Marcus Diellus was one of the greatest artists of his time. His work was much in demand, and he became quite wealthy. That was before he ran afoul of a dark wizard. For reasons lost to history, Diellus was afflicted with a terrible curse, which ultimately drove him to madness and suicide. But the curse did not end there. It lives on, in the very canvases and paint of the last set of paintings he ever created.
The last paintings are generally said to be Diellus’s finest works, even if they seem very dark and foreboding. There are several of these paintings, of different subjects. Landscapes, portraits, vistas, still lifes, etc. All are of dark, sininster, and somewhat frightening subjects, such as a grove of dead trees, graves, a portrait of a rather evil looking family, a stormy sea, etc. And every one of them carries the curse, manifesting it in different ways. One kills veiwers outright. One brings the curse of misfortune and sickness. Another attracts ghosts and evil spirits to wherever it is located. Still another drives people mad. Other things like that. Oddly enough, many are not aware of the curse, and will pay handsomely for one of the last Diellus paintings, not knowing what evil they are. Some do know, and are willing to use the paintings for their own dark purposes.
Magical Properties:
Each painting carries a different strain of the curse, and therefore does something different. Some of the paintings are triggered by someone looking at them, some are triggered by being touched, and some are triggered merely by location. The number of paintings and the nature of the curses are left to the GM. The paintings are always in good condition, even if in an abandoned house, so as to attract victims.
New Submissions
Commenters gain extra XP from Author votes.
Extra bonuses go to those that spend all votes in between refreshes.
2003-08-10 01:19 AM
2003-08-10 02:19 AM
2003-08-21 03:16 PM
2003-08-22 02:03 AM
(This one could simply be active at night only.)
2003-08-25 07:13 AM
As Strolen and Manfred correctly point out, a curse sometimes may be turned to good use.
PC's may not like this one much, but how about a painting that cancels good magic? I can imagine that a necromantic inclined wizard would feel this is a very nice asset...
I can also imagine this item to be a perfectly intresting plot hook...
I picture the PC's joining a perfectly hospitable dinner with a important person, perhaps the major of a major town. One one of the walls hangs a nice landscape painting, in which the peasants almost seem to move.... almost? on close inspection, the peasants are moving and tending the land....
I realy can not imagine that I would have to explain the rest of the plot...
2005-11-29 08:10 PM
Join Now!!
Please register to vote or leave a commentLinkback
Random Idea Seed View All Idea Seeds
By: Michael Jotne Slayer | UpVote
Individual submissions, unless otherwise noted by the author, are licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
and requires a link back to the original.
We would love it if you left a comment if you use an idea!
A Role Player's Creative Workshop.
Read. Post. Play.
Optimized for anything except IE.
0.0498