Spirit-Trapping Camera

Spirit-Trapping Camera is a magic item (wondrous item) of very rare rarity.

Spirit-Trapping Camera — fantasy item illustration. Spirit-Trapping Camera is a magic item (wondrous item) of very rare rarity.
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Not to be mistaken for a simple spectral camera, this plain-looking but obviously finely-made piece gives off a subtle but reassuring feeling of peace. As an action, you can use one charge to focus the camera’s lens on a single creature within 30 feet and take its picture. If the targeted creature is an undead or a fiend, it must make a DC 17 Charisma saving throw or be instantly captured in a glass photographic plate. If the target is not an undead or fiendish creature the charge is wasted. Any other creatures shown in the photograph are unaffected, even if they are undead or fiends. The spirit-trapping camera can produce as many plates as it has charges, though each must be removed as a bonus action before you can use another charge.

A trapped creature can be released by breaking the plate or it can be sent to its final judgment (in the case of an undead creature) or back to its native plane (in the case of a fiend) by immersing the plate in holy water for 1 hour, at which point it disappears. Creatures banished in this way cannot return to the plane they were sent away from for a year and a day by any means short of divine intervention. If neither of these actions are performed within 24 hours of the photograph being taken, the creature is banished as above, though it has no limitations on returning.

The spirit-trapping camera has 3 charges and regains 1 each dawn. When the last charge is expended, roll a d20\. On a 1, it becomes a mundane photochemical camera.

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Further reading

Jetpack7 Game Master Series
The Game Master's Book of Random Encounters
Jeff Ashworth · 2020
The Game Master's Book of Traps, Puzzles and Dungeons
Jeff Ashworth · 2022
Last updated 6/19/2026·Tags: item, wondrous item, very rare