Alchemy: Vile Alchemical and Quasi-Magical Items

Alchemy: Vile Alchemical and Quasi-Magical Items

Book of Vile Darkness for D&D 3.0 has five vile alchemical and quasi-magical items. Should not be difficult to port them over. I'd say that the violated horn is a proper magical item, not a quasi-magical item, as so book says.

Feather Powder

This dark red alchemical powder is a contact agent. This flask can be thrown (range is STx3.5). Hitting a hard surface, it breaks, creating a cloud of red powder in a 2-yard radius. The cloud persists for 10 seconds and may drift with the wind. Any unsealed creature in the cloud makes an HT roll to resist. If the roll is failed, the creature takes 1d toxic damage and becomes wracked with moderate pain (p. B428) for margin of failure minutes. If the creature has feathers, moderate pain worsens to terrible pain (p. B428).

Form: Grenade.

Cost: $1,800 (singular); $650 (5-batched).

Recipe: $180; 18 days; defaults to Alchemy-6.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Contact Agent, +150%; Drifting, +20%; Grenade, +25%; Link, +10%; Magical, -10%; Moderate Pain, +20%; Persistent, +40%; Terrible Pain (Accessibility, Only against feathered creatures, -30%), +40%) [45] + Toxic Attack 1d (HT; Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Contact Agent, +150%; Drifting, +20%; Grenade, +25%; Link, +10%; Magical, -10%; Persistent, +40%; Resistible, HT, -30%) [15].

Festering Bomb

This bomb is packed with alchemical explosives, rotting meat, and offal infected with filth fever. This flask can be thrown (range is STx3.5). Hitting a hard surface, it breaks, spraying filth in a 2-yard radius. Any unsealed creature in the cloud makes an HT roll to resist. If the roll is failed, the creature becomes infected with filth fever.

Form: Grenade.

Cost: $240 (singular); $85 (5-batched).

Recipe: $24; 1 day; defaults to Alchemy-1.

Statistics: Toxic Attack 1d-2 (HT; Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Contact Agent, +150%; Cyclic, 6 24-hour cycles, Mildly Contagious, +50%; Grenade, +25%; Onset, 1d/2 days, -30%; Resistible, HT, -30%; Symptoms, 1/3 HP, -3 DX, +45%; Symptoms, 2/3 HP, -2 HT, +10%) [8].

   

Weeping Stone

Created through alchemical processes that inflict terrible pain on a living being, a weeping stone causes anyone touching it to his or her face to begin to weep and feel great sorrow. When successfully thrown (range is STx3.5) at an unarmored face, it forces the victim to make a Fright Check at a -4 penalty. Low Self-Image gives -3 to the check and to all Will rolls to recover. Chronic Depression similarly gives -2 for a self-control number of (15), -4 for (12), -6 for (9), and -8 for (6). Your victims get +1 per Fright Check after the first within 24 hours, and anyone who succeeds is immune to this effect for an hour. Use the Despair variant table from Pyramid #3-92, page 29.

Duration: Instantaneous.

Form: Grenade.

Cost: $900 (singular); $325 (5-batched).

Recipe: $90; 5 days; defaults to Alchemy-3.

Statistics: Terror (Despair; Contact Agent, -30%; Grenade, +25%; Hard to Use 2 (Variant, Must hit face), -10%; Magical, -10%; Presence, +25%) [30].

Karras Stone Knife

This nonmagical small knife (LT67) is made out of stone (B275). This knife must be carved from a very rare stone procured from the gallbladder of an intelligent creature slain during a special harvesting ritual. It receives no damage bonus for being of fine or better quality. Regardless of actual quality, treat a karras stone knife as cheap for breakage purposes when parrying a swung weapon made of metal or other high-tech materials.

When a karras stone knife is used to sacrifice a living creature (for example, when sacrificing for the purpose of casting blood magic spells), the user gains a +1 bonus to his Ritual Magic rolls.

            Cost: $530.

TL	Weapon	Damage	Reach	Parry	Cost	Weight	ST	Notes
KNIFE (DX-4, Force Sword-3, Main-Gauche-3, or Shortsword-3)
0	Karras Stone Knife or	sw-3(0.5) cut thr-1(0.5) imp	C, 1 1	-1 -1	$30	0.5	5	Can be thrown

  

Violated Horn

Violated Horn – as an enchanted item (using Sorcery)

The violated horn is a unicorn’s horn that has been removed from a still-living unicorn, leaving the creature crippled and in constant pain. Its possessor can break the horn and make an IQ roll at any time thereafter and be immediately transported to the site of the ritual along with gear up to his Light Encumbrance, as if using the Warp (p. B97) advantage.

            Statistics: Warp (Anchored, Ritual Site, -80%; Extra Carrying Capacity, Light Encumbrance, +10%; Magical, -10%) [20]. One Use, x0.2; 4 EP.

            TL3 Price: 2 x ($30 + 4 x $320) = $2,620.

TL8 Price: 2 x ($600 + 4 x $1,180) = $10,640.

Violated Horn – as a metatronic generator (using Pyramid 3-46)

The violated horn is a unicorn’s horn that has been removed from a still-living unicorn, leaving the creature crippled and in constant pain. Its possessor can break the horn and make an IQ roll at any time thereafter and be immediately transported to the site of the ritual along with gear up to his Light Encumbrance, as if using the Warp (p. B97) advantage. Small item, SM-4, 3 lbs., one use only.

            Statistics: Warp (Anchored, Ritual Site, -80%; Apparatus, +0%; Extra Carrying Capacity, Light Encumbrance, +10%; Magical, -10%) [20].

            TL3 Cost: 2 x 20 x $125 / 5 = $1,000.

TL8 Cost: 2 x 20 x $2,500 / 5 = $20,000.