Protect Item is a prayer in both the standard prayer list and the Ancient Curses. When it is active, the user will keep one extra item if they die. This means that if the player is Skulled, they will still keep one item and if they do not have a skull, they will keep four items. At the moment, it is the only known way to keep more than three items on death outside of a safe activity, besides the fury shark.
Use in PvP
Protect Item can be used in the Wilderness, except for High-risk worlds. It is common to see players Player-killing with only one item, such as an Abyssal whip or poisoned Dragon dagger. Their logic is that if they die, they can use the Protect Item prayer to avoid the effect of the skull and keep their weapon. This tactic is despised amongst many PKers in general and is commonly referred to as "1 iteming."
Trivia
Protect Item is unique in that it is the only prayer that appears on both the standard prayer list and the Ancient Curses list. The two versions are not completely identical however, as they require different levels and the Ancient Curses icon has two glowing rings around it, and appears smaller.
Members who depend upon one-iteming are advised to bring a Prayer potion as player killers often use spells and prayers to drain their victims' prayer points before they kill them.
This Curse is sometimes used by players in world 42 as a "quick change" transformation animation.
Protect Item is the only curse that does not have a verbal incantation in the ancient hymnal.