A young man was exploring an abandoned house in a ruined part of the city when he came across something, which no matter how hard he tried, could not be parted with. It is a wooden idol craved masterfully, suggesting a feminine form and feature. At first, he just threw it into the dump as it ceased to be an interesting trinket, but it turned up by his doorstep the next day. He had tried burning it, smashing it into pieces and even hurling it into the depth of the sea, but still the next day the small wooden idol would be in his room.
- Things take a sinster turn as one by one, all his friends who were with him all encounter some forms of mishap – if they are lucky, it would be just a serious fever or a broken limb. Some of the unfortunate friends are found dead in their sleep. The young man, is of course, panicking and would be even more desperate to be rid of the idol, so much that he is reduced to an incoherent, paranoid mess. However, if the adventurers include a sorcerer or a sage, he would realise that protective runes would inscribed upon the idol. In fact, the idol is keeping the young man safe! A friendly spirit has possessed the idol and is doing its utmost best to protect its owner from the curse that they have unwillingly unleashed upon themselves. Discovering the heritage and the origin of the idol would uncover the secret of the abandoned manor – and the only way to stop this evil may to be confront it at its origin.
- The idol was craved by a young lady, who was often of weak health and rarely ventured outside. When the plague ravaged the city scores of years ago, the whole family departed, leaving the elderly and the infirm to fend for themselves. The young lady died unmarried and her ghost was bound to the idol which she had created. The young man has unwittingly won the love of her ghost! Soon he would begin to dream of the lady and become more and more distraught. The ghost is harmless at best, but she is too unwittingly leading the young man to his death as he begin to stop eating and taking care of himself. Only a ritual would break the bond and dismiss the spirit from the idol – or other creative alternatives (it may just want the young man to accept her and be with her for a moment). There is a complication in all this, though. The idol, being a supernatural focus, has also attracted all form of spirits and undead to it. It seems to have become a powerful magical focus because of the emotions attached to it…and without it, the young man’s fascination with the spirit cannot be broken.
- There is no idol at all, it is all a powerful illusion that the young man is cursed with. Not only will he see the idol, so would any other around him. The more people knows about the idol and its ability to return from destruction, the more powerful the illusion would be. The illusory spell would spread and cover the entire region where people would awake with a similar idol (though not entirely identical) by their bedside, in their traveling pack and so on. Even the adventurers, unless experienced enough, would be spared. The only way to know it is an illusion is to travel out of its area of influence; faeries are too immune to the illusion. Those who travel out from the town would find the idol disappearing. A myriad other ways may exist to know it is an illusion – with a powerful spell, careful observation (the idol does not cast a shadow) and most importantly of all, when the idol cannot be seemed unless it is in contact with human flesh.
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