Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Magic Item: Edge of Dawn

Edge of Dawn: With heavy yet sinuous, curving lines and an almost organic design -- its grip contoured to fit the fingers, the bulbous curves of its quillions flowing into its deep-bellied blade -- the Edge of Dawn seems alien, unrelated to anything in the known world. Nor does its material dispel this thought, as the huge battle-blade is formed entirely of a pale golden glassy substance tinted with the merest touch, at blade-edge and raised whorls, of pink and colourless fire. Rippled and textured, particularly in the hilt, Edge of Dawn appears to have been poured ... or grown.

Edge of Dawn is a two-handed sword +2. Against amorphous creatures and beasts of chaos, the blade glows with an inner light and inflicts double damage.

When the Edge of Dawn has been used to destroy twenty creatures against which it is inimical, in any combination, its power of dawn patterning may be invoked. As much as ten cubic yards of raw material (cut wood or even felled trees, raw ore, bales of wool) may be transmuted into finished materials or objects, or ten cubic feet of "natural" matter (plants, stone, earth, simple animals) may be called into existence from literally nothing. Dawn patterning is reset even if the maximum amount of material is not shaped or created at once; the count of destroyed creatures begins again at zero whenever the power is used.

Though the sword has never revealed itself to be sapient, some wielders of the blade have recorded the sensation of an ancient presence watching their spirits and weighing their actions while they have borne the Edge of Dawn. The sword's alien form and substance, and its unique properties, suggest to many scholars that it is assuredly an artefact -- or even direct conduit -- to the forces that shaped the world. Despite its apparent benignity, the Edge of Dawn may bring more than expected to an unwitting or displeasing wielder.

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