Blood-dimming Tide

Description

These rods allow a magician who fights on the front lines to heal themselves and an ally without needing to leave the fray. They are equally useful to the dedicated battlefield healer who risks being hurt while getting to their patients, and to the war witch who fights alongside the other nobles of their house.

In Varushka a potent artefact known as the Brother's Arm appears several times. It is most commonly mentioned in the tales of Johann of Gristlev who used it extensively while fighting alongside his elder brother Gustav against the three powerful Mora who had stolen in to their town. The historicity of the Gristlev brothers is debated - in some parts of Varushka they are considered Exemplars of Courage and Loyalty, but the Synod has never recognised them as actual people. If the actual brother's arm could be found, it would go some way towards helping to prove these two men actually existed..

Rules

• Form: Weapon. Takes the form of a rod. You must be wielding this implement to use its magical properties.
• Requirement: You must have the magician skill to bond to this item.
• Effect: Twice per day you may swift cast the heal spell as if you knew it and without spending any mana
• Materials: Crafting a Blood-dimming Tide requires seven ingots of weltsilver, four measures of ambergelt, and seven measures of iridescent gloaming. It takes one month to make one of these items.

"Three times did the three wicked Mora circle the little town. Three times they begged the watchmen to let them in, calling out each time "Oh, we are hurt, we are wounded, we are dying!", but the watchmen, wise to the Mora's wicked ways would not let them in.

"Three times they circled, until finally they found the one house that had not hung the primroses and marigolds by their door - the house of the old baker Tomtar - and when they found that house, they changed back in to their belegged forms and slithered in through the window of that house ..."

Little Tomtar drew his legs up beneath the brightly coloured blanket, his eyes and his mouth all three forming perfect "O" shapes of horror and delicious excitement. His father leant forward so that the candlelight cast strange shadows across his face. He smiled wickedly at his son, letting the horror of what the mora might do to the foolish baker sink in. Then he clapped his hands together, making the boy leap almost out of his skin.

" ... right in to the trap that the brave Brothers of Gristlev had laid! With a roar like a hero of the Empire, Gustav Gristlev courageously threw himself in to battle with the three wicked creatures, knocking their beaked heads together. Loyal Johann Gristlev leapt to his brother's side, drawing his knife and the glittering weltsilver rod.

"Blow for blow they traded with the three Mora, whose curved blades cut red ribbons in our brave boys. But each time Johann felt his own strength fail, he would reach out with that strange magical rod that the white owl had given him, using its power to heal his brother's wounds and in doing so, he would also feel the fight return to his own limbs.

"They fought and they fought until finally the three wicked Mora became black ravens again and fled back to their dark mistress, flying high across the vale, never to be heard of again."