Quedoths Blade
The grudging gift of thankful mermen, a fine blade with a bit of baggage.
Quedoth's blade is a graceful, willow-leaf shaped sword, with its deep silver-blue metal exclaiming its aquatic origins. The hilt bears exquisite sapphires and black opals, and grip sharkskin with platinum wire.
Underwater, the blade leaves a trail of effervescent bubbles that create tiny flashes of light when they collapse. In the air it simply sings.
Quedoth earned the thanks of the otherwise hostile, and man-eating merfolk of the Kanarstead islands, through his rescue of their queen. She had been captured by the sea witch Anatha who intended on stealing her body for her own use. Quedoth took on the mission after he was himself captured by the mer-folk, who were somewhat aware of his surface-side reputation. He succeeded of course, though his less than gentlemanly manner with the rescued queen nearly cost him both reward and life.
Magical Properties
The weapon is forged from Ve'laan and as such is a thing of the sea. It can pass through water unimpeded by resistance, much of this simply due to its exquisite thinness. It is very sharp and deadly both above and beneath the waves.
By intentionally wounding themselves with the weapon, the bearer of the blade will transform into a large shark, the blade temporarily disappearing in the process. No other items are so stowed. To leave shark form, they must somehow beach themselves and let their skin dry out. They can then emerge from the now paper-thin sharkskin in their normal form along with the sword. This process is quite hazardous as it is possible for them to suffocate during the process and they are terribly vulnerable throughout. Generally one would have allies carry them somewhere warm, dry and protected to return to normal. Quedoth has a hidden, partially underwater cave he uses for this purpose.
Should the PC's lack a means to adventure below the depths, the sword could include the ability to grant a limited number of water-breathing abilities.
The blade's location is detectible by the merfolk, and so are any sounds made in its proximity.
Plot Hooks
Loose Lips...
The weapon is still of the sea - and the merfolk are fickle. The merfolk are aware of the location of the blade, and can hear anything nearby. Quedoth's disdain for the merfolk , their queen ('a ruby-lipped salmon') and his petty plans and intrigues are known to them, and he is a marked man. Unfortunately for the PC's, this same Quedoth is the captain they have booked passage with. And today is the day they have chosen to settle matters.
Debts Repaid
While Quedoth succeeded in rescuing the Queen, he did not slay the Sea Witch, and so left behind a powerful enemy. Should the PC's perhaps defeat/kill Quedoth and seize his sword, the Witch may choose this timeframe to seek out Quedoth. There is enough of Quedoth's spirit entwined into the blade that her scrying would lead her to the PCs. She is not terribly rational, so if Quedoth is unavailable for vengeance, then the PC's will simply have to do. She has, unfortunately, dispatched her ‘Thing'.
The Thing
The sea witch who created this thing never deigned to name it. It is a terrible combination of creatures - a flesh golem of the waves. The torso of the creature - a sea lion of great size, with bits and pieces of shells forming armor on much of it. For arms, on the left are four octopus tentacles, the right, some giant crab or lobster claw of sufficient size to encircle a stout man's waist. Legs perhaps taken from some unfortunate ogre allow it to walk on land, while the back third of a shark gives it a powerful tail for swimming. Its head is a massive beaked sea turtle while its back is covered with the tentacles of giant sea anemones. It cannot talk nor understand the speech of anyone beside its creator. It is somewhat alive but highly resistant to all but the most potent of poisons. It has phenomenal healing power but may be slain with most weapons, though it is well armored and can survive wounds beyond mortal man.
For King and Country
The PC's have been tasked with apprehending the Pirate who carries the blade, either directly, or in response to an open bounty. When they find him, either of the above plots could come to fruition as well. Prior to that point, the PC's would have been lead on quite the wild goose chase as Quedoth does not stay in one place long, and has a nose for dangerous locations.
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? Responses (10)
A quick one, inspired by Ve'laan. If you like this submission, be sure to give Dozus's Ve'laan as visit as well :)
Still a solid piece however this one has some typos. For example, in the first section, 3rd paragraph, 'through' has become 'though'. In the last plot, 'they' is typed as 'then'. Also, in the title, the apostrophe has been eaten up?
Lack of apostrophe is due to that sometimes breaking something. I suppose I could have reworked it to The Sword of Quedoth, but I have 10 zillion subs already with titles starting with The :P
I see, I thought the apostrophe might have been eaten rather than being intentional. I remember in migration to version 3, all apostrophes in my subs had been eaten and I had to manually add them back in.
And yeah, with items, it's sometimes just so natural to name them The.....
I don't get it, does everyone who gets cut by the sword turn into a shark? That would be hilarious during underwater battles. I know it says the bearer of the sword, but how does that work? What if an enemy grabs the sword while the original bearer is still holding it, would he also be counted as the bearer?
If it had been like, press the pommel of the sword to polymorph the bearer, okay.
But you use the blade to initiate it. While dramatic, that's the end that's gonna end up hitting others more than yourself, so... Just wanna figure out how it is triggered.
Is the blade sentient? How does it know that you are intentionally cutting yourself, as opposed to nicking yourself by mistake.
The answer to your question is likely to fall into the category of game system mechanics. The absolute requirement is that the sword's bearer must intentionally wound themselves - not another, regardless of willingness. Unless taken from them, the sword still only works for the bearer. Others grabbing it, or impaled by it, will not transform.
As for how does it know? - magic. The action of wounding oneself with intent in mind is sufficient to invoke the magic. I think the theme of wounding oneself and spilling blood into the water is a far more atmospheric means to invoke it then buttons. If it makes it clearer, then assume that the act of shedding ones own blood with a mental image of becoming a shark is actually a ritual.
Love the physical description of the blade, and the baggage that comes with it. Perhaps the blade wasn't forged specifically for Quedoth, but was what he chose as his reward (which may be another source of anger for the merfolk). If it wasn't forged for him originally, I wonder who owned it in the past. I also like the idea of giving this thing sentience and having it act as a sort of 'demonic other half' of your brain when you are in shark form.
Overall, a beautifully formatted sub for a well-thought out item.
I loved the idea of having to beach himself. The idea of a large shark on the beach is one thing, then the thought of a man ripping through its skin and walking away is almost priceless!
Very creative idea and well limited item. The story is as good as the item is.
Don't know how I missed this one before. Really nice work, I like the aquatic elements (mermen, wereshark transformations, etc.) that you worked in.
