Q - Q, Quest, Quarrel, Quiver

The Q-Manual is a supplement for the James Bond RPG put out by Victory Games in the late 80's and may have been published into the 90's but I am not certain. Anyone who has ever seen a James Bond film will already know the purpose of this book but I will write away anyway. Q is the person in MI:6 is in charge of gadgets for lack of a better word. Today with miniaturization and the rapid development of new technologies many of the things we see in the Bond films are not all that exciting but back in the day that was not the case. Ejector seats and exploding pens were all beyond the realm of reality for the average person to think of. This book helps the GM by providing them statistics for all those cool gadgets.

Movie:

Quest for Fire was released in 1981. It is the story of a prehistoric tribe and their quest to regain fire which was lost. The movie has no understandable dialogue but yet conveys a story that anyone can follow and understand. This alone makes it worth watching but the quest itself will help spark pitfalls that could be used in a wilderness trek. If you have not seen this hidden gem, and I am betting most have not, please treat yourself and try to scare up a copy of this. You won't be quoting anything from the movie but it will provide you ideas that will long outlast any dislogue you might have remembered.

Plot:

Quarrels made of a strange black bone like material and bearing runes that can not be identified have been found in the dead bodies of town watchmen every morning for the last week. The head of the militia and the town leader are obviously concerned and are looking for help. As usual our intrepid band of adventurers are just where they need to be. The quarrels when inspected will be found to be made of a obsidian like material but not one that has been seen before by any local sage. The runes will also defy any magic that would normally let someone read unknown languages. The question is who is using the quarrels and for what purpose. Is it a band of thugs looking to weaken the towns defenses or is is something much worse. Perhaps an extra planar being who is hunting someone in particular amongst the militia and for what reason?

Magic:

Quivers of the Elements will allow the user to pull forth magical arrows or bolts as needed. These will be +1 in nature and there will always be a score or more in the quiver at any given moment. Anything pulled from the Quiver will disappear in two rounds after being pulled forth. The bolts/arrows pulled forth can also have additional properties at the behest of the archer. Any arrow can be called upon to have an element attached to it. This will cause the arrow to do an additional D6+1 in damage to beings who are especially vulnerable to that type of attack. Using ammunition in this manner is not without its peril though. If there are more than 10 pulls from the Quiver with the additional abilities there is a 10% chance per arrow pulled to summon forth an elemental of  8 or 12 hit dice from the appropriate plane for the item pulled. This being will immediately attack the person pulling for the arrow and attempt to obtain the Quiver and return with it to their plane of existence.