Swords of Sharpness & Urvantan's Tower spoiler

[Arcadiagt5]

On p250 of the rule book there is the following: "Others, such as Swords of Sharpness, can be made by anyone who knows the procedure."

Would I be correct in guessing that a Sword of Sharpness is a sword with a permanent Bladesharp enchantment, such as the iron rapier with a permanent Bladesharp-3 found in the Urvantan's Tower adventure?

If so, are there rules for how this could be created in game? I'm guessing it requires a Matrix Creation, and possibly another Rune Spell (not yet published) along with further POW sacrifice to make it permanent?

Are there any guidelines for this anywhere? Google is not being particularly helpful.

[Austin]

1 hour ago, Arcadiagt5 said:

Are there any guidelines for this anywhere?

"Swords of Sharpness" are one of the items in Chaosium's RuneQuest Classic publication Plunder. It's available on its own in PDF, or the magic items section (the main reason to buy it, IMO) is also included, with some bonus content, in the Glorantha Classics series publication Borderlands & Beyond.

I presume some alterations will be needed to the Swords of Sharpness entry due to general changes between RQC and RQG in how Rune magic/POW sacrifice operates, but I'd imagine the basic mechanics are the same. Off the top of my head, I think it basically boils down to sacrificing one POW, doing a ritual, and the sword deals +1 damage and has +5% to hit. I remember that the magic works only for the person who did the ritual.

[Arcadiagt5]

17 hours ago, Crel said:

"Swords of Sharpness" are one of the items in Chaosium's RuneQuest Classic publication Plunder. It's available on its own in PDF, or the magic items section (the main reason to buy it, IMO) is also included, with some bonus content, in the Glorantha Classics series publication Borderlands & Beyond.

I presume some alterations will be needed to the Swords of Sharpness entry due to general changes between RQC and RQG in how Rune magic/POW sacrifice operates, but I'd imagine the basic mechanics are the same. Off the top of my head, I think it basically boils down to sacrificing one POW, doing a ritual, and the sword deals +1 damage and has +5% to hit. I remember that the magic works only for the person who did the ritual.

Excellent, thanks for your response and I’ll check that out later. 

[davecake]

Waves at John

Crel misses out the most important bit - the ritual itself. You go into combat with a Fireblade on the weapon (or any heat sufficient to temper the blade and keep it up through the whole ritual, but Fireblade is by far the easiest for most people), then attack an intelligent enemy and sacrifice the POW (or at least, complete the ritual). If the attack fails, the ritual isn’t completed correctly (no POW loss), if the attacks hits but the enemy survives the ritual fails and the POW is lost, if the blow hits and the enemy dies, the ritual is a success - POW lost and weapon is enchanted when wielded by the wielder. +1  damage, +5% to hit and parry, and +2HP (+3 if it was iron). 
It’s supposed to be unconnected to any god, so castable by just about anyone. I really like it, it’s a fun but not overpowering bump for PCs and the ritual is both fun to play out and evocative, with its human sacrifice/temper by quenching in blood themes. 
no idea how it would be adapted to RQG. 

[metcalph]

I think the Iron Rapier in Urvantntarn's Tower could possible have been made by Ibiros (of the Machine City fame) as they were always said to have bladesharp 3 back in the original Different Worlds 24 article.

[Arcadiagt5]

 

On 7/29/2020 at 7:05 PM, davecake said:

Waves at John

Crel misses out the most important bit - the ritual itself. You go into combat with a Fireblade on the weapon (or any heat sufficient to temper the blade and keep it up through the whole ritual, but Fireblade is by far the easiest for most people), then attack an intelligent enemy and sacrifice the POW (or at least, complete the ritual). If the attack fails, the ritual isn’t completed correctly (no POW loss), if the attacks hits but the enemy survives the ritual fails and the POW is lost, if the blow hits and the enemy dies, the ritual is a success - POW lost and weapon is enchanted when wielded by the wielder. +1  damage, +5% to hit and parry, and +2HP (+3 if it was iron). 
It’s supposed to be unconnected to any god, so castable by just about anyone. I really like it, it’s a fun but not overpowering bump for PCs and the ritual is both fun to play out and evocative, with its human sacrifice/temper by quenching in blood themes. 
no idea how it would be adapted to RQG. 

 

Waves at Dave

Yes, I picked up Borderlands & Beyond which has the ritual in it and it seemed interesting. I could use it straight up in RQG (and may do) but  my main reason for asking was if there was a way for a PC to replicate this:

On 7/29/2020 at 7:15 PM, metcalph said:

I think the Iron Rapier in Urvantntarn's Tower could possible have been made by Ibiros (of the Machine City fame) as they were always said to have bladesharp 3 back in the original Different Worlds 24 article.

I don't know that part of the lore, alas. 

I have a new player who has opted to play a crafter, & for whom I've done a homebrew Cult of Gustbran with access to Enchantment Spells as an Initiate (which from what I've read elsewhere seems to be the special thing for Gustbran). 

So I was looking at that offhand reference to "Swords of Sharpness" in RQG and wondering what it referred to.

[davecake]

Ah, no, the Swords of Ibiros really were just mass produced permanent Bladesharp 3, and also notoriously blasphemous God Learner magic from the infamous Clanking City. So probably not an easy or sensible thing for PCs to recreate.

I have the preview of the Gods book. Yes, Gustbran has access to enchant spells as an initiate, though fairly normal ones. More powerful magic weapons would be matrices for spells, or have a spirit bound into them, I think. 

 

 

[Arcadiagt5]

23 hours ago, davecake said:

Ah, no, the Swords of Ibiros really were just mass produced permanent Bladesharp 3, and also notoriously blasphemous God Learner magic from the infamous Clanking City. So probably not an easy or sensible thing for PCs to recreate.

I have the preview of the Gods book. Yes, Gustbran has access to enchant spells as an initiate, though fairly normal ones. More powerful magic weapons would be matrices for spells, or have a spirit bound into them, I think. 

 

 

Good to know about the Swords of Ibiros, even if I'm not familiar with that part of the lore (or the Clanking City). So the Rapier found in Urvantan's Tower is probably one of those. I presume that whilst making them is generally forbidden, using one that you, ah, found tends to be rather less so. 

The Gustbran write up sounds fairly close to what I put together as a home brew, although does it include Enchant (Iron) at the Rune Master level?