Full Item Description
A foot-long ebony wand with a brass button on it.. The handle opens to allow a small gemstone the size of a bullet to be put in. The wand needs to come with one or more of these gemstones to be of any use.

History

The mage Alexander Rykov, like many great mages, dreamed of power, but knew that he could not take it alone. He thought that the reason why mages did not rule everywhere that magic existed was that they were too few, too divided and unable to trust each other. What, he thought, if he could arm his servants with wands that could cast a spell with the click of a button? What a leveler that would be. He and his supporters could attack the Queen by surprise, outgun the royal wizards, zap the guards and assassinate the Queen and a grand new era of rule by mages would dawn.

After some trial and error he began mass-producing these wands in secret and each was given several different types of amunition so it could kill, wound, change or heal depending on what gemstone was put into it. Somebody informed on him to Queen Amber who sent a chapter of the Civic Wizards to capture him, which they did.
There were those who said that he deserved execution or mutilation for what he was planning, but the Queen did not want that. She hated executions and had recently abolished the amputation of limbs unless it was carried out with The Avenger and he had not murdered anybody.

Instead she had him fitted with a Convict Collar that would shock him if he ever cast even the simplest spell again and ordered his wands to be destroyed. Many were burnt publicly on a pyre whilst mages preached about the danger that would happen if the lower orders ever got their hands on magic. Some however were stolen and sold within the criminal underworld and a few were purloined by members of the public after a local demagogue led a minor riot.

The laws against these items got stricter and more rigidly enforced by the Civic Wizards, City Guards and other groups, but they can still turn up now and then, be it in private houses, in the Black Market, in the Evil Wizard’s tower, or other places. Most people have forgotten what the colour code of the *bullets* are, and very few of these come in wooden boxes with the instructions and color chart-if they do, they are worth a lot of money in certain circles as an antique weapon.

Magic/Cursed Properties

It should be up to the GM what each colour of gemstone does when fired.The results can be deadly serious, very funny, infuriating or downright dangerous depending on the spell that is loaded and the type of game. Once loaded anyone who can speak and point the weapon can use it, not just a magic user.If more then one gemstone is loaded at once, the wand explodes into sharp splinters and the user is hit by a strange mixture of the spells, so never overload it.

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Suggested Submissions

• Convict Collar    Items     By: Cheka Man
• The Avenger    Items     By: Cheka Man