TORTURE IMPLEMENTS These devices cause great pain, and are often used in torture. Engaging in torture is ultimately nothing more a sadistic means to control another person. Rather than being an effective means of interrogation, torture produces notoriously inaccurate information designed to tell the torturer what she wants to hear and make the torture stop. Each act of torture shifts the torturer’s alignment one step toward evil, and it counts as a willful evil act for the purpose of effects like atonement. HERETIC’S FORK PRICE 10 GP WEIGHT 1 lb. This device is a sharp, double-ended prong that is approximately 9 inches in length and fitted with a stout leather neckband. This nefarious device is secured on a helpless target’s neck so the prongs pierce both the underside of the victim’s chin and the victim’s chest, dealing 1d6 points of nonlethal damage when the device is attached and an additional 1d6 points of nonlethal damage if the victim begins to fall asleep, effectively keeping the victim awake indefinitely and subjecting the victim to fatigue and exhaustion through sleep deprivation. A successful DC 22 Escape Artist check allows the victim to get free of the prongs without using his arms, though the heretic’s fork remains strapped to his neck. IRON MAIDEN PRICE 500 GP WEIGHT 300 lbs. These dreadful devices are large, stylized iron coffins lined with sharp spikes used to torture and execute unfortunate victims. When a Small or Medium creature is forced within the iron maiden and the spiked doors are slammed shut, the creature is impaled on all sides by the iron spikes, immediately taking 3d6 points of piercing damage. RACK PRICE 300 GP WEIGHT 500 lbs. The rack is one of the most infamous and feared devices in the torturer’s arsenal, capable of inflicting ruinous damage to a victim’s body. Helpless victims are splayed across the device’s frame, and each limb is lashed to a central windlass. Each turn of the crank deals a cumulative 1d6 points of nonlethal damage, up to 4d6 points of nonlethal damage on the fourth turn. Each subsequent turn after the fourth deals 4d6 points of nonlethal damage and
deals 1 point of damage each to the victim’s Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores as it dislocates limbs, cracks cartilage, and breaks bone. Some racks are fitted with spiked wheels that puncture the victim’s body, dealing lethal damage rather than nonlethal damage. Escaping from a rack requires a successful DC 30 Escape Artist check. RAT CAGE PRICE 5 GP WEIGHT 15 lbs. This specially crafted steel cage can hold up to 20 rats, and includes stout leather straps around its open end and a metal crucible for holding hot charcoal or other fuel on its top end. Torturers tightly strap the open end of the device to a helpless victim’s abdomen, insert the rats into the cage, and set the crucible’s fuel alight. In 1d10 rounds, the increasing heat causes the rats to gnaw and dig their way through the victim’s abdomen to escape, dealing 1 point of piercing damage per rat each round. A victim can wiggle free of a rat cage with a successful DC 20 Escape Artist check, though some of the voracious vermin may continue their consumption in subsequent rounds.
THUMBSCREW Common PRICE 15 GP WEIGHT 1 lb. Masterwork PRICE 50 GP WEIGHT 1 lb. Both a torture and restraining device, this small, metal armature consists of two parallel, spikestudded bars that close together as the user tightens the frame’s screws, crushing a victim’s thumbs between them. A victim restrained by a thumbscrew is able to move but can’t effectively wield weapons, hold items, or perform any actions or skill checks that require manual dexterity, taking a –5 penalty on all such actions and dealing 1d6 points of nonlethal damage to himself with each attempt (this doesn’t include Escape Artist attempts to escape the thumbscrew). Spellcasters bound by thumbscrews are unable to cast spells with somatic components. When using a thumbscrew as a torture device, the user can turn the thumbscrew’s bolt to deal 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. Escaping from a thumbscrew requires a successful DC 28 Escape Artist check (DC 30 for a masterwork thumbscrew). TREPHINE PRICE 20 GP WEIGHT 1 lb. This surgical instrument has a serrated, circular blade that is used to bore holes into the skulls of patients to relieve cranial swelling from head trauma or, as some chirurgeons believe, release evil spirits. Use of a trephine takes 10 minutes, and deals 5 points of piercing damage to the subject creature. With a successful DC 25 Heal check, the user can heal up to 1d4 points of ability damage to any one mental ability score caused by physical trauma to the head, such as the critical called shot or debilitating blow called shot (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Combat 196), or it can cure the severe brain trauma inflicted by the debilitating blow called shot. If the user fails the check, the subject still takes 5 points of piercing damage. If the user fails the check by 5 or more, the subject instead takes 10 points of piercing damage and 1 point of damage each to its Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. Table 7–1: Torture Implements Item Price Weight Heretic’s fork 10 gp 1 lb. Iron maiden 500 gp 300 lbs. Rack 300 gp 500 lbs. Rat cage 5 gp 15 lbs. Thumbscrew 15 gp 1 lb. Thumbscrew, masterwork 50 gp 1 lb. Trephine 20 gp 1 lb.
