The Veterans Sword

The Veteran’s Sword started off as just another ordinary military one- handed longsword made by the blacksmiths who toiled within the Royal Legions of Queen Yocasta making swords, spears and armor, getting double pay for their efforts at the force. As an ordinary sword it was not enchanted to make it better in battle. That cost far too much to give enchanted weapons to those below the rank of major general, despite the war wizards learning combat magic within the austere, joyless surroundings of East Point Military Academy.

It ended up in the hands of Legionnaire Aaron Mitchell, but not before he had spent a year training with wooden weapons that were deliberately made twice as heavy as the real metal weapons to build up his muscles. He passed basic training with flying colours and was soon thrown into battle, first in raids against the goblin warrens, and then against better armed and better trained forces, the soldiers of the country of Karnivhal. He may have possibly been one of the soldiers who captured the goblin maiden who later became The Countess Pelly but he had no part in guarding or otherwise staffing the Princess Training School run by Dracia Eldren.

He soon became a Chosen Man and then a Sergeant and later an Optio, and after twenty years of soldiering was promoted further to Centurion in charge of a hundred soldiers, and then to First Centurion in charge of a thousand soldiers, and, near retirement, to knight and Centurion Major, the third in command of a Legion, which was normally the highest rank that a non- noble in the Queen’s Army could reach. If he had joined the Queen’s Navy instead, a man as capable as him might have risen to Admiral, as noble rank counted far less in a situation where an incompetent noble might end up wrecking an enormously expensive warship on a reef.

With one final military campaign before retirement and an honourable discharge , and a plot of land that he would own awaiting him, he faced the armies of Karnivhal once more upon The Field of 10,000 Skulls where many a battle had been fought in the past, right back to when the Lizardman Empires were young. Unfortunately his side lost the battle and he perished with his face to the foe, refusing to join the rout of his men or submit to capture and possible slavery or gladiator combat. Out of admiration for his bravery and military courtesy, his sword , that now bore a military crest but was otherwise the same that it had always been, was handed over to the Vallermoorians, along with his body.

His best friend William Brown, a veteran soldier who had come up through the ranks like himself, was granted the sword in Aaron’s will, whilst a plain sword was buried with Aaron in case he needed it in the afterlife. Several years later William was one of the bodyguards of Queen Amber, the escapee from the Princess Training School who had ended up taking the throne herself, when the other legionnaires announced that they had enough of the Queen and intended to assassinate her.

He was the only soldier there who defended her and refused to switch sides, first swiping at them with his vine staff as if they were merely naughty or lazy soldiers and then drawing his sword. They slew him and Queen Amber too, but ten of them died doing it. One of the mutineers took the sword and it vanished, but it is said that someday a hero wielding it will rescue Vallermoore if the nation is ever seriously threatened.

The magic of the Veterans Sword has seeped into it from the skill of its users over fifty years or so. In stats terms, in the hands of an average person it grants a +2 bonus to skill, but in the hands of a well trained military veteran it grants a +6 bonus to skill, and in the hands of an elite soldier with more then twenty five years of military experience, it grants a +10 skill bonus.

Apart from the golden crest upon its hilt, the symbol of the Royal Legions, it looks like an ordinary longsword that a private soldier would be issued with- for that is what it is. Aaron Mitchell chose to keep it through all his military campaigns, no matter how high he rose in rank. PCs might buy it in an antique shop, steal it from a knight’s tomb or a nobleman’s house, or be awarded it as a reward for rescuing someone or saving a town from attack.

( This was meant as part of another 7 things submission but I have done so many of those recently that I thought I might as well create a few individual items.)