Sword of Ba'alzamon

Infernal Sorcery

Description

This ritual comes down to us from the dark day of Sumeria when the 'Devil Kings' sat up thrones of gilded skulls and worshiped at blood soaked alters in temples shaded by tents of human skin. The Edimmu (seven most evil demons) often taught this ritual to the 'Devil Kings' in return for lavish offerings and plentiful sacrifices. The priests of the Edimmu would take a sword fresh from the forges and thrust it into the body of a sacrificial child, whose agony and death throes would empower the blade for war. In modern times, sacrificial children are usually unavailable, thus it has been found by sympathetic experiments that a child's beloved pet is enough to invoke the ancient pact with the Edimmu and thus empower the blade for war. An empowered blade need wound an opponent only once, for as the sacrifice was burned by the sword, so is the next victim struck down; victims wounded by the 'Sword of Ba'alzamon' initially, will be wounded again on successive rounds until they die or the blessings of the Edimmu should expire. Those so blessed as to carry an empowered sword radiate fear and awe to all those who behold them; the wise know when a sword has been empowered for the smell of burnt sacrificial children flows from it like an acrid incense.

System

The caster rolls Intelligence + Rituals, difficulty 6 (for the sacrifice of a living human child) or 7 (for a mortal child's beloved pet). The blade must be heated until it smokes, then it must be thrust into a blood sacrifice (pet or child) and let cool. Successfully casting this ritual means that the next target hit with the sword takes aggravated damage. The number of successes equates to the number of successive rounds that the victim hit with the sword takes an additional level of aggravated damage; the damage can be soaked or healed if the victim has the capacity to soak fire damage or to heal aggravated damage, mortals have neither and are thus likely to die. In either case, the wounds left by an empowered sword leave hideous scars on mortals or immortals alike. It is the sword that is empowered rather than the wielder, so the sword can be given to a servant; the sword retains its empowerment until it successfully strikes an opponent. The holder of the sword is subject to the 'Eerie Presence' flaw while he has it in his possession and the smell of burnt human flesh (regardless of whether the sacrifice was human or animal) precedes, surrounds him, and follows wherever he goes.