New Magic Item – Ghoul’s Claw

The dagger was not much to look at, a curved blade, pitted by corrosion, and a bone handle wrapped in poorly tanned leather.  But it had killed our friend, Naval, the blade opened him up and left him bleeding and gasping in pain.  The foul little man who had used the dagger had escaped but Aja’s whip took the dagger from his hand.

Ghoul's Claw

“We should go after that murderer,” hissed Valish.

Aja coiled his whip.  “Let us tend to Naval first, that old man tain’t be much of a threat without this here knife.”

“What if he has others?”

 Ghoul’s Claw

This daggers, often with curved blades, are crudely forged from poor quality steel and quenched in dead men’s blood.  The handle is almost always made of human bone, but bone in any case.  While the blade may start to rust or corrode, it never does so far as to render it unusable.

It is a +1 wounding dagger that gains a +2 bonus to confirm critical hits against those already bleeding.  Its most potent ability is that an undead wielding the Ghoul’s Claw can use any attack that relies on its touch through the dagger (ghouls’ paralyze, wights’ cause energy drain and so on) equally a spellcaster may channel necrourgic spells with a touch range through the dagger combining their effect with the dagger’s attack.

Aura strong necrourgy; CL 11th
Slot none; Price 21,302; Weight 1 lbs
Construction
Requirements Craft Magic Arms and Armor, contagion, spectral hand, vampiric touch; Cost 10,500 + 302 for the dagger (+840 xp for D&D)

Adventure Seed: People are being murdered, but it is obvious that one they have been cut they just bleed out.  A elder ghoul, with a taste for bloodless meat, is killing people with a ghoul’s claw and then eating the corpses after they have been buried.

Notes: Something for the spooky month of October.

Photo by Walt Stoneburner and used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.