I've been reading about Witch Bottles this morning, also known as Greybeards, Bartmann vessels, or Bellarmine jugs.

The Wikipedia entry is here.

These were used, mostly in England but also in the U.S. for a time, to ward off evil Witches and Wizards. Its purpose is to draw in and trap harmful intentions directed at its owner. Folk magic contends that the witch bottle protects against evil spirits and magical attack, and counteracts spells cast by witches and wizards. They were most used during the Elizabethan era.

They are bottles, often with intricate detail in the lower portion of the neck of the bottle, which contained various objects thought to create an anti-evil-spell ward (often urine, hair or nail clippings, or red thread from sprite traps, along with things like rosemary, needles and pins, red wine, earth, seawater, sand, stones, knotted threads, feathers, shells, herbs, flowers, salt, vinegar, oil, coins, or ashes).

There tended to be two sizes. The first was a more traditional kind, being a small flask about 3 inches high created from blue or green glass. The second type was larger and rounder, up to 9 inches high, and those most often were described as the Greybeard style.

The bottles were most often found buried under the fireplace, under the floor, and plastered inside walls. The Witch bottle was believed to be active as long as the bottle remained hidden and unbroken. There is an emphasis on placing these objects at entry and exit points of the building.



So, the RPG-related question: How would you use such items in your D&D game? Doesn't matter what edition, what requirements would you have to make such a thing, and what effect would it have? Any counter-measures a Witch or Wizard could use to defeat it? Value of such a jug? Other items of RPG-related interest for such things?

Someone on CircvsMaximvs.com suggested it be used for a Wizard Lock spell, presumably as the per-prepared material component.    How would that work? Does the jug sink into the door or doorframe when the spell is cast? Do you stick it to the door itself, or in front of it? Do you bury it by the door?  He suggested he'd make it part of the door or lintel even, and if part of the door, it could also be used as a component for magic mouth.

Quote from: Mistwell;658932Someone on CircvsMaximvs.com suggested it be used for a Wizard Lock spell, presumably as the per-prepared material component.    How would that work? Does the jug sink into the door or doorframe when the spell is cast? Do you stick it to the door itself, or in front of it? Do you bury it by the door?  He suggested he'd make it part of the door or lintel even, and if part of the door, it could also be used as a component for magic mouth.

Ah no, this is the source of the legend about vampires being unable to cross the threshold of a home - it acts as a pit trap for the undead. Less intelligent undead just fall into it but more powerful revenants are sufficiently aware that they stay back.

A more worrying question is what happens if it gets dug up and broken, maybe necromancers supply these to people like a farmer sows seeds?

These were incredibly common in a certain period, right up until the very late 19th century; not just bottles, but small animals which were bricked up in the walls of houses, meant to protect against witchcraft.  Which is ironic because we'd consider this sort of thing a kind of witchcraft today.

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