Magic Item Mother’s Day :

Magic Item Mother’s Day :

Vergilius’s Cleaver – Close, Messy, Dangerous

Vergilius’s Cleaver was crafted by (the angels / magi / the deity of rebirth) for a long-dead warrior poet when he set out to enter the lands of the cursed dead to save his lost love. 

It is a forearm long, fairly light for how big it is but with a suspiciously large amount of inertia.  Any fluid, including blood, runs right off it as if it were inherently superhydrophobic.

When it draws blood, in addition to any damage dealt  it cleaves the soul from the creature it hit, which does not kill the creature.  On a plane with reincarnation the soul moves on and begins the rebirthing process.  On a plane without reincarnation the soul might move on, or might linger as a ghost.

(Recommended technique – if a PC has blood drawn by the cleaver, the next time they sleep have them ‘dream’ of a visit to the Black Gate to see what happens to their soul, and what bargains it might make.)

Player souls which do not travel through the Black Gate or find rebirth are treated as NPC ghosts, invisible without the appropriate magics.  Whether they hang around the players or pursue their own objectives is up to the GM.

A creature separated from it’s soul is affected by spells targeting animals, but not by spells affecting ‘people’ inclusively.  An undead creature who lacks a soul is unaffected by the cleaver’s special power.  An undead which is a soul inhabiting a husk is slain outright by any damage the cleaver deals… although it too becomes a ghost, and such a powerful creature may quickly adjust to this new state of affairs.

Normal creatures do not notice their soul leaving.