Vallandigham’s Needles – Google Docs
Vallandigham’s Needles
These nine short bone needles were reportedly carved (presumably post-mortem) from the vertebrae of Clement Vallandigham, possibly the most notorious of the American Civil War pro-Confederate Copperheads. They are about three inches long each, smell somewhat unpleasantly musty, and are remarkably difficult if not impossible to break. The end of each Vallandigham Needle has a hole, suitable for inserting a tuft of feathers or other stabilizer in flight.
The ‘virtue’ of a Vallandigham Needle is that it is an effective assassination tool: use whatever rules exist for blowpipes in your game, only triple damage and double range. In fact, this final damage is calculated after any poison on the blade is factored in, making it even more powerful. The only wrinkle is that the person using the Needle must be an admitted traitor to his own country, and must be targeting someone from the country he is betraying. If these conditions are not met, the Needle will simply miss its target completely.
This has led to some convoluted schemes just to get some use out of the Needles. Soldiers can’t use them, spies can’t use them; even rebels and revolutionaries can’t use them against agents of the regime. It’s got to be a traitor — a willing traitor — or the magic won’t work. Some research necromancers think that seditionists might be able to activate a Vallandigham Needle’s powers, but nobody’s been able to check that yet.
Unfortunately, they can’t find the original necromancer’s notes on how this spell was put together. In fact, they can’t find out what happened to the original necromancer at all. There was a lot of occult house-cleaning going on, after the American Civil War.