Items · Melee Weapons · Non-Magical
Fungus Spear
It looks very much like a normal short stabbing spear, wih a bulbous metalic haft and a slight greenish sheen on it's razor-sharp blade. But those who have encountered it and lived to tell the tale, or used it themselves, know differently...
During the founding of the City of Strabane, a worker disturbed a strange purple fungus and got it's spores into a small cut that he had on one of his arms. Within days he was choughing and choking to death, but before he died he was able to explain what had happened to him.
The Mayor of Strabane was also the head of the Shapeshifter organisation and he quickly found many uses for this fungus. When put upon wood, within a week it had turned a section the size of a human fist into powder.That meant that doors that were too well guarded or too magical just to break down by sheer force, could be opened in that way.Until the area of the door was broken open it looked exactly the same as normal.
Wooden bridges and wooden dams could be destroyed with it, that was good for arranging the assassination of a king and his escort when there was no other means of doing it secretly...the king was guarded night and day and was very careful what he ate and drank.
When carried on the end of a metal spear, if it hit someone in the lungs death was quick to happen, but without the use of a healing potion or healing spell, death would happen sooner or later even from a small cut, although it might take several days. At first only a few assassins could be given the weapon, but later an army unit known as the DeathSpears was equipped with it too.
If not cremated or buried within 24 hours, a body of someone killed by this spear will be covered with the fungus.The fungus is harmless on undamaged skin.
Plot Hooks...Somebody has been injured by this weapon and offers the PC's (who must not include powerful magic users) a large some of money to get him/her to a healer before death occurs.
An assassin is known to be using this weapon to carry out unauthorised assassinations and the PC's have been sent from Strabane to secretly track him down and take him back alive to be punished.
Magical Properties:
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Interesting weapon,Cheka. Deserves more than a 3 in my opinion. It would be nice if you experimented more with this fungus,just to see what esle you can come up with.
Its a good idea, since i don't particularly like lots of magic it allows for nice weapons without enchantments. However it would be nice to have some more symptoms, and perhaps the effect of ingestion. I also imagine that the spear carriers have to use metal spears and have to carry a supply of the fungus safely in some way. it would be nice if that was developed.
However, i like the idea of the fungus, and the idea of using it to carry out disruptive actions is a good thing to throw at the PC either on the recieving or giving end of the problem.
eg: the pc have been tasked with protecting a valuable mine, but recently the timbers seem to have been sabotaged at key locations, however, once the forensic excavations have been carried out it turns out that no sign of tempering can be found. the timbers are all gone!
Anything that gets me going like this is good stuff! perhaps a separate fungus writeup would be cool too!
I'm with d_d on his pt of having more symptoms for the fungus, otherwise, this is a solid sub