Mysterious Minerals

Bored of giving your players treasure made out of gold, diamonds, rubies, etc? Here are some more obscure minerals and gems with suggestions for how they might be worked into treasures.

 Azurite:
1. Perfect blue discs used as lip-plates by subterranean cultures
2. powder ground up and used as eyeshadow, kept in gold snuff box
3. blue moss-like crystals grown around a skull before the skull is dissolved away, leaving only the brittle blue cast
4. blue disc set into brass plate. Look closely at the blue and you will see a map of the stars

Cerussite:
1. Lattice trimmed by immortal topiarists into a perfect Sierpinski triangle
2. Miniature crystal tree with carved obsidian rooks
3. Crystal 'feather' forms the end of an ornamental quill

 Cornetite:
1. Bulky ceremonial epaulettes with blue 'flowers' growing on them
2. Fractal sphere run through with non-Euclidean tubes that bend light by 90 degrees
3. Golden idol of storm god with cornetite 'clouds' spilling out from his fanged mouth

 Fossiliferous limestone:
1. Framed slice of stone artfully depicts the transition into an age of mass extinction
2. Set of spiral-shaped stone bowls intended for eating shellfish
3. Stone box designed for interring the severed head of an enemy, symbolically consigning them to extinction
 

 Malachite:
1. Slices of crystal contain delicate bands that record the songs of the vanished whales of the earth
2.  Polished sphere intended for use as a false eye
3.  Stone dagger with rippled blade

 Mesolite:
1. Spherical pom-pom bauble dangling from thin cord
2. Abrasive pad with silver handle, used for exfoliation by decadent nobles
3. Ceremonial wig attached to grimacing demonic mask
4.  Tiny diorama of snowbound valley with carved wooden figurines representing quasi-historical battle

 Meta-autunite: 
1.  Squat, primitive statuette of ancient fertility goddess
2.  Ceremonial club used for bludgeoning sacrificial victims

 Moss Agate:
1. Semi-translucent stone that lines up with landscape to reveal ley lines. Carvings on base gives clues about where to stand
2.  Polished cube containing 3D image of a floating island
3. Sword with jewel in pommel. Moss design continues along crossguard and is etched into the blade

 Pyrite:
1. Ceremonial shield. Far too heavy for practical use, but does deflect beam attacks.
2. Irrational Rubik's cube/puzzle-box that can only be solved by the insane
3. Cubic wreath, originally hung around the necks of victorious generals
4. Brutalist throne