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So magical and cursed items would still have been a thing back during the 21st century of Rifts Earth, just extremely rare and weak. In the vein of shows such as Warehouse 13, Friday the 13th(the tv seies) and even Raiders of the Lost Ark(the ending), in my version of Rifts Earth there was a secret government agency tasked with finding such items and storing them away from the public where they couldn't harm anyone.

The agency had a couple of centuries to operate, gather items, catalogue/study them and store them before the Great Cataclysm happened. The agency and those tasked with the storage all perished during said cataclysm but the warehouse, located near New York City, survived...if buried in mud during one of (were there multiple?) The tidal waves that struck the area.

Centuries later, a scholar from New Lazlo finds evidence of said Warehouse and sets out to find it...thinking of it as more of a museum storage house rather than its true nature. Word is sent back to New Lazlo that they have made an outstanding discovery but no further contact is made and three months quietly go by. That's when a friend (or loved one) concerned for the well being of the scholar and expedition hires the player characters too investigate what has happened.

The players find the remains of the archeological dig in haphazard condition with only one survivor, the original scholar. Unfortunately, he has gone mad and isn't forthcoming with anything useful. Many of the bodies of the expedition are found but so are the belongings of a second group....their armor, seemingly sealed from the inside, filled with sand or dust. Nearby is a crate taken from the nearby dig that has been pried open. Inside is a white box with gold sculptures of two angels on the lid. The lid is slightly ajar.

They have a kind of breakthrough moment when the Scholar's journal is discovered. It's last several entries describe his elation at having possibly discovered one of the most important historical sites in recent history. His entries afterward become increasingly erratic and describe numerous accidents and deaths. Then he describes bandits taking over his camp. Then nothing further.

So anyway, I'm looking for ideas for cursed items to stock the place with and thought y'all might want to help out. Not all of them need be evil. Some ideas I have had so far (in addition to the Ark above) are: an antique scalpel possessed with a spirit that believes it is the ghost of a serial killer, a spikey chain that creates an ethereal monk that tries to strangle people with it, a mummy that when exposed to moonlight animates and kills those nearby and takes organs from the corpses (with each organ acquired it becomes more robust....what will happen when it has all the organs it needs?), a pair of Daisho from ancient Japan that are powerful Runeblades, a crystal skull that doubles the psionic power of all psychic powers of its wielder but drives the user insane and a sapphire necklace that holds the spirit of a murdered(drowned) teenage girl that tries to get its wearer to exact her revenge on whoever is close by.

*The Hope Diamond...The REAL Hope Diamond. Turns out the real one really WAS cursed, and many more people succumbed to it than was actually reported. The US Government's X-Department learned of this and swapped the Hope Diamond with a fake, which is the one that appears in the media of the time.

*Thumb Drive---An old USB flash drive. It holds a dormant alien energy entity. Plugging in the drive and feeding it power awakens the entity which is quite insane and murderously angry. It will begin drawing electrical power and attempt to take over any machinery it is connected to(possesses the psionic powers of Electrokinesis and Telemechanics: Machine Possession).

*Pandora's Hope Chest---This heavily locked and chained metal casket can be opened, but whoever reaches inside it will be possessed by a Spirit of Light that will seek to fight paranormal evil as soon as possible, regardless of what other plans the host(and party) may have.

*King Slayer Bullet----This bullet will magically transform to fit the caliber of whatever rifle it is inserted into. It gets a +2 to strike, penetrates virtually all known body armor forcefields(magical and technological) and does critical damage on a roll of 16-20. It will only work , though, on heads of state. In the past it has been attributed to the deaths of three American Presidents. It may have a European counterpart involved in the death of Archduke Ferdinand.

There have been several threads dedicated to this idea already. There is this thread in Chaos Earth and I believe there is one in the BTS section as well.

It's an interesting idea but one of the things that makes WH 13 so interesting is its ancient origins. Having links to the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany are always good but going back further can really up the stakes.

The other thing is when you are talking about the artifacts I find that more than what the artifact is or what it does, who wants it and why or what will happen when they get it is essential. Remember, Raiders of the Lost Ark is only exciting because the Nazi's want it.

Dagger of Screaming Death:
Grants high bonuses to stealth while moving toward an assassination target, and has bonuses to crit and damage, especially from behind.
Once the target is killed, the dagger loses all magic for one hour.
During this time, the corpse of the murdered person stands straight up, and screams loudly.

*The Perfect Book----This handsomely bound volume, upon opening, is to the reader everything they've ever wanted in a book; if they like literature, it's full of well-written, engaging, engrossing essays, characters, and story. If they like illustration, the book is full of beautiful pictures of the sort the reader has always wanted to see. It's the prefect cookbook, ultimate RPG manual, technical bible, bedtime reader----for only as long as the reader keeps it open and keeps reading it...even to the point of starvation. Interrupting the reader will cause the book to close, and the reader to start forgetting everything they've just been looking at(powers like Total Recall and Eidetic Memory help a little on recovery, but not much). Subsequent attempts to re-open the book and take reading back up reveal the book to be full of blank pages to the previous reader, leaving them only with wistful memories..

Thanks, guys! Keep"em coming!

*Veil of Tears---It's a wedding headdress said to be cursed; she who wears it will never see a happy ending, because some tragedy will happen before, during, or shortly after the wedding, killing the bride or making her a widow. The problem is, the veil is exquisitely made and has somehow managed to find its way into the second-hand bridal marketplace where it's been sold cheaply as an accessory. During the 1960's, a sharp-sensed psyche. priest connected to X-Department noticed the veil and connected it with a string of tragedies. The agency soon tracked the cursed headdress down and warehoused it.