Cursed Buckler
| Type | Shield |
|---|---|
| Discovered By | Luc Tancred de Bardt |
| Discovery Date | 16 January 2009 |
| Discovery Location | Ansopen, Far East |
| Abilities | Prestige +3 |
| Current Owner | (unknown) |
Contents
Cursed Buckler
Item was found as loot on a monster lieutenant. The location was Ansopen. Item was looted by Luc Tancred de Bardt (Freeman). Item gives +3 prestige. Condition was 54% when found.
The History Behind the Buckler
Recently returning home to his cabin in Ansopen after delivering Adlil's Book of Forbidden Knowledge to Duke Valgar in Colasan, Luc Tancred spent some time tracking in the forest to learn what creatures might be about. As it happened, the woodsmen of Ansopen were hiding in their huts and shacks from a rumored incursion of werewolves, come down from the hills of Old Svunnetland.
Luc Tancred resolved to hunt the beasts and save the folk of Ansopen from their depradations. Though they evaded him many times, he was dogged in their pursuit. First here and then there, he caught up with their stragglers and slew them. The trail grew warm.
Eventually, one of their leaders, a giant brute named Chakk-mo-ghul, turned to fight Luc Tancred. This werewolf lieutenant did not fight as mere beast like his brothers, but bore a fell black axe and a glowing runed shield.
The battle lasted for what seemed a week and a day, but in the end Luc Tancred slew the monster and claimed his spoils. Although the axe had shattered upon Luc's own shield, the battered *Cursed Buckler* of the werewolf alpha still glowed faintly with eldritch energy.
The Buckler
As it was found, this buckler appeared to be hidebound wood with an iron band around its edge and a fierce iron center boss in the shape of a snarling beast. Around the face of the shield, faintly glowing red runes marked the scaly wyrmskin of the covering hide. During battle with the werewolf lord, the shield was battered heavily and the iron boss rent asunder. This was later repaired by the sage Adlil using the iron-plated skull of the werewolf lord himself.
Anyone seeing the buckler felt a tinge of fear, as whispers of faint howling upon the wind recalled the fierce bloodcurdling werewolf who once bore it and whose skull now snarled from its reforged center.
Adventures with the Cursed Buckler
After many years of living in the forests of Ansopen, Luc Tancred was quite familiar with the hermit Adlil who sometimes lived in the cave by the Cold River Falls. Sometimes, when the old man's wanderings brought him to stay, Luc would go visit and show him recent trophies from his adventuers. The sage was had not yet left from when he had traded his own book of spells to Luc a mere fortnight ago when Luc returned and asked him if his newly won shield might be repaired.
The first question that Adlil the Sage asked Luc was if Luc had kept the "strange skull" of the werewolf lord as a trophy -- and, being an adventurer, of course Luc had. "Excellent!" exclaimed the old man, "Give it me and ye shall have a shield that will make daemons tremble!". It took an entire day of painstaking work at the forge to plate the grisly werewolf skull with cold black iron, inscribe it with runes, and speak the words of enchantment, but Luc helped the old sage do all those things... and was himself somewhat intimidated by the dully glowing eyes of the skull as it stared balefully at him from the reforged shield.
(OOC: shield was 65% condition before I let the sage repair it and 97% after)
Some time later, during Cathay's war with Papania, Duke Valgar asked Luc to repair the shield. While hitching a coach to Lenamaziel, Luc found a local smith who was able to use an old monster horn to refurbish the worn edges of the shield. (OOC: condition from 48% to 76%)
Knowing that the original smith, Adlil, would be able to best repair the buckler, Luc Tancred continued to Ansopen to find the old man. When Luc Tancred finished asking his question, Adlil slapped the adventurer upside his head and asked if he had any soap. When Luc responded affirmatively, Adlil used it to clean the shield, making it practically sparkle like new (100% condition).
