Nasty subtle cursed item.
So last session the as-yet-unnamed crew were contacted by Frake on behalf of the Hive to steal a particular item from a wealthy doctor’s private collection. A moderate Gather Info revealed that the item, called “The Monkey’s Paw,” was both powerful and cursed.
I left it at that. I have another session coming up soon, and am fishing for alternate ideas for the natures of both the power and the curse. I thought I’d tap the BitD collective, if I might.
So?
Go with the literary namesake? 🙂
When held tightly in your left hand, you can become invisible for the cost of a minor wound. Whenever you use it, a single person who cares about you permanently forgets your existence.
When you whisper instructions to this mummified hand, it animates and carries them out to the best of its abilities. When the paw completes its task, or if it is unable to complete its task, it flees and seeks a new owner. When you use the paw, one of your own hands becomes unusable, and if you don’t reclaim the paw within 24 hours, your hand dies. The details of these side effects are not quite clear from the legends surrounding the paw…
Cut from the paw of a monkey in the Dagger Isles and prepared through an unknown ritual, the Monkey’s Paw causes the user to dissipate into the Ghost Field. This ability acts exactly like the much like the Ghost trait Dissipate, using Stress to trigger it. However the moment you begin using the Monkey’s Paw your Vice no longer satisfies you. Instead you must possess another person and drain life essence much like a Ghost does to clear their Drain. The problem is you must use the Monkey Paw to dissipate first before you can possess anyone. Thus creating a double edged sword where you must spend Stress in order to clear any. Also, if the user ever looses the Monkey’s Paw they no longer can possess anyone nor can they find comfort in their Vice again. They are doomed to never clear any Stress ever again.*
*Or until someone completes a Long Term Project Ritual to free them of the curse.
Of course, if you really want the curse of my version to sting don’t tell the player how they must clear Vice henceforth. Just let them find out that their Vice doesn’t comfort them anymore! Then it’s up to them to discover on their own what it’s done to them.
Nasty, indeed 🙂
Small edit to my idea. If you use it and there is no one left who cares about you then you cease to exist.