Contagion (4E)

Contagion

You consecrate the carrier with rotting flesh and rat’s tails. Soon, it will bear bitter fruit!

Level: 6	Component Cost: 250
Category: Binding	Market Price: 300
Time: 10 minutes	Key Skill: Religion
Duration: Until removed

You cause an object or creature to spread disease. Choose a disease whose level is no greater than your own and a focus for the ritual. The focus can be a willing creature or an object of small to large size. If it is a creature, that creature becomes immune to the disease it spreads. Destroying the object or killing the creature ends the effect, as can a cure disease ritual cast on the focus. Anyone spending 5 minutes within 2 squares of the focus or who consumes something that spent an hour in this area in the last 24 hours must make a saving throw or become infected. See DMG p. 49 for more on disease. It is common to place the focus in a well or larder. Immaterial creatures such as ghosts are especially popular as foci, because they can infest an area without anyone noticing. Another popular option is to use a buried undead creature as a focus.