Mystic Items
Article by Matt Machell (April 2001)
Plots based around mystic items have always been a favourite of mine. I like the way that item based plots can be slotted into just about any existing game without too much difficulty. Items, particularly well thought out ones, can add spark to a game. Of course with a game like vampire, which is about personal horror, I believe that anything mystical should come with a price. If the player isn't questioning the origin of the item he has acquired, then he should be questioning how it's use will affect him in his struggle against the beast, or at the very least, who will be after him now he has the item. Below are a few ideas for items, and the plots that may surround them.
Eye of winter night
The eye looks like a small marble, and has a white sheen to it.
When inserted into an empty eye socket (take a level of aggravated damage
to do this, make a humanity roll if it's somebody else), the eye allows
the user to see and hear into the shadowlands.
This is not necessarily a good thing though, as the mage who created
the item had to kill a mortal child in order to make it. This pitiful
individual now haunts the bearer, cajoling him and mocking him, pleading
to be let free. The only way to do this is to destroy the eye.
Shamaels Hood
The hood was made by the Tremere, it has a pinky grey texture and feels
slightly unsettling when worn. When put on it grants the user an additional
level of Auspex. The wearer also starts to have strange dreams of drowning.
The hood is actually made from the skin of a vampire, and in order that
the hood not waste away to dust, the vampire has to be kept "alive"
and unable to regenerate the missing skin. He is thus kept, restrained
and on minimal blood, in a vat of ritually enchanted formaldehyde.
From a plot point of view the character who gains the hood can slowly
become aware of what it is and what it took to make it. This can lead
to the PCs attempting to free the captive in order to preserve their
humanity. Alternatively the story could take place as the item is being
made, and one of the characters associates may be kidnapped in for use
in the items creation.
Yorak's eyes
These mysterious items were created by the legendary Tzimisce Methuselah,
Yorak, as gifts for his servants. They are crafted from bone and sinew,
and at the end of a short stalk is a human or animal eye. The eyes can
adhere to just about any surface and act like an organic security camera,
broadcasting what they see to their master. In order to be attuned to
their master they must be fed blood on three separate occasions (exactly
as if blood bonding them). Attunement to an eye gives the character
an extra perspective of vision, which can be used to his advantage.
The eye can also learn basic disciplines just as any ghoul, though only
Obfuscate, Auspex and Fortitude are typical.
The drawback of these items is twofold; Firstly young vampires aren't
designed to cope with the sensory input form an extra eye and tend not
to be able to easily cope with it (elders who have some degree of mastery
over Auspex, or Malkavians seem less affected by this). Those who bond
with the eyes often develop sight or vision based derangements, many
eventually end up destroying the eye to ease the mental pressure. Secondly
the eyes serve a greater power than any character, the Cathedral of
Flesh which diablerised Yorak is their true master, and now that powerful
entity has access to the characters conscious.
Morton's Knife
Elders do strange things. The Tremere elder, Alexander Morton, became
obsessed with the serial killer Lincoln Red, and though he never discovered
the killers identity, he managed to track down many pieces of related
paraphernalia. To this end he tracked down the scalpel which he used
in one of his murders. Realising that the item resonated with the
violence inherent in the murders he melted it down and mixed it with
a steel alloy of his own design. The knife is enchanted to cause aggravated
damage.
The knife, though a useful weapon, causes anybody who owns it to develop
two derangements, a pathological hatred of a particular group of people
and an obsession with keeping the knife. The knife seems to have a strange
habit of getting lost, which means there are any number of previous
owners looking to get it back. The derangements do not instantly occur
and take time to develop, any psychological effect should take time
to affect the character.
Ishmaels bag of Scying Bones
Ishmael was an ancient Malkavian, said to have been granted powerful
prophetic visions. Before he eventually entered Torpor around the year
500 AD, he created for his childer a bag of scrying bones which would
grant them some degree of his vision. When the bones are cast, they
reveal to the caster a message regarding a question he has asked them.
The bones have a reputation for accuracy, which makes them a desirable
item indeed. Learning to read the bones is surprisingly intuitive, almost
aas if somebody is speaking to your mind. However, there is a problem,
the bones decay due to the supernatural strain placed upon them, and
so replacements must be found. The bones reveal to their owner the identity
of the bone which must be acquired for their continued use. Rumours
have it that the bag currently contains the finger bone of an Archon
and the femur of a powerful lupine.