New Magic Item – Scalpel Mine

One of many.

The carnage was terrible, whoever had attacked here had no compunction on limiting damage.  The wall were riddled with metal shards were they were not burned by fire or melted by acid.

“Who would do such a thing?”

“Who could?” came the reply.  “This level of destruction is almost unimaginable.  What caused it and why?”

Scalpel Mine

These first-sized metal spheres are ringed with rows of immensely sharp blade, making handling this item dangerous to those who do not take proper care.  They are dense and the metal they are constructed from is not easily identified.

These items are activated by drawing a drop of blood from the user, inflicting 1 hit point of damage and then either set down or thrown:

• If set, it detonates when a living being of 50 kg (110 lbs) or more approaches within 10′ and is not wearing a keyed holy symbol or arcane mark.
• If thrown, it follows the splash weapon rules.

In both cases, it detonates on impact in a cascade of razor sharp blades causing 6d6 points of magical slashing damage and 1d3 points of bleed damage to all within 30′ with those in the detonation/impact square taking maximum damage, those outside of the detonation/impact square may make a Reflex save (DC 21) which reduces the slashing damage by half and avoids the bleeding damage.

A Scalpel Grenade may be set to avoid triggering (if set) and to avoid hitting (when detonated) anyone wearing a particular holy symbol, if it is a clerical item, or bearing a chosen arcane mark, if it was created with arcane magic, but the choice to do so must be made when the Scalpel Grenade is created.

Handling a Scalpel Grenade when not preparing to set or throw it is dangerous, requiring a Reflex save (DC 12) or the handler takes 1 point of bleed damage.

Aura strong evocation; CL 13th
Slot none; Price 2,250; Weight 2 lbs
Construction Requirements
Craft Wondrous Item, blade barrier or mage’s sword, bless or arcane mark, detect evil or detect magic, magic circle against evil; Cost 1,125

Notes: The companion piece to the automated laser monkeys.  High technology is expensive to replicate with magic.

Photo by Lilly_M and used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.