Cursed items and Crypt Defense 3.5

[sigurd]

Seen from the perspective of intelligent undead the living are often dangerous thieves. On returning to their haunts the lord vampire might find his walls torn down his henchman killed and his armory raided.
The living have taken dangerous knowledge and perhaps powerful weaponry while the lord was forced to rest.

Wouldn't a vampire sleep better by day if he knew that the mucking great sword in the hands of his servitors was possessed to kill those that would plunder it and use it against them?

If the item was powerful enough, binding a servant into it would be an acceptable loss of his day to day powers - s sacrifice to place an evil spirit within that might exact vengeance upon the plunderers or allow the item to be recovered?

I see three situations:

1. Desecration - the item is rendered evil and simply cannot be used by those who are not undead.

2. Subversion - the item is made treacherous and will kill its wielder or the wielders friends given the opportunity. It also might be easily found and recovered by the undead.
This might also be used upon the most valuable or tempting articles. A subverted dagger might become a bribe or even be sold as a trap for the unwary.

3. Corruption - The item is intimately reshaped by the undead evil. Removed from the tomb it rapidly deteriorates. Turning to powder at dawn or crumbling to dust on its first hit.


The alignment of the item


The typical target for this sort of curse would be items without intrinsic moral alignment. A holy scimitar would most likely resist corruption and\or be destroyed by this process. Unaligned items could either be aligned to evil by this process or obscure their new alignment for the sake of treachery.



Evil Ritual - Dark Consecration - Hero Biter

This ritual desecrates an unaligned magic weapon, infusing it with betrayal and faithless sorrow. By black arts the weapon is empowered to overcome its wielder and slay the wielder's family, loved ones, or allies.
The caster must sacrifice an amount of experience equal to the items creation cost and then overcome it's original nature. The experience sacrificed need not be the casters however. By this ritual rebuked undead can be made to posses the item. The item is driven into or buried with the casters servant who is consumed by the ritual.
With a successful ritual there is no change to the weapons aura.


I think I'd like to stay away from the idea of an artificer for the undead (Although that might make an interesting PRC). Rather I see a creature with so much control over its minions that it can infuse whats left of their souls into items as a damning enchantment.


Its certainly an npc and very likely a do it yourself sort of path. Secrecy for the cursed items would make it unlikely that the one aiding the crypt defense would be allowed to leave.

[Zeful]

Seems like a cool idea. Though it might be a better idea to make something like a Necrotic weapon enhancement.

I'd do it thusly (format and wording stolen from Anarchic Weapon and generic cursed items):
Necrotic weapon.
A Necrotic weapon is magically forged with the Power of Undeath. Any creature attempting to wield a Necrotic Weapon finds that it cannot drop the weapon by any means. A Remove Curse spell allows the affected creature to rid himself of a Necroctic weapon normally, as does being consumed by a rust monster. It deals an extra 2d6 points of damage against all living creatures. It bestows one negative level to any living creature attempting to wield it. This negative level remains as long as the weapon remains in hand and disappears when the weapon is no longer wielded. This negative level never results in actual level loss, but it cannot be overcome in any way (including restoration spells) while the weapon is wielded. Bows, crossbows, and slings so crafted bestow the Necrotic power upon their ammunition.

[Baron Corm]

As I was first reading your idea I thought you meant that, while the master's body sleeps, his spirit possessed a powerful item in his treasury and continued to patrol his crypt. That idea still strikes me as cool.

The coolest of the three you gave though I think is the subversion one. It's a lot like Sauron's ring. With the desecration option, the PCs will get mad, because they found this great treasure, but can't use it. With the corruption option, the PC and the master are mad, because no one has it. With the subversion option, the PCs are happy while they have it, even if it does act up from time to time, and the master can still scheme to get his item back. I like the plotlines it involves.

[Logosloki]

Of your three ideas I believe corruption will create too much hostility between the master and his players, you do expect to have bad things happen to you but as cool as the idea is its not going to go down a treat. Corruption would be better as the weapon has an alignment and it corrupts the person, attempting to change the persons alignment then from there attempts to "recruit" the player but I believe that is already a build somewhere.

I love your idea for subversion as it adds flavour to the game without being outright cruel. I would say a hidden trait of a subverted weapon should be that it can be detected by the creator and her minion as this could lead to some interesting nights.

Desecration would be interesting its something that could go either way.

Overall though I am interested in your premise and will wait for more information on it.

[Jack_Simth]

Perhaps simply put an inherent Geas on most of the items, a curse to keep them from being removed, and using Magic Aura to make the item look normal. The Geas? "Defend the Master" or some such (with, of course, an implied definition of master). Even have an onset delay of the ten minute casting time for Geas from when you start using the item. The item can be picked up and passed around for a while while the party examines it, but after they decide who it should go to... bam, instant gaurdian.