Cursed Wondrous Artefact

[Hirobumi]

Hello everybody,

last session one of my players found a wondrous artefact. And she rolled an eye.....
So the item is cursed and I am trying to design a nice curse and also a story for the item and a way to lift the curse. Do you have any suggestions for me or did one of you already design such a cursed item? I can't come up with a story and a way to lift the curse which seems fitting.

Thank you,
Hiro

[Otaku-sempai]

Some idea of the nature of the artefact might suggest a possible curse.

[Hirobumi]

I used this:
"A concave glass-lense, which, when held up to the dawn before a battle, shows what may come to pass when swords are drawn (a Blessing to Battle)."

[zedturtle]

The seeing-glass is predisposed to show the horrors of warfare and the most terrible of all possible outcomes. When the hero makes their Battle test, any result of the <<EYE>> (success or failure) causes the accrual of one point of Shadow.

If the bearer can spend a year and a day without drawing a weapon in an enemy, the curse will be lifted.

[Hirobumi]

Wow!
What an idea. Thank you.

And how about the background of things? Who made this, who owned it and why is it cursed?

Thank you for your help!

[zedturtle]

Originally, it was part of a gift to Aldarion (from the Noldor), a spyglass that once watched the shores of Middle-earth. But as Aldarion grew older, it more often was used to watch his enemies. It passed into the hands of his heirs and then extended family. Eventually it was destroyed but the one lens remains.

[Falenthal]

That was a great object and history, zed!

The way of lifting the curse is difficult for an adventurer, though! It might also depend too much on the adventures chosen by the LM: if the company has the retaking of the Greydelve and the Battle of Celduin in front of them, there's barely nothing the player can do... Maybe that's why it's called "curse", on the other hand!

Another option could be to spare the life of 11 (or some other "mystic" number) enemies. This could impose the owner's piety over the cruelty that embeds the object.

[Francesco]

Hello everybody,

last session one of my players found a wondrous artefact. And she rolled an eye.....
So the item is cursed ...

Just to be sure: rolling an Eye on a Magical Treasure roll does not result into an item being cursed automatically. A curse 'kicks in' only if the LM wants it to (he devised a specific curse for the campaign, etc.,) or because he rolled on the table on page 101 of Rivendell and obtained indeed a cursed item.

Otherwise, the Eye only results in a Corruption test.

Francesco

[Hirobumi]

Thank you everybody for your help. You gave me a lot of inspiration.
Aldarion lost a beloved person to the enemy. He started to hunt down his enemies mercilessly, eventually being too brutal and aggressive in this hunt, he braught the curse unto himself.
I think the best way would be that if the player rolls an "eye", her character sees a horrible scene from an old battle of Aldarion, gets a point of shadow and the Curse of Weakness "Tyrannical (Lure of Power)" is activated. She will start acting arrogant and aggressive towards her companions.
She can break the curse by a real act of grace towards an enemy (a real enemy, not the "next door goblin").
I have to think a little bit more about it, but so far I really like this. Thank you again!
@Francesco - thank you for this clarification. I decided to give the item a curse the moment my player rolled the eye. It was just fitting, if you understand what I mean.

[aramis]

Another possibility for a curse - if the blessing is used, the character is always wounded (no armor roll) by the first blow to hit them. The curse goes away for the possesor if they manage to carry it a year-and-a-day without being poisoned nor injured whilst using it at least once per moon...