Tags
Adventure Seeds, Curios, Furnishings, Georgian, Ghastly Affair, gothic game, Gothic Horror, Gothic Literature, Gothic Romance, Gothick, mannerpunk, Napoleonic, Regency, Romantic Horror, Rooms, story seeds, Trinkets
Cabinets of Curiosities, (also known as kunstkammers) were small private museums often found in wealthy homes (such as Highdark Hall) prior to the 20th Century. Typically housed in a single room, such collections could contain curios ranging from the delightful to the macabre. As discussed in the Ghastly Affair Presenter’s Manual, the strange Cabinet of Curiosities is a great place to begin a story.
Roll 1d10 times on each table (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, and Artifacts) for every 10 foot square section of the Cabinet. Alternately, use the tables to help determine an object that a collector may commission the Player Characters to obtain on their behalf.
Animal Curiosities (d20):
- A horn grown from a human forehead
- Alligator / crocodile / python hide
- Bezoar stone
- Bones of a prehistoric animal
- Colorful eggs
- Crustacean shells (crab, lobster, crayfish, etc.)
- Deformed babies (preserved in jars)
- Dried seahorse(s), or starfish(s)
- Feathers from a tropical bird
- Human corpse(s), flayed, embalmed, and posed.
- Mounted bird(s)
- Mounted insects (butterflies, beetles, spiders, etc.)
- Narwhal tooth
- Paper wasp nest
- Preserved animal(s) (in jar[s])
- Seashell(s), unusual
- Skeleton(s)
- Skull(s) (human, animal, deformed)
- Taxidermied animal(s)
- Two-headed animal taxidermy
Vegetable Curiosities (d20):
- Bamboo sample
- Bottle gourd
- Cactus
- Carnivorous plant
- Coco de mer
- Dragon’s blood resin
- Dried Fungus
- Exotic Wood
- Frankincense (or myrrh) resin
- Hashish
- Leaf from every species of tree in the country
- Loofah sponge
- Mandrake root
- Opium
- Papyrus
- Pine cone(s)
- Pressed flower(s)
- Rose of Jericho (Resurrection Plant)
- Seeds
- Tagua Nut (Vegetable Ivory)
Mineral Curiosities (d20):
- Agate
- Asbestos cloth
- Bones encrusted with minerals
- Clay, exotic
- Coral(s) (shaped like a hand, or other object)
- Diamond
- Flint arrow heads
- Fool’s gold
- Fossil(s)
- Geode, split
- Gold nugget
- Hag stone (non-enchanted stone with natural hole)
- Hematite cube
- Jade sample
- Mercury in vial
- Meteorite
- Obsidian
- Opal
- Pearls, exotic (baroque, blue, black, etc)
- Petroleum in a vial
Artifacts & Relics (d20)
- African mask
- Ancient amulet(s) (Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, etc.)
- Bizarre painting(s), drawing(s) or print(s)
- Chinese acupuncture needles
- Document written in invisible ink
- Egyptian mummy
- Glass model of a sea animal
- Idol from the South Seas
- Indian or Aztec religious statue
- Iron maiden
- Microscope(s)
- Mirror(s)
- Mummified “mermaid” made from a monkey and fish stitched together
- Porcelain with glaze that changes colors in heat.
- Rare or strange book(s) (bound in human skin, on forbidden topic, written in an unknown language, etc.)
- Spyglass
- Strange cloth (changes colors from different viewing angles, unusual color, etc.)
- Torture instruments (pincers, skinning knives, whips, the pear of anguish, etc.)
- Wax anatomical model
- Weird Object (Hand of Glory, Imp Bottle, etc.)