Death's Door

Description

This staff is usually bleached white, then bound from head to toe in strips of black leather secured with iron fixtures. The iron is often allowed to become rusted, giving the item and even more threatening appearance. It takes its name from the idea that it opens the door of death - readying the target to be pushed through it. Some wielders claim that when they invoke its magic they hear a distant creak; as of a great iron-bound portal slowly opening. In Temeschwar it is sometimes called a black wedge implying that the door is held open for a waiting victim.

Some wielders report a peculiar phenomenon - in some cases the staff marks the palms of the wielder's hands with a sooty black mark that resists attempts to remove it with water and soap but fades naturally in a day or so. Those who make extensive use of the staff, especially those who supplement its power with their own performance of the venom spell find that the marks take longer and longer to fade and are a little larger each time. Apocryphal tales speak of a Volhov named Mstislav the White whose arms were said to be permanently stained black to the elbow thanks to his extensive use of the white gate, an artefact version of this staff bound in pale leather and secured with polished steel.

Rules

• Form: Staff.
• Effect: Once per day when you cast the venom spell you can do so without spending any mana.
• Materials: Crafting death's door requires nine measures of beggar's lye and five measures of iridescent gloaming. It takes one month to make one of these items.