The Sword Hilt of Ellesan
Forged by Dwarves and wielded by Elven kings, the sword was broken in the last battle of the Deadless Lord on the eastern continent. The Elves call it “Lirelen Elessan” (which means, simply, “the sword of Ellesan”). It was last wielded by Elessan Torilarvan, whose name means “Sword of the Silver Forest”.
The sword is now in two parts, the engraved jade hilt with the lower part of the blade, and the rest of the blade. This is the hilt. There are five lines of Elvish runes on the base of the blade, clearly incomplete:
tiale waya: “tiale” means “in the reign of”. The next part is almost certainly the first part of a royal name.
panvono vira: “panvono” means “victory”. The next portion, if it is a whole word, is “gratitude”. It might make sense for this to be “viralva”, which would mean “In gratitude for victory”.
dier dencarotuh: “dier” means “transported”, and “dencarotuh” is “across the wide earth” or “across the wide lands”.
lirelilen ciri: “lirelilen” is “this sword of” and “ciri” is “Elves and” something else.
daya lirelen ele: “daya” is “I am” and “lirelen” is “the sword of”. The fragment “ele” could be many things, such as “elessar” (starlight) or “elessan” (weapons, swords), or a name. That is, “I am the sword of swords” or “I am the sword of starlight.”
The hilt and base of the sword confer the ability to Turn Undead (as the Specialty), as a fifth level prophet. Those with the specialty who bear the hilt gain a bonus of two to their level when “Turning” undead (but turn at a minimum of fifth level). In the presence of undead, it grows a full blade, glowing green, which confers a bonus of 2 to attack and a bonus of 1 to defense against undead. Even when glowing, it may not be used to attack anything other than undead: it passes through other creatures or things. The magical blade ignores certain physical defenses of undead, such as the skeleton’s ability to take reduced damage from slashing and pointed weapons.
The hilt is also cursed, depending on your point of view. It attracts nearby undead. Evil things killed violently, or in the act of committing evil, have a level+10% chance of coming back as skeletons or walking dead when the sword is near their corpses.
The hilt came to the western continent via the underground. The Elves of the west do not know its origin, although they have heard rumors about the glowing sword with Elvish runes on the blade. They are very interested in finding the sword, and discovering its origin.
If the player characters (or anyone else) take the broken sword, this will “activate” the goblin skeletons surrounding the castle. The skeletons will, at three in the morning, animate and move across the moat and crawl over the walls and into the castle, and attack anything living in their path. There are 67 animated goblin skeletons in total—far too many for your average first to third level adventurers to defeat.
There are very few goblin skeletons actually inside the castle. The goblins won, after all, and pulled their friends out for proper burial. (The adventurers may be looking for a more sinister explanation for the lack of goblin bodies, and they’ll certainly be able to make one up, but the real reason is much more mundane.)
For those goblin skeletons that do remain in the castle, you’ll have to decide whether they can leave their not-so-final resting places and how much time it will take them to get to the sword-bearer. On the first floor there are still two goblin skeletons in the library (room 18), three in room 15, and three in the grand ballroom (room 2). On the second floor there are three skeletons on the battlement, and one in Abiram’s bedroom (9).
The skeletons will follow the sword hilt out of the castle as long as it is within one mile of them. If evaded, they will remain animated, though still, within the castle, and anyone entering the castle afterward will have to deal with them. They’ll rest again in seven years if undisturbed.
67 Goblin Skeletons (Undead: 1; Move: 10; Defense: 3; Attack: short swords; Damage: d6; Special Defense: Pointed weapons do 1 point; Slashing weapons do half damage)
The Moonstone Ring
The “moonstone ring” is made of silver strands woven together around a pale, soft white pearl. Under normal circumstances, the ring offers the wearer a bonus of 1 to defense. At night, it offers a bonus of 2 to defense. On nights of the full moon, it offers a bonus of 3 to defense. On nights of the new moon, the wearer and up to ten pounds of clothing or other items may walk through any door as if the door were insubstantial.
The ring is also enhanced with Indestructible Object, for +8 on saving rolls or defense against destruction.
“Night” means after sunset and before sunrise.
This is the ring commissioned by Lieutenant Courlander and his friends from the Dwarves. They adventured to find the right ingredients and magic to enchant it to its current power.
