Coat of Many Pockets
The Coat of Many Pockets is not just a garment—it is a statement, a vault, a weapon, and a legacy disguised as clothing. Worn with casual grace by the half-elf merchant Albert Bouchard, the coat has become synonymous with his enigmatic persona. Its exterior is rich burgundy velvet, subtly embroidered with shifting runes, keyholes, and strange heraldic beasts stitched in thread that shimmers like old copper under lamplight. The inside is a cavernous swirl of magical fabric, pockets upon pockets folded into folds, some deeper than a human body, others only large enough to slip in a whisper.
No one claims to know how many pockets the coat actually contains. Most say thirty-seven. Others claim it rearranges itself, that some pockets disappear while others appear depending on what you need or fear. While the coat looks a touch extravagant, its true brilliance lies in its quiet utility and dangerous adaptability.
Mechanics & Inner Workings
The Coat of Many Pockets is an advanced variant of a Bag of Holding, customized through outlawed dimensional enchantment and Feytouched textile-weaving techniques. It contains thirty-seven unique pockets, each with its own property or bound spell. Not all pockets are safe. Not all obey conventional space.
- Extradimensional Storage: Each of the coat's normal pockets is larger on the inside, able to store up to 2 cubic feet or 20 lbs worth of material. Unlike a Bag of Holding, these compartments are independently stable tearing one open does not rupture the entire item.
- Pocket Specialization: Certain pockets are dedicated to specific item types: gemstones, scrolls, cursed relics, poisons, ritual components, or even living insects. Items stored this way are auto catalogued through a series of sigil tags readable only by the wearer.
- Whisper Pockets: Three of the coat’s pockets are linked through minor teleportation magic. When an item or message is placed inside, it vanishes and appears hours later in a pocket elsewhere. These are the coat’s most dangerous features—treasonous, if proven.
- The Mimic Pouch: One pocket is not a pocket at all. It is a tamed mimic, trained to remain dormant until a foreign hand reaches into the coat without Albert’s command word. When triggered, it snaps shut on the intruder’s hand, dealing piercing damage and holding them until released.
- Living Inventory: The coat responds to Albert’s surface thoughts, subtly adjusting which pockets are closest to his reach depending on what he’s thinking of retrieving. With training, he can retrieve most items from the correct pocket as a bonus action.
- The Black Pocket: This pocket is sewn shut with cursed silver thread. Albert refuses to speak of it. Some believe it contains a living fragment of a former Hatter, others suspect it’s a failsafe—something to destroy the coat if he’s compromised.
- The Key Ring Pocket: Always visible, this breast pocket contains a jangling cluster of antique keys—some brass, some bone, others made from materials not found in this world. Every key opens something. Not all of them still exist. Not all of them are doors.
If the coat is removed or taken from Albert, its more complex functions go dormant until bonded to a new wearer through a day-long ritual involving blood, chalk circles, and whispered oaths. Few survive that process with their memories intact.
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