Landsknecht's Zweihänder

Description

A Landsknecht's Zweihänder is a famous two-handed sword, popular among the mercenaries of Tassato and Temeschwar. There is occasional light-hearted debate on whether its power is magical in nature or simply down to the weight of the large quantities of tempest jade and orichalcum which go into their production.

The unconquered of Highguard also employ these swords as part of their guerilla tactics, disarming and disabling their opponents as often as they simply run them through or chop them in half. Merab of Tobias' Patrol was famed for her skill in deploying her sword and was responsible for the slaughter of every orc shaman in the Great Forest of Peytaht. There have been mutterings that Merab may have been an Exemplar of Vigilance, but insufficient evidence has been presented to the Synod on the matter.

Rules

• Effect: Twice per day you may call IMPALE when you strike with this weapon.
• Materials: Crafting a Landsknecht's Zweihänder requires thirteen ingots of tempest jade. and three ingots of orichalcum. It takes one month to make one of these items.

The tent was strewn with maps, ledgers, and scraps of paper with jottings, and scratched out sums. Two glasses of wine sat on a tray between two seated figures wearing the finest doublets, heavily embroidered and trimmed with exquisite furs. Rudolph had the contract laid out in front of him, and was carefully reading through it while Denna helped herself to the glazed cherries.

"That out of their pay, a pikeman should supply themselves with a sturdy pike, the whole of which to be between seven and nine feet in length, and such armour as would render their bodies protected against the piercing swords of the common orcs,"

Donna shrugged. "Well, that's satisfactory, isn't it?"

Rudolph nodded. "Yes, business as usual, almost, although there's a fair few spearmen who won't have a pike - but then this! 'That out of their pay, each member of a flank company shall provide such protection of fine steel to render the arrows of the enemy impotent against them.'

"Hmm..." Donna looked into the middle distance for a moment, chewing reflectively, then spat the cherry pit with pinpoint accuracy across the tent. It pinged off a a metal plate of the armour on its stand making Rudolph wince slightly "Yes, that is going to be difficult. Some of them will, but many just won't have that sort of protection. They're not expecting uniforms, too are they?"

Rudolph shook his head.

"No, but listen to this! ...'each to be equipped with a sword, between three-and-one-half and five-feet in length, crafted by an artisan skilled in such things, for the discomforting of the enemy's pikes and the staffs of their magicians.' They can't seriously be asking every single soldier in a flank company to have a Landsknecht's Zweihänder!"

The short man was clearly warming to his subject now. He began ticking points off on his fingers as he spoke.

"There's what, eighty in the general strength of a company?" He asked rhetorically. "That's eleven hundred and twenty ingots of tempest jade, five hundred and sixty ingots of orichalcum and five hundred and sixty measures of beggar's lye each! Why, you could build a house out of the beggarwood alone! Have they no idea of the value of such things! Let alone the fact that it's six and a half years of a swordsmith's time, even if they lasted that long! We'd need seven artisans on staff the entire war, doing nothing but making these things, and they'd need to have started last Summer!"

Donna laughed at Rudolph's agitation. She picked up another cherry and bit into it, savouring the tartness as she considered.

"Well, tell them 'No', not without a bill through the Imperial Senate." She was serious for a moment. "We'll equip any forlorn hope with them, as usual, but they can't seriously expect any more than that. What they are asking for is quite ridiculous. I wonder sometimes if these people have the slightest idea of how much things cost!"