Item Seed: Molotok.

Molotok – Google Docs

Molotok

This aluminum and glass gavel was constructed in 1862 by the House of Faberge at the behest of Czar Alexander II.  As far as anybody can tell, Molotok was not imbued with any sort of supernatural or esoteric power; it was meant as a highly expensive gimcrack commemorating the Czar’s program of judicial reform, and it largely languished in obscurity for the next sixty years. It certainly did not have a True Name until the Russian Revolution.

However, Molotok did start generating significant occult power (and its Name) during the Bolshevik takeover, starting with the judge who used it to pulverize a Communist assassination squad sent to purge him and his family.  That judge went on to wield Molotok throughout the entire Russian Civil War, to admittedly great personal effect (use of it eventually got himself and his family out of Vladivostok and into Japan, back in 1922); but its ability to do tremendous amounts of kinetic damage to Communist-aligned villains could not turn the course of the war. Molotok is strictly a tactical weapon.


Which made it valuable to the US government, after they acquired Molotok after the Second World War.  The judge’s family had settled in Japan, and readily enough agreed to let the Occupation historians take possession of it; and when the CIA’s occult branch determined the powers of Molotok the weapon quickly became a prized research item. Its use in the field was limited by the conditions of its enchantment; Molotok only can be used at full power on people who have committed multiple vile acts on behalf of Communism, and it was difficult to justify risking its loss simply to kill a slave camp commandant or head torturer. But the item still had its uses.

And today?  Today it’s in the Repository where the American intelligence community puts all of its retired, supernaturally lethal toys. Nobody’s had to sign it out since 1997 or so; when the Soviet Union crumbled, so did a lot of its esoterically-aligned shadow infrastructure.  The survivors of those internal purges may be just as nasty, but they’re generally no longer Marxist. But if you need to kill a Communist butcher in a hidden lair somewhere and can convince the people running the Repository that you need Molotok, you can probably get it on loan.  After signing a lot of paperwork. So much paperwork.