Gloves of Emotion
On the surface, these white calfskin gloves appear ordinary, until another human or an animal is touched, when they reveal the mysteries of the mind.
History
Once there was a magical couple, William and Emily Cable. He was a wondering hedge-wizard before she found him, she a witch of reknown, who fell in love with him for who he was and helped him to master his skills to a much higher standard. Both loved each other and spent a lot of their time trying to please each other, but William wanted more. He wanted to know what was inside her head-not all the time of course, but at certain moments like just before bed, or just before a major descision, and he wanted her to know what was in his head too.
So he created a pair of enchanted gloves of the finest white calfskin. When he touched her, he knew her thoughts and she his, which made their lovemaking much better as each knew perfectly what would arouse the other.
Tragicly, their growing prosperity attracted the attention of one of Pier Point's violent criminal gangs, who broke into their house one night fully armed with blades and pocket crossbows, miniture crossbows small enough to fit in a large pocket and deadly at short range. The first hoodlum was turned into a small white yapping dog before he could attack, but the others riddled the couple with arrows and looted their house and shop.
The gloves were taken personally by the one who who led the raid, and who had big ambitions to rise higher in the world of organised crime-he had plans to murder his boss and take over the whole gang. He normally met him once a week and handed over a packet of money from the ill-gotten gains, but when he shook hands with him, the boss at once knew that this man wanted him dead and was outraged, so much so that he stabbed the would-be traitor dead on the spot and had the underlings dump the body into the Pier Point sewer system.
He took the gloves, got together a few of his most trusted friends, then called in the other gang members one by one and shook their hands whilst wearing the gloves. Those who had thoughts of disloyalty were killed on the spot and their bodies dumped in the sewers.
Magic/Cursed Properties
The gloves, when a sentinent being is touched, reveal the thoughts of the one being touched, but also reveal the thoughts of the toucher to the touched one. They only reveal the thoughts, they don't influence them, and they must be in contact with the target. So technicly one could reveal a Dragon's thoughts with this-for a few seconds until the toucher becomes a tasty snack for the annoyed Dragon.
Plot Hooks
The PC's are theives who decide that they have to steal these gloves from their Boss, otherwise nobody's life in the gang is safe anymore.
A PC finds these gloves by mistake, which could lead to funny or dangerous situations.
The PC's are ordered to take the gloves to a wizard so that they only reveal the thoughts one way-the thoughts of the touched one going to the glove wearer rather then both ways. But someone is trying to stop them.
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? Responses (10)
This gets a four from me and a HOH, just for the delicious potential of these gloves back-firing disastrously if some smug spy were to stupidly use them against a powerful mark. Imagine revealing all your motivations and some precious info to the tyrant whom you're supposed to trick into surrendering all of his most secret thoughts.
This should be givne to an arrogant thief or spy who needs to be knocked down a notch or two.
I like the concept of the item, just like I enjoyed delayed booze. Nice Cheka!
Hmm, these would be a psycopath's dream item - to be able to show his victem his thoughts, and to let know their fear. Even Demons would appreciate this one :)
These should be in the Evil Cultist's Garage Sale. :)
Presentation is good and the core concept is a great idea. I like the whole feedback idea and how it can cause many problems. A thief with a mageyl aspect might be able to learn a certain amont of self control to prevent mental leakage while using the gloves, or to be able to project certain thoughts to influence those he touches.
This is a good item.
The idea is original, the presentation decent, though halting at times (The flow of your story telling is sometimes disrupted and uneven).
love it, its a very cool concept to turn something that was designed for good into something a gang lord uses
Like it a lot. Just get rid of the 'Full Item Description' at the top of the page.
From the hands of lovers into the hands of criminals... a tragically foreseeable history for such a genuine item. I like it, though the submission suffers some glitches. Good work!
Plot Hook: the gloves are stolen by a low thief who starts to be unnerved by the changes in his boss, thinking them to be cursed. Of course he is hunted, and may try to sell them to PCs, or even ask for protection.
What happened to the dog?
This is an old one. But which of hasn't had an awkward moment in which the emotions of others seemed entirely inaccessible to us? A lot of fantasy genre stuff is wish fulfillment and this could really hit the mark for those players that have a hard time gauging others emotional state or subtle social things like sarcasim.
Roleplaying plot idea: In a modern fantasy setting if you dropped these gloves on a character with something like aspergers you could explore whether the character really wants to know everyone emotions or if they are happier not knowing the emotions of others.
Nice idea.