A peerless king. Now they wear only rags and hunch beneath the weight of their crown.
2
An artist whose rational mind shrivelled in the radiance of their passions. Their body has become the medium of their art.
3
An old and storied warrior who only feared a death off the battlefield.
4
A storyteller whose words alone could bring glory or pariah-hood.
5
A merchant whose wealth rivalled emperors.
6
An explorer who trod forgotten places.
7
A prince who forsook their wealth and position for a higher calling.
8
A sorcerer of rare power. Even now some scraps of magic remain within them.
9
A philosopher renowned for their insight.
10
A mystic who lived on the fringes of civilization. Their body still bears the harrowing marks of asceticism.
11
A worldly and wise priest.
12
An artisan whose works are revered to this day.
13
A conqueror who rose from nothing to carve out a fief of their own.
14
The half-human get of a monster and its would-be sacrifice.
15
A culture hero who introduced new ways of being to their people.
16
A sentinel who stood guard against malevolent forces.
17
An aesthete who sought ever-greater stimulations, and finally found them.
18
Someone dying from an enigmatic disease, who attempted every cure.
19
A knight who publicly held themself with true chivalric virtue (for whatever that meant in their culture).
20
No one of note.
D20
This One Was Cursed For...
1
Despoiling the rites of hospitality by serving up human flesh without their guests’ knowledge.
2
Incest, lusting after their own child.
3
Hubris, seeking to rise above the gods.
4
Honourless slaughter: the women, the children, the cattle in the fields.
5
Prying into secrets forbidden to mortals.
6
Perverting the cycles of life and death.
7
Gluttony and decadence while others starved around them.
8
Breaking a heaven-sworn oath to a friend.
9
Disrespecting a disguised spirit.
10
Contact with an exiled deity’s regalia.
11
Straying too long in a tainted land.
12
Spiting an old witch.
13
Spurning a fairy’s love.
14
Standing in the way of an angel.
15
A failed attempt at transcending their humanity.
16
Trafficking in others’ souls.
17
Torture and other pointless cruelties.
18
The entertainment of the ruling archons.
19
Their own compassion, taking the burden of others’ evil upon themself.
20
Committing the first instance of a particular sin, crime, or other offense.
D20
This Accursed One Lingers...
1
In the ruins of their former home.
2
Nowhere, they are driven to wander the world even after death.
3
Atop a lightning-blackened peak.
4
At the bottom of a filth-soaked pit.
5
In a tower sealed with molten stone.
6
In the spacious and bizarrely furnished belly of a giant albatross.
7
At the threshold of the temple of the one deity who might yet release them.
8
Wherever their descendants now roam.
9
In a labyrinth built for their comfort and containment.
10
In the workshop of a wizard hoping to derive power from their curse.
11
In the deepest cell of a dungeon built to reflect the error of their ways.
12
In an air pocket in an empty shell at the bottom of a lake.
13
In the inner sanctum of a lodge of a mystery cult dedicated to ritual transgression.
14
Marooned on a barren island.
15
As a sideshow in a carnival of the damned.
16
In a meadow of mushrooms growing in corpses and salted earth.
17
In a crude cabin deep in the wilderness, petitioned by other cursed folk who see this one as a sort of deity.
18
As a discorporated narrative, waiting to appear when their story repeats or their name is uttered.
19
In a network of tunnels and excavated crypts beneath a city.
20
As the petty lord of a wretched, isolated village turned to the satisfaction of their vices.
D20
This Accursed One Bears...
1
Iron spikes bristling from their eye sockets. They can
see if something’s cursed, even through walls, like fireflies dancing in
the darkness.
2
Thick lead chains wound around their limbs. They can lash out with these to strike enemies from a distance.
3
Glowing brands across their body. They can spend an
action to ignite a nearby flammable object, or cause an existing fire to
explode outwards.
4
A cackling imp atop their shoulders who whips the accursed one and casts curses at those who annoy it.
5
A swarm of locusts that chew at their constantly-regenerating skin and flense alive any who come too close.
6
Their own head, grown to many times its original size,
constantly moaning in swollen pain. The head’s got a ferocious bite, and
can roll about independently of its body.
7
Nails driven through the ends of their fingers and toes
like talons. Anyone scratched by them will die when the accursed one
does if their magic is not broken first.
8
Pipes wrought from their own eviscerated innards. Their awful noises induce sickness and confusion in listeners.
9
Feet broken and shaped into bloody stakes. They can
dance on them faster than an ordinary human can run, and impale those
they trample.
10
A toothless hole where their jaw was. They can suck in the good fortune of those nearby and replace it with misfortune.
11
An arm grown huge and skeletal. Anything caught in its grip will be crushed to powder.
12
An arsenal’s worth of weapons impaled through them.
They can wield any of them like a master and throw them with deadly
precision.
13
Bloated scars criss-crossing their skin. They can split these open to release a flood of putrid blood.
14
Lashes of their own tears and sputum. Anyone struck by them must save or be paralyzed by grief and regret.
15
Shards of black glass rammed into their gums,
dislodging and overcrowding their teeth. When they howl and scream the
glass resonates at a frequency that calls monsters to torment the
accursed one and anyone near them.
16
Metallic worms curled into rings, piercing their skin
in many places. Anyone touched by this accursed one must save vs. poison
or be infested by a worm. Removing a worm inflicts 1d6 damage on the
inflicted person, +1d6 damage for every day the worm has been within
them. After three days, the worm consumes their brain and hatches from
their skull.
17
A golden heart which beats half-outside their chest.
Anyone who sees it must save vs. magic or be overcome with greed and
attempt to seize the heart at any cost.
18
A copper mask bolted onto their face. This accursed one can shroud themself with an illusion of being an ordinary person.
19
A skinless serpent coiled around their spine. It
mutters the shameful secrets and vulnerabilities of those nearby, or of
this accursed one themself if the serpent doesn’t detect anyone nearby.
20
Necrotic flesh like a lichtenburg figure over their
body. Anything they kill rises as a zombie, which then follows them
around moaning demands for an explanation for why they were killed until
they fall to pieces.
D20
This One’s Curse...
1
Has bent them into the posture of a beast.
2
Torments them with visions of long-gone friends and lovers.
3
Attracts unnatural storms to their position.
4
Can be passed onto the one that kills them if precautions aren’t taken.
5
Will recreate them if they’re destroyed without fulfilling some conditions first.
6
Has stripped them of any recollections of their past.
7
Makes then especially vulnerable to the powers of the divine.
8
Makes them ruled by their tremendous, fickle passions.
9
Prevents them from directly harming those who haven’t broken one of their many, often contradictory taboos.
10
Renders their very presence toxic to mortal life.
11
Will turn the spot where they finally die into a rejuvenating spring.
12
Can be lifted from them with the completion of a monumental task.
13
Lingers in their corpse, allowing it to be made into a magical object that holds a part of their power.
14
Makes others close to the situation that got them cursed dream of the cursed one.
15
Is monitored from a distance by a flock of worm-eyed ravens.
16
Is kept secret by an order of censorious monks.
17
Can be suppressed by immersing them in blessed water.
18
Is making them more tortured and powerful over time.
19
Compels them to truthfully answer any question about their past.
20
Spreads in a lesser form to anyone who serves them or shows them kindness.
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