Item Seed: Set of Stake Knives.

Set of Stake Knives

Appearance: a set of eight stainless steel steak knives.  They are in excellent condition, and in fact can be used to cut steak.  Although few people will, once they find out what the Stake Knives actually do (see below).  

Powers: Treat Stake Knives as equivalent to whatever weapon or substance is most dangerous to vampires in the campaign.  For example: in a Western game, Stake Knives act like wooden stakes in terms of immobilizing and destroying vampires.  In campaigns with more than one particular type of vampire, a Stake Knifes can be ‘reconsecrated’ to a different type by a suitably holy figure after a suitable amount of slightly onerous ritual activity; alternatively (particularly if there are vampire PCs in the campaign) all Stake Knives will work on all vampires equally.  Certainly any Stake Knife can effectively be used in lieu of a holy symbol by sincere religious believers.

Stake Knives are also enchanted with a glamour that make them look mundane to supernatural senses. The holder is immune to this glamour, and the spell itself can be pierced with some effort.

Yes, vampires hate these [expletive deleted] artifacts.  Even the ones that try to maintain some semblance of an ethical lifestyle; you never know when a wild-eyed human fanatic is going to suddenly lunge from a table and try to serrate you, and Stake Knives make that a lot easier.  You can’t scan all the silverware at the restaurant, every meal.

Unfortunately for vampires, the spell that imbues Stake Knives is sufficiently simple (if expensive) that national governments and the largest corporations can afford to have a supply on hand, if needed.  So if a set of Stake Knives shows up in the local area, that’s usually an indication that something’s gone over one too many lines, and now it’s time for the humans to do some impromptu rebalancing.  That this particular stimulus can often independently result in a temporarily-reduced local supernatural population has not gone unnoticed; but what can be done?  Sometimes people were just waiting anyway for an excuse to settle old business, and they won’t really care if the excuse is a flimsy one.