The Grizzly’s Paw
This artifact… may be cursed. Then again, it may not be cursed. There is some debate on the issue.
Like its distant cousin the Monkey’s Paw the Grizzly’s Paw is a dried-out, leathery full foot (only larger than a Monkey’s Paw, of course). And like the Monkey’s Paw the Grizzly’s Paw gives three wishes. The major difference is that, while the Monkey’s Paw invariably twists the intent of the wish to create the worst possible way to fulfill it, the Grizzly’s Paw always fulfill the wish somehow by suddenly introducing a semi-rampaging bear into the mix. And by ‘suddenly’ I mean ‘the bear will appear out of nowhere.’ This can alarm people – but not as much as the way that the bear will disappear once the wish is fulfilled.
Still, it’s the ‘semi-rampaging’ part that makes research arcanists wonder whether this is truly a cursed item. The bear will not attack the Paw’s owner, or even the people hanging out with the Paw’s owner; and it’s a regular enough bear, not a sentient malicious entity, so it’s not going to deliberately go out and commit evil acts. But it’s still an extremely large bear that is going to alarm people and there’s no way that it can be inconspicuous about it.
Nonetheless, the Grizzly’s Paw can be a surprisingly useful artifact, especially if you use it to wish for a large bear to come out of nowhere and smite your enemies. Or for fish. The bear is amazingly good at fishing.
Yes, but my understanding is that retrieving said fish from an extremely large bear is AMAZINGLY difficult to execute…lest you become the fish.
My wife pointed this out. I then pointed out that this is a magic bear. She conceded that, but still noted her objections. I pointed out that this is a rather silly concept anyway. We then retired the field, with both sides feeling that honor had been satisfied.
Then you have, in my eternally single estimation, an extraordinarily solid marriage 😀 Where to find a woman who will retire the field with honor satisfied, and not demand blood as well… ? :/