Binding Lady Trouble (the 12 Tones rapier)

Steel Realms

Source: i20™ Adventure: ___

The blade is aware that it has essentially been lost and forgotten about. Its own memories are blurred and scattered after so long, but once it is around the living, especially any citizens of the kingdom of Gladnor, it will respond to touch at the very least by displaying its “Return Policy”.

Mourning: Realizing what is going on once it becomes “awake” again, the sentient blade will seek to dress the wrong caused by the assassination of its previous wielder. It will mourn for him, asking for a song to be sang along with it as a dirge for its past companion. It will detail his name and deeds. Anyone recording the words in some form can sell it as a history worth 400sc.

Memories Within the Blade

The rapier named “Lady Trouble“, one of Olivers 12 Tones has been languishing here since CY 5741, when Clinton Belweather, of the High Kings’ elite company of Black Gorgons out of Gladnor came seeking to settle a dispute with some of the remaining clansfolk of the Sea-Kings in the area (rumored to somehow me threatening another Salt Blight), and the early peoples seeking to settle after The Sundering (CY 5000) – taking over lands that the Sea Kings had mostly been forced to abandon. He was blinded by his own past successes and what he perceived to be the only logical outcome of his mission – a negotiated settlement. He was lured by promises of peace and ambushed by Orrish sent to his campsite at night guided by Lt. Uelf Hammarin of the Hammarin clan. He was killed, camped with his assistant Connor inside the remains of the castle of Ghorriden Hammarin. He sought to make a fighting retreat into the safety of the barracks in the castle, only to have the Lt. laugh in his face, and shut the sally gate to the underground barracks of the fallen castle.

The treachery earned the Lt. an ignominious death though, when he sought to confirm the fate of the Black Gorgon, and he himself was ambushed by the orks and slaughtered. The orks also lit on fire the remains of the castle, knowing that the deal made between the priestess of Elancil and priest of Sun Stealer gave them until the sunrise to have unfettered access to the castle remains. Afterward, the area was deemed cursed by Umbakians, future Dunstrandian settlers, the few Bronzefolk left, and even the Orrish themselves – the site just seemed to be inimical to all life. Those seeking to camp in it vanished. When Dwindor Swamp was formed, it sank beneath waterline soon after, sinking even deeper when the great temple of Apshai sunk beneath the water as one of the last acts of the fading Bronzefolk.

When the truce between Gwinn and the Duchy of Dunstrand came in CY 9168, The Gwinnish forces who had organized and supplied the Troglodytes of Calibans Slurry in Crestwold abandoned the tribe. The Lizardfolk and inhabitants of Crestwold had slaughtered quite a few of the troglodyte creatures and about half the remaining tribe sought refuge outside the old lair and to build up a raiding urge. The constant tremors in the area were used to signify the wrath of their gods, the Ur-Dragon, the Universal Dragon. This was turned into a discontent with the younger males of the damaged tribe, who were seeking for a means of revenge.

Then a group of adventurers (who had once been known as the Pin Feathers) brought powerful artifacts of evil into the Pranin Moorswood for the druids there to destroy. And they did, and the power of the Lich Lords was weakened. Elancil herself tried to stop them. She first violated the Godspeak Accord when she forced open the sealed door to the sunken Sea-King’s Apshai Temple. There she forcefully activated the broken and dreaded Birthing Caul of the ancient Sea-Kings. She was able to disgorge the lasts of its thralls, and caused many quakes and tremors and further damage to the already unstable temple to the lost glory of her people. She sent an Eerecloth (aboleth) south to gain control of creatures and directly manifest her will against the Pin Feathers. The troglodytes were commanded by it to ambush the group in the Pranin Moorswood, despite being down in numbers. Her attempt failed, and Apshai was so damaged that it sundered and cracked and will likely never rise above the waves again.

After her plans were directly thwarted by the PCs, she vowed revenge on the entire area of the Black Shore. To that end, she once again violated the Godspeak Accord again, raising up the ancient ruins of the barracks within the remains of the castle of Ghorriden Hammarin off the shores of the barony of Lilymarch, in the earldom of Bar-Innis. She summoned two demonic entities to work with the Eerecloth. These took control of the remaining militant troglodytes and caused them to start attacking anyone in the area. They delivered the rituals of the ‘turning tadpoles’ into devil rays and the ‘hunters feast’ that caused the tadpoles released into the broken temple of Apshai to be “fed” upon by the worms let loose from the Birthing Cauls.

Returning the Blade

In addition to the 1000sc return policy, the Guild of Solars and World Watchers will reward those seeking to return it without asking for aught else:

ONLY Applicable to the i20 Variant
  • 6 Healing Potions
  • Scroll of Speak with Dead
  • Potion of Animal Friendship
  • Potion of Gaseous Form
  • Potion of Heroism
Realm's Aptitude Powers: Divine, Occult, and Psychic