I Hide the Blade of Power in Your Stomach!

I know I suggested that this week’s OSRBA Topic, “Hiding Artifacts inside Villains”, would be an excellent way to talk about relics or items that are a part of a villain: slay the monster, crack open its skull, and there’s the Gem of Many Worlds or somesuch.

But there’s another possible interpretation: what if you want to get rid of a malign artifact in a really horrific way: inside the flesh of your enemy! What are the chances that the Blade of Malignant Evil will inflict its curse on a villain who’s been stabbed in the chest or abdomen? What about a purple worm that swallows a cursed pearl?

First, let’s assume that evil artifacts, and even mere cursed items, that do not kill a victim, but are left stuck in a wound, will actually sink into the victim’s flesh when no longer held as a weapon. They will creepily cause the wound to stitch back together (no damage healed, but bleeding rules no longer apply if these are in use.) So the Blade of Malignant Evil is essentially going to burrow into the victim’s body and seal up the entry wound behind it.

After that, it all boils down to a reaction roll.

2d6 roll	Embedding Effect
2	Cursed 4d6 Days, then Spawns Evil
3-5	Full Curse
6-8	Partial Curse from Artifacts
9-11	No Curse 4d6 Days, Reroll at +2
12-13	No Effect
14	Victim Afflicts Curse on Others

Some explanations of the necessarily brief entries:

Spawn Evil means that monsters burst from the victim’s belly, skull or other location where the artifact is located, causing death in some cases. Use the spell level of the curse or dice of samage for a cursed weapon as the monster level and roll on the appropriate chart… so a cursed object that polymorphs its user into a toad (4th level spell) would cause a random 4th level monster to spawn, while one that petrifies the victim (6th level spell) would cause a 6th level monster to spawn.

Partial Curse applies only to artifacts. An “ordinary” cursed dagger that embeds itself in a victim’s flesh would have no effect for at least 4d6 days on a reaction of 6-8. Artifacts, however, are so powerful, they will have a reduced curse effect.

Reroll: On a Good reaction (9-11,) the victim lucks out, at least for a while. However, after 4 to 24 days, the curse will try to rear its head again. Add +2 to the reaction roll on this and any further rerolls (not cumulative.)

Curse Affects Others can only happen on a reroll, since it is outside the 2d6 range. Congratulations! You just gave your enemy a special ability! The curse doesn’t affect the villain, but instead affects those the villain touchs.

Written with StackEdit.