During the age of the 5th great ruler of Olar, an elderly wizard isolated himself from the buzz and turmoil of the hot and overrun great cities of the time.
His name was Lohdi and he largely valued three things; his magic, his solitude and his pet cat Whisper. Not only was Whisper his pet, but they shared a very tight magical bond that tied the two together. Try as he might, he eventually exhausted all means to sustain his beloved feline companion. While most would agree that a cat that lived to the very ripe age of 57 years had a remarkably fulfilling life, it greatly troubled and pained Lohdi to see Whisper go.
Well into his eighth decade, Lohdi knew that his ability to care for and give the attention needed to an animal friend of any degree of vigor was severely lacking; but oh how he missed the mornings reading through obscure tomes on the porch with Whisper on his lap and a hot tea in his hand. Such modest desires surely are not too much to ask for.
Setting his resolve to find a suitable solution to the problem at hand, Lohdi came up with the perfect solution - a magical device that would allow him to summon a feline friend for limited amounts of time. This cat would not require the degree of care that a natural cat would, but would be receptive to the attention and affection that Lohdi would have for it.
Being a wizard, and thus a natural pragmatist, Lohdi decided two more things; to make the item a mug to enjoy his morning tea with and to also allow him to summon some larger cats in the case that he needed any protection. In his younger years he’d rarely find himself without some offensive or defensive spells at hand, but these were quieter times that were to be dedicated to study. But a natural pragmatist has a hard time ignoring these logical lines of thought.
Lohdi committed a number of weeks to studying the necessary spells that he’d need to bind magic to the mug finalized the process. He then set out to make the mug itself. Even though he was fully capable of waving his fingers and conjuring a mug out of thin air, out of respect and love for his departed friend Whisper, Lohdi hand-fashioned the mug out of clay and kiln-fired it himself. He even glazed the mug and decorated with a very simple, yet very obvious cat motif. While very proficient with magic, a skilled artist Lohdi was not.
For the rest of his years, Lohdi enjoyed his morning studies with his temporary feline friends. Upon his passing, the mug passed from obscurity to nothingness as it was lost to the annals of time. Not until a wayward collector of songs and stories entered a ramshackled basement knick-knack store in the heart of the Olar capital was Lohdi’s Marvelous Mug of Cats put to use again.
Description
This coffee mug-sized cup appears to be made of earthenware clay with some stylized depictions of different cats on it. The possessor of Lohdi’s Marvelous Mug of Cats is able to summon standard housecats 3/day (pg 270 MM) for 25 minutes each. In addition to that, two times per week the possessor can summon a lion, tiger or leopard for 5 minutes.
The summoned felines obey and can take simple orders in common from the possesor of the mug.
The possessor simply needs to tip the mug from right-side-up to up-side-down (in the motion of emptying the mug) and think of which sort of cat they wish to summon. When not summoning a cat, this mug may be used as any normal drinking cup.
Faint conjuration; CL 3rd; Craft Wondrous Item, Summon Monster II; Price 2,250 gp