Escaped gaming meme

[mithriltabby]

As the make output scrolls past, a gamemaster’s fancy turns lightly to thoughts of really freaky magic items.

Fishbringer looks like a highly detailed sculpture of a 3’ long salmon, wrought in ithilnaur (steel alloyed with mithril and titanium, very shiny, tough, and resistant to corrosion), with the tail wrought into a hilt for a humanoid hand. Despite the fact that it is physically a club, it does the damage of a sword... with a twist. Instead of ordinary hit point damage, it inflicts polymorphing damage— e.g. what would be a bruise instead becomes scales, impairment due to wounds is caused by partial transformation of limbs to fins— and a being reduced to 0 hit points by Fishbringer will polymorph into a stunned fish. The stun wears off fairly quickly, but the polymorph must be dispelled. (Shapeshifters can resume their normal shapes as soon as the stun wears off.)

Fishbringer also grants three other powers to its wielder: water breathing and the abilities to summon and speak with fish. The effect translating physical damage into polymorphing damage is also very handy for capturing beings that need to be alive.

While Fishbringer may look a bit odd hanging on a hero’s belt, it is extremely useful for intimidation and interrogation. A person who has been bludgeoned into a fish in a location far from water may find themselves feeling very cooperative about divulging information when they know that only the mercy of their captor is keeping them in a rain barrel in a place miles from the nearest river.

The weapon is highly distinctive, though, and any character so colorful as to wield Fishbringer will surely be a source of drinks for many a bard. Fishbringer’s bearer may eventually become quite tired of meeting new people only to hear, “Ah hear yer th’ wun who turned mah cuzzen Itchy inta a trout... ah reckun we’s got a score ta settle...”

Comments

[seathan.livejournal.com]

I see a Kuo-toan artifact in here somewhere...

[grandmoffdavid.livejournal.com]

There is actually a varient of one that some friends of mine had been using for ages on end. I forget the name, but it translated to Snake Sword. It did a few things with poison (was coated in the stuff, and injected it into the wielder, but also gave him immunity to the poison--as long as he was using the sword), but also summoned snakes to the wielder, who could controll them (most of the time). Well, it was left on it's own at the bottom of a pit in one game, and the snakes began to come to it. Filling the pit and eatting the local rat population, generally hanging around it. Well, the local goblin population knew a good thing when it saw one and began harvesting the snakes. In time the sword was refered to as "Food Bringer" and worshiped as a god.

Re:

[mithriltabby]

I like that! Just imagine the fun you can have with a PC’s morality that way: take the nifty sword but cause the local goblin population to attack the nearby human settlement because Food Bringer is no longer bringing them dinner, or leave it alone... not to mention the opportunity to have goblins turn up forever after, hunting the PC to try to get their god back...