A look at the calendar shows some of us that Valentine’s Day is coming up soon, and so this week’s theme for curiosities is tokens of affection (or warning—or worse!) that a character (or creature) in your game might give someone else. Again, these tokens are left in plain sight, and you can use them as starting points to flesh out some other interesting things if the player characters choose to look around a bit more. If you want to roll randomly for one, use the handy number provided with each entry to figure out your result on a d12. You can also pick the one that works for the area in which your characters currently linger.
d12. Item
- Twelve red-hued glass roses are arrayed across a table, end to end. A ribbon of purple silk around one of them has an ivory card attached. The words on the card say, “Glass thorns cut more deeply, my dear.”
- A tiny gold clockwork bumblebee is flying around the area. It occasionally rumbles, “I love you!”
- A circular wooden table has a faint image of a pixie dancing in the air above it. Below it is a red-glitter-sprinkled ruby gemstone—the image might be coming from it. With each swirl, more red glitter showers the ruby and table. You’re not entirely sure, but you think the pixie is trying to get you to look somewhere specific in the room. Maybe watching it some more will help you determine if this is the case.
- Two silk fabric plushy otters are on their backs on a bed. One is purple and the other is white. The white one has a stark black leather collar on it that is tight enough to squeeze the otter’s throat severely. A dagger pushed into the bed holds down a note that says, “You otter be better than this, beloved. The next person in this room will be your assassin—unless you take more precautions than you have thus far.”
- Two copper coins were shaped into stars, but you can still see the mint markings. Underneath them is a note that says, “The stars that night were glorious—but you were more so.”
- A round cake has red and yellow frosting flowers in heaps here and there on top. One piece of the cake has been cut out and served on a gold-edged fine white plate. Some sort of bright red ooze is seeping out of the middle of the white cake, but the slice of cake appears to be normal.
- A lock of pure gold hair, tied with a purple silk ribbon, has been left on a table.
- A pair of earrings and a matching necklace are on display in a case. The black metal spiders that form the necklace and dangle from the earrings have small ruby chips for eyes. A placard in the case reads, “This jewelry better suits your nature, dearest priestess. Oh, yes, I know your secret—and possibly so do your guests now.”
- The fragrance of flowers drifts in the air to an almost overwhelming degree. The source appears to be a small glass vial next to a crystal vase. The vial has spilled out iridescent powder that sparkles in the light. Under the vial is a piece of parchment with these words written in a spiky handwriting style: You are mine.
- A simple set of crystalline daggers is on a table. A tented card behind them reads: For you.
- A male and female marionette pair, dressed in formal attire, are dancing around the room with each other. Their strings seemingly lead up into nothingness. When the dance ends, they bow and curtsey toward each other and then toward the room, then declare, “May all your romantic dreams come true.”
- A scintillating geode has been cracked in half. In one of the geode halves a bit of torn parchment says, “One half is you, lass. The other”
