Ornate Brooch

Type	Accessory
Discovered By	Luc Tancred de Bardt
Discovery Date	25 September 2007
Discovery Location	Leod, Far East
Abilities	Prestige +3
Current Owner	(unknown)

Ornate Brooch

Item was found as loot on an undead champion leading an undead army. The location was Leod. Item was looted by Luc Tancred de Bardt (Outlaw). Item gives +3 prestige. Condition was 65% when found.

The History Behind the Brooch

Luc Tancred is the second oldest bastard son of Karl de Bardt. The son of a camp follower, he was never formally recognized by his natural father. As such, he has lived his life as a peasant. Upon reaching adulthood, he learned the truth of his birth and tried to find his father, only to find that the old man had passed away. He found, however, that his half-brothers welcomed him into their household. The noble life was not to his taste, so when the youngest son, Henri, left Atamara to find his fortune, Luc Tancred followed the feisty lad to keep an eye on him.

Though Henri began his adventures in the Sanctum of Casshern, Luc Tancred's ship was wrecked off the shore of the Far East Island and he washed up in Ethiala. Not knowing where his younger half-brother was, Luc wandered the land, headed generally southward, for he had heard his half-brother intended to go in that direction.

Passing from Ethiala and eventually to Svunnetland, Luc ended up in the forests of Ansopen where he took to fighting undead and monsters. In time, Henri himself was involved in an aborted assault by the Sanctum against Ansopen -- at that time held by Svunnetland. While Henri lay wounded upon the field of battle, Luc found his brother and there was joyful reunion.

Henri, nursed back to health, inquired if the local lord, Cesari, would take him as a vassal because the Sanctum was ruled by Trunks the Mad and his coterie of assassin-knights.

Cesari agreed and Henri became a knight of Ansopen. Luc was a bit disappointed because after this, Henri hardly spoke to him.

Later, when conflict grew between Svunnetland and the Sanctum, Luc wandered over to the city of Palnosos, just to see what was up. It was horrible -- the streets were filled with filth, the city smoked from a thousand unchecked fires, packs of wild dogs ran in the streets, and the few citizens left were turning to cannibalism in their hunger. It was in the midst of this horror, that a patrol of the new warlord's troops found Luc and imprisoned him.

Week after week of torture ensued and Luc, though a mere commoner, begged for mercy from the nobility. He sued for clemency from Morthwyl, King of Svunnetland, who was nominally his lord and master -- all to no avail.

Eventually, broken and nearly dead from countless wounds, Luc was hurled into the river-cum-sewer that ran through the city and left for dead.

By this time, Henri had been banished from Svunnetland for daring to defend another noble from blood sacrifice by Hoshi -- the evil witch of Svunnetland.

Both half-brothers limped over the mountains into Haul, in hopes of finding a better life.

While Henri found service with the good Duchess Melpomene, Luc Tancred wandered into the wild hills of Razrpot, where he happily puttered around adventuring. It seemed as though monsters teemed in those hills but never became strong enough to pose a real challenge... and loot was easy to come by.

In time, Luc Tancred met other adventurers but one in particular became his friend -- Squiggy the Crafty. During one of many trading sessions with Squiggy, where the two adventurers swapped tales and loot, Luc Tancred had wandered up to Leod to meet his friend.

While in a tavern in Leod, Luc Tancred overheard a battered adventuress tell a story of a mighty undead army with an undead champion lord at its head.

Never one to shy from a fight, Luc Tancred charged off into the darkness even though he was half asleep from his long journey from the hills of Razrpot.

Stumbling around in the dark, he had just decided to light a lantern when a rattling sound alerted him to the presence of a small undead army!

Bringing his rusty ornate axe to bear, girding his shattered shield, and tightening the straps on his battered armor, Luc charged into the fray!

This army of skeletons was captained by a hideous creature from the netherworld -- some sort of fire-eyed demon skeleton. He was an undead champion, an evil creature with more power and intelligence than the usual lot.

The battle raged, Luc Tancred against the undead. Luc's blows landed true, shattering the undead to dust left and right.

The champion made Luc sweat -- he was quite the opponent. But in the end, the undead lord was just a pile of bones, too.

Amongst the shattered remnants of the undead champion, Luc Tancred found an Ornate Brooch. Unlike the rest of the rusty equipment wielded by these creatures, the Ornate Brooch glittered with unknown energies.

Here, take a look at it!

The Brooch

Fashioned from some dark leaden metal that was cold to the touch and stained red and brown, this brooch took the shape of a twisting wreath of flesh and bone around a leering skull. The eyes of the skull were dull black opals which flickered ominously in firelight, but were washed out and featureless in the light of day. The skull's tongue dangled leeringly from its mouth and appeared to be made of pitted and stained gold.

Anyone seeing the brooch was made to feel uneasy by its presence, and scholars were certain that this was an unnatural artifact of the The Blackest Cult.

Adventures with the Ornate Brooch

Luc Tancred thanked the adventurer Svetlana for the tip leading him to the retreating force of undead after his epic battle, but the trail was cold by the time he arrived. Luc figured those undead were up to something...

In fact, he reckoned they had a spy, and this is the story why!

When Luc came to his senses after an all-night drunk, celebrating his defeat of the undead champion and taking the champion's Ornate Brooch as Luc's rightful claim... someone mentioned something about a wise old man in the village square.

Luc stumbled over and stood in line for his chance to talk to the sage, and the sage looked at Luc with shrewd eyes, lingering upon the skull brooch which now secures Luc's cloak.

The sage croaked, "Hee hee hee, I can fix that brooch for you, young man!"

Luc shrugged -- it didn't really seem broken to him -- it was just a brooch, right?

"Sure, whatever, old man. What will that do?"

The old man cackled and clapped his hands, "power, Power, POWER!"

The hair on the back of Luc's neck bristled, but still he shrugged.

"Okay, sure, sounds good. What will it cost?" Luc didn't trust the old charlatan and was beginning to tire of his antics.

The sage said, "Bring me the bark of a 100 year old oak tree, and I shall weave my magics!"

The rubes in the crowd of peasants gasped, but Luc just rolled his eyes and reached into his pack, "Here you go old man, I carry this crap around with me all the time."

But the wretched old coot wasn't fazed -- he almost seemed to expect that Luc Tancred would be ready. With hands darting unnaturally fast, he grabbed both the bark and Luc's brooch and began chanting and growling in some dark tongue that neither Luc nor anyone else understood.

The old man's growling became more and more animalistic and dark clouds began to gather overhead. By the time rain and hail began to pelt down, the peasants had scattered to the woods or indoors, praying for deliverance.

Luc? He was trying to wrestle his brooch from the fingers of the crazed old codger, but the old man held on with the strength of death itself.

With the old man still muttering dire imprecations in a tongue unknown, Luc felt every hair on his body stand straight on end, colors began to flow strangely, and he began to feel light-headed. Smoke began to rise from the old man's fingers, where he touched the blood-stained skull of the Ornate Brooch.

Luc Tancred figured that enough was enough -- this old coot was up to no good. Luc pulled out his rusty axe, shouted "Give me back my brooch, YOU STUPID OLD FART!" and kicked the old man with a solid whack of his leg.

Well, there was some sort of explosion and as near as anyone could tell, and the old man was nothing more than a skeleton of blazing fire which shattered and screeched the most horrendous sounds anyone had ever heard.

Luc Tancred snagged his red-hot brooch from the flames and beat a hasty retreat.

Last anyone heard, that village is being abandoned and dark haunts walk the streets at night.

And you know what? The damn ornate brooch melted a bit from that fire!

Some repairs old man!

(OOC: it was 65% condition before I let the sage repair it and 61% after!)

Further Adventures with the Ornate Brooch

While adventuring in Leod, Luc Tancred was suddenly surrounded by filthy leering bandits. Though he drew his rusty axe and raised his battered shield, he was quickly over-powered. The filthiest bandit of the bunch approached and laughed as he knocked Luc out.

Awaking in some sort of sewage filled dungeon, Luc was made aware of countless bruises and wounds from his ill-handling. As he wavered into consciousness, he was again beaten, stripped, and searched by the same leering bandit.

Suddenly, when the bandit noticed the skull symbol of the Ornate Brooch, his eyes widened and his handed darted like a striking snake, tearing the brooch from around Luc Tancred's neck. The bandit shouted, "I, Boromir, Arch-Priest of the Antozan Commonwealth, claim this prize as my own! May the Dark One favor my deeds!" At that, he smirked at Luc and told his men to continue the beatings.

Luc Tancred fell to his knees, weeping -- not because of the pain or wounds, but because he had lost his Precious.

In time, Luc Tancred won the favor of King Thraymn of Nighthelm for various tasks on his behalf -- and the King promised that were Boromir ever captured, the Brooch would be returned to Luc. When Nighthelm was destroyed and its King lost, Luc despaired that he would ever have his brooch returned.