Duross
By Arminath Wynter
Introduction
"Greetings and welcome. Today, the lore I wish to give to ye is my blade, Duross. Although I've identified and authenticated that the sword was forged around 118 BC, much of its history is shrouded in mystery, even to one with access to ancient texts such as myself.
"I discovered it in 886 AC whilst tracking down a demon most foul on its home plane. It came across a servant of Vanya and in it's twisted desire to inflict pain on the servant of another immortal, gave us the time needed to catch up and engage it. During the battle, my blade was destroyed by the thing and I literally fell upon the remains of some other unfortunate that trekked to that vile place before me. Reflecting back, I feel that Vanya's servant was there for more than one reason, but I took up his blade and it forced me into a battle rage against the demon until it lay defeated. Taking up my charge, I returned to my abode and nursed her back to health. With Vanya's blessing, her servant was granted mortality for one lifetime and we've been together since.
"Alas, all that is good or evil feels the winds of change. In 913 AC, the incursions of demons began slowly. In the Fall of 915 AC a coordinated attack of fiends collapsed half of my cavern realm and killed countless innocents.
"With Duross I slew no less than three Mountain Fiends in single combat, but too late I discovered their purpose: the former servant of Vanya, my wife Lailia. In blind rage I chased across the planes, slaying good and evil alike in my madness until I encountered the Fiend-lord that held her in bondage. Too weak to prevent his mad schemes I was banished back to Mystara by some relic it possessed. Vanya granted me a vision showing me her servant still lives on, but it shall be my duty to return her to safety. A blood oath, sworn on this blade, remains to this day unfinished. Vengeance shall be mine, so I have sworn."
Description and Powers
Duross, Silver Sword +3, +5 vs Other Planar Creatures (1d8+3/1d8+5 vs OPC)
Duross is a normal sized sword made of the purest silver. Along the blade's length are 2 blood grooves and a pattern of ancient runes inlaid with gold that spell the blade's name. The pommel appears to be a demonic clawed hand grasping a blood stone worth 1,000 gold.
Apparently, it was created around BC 400 in the Land of the Red Sun by a Nithian who was comissioned by an Oltec adventurer having problems with an Azcan Cleric that had a few planar creatures as servants. How it ended up where Arminath found it remains a mystery, but Duross itself confirmed that it was there for many centuries. The sword has several special abilities listed below, but the most important is the fact that this weapon is of Artifact quality!
It constantly Detects Danger 15' radius (as the Druid spell) and grants it's user the ability to Read Languages and Magic (as the Magic-user spells).
Against other-planar creatures it inflicts 4x the normal damage (dice damage only, count modifiers after) on evil other-planar creatures.
Duross is an intelligent (12) weapon with a strong ego (24). It hates fiends of all kinds and as can be surmised will try to have it's wielder destroy any it comes across unless the wielder has a plan already in motion for the same purpose. The sword is flexible and tries to not put a worthy wielder in a make or break situation if it can help it. (It remembers all the time it spent trapped on a plane in the lair of an evil creature after its wielder died.) It speaks Nithian, Milenian, Traldar, Dwarf (common), Elf (common), Oltec and Tanagoro.
Duross is Chaotic (good) that will inflict 2d12 points of damage upon any evil creature trying to wield it and force a Saving Throw versus Paralysis or paralyse the creature for 1d6 rounds.