Icicle Sword

Full Item Description
A broadsword with a blade that is allways freezing to the touch even in the heat of the desert, with a single long white feather fixed within the grooved blade of the weapon.

History
In the old days, the continent of Asterleth was one where the dragons had full control, until the men of the De Madden Company came. The dragon in whose territory they sailed into was curious about them so he did not set their ship afire, something he would bitterly regret decades later as he lay dying with ballista bolts in his lungs. They gave him gifts and he permitted them to establish a village of their own and to mine for what he saw as the worthless amethyst deposits on the coast.

The dragons did not have magic of their own; they did not consider that they needed it. The old ones were truly monstrous in size and even the younger ones were the size of a forty-oared ship. When the village became a town and then a city the dragon did not mind as long as the tribute paid mainly in food increased.

Nor did the others since it meant that they no longer had to hunt for their food. Unknown to them however, the Company would have the last laugh. One summer they came with a full war fleet, with the weaponry and battle-mages on board that could even bring a dragon down. When they attacked six dragons were killed in a single day and others fled into the territory of rivals and came into conflict with them. Even then the dragons might well have won had they united but unwilling to do so, they were killed or driven away.

One refused to go and settled in a cave in the bitter cold of the Devils Teeth Mountains, from where he made raids on anyone who dared to go anywhere near him. It was not long before he had depopulated the entire region. Amongst those he killed were the wife and three children of a beloved bard and mage.

The mage got an audience with the Admiral in charge of the province but was told that as there were no known treasures in the Dragons Teeth mountain range, and as it was so bitterly cold, it was not worth sending in the soldiers to deal with the dragon. The mage vowed to slay the dragon single handed and sailed north and south and east and west to find the ingredients to forge a weapon mighty enough to slay such a beast.

It took him years to track down a Stamagast At first the elemental just saw him as prey, but after he sang it a long and sad song about the deaths of his family and then gave it some chilled vodka, it was so pleased that not only did it not kill him, it willingly granted him one of its large white tail feathers when he asked for it.

Then he went south to the Sorcery Springs Geyser Basin and with some difficulty gathered some water from the Spring of Silence that was one of the springs that was closed to the public.

He next went west to the isle of {Banhoesea] itself and had a sword forged of Chathelgcahl Steel The feather was glued within a groove of the blade after it had been quenched in the water from the Spring of Silence.

He then went east and his last quest was the hardest of all, not because of any great danger but because of the sheer difficulty of finding a Priest of Mathom and then getting him to bless the weapon in a particular way. After many years and mishaps he got what he wanted and then spent further years working enchantments into the weapon.

Two decades after his family had been eaten he came back to seek revenge. He was in his sixties now and should have frozen to death in the bitter artic winds before ever reaching the dragons cave but Mathoms localized blessing kept the bitter winds from draining his life away.

He penetrated the dragons cave and saw it from behind, lying on the things it had taken from the people of the area. A great Red Dragon it was, its great size and internal heat keeping it safe from the bitter cold. Hoping that his spells would work, knowing if they do it he would be a mere snack to this beast, he sliced at the tail. It cut through the scales and drew blood, a mere scratch however to this beast.

When it saw him it at once tried to bite down on him was when he activated one of the swords powers and a thin yet strong globe of ice formed around him. The dragon could neither pierce it with its fangs nor swallow such a cold item, which would have frozen its throat all the way down. It tried to speak a spell but found itself silenced by the magic of the weapon, unable to utter a sound.

It tried using its breath weapon next, but although the icy shell was partly melted it held, and as the Dragon drew in another breath the mage dropped the shield spell, rushed in and stuck the sword into the dragon as deep as it would go. By itself the wound would not have killed the dragon, but it sent a wave of icy cold into it, which froze part of the dragons huge heart.

It was only a small part of that organ that suffered, but as it was beating it was unable to expand and contract with the rest of the heart and split open. The mighty beast rapidly died from internal bleeding. But no sooner has it died then the power the mage had used turned on him and even Mathoms blessing that had so far kept him warm was not enough. He fell at the foot of the dragon he had slain and froze to death.

When they eventually found that the dragon was gone and went into its cave, he was honoured as a hero and given a funeral at which thousands of people, now free to go back to the lands of their fathers, attended.

Magic/Cursed Properties
The powers of the Icicle Sword are fourfold. The first power is that whoever is holding it, whilst they may face discomfort from the cold, will never face frostbite or worse, and this power can be enjoyed without harming the user, and is granted by a particular blessing from a priest of Mathom.

The second is that someone wounded by it, even if the wound is a scratch, looses the power to speak for ten minutes. (which is a very long time in a fight.) Again, this power does not harm the user, and is caused by the effects of the magical water mixed with certain potent enchantments.

The other two are the powers to create a thin but amazingly strong global shield of ice around the user and the power to launch a frost attack. The wound that the sword causes (provided that it is not parried) will freeze, killing the target outright if deep enough on the body, or crippling limbs. Unlike the other two powers however, these two have a price attached to them. Even using them for a short time will drain the life force of the user, and any long-term use will, once the battle has been won, freeze the user to death even if he or she is in a warm climate.