Wick the Old, famous storyteller

Flamberge Swords | Soluakh Crystals | Sword of Eternal Fire
Ring of the Black Scorpion | Dagger of the Eagle | War Chariot

 

Wield by the biggest, burliest and sometimes most flamboyant mercenary troops of Near World, massive two-hand swords are used to break the opposing army's front line. Carried by selected soldiers, the two-hander would be rushed forward to break the heads off the enemy's pikes. Once the line was jumbled, its user could choke up his grip for close quarters thrusting and chopping by holding the ricasso. It became so popular that whole schools of fence are devoted to its use. Eventually, the two-handers evolves into useless, ornate monstrosities called "bearing swords" which were carried in parades and sometimes weighed over 18 lbs! The flame blade, or "flamberge" is believed to cause more serious injuries, which may be not true, but certainly looks fearsome all the same. Hand forged, superbly tempered blade by Bak Steelcrafts is complemented by a grip and ricasso covered in leather.

Overall-63½" * Blade-46" long, 17/8" wide

Item	Cost	Weight (lbs.)	Size	Type	Speed	Damage S-M	Damage L
Flamberge	100gp	18	L	S	11	1d12	2d10

OBS: It`s the sword at the center of the picture above.

Soluakh crystals

This crystals are used by the adepts to absorb the mana from the world, unfortunately for them they are also very, very rare to find... The greatest ones ever found are true relics, and functions as major mana absorbing devices. They are located at the Arcann tower (see Cities & Places) and at the various mirror houses. Smaller crystals are more common (though still rare to see), but doesn`t have the same capability of the greater ones. Anyway, every soluakh crystal seen to have another ability: They can absorb the sunlight too, using it as a simple lantern, or redirecting as deadly bolts of pure light!

Some say that this rare jewels can only be found at the northern mountains of Dardeeh, called as "The Wall", but some skilled dwarven miners often find soluakh at the Rotun Mountains underground...

Using a smaller (about the same size of a common crystal ball) soluakh crystal, adepts can try to absorb some mana from the world, even without going to a miror house... Unfortunately, trough this method, they can only absorb up to 5 spell points per day. Use that as one 5th lvl spell, one 3rd lvl and one 2nd lvl spells, five 1st lvl spells, or any other combination resulting in five. Note that they cannot overlap his normal abilities, an 2nd lvl adept can`t cast a 5th lvl spell this way, he will have to wait until he is able to cast it normally.

Also, there`s the sunlight absorption. If a soluakh crystal passes at least three hours exposed to the direct sunlight, or five hours if it`s not direct (such as if the user is walking around a forest and the crystal passes by shadows from time to time...), the soluakh user will be able to cast one of the following magical effects:

-Cantrip(1st lvl wizard spell)for about 5 hours without concentration.
-Dancing Lights(1st lvl wizard spell) for one turn.
-Light(1st lvl wizard spell)for five turns, centered on the crystal itself.
-Flaming Sphere(2nd lvl wizard spell) for five rounds. The sphere is the crystal itself, so the caster is better be not touching it during the casting.
-Fireball(3rd lvl wizard spell) for 5d6 points of damage.

Finally, adepts can`t use solukh crystal until they are bound with it and it`s effects. To do so, an adept must spent at least one week trying to use the crystal about one hour per day. Once they understands the function of one of this crystals (every spell cast with the crystal have special command words), they will be able to use them all... But look for something: More soluakh crystals will not add more spell points per day to the adepts. So, an lucky adept carrying three of this jewels will only be able to absorb 5 points of spells per day, anyway. Though he can use the sunlight effects with everyone of them.

If you haven`t noticed it yet, soluakh crystals are better used if they are attached to some wand or staff. It can also be used as a thrown weapon, acting like an Oil of Fiery Burning; But note that it will only break after being thrown if the mage desires. There`s a 1% chance of the explosion being converted to a dimensional portal to the Elemental Plane of Radiance as well, sending all the matter inside its radius to a very distant place!

The Sword of Eternal Fire (Unique Artifact)

The Sword of Eternal Fire, also known as the KaranBlade, is the legendary artifact that Galtar Karan wielded to defeat the Balrog (see Ancient Lores)...

The sword itself is a very common long sword, except that within his blade there are twelve craved tiny red rubies, forming a circle right above it`s grip. The grip is covered with leather, and the blade looks like a very ordinary one... But this sword is much, much more than an ordinary long sword!

It is a Long Sword +5 with the following powers: -Delivers +10 damage, instead of +5, to any demon or demon kind. -It severs any limb on an attack of 17 or more, and any head on 20. -Gives total invulnerability to fire and any fire related attacks or creatures. No saving throw required. -Can travel to the elemental plane of Fire (though the user must know it`s existence first) and survive there. -Can ignite itself (requires one round), becoming a flaming blade and adding +1 to damage. -While ignited can shoot one fireball per turn, as a 17th lvl mage. -Has an intelligence of 17, and can speech or telepathy with flame tongue, demon tongue, ancient torannian, modern torannian, elven tongue and red dragon tongue. -Has the chaotic neutral alignment. -And finally the most important one: Can end the Balrog`s rage, sending him to another long sleep, if takes at least one point of damage from him.

Vortex

Legends also say that this sword was forged into the depths of The Nine Hells, and also that a fire elemental lost it when some great magician from Near World summoned him... But no one can say exactly from where this artifact is, nor where it have been. Just one thing you can say about it: It`s a real deadly weapon!

Ring of the Black Scorpion (Unique Artifact)

The Ring of the Black Scorpion is a legendary artifact of the khitaian culture. Many antique tales of these folks say that the Black Scorpion was an evil god, a god that managed to transmute himself into an ordinary scorpion, and he sent a telephatic suggestion to the most deadly scorpions of the lands, calling them to aid him in a diabolical plan. The evil god planed to plague the khitaian cities with the mortal bites of his army of poisonous creatures... Some say that the only objective of this god, called the Black Scorpion, was to kill all living khitaians, and start a new race of monsters based on his beloved scorpions...

But the khitaians discovered his plan, and sent another army, an army of ferocious warriors, to kill all scorpions alive. It was Haw-Matso-ju who finally killed the Black Scorpion with his katana, but the creature doesn`t simply got destroyed... Instead, it turned itself into a mysterious black ring, with a distinctive non-reflective metal. Unfortunately, and also unwisely, Haw-Matso-ju took these ring and set it into his own fingers... Immediately, he suffered an extreme pain, and felt that the ring craved itself into his fingers with tiny blades that surged from the part which makes contact with the skin. Scared, the warrior tried to take the cursed ring out his finger, but it simply didn`t managed to do that in a normal way, cause the ring was really deeply craved into his finger!

So, the desperate khitaian took his dagger and cut his own finger out... Amazingly, the blood who did spread out his injury had a light yellow color, but at this time Haw-Matso-ju wasn`t yet alive to see that... It is just a legend, but many khitaian wise men says that this ring really exists, and right now it is craved into someone`s finger, someone who will have to wear it till the end of his days...

Well, let`s go to the "technical" aspects of this mysterious artifact:

-It looks like a normal black metal ring, just a bit wider than a common wedding-ring, but it has a distinctive aspect: the metal is totally non-reflective.
-As anyone put it on his/her own finger, the ring craves itself on the wearer`s finger, and from now on can only be taken if the entire finger is cut (though if the wearer knows its function he will sure avoid this..)
-Craved on the wearer, the ring immediately starts to turn all the wearer`s blood into a unknown substance that functions as both blood and a deadly liquid poison... This process may take up to 5 minutes (in which the wearer can still cut his finger and stay alive), and the liquid has a light yellow color.
-After the 5 minutes, if the wearer takes the ring out, he will dies automatically (unless some wish spell or some powerful magic can be cast to avoid this..).
-The ring adds 1 point to his wearer`s Constitution score, and gives him totally invulnerability to any kind of poison (no saving throw required, and no damage taken by any means).
-The wearer`s blood is treated like a strength "J" poison (-5 to saving throw), and his deadly powers are always effective, no matter if the wearer want this or not.
-The ring has a chaotic evil alignment, and can be detected easily by any detect evil spells.

Dagger of the Eagle (Lesser Magical Item)

This dagger looks just like an ordinary one, excluding the tiny face of an eagle sculpted on the end of its grip... Actually, no magical powers will be revealed from this item until some blood drops upon the eagle`s face. Well, when that occurs, the dagger will start to show its magic:

-It will be treated as a Dagger +1 for the first round following the contact with blood, + 2 for the second round, + 3 for the third... And so on, until it reaches a +5 bonus at the fifth round. Also, during these rounds the dagger will glow a weak white light from its blade.
-At the start of the sixth round, the dagger will glow a strange red light, and will start to shake on its wielder hands (or on any other place it was left). During that round no attacks will can be made with the dagger, but the wielder will note that the dagger is seeking some living target to strike... If there`s no living target in 10-foot radius, the dagger will seek its own wielder next round. If the dagger was left on the ground, it will seek the nearest living target.
-Finally, at the seventh round, the dagger will fly alone to strike the desired target, just like a magic missele. It will take 1d8+5 points of damage, and will remain stuck on its victim.
-Now the dagger`s blade and grip will turn black, and it will be treated as a Dagger -1 for the next 24 hours, in which any blood contact will have no effect at all...

Biamindua`s Magnificent War Chariot

Marcus Odissey Biamindua, the supreme sorceror of the Magic House, didn`t got his rank without the use of his high intelligence: Being a powerful magic user, but still having a fragile health, Biamindua designed with the aid of the gnome Gnosha Galliezzo a strong magical vehicle to transport and protect him through the now dangerous lands of Near World.

It is a War Chariot with two floors, this list bellow will explain its details (but it will be better understood if you see the bigger image by clicking on this thumbnail): -It is carried by four elven horses (Semi- to low (2-7) Intelligence, can follow simple verbal commands) using horseshoes of Ogre Power (Str 18/00) and Elven Chain Bardings (AC 4), so just two of them would be sufficient to carry the entire chariot (which is very heavy indeed!) -The charioteer`s chair (where Thr, the dwarven "bodyguard" goes) is protected by a Wall Shield +3, giving +5 AC bonus against misseles. -At the sides, there are small windows with Heavy Crossbows fixed on an base. There are also two chairs, one is fixed on the floor, the other hides a lever which unlocks it and reveals an exit to outside (that can be real useful to surprise enemies!) -The backdoor and all its structure is reinfoirced with wood from Mahul Maakh, and very resistant to fire (+4 to saves) -Inside it there are two large chests to keep magical breads (sufficient for about 3 months of food to 5 people), wineskins, torchs and stuff like that...

Click to see it bigger!

-There are also a table fixed to the wall that can be used to read maps and study scrolls, as well as the wooden stairs to the second floor.
-Finally, on the second floor there is the "Lance Thrower", a huge crossbow made by Galliezzo that actually shots small lances! It must be used by two people, and will shot once every two rounds (1/4 with just one user), but only warriors with 15 or more on Strength can reload it. It inflicts 1-10 points of damage, but there are also some ignitable oils which may add 1-6 points of fire damage as well (roll both 1d10 and 1d6)

This chariot can be particularly useful on an apocalypse, while there would be demons everywhere! I created this chariot for the book final chapters (see Design Team), when the heroes traveled from Bak to Talantha inside it (this book is in portuguese, but I think you can imagine the fun of having a group of heroes traveling around the lands and killing flying baldreads with lance shots, hehe...)

3rd

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