Claw of Stolen Youth
| This rare magical device resembles a silver thimble at first glance, and fitsover the tip of the user's finger in themanner of an ordinary sewing thimble, but has a curved bone spike at the end like the claw of a beast. This spike issharp, and the user can make a claw attack for 1 hp of damage with it, or slash through cloth and leather as with a small razor blade. But this is not the principle use of theclaw. Once per day the wearer of this spiked thimble may make a touch attack against target and drain the target's youth, making the target grow old as per the Steal Youth spell. This stolen vitality may be used to make the wearer younger by as many years as the target grows old by, or may be stored in the claw so that another wearer can absorb the vitality instead. As with the spell, Steal Youth, the claw can backfire, and there is no way to determine the amount of vitality stored in a claw, and no wayto absorb only part of it. Each use of the claw is an all or nothing affair. After it has been used to steal vitality from a target, it leaves the telltale mark of a small, blackened puncture in the spot where the touch attack struck the hapless victim that lasts 1-6 days before being healed over. |
| Type Wonderous Item, Magical |
| Market Value: 39,200gp |
| Craft Level: 14th |
| Craft Prerequisites: |
| Creation Cost: |
| Weight :Negligible |
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The "Call of Cthulhu" game has a walking stick which has a similar effect. It is easy to see how this device could be used to facilitate the happiness of Good characters. Those who worship a Good Power and believe that they will enter into a life of eternal bliss once they die may be hastened to their goal, perhaps speeding them to their deity and their eternal reward by a decade's time or more, while the user of the Claw, who clearly has a busy agenda of important things which must be attended to before the user finally retires to an eternity of slothful self-indulgence or harp-playing, can gain perhaps a decade or more of time to take care of matters of cosmically significant business. Used in this way the Claw is clearly a Good item, although a Neutral character should be able to use it, too, since the character can take the speedier entry of the Good character into the afterlife into account while doing the important business of Neutrality and the Eternal Balance.