GUURGAL
Illus. by S. Belledin
Guurgal is a mighty spear that appears in orc legends about their greatest warlords of the distant past, supposedly blessed (or, in some stories, created) by Gruumsh himself. The spear’s LEGACY RITUALS discovery by an orc warrior is seen as a sign that Three rituals are required to unlock all the abilia Great Horde will soon be amassed to strike at ties of Guurgal. Rite of the Bleeding Hands: You must the enemies of the orc tribes. The spear usually reappears every two hundred to four hundred plunge Guurgal into the body of an enemy. You then slash open your palms with a dagger, years, and tradition attributes to it a variety of powers. (DC 15) dealing 1d4 points of damage with each cut, and wrench Guurgal free of the body. The proper perGuurgal’s first known appearance is in the story of Argad, a chieftain of the Bleeding formance of the ritual causes the spear’s barbs to stick firmly, and a DC 20 Strength check is reHands tribe. During a battle with a force of quired to free it. You can take 10 on this check but elves, Argad witnessed an enormous orc warnot 20, and you are allowed only three attempts rior on the battlefield, wielding the spear with before the ritual fails. Cost: 3,500 gp. Feat Granted: animalistic fury. When the battle ended, Argad found Guurgal standing upright, stuck fast in Least Legacy (Guurgal). the gut of one of the fallen elves. The weapon Shaman’s Sight: You have to spend 24 hours in veneration of Gruumsh—praying, chanting, called to the chieftain, and with a great feat of and offering sacrifices. At the end of this obstrength, he tore the spear free and claimed servance, you must put out your left eye with it as his own. Three years later, at the head of Guurgal. Cost: 13,000 gp. Feat Granted: Lesser a horde of ten thousand orcs, Argad laid waste Legacy (Guurgal). to many civilized nations. (DC 18; Rite of the Test of the High King: You are required to Bleeding Hands) face and defeat Guurgal’s greatest wielder, High After Argad’s defeat, Guurgal disappeared King Bruug of Orghar. Bruug is long dead, of from orc ken for three centuries. A shaman course, so you must locate his shade and defeat it in of the Tearing Claw tribe, who was called battle. His soul resides on the Infernal the Hooded One, then beheld the Battlefield of Acheron (see page 163 of spear in a dream sent by Gruumsh. Among orcs, the legendary weapon Guurgal is proof of its wielder’s the Dungeon Master’s Guide), where he In the vision, Gruumsh put out the claim to leadership leads a vast horde of fiendish orcs in shaman’s left eye with Guurgal. When
CHAPTER 3
HISTORY
ITEMS OF LEGACY
A wickedly barbed spear, Guurgal has a long, sharp head of cold iron and a rough haft of darkwood. Orc runes are seared into the wood, as if they were burned into it with a red-hot iron. Feathers, bits of colored stone, and various other primitive decorations hang on short leather thongs just below the base of the spearhead. Nonlegacy Game Statistics: +1 cold iron spear; Cost 4,304 gp. Thanks to the vicious barbs running along the edges of Guurgal’s point, the weapon deals an additional 1 point of damage on a critical hit. Omen: Whenever Guurgal pierces an inanimate object, that object “bleeds” profusely for 1d4 rounds. Living creatures are unaffected by this oddity, but bleeding objects are omens of victory in orc culture.
the Hooded One woke, his left eye was a blind, dead-white orb, but the spear lay across his chest, the tip still bloody. That same year, the Hooded One marshaled five tribes under his banner and cut a swath through the hobgoblin tribes of the region. (DC 25; Shaman’s Sight) The most recent sighting of Guurgal was in the hands of High King Bruug, ruler of one of the only known orc nations in history. Bruug found the spear in a troll’s lair. He carried it into battle against the surrounding human and elven baronies, out of which he carved the nation of Orghar. The kingdom persisted through three generations of Bruug’s descendants before a band of adventurers murdered the last High King. Orghar crumbled under the infighting of its warlords and shamans, and Guurgal was lost in the chaos of the kingdom’s collapse. It has not been seen since. (DC 31; Test of the High King)
103
