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 risks becoming 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.