Cursed and Magical Items to Screw Up Your Players - Bones of Pelasgus

The Bones of Pelasgus

“Take his hand off while he lives, slowly, and place it in the bag. The bones will show the way, always. That will teach the bastard not to point at me.” - Lycoan the Hound

This is one of the few magic items in my PDF Panic in Pluckley, which I am writing currently.

The Bones of Pelasgus are a set of men’s finger bones, all in pieces, contained within a black leather bag. The bag has strange silver runes embroidered into the leather which shine ominously even when there is no light.

Once per day the players may shake the bones and ask the bones if they can see anything magical in the vicinity. Any hidden doors, any magical items or magical traps will be pointed to by the bones once they are tipped out of the bag. The bones shake and then form a hand which points towards the item.

Once per day, if the players are lost, they may ask the hand to point towards a location they have been previously to find their way back.

Unfortunately, the bones require a blood sacrifice and the player who owns the bones will have the skin from his own hand stripped away. This skin will then appear on the bones, slowly forming muscles, tendons and regrowing a human hand. Each time the bones are used more of the player's hand is stripped away. This causes 1d4 damage each time.

The bones have an ongoing effect which causes the player’s character to feel a constant thirst. The player’s character must sip something every hour or they will dehydrate and die.

The bones can only be transferred to someone else if the player gives them as a gift and the receiver accepts them.