Annoying Cursed items
Just a few annoying items to spice up your games. Equipment, although needed, is rarely thought of as cursed. So I thought of a few annoying, and not too dangerous ones.
All to often players and GMs alike find power in magical things, be it items, armor, weapons, or whatever.
On an occasion, a cursed thing comes into play. These are usually quite detrimental to the players, often causing great harm if not death to the characters. Although a curse is nothing to scoff at, some would have little effect if the curse was offhanded. And so, 'without any ado and no more guilding the lilly' I present to you a list of not so strong or leathal eqipment...
Psalter of Survival
This item is one part guide, one part artwork.
The delicately illuminated pages are bound securely in between thick hide covers gilded in gold. The information contained is quite useful, covering animal lore, fire building, fishing, trapping small game, edible fungus and berries, direction sense, weather sense, and the like.
However, once read, the half of the information is remembered inaccurately. Not that anyone could convince the reader of this, as s/he will follow the contents of the book religiously. Hence the title. Even others will believe the reader (unless they know one of the skills in the book).
Only the seeking out clergy to remove the curse or finding the reader a tutor, both well known and expensive, can convince him / her the book is wrong.
This item was cursed by arguably one of the most malicious type of person ever, a would be know-it-all. Tired of being contradicted he made these books and distributed them anonymously in many towns and cities. Seven are rumored to be in circulation.
Wandering pack
This sturdy leather backpack appears as any other backpack.
Therein lies the problem.
This pack will, at random, take on the appearance of any pack it comes near. It will go as far as, while the owner sleeps, changing places with another's pack. This usually presents a problem in the most unexpected situation.
('I thought I packed iron spikes, and where did my climbing harness go?' or 'I know I put my spell book here somewhere....and this isn't mine!' while pulling out a pale blue dressing gown.)
Originally owned by a forgetful wizard, this item was cursed completely by accident. While casting a spell, he realized he left an important component in his pack. Looking about he could not see his pack, which was right behind him. With the spell well under way he was said to utter the phrase 'Damnable backpack, I do believe you wander too much!' This was all it took to create the bane of the 'always prepared' adventurer.
Cheater's scales
These appear to be a well made set of merchant scales and weights. Even the most cynical and thorough of inspections will show them to be of high quality and excellent calibration, down to the smallest weight.
When used, the scales will be quite normal until precious metals are placed on them. They will measure these metals at less than their actual weight. Unless the customer knows the precise weight of the metal, this may well go unnoticed.
If, however, someone loudly calls the owner of the scales a thief, crook, liar, or the like the curse will truly show it's potential.
In the presence of any city guard or person of authority the scales will either slowly tip in their presence and show the proper weight of what is being measured or small flakes of bootblack will fall from of the bottom of the weights, revealing hollows filled with wool (proving the owner a dishonest).
This is the unfortunate creation of poor eyesight and a hot temper.
An old miner sold the gold and silver he found in a fairly large town, always to the same merchant. The miner, having weighed the precious metals on his own scales and due to his failing sight thought the weight higher than true, haggled brutally with the merchant, making every attempt to raise the price of the small amount he proffered. The merchant would have no part of it this time and refused to pay such a high price for the paltry amount of metals. The miner left in a furry, yelling back to the merchant 'Crooked scales for a crooked man! You sir, are a thief and a liar! I hope one day you get caught cheating your customers like you tried to cheat me!' Hence the curse was uttered, and stays to this day.
The Collector's Scabbard
This unusual scabbard is made of fine crystal, being perfectly clear so as to show the blade, but is also incredibly sturdy. The scabbard is gilt with platinum on the edges and chape, and a gold inlay on the throat. It is well known to keep swords in perfect condition, even cleaning rust, dirt, and gore from any blade inserted into it. The scabbard is also enchanted to be fully adjustable, fitting anything from the smallest arthame to the broadest of zweihanders.
Unfortunately, as a user of the scabbard will quickly discover, the blade is nearly impossible to remove. The scabbard is somewhat self-aware, and it loves keeping things in mint condition. Any attempts to remove a sword from the scabbard will be met with firm resistance. Furthermore, if and when a sword is forcibly removed, it will immidiately lose its luster, a thick layer of rust consuming the steel. Depending on the quality of the metal, the blade could be permenantly damaged.
Candle of Loss
This rather unremarkable white candle seems harmless enough, though it can be quite annoying. When reading by the light of this candle, the reader will remember everything read with crystal clarity, until one hour after he finishes. Then the reader will not quite be able to remember what he read. The memories will be hazy and vague.
This candle has one other side effect. It will infect any other candle it touches with the curse. This is especially baneful to sages and wizards.
Each candle will burn for about three hours. One to twelve will be found together.
The curse started as a practical joke. An over-eager apprentice wanted to frustrate his mentor, whom he was under tutelage by his parents' order. Trying his best to be sent home, he spent weeks searching through his mentor's books, looking for something harmless but effective. However, this pupil was accepted for what the wizard believed to be 'great potential'. This was his downfall. The curse worked too well.
Scroll cases of change
These are well made scroll cases, sturdy and attractive. Upon inspection the cases will be noticed to have several interesting features. There is a metal 'box' mounted on the side about the size of a vial of ink, and a ling thin 'pouch' that will hold three styluses. One end cap is easily twisted off to reveal a small compartment that could hold a few coins, a small gem, or other small item one wouldn't want noticed. The other end cap fits snug, creating a water tight seal. It will hold ten pieces of parchment.
These cases are ones possessing a diabolical curse. When maps or written pages are placed inside and the cases are closed, the pages will change somewhat. Words will shift or rewrite themselves, and the lines on maps will move, erase, or rewrite themselves. These changes will always be subtle and unless memorized the changes will go unnoticed.
These items was the deliberate act of a greedy and cowardly man. Having lost nearly all his worldly possessions and being struck lame adventuring, he sought a way to make money. Having collected several maps in his lifetime, he decided to sell them. Rather than sell items that would be useful, he copied all of his pages and placed each in one of twelve scroll cases , complete with ink, extra parchment, and a stylus, specially made for traveling. Known to be valuable and accurate, the man sold the pages inside of the cases, complete with the curse. After selling one or more he would move on to the next town, safe with the unchanged maps to explore later.
The Joke Book of Tregard
This book had a spell cast on it by Tregard the Jester eight centuries ago to update the jokes and make them funny. The only thing wrong with it is that it requires light to update, and after so long in the Jester's tomb it only has some highly unfunny and offensive jokes left in it. It will take a long time to recharge.
Whetstone of the Fallen Knight
This is a common item found in most blade-wielding adventurer's supplies. This one however is different than the rest. It is always found in a leather covered wood case that is decorated with carvings of knights brandishing great swords fighting dragons and other large beasts. The corners of the case are capped in silver. The latch is also silver and in the shape of a sword and shield. Inside, wrapped in oiled leather, is a whetstone.
It is comfortable in the hand, and seems easier to use than most stones for some reason. There is no wear on it at all, and after using it a few times it will still appear new and unused. The oiled leather it is wrapped in never dries and keeps the stone well oiled.
Anyone using this stone will think it a boon, at first. The edge of any blade sharpened will look to be amazingly keen. It will only appear to be sharp on sight, but testing the edge will reveal it to be slightly dull. A second sharpening will remedy this, but only temporarily. If someone continues use of this stone over time it will take longer and longer to get a keen edge on a blade. The user quite likely will eventually find himself sitting by the fire in the wee hours of the night trying to get a fine edge on their weapon.
This item is a curse of passion, vanity and remorse. It once belonged to an honorable and noble knight, who lived to fight the 'good fight'. He was an amazing swordsman and he knew it. His free time was spent, more often than not, honing the edge of his swords for the next battle. He was so intent on having the finest weapon on the field that he soon lost sight of why he was fighting in the first place. Focused more on his ability to win a battle than his code of honor proved to be his undoing. While standing firmly on most of the tenets of a knight, he 'dulled' his ability to tell the enemy from the innocent. In the middle of a skirmish on the kingdom's border, he struck down a man who was enslaved into a war he knew nothing about. The man set forth his dying words in his native tongue, which the knight did not understand. 'May you blade be as dull as your mind, and as soft as your heart is hard'. Realizing what he had done, remorse took hold of the knight and he eventually lost his heart and mind to sadness. He sold all of his possessions, even his most prized the stone that put the edge on his blade.
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? Responses (12)
Any comments would be MOST appreciated, as I'm not so sure of the content being useful.
This is a very funny entry.
I think the key word here is annoying, as these items tend to be nothing more than spikes tossed in to keep things from going too smoothly. I would like to see some more basic information on them, such as how they came to be cursed items. Without some semblance of an explanation as to how these items came to be (IE made cursed on purpose, botched creation, malfunctioned by Bermuda Triangle) they might be the bad sort of annoying, rather than the good sort.
I do have a soft spot for minor cursed items, and these are quite good.
The amendments made to it really help in my opinion.
These could of been individual submissions linked together in a codex. The items are a bit short, as these are items created by people, there would be some history aspect or origin of the pieces.
The pieces are nice and should be expanded.
nice one keep em going.
Updated: I'll retool my scrolls as individual subs a bit at a time.
Interesting items, thank you for writing them.