Duendewood Resistance: Working Weapons

"Behold," said Amaranth, "my latest work." She was pleased with what she'd created, and pleased to be able to finally show it off.

Darvinin looked over the blades that she'd laid out on a section of oilcloth and asked, "What am I looking at? Besides a very nice selection of swords and daggers?" He could feel the magics on them, but would need to cast spells to determine exactly what those magics were.

"A bit of possible disruption," Amaranth told him. "Blades for members of the resistance who are likely to end up in combat. Or blades that you could arrange to have captured by Lamont's officers."

Darvinin tilted his head. "And why would I do that?"

Amaranth sighed. "I was planning to craft weapons that would be particularly useful against humans, for those in the resistance that might need them. Then I got word that Tialleron's group had run afoul of a human patrol--" 

"How do you know about that?" Darvinin asked sharply. 

"--and the patrol Captain was now boasting about using that very nice shortsword that Tialleron inherited from his grandfather." 

"Okay seriously," said Darvinin, sounding slightly panicked. "How do you know this?" 

"I'm equipping a number of groups," she told him. "Your mother organized them well: I've only met one person from each group, and none of them show their faces. They never tell me their names or where they are or what they're working on. But they do give me word when somebody dies, and that was one of the death-names that was passed along."

"Huh," said Darvinin, relaxing slightly. "Did they tell you that the patrol captain was murdered a few weeks later, and the blade disappeared?"

"They did not," Amaranth said blandly. "How very mysterious. I wonder what could have happened, and where that blade might have ended up."

Darvinin glanced at the small stone building behind her, then over at the outdoor forge where she worked. He suddenly had a very good idea of what could have happened and where that blade might have ended up. Shaking his head, he said: "So these blades...?"

"Humanbane, all of them," she said. 

"Ah," he said. "So they're enchanted." A humanbane blade would do extra damage to humans, and was likely set with at least basic enchantments to make it both sharper and easier to use. He reached down to pick one up.

"No," said Amaranth. "They're cursed."

Darvinin yanked his hand back. "And you want to give them to our people?" 

Amaranth smiled a very unpleasant smile. "The way the curse works is this: they look and behave exactly like ordinary enchanted blades, and they're completely safe to use that way... unless you use them to draw elvish blood. If an elf is using one of them, then it's also a humanbane weapon; if anyone else picks it up, it's just a standard magic blade. But the moment one gets used to draw Elvish blood, the curse kicks in: the person holding the weapon goes completely berserk and starts attacking any humans they can see. Also, the blade starts being humanbane again. The killer can't put the blade down, either. If they run out of human victims, then they'll calm down a little and be able to sleep, feed themselves, whatever... they just can't put down the sword, and the moment they see another human they'll go berserk and start attacking again."

Darvinin stared at her, but Amaranth just kept smiling. 

"That's--" Disturbing. "--amazing," he said after a moment. It'll certainly give them second thoughts about claiming trophies from our dead. After a moment's further consideration, he asked: "Could you make one, a strong one, that activated the moment a human touched it?"

Amaranth nodded. "I could, but I didn't intend for these blades to turn every single human against their own kind. They're intended to target the ones who prove themselves our enemies."

"I understood," Darvinin said, looking at the longswords and shortswords and daggers, "but if you could make something like that, I think I know somebody who could arrange to send it to one of Duke Lamont's closest advisors as a gift."

Amaranth's lips pursed, and she made almost a chewing motion as she thought it over. "And here I always thought you were the boring twin," she said. 

"What became of your mother?" asked Darvinin, suddenly eager to change the subject. Shalmistra was off putting arrows into Duke Lamont's troops, and this suddenly looked like the sort of attention that he definitely didn't want. He might be misreading Amaranth's response, but if he wasn't then he needed to signal that he definitely wasn't available.

Amaranth blinked, and her face went through three different expressions so quickly that Darvinin couldn't place any of them. "You won't believe it," she said. "She gave it all up." 

"She...?"

"Threw in with the druids. No more nice dresses, social obligations, or establishing our social class through obscure courtesies. She's given it all up, taken a fox for a companion, and gone back to nature."

"Milathyra Anthelorn has apprenticed herself to the druids?" Darvinin shook his head. Gods above, the world really is ending... 

"I think she might be happier than she's been in a long while," Amaranth said. There was a brief pause, and then she added: "What about you? Any word from Ruin?"

Darvinin shook his head. "They stole some sort of magical artifact from the Order of Secrets and used it to travel to another world -- at least, that was their last dispatch indicated. Nobody has heard from them since." 

Amaranth nodded. "Let me know if he shows back up, will you?"

Darvinin considered that for a long moment. "He has children already," he told her, "by at least two different mothers. Werendril is helping to raise them."

Amaranth shook her head. "No, I didn't know that." She looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged. "Let me know."

"As you wish," said Darvinin, and started considering how best to distribute the cursed weapons.

So Amaranth has taken over an old stone shrine somewhere in the Duendewood forests a bit southwest of High Grove. She's forging weapons for the Resistance, but definitely in her own inimitable style. As a Bladecrafter she's also a very capable fighter, and has limited access to some arcane magics. This piece is set sometime between the fall of Annun to Duke Lamont and the death of Baethira Anthelorn (Ruin and Darvinin's mother) and the return of the Twiceborn. Amaranth has an apprentice, Tovarin, who's just on the cusp of adulthood, though he does not appear in this vignette. It's very likely that when she learns of Ruin's return, she'll start crafting a falchion she thinks suitable for him -- but ultimately, that's up to our DM.