Plutonium sword

Version 0.13: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A triple sword made of weird glowing metal. You wonder whether it grew its two side blades due to its radiation, and whether you'll grow two extra heads as well.

the +12,+16 plutonium sword

+12, +16 triple sword

Inflicts Transmutations miscast effects on enemies on 1/5 of strikes
Causes heavy magic contamination when unwielded
-20 stealth

Desirability

A difficult weapon to use safely, the plutonium sword combines extremely brutal damage output with occasionally awesome miscast effects (irresistible damage, polymorph, confusion, petrification) and a nasty magic contamination dose every time you unwield the thing. If you want to enjoy all the "perks" of a distortion weapon with none of the trips to the Abyss, or if you just can't pass up that staggering damage output, then make sure to have a few scrolls of vulnerability on hand before unwielding it; each scroll you read will reduce your contamination by a small but significant amount.

History

Prior to 0.12, this sword would contaminate you a little bit every moment you spent wielding it. Combined with it freshly cursing itself every time you equipped it, this made it extremely undesirable.