(See here for background.)
Artifact: King Tut’s Scabbard
Occultists are amazingly predictable. All you have to say is something like “King Tut was buried with a dagger made from meteoric iron” and suddenly every member of the magical community is suddenly contemplating how to ‘liberate’ the item in question. Not all would fight for it, but some would; and some would even murder for the right to wield King Tut’s Dagger. And not a man jack of ‘em would give more than a couple of looks at the scabbard.
Which is precisely what the priests of Ancient Egypt were counting on.
Depending on your campaign, King Tut’s Scabbard can be an item of mystic power, a potent curse given tangible form, an example of Ancient Astronaut super-technology, or just a map to the REAL treasure. Whatever works, really. The idea here is to let the party focus on the dagger (which should be as supernaturally active as a pile of lint, even in campaigns where magic works) and only realize that the scabbard is the real prize until it’s much too late. Nothing like a sudden – and easily averted – plot twist to keep your players paying attention, right?
Buried with a donkey / He’s my favorite honkey!
Yes, I now have that song stuck in my head.
I just have to note that it certainly didn’t do King Tut any good.
Because that would have been my first reaction in game. (I’d also be expecting a nasty catch somewhere, and pawning the bloody thing off on the PC I found least useful.)