THE SWORD OF RUIN

 

Hook: The sun is beating down upon you, mercilessly. You struggle to find your way through the mountains along narrow cliff edges that have carried you higher and higher. The air is thinner, your lungs burn, and the cold and sweat mix to make you uniquely uncomfortable. Snowblindness hurts your eyes and head. Nothing could have prepared you for this. It's punishment like you have never experienced, before...

All you wanted was to cross the mountains, and, according to the last village's locals, you should have been able to do so this way. You did not think, however, that those people are used to such conditions, and their leathery, hard skin was tempered over centuries to resist this climate...

The bridge around the corner was out. Years ago, it fell into the ravine and disintegrated... Getting across was daunting, dizzying, and you nearly toppled headlong into the narrow gap between ledges a few times before you got across. Almost moments later, distracted as you are by your plight, you fail to notice the gaping wound in the mountainside, a cave, until its cool shadow looms wide next to you. The locals hadn't mentioned this! Eyes wide, you peer inside... Colder air grips your cheeks and forehead... Something else you failed to notice, until this opening made you stop... Bleached bones littering the ground, especially at the cave mouth... Some are definitely humanoid... Then you hear it... Laughter? Bickering, hideous laughter. Insane laughter... Nearby... A numbing chill grips your whole body, freezing you in place. You know that laugh, from The Maze... What did the little people say? Something about not climbing too high for their own safety? They mentioned something big hunts this path and the taiga below it... There were several options for paths and this one seemed the most traveled... You thought it was safer... It's impossible to tell where the voice is coming from. The ravine plays with the sound in a way that makes it seem to come from everywhere, at all once... Where is it? You think, beginning to panic...

Details: This area has long since been abandoned by the little, dark-haired, red-skinned people living in these mountains. The paths wending through the ravines and valleys are many and haunted by ancient things best left to themselves. The manticore that lives in the southwest cave uses this whole area to feed after its hunting periods in the forest below. The manticore is a relatively new addition to the caves, here...

Long ago, when the small, ascetic village people were spread further through the powerful efforts of empire, they were ruled over by tyrannical wizard kings... Then, they were used as slaves and servants, labourers, and entertainment. Eventually, the simple, stoic people rose up, and tore down their oppressors, and reduced their proud architecture and statues to bitter ruin... Now moss-covered in the river valleys, scoured and worn down by time and wind in the heights of the peaks, the empire of old is now only bitter memory and old bones.

Ruins, like this one, litter the mountains... Inside lay the Ruin Blade of the Devil Prince, Zá Thûm, son of the 8th emperor of the old dynasty before it collapsed under the angry fingers, blades, and arrows of its former slaves... Zá Thûm, himself, put the sword here, a shrine to the old petty god who blessed the blade and served as the Prince's master. Zá Thûm protected the sword with the bodies of courageous warriors slain in service to him. Only loyal servants of great will could be placed here. They come alive and attack any who try to take the sword.

Being here is dangerous, for many reasons, not just the undead. Evil spirits wander the halls, lured here by the power of the deity. Anyone who touches the blade becomes possessed by the god's will, unless he or she can resist it... One of the dead warriors has fallen into the cave beneath the main sword chamber. It will attack anyone of good temperament entering there. Loose stone and crumbling architecture make this place even deadlier to explore...

Despite its evil influence, the sword will grant its owner special power when wielded in combat... But, the bearer will change, physically, to represent the god, himself... A bestial being of war and oppression, fear, and wrath. Over time, the physical change is accompanied by another transformation. The bearer becomes more and more violent and begins to hunger for raw meat, of all kinds... and will spend long periods obsessed with how to get it.

When Zá Thûm died, the sword was placed here, permanently. His being was absorbed into the sword, like all who wielded it, to become one with the sword and feed the god who blessed it. The shrine's doors are sealed shut. They used to be open, but were filled with plaster to seal the blade inside. The god desired to let the blade sleep, until such time as another worthy wielder should find their way to the shrine to become a new bearer and bring war and oppression to the lands in his name. Anyone who becomes possessed by the blade will have a month to fight the deity and the transformation, before he or she is entirely possessed and must retire their character.