Adventurer’s Towel
Wondrous item, common (requires attunement)
This unassuming towel seems ordinary, yet it always smells faintly of soap, never becomes fully soaked, and can fold or unfold itself when commanded. Those who carry it feel strangely reassured, as though the cosmos itself approves of their preparedness.
Origin
The Adventurer isn’t quite sure where they acquired, er “borrowed” the towel from, it could be it came from the Winking Wyvern, the Restless Pony or The Damp Dragon. It could even be from the castle of the gracious Princess the party rescued. Wherever it came from the adventurer “forgot” to return it after a particularly stressful bath.
The towel is utterly ordinary: well-worn, pleasantly soft, faintly smelling of lavender and ale. Yet somehow, it’s become the most indispensable item an adventurer can carry.
Properties
When attuned (emotionally, not magically), the bearer of the Adventurer’s Towel feels a deep sense of preparedness. The towel seems to:
- Always be dry, even after wiping up dragon spit.
- Smell faintly pleasant no matter the environment.
- Fold itself neatly when not in use.
- Provide comfort, courage, and the mild but convincing illusion of competence.
- These effects are purely psychological… but so convincing that they work.
While carrying the towel, a creature gains advantage on saving throws against fear once per long rest, as long as they’re holding or wearing the towel in a confident, heroic manner.
If the creature uses the towel to help clean or comfort another, that ally gains temporary hit points equal to the user’s Charisma modifier (minimum 1).
- Comforting Wrap. While attuned, you have advantage on saving throws against fear effects while holding or wearing the towel.
- Absorbent Shield. As a reaction when you take acid, fire, or cold damage, you can wrap the towel around yourself to absorb part of the blast. Reduce the damage by 1d8 + your proficiency bonus. Once used, this property can’t be used again until you finish a short or long rest.
- Universal Utility. The towel can serve as a blanket, rope (up to 10 feet when stretched), makeshift sail, gag, blindfold, or sling with no risk of tearing.
- Planar Recognition. Creatures of alien or extraplanar origin (aberrations, celestials, fiends, etc.) instinctively recognize the towel as a sign of cosmic wisdom. You have advantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks when dealing with such beings.
- Don’t Panic. While the towel is on your person, you can use an action to magically display calming words of reassurance (in glowing runes). This effect grants you and allies within 10 feet temporary hit points equal to your proficiency bonus. Usable once per long rest.
Notes:
Any man who can adventure through the length and breadth of the Realm, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Stained and threadbare in spots. This once luxurious towel has seen better days.
Magical or Humorous Variants
- Self-Drying Rune
A simple cantrip sigil embossed that keeps the towel warm and dry no matter how wet it gets. - Comedic Warning
“NOT FOR QUESTING” or “Property of the Rusty Flagon – Do Not Steal (Seriously, We’ll Know).” - Animated Embroidery
The inn’s mascot (like a dancing goat, howling wolf, or tipsy pixie) stitched in thread that wriggles or winks when touched. - Dwarven Taverns: Embossed with a frothing keg, runes spelling out “Strength in Ale.”
- Elven Taverns: Embossed with vines and moonlit goblets, silvery embroidery that shimmers in torchlight.
- Halfling Taverns: Embossed with pies, teapots, or a cheerful plump halfling hoisting a mug.
- Haunted/Magical Taverns: Embossed with spectral candlelight, ghostly mugs that shift on the fabric, or an ominous motto like “Drink to Forget… Forever.”
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you — daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost.” What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)
— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
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Adventurer’s Towel base images were built using ChatGPT using prompts by Alien Graphics ©2025 Alien Graphics
All verbiage is ©2025 Alien Graphics and all imagery is ©2025 Alien Graphics and shared under the CC BY-NC-SA
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