Music Box of Haunting Dreams

WFRP4e

Work in progress!

ORC License

Slightly NSFW!

This cute little music box, a rather unremarkable wooden contraption with ornate carvings on its surface, seems like an innocent trinket at first glance. Its small crank and intricate gears hint at its purpose - to play an enchanting melody. This enchantment, however, is far from ordinary.

History

Forged by an ambitious and eccentric inventor named Malachai Drexler, the music box was intended as a means to manipulate people's emotions. Drexler, a recluse and a master of arcane arts (former student of the Arcane Academy in Bridgeport), created it to control the hearts of his detractors and gain influence in the city. Drexler's idea was to make several dozen of them and bring them into the possession of the people whose support he needed, but he never finished his work. It is unknown what exactly happened, but apparently he fell to death through a window from the second floor, after he had finished the music box. Nowadays, the music box resides in a dusty cupboard in Warehouse III, owned by the Enigma Society: Curators of the Occult. The organization stumbled upon it when a Bridgeport inhabitant found it in his basement, where the music ended through a series of exchanges over the years. The man showed it to his group of regulars in a nearby tavern. One of his buddies got it working again and caused mayhem in the tavern by starting it; several people fled in panic, one man got crushed to death, and everyone who heard the music play had ongoing nightmares for years.

Mechanics

The box produces music through a rotating cylinder with strategically placed pins that pluck a set of tuned metal teeth, creating a nostalgic melody when it is wound up and set in motion. A little crank at the outside of the box can wind up the spring that drives the cylinder.

This is GM information

The magical effect of the music box was a product of Drexler's desperation to make the box work in his favour. In a twisted ritual, he bound the emotions he sought to control into the very notes of the melody. But then he made a fatal error: he put the cylinder with the melody on it into the box, with the cylinder's sides switched, forcing the box to play the melody backwards and with the high and low notes swapped. This curse taints anyone who listens, driving them into a whirlwind of intense feelings - love turning into obsession, happiness becoming mania, and sadness plunging into despair. The more concealed side effects are a whisper in the shadows. Those who possess or have been near the music box claim to hear faint, haunting whispers at night, their dreams tainted with visions of lost loved ones and sinister promises. These eerie voices never seem to fade, a constant reminder of the music box's malevolent influence. The effects of the music box only work on someone who can hear it. A deaf person, someone too far away (30 feet or more), or people in an otherwise loud environment will not be affected. Animals like dogs and cats might run away in terror for some time but will not suffer permanent consequences. If someone gets the idea of removing the cylinder and inserting it with its sides switched, the music box will work as intended. It will make people listening to it open to Malachai Drexler's ideas and suggestions. Only this doesn't help Drexler anymore.