Friday, November 20, 2020

The Identification of Several Items at Cothon-Under-Star

 Amongst the treasures brought forth from the Underworld by the six Survivors of the Tel during their escape, several artefacts seemed above and beyond the quality of any mere sword or art piece. Namely, a sword and a handful of arrowheads, claimed to have come from the tomb of Tammoz the Hunter, while Razo the scholar held to an ornate and delicately engraved silver-and-gold kyni-bird, said to have been found in a tomb of Hamdi the Voyager.

Though the majority of the items "reclaimed" from the Underworld by the Survivors were sold off for gold, so that the sellers could make their lives comfortable in the Mother of Cities, these few were held, and thence turned over to the sages and alchemists of the tavern Cothon-Under-Star (after full payment of confraternity-dues!) to see what might be discovered about their natures and histories ...

Over the course of the last week, myriad tests have been done, and all the works of history in the tavern's old library perused for clues as to the nature of these items. Master Alchemist Aljadd, more concerned with the proper growth of his bacta colonies, passed the project off to his Formularist Kenawi.

Thus Kenawi presents the fruits of his research to the Survivors:


Arrows +1 to hit

The easiest to identify amongst the proffered artefacts, the 6 arrowheads are enchanted with ancient spells to strike true and hard. It was a simple process to titrate reactive agents over the arrowheads until the dweomers revealed themselves in irradiative light in the darkroom; unfortunately, such is their age that the enchantment has been somewhat diluted, and while they might once have pierced deeper, the dweomers now only convey truth of flight (hence +1 to hit).

Fortunately, the alloy from which these arrowheads were smithed is such that it easily withstands extreme use; even if the shafts break, the arrowheads are recoverable, and can be tied to arrows anew, if time is spent recovering them from a corpse or battlefield (minimum 1 turn in-the-dungeon).


سيف نور النرهواس

The sword taken from the tomb of "Tammoz the Hunter" is engraved along its curved blade with runes calling it "the light of Narhavaas". Its hilts include a simple cross guard, while the pommel is a carved representation of a canine lomrel head containing a blue-sapphire gem such that it glitters bluely through the "eyes".

The eyes (and the gem within the pommel) shine forth with a weird blue light when Sesel or Ravna come near. Through experimentation, Sesel is able to bend his will into the sword, and to make the gem retain its shine, and to glow like a torch ...

As an item, the sword is +1 to hit; it shines bright-and-blue when any psionic energy is near; and the stone within the pommel may be "charged" with psionic energy, up to 20 points. So long as it is "charged" it sheds light like a torch (though blue); the points may be used by a psionic wielder as an additional reservoir, OR expended in a 10 point "flash" that has the effect of a light spell on any one opponent (blinds them if they fail a save v. spells).

The poetic history suggests that this sword--if it truly be "the Light"--was never actually wielded by Tammoz, but was laid in his grave by Narhavaas, Prince of Nous, after the Hunt of the Gadhar of Gera'a. For Tammoz had won the heart of Ygrain of the North, and Serenwar of the Healing Hands was jealous; and when Tammoz was fatally wounded by the Gadhar, Serenwar let the healing water trickle between his fingers rather than heal Tammoz while Ygrain and Tammoz's loyal Renyu follower lay beside him mourning. But Narhavaas, who had befriended the Hunter saw the heart of Serenwar and was disgusted, and he gave his sword to Tammoz in death by way of seeking redemption ...


نسّر

Whereas the identification of the sword is fairly straightforward--Kenawi sees its mentions in the histories, observes its proclivities in practice, and thus declares it "the Light of Narhavaas", the Formularist is much more taken by his research regarding the strange engraved bird figure brought forth by the Survivors.

Perhaps he is a fan of legendary Twelve Voyages of Hamdi--which naturally include only the twelve best-known quests and travels of the legendary sea-goer! Or perhaps he is a stickler for "truth"; either way, Kenawi spends an inordinate amount of time reading through old legends in his attempt to properly identify the nature of the odd bird-figure presented him by Razo.

Part of his knowledge-quest, as he reveals to Razo, is to discern between the lines of certain legendary discrepancies. For it is the case that in many legends of Hamdi that the Voyager is served by a living and cunning kyni that spies out many secrets and unknown coasts for the legendary sailor; and yet, in other versions, the same bird is described as "girded in finest feathers of orichalcon and gold," which suggests just such a device as presented now. (And if this truly be Nassr--aye, that's the name of the kyni-bird, living or not!--then surely it knows the locations of such secrets as the Underwater City, the Gilded Fleet of Jamal, or the lair of the King of Sro!)

Regardless of the truth of the artefact being Nassr-itself, it is indeed a magic item; called forth by the command, "'Adi sha'ad!", the bird will open its carefully-gilded wings and take flight to spy out the terrain and any "enemy" forces thereon for its master, and thence return to report such.

It may have further uses (or secret knowledge stores), but Kenawi is unable to access them in the short time of this last week.

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