Between? How this is affected by the number number of magic items the party has?
