World of
Hommlet
During the War of Seven Gods, the forces of darkness built an enclave around the Temple of Elemental Evil, with its forward base at the small town of Nulb. The followers of the Dark Gods were the first to develop stimbox technology. Employed by the assassins and strike teams of the Dread Army, these small boxes were mounted over the heart of the wearer. When quickly struck, the stimbox would trigger a healing spell in some fashion. Often, attack squads would use these on their fallen companions, returning them to consciousness (and combat).
Examining the stimboxes on the slain attackers at first yielded few clues. The boxes were squat cylinders, which appeared to have a spring-loaded device, mounted over a small hole in the base of the cylinder. An additional clue was found when a strike squad equipped with stimboxes was taken out with a well-timed fireball. Inside unused stimboxes were silver needles, and several of the attackers wore armor; each of them had a hole drilled in their armor, under the box mount. Clearly, the needles were the important part of the mechanism.
Months of research, with some of the most powerful arcane artificiers and battle priests examining the devices, proved near fruitless. Enchanting a weapon with a single shot healing spell? Clearly impossible, yet it had been done. The effect could be replicated, a bit more easily, with an enchantment of spell storing, but at a much higher expense. A few went off to create these needles of spell storing, and discovered a small problem. The enchantments required were too powerful for needles. It appeared that the smallest weapon capable of holding that level of enchantment was a shuriken, but how did one trigger the stored spell?
The war had near stalemated. The Forces of Good had a logistical advantage, as well as a slight edge in numbers, but the Dread Army was ruled with an iron discipline, and its suicide squads and assassins were wreaking havoc among the powerful magic-wielders of the Forces of Good. So a field experiment was clearly in order. Bringing together some of the most powerful sorcerers, wizards, psions, and clerics, the forces of Good selected one of its warriors to test the effects of a needle. Voluntarily injured, the warrior wore a stimbox, and, when all were ready, triggered the box. The needle, launched into his heart, released a healing spell. Observant mages noted that the needle was now embedded in the warrior's heart, and still carried an enchantment. Watching the warrior further, they noted than a minute later, the second enchantment released, bursting the needle.
The warrior died - his wounds had returned, and the additional stress of the rupture in his heart was clearly too much. Fortunately, a priest was on hand to raise the warrior, none much the worse for wear.
Armed with this knowledge, the researchers were able to determine the method of manufacture for the needles. A single needle required first being steeped in a potion of inflict serious wounds, with an alchemical artificer handy to bind the enchantment into the needle, through use of a very tenuous Mending. For some reason, a cure spell could not bond into the needle, but a damaging spell could. The needle could then be steeped into a potion of cure moderate wounds (the curative enchantment needed to be weaker than the first), again with an alchemical artificer to move the enchantment to the needle.
Effects: A stimbox can be triggered on yourself as a free action, or as a standard action another's stimbox can be triggered. Doing so provokes an attack of opportunity (from all adjacent foes), and requires a successful touch attack, with a penalty equal to the amount of damage taken by attacks of opportunity. When triggered, a stimbox releases a cure moderate wounds spell on the target. One minute later, it releases an inflict serious wounds (no save), which prompts a fortitude saving throw, DC damage dealt, failure leading to death.
Stimbox container: 500 gp item, made by a woodworker or blacksmith.
Stimbox needle: Caster Level: 6th; Prerequisites: Brew Potion; Craft Magic Arms & Armor, mending; Alchemy Checks: 25, 20, potion of inflict serious wounds, potion of cure moderate wounds; Market Price: 2,000 gp (includes 1,050 gp from potions).