Oblivion:Skull of Corruption

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Daedric Artifact: Skull of Corruption (00027116)
Type	Staff
Editor ID	DASkullCorruption
Statistics
Health	100
Weight	10	Value	1270
Enchantment
Corruption for 30sec
Charge/Cost = Uses		3000/150=20

The Daedric artifact Skull of Corruption is a staff given as a reward for completing Vaermina's Daedric Quest. It creates an identical clone, including any equipment, of (almost) any NPC you hit with it. The target NPC will usually be immediately hostile to their double. Firing the staff at a friendly NPC is considered an attack, even though it doesn't actually hurt the NPC, however if the clone kills the NPC this will not count as a murder by the player. What follows is the target NPC fighting with his/her clone, and maybe with you too. The clone then disappears after 30 seconds.

The staff can only be used on NPCs (not creatures). It will not work on anyone who is considered to be a guard. The exact definition of "guard" used in this context is not obvious, but it is likely to mean any NPC whose class is "Guard" or "GuardBattlemage", in which case it includes all anonymous varieties of Guards, Bodyguards, Jailors, Watchmen, Soldiers, Foresters, and Imperial Legion Battlemages, as well as multiple named NPCs.

[edit] Notes

• If used on an essential NPC, the clone created will also be considered essential and thus, cannot be killed. The clone will still disappear after 30 seconds.
• The clone will have duplicates of all of the target's equipment with only a few exceptions, namely the Skull of Corruption, Umbra, and Wabbajack. These three artifacts are explicitly removed from the clone's equipment.
• It is possible to drop the staff and attack an unarmed NPC. They will pick it up and use it against you, creating a clone of yourself which will attempt to kill you. Your clone may equip your best items (not taking into account enchantments), and seems to be unable to use your custom spells. If you are involved in/head of any factions, the clone will shout lines about that faction while fighting you. If you kill the clone, you will be kicked out of all your factions because, in essence, you just killed yourself.
• Items can be duplicated if you possess both the Skull of Corruption and either the Staff of Worms or the Risen Flesh Greater Power (a reward for the Shivering Isles quest Ghosts of the Hill of Suicides). This technique may require multiple tries, because multiple steps need to be completed in the time before the reanimation effect expires:
  1. Place the item you wish to duplicate onto the corpse of a dead NPC.
  2. Reanimate the corpse using the Staff of Worms or the power.
  3. Use the Skull of Corruption on the reanimated body and kill the corrupt copy before the original person dies.
  4. Retrieve the duplicate item from the corrupt corpse.

[edit] Bugs

• The game will crash if a corrupted clone vanishes with the Skull of Corruption equipped. You can reproduce this by killing an NPC, removing their weapons, reanimating them, cloning them, and then dropping the staff before the clone enters combat. The clone will pick up the staff, and as soon as the clone or reanimated corpse dies the game will crash.
• A glitch on the 360(probably works for PC and PS3 as well) did copy the skull of corruption in the Shivering Isles expansion in the Grove of Reflection, however the staff does not function. It's unsure why or how it happened but DO NOT pick up the copied Skull of Corruption if you copy your clone in the Grove of Reflection.