Hiraeth players — you might want to skip this one. Others, I am hoping you can help me.
I’ve come up with a concept for a magic sword, called the Sword of Shame (or Sorrow) for one of the PCs in my game (a human). I am looking for a suitable ‘bonus’ that will gel with the concept.
The sword was made by elves, but will be found in the hands of a waterlogged draugr at the end of the current story arc. Despite having rested on the bottom of the ocean for many years, it hasn’t tarnished at all. In fact, it gleams like it has been freshly polished, providing the new bearer with a reflection of themselves looking young and fresh.
With each of the sword’s kills, however, the new wielder will start to see it tarnish, and their reflection in the sword will start to grow worn and weary (a la the picture of Dorian Gray). I am toying with linking this to a ‘lite’ version of the Grief attribute, but I might just keep it cosmetic.
As it stands, the weapon will have the ‘balanced’ quality, and will be a spirit weapon, as per the rules for Elven weapons, but I’d like it to have one more aspect that fits in with the overall concept.
The most straightforward would probably be to have it give the wielder a Belief slot that must be filled with a regret or a loss; if the sword is ever lost, they retain the Belief slot but the belief must be related to the tragedy of losing the sword.
Or maybe the sword was forged by a spiteful Dark Elf who wished to prey upon the Grief of his brethren, and all Laments to mitigate Grief caused by or related to the sword are are +1 Ob.
Or! Keep the weapon Balanced, but remove Spirit Weapon. Instead, the sword has the Grief attribute at B3 and confers it to its wielder, which may be used as Song of the Sword at the cost of 1 Persona. The Spell Song may not be advanced or learned, though the Grief advances as normal (including a Difficult test for tapping Grief for Song of the Sword). Should Grief reach 10 this way, the character may choose to take their own life with the sword instead of wasting away; doing so resets the sword’s Grief to B1.
Song of the Sword gives the Spirit Weapon trait when used no matter what. Confront the players with the supernatural to force them to tap Grief and sing the song if they want to deal with it!
