Black Fire (Rune Shield):
Black Fire is a slim arm shield designed to protect the wearer’s arms from elbow to wrist. The shield slightly widens towards the elbow. On the wrist area of the shield is a slightly hooked spike which is quite an effective weapon. The whole shield is matt black and is covered in runes. A groove runes inside the edges of the surface of the shield.
No one alive knows the full origin of this rune item. There are no stories about this item until a little less than a hundred years before. The stories begin with the first tales of an unusual and mysterious stranger seeming to appear from nowhere. He called himself Heward and was of an olive complexion and was covered in strange tattoos. He is the first one know to have worn the arm shield. He was incredibly skilled and seemed to be able to cast magic using the tattoos. These included the ability to draw weapons from nowhere, summon animals and monsters, and create magic armor which made him invulnerable to normal attacks. There are many stories about where he may have come from. Some indicate that he came from another continent that has not been mapped. Other stories tell that he came from an Island on another world. This world is suppose to be even stronger in magic than the palladium world and the island is supposedly ruled by supernatural creatures related to the Old Ones. Finally, there are stories that he came from a place where people travel between the stars in boats like people of the Palladium world so between islands and continents.
Heward got a reputation as an incredible warrior very quickly. He was considered extremely brave and would take on any enemy. While many spoke of his bravery, others considered him foolhardy. Eventually his willingness to take risks was his undoing. He was ambushed by a large group of crossbow armed enemies who he had been previously warned about. He assumed his magical armor would protect him from any attack. The enemy had already planned around it. They had a magic item that was an anti-magic shell in a bottle. This dropped all of his magical defenses and they overwhelmed him with crossbow bolts. Since his death, Black Fire has drifted though a variety of different hands.
The personality of Black Fire seems to be that of a grizzled veteran of many battles. He is cautious and very canny. The shield does not communicate much and never talks about his past before it was owned by Heward. He does talk about Heward being unwilling to listen to his warning and tries to make sure that his present owners listen to his warning. He is honorable but willing to do many actions a good person would not be willing to do in most cases. Some things important to him is not to betray an ally and to keep your word of honor. He does not see anything wrong with killing a vanquished enemy or to use torture to extract information. He does not abide a person enjoying torture though.
The abilities of the shield include those of Mind Mages and Wizards. The shield has all the sensitive psychic abilities and the ability of bio-manipulation and to be able to summon a psi-sword. In most cases, the psi-sword is used as the main weapon in combat. The wizard abilities include the ability to summon magic armor, fire energy bolts, become invisible, and become impervious to fire.
Author Note: This weapon can be used in Rifts as a standard Splugorth creation at game master's option.
- Attributes:
- Like all Rune Weapons, it is completely indestructible
- Links to wielder within 6 months of constant contact. Can sense each other presences within 4 miles.
- Gives wielder +1 on all saving throws.
- Can be used to parry energy blasts at normal bonuses
- Aberrant Alignment: Can only be used by individuals of Aberrant Unprincipled Alignment only, anybody not of those alignments takes 2D4 points of damage each time they touch the weapon or 3D6 damage if creatures of magic.
- IQ: 14 Communicates with wielder through limited telepathy
ME: 16
MA: 8
Characteristics:
Weapon Bonuses:
- Due to superior craftsmanship, equal to Dwarven quality, gets +1 to
Strike and +3 to Parry.
Weapon Damage:
- 4D6 per strike, does S.D.C. in S.D.C. Worlds and does M.D.C. in M.D.C.
Worlds (Plus strength bonus if applicable). Note: Psi-Sword is often
summoned as the main weapon. Psi-Sword inflicts 1Dx10 as a tenth level
psychic.
Weapon's Special Abilities:
- Wizard Magic: P.P.E.: 60, recovers at a rate of 10 P.P.E. for
every three hours. Spell are cast equal to sixth level Wizard.
- First Level: Blinding Flash (1)
Third Level: Armor of Ithan (10), Energy Bolt (5), Impervious to Fire (6) , Invisibility: Simple (6), Telekinesis (8)
- Sensitive: Has all sensitive abilities.
Super Psionics: Bio-Manipulation (10) and Psi-Sword (30).
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Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).
Copyright © 2002, Kitsune. All rights reserved.