While it’s not an Offensive Array, this week’s array is sure to cause offence.

This week we show you the Stink Bomb array.

Notation: Create Sulphur if Stone is present; Contain the Sulphur; Create the effected of a Sustained Fire and apply this effect to the Sulphur if Stone is present.

Class: Utility

Description: This is an array where one’s delight in it or one’s horror about it all depends where one stands (often quite literally). The Stink Bomb array does exactly what it says and it does it supremely well.

This array follows in the footsteps of the other successful Bomb arrays where the intention is that they are inscribed upon small metal balls and then hurled wherever and whenever they are needed. As this array only activates when it hits ground or stone, you can safely carry a stink bomb around on you without any fear that you will become affected by its ghastly stench.

The means by which the Stink Bomb array creates its titular stench is by the same means that we so dislike rotten eggs, sweaty socks and putrid flatulence: sulphur, specifically in this array’s case Sulphur Dioxide. Sulphur Dioxide is created by a variety of means, one of which includes burning elemental sulphur, which is precisely what this array does. The Stink Bomb creates both sulphur and a sustained flame and then applies that ever burning flame to the sulphur, keeping it burning and releasing that much needed and much reviled sulphur dioxide.

One thing to note with this array that differentiates it from other Bomb arrays is that it contains the sulphur to the array, meaning that as the metal ball on which it is inscribed rolls along a floor, the sulphur will travel with it, near on sticking to the ball. There are two reasons for this. The first is practicality. Had there not been a Contain rune, then the array would have created the sulphur and attempted to light it in the exact moment it touched stone. This may not be long enough for the runically created fire to light the sulphur and you might end up with a less than spectacular stink.

The other reason is safety. At best, this is a distraction array and at worst a practical joke array. You don’t want to kill someone with it, but inhaling sulphur dioxide could very well do just that. By keeping the sulphur stuck to the array, eventually the entire array will be covered by sulphur, meaning the array won’t be touching stone anymore and thus no more fire and no more sulphur would be created. It’s a natural safety mechanism to make sure a joke doesn’t get out of hand.

If you want to get more arrays and incantations, check out our Journal of Array Design over on DriveThruRPG, now also available as a deck of magic cards.

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