EJGRgunner/DaishoOfFallenGlories
Contents
Daisho of Fallen Glories
Description & Narrative
Lahrus dreamed. His mind floated far away from his body, and he could see himself lying on the floor of The Gilded Dragon. The scent of opium drifted away as he passed out of the room, out into the night, up into the heavens looking down on Great Forks. Soon he was floating high above creation, dancing amongst the stars. It seemed the cosmos was throwing a grand gala for Lahrus' ascension, and all about him stars waltzed and sauntered in the most elegant masquerade ball imaginable. Ankaa wore a mask of gilded metal, more beautiful than the mythic Moonsilver or Orichalcum whispered of in the slave quarters. The Maiden of Serenity herself greeted Lahrus, and asked him for a dance.
"Do you know the Dance of the Emerald Shawl?" she asked Lahrus.
And then, without waiting for his reply, she conjured forth a fabric like verdant silk. She extended the fluttering green tendril towards Lahrus... or perhaps it wafted towards him of its own accord... and it encircled his wrist. Lahrus and the Maiden were now enjoined. They danced perfectly, moving with syncopated elegance and the full panoply of stars hushed at the beauty of their performance.
Lahrus and the Maiden twirled around each other again and again, each turn, each moment more and more rapturous. HThe pair needed no music; each movement of their perfected bodies was a symphony. This was heaven, and Lahrus was home.
As Lahrus danced through the universe that twirled about him, a dark shadow creeped into the corner of his eye. Lahrus tried to concern himself, but the dance had not stopped, and all of Creation was the dance.
For a moment, Lahrus saw dual shimmers of total darkness, perfect voids in space. Suddenly, the Maiden shrieked. Her voice sounded like a glass flute shattering mid-song. The Emerald Scarf connecting Lahrus to his Maiden slipped, fell slack, and instantly Lahrus was falling too.
His soul landed in his body like a meteor. The smoky doldrums of the Gilded Dragon returned to his sense with the force of a seven-section staff. Through the slowly settling haze Lahrus could only distinguish three things: two ebony blades of what could only be soulsteel, and the crumbling remains of the Fair Folk they had just quartered.
System
The Daisho of Fallen Glories is a pair of matched swords crafted from the Animal Souls of two Dawn Caste members of the same circle that fell in combat against the Fair Folk. The precise dates surrounding the Deaths of the Solars and the forging of the blades have been lost to history. It is rumored that a Twilight, a third member of the circle, pursued the Hungry Ghosts of her fallen comrades into the Underworld where she soul-forged them into a deadly katana known as Undying Reprisal and a wakizashi known as Unmourned Valiance. It is not know why she did this, but if the rumors are correct, she may have been the first Solar Exalt to journey into the Underworld in history.
Each sword has its own statistics when wielded seperately, but they are most effective when used jointly in combat.
Seperately, the two swords have the following attributes:
Katana: +4 speed / +5 Accuracy / +4 Damage / +2 Defense
Wakizashi: +4 speed / +2 Accuracy / +4 Damage / +5 Defense
When wielded simultaneously in combat, the two blades can be be used jointly to perform an action and can be treated as "one weapon" (I.e. the wielder can use both swords for an attack action or for a parry action) at which point their bonuses stack. When combined for any action the two swords have the following base modifiers (normally split action dice penalties for multiple "double parry" or "double attacks" apply):
Combined: +8 speed / +7 Accuracy / +8 Damage / +7 Defense
In addittion to its amazing quality, the Daisho also has the following special abilities:
In the hands of a properly attuned Abyssal, the Daisho provides the usual benefit for soulsteel blades.
The wielder suffers no off-hand penalty for when wielding both blades simultanesouly.
Any wielder of the blade may attack once with Undying Reprisal and simultaneously parry once with Unmourned Valiance without splitting his or her dice pool. (In this case, the attack uses the Katana modifiers, and the parry uses the Wakizashi modifiers, not the combined stats)
The Daisho of Fallen Glories always does aggravated damage to the Fair Folk and other suitably Wyld Creatures.
The two blades are each inlaid at the hilt with "Hearthstones" which are, in fact, "Essence batteries," which store Essence that can be spent on melee charms. The Katana stores 10 motes of essence and the wakizashi stores 6. Treat this Essence as Peripheral.
The weapon costs 10 motes to commit. Although each blade can be drawn and used individually, the wielder must commit to both blades, and the bonuses only come into play when both blades are drawn.
Statistics
Level Four Artifact
(Katana \ Wakizashi \ Combined)
Spd +4 +4 +8
Acc +5 +2 +7
Dmg +4 +4 +8
Def +5 +2 +7
Min Dex 3
Min Str 3
Min Melee 4
10 motes to commit
Comments
Should that be "valiance" or "valor?" -- JesseLowe
- Are you asking grammatically?
~ Shataina
