Punishing Market
Hello everyone, and welcome to another astonishing edition of Magic Market, where each week we provide you a selection of stellar magic items, free of charge. As some of you will have figured out by now, it’s Crime and Punishment week here at Necromancers of the Northwest. Regular readers may even remember that yesterday’s article spent a whole lot of time focusing on the crime, and not much time talking about punishment. As such, it only seems fair that today punishment get the same treatment, so without further ado, feast your eyes on these magical devices which aid in the serving of punishment to those who deserve it.
Dragon’s Cage
As the name implies, these devious devices were crafted to serve as prisons for the most dangerous of evil dragons. Since their creation, however, use of the dragon’s cage has grown, becoming popular as both a torture device and as a convenient means for transporting large and dangerous animals. A dragon’s cage is very heavy and typically requires a team of 12 horses to drag.
Appearing as a massive 25-foot by 25-foot iron cage with a single door manufactured with a superior lock that is only accessible from the cage’s outside, the dragon’s cage is a formidable prison, even without the magic which oppresses those held within. Any creature that remains within the dragon’s cage for at least 1 minute ceases to heal either hit point damage or ability damage or drain until he spends at least 1 minute outside of the dragon’s cage. Additionally, any creature who remains within the dragon’s cage for at least 1 hour suffers a -4 penalty to each of his ability scores until he spends at least 1 hour outside the dragon’s cage.
Guillotine of Finality
This cruel device of modern design is enhanced with potent black magic in order to make it the finest tool at the executioner’s disposal. It is utilized by both the good and noble wanting to ensure final justice is served to the foulest and vilest of criminals, and by the wicked and cruel wanting to display their power.
As a full-round action, any helpless creature placed upon the guillotine can be killed by speaking a command word which lowers the blade upon the creature’s neck, severing his head. Any creature immune to the vorpal ability is also immune to this effect. Additionally, whenever a creature is slain by a guillotine of finality,that creature’s soul is absorbed into the gleaming blade, where it remains imprisoned indefinitely. Creatures whose souls are contained within the guillotine of finality cannot be returned to life unless their soul is first restored. Restoring as soul trapped within a guillotine of finality is exceptionally difficult, and even spells such as wish do not have the capacity to draw souls from the dread blade. Only destroying the blade itself, which is magically strengthened to have an AC of 5, hardness 25, and 100 hit points, can free the souls trapped within.
Immovable Manacles
The true origins of these apparently ordinary manacles have been lost to history. They were first discovered hanging from thin air in an unoccupied portion of the Abyss, clearly revealing their magical nature to the wizard who had found them. Though the entity the manacles was meant to hold had long since died or escaped, the manacles bore such an unusual enchantment that the wizard who discovered them made a long study of their properties, and upon his return to the Material Plane, he began producing replicas in order to keep particularly dangerous criminals away from the public.
While the chains and locking mechanism of the manacles largely function identically to normal manacles (apart from a very minor enchantment which allows them to be opened or shut with a command word), these manacles possess a powerful magic which makes them ideal for keeping undesirables away from society. By uttering a command word, the manacles freeze in place, hanging suspended and unmoving in midair. Clever jailors often use this function to imprison their wards high above the ground, isolated from the rest of the world; this also ensures that the ward is killed in the fall, should he ever manage to escape his bonds. This immobilizing affect lasts indefinitely until a second command word is spoken to release the bonds, which fall to the ground.