Vampire’s Bottle
A variation on the Iron Flask, this item is said to have been made by a powerful vampire lord who loved to travel. A Vampire’s Bottle can take any form, but it is usually a small silver flask. When a vampire enters a Vampire Bottle in its gaseous form and the stopper is flipped closed it is put into a type of stasis. The vampire is still aware and can think, but cannot see outside of the bottle, cannot leave until the stopper is opened again, does not get hungry, does not heal and does not need food. The vampire is kept in exactly the same condition it was in when it entered the bottle, which has a number of advantages. The most common advantage is that if a vampire is reduced to 0 hit points and assumes gaseous form, it may enter the Vampire’s Bottle. Once it is inside, the two hours it has to get back to its coffin are put on hold and remain so until the vampire exits the bottle. This allows a vampire to travel much further than it would normally dare from its coffin (usually a vampire can only safely be nine miles from its coffin at any given time.) Some vampires have been known to use the Vampire’s Bottle to sneak into areas where they would not normally be able to get into. One story told of a powerful vampire who slew an entire dining hall full of nobles by disguising the Vampire’s Bottle as a flask and delivering it to a feast.
For all its advantages, the Vampire’s Bottle does have a major disadvantage. The bottle must be closed for the vampire to gain its effects, and barring magic that means having another person there that the vampire truly trusts. Similarly, the bottle must be opened or broken to let the vampire out, and once again, unless the vampire has magic contingencies in place that requires that someone else release it. Some stories say that the inventor of the Vampire’s Bottle was trapped in his own invention by a close friend of his, a human who he thought he had trusted, and remains in the bottle to this day, at the bottom of a harsh waterfall. Most vampires use charmed followers of their vampire spawn to carry their bottles, but even that is no guarantee. Charms can be removed and vampire spawn can be controlled through dark magic. Every time a vampire uses the Vampire’s Bottle he takes the risk that he will never come out.
Other creatures, including mages, that can assume gaseous form can use a Vampire’s Bottle in the same way. The do not need to eat, they never grow tired, they do not age and they do not die so long as they are in a Vampire’s Bottle. Similarly, they might become trapped in there forever, and few other creatures think it is worth the risk.
Strong Necromancy; CL 20th; Craft Wondrous Item, trap the soul; Price 170,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.