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COINS OF CONTAGION

Coins of contagion are relatively straightforward cursed items, designed to ravage their victims with disease. Each coin is keyed to a specific disease (blinding sickness, cackle fever, filth fever, mindfire, red ache, the shakes, or slimy doom). When a character’s skin is exposed to a coin of contagion they must make a Fortitude saving throw – failure indicates that they have contracted the disease. (See pg. 187 of the DMG for descriptions of the diseases.)

Some coins of contagion are designed so that the disease strikes immediately (no incubation period) – these are typically placed inconspicuously among other treasure, as a protection against would-be thieves. (The rightful owner can detect the coin of contagion with a detect magic spell, or similar ability, and remove it safely before accessing the treasure themselves.) Other coins of contagion, however, have been specifically created so as to maintain the disease’s incubation period. These coins were typically created by evil spellcasters, who then introduce their coins into a population area: As the coins are spread from one person to another, so, too, does the disease.

Some evil spellcasters have even been known to keep carefully quarantined caches of coins of contagion as part of their hidden treasuries – knowing that, if they are ever defeated, the coins will provide one final revenge upon the world as the would-be heroes who looted their towers spread chaos through the countryside by means of their “ill-gotten” wealth.

In other cases, coins of contagion which have long rested in the bottomless pits of the earth have been brought to light by unwary adventurers – spreading horrible plagues in their wake. Areas which have been struck by these coins of contagion before will most likely be extremely suspicious, if not absolutely terrified, by adventurers bringing antique coinage into their community.

Caster Level: 5th
Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, contagion
Market Price: 30,000 gp

Continued tomorrow…

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COIN OF THE DAMNED

These foul platinum coins were forged by the followers of a dark god in the elder days of the world. On one side of the coin is stamped a mind-rending depiction of the indescribable creature to which its creators paid homage, and on the other is their ancient, unholy symbol: A broken pentagram.

Any non-evil creature who comes within 30 ft. of a coin of the damned is instantly affected as per a blasphemy spell, with the following exceptions: First, it is not a sonic effect. Second, a successful Will saving throw against DC 17 will reduce the effective level of the blasphemy by one (killed becomes paralyzed, paralyzed becomes weakened, weakened becomes dazed, and dazed becomes no effect).

Where a coin of the damned lies, good fears to tread, and as such their resting places often attract some of the foulest creatures of the world. At least one of these coins is known to lie within the lair of a black wyrm.

It is rumored by some that the coins of the damned serve an even deeper – and fouler – purpose than a mere bane upon the existence of good: They whisper that if a complete set of thirteen coins are brought together in one place, then a blood ritual carried out according to ancient rites will create a gate which will summon back the dark god of these coins to the Material Plane. Whether this is truth is a mystery lost to the ages. (Note: If the DM decides this to be true, then the coins of the damned also require a gate spell for creation, the caster level should be raised to 17^th, and the market price for each coin should be raised to 350,000 gp.)

Caster Level: 13th
Prerequisities: Craft Wondrous Item, blasphemy
Market Price: 150,000 gp

AETHOPE’S COINS

There was a time when the mage Aethope had sworn that his life would be dedicated forevermore to the study of the arcane arts. That oath came to an end, however, on the night he first saw the Lady Adaire: In an instant his heart was captivated utterly by her beauty, and his dedication bent entirely upon her. Adaire returned his affections and it seemed, for awhile, that only happiness could come of Aethope’s passion

But eventually the Lady Adaire grew tired of Aethope, and her attentions turned to a new suitor, who was of her own rank and stature: The Lord Kathan. In due time the new couple were engaged, and it seemed – once more – that only happiness could come of it.

Aethope, however, had been driven into a wild and jealous rage by Adaire’s “betrayal”. He kept this rage in bitter check, however, and seemed, to all outward appearances, unaffected by his former lover’s fickleness – all the while secretly working within his erstwhile neglected laboratories upon a fiendish wedding gift.

Upon the day of the wedding Adaire and Kathan opened the carefully wrapped package which had been given to them by Aethope, and discovered twenty pieces of silver – a symbolic gift which promised them a long and happy life. But Aethope’s sorceries had transformed the gift into a vicious expression of his hatred: As Adaire touched the coins, black magic sucked away at the very essence of her soul – tarnishing the coins themselves black with corruption – and robbed her of her life.

Although Lord Kathan swore his vengeance, Aethope escaped justice – and his cursed coins disappeared with him. Where he, or his coins, may be today no one knows.

(Aethope’s coins have been enchanted with an enervation spell: Anyone touching a coin gains 1d4 negative levels, resulting in the following penalties per negative level: -1 competence penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, ability checks, and effective level. Spellcasters lose one spell or spell slot from their highest available levels. These negative levels can stack, and touching multiple coins at once will result in multiple drains. If the character survives, negative levels are regained over the course of nine hours. Undead creatures who touch one of the coins will gain 25 temporary hit points.

When one of Aethope’s coins exercises its power it will slowly tarnish – until it finally turns completely black after draining a total of 4 levels (at which point it will no longer have any effect on someone touching it). The coin will then slowly lose its tarnish over 1d20 hours, after which it will – once again – be able to use its enervation effects.

Caster Level: 7th
Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, enervation
Market Price: 26,000 gp

Continued tomorrow…

This article was originally published in the June 2002 issue of Campaign Magazine.

There’s nothing more delightful for a GM than slipping a cursed magic item to the PCs and watching the hi-jinks which ensue – not to mention the appalled faces of their players when they finally figure out what has happened to them. It’s a way of adding a little humility to the personality of overblown heroes, and reminding even the mightiest that their fall may be just around the corner.

The problem, though, is that the very caution you are attempting to instill eventually makes it increasingly impossible to go back to dip into that well again. Most players, quite wisely, take the course of “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”: Once a player has had his PC victimized by a cursed item once, every magic item which enters the campaign from that point forward will be exhaustively identified before it is used (or, in most cases, even touched).

What’s a poor GM to do?

Put the snare where the PCs least expect it, of course – where they will probably never even bother checking for magic in the first place, let alone curses. If they’ve already got their head through the noose before they think to look around, it’ll be too late for them to escape from the trap.

The question then becomes: Where? Finely made arms and armor, of course, are immediately scanned with detect magic and the like (while the poorly made variety are usually just left behind). Wands and staffs, of course, are obvious candidates that will never pull the wool over the players’ eyes. But it’s hit-or-miss whether other types of treasure will be picked up by the PCs at all. Heck, the only thing they’re guaranteed to take out of the dungeon are the gold coins…

Wait a minute.

Here are some examples of wealth which the PCs will wish had never been ill-gotten…

COIN OF FATE

Despite its normal appearance, the presence of a coin of fate cannot long be ignored: These powerful, chaotic items play upon the very laws of probability – randomly making the simplest of goals unachievable, while rendering the impossible possible.

Whenever a character attempts an action requiring a check within 20 feet of a coin of fate, do not resolve the action normally (although you may still wish to go through the motions of normal action resolution for the sake of the players). Instead, roll 1d100 in order to randomly generate a chance of success. Then roll 1d100 again in order to determine success: If the second roll is lower than the first roll, the action is successful. If it is higher, the action is unsuccessful. The greater the difference between the first and second rolls, the more obvious the twisting of probability becomes. (In other words, a narrow margin of difference between the two rolls would have the appearance of normality. On the other hand, a wide margin of difference between the two rolls might result in something completely improbable – for example, a character’s sword flying out of his hand, ricocheting off a tree, and then impaling itself in the back of the ogre he was trying to hit in the first place.)

There is one constant effect which the presence of a coin of fate will have: Any coins flipped within the affected area will always land on their edge.

Caster Level: 7^th
Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, bestow curse
Market Price: 42,000 gp

Continued tomorrow…

David and Tellius both requested a compiled PDF version of 101 Curious Items. And so I shall oblige:

(click image for PDF)

Enjoy!

“101 Curious Items”, of all the things I’ve written, may be the one I have found most useful on a personal level. I refer back to it constantly, using it to fill in bits of detail and flavor whenever I start running dry during dungeon prep. (Or just when I feel a particular complex is a little too “normal” and utilitarian.) Even if I don’t use one of the items from the list directly, I’ve found it to be a great source for inspiration. For example, the “Items of Interest” in the bloodwight nests of The Complex of Zombies drew heavily from this article.

The article was originally submitted to Dragon. It was rejected due to a lack of mechanical content and because some of the items included magical effects that weren’t statted up like “proper” magic items. A few months later, the article became one of about a dozen that I sold to Campaign Magazine. Unlike most of the stuff I wrote for Campaign, this one made it into print and I actually got paid for it before the magazine went out of business. It was published in the June 2002 issue.

Curious Items 1-25
Curious Items 26-50
Curious Items 51-75
Curious Items 76-101

I love including these kinds of little details and oddities. As another example from The Complex of Zombies, there is the manuscript entitled Observations of Alchemical Reductions and the Deductions Thereof by Master Alchemist Tirnet Kal. A Craft (alchemy) or Knowledge (arcana) check (DC 22) reveals that it was once a well-known alchemical text, but that the last copy of it was thought lost several centuries ago.

These little sparks of creativity tend to light up the game world for the players. And you can never tell when little sparks will light surprisingly bright conflagrations. I’ve seen a PC define their entire personality around something I thought of a magical knick-knack. On another occasion, the PCs took some items similar to the ones in this article and launched a bidding war between several powerful factions. The connections they made during that bidding war have had all kinds of strange, long-term consequences for the campaign.

You can see some similar thoughts being explored in “Putting the ‘Magic’ in Magic Items”.

A fun little exercise to try at home: The next time you’re getting ready to run an adventure, take three of the items from this list and drop them in. Maybe just leave them lying randomly about (or stuffed into someone’s pocket). Maybe twist the item to the setting. Maybe twist the setting to the item. Whatever works. Then wait and see what happens when your players stumble across the curiosity.

101 Curious Items – PDF