Vengeance, a twist on the magical artefact table.

Hi guys,

I've come up with an alternative magical artefact table concerning the gathering and reforging of an ancient greatsword for a campaign set in Bretonnia. Let me know what you think. The fluff could do this some refinement but it's just a draft idea.

Vengeance, l'ancienne Estramaçon de Bretonnia

Vengeance was a magical great sword of phenomenal power, broken and lost for millennia, even the shards still hold remnants of it's true power. Pieces of the great sword are carried as equipment, bestowing gifts on the wielder.

Such is the magical nature of the sword, its will to be reformed, if any model carrying a shard of Vengeance is taken OOA in close combat the shard is dropped. Place a counter where the warrior was standing representing the dropped shard, this can then be picked up by any non animal warrior by moving over it. You may NOT pick up the shard when charging, as the warriors focus is completely on his enemy.  If the shard is taken by a henchmen he must give it to a hero after the battle. If the shard is unclaimed at the end of the game the warband that did NOT rout will claim it. If neither warbands rout, due to scenario rules, then the shard will be reclaimed by its original owner. Shards must be carried by a hero, except in the above circumstance, and if two or more shards are obtained within a single warband they must all be carried by the same hero at the start of a battle.

Roll a D6 and use this table to determine which shard of Vengeance you find when a result in the Exploration Chart indicates that you have found a shard of Vengeance. In a campaign none of these items can appear more than once, so if you find a shard which is already in someone else's possession roll again.

(1) The Pommel of Vengeance
Arrows, bolts, thrown knives, sling stones and other projectiles appeared to change direction at the last second. The bearer of the blade seemed impervious to missile attack.

The bearer of the Pommel of Vengeance has an additional 4+ save against shooting attacks, that is taken before armour saves.

(2) The Grip of Vengeance
Easily pushing aside the defences of his enemies, the lord's greatsword never missed it's target.

The bearer of the Grip of Vengeance increases his weapon skill by 1, this applies both current and maximum statistics. In addition the warrior may now choose combat skills as well as his standard skill tables.

(3) The Crossguard of Vengeance
As the wizards fire raced along the length of the great blade, ornate runes and a great gemstone began to glow. His last living sight was of his finest magic being absorbed into the hilt of the blade, before it fell upon his defenceless form.

The bearer of the Crossguard of Vengeance has a 4+ save against the effects of harmful magic, that is taken before armour saves.

(4) The Forte of Vengeance
An ancient saga tells of a mighty king pitted in battle against against a chaotic black dragon. Burnt and bloodied the king took his mighty sword, and in one great strike carved through the neck of the beast, dragonscale, muscle, sinew and bone all gave way to the potency of the blade, severing its head from its neck.

The bearer of the Forte of Vengeance increases his strength by 1, this applies both current and maximum statistics. In addition the warrior may now choose strength skills as well as his standard skill tables.


(5) The Edge of Vengeance
Despite the great size of Vengeance legends tell of how the greatsword allowed its bearers to strike at enemies with astonishing quickness.

The bearer of the Edge of Vengeance increases his initiative by 1, this applies to both current and maximum statistics. In addition the warrior may now choose speed skills as well as his standard skill tables.


(6) The End of Vengeance
The king's enemies quickly learned that attacking him on mass achieved nothing but the mass death of their warriors, his blade never resting until the slain littered the floor around his feet.

If bearer of End of Vengeance takes an enemy OOA in close combat he can immediately make an additional attack against another enemy that he is in close combat with. This can continue until he fails to take an enemy OOA or has no enemies left standing in close combat.



In addition to the individual benefits, for each shard of Vengeance beyond the first a warrior carries, the following benefits apply;

2-3 Shards: The bearer of the shards hates any warrior that also carries shards of Vengeance. As the heroes desire to find other shards grows you may roll two exploration dice  for him while there are still shards to find.

4-5 Shards: The bearer of the shards is affected by frenzy when fighting a warrior that is also carrying shards of Vengeance (he must charge if within range and he fights with double his attack characteristic). The hero is now obsessed with looking for the remaining shards, you may roll three exploration dice for him while there are still shards to find.

6 Shards:  The shards of Vengeance are all together! If you have the funds, you must find a worthy smith and have Vengeance remade, this costs 125 GC and the hero will miss the next battle whilst the smith is working. If you cannot afford to remake the sword the hero may not spend any gold on equipment until the sword has been remade.


Vengeance, l'ancienne Estramaçon de Bretonnia - Reforged

Vengeance, an artefact of great legend, often thought of as a myth, told to young nobles to spur on the desire to perform great deeds. The blade was an ornate magical greatsword, wielded by the most powerful kings and lords of ancient Bretonnia, it has been the end of many a powerful foe. Now the shards of Vengeance have been gathered together and reforged anew into a weapon of awesome power.

Range: Close Combat Strength: As user +2 Special rules: Two handed, The Resolve of Vengeance, The Jealousy of Vengeance, The Skill of Vengeance, The Speed of Vengeance, The Strength of Vengeance, The Fury of Vengeance.

Special Rules:

Two Handed: A warrior armed with Vengeance may not use a shield, buckler or additional weapon in close combat. He gets an additional +1 armour save bonus against ranged attacks if he carries a shield.

The Resolve of Vengeance: A warrior may parry with Vengeance. A warrior armed with Vengeance has a 4+ save against ranged attacks and magic that is taken before any armour saves are made.

The Jealousy of Vengeance: A warrior carrying Vengeance may not use any other weapons. If a warrior carrying Vengeance is taken OOA then Vengeance will be dropped. Place a counter where the warrior was standing representing Vengeance; this can then be picked up by any non animal warrior by moving over it. You may NOT pick up Vengeance when charging, as the warriors focus is completely on his enemy. If Vengeance is unclaimed at the end of the game the warband that did NOT rout will claim it. If neither warbands rout, due to scenario rules, then Vengeance will be reclaimed by its original owner.  If Vengeance is taken by a henchman he must give it to a hero after the battle.

The Skill of Vengeance: A warrior armed with Vengeance increases his weapon skill by 1, this applies to both current and maximum statistics. He may take combat skills in addition to his current skill tables. If the warriors weapon skill is 3 or more above his opponent all attacks will hit on 2+. Vengeance automatically confers the ability to wield the weapon on any warrior that is carrying it.

The Speed of Vengeance: A warrior armed with Vengeance increases his initiative by 1, this applies to both current and maximum statistics. He may take speed skills in addition to his current skill tables.

The Strength of Vengeance: A warrior armed with Vengeance increases his strength by 1, this applies to both current and maximum statistics. He may take strength skills in addition to his current skill tables. All attacks made with Vengeance cause a critical hit on a roll of 5 or 6.

The Fury of Vengeance: If bearer of Vengeance takes an enemy OOA in close combat he can immediately make an additional attack against another enemy that he is in close combat with. This can continue until he fails to take an enemy OOA or has no enemies left standing in close combat.

Note: If a warrior obtains a new skill, whilst owning a shard or the sword, which is not from his normally available skill tables and then subsequently loses the item he will still keep the skill. He may not, however, continue to take skills from the unavailable table.

Nice work!   

I concur - nice work!

Just one question - what type of weapon is it? Double-handed? Should just be noted somewhere else, I like it, very much indeed!

Thanks alot glad you like it, any constructive criticism? It says that it is a greatsword in the first paragraph and that it is two handed in the weapon description once it is reforged.

It sounds good. I like how the rules for the reforged sword incorporate the rules for the individual parts of the sword. I also really like how accumulating the shards provides additional benefits (hatred and frenzy) and in my mind this represents the greed of the warrior who holds the shards and I like that a single warrior HAS to carry all of the shards found by a warband.

I don't think that there is much room for constructive criticism because the components and the final, reforged sword are all artefacts. Therefore there is no need to worry about balance as much as creating something fun that warbands will want to fight for. You say that these are draft rules but I see no reason for them not to be final rules.

One thought that I do have though is an artefact like this with the wonderful fluff and rules deserves a campaign that provides winning conditions that tie into the reforging of the sword. Some gaming groups might simply state that a warband wins once the sword has been reforged. However, you have gone to the effort of creating rules for the reforged sword so it would seem better to me that there needs to be a final battle or final quest to be successfully completed by warband with the reforged sword before victory can be attained.

Edited to add...
I had a look at the link in your signature. I see that you do have some rules for Objectives and the use of Campaign Points. I guess that the victory condition may simply be that a warband must get to 30 CPs and also hold the reforged sword. Or maybe you could state that it is not possible to progress beyond 30 CPs until a warband has the reforged sword and then once a warband gets the sword they must make it to 35 CPs or 40 CPs to reach the final achievement and win the campaign. I look forward to seeing what you plan for this.

Thanks, I'm honoured you think that it deserves its own campaign The GM of our current campaign has his own ideas for the later CP points and for the final games, but it would be cool to run a campaign with the blade (or something similar) as the focus.

I've since edited the rules slightly to include a counter based system to prevent people taking the shard/sword in close combat and voluntarily routing straight away. We've also changed the cost to reforge the sword and made the hero in question miss one game while it is being remade.

Ashjwest wrote:

It says that it is a greatsword in the first paragraph and that it is two handed in the weapon description once it is reforged.

You're absolutely right. However, that is part of the 'fluff' text everywhere. And you're right, it says 'Two handed', but that's just a rule that the Double-handed Weapon shares with a Halberd. I'm just missing that it says in the rules, that it is treated as a Double-handed Sword, so anyone who can use that, can use the artifact

Ah, I see what your getting at now. I'll add that, thanks

Instead of making it a double-handed sword I would suggest putting a sentence in the Skill of Vengeance that the sword imbues the warrior who carries it with the skill to wield it in battle. This way there are no warbands or warriors penalised and have to burn a skill to get Weapons Training because they cannot wield a double-handed weapon. I think the Chaos Artefacts in BTB have similar rules.

Yeah, your totally right there, I don't want any warband to be penalised over others. Cheers.

I was just reading the rules for the Broadsword of Damnation from BTB. It does state that it counts as a double-handed weapon just like Aipha was suggesting for Vengeance. Also, the rules for the broadsword mentions the special rules for Sword Breakers and Whips and this would be worth mentioning in your rules.

Quote :

Broadsword of Damnation

The Broadsword counts as a double-handed weapon. Whenever a warrior is taken out of action by a critical hit of the Broadsword, the warrior is transformed into a horrible Spawn of Chaos, that is controlled by the Chaos player. The warrior dies permanently after the battle.

Note that this weapon cannot be destroyed through the Sword Breaker's Trap blade special rule or any other circumstances that would normally cause weapons/equipment to break. The same applies to the Disarm rule from a Whip.

Also, this thread is where Cianty mentioned that the Chaos Artefacts are magical and can be used by any hero. This never quite made it into the BTB errata so is part of the Unofficial FAQ for BTB which are still fairly official because Cianty (the BTB author) has provided the answer/clarification.
https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t6783-chaos-artifacts-and-heroes


 

Yes, there should definitely be no need to punish warbands for not being able to use the weapon, just because it's a certain type of weapon, when it is the main objective of the campaign. I see the need with the regular artifact table, but this is a different story.

A question: What happens if a Hero has picked a Speed skill, which he can take because of the Edge, but loses the Edge during a battle? (This of course applies to the Grip and Forte as well)

Aipha wrote:

A question: What happens if a Hero has picked a Speed skill, which he can take because of the Edge, but loses the Edge during a battle? (This of course applies to the Grip and Forte as well)

I would say that the hero keeps the skill. He got the skill by learning it (with a little help but still). If the skill was inplanted in his mind by the magic itdem magicly, then it would vanish.

Yes, that is the intention. The sword is supposed to unlock an unknown great potential in it's bearer and with this he can learn skills that he normally could not. It is still the warrior doing the learning however so he may keep the skill, but can't take any more skills from that table after losing the shard/sword.