Saturday, April 18, 2009

Magic Item: Grey Fangs

Jie Chue -- as happened on occasion, fate being what it will be -- once found a risen spirit lurking within his forge.

This spirit was a vengeful thing. Cursing and clawing, the spectre lay its fate at the swordsmith's feet. Jie Chue's gift did not prevent its death --

Unmoved by the prickling at his life, Jie Chue crafted four slim fangs from shining spirit and silver steel; marked out the cardinals about his forge, and turned his back on the wailing dead one.

A mendicant holy one came, after a time, and struck down the spectre to its proper hell.

Jie Chue gifted her the fangs without a word.


Grey Fangs: Slender and almost stiletto-like, though slightly curved, these four small blades are crafted of an enchanted alloy of silver and steel. Blade, quillions and hilt are all of one piece, the blade is honed razor sharp, and the grip is sheathed in bone mounted in silver. The pommel-nut is, on every blade, a hemisphere of brightly polished black iron, and each blade bears a tassel of grey silk cord and an intricate glyph etched onto the blade itself. All four fangs are identical.

If the owner of the Grey Fangs wishes, the fangs may be thrown (15' range, 1-3 hit points damage), and possess a magical +1 bonus to hit but not to damage. However, their true enchantment is one of warding.

Any area demarcated by the four fangs -- whether stuck in the ground, laid out flat, etc -- up to 40' feet in radius will be protected from the physical presence or spiritual invasion by undead creatures. The undead may not cross the intangible barrier created by the fangs. However, any disturbance of the blades will end the protection, as will any interaction with undead creatures held at bay by the fang's power. An undead creature may interfere with the placement of a fang but will suffer 3-12 hit points of damage for doing so. The barrier has an indeterminate duration, but may only be created once a day. All four fangs are required.

4 comments:

trollsmyth said...

Very cool! I love the way your magic items seem to leap out of the books and stories I might have read in my youth.

taichara said...

@trollsmyth:

Very cool! I love the way your magic items seem to leap out of the books and stories I might have read in my youth.Glad you liked it! :3 Is it that this one resembles something you read, or ...?

trollsmyth said...

Warding thingies (circles, medallions, salt, etc.) showed up a lot in the fantasy I've read, so yeah, this one really struck that chord. But many of your others have as well, like the sorta-feline fire elemental, and the enchanted bee sounds like something from 1001 Nights.

taichara said...

@trollsmyth:

Warding thingies (circles, medallions, salt, etc.) showed up a lot in the fantasy I've read, so yeah, this one really struck that chord. But many of your others have as well, like the sorta-feline fire elemental, and the enchanted bee sounds like something from 1001 Nights.Aah. Cool *grins* And I'm rather partial to the 1001 Nights, so I suppose the comparison isn't surprising at all --