Saturday, April 23, 2016

T is for Trident of Torturous Tears

[over the course of the month of April, I committed to posting a topic for each letter of the alphabet, sequentially, for every day of the week except Sunday. While I was sorely tired of the challenge after only 15 days, I am trying to "stick to it." Our topic this month? Magical weapons for a B/X campaign. All such weapons are +1 to attack and damage rolls unless, unless specifically noted otherwise. Each of these weapons should be considered unique items]

T is for Trident of Torturous Tears.

A trident is a two- or three-pronged spear, wickedly barbed. In most ways, it conforms exactly to a B/X spear (although, it costs five gold pieces to purchase); it may be thrown and is sometimes equipped with a line to retrieve the weapon; however, this is usually removed by adventurers as it is easily tangled in the cramped, close-quarters combat of a dungeon expedition.

Any attack roll with a trident that exceeds the target "to hit" number by 4 or more results in the weapon being firmly lodged within the target. While the weapon can be broken off and easily removed once the combat is finished, removing the barbed weapon quickly during a fight requires a successful open doors roll and results in the target taking an additional 1D6 damage (the same rules apply for an attacker who wishes to dislodge the weapon, though if removing a trident from a dead opponent there is no need to break the tines...the dead don't mind chunks of flesh being pulled from their corpse).

The trident of torturous tears is the weapon of a sadist who enjoys inflicting pain and agony. Any damage roll of 3 or more indicates the target has suffered a painful, bleeding laceration that burns like fire. In addition to losing one extra hit point per round from blood loss, the victim must save versus paralysis or advance through one of the following stages of pain, suffering the listed results:

  • Stage 1 - Extreme Discomfort: character suffers -1 penalty to attacks and saving throws until finding time to bind wounds (after combat) or receiving magical healing.
  • Stage 2 - Distracting Pain: characters suffers a -2 penalty to attacks and saving throws; NPCs must pass a morale check or break off from combat. Spell-casters lose concentration of sustained spells.
  • Stage 3 - Burning Agony: character must make a save versus paralysis to take any action at all; those that do face the same penalties as for distracting pain. NPCs must pass a morale check (at -1) or surrender.
  • Stage 4 - Excruciating Torment: character falls writhing to the ground. No action possible.

Please note: in order for a victim to progress to ANY of the stages (including Stage 1) two things must happen: the wielder of the trident must inflict a wound in which the damage roll is 3+ AND the target must fail a save versus paralysis. Each application of magical healing (even a cure light wounds spell) will reduce the pain by one stage, or by all stages if the magical healing takes the victim to full hit points. Alternatively, once a victim is removed from combat, she may make a full recovery from any stage of pain with liberal application of wine (both ingested and to her wounds) and wrapping the injuries with clean bandages.

The scratches and cuts from the trident of torturous tears leave permanent scars, even if magically healed.

Ideally, this would be covered all
over with fantasy barbs and spikes.

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