Curious Things: Horrid Treasures by Darren Tenor and Dave Woodrum is a generic role playing game supplement published by Fishwife Games.
This is a 12-page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $2 but was purchased at the reduced price of $1.34 during a sale. One page is the front cover and one the front matter.
The Introduction starts with a short bit of prose about discovering treasure, then goes on to say that, in a high fantasy setting, there will be unusual treasures, either unique or semi-unique, that have an associated history and are therefore more valuable. The supplement contains six of these treasures. Each treasure has a history given, a value, which is variable, and associated information for that, and an adventure hook.
The Cowl of the Crimson Gatherer is a hood that was once part of the ceremonial wear of a cultist leader, a leatherworker who made leather from anything and eventually enjoyed kidnapping people and using their skin.
The Hand of Palmik is a mummified hand covered in arcane tattoos that once belonged to a thief. The tattoos enhanced the thieving ability of Palmik, but he was caught, had his hand removed and was then executed.
The Medallion of the Blood Beetle belonged to a group of desert nomads who used it to induct new members. The medallion contains fungal spores that result in a distinctive infection. It was sold when a recruit was spirited away by his family.
Nelkrogahn’s Bowl is a bloodstained bone bowl that is unpleasant for non-evil characters, but evil ones will find any food served from it will be tasty.
The Vault of Voices is a music box constructed by a gnome for his daughter, who loved the fey. When said fey showed no care for the daughter, resulting in her death, her father slaughtered as many as he could and soaked the box in their blood. The music box will spontaneously play music or record voices, playing them back altered to cause maximum chaos.
The Shackles of Shame are magical shackles that open when one imprisoned speaks their most shameful truth aloud, which etches this on the shackles. This resulted in a prison break.
Curious Things: Horrid Treasures in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, although not lengthy, these would have been appreciated. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column format and a number of errors were noticed; notably, the word “vassal” was repeatedly used incorrectly to denote a ruler. There are a few vaguely appropriate black and white and colour pieces of stock art, plus some blank spaces for game conversion notes. Presentation is adequate.
The various items are generic, so if they are going to be made into magic items, the GM will need to do this themselves. Only one of the items, the Shackles of Shame, has a note stating that they are definitely magical in nature. The others could simply be treasures with unusual histories. Not making them into magic items will diminish how interesting they are, though; the attendant fluff is interesting and often extensive. Curious Things: Horrid Treasures is an interesting collection of well described treasures and it can be found by clicking here.
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