Item seed: Blue Bed of Blood.

Blue Bed of Blood

Description: a child’s bed, made of blue plastic and wood and shaped somewhat like a race car.  The Blue Bed of Blood is perpetually damp with, well, blood, no matter how often it is cleaned. It radiates as rather unpleasantly magical, but not quite as straight-up Evil.

Powers: Getting a full night’s worth of sleep in the Blue Bed of Blood significantly improves a magic-user’s control over necromantic energy.  Wear something you don’t mind getting stained. Showering first thing in the morning is recommended, too.

The only reason that the Blue Bed of Blood wasn’t destroyed on the spot is because it’s a spontaneously generated magical artifact, and those don’t get smashed unless they’re actively eating souls or something.  This one isn’t, and there are times where using necromancy isn’t automatically a horrible idea*, so the few ethical necromancers out there were naturally resistant to the idea of demolishing an item this handy, just because it was icky.  And sticky.

But the real problem is that the Blue Bed of Blood was originally a children’s bed.  Adults can still use it, but getting a good night’s sleep out of it is tricky.  Worth it, but tricky. The Bed thus usually ends up being passed around a lot, for a magical item: usually somebody borrows it for particular rituals, then holds onto it until somebody else needs it.  Usually in a sealed room: the blood thing does get to be a bit of a hassle, admittedly.  Particularly if you have nice carpets.

*Talking to ghosts, banishing demons, resurrecting the dead (sometimes): and, honestly, sometimes you can even make the case for just flat-out throwing a torrent of death energy at well-and-truly bad people.  As the theoretical research magician once said: “Black Magic is a matter of symbolism and intent.” That implied loophole at the end there can sometimes come in handy.