Placing artifacts

Put artifacts in the game where they make sense. That sealed tomb that the PCs are exploring probably has grave goods! The sorcerer that they're hunting probably has a few magic artifacts at her disposal.

Put artifacts in the game, too, when you think they'd be fun or interesting. Offer one as a trade opportunity when Seasons Change, or when a PC Trades & Barters. Let a PC find one when they Forage and choose to "discover something interesting or valuable."

When you prep a site, place artifacts in specific spots and/or create a list of things you can place when and wherever it makes sense to do so.

As with any discovery, try to place artifacts in a way that tells a story. Consider how it came to be here, how long it's been here, how it's shaped the environment or how the environment has shaped it. Why has no one claimed it? Who else is looking for it? Who else knows it's here? Reflect these things in where you place an artifact and how you describe it, as a way to portray a rich and mysterious world.

The PCs head back to the Green Lord's tomb, to explore it properly after killing the swyn. I've decided that Thornthumb got past Vahid's sanctifying marks and made off with his old hoard, but I think there must still be a few artifacts for the PCs to find.

Looking over the Green Lords entry in Book II*, my eye lands on "a number of corroded bronze hatchets," which I picture interred with those mummified servants—the ones buried in the collapsed hallway. I doubt Thornthumb would have even known about these, or bothered with them if he did.*

I also spot a large urn (previous page), which I imagine was something made by the Green Lord who's interred here as a way to deal with troublesome Fae. Thornthumb would have steered clear of it, but I can see the crinwin using it to store doodads that Sajra didn't want. So it's stuffed full of rubbish, including some other junky-looking artifacts and maybe even an arcanum like a cracked flute (Book II). Oh, and it's in that partly-collapsed chamber, the one where the crinwin were nesting. Nice.