I had been thinking about getting the Infernal into our saga in an indirect approach, by making a NPC put his hands into an infernal enchantment, but I hadn't found much examples of such things, which seems surprising, as infernal malleficia are quite nasty things to armor someone with. Maybe so nasty, indeed, that I think I may be doing something wrong, but I hadn't found many examples of infenrnal enchantments to check against, surprising thing. So let me submit this little toy here to see if I messed something up.
The idea is to play a bit around the Excalibur myth, giving it an evil twist. So I'm assuming that there is an infernalist swordsmith (or even better, an infernal cult of smiths), following a tradition that favors the abilities of Summoning, Binding, Incantation and Consumption (some concerns about this set of abilities later). If I hadn't got things wrong, RoP: The Infernal says that someone with the goetic art Binding virtue can spent a season binding a creature with might to an item and that opens room for Might x 5 spell levels of anything, maleficia included, and that in order to put an effect into the item he have to "succesfully perform the ritual that cast it", using Laboratory Rules to include levels for uses per day, creature maintaining concentration and so on. But it just says that the binder just have to cast his ritual, not doubling the level of anything, as in lesser enchantments when magi have to get a lab total of twice the effect level, or getting partial seasonal advancements by exceding the target level. So if I'm right anything my binding swordsmith have to do, after binding anything into his sword, is cast some stuff over it to have them stored and powered by the creatures in the sword, right?
So let's say our guy forges a particularly beautiful sword and then binds a couple of demons of Might 5 and 15, which gives him 20 x 5 = 100 levels of enchantments to put into the sword, and then he performs the following maleficia over the item:
Future King's Right
(Incantation/Consumption 38) This effect is supossed to be activated when a new wielder gets his hands over the sword (but it can only be done once per day, in case a lot of people are playing to toss it from one to another. Grogs have silly games). The ideal scenario for the enchanter is to have two noble brothers finding it and struggling to get it, with the effect activating when one of them gets the weapon. At that moment the new wielder gets a +4 Leadership bonus, while the former/failed one gets a -4 Leadership bonus. As time passes, they both suffer physiscal changes, with the wielder getting a more noble and imposing look and the victim looking weaker and mischievous. The effects lasts until the wielder repents or someone gets the sword from him, when it's activated again. with turn tables. (Base 4, +1 Touch, +4 Forsaken, +2 Victim, +3 Enviromental trigger)
Fearful Strike of the Rightfull King
(Incantation/Consumption 30) If the weapon wielder exherts himself in combat and strikes a rival, the lost fatigue level is transferred to the rival/victim. (Base 5, +1 Touch, +2 Victim, +10 Unlimited uses)
Trial by Combat's Justice
(Incantantion/Consumption 30) When the sword wielder engages his victim in combat, he gets a +4 bonus to his Single Weapon skill as long as the fight goes on, while the vicim gets a -4 bonus to the same skill. The effect doesn't work if the victim isn't using Single Weapon at all (i.e., he's using Brawl, Great Weapon or Bows, or no fighting at all). If the victim dies before combat is over, the effect ends, but it begins again when the wielder engages his next foe. (Base 3, +1 Touch, +2 Victim, +10 Unlimited uses, +1 Duration more or less like Diam.)
And that would be it, 98 levels of maleficia. None of the effects have any penetration because the item is meant to be use by mundanes against mundanes (or more probably because the infernal smitthies cult hadn't thought about the need of it).
Back to my concenrs about the infernal tradition's favored abilities, infernal traditions tend to have only 3 favored abilities related to the ars goetia or the maleficia, the 4th favored ability being some other tainted supernatural virtue like Shapeshifter, Entrancement or anything of the like). There are two possible solutions for these concerns, the first one being wavehanding them (they are NPCs, after all), and the second one would be to leave summoning out and get them another supernatural ability that fits them. That would make their infernal enchantment work a lot harder, as they have to find a way to get the demons they need to power their infernal item, but it could also explain why there are few infernal items around. And even when it's stated in the book that binded creatures usually are so against their will, I definetively can imagine a demon willing to get into that sword, impossing sinful personality traits over the weapon's current and potential owners, helping it to change from one hand to the next and enjoying all the bloodshed in the way.
I like the item as probably my players will just see a minor and unexpected lord rise surprisigingly fast and violently, and probably spent quite a while trying to figure what's happening with him until they find about the sword's nature. As my players tend to ignore nobility and their issues, by the time they'll have to deal with it the consequences of the item's powers can be quite disturbing.
So do you see it doable?