My latest idea...

[Cheka Man]

an amulet worn by the more devout followers of Ulmania. If someone wearing the amulet is cut down in his or her prime by accident of disease, the amulet will heal the person. However, the person will have a dream telling him or her that he/she has three days to prepare to carry out a quest for the goddess or he/she will have the divine help withdrawn and will die. It will never be a quest that is impossible for the person to succeed at, but will be hard to complete.

Should someone kill the person and take the amulet, they then have to carry out the quest or another, harder one, or have their lifeforce withdrawn by the vengeful goddess. The amulet itself is valuable, the sort of thing that a PC would steaL.

Thoughts? I want help with this after I had to put the last two subbmissions into work after they ended up as 2s.

[Scrasamax]

Basic idea is a Geas Amulet that is divine in it's source of power.

The downside is that this is very much a plot device and not something that the players would really want to come across. You can find it, and it will save your life, but it is going to make you do some difficult stuff that you are going to pay for. Also, it looks to me like prime material for Rail-Roading. You have to do this quest because the amulet saved your life, insert mission.

[Ancient Gamer]

Hmmm.... You could let player greed win the day for you!

Some sort of switch. Either the item is normal, with minor magical powers, or they could awaken its dormant magic energies, but at the cost of a geas (and hard quest).

They could choose in a dream, for instance, a dream they have the night before finding it. Play out the dream, as if it was real, and when the players awaken they realize it was but a dream.

And then they find the thing they dreamed about. At this time they should have made a choice, and if they chose the quest they can still refuse to pick the item up.

Just my 5 cents.