Source: 'One hundred useless items' - Dragon Magazine November-2006 (By Lawrence Kapture)
Another article that I have used a lot in the past. Thanks to Lawrence Kapture. Give it a go, adjust and adapt, I am sure your player's brains will start churning.
The mysterious objects collected by spellcasters from bizarre places can provide both adventure hooks and valuable information about their pasts, not to mention clues as to their current schemes and desires. Sprinkling a few interesting knick-knacks into a room's description can imbue an NPC wizard with pizzazz, or make a foe's mysterious laboratory a haunting display.
The following list is intended as inspiration-swap out monster names and items as you see fit. All that matters is that the end product is astonishing, because even looting can be a chance to tell a story.
1 Moth-eaten barghest pelt used as table covering.
2 Boots made from baby dragon skin.
3 Articulated brass shield-guardian arm.
4 Stuffed grig in a fierce pose.
5 A petrified succubus head.
6 Jar of roper filaments in murky oil
7 Dried gorgonbane tea leaves.
8 Single fiendish wasp in a honey jax, with holes punched in the top.
9 Tapestry depicting a fight between two warriors. The scene changes incrementally from one viewing to the next.
10 Gold apple with a gold worm inside.
11 Stirge mounted on a plaque, engraved with the name "Stabby."
12 Cracked shield mounted on the wall and emblazoned with a rampant boar.
13 Glass angel-shaped oil lamp.
14 Dissected imp pinned to a board.
15 Wooden box containing a set of surgical tools and a mostly-used bottle of oil of magic weapon with enough left for one sling bullet, dart, or arrow.
16 Spent wand made of redwood and inlaid with chips of jade.
17 Potted assassin vine seedling that undulates and can trap mice or fingers.
18 Mithral spyglass with blue lenses.
19 Adamantine cage for a cat-sized animal
20 Darkwood violin.
21 Jug of green slime under the table, next to two partially dissolved paintbrushes.
22 Green glass goggles.
23 Diary with most of its pages ripped out. The remaining page reads, "Today I begin to record my epic progress towards world domination ... "
24 Animated satin-covered stool.
25 Masterwork sextant.
26 Quarter-inch lump of ochre jelly, squirming around in a glass flask sealed with lead.
27 Defaced holy symbol of Pelor.
28 Silk shawl patterned with images of yochlols and made of drider silk.
29 Shattered ioun stone.
30 Cracked crystal that makes skin tingle when touched.
31 large petrified dragonfly used as a table.
32 Lead mold for a ring carved with manticore designs.
33 Small sketchbook filled with unlabeled pictures of otherworldly beings.
34 Basilisk egg that has been drained through a tiny hole.
35 Pipe with a bowl carved in the shape of a nameless squid god.
36 A bird perch made from achaierai bone.
37 Elaborately carved hourglass filled with opalescent silt.
38 Howler skull with continual light on it
39 Deck of cards bearing illustrations of constellations.
40 Tiny shrieker sporelings hidden behind a stack of books on alchemy.
41 Storm giant's molar that lets off tiny bolts of electricity when metal is nearby.
42 Clay jar of stale gorgon breath.
43 Mummified hawk.
44 Dried hellhound paw on a chain, with several large keys attached to it.
45 Small amber sculpture of a lillend.
46 Silent whistle that alerts a canine outsider to the blower's presence.
47 Statue of a voluptuous ore goddess.
48 Fist-sized dodecahedron carved from a shard of obsidian.
49 Dinosaur tooth.
50 Murky, algae-infested tank swarming with illithid tadpoles.
51 Miniature portrait of a beautiful young noblewoman. On the back are the words, "To the charming scholar who has bound my heart."
52 Tiny lightning bolt ricocheting around inside a green glass ball. If the ball is smashed, the bolt strikes the nearest person for 1d4+1 points of damage.
53 Larval rust monster set up for dissection.
54 Clay seals with the wizard's name written in Infernal.
55 Pseudodragon skeleton mounted in a childish diorama.
56 Alchemically silvered hypodermic needle containing a magically preserved red slaad egg.
57 Small cactus in a pot sculpted into a leering demon face.
58 Umber hulk claw in the process of being fashioned into a shield.
59 Stainless nonmagic iron flask emblazoned with a stylized tarrasque.
60 Chunk of glass with an eye in it. The eye turns to follow whoever is closest to it.
61 Box filled with clay beads inscribed with draconic letters.
62 A small box growing spotty- orange mushrooms. Next to the box is an ashtray filled with chewed mushroom stems.
63 A chapbook of hymns to Erythnul
64 A masterwork momingstar being used as a fire poker.
65 Scale model of the wizard's future royal palace.
66 Two couatl feathers prepared as quills.
67 Half-finished scroll of fireball.
68 Twitching length of kyton chain.
69 Animated monkey skeleton.
70 Copper dragon scale holding a moldy wedge of cheese.
71 Bonsai tree sculpted in the shape of a harpy.
72 Massive tome on diabolical contracts. Pressed between its pages like a flower is the corpse of a long-dead kobold.
73 A book of elven love poems.
74 Broken homunculus in a box.
75 Severed gargoyle claw being used as a paperweight.
76 Cracked stone cylinder engraved with glyphs. The glyphs tell the story of the lich whose phylactery it once was.
77 Fire-blackened nightmare hoof
78 Lock of nymph's hair in a small, velvet-lined jewellery box.
79 Purple worm stinger wedged in a leathery chunk of dragon hide.
80 Pan pipes attached to a bellows contraption mounted on a small bicycle.
81 Sealed glass tank full of spider eater eggs.
82 Gold-plated unicorn horn.
83 Drinking mug fashioned out of a troll skull and lined with patterned lead.
84 Slate covered with ideographic equations in bioluminescent chalk.
85 Ivory cane topped with a silver sphinx.
86 Tiny stone teapot shaped like a grinning, obese goblin.
87 What appears to be a hot round rock in a stone box but is actually a thoqqua egg.
88 Rug woven with kaleidoscopic patterns that change over time.
89 Living vargouille attached to a three-foot long chain bolted to the floor.
90 Diminutive model windmill that generates tiny fields of electricity, heat., or cold.
91 Sealed glass tubes filled with free-floating dancing lights.
92 Silver pyramid frame, one foot on a side, with a plate of food inside.
93 Crystal that generates a diminutive illusion of a dragon when light shines on it.
94 Ebonwood carving of a xill.
95 Mirror endowed with an illusion that makes the wizard who owns it appear to be standing behind anyone looking into it.
96 Small porcelain statue of a unicorn marked with all the standard butcher's cuts in dotted red lines.
97 Piece of paper listing the adventurer's names. Next to their names are the names of their friends and family.
98 Half-finished painting of an alien landscape. At the center of the landscape stands a single young girl dressed in white and holding a large leather tome tightly to her chest.
99 Barrel filled with roe feathers.
100 Dried toad on a leather thong. The name "Spivey" is inked on the toad.
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