Sinister deeds and festering evils take many forms, sometimes as stories and sometimes as physical scars. All manner of talismans, mementos, criminal evidence, mysterious devices, cursed relics, and physical impossibilities might embody just such scars - summaries of terrors in material form. Before you finish making a character, roll once on the standard PHB Trinkets table or once on the Horror Trinkets table below for a unique object your has with them at the start of their adventuring career. The trinkets below hint towards various horrific tales and might lead to dreadful revelations or might be nothing more than grim keepsakes. At the DMs discretion any of these might be a Mist talisman, a focal item that can lead the bearer through the Mists that are attached to the Shadowfell, and many dreadful Demiplanes linked to that plane (the Demiplanes of Dread usually, and some lead to particular Demiplanes).
d100 |
Trinket |
01 |
A picture you drew as a child of your imaginary friend |
02 |
A lock that opens when blood is dripped in its keyhole |
03 |
Clothes stolen from a scarecrow |
04 |
A spinning top carved with four faces; happy, sad, wrathful, and dead |
05 |
The necklace of a sibling who died on the day you were born |
06 |
A wig of someone who was executed by beheading |
07 |
The unopened letter to you from your dying father |
08 |
A pocket watch that runs backward for an hour every midnight |
09 |
A winter coat stole from a dying soldier |
10 |
A bottle of invisible ink that can only be read at sunset |
11 |
A wineskin that refills when interred with a dead person for a night |
12 |
A set of silverware used by a king for his last meal |
13 |
A spyglass that always shows the world suffering a terrible storm |
14 |
A cameo with the person's face scratched away |
15 |
A lantern with a black candle that never runs out and that burns with green flame |
16 |
A teacup from a child's tea set, stained with blood |
17 |
A little black book that records your dreams, and yours alone, when you sleep |
18 |
A necklace formed from the interlinked holy symbols of a dozen deities |
19 |
A noose that feels heavier than it should |
20 |
A birdcage into which small birds fly into, but once inside never eat or leave |
21 |
A lepidopterist's box filled with dead moths, with skull like patterns on their wings |
22 |
A jar of pickled ghouls tongues |
23 |
The wooden hand of a notorious pirate |
24 |
An urn with the ashes of a dead relative |
25 |
A hand mirror with a bronze depiction of a medusa |
26 |
Pallid leather gloves crafted with ivory fingernails |
27 |
Dice made from the knuckles of a notorious charlatan |
28 |
A ring of keys for forgotten locks |
29 |
Nails from a coffin of a murderer |
30 |
A key to the family crypt |
31 |
A bouquet of funerary flowers that always looks and smells fresh |
32 |
A switch used to discipline you as a child |
33 |
A music box that plays by itself whenever someone holding it dances |
34 |
A walking stick with an iron ferrule that strikes sparks on stone |
35 |
A flag from a ship lost at sea |
36 |
A porcelain doll's head that always seems to be looking at you |
37 |
A wolf's head wrought in silver that is also a whistle |
38 |
A small mirror that shows a much older version of the viewer |
39 |
A small, worn book of children's nursery rhymes |
40 |
A mummified raven's claw |
41 |
A broken pendant of a silver dragon that's always cold to the touch |
42 |
A small locked box that quietly hums a lovely melody at night, but you always forget it in the morning |
43 |
An inkwell that makes one a little nauseous when staring at it |
44 |
An old doll made from dark, dense wood missing a hand and a foot |
45 |
A black executioner's hood |
46 |
A pouch made of flesh, with a sinew drawstring |
47 |
A tiny spool of black thread that never runs out |
48 |
A tiny clockwork figurine of a dancer that's missing a gear and doesn't work |
49 |
A black wooden pipe that creates puffs of smoke that looks like skulls |
50 |
A vial of perfume, the scent of which only certain creatures can detect |
51 |
A stone that emits a single endless sigh |
52 |
A rag doll with two red dots on it's neck |
53 |
A spring-loaded toy with a missing crank |
54 |
A mason jar containing a harmless but agitated, animate ooze. |
55 |
A black wooden die with 1's on all the faces |
56 |
A child's portrait with "born" written on the back of it, along with next year's date on it |
57 |
A dagger-sized shark's tooth |
58 |
A finger that's taken root in a small pot |
59 |
A toolbox containing the remains of a dangerous but broken clockwork arachnid |
60 |
A pitcher-sized, opalescent snail shell occasionally, inexplicably shudders or tips over |
61 |
The logbook of an ice-breaking ship called The Haifisch |
62 |
A small portrait of you as a child, alongside your identically dressed twin |
63 |
A silver pocket watch with thirteen hours marked on it's face |
64 |
A woodcut of a wolf devouring it's own hind leg |
65 |
A planchette etched with raven skulls |
66 |
A moist coral figurine of a lamprey, with arms, legs, and a bipedal stance |
67 |
A bronze finger trap sculpted with roaring tigers |
68 |
A pearl necklace that turns red under a full moon |
69 |
A fossil of a fish with humanoid features |
70 |
A plague doctor's mask |
71 |
A paper talisman with smudged ink |
72 |
A locket with the smeared image of of an eyeless figure |
73 |
A canopic jar with a lid sculpted like a goat |
74 |
A jack-o-lantern made from a small, pale gourd |
75 |
A single high-heeled iron shoe |
76 |
A candle made from a severed hand |
77 |
A clockwork device that beats like a heart |
78 |
A blank masquerade mask |
79 |
A glass eye with a worm inside |
80 |
A sheet with two eyeholes cut in it |
81 |
The deed to someplace called Tergeron Manor |
82 |
An ornate, wax-sealed crimson envelope that resists all attempts to open it |
83 |
A mourning veil trimmed in black lace |
84 |
A straitjacket covered in charcoal runes |
85 |
A tattered, burlap mask with a crooked smile painted on it |
86 |
A green ribbon designed to be worn as a choker |
87 |
Dentures with mismatched, sharpened teeth |
88 |
A warm, fist-sized egg case |
89 |
A copper ring with "mine" carved on the inside |
90 |
A glass ampoule containing a neon-green fluid |
91 |
An eye-patch with embroidered with a holy symbol |
92 |
A severed big toe with a nail that continues to grow |
93 |
A journal that has been heavily redacted |
94 |
A glove with a mouth-like design stitched on the palm |
95 |
An ornate but empty reliquary made of silver and fractured glass |
96 |
A ceramic figure of a cat with too many eyes |
97 |
A crumpled payer ticket bearing the words "admit none" |
98 |
An electrum coin with your face on one side |
99 |
A shrunken gremishka head that twitches when magic is cast nearby |
100 |
A sunburst amulet with a red stone at the centre |
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