Skull Breaker (Enchanted Morning Star):

As with many famous enchanted weapons, Skull Breaker has been copied a number of times. The original morning star itself is believed to be thousands of years old and crafted for a black priest named Turyer. Due to some slight stylistic differences, scholars can tell the difference between the original and the copies. Since then, the morning star has been possessed by a number of other dark priests as well as evil knights and necromancers.

Among the copies are a number of morning stars which are dragon forged style weapons, mostly made by Kobold weaponsmiths. Some have yellow wood hafts although most are stained black. There are also a number of copies of the morning star which are conventional without any enchantments.

What makes Skull Breaker distinctive from most morning stars is that the head of the weapon is in the design of a human skull with an iron crown or band with long spikes sticking out from the crown / band. While normally considered a blunt type weapon, the spikes are extremely sharp and penetrate deeply. The wooden handle appears to be made from some kind of black wood. As described, the various copies tend to have style differences in the skull and band. As with many enchanted weapons, the morning star appears to be indestructible.

While morning stars are often considered weapons of butcherly, Skull Breaker is incredibly well balanced, equal to some of the finest weapons made by the dwarves. A number of even the enchanted copies are less well balanced being more of Kobold quality craftsmanship.

For enchantments, as described earlier, the morning star is indestructible. In addition, the weapon inflicts greater damage than one might expect from even a high quality morning star. Against good targets, the weapon inflicts double its normal damage. Finally, the weapon causes infectious wounds which are impossible to heal naturally. Some of the copies of the morning star have different abilities with the ability to cause infectious wounds to be especially uncommon.

Weight: 2.5 lbs (1.0 kg). Length: 2.75 feet (0.8 meters).

Damage: 3D6+4 for hand to hand attacks (+Strength, if applicable) - The morning star also inflicts double damage against targets of good alignment (scrupulous and principled.)

Bonuses due to Quality: +4 to damage (included in damage), +1 to strike, +3 to parry, and +2 on initiative.

Enchantments:

Additional Damage: One die of damage (1D6) is added to the weapon’s normal damage.
Double Damage to Good: Weapon inflicts 2x damage to those of Scrupulous or Principled target. Normal damage to targets of any other alignment.
Indestructible: Cannot be destroyed by any means except for possibly in the hands on an alchemist.
Infectious Wounds: All wounds caused by this weapon will not heal naturally. Failure to close these wounds by magical or psionic means will result in life-threatening infection to inflame the wound. This means the wound does not heal (no S.D.C./H.P. recovery) and the victim takes two additional points of damage for every wound inflicted, every 24 hours. Failure to heal these wounds completely with extraordinary means (magic or psionics) within three days results in a fever (reduce all combat bonuses by half and speed and skill performance by 20%) and +2D6 damage each subsequent 24 hours.

Cost: The original likely sell between 250,000 and 300,000 gold. Enchanted weapon with similar enchantments would cost around 150,000 gold.

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Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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