Fang of the Nosferatu (Magic Dagger)

There are few things as vile and dark as the undead. These masters of evil move beneath the fleeting light of the moon, feeding upon the human race like wolves upon sheep. The fang of the nosferatu was forged in their image and placed into the hands of man. It is hard to imagine a more sinister gift.
The blade of this dagger is of hardened steel, with strange, flowing symbols etched into the metal surface. The grooves of the lettering have all been filled with ruby dust, giving them the appearance of being written in blood upon the blade. The handle is wrapped in an odd, pebbled, black hide. It is thought to be mind flayer or doppelganger skin. The pommel has a ruby mounted in a steel setting. The guard is an elongated oval, with the surface facing the blade carved to resemble a vampire with bared fangs. The eyes are filled with ruby dust, like the symbols etched into the blade.
Powers: The fang betrays an aura of necromancy when examined by detect magic. It is a dagger -+3, the extra three points of damage that it inflicts are assumed to represent the dagger's drinking of the blood of its victim. If left in a body, it drains an additional 3 hit points of blood each round.
The dagger is not without other useful powers. Each successful attack that drains blood gives an owner 1 recovered hit point. Even if the blade causes several points of damage with the strike, the owner still regains only 1 point. An owner must be wielding the blade for this power to work. If another creature is using the blade, the dagger is satiated, but the true owner does not recover any hit points. There is rumored to be a special ritual involving the dagger that grants an owner immortality.
The fang of the nosferatu grants other powers to its owner as well. While it is in his or her immediate possession, an owner can shapechange into a wolf or a bat. In these forms the owner has the maximum hit points for that type of creature. If the character's true form has fewer hit points due to wounds, then the animal form is wounded to that level as well. Changing shape in this manner does not recover any lost hit points. None of the owner's equipment changes, except the dagger. If the owner already has a shapechanging power (from lycanthropy, for example) then the blade grants the power to change into any animal form of small to large size, but not into that of a monster or other humanoid.
Curse: Like the nosferatu for which it is named, the blade thirsts for blood. Each hit point of blood that it absorbs satiates it for a day. Since the blood is being measured in hit points, it must come from a wound inflicted upon a living creature by the dagger. Animal blood will do just fine, but once a month the fang requires the blood of an intelligent creature. It cannot be satiated for more than seven days, regardless of how much blood it absorbs. Any day that it is not satiated, it draws one hit point from its owner. This can happen even if the dagger and its owner are far apart. If they are in different domains or different planes of existence, the effects are temporarily halted until they are reunited. Hit points lost in this manner can be recovered only by using the dagger (see below) or with a heal or wish spell. The dagger is bonded to its owner as soon as it has been used to draw blood. Neither its useful effects nor its curses apply until this time. Once bonded, the new owner becomes immediately aware of the blood requirements of the blade and the permanency of the bond. The owner will be reluctant to give away the blade. If another creature has it and doesn't use it, the true owner slowly withers and dies, at one hit point a day. The current owner must die before a new owner can be selected.
This cursed dagger was once the closely guarded possession of Mordal the assassin. It was a gift from the Baron Von Kharkov, dark lord of Valachan, When Mordal betrayed his master, the vampire stole the dagger and imprisoned the traitor. He encased the dagger outside the assassin's cell, just out of his reach. Mordal died a little each day as the dagger was denied its blood. On every full moon, the Baron slaughtered animals with the dagger, restoring Mordal to normal health. However, since he never took the life of an intelligent creature with it, one hit point every month was lost permanently. It took the assassin almost three years to die.
Upon Mordal's death, the dagger vanished. Legend says that the ghost of the assassin took the dagger and fled from Valachan. Nobody has ever dared to ask Baron Von Kharkov about the matter. Occasionally someone reports seeing a transparent, wraith-like figure holding forth a dagger, as if begging for someone to take it. 
Category:Encyclopedia Magica Magic Items
Category:Magic Items
Category:Magic Daggers
Category:Magic Weapons