Sydanjaa's Call
Description
These weapons traditionally have a diamond-shaped iron head, smoothed and sharpened with fine abrasive tempest jade dust. It is the shaft that requires most of the artisan's attention, the wood carefully worked and polished with ambergelt, and inlaid with a few larger pieces of tempest jade. Traditionally, the weapon must be crafted entirely outside, under the night sky, and it is said that if these weapons spend too much time indoors - or worse, underground - their enchantment fades faster than it normally would. The greatest of these spears are said to be crafted in Winter months when the ice winds howl, and the very greatest are crafted on the wastes of Tsirku, within sight of the eternal storm Sydanjaa.
The shaft of the weapon is usually marked with Mawrig, rune of storms. Because that rune is considered dangerous by many, it is not uncommon for the rune to be covered with a strip of cloth, or even left off the weapon entirely - in this case it is often painted onto the shaft or the head shortly before the weapon is to be used, to minimize the bad luck and madness it can cause.
The Varushkans have also made some use of these weapons, although they have fallen out of favour in recent centuries. Historically used by the Ushka rather than the Vard, they were often marked with the rune Naeve - hunger - and named wastewalker's howl. These weapons had a much darker reputation that the Suaq counterpart, and it is said that they were sanctified in some way by dark spirits of the howling blizzard and midwinter chill. Some orcs - Imperial and otherwise - have an almost superstitious dread of the wastewalker's howl; when the weapons were captured in battle they were destroyed, rather than being claimed by the victorious barbarians.
Wielders of these weapons comment that they are often unnaturally cold to the touch, and that odd breezes occasionally spin up around them. When wielded under the night sky, a hunter will often seem to hear a distant howling, always on the very edge of hearing. For the Suaq this is the distant cry of Sydanjaa. For the Varushka, especially those with the white mark of an Ushkan bloodline, they represent a much more sinister howling of some lost and forgotten spirit of the Northern wastes.
Rules
- Form: One-handed Spear.
- Effect: Once per day, you may spend a hero point to call REPEL when you hit with this spear.
- Materials: Crafting Sydanjaa's call requires ten ingots of tempest jade and eight measures of ambergelt. It takes one month to make one of these items.