The sun was swallowed whole, and Jie Chue swept swiftly towards his forge as the sun's darkness touched the earth beneath his feet, only to pause as a shadow fell across his own.
Dust-worn and weary the traveller stood, his trials plain and his oaths plainer still; bled dry to his core, betrayer and betrayed against his knowledge. Jie Chue nodded once.
The stranger he gifted with the earth's own darkness and a single breath:
Keep loved ones close, and hated ones closer.
Earth's Ending: This sword is heavy and broad of blade, sharpened on both edges and coming to a blunt point. The blade is forged of one piece with the hilt from a mottled, tawny-bronze alloy and is shot through with silky black marbling along the length of the blade itself. Earth's Ending possesses a simple grip of brown jasper plaques carved with indentations for curled fingers; its quillions are simple, heavy and swept back slightly, its pommel a heavy bronze ring bearing a tassel of tawny leather braids.
Earth's Ending is a two-handed sword +2. Its damage is considered aspected to elemental earth; it inflicts half again its damage against all creatures of the air. At will, the wielder of Earth's Ending may choose to bestow one or more of the blade's bonuses to a companion within 100'; this earthen embrace bestows a bonus to Armour Class equal to twice the blade bonus gifted in the form of a flexible skin of tawny stone, until two turns pass or the the blade's wielder revokes the embrace. When this ability is invoked, the veins of darkness in the sword beat once.
Once the embrace has been bestowed 2-12 times, Earth's Ending promptly erupts in a roiling mass of ink-black energies, engulfing all within a 20' radius of its bearer. This scorched earth inflicts 3-12 hit points of damage on all caught within its reach save for the wielder of Earth's Ending, who instead takes -2 to Strength and Wisdom for twenty-four hours. The count then resets.
11 comments:
New posts at the Hoard! Welcome back.
What a wonderful surprise to start the new year and what a magnificent but frightening sword. Great to see.
@Brendan: Thank ye kind! :3 No idea how often I'll be posting, but yeh -- tis new stuff *grins*
@David: And many thanks to you also :3
You are an artist, and like all artists you must create as you are compelled. I have no other way to describe what you produce than art.
I must admit, I've missed you, and also Jie Chue. I'd love to learn more about that guy!
@HappyFunNorm: Aww, thank you ~!
One of these days I might elaborate Jie Chue a bit, but I admit to being of two minds about the idea; the detail would be good, but a little of the oddity of "his" posts might get lost in the translation.
Good to see you back in action for the New Year. Long may it continue!
@noisms:
Thank ye! I don't think I can go back to the old post-a-day, but I'll try not to disappear *grin*
Glad to have you back blogging! I love the feel of your spells and magic items especially, and look forward to more musings from you. (I've wanted to unleash a swarm of cricipters on a party ever since I read about them.)
The sword is cool, but the "Scorched Earth" strikes me as kind of brutal for a "limit break"; most times, the wielder's friends will get caught in the blast too. Also, did you intend for the wielder to not be able to give him/herself the AC bonus?
@Gabriel:
Thank ye very much!
On your two questions about Earth's Ending, both of those features are actually entirely intentional -- like many of Jie Chue's gifts/creations, the sword has a sting in the tail.
So good to see you back.
You are clearly still in possession of your charms and, for me, a very fortuitous post in a couple of ways.
@Herb:
Please pardon the delay! Google seems to have decided I didn't need my notification immediately *pokes it with a stick*
Thank ye very kind for the encouragement :3 I'm glad to hear that this post was well-timed for you *grins*
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