Lightstar Family/Xarnelf/Roleplay 69/Epic Saga 02
Part 2: The Surmising Inspection
(Roleplay from Irdys Galeheart)
Irdys held her breath as she stared for a time at the soldier. He was asking to see the blade, it might attract unwanted attention here. Then again, she knew she could wield the blade skillfully enough to cut him down if needed. Eyes never leaving the guard she reached a hand inside her cloak and shrugged away the leathers covering the hilt of the blade. Then carefully with a hand she drew forth the ancient sword, ancient, but still deadly sharp. The sword glittered, the gemstones in the hilt shining by the starlight like diamonds. Irdys stared calmly at the guard, blade ready might the guard seek to take it. Smiling ever so faintly she said in a calm, cool, voice, as always doing her best to sound gruff enough; "A fine blade I hope you'll agree? I'll let the weaponmasters see it but I want to be there!" A hint of fierceness, still this blade was all the protection there was. Either it'd suffice and the duke might accept it or the end might be close.
After the guard eyed it for a time he gave a faint nod, having two of his fellows escort Irdys inside to the armory where one of the weaponmasters, by the look of him still annoyed from the evening call, stood ready to inspect it.
Irdys stared somewhat nervously at the guards on either side, the bulky and certainly experienced looking armormaster infront of her. Taking a deep breath she laid the blade out on the table for his inspection, hand immediatly going to rest, half casually half tense, on the simple steel somewhat notched, but deadly enough, blade she was used to using.
She wasn't quite sure of these Aenilians yet, regardless of what she'd heard, and she rather wasn't surprised. The blade was valuable enough that if these men were less honest then she hoped they might cut her down and present the blade to his grace themselves.
As the armormaster started his inspection, she waited, tensely, for what might come.
The blade was a fine looking blade. Its hilt covered in dark gemstones and the words Nightblade engraved in the same dark material across the blade. The sword itself a finely crafted steel blade clearly capable of cutting down any man and perhaps even armor. The armormaster would likely come to the conclusion that the blade would grant a great boon to any mans prestige who could wield a blade like this (+3). At the same time he might know some more of the history of the blade.
All appearances of discontentment at being disturbed vanished immediately from the weapons-master's face, as the blade was placed upon the table. His jaw dropped slightly, while his eyes widened considerably. The moment passed quickly enough, as the man regained his composure and bent down to take a closer examination of the crafting.
The inlaid gemstones resembled obsidian, or perhaps onyx, and seemed to flicker with a life of their own even in the relatively dim torchlight diffusing throughout the room. He surmised that the blade was indeed from a past era and crafted by an expert, for the engravement had been set intimately against the surface of the blade. Had the crafter somehow melted the gemstones so that he could form them into the individual letters of this tell-tale word?
The weapons-master had no answer for that, for he had never before heard nor seen of the like. However, the silence had dragged on somewhat uncomfortably for the others in the room by now, as they waited for him to divulge some revelation about the origins of such a sword, no doubt. Gemstone encrusting into the hilts of weapons was a common even practice, however, and it had been quite popular in the southern realms, so the man fell back upon that bit of information.
"Hmm...yes... The craftsmanship is indeed very remarkable, hailing from one of the southern regions. And it is indeed quite old, as evidenced by the antiquated binding of the grip and the style of this engraved word, whose form, if I am not mistaken, had been commonplace many generations ago."
He looked up at the sergeant and asked, "You said the gems glowed when you first beheld the blade?"
"Yes. They caught the moonlight and shined like diamonds," the soldier replied with a nod.
The weapons-master stroked his stubble of a beard for a moment. "My guess is that they are some composite of a rare onyx. Very interesting indeed..." Then, he turned his attention to the adventurer.
"How did this sword come into your possession? And have you ever used it in combat before?"
Meanwhile, the sergeant, who had surreptitiously followed the group and had stood unnoticed by the doorway, slipped off to send word to His Grace.
