The Gi'en Scroud

Gi’en Scroud (Scroud’s Skillet)

A young man stumbled half-naked into the Oddend Inn one morning, an hour before midday. Covered in strange claw-like scars and terrible brands, he told a fearsome tale of the lich Chiornis, and the strange, ever-hot skillet that was used to inflict the wounds. Cane Perras, a chronicler from Scroud’s capital, intrigued by the unusual description of the skillet, set out to track down the doubtless unusual history of the item.

The skillet, named by Cane the Gi’en Scroud, had its origin in one Gran Kiere, a historian and minor spellcaster from the country of Gile. Kiere was exploring a set of ruins in the heart of the Gilen mountains, long thought to be the lair of a dragon or a forgotten kingdom. According to Kiere, the mountains were more heavily infested with wolfrats than locals had led him to believe, and his only weapons, a trio of minor enchanted daggers acquired the fall before in a king’s tomb, were inadequate for defense. Using his skillet as a base, he attached the daggers to the front of it in perpendicular fashion, adding his compass to it as an afterthought, and a way of checking his location without disarming himself.

Upon his return, and his victory over the young dragon indeed presiding over the ruins, he turned it over to the innkeeper of the Gile Crest, a place known for its hosting of the semiregional bizzare weapons group annual meeting. Despite never being sold, the skillet was praised by the group as a true piece of weapons innovation, and was the precursor to the lethal cookware often sold to adventurers today. Regrettably, the history of the item was then lost due to a large fire caused by an angry mother dragon destroying the inn. The inn has since been rebuilt, and is now known as the Oddend Inn.

To further trace the item’s already bizzare history, Cane managed to contact the original architect of the Gile Crest, who informed Cane that the skillet had come into his possession. Having no use for a bladed skillet, the architect gave the skillet to the now renowned Burned Bard. Contacting the Burned bard about the skillet after a show, Cane was surprised to learn that the skillet was the direct cause of the Bard’s injury. In a particularly rainy spell, the bard had used some of his magic to enchant the skillet to be ever hot, so as to cook food without a fire. Although the bard had taken suitable precautions on the spell, the enchantments still lingering in the daggers interfered in the spell, causing it to constantly radiate its intense heat, doing harm to anything flammable that it touched. Burned by the skillet, the Burned Bard dropped the skillet into a nearby stream in an attempt to cool it down, but had to leave when threatened by a nearby camp of goblins.

Upon investigating the former camp of the goblins, Cane discovered that they had used the skillet to burn a large amount of farmland and forest, as well as themselves, causing the great food shortage just five years ago. It was at this time that the Lich Chiornis came into power, aggravating the kingdom of Scroud to no end. A group of adventurers at the Oddend Inn, managing to defeat Chiornis, were able to fill in the remaining parts of the puzzle. Chiornis, having traced the history of the skillet and seeing the disasters wreaked around it, had taken the skillet and used it in his conquests, utilizing it as his main weapon, and primary mode of torture. The skillet, due to its enchantment, had been left behind in what little remained of the lich’s hideaway, being too dangerous to reliably carry around.

***

The Gi'en Scroud can serve as both a stabbing weapon, a slashing weapon, and a bashing weapon, as well as dealing fire based damage to the target each time. Unless the user has a fire immunity, however, constant damage will be taken from using the Gi'en Scroud. Exact percentages and damage dealt are up to the discretion of the the GM.