THE DREAMING BLADE
Details: The Dreaming Blade of  is an ancient artefact from the days when the creatures of Faerie were more numerous.  was a tyrant whose hand was harsh and full of power he could not tame within himself. In an effort to know discipline, to cool his head, mostly in war, so he would not lose by way of his extreme temper, he sought help from the Faeries, from the forest where he knew a guardian of the Old World would be waiting to receive him.  was well-known to the Faerie world. He was an old enemy who had done great harm to many of the creatures belonging to it. He had subjugated and burned forests and the people and beasts within them. When they heard that infamous  was looking for Faerie magic to heal him of his titanic anger and violence, they promised and gave him a blade they said would aid him in battle and soothe his angry warrior spirit enough to make him calmer of mind without losing his edge... They were right, and wrong, he soon discovered, but,  hardly cared. Once the sword was within his grasp, he knew only euphoria. His world became one of fantasy and reverie. Some say he was mad. Some say he was a seer. Some say the Faerie worked their changeling magic on him... And whomever he touched with his sword, whenever it drew blood, the victim was never the same. They went mad and saw visions, and often died in mysterious and unusual ways, like walking into an enemy line with arms wide open, as if welcoming friends... only to be cut down... Whatever the case, one morning, very suddenly, mid-campaign, on the verge of victory,  simply vanished... His tent was empty, his armour untouched... But, his sword lay on his bed... In the years that followed, the sword had many masters, and it ruled them all, drank them all into itself, until, finally, someone had enough. A ruler who knew the stories, and who, somehow, managed to resist the blade's call... He was a stubborn man, but, a good one. He took the blade into the woods where he commissioned a tomb built... and, there, he lay the sword, along with six dreamers who found the blade before he did. His friends sand his family. His eldest son found the sword, and slew three of his kin and two of the king's greatest warriors before the sovereign, himself, slew his own son to stop the bloodshed.
The bodies of those interred, now bones, their clothes dust and brown rags, lie inside sarcophagi in a central chamber open to the sky as is custom among that people. The blade itself lies on a bier, within the portion of the structure built into a rocky hillside. All the artwork, all the sculpture carved into the place depicts madness and dreaming, and tells the story of it in images, and no words, for the people who built it feared the power of letters and sounds... In an effort to protect the sword from anyone else, the king further commissioned sculptures of the goddess of night and seeing, the goddess of the Faerie, the warrior god, and the god of wisdom to watch the place. The 'tomb' was put up deep in a forest, far from where the curious might wander... It is overgrown, now, with weeds, mosses, lichens, and ivy, and its granite masonry has collapsed in many places with the shifting earth and the rigours of time and a lack of care. The blade is dust-covered and drab-looking, but, a quick inspection reveals Â's sword is only tarnished on the surface, and the dust, once wiped clean, reveals a weapon of ancient and remarkable craftsmanship... Additionally, a tugging at the back of the mind, an alluring call that preys upon those of weak will, affects everyone close to it. A special trap was prepared for anyone stepping on it... A pit trap that is filled with spikes and the bones of a few unfortunates who - some might consider luckily - never managed to take and/or fall victim to the sword's power...
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