CRIMSON RUINATION
CHAPTER 3
ITEMS OF LEGACY Illus. by W. England
announced his intentions to slay Tarkalkatos. The This broad-bladed greatsword bears a series of wicked dwarves were clearly skeptical of the knight’s claim, barbs along the lower third of its blade. The steel has but agreed to allow him a fortnight before closing been infused with a substance that gives it a reddown the caravan route. Thirteen days later, Sir Endish tinge, except for three dwarven runes inlaid drik rode back out of the mountains, badly burned in gold. Wrapped in red dragonhide, the grip ends and clinging to his saddle through sheer force of will alone. Tarkalkatos was no more. After tendin a pommel crafted of a 3-inch-long dragon fang. The guard is made of a bright red metal shaped ing to the knight’s wounds, the grateful dwarves into the likeness of a pair of leathery wings. forged Crimson Ruination as a gift for Sir Endrik Nonlegacy Game Statistics: +1 greatsword; and constructed a monument at the spot where the Cost 2,350 gp. dragon fell. Years later, after his death, Sir Endrik was returned to that monument and buried under Omen: Regardless of the ambient temperature, the blade is always warm to the touch, and it. (DC 18; Hero’s Prayer) it occasionally seems to reflect the Discovering Sir Endrik von Ibnacht’s image of a great conflagration on history prior to the Tarkalkatos Incident is difficult, requiring a its surface, even when no fire is great deal of wading through legpresent. ends and folk tales that ascribe to HISTORY Sir Endrik not only martial prowess and piety, but also the ability to be in eight places Crimson Ruination was the sword of the legendary dragonslayer Sir Endrik van at once. Most of these stories are certainly apocryphal, while others are possibly the Ibnacht. Sir Endrik received the blade as a gift from the dwarf thane Croi Machroi true exploits of other knights, which have been credited to Sir Endrik. A codex in the in thanks for slaying the great red wyrm Tarkalkatos. According to legend, the Monastery of St. Cuthbert’s Hand, however, dwarven smiths quenched the blade in the contains enough verifiable evidence that it is great beast’s blood and built the hilt from the almost certainly a true account of Sir Endrik. dragon’s bones and skin. Magic was laid into This text tells of a fair-haired young man, newly the sword to protect the wielder from the fiery knighted with “spurs yet untarnished,” who came breath of dragons, and Sir Endrik would later to the monastery seeking a place to sleep and a claim the only reason he lived to retire from warm meal. He was almost turned away, because the occupation of dragon hunting was because the monks had been suffering from a strange sickof the sword’s protection. (DC 15) ness that had claimed several lives, and the abbot Sir Endrik van Ibnacht makes his first feared a plague had come upon them. The young notable appearance during the so-called knight, who called himself Sir Endrik, told the abbot that it was no plague—the gods had givTarkalkatos Incident some four hundred years en him a vision of the cause of the monastery’s ago (although a study of Ibnachtian folklore reveals many tales of the legendary knight woes. He asked to be shown to the river from which the monks drew their water. After folfor several years before that). An ancient red lowing the river back to its source, he revealed a dragon calling itself Tarkalkatos had laid nest of young black dragons whose presence had claim to a vast mountain range as its personal territory. The dragon’s raids on shipments poisoned the river. Sir Endrik slew the beasts, and the monks were troubled by sickness no more. of ore were threatening to choke off the supply to all the lands east of the mountains, and (DC 25; Purify the Draconic Taint) several adventuring bands had already met Only one account of Sir Endrik’s early childhood survives, in a manuscript allegedly penned gruesome fates when they attempted to slay by the knight himself in his twilight years. In this the beast. The dragon had even routed an entire regiment of elite dwarf soldiers. The mine’s text, Sir Endrik reveals that he was born owners were beginning to consider aban- Red dragons fear the bite the son of a peasant farmer and would have doning the lucrative eastern markets when of Crimson Ruination been destined for a life of toil and hardship Sir Endrik rode into the mining town and like the rest of his family, if not been for an
61
