by Christopher "Janus" Donnelly
Prince Skyros of Pacifica put out a request for help, and Rhiassa and Rua Thar Cinn (along with a few other Chimeroneans) answered the call. It appears that Imperium was planning to raise the Island of Pacifica to gain support of Queen Persiya of Pacifica, and in doing so, the island would be bound to her. If this happened, the Imperium would gain strong allies in their attempt to conquer the Realms. Luckily, Prince Skyros, had an alternative plan. As he is a viable heir to the throne, we were to bind him to the island instead, and he would lead his people to become traders rather than warriors. We were given a simple goal, take his blood into the temple under the island, gather three tributes, and give them to the spirit of the island. With this goal, we were handed a vial of Prince Skyros’ blood and sent through a portal under water.
On the other side of the portal, we found ourselves within a mine. Several of the forces of the Imperium were down there, including Pacificans loyal to Queen Persiya. They were actively mining several different ores and gems. We tried to talk our way through, but the Imperium as always were war mongers. After using some McKrye style diplomacy, we obtained the ore (which turned out to be Torqual), gems, money and potions. They really should have just let us walk through as we asked. After this, we found a small lift, and cleared the rest of the mine of all forces, resources and information (we spent the rest of our trip during down time deciphering this information).
After the mine, we approached the first part of the temple which contained a tribute. An ancient compass was in the center of the room, feeling as if it lacked power, while shark-infested water bordered either side. We killed the sharks, and dragged them onto land, and discovered they each had become infused with crystallized leyline energy. As we explored the room further, we noticed plants that responded to magic. After enough magic charged them, we felt leylines become infused around us with more energy, and more sharks appeared. As we gathered more and more crystallized leyline energy, we noticed the grooves in the compass perfectly fit the crystallized leylines. Upon filling all the grooves, it coalesced into a goblet of leyline energy...our first tribute!
On the journey to the next location, we found a merchant who sold us information and wares. As well, we translated a bit of information that showed how Prince Skyros was keeping up appearances as his mother’s son. We briefly worried of betrayal, but quickly saw through to the truth of him keeping up appearances. After completing all our purchases we journeyed further into the temple and discovered a spirit beast. Prince Skyros informed us we would need it’s scales, and while it pierced our armor pretty well, we were able to eventually get all the scales we needed.
Finally, there was a vault of water, where each part of the water would harm us if we did not meet various criteria. We carefully navigated it and fought it’s guardians and found a magical fruit as the final tribute. We started to push our way to the center of the island where the ritual was, but the currents were too strong to swim there directly. Luckily Prince Skyros had troops loyal to him leave a method from which we could build bridges across to the spirit. We built and fought, and built and fought, and with very little time left, we made it to the spirit. The ritual to bind the queen to the spirit was underway already, but we still had our chance. We replaced the tributes with our own, and replaced the blood of the queen with the blood of the prince. Once everything was in place, we called to the spirit and asked it to be bound to Prince Skyros. This being done, everything was set. Our time was out, but we succeeded. We learned more of the Imperium, and learned to forge weapons out of Torqual.
Instructions for Making a Torqual Weapon:
Torqual weapons are difficult to forge, but their properties allow them to retain weapon enchantments and they are more difficult to break, making the process worth it. In order to do so, you will need a low heat forge, a silver hammer, and a barrel of seawater, as well as a mage skilled in weaponcraft. A single piece of torqual ore can be made into exactly two inches of weapon. Additionally, it requires ten ore to forge an axe, mace, or hammer head.
The first step in the process is to line the torqual up from end to end over a low heat forge. It will take four hours to melt down the torqual, however once melted the (hour/ore?) must sit in the forge for no longer than an hour. If the ore is in the forge for longer than five hours total, it will become slag.
At this point you will need to cast a protective spell on the torqual to protect it from the silver forging hammer. The protective spell should last for every fifty strikes of the forging hammer. The hammer must strike the molten torqual twice for every inch of the weapons length and every ten strikes a weapon enhancement must be cast onto the blade. Once you have finished shaping the weapon and imbuing it with spell it must then be plunged into sea water for exactly three minutes.
Finally, the torqual weapon is complete and will be immediately ready for battle. You will find that it will now retain weapon enchantments much longer than normal weapons, plus allow for others to use weapon enchantments that normally would have been restricted to just the spellcaster. You will also find that torqual blades are nearly impossible to break, except by a blow of silver.