The Cursed Torc
For this idea, I was thinking about cursed items and that it might be interesting to create one that could be useful to a player. After all, if you know a cursed item’s secrets, it could still be useful, you just have to use it differently. After all, the most useful items at a DM’s disposal are things that have multiple applications in a story. Why should the DM have all the fun? This item could give a player the opportunity to mess with the NPCs a little bit. Adjust values for this item as appropriate to your game system and the quest level you’re playing at.
The Bait: The artifact appears to be a torc fashioned from solid gold. It is a simple construction of a solid gold bar bent into a split semi-circle with the ends capped with two gold fist ornaments at the front. A low skill check deceptively reveals that it confers a +2 bonus to hit in melee combat and a +2 to damage. (Or an equivalent appropriate bonus for your chosen RPG system)
The Trap: A high skill check reveals that it is a disguised magical millstone. When it’s first put on, it actually does provide the bonuses. But after each day wearing it, the bonus to hit and to damage both drop by 1. Therefore, by the end of the second day, it grants the wearer no bonuses. If the wearer attempts to remove the torc at any time, or makes a combat roll, it morphs into a seamless 100 lb millstone (for medium-sized folk) around the wearer’s neck.
The cursed item in millstone form imposes the following penalties on the wearer: -2 to damage, 20% spell failure, and whenever they would roll a d20 roll a d12 instead. Naturally, a critical hit is now impossible under normal circumstances. The millstone has 120 HP, Hardness of 15, and DR 10/Adamantine.
The Escape: The millstone form of the item is marked with a message in a foreign language or with strange glyphs (choose something suitable for your players). Reading or deciphering the text will reveal that it will only release the prisoner when they perform an act of service and humility. It cannot otherwise be removed unless the character dies.
I considered that this could be used as a tool by a player character. Perhaps they could use it to bribe a cruel warlord, or give it to a stranger they suspect will betray them. If the players did run afoul of the curse, it could drive a future subplot of redemption, maybe revenge. At the minimum, it should inspire more caution when dealing with magical items and how much misplaced trust you have in your DM’s concern for your character’s well being.
When I presented this item to the player characters, they were trying to hardball a merchant into paying a ridiculous amount of money to complete a level 3 fetch and deliver quest, plus they wanted him to toss in a magical item on top of the fee. And at their demand, it was all to be contractual. FYI players: be careful what you ask for. Asking a DM to have the NPC write up a contract for your unfair business deal is like asking a treacherous genie to grant you a wish. You’d better have all your bases covered.
From the NPC merchant’s perspective, this kind of gouging was of criminally punitive proportions (in spite of the fact that the NPC tried to extort the players into doing the job). But since the players didn’t specify that he had to disclose the artifact’s function, he presented them with a choice from one of four magical items with undisclosed properties. One was of course, the torc which they didn’t accurately identify. And it was obviously more useful than the others (but not suspiciously more, apparently). The fighter of the group (who ironically was the one driving the ludicrous bargain) proudly wore the Torc and the rest was history.
Once the cat was out of the bag, the fighter wasn’t too sure what he was going to be capable of accomplishing with such an aggressive curse, so he started things off pretty cautiously. He remained a good sport with the whole thing which is what any DM could hope in such a scenario. After learning what was needed to escape, the fighter started gifting away all his sundry items to the beleaguered NPCs of the story.
Even though giving away mundane items you care little about is hardly a service of humility to anyone, it was interesting to see how motivating a curse can be. Ultimately, he gifted his payment and a chunk of his personal funds to the plight of the NPCs in the quest and his freedom was well earned.
Here the player’s had the opportunity to discover the secret and sidestep the peril (on a successful roll). Instead, the dice turned against them and they were deceived. Deception in a D&D game can be useful and memorable. It can humanize your NPC’s to the players. After all, if the characters in your story are all either angelic or complete cads, the story becomes very one dimensional. Use deception with caution however, when creating encounters that directly deceive the players. Asking your players to roll with the punches from a little DM engineered misfortune is okay once and a while. But keep them rare since the dice can be quite humbling. That way they those encounters stay memorable and the game experience won’t turn sour.
Happy gaming.