The Tapping Tankard

The Tapping Tankard is a magical cup which stays full by “vampirically” tapping nearby sources of drink. Of course it could be used for more sinister purposes…

A Tavern Scene

(A Grumple Grimwolde Item for your Fantasy World)

The Tapping Tankard is a plain pewter drinking cup that holds one pint of fluid. Nothing distinguishes the tankard from any other drinking vessel except for its strange powers. Another product of Grumple Grimwolde’s Impish HexWorks, this tankard can be used to get many drinks for the price of one. When a drink is poured into the tankard, it “sets” itself to the source of drink and will refill itself when emptied as long as the source has more to offer, and as long as the tankard is with in 100 feet of the source. Pouring the initial fluid is known as “priming.”

A low powered teleport spell siphons from the fluid’s source to the inside of the tankard. The tankard will fill at a rate of one pint per round, filling to just below the cup’s rim. If the source of fluid goes empty, then the tankard is reset and will not fill up even if the source is replenished. The tankard will need to be primed to refill again.

Once primed, the tankard can be held upside down and will eventually empty the source – if the source can be emptied.

If a new drink is poured into the tankard, even if the tankard itself has not been emptied, it will empty itself and refill from the new source. The tankard only works with liquids, but will successfully carry colloidal mixtures and gas suspensions such as milk, paint, muddy water or beer.

The primary use of the tankard is to steal drinks, but it could be employed for more creative and perhaps even sinister purposes:

• Bodily fluids could have interesting results with the tankard. Sneezing into the tankard would result in clear sinuses for the sneezer and a tankard full of mucous. Spitting would result in a painfully dry mouth. If blood could be dripped into the tankard, the victim could be exsanguinated in just a few rounds.
• The tankard could be used to douse fires, if filled from a river or stream (and kept within 100′ of the source).
• If a person had large number of the magic mugs, they could setup a chain of “liquid pouring” stretching many hundreds of feet by priming each container from the previous and placing them at regular intervals from the source fluid to the destination.
• The tankard might be used as a tremendous labor saving device by a farmhand tasked with milking several cows. Instead of tugging on udders, the tankard could be primed with the fresh milk and then emptied into the milk bucket.