The Executioner’s Syringe – Google Docs
The Executioner’s Syringe
These rather nasty magic items are made from needles and tubing that have been used in a legal execution. Typically, such things are destroyed immediately by some very grim-looking people from various obscure government agencies: but occasionally the necessary materials get smuggled out. There’s certainly a demand for the stuff, among groups that know how to use said materials ‘properly.’
Essentially, an Executioner’s Syringe is an assassination tool: ‘injecting’ the victim with one will cause him to come down with a quick-acting, fatal disease (chosen at the creation of the Syringe). Influenza and septicemia are in the process of becoming traditional favorites, but any disease that is known to kill the unlucky patient will do. As this is a magical disease, it will be extremely hard if not impossible to treat with mundane medical methods; certainly any spell that detects curses or evil magic will detect both the disease, and the Syringe. An Executioner’s Syringe will have about a half-dozen ‘charges’ in it before it breaks or corrodes into uselessness.
One last note: the aforementioned grim-looking people from the obscure government agencies are never amused when one of these things turn up. And if they track down the person using one… well. Any accurate way to describe their response would have to include the term ‘area-effect.’