SwordTember 6: Liquid Blades

 The sixth prompt is actually one I've been looking forward to on this round, the liquid sword. No, we're not talking ice, as that would be a cop out. 

Unless you're freezing something that would not normally be a solid and be able to maintain this, such a thing wouldn't be possible. Believe it or not, the Monster Manual actually comes to the rescue a bit with this one. There is an entry for a fiend called the Ice Devil, who hails from the frigid layers of Hell called Stygia and Cania, according to 5E lore. While the description has an icy spear as their weapon of choice, who's to say the spear can't exhibit the same properties as the following sword?

One of the nastier materials we have on hand is elemental mercury. Acute mercury poisoning will result in a physiological response from the body in attempt to expel the material via coughing, nausea (may even cause vomiting) and hemorrhaging as the body does everything it can to remove the material. Chronic poisoning can look like any myriad of neurological or gastrointestinal diseases, even skin diseases. Without testing, you're looking at a very painful way to die if you suffer exposure to this.

And an ice devil can use this to shocking degree. 

Due to their innate magic, a mercurial blade will be solid so long as the devil is alive and wills the weapon to remain. Once dead, or if they will it to be so, the blade will revert to its natural form of a liquid as soon as it gets warm enough. The freezing point of mercury is -40 degrees. (Fahrenheit or Centigrade makes no difference at that magical number.) On striking flesh, it will cause frostbite and melt a bit of itself into any wounds dealt, causing problems beyond "OMG I'm being attacked by a monster" to any survivors of such an attack. As the devil is wielding this weapon, it cannot be affected by its poisonous nature having "forged" the blade itself.

Any characters that attempt to wield the weapon after the monster's hopeful demise will be dismayed to see the metal literally melt away from the fixture, assuming the whole of the weapon wasn't frozen from quicksilver, Immediately they will need to make checks against the poisoning effects as the metal reaches melting points and begins to evaporate. In other words, get out of Dodge. 

Poisoning effects: As a vapor, DC17 Constitution save every minute, beginning with when the "blade" reaches melting point, until the area has been cleaned of elemental mercury or the character is clear of the area. Effects are 1d4 damage to any mental ability, randomly determined, until threshold has been met of half the total of mental abilities. The save must be made every minute so long as exposure continues.

For example, a wizard with 16 Intelligence, 12 Wisdom and 11 Charisma has a threshold of 20 poisoning damage. Once the threshold is reached, one point of drain (permanent) is inflicted. The expression "mad as a hatter" can still be a thing, as you can see.

As a solid weapon, DC17 Constitution per wounding, failure means suffering 1d3 points of Constitution damage due to frostbite and mercury getting into the character's system.

SwordTember 4: Elemental

 SwordTember sent a bit of a softball idea for this one.

Or rather I'm going to cop out with my idea here. 

I just got done playing Elden Ring (ten out of ten, would Tarnish again) and one of the in-game mechanics is the use of a block elemental grease to apply certain effects to a given nonmagical weapon. Examples include fire grease, magic grease (for biting into targets that are weak to such things) or holy grease to use radiant damage. In Elden Ring, you can find the material for making such items in game yourself. 

How would we translate this to 5E? Simple. An alchemist can make this stuff and sell it for fifty gold a pop, but holy grease needs holy water, so factor the cost for this as a higher cost to the character who wants to use this clutch material on the battlefield. Now your weapon does its typical damage as its type, plus the secondary attribute imparted by the grease. This takes an action to apply, but lasts for a minute. Be forewarned that you lose the attribute at the end of that minute, regardless of if the weapon is used like this or not.

Also, like Elden Ring, we could take this a step further and make a smaller block that applies the effect faster, but doesn't last as long. Drawstring grease would be used in 5E as part of a move action, but only lasts for three rounds. The cost is the same, but this could easily mean the difference between simply knocking a troll down or making it stay dead.

Could this be used on ranged weapons? Probably, but you would have to coat the material you're shooting, not the weapon itself. Crossbow bolts and arrows can benefit, but given that it's a grease, firearms would cook the grease off on weapon discharge, 

If anyone has ideas for this, I'm all ears.

SwordTember 3: Gears

 Alright, here's a weird one. What kind of sword would utilize gears? As near as I can figure, we're looking at a clockwork construct.

Imagine a frame with three inch cogs locked into each other going down the back. They're fixed, but also lock in with the handle, itself a clockwork mechanism. The frame extends to around thirty inches to the end of the blade, but there's no tip to speak of. Stepped up in speed and in a locked train with the main cogs we would have a series of three inch wide cogs, but hammered flat to act as an edge and still toothed to engage with each other. (Or the sword weilder's target. This is a weapon, after all.) 

Now, without spinning the gears, you can still have a decent bashing weapon if hitting with the sword back. This is a sword, however, and not a club. Swords typically exhibit a cutting action, but notice I said the handle was also clockwork. A clockwork golem with a hand to operate the sword would spin the pommel and also cause the gears in the sword to also spin. I could probably do the same if I hooked a power drill up to the pommel and get it spinning. 

Now all those spinning razor-thin teeth can act as a vicious saw, ripping and tearing into a given target. Last I checked, brass was very unforgiving of flesh impeding its motion if weaponized. I cite the Greek xiphos as my example, the sword featured in the movie 300, as those were replica xiphoi used in cinema to mimic their actual battlefield use at the Battle of Thermopylae. 

With the description laid out, here's the rules on using such a nasty tool. When unused, the clockwork user can still initiate for 1d8 bashing damage any time, or rev the blade as a free action on its turn. On attacking an unarmored target, an average human commoner, a grapple is automatically initiated by the blade as it bites into its target, dealing 2d6 slashing damage as the gears bite and lacerate the target. If the victim survives the initial encounter, he needs to make a DC 10 Strength check to break free (and likely run like hell) before he can do anything short of jam a dagger into the teeth to stop them from rotating. 

After the blade has been used (gummed up) the user needs to maintain either a DC 15 Strength to keep the gears turning (with advantage if it's a golem, straight roll if it's me and my drill) as blood tends to foul up gears, but proficiency bonus can be added if applicable. Such a tool of war would be used in shock tactics and likely discarded after shock value has been achieved. 

For the record, I use myself as the modern man to relate here. In a typical fantasy setting, I would be stuck to using the weapon as a bludgeon, as most drills that could get that fast are either fixed tools i.e. drill press, or just wouldn't exist.

SwordTember 2: The Candle Sword

 Round Two for SwordTember is for a candle sword. For those who want to see the original Twitter post I saw this on, you can view the original post here. 

 Many people have issues seeing in the dark. (Citation: My broken toe from kicking a loaded suitcase at night.) Those who delve into dungeons would especially have a problem doing so as natural light can't get that far into a winding cave tunnel, and that's not to exclude working at night.

Enter the candle sword, a single edge sword with a channel along its spine to allow for a rope candle. 

A rope candle is a candle made using beeswax allowing for the candle to be very malleable. In American history,  and likely elsewhere in the world (please correct me if I'm wrong) a rope candle would be rolled onto a drum to allow for dispensing into its attached candle holder as a readily available source of fuel. As the candle burned, a clamp would be opened (or not) and some of the candle would be unwound to feed up and allow for continued illumination. The candle that I have at home is four feet long end to end (or was when it was purchased) and has a 1/2 inch diameter. For my properly measuring audiences, that would equate to a 1.2 meter coil at 10mm diameter.

When the candle is set into the sword back and lit, you could get around a day's worth of illumination, maybe more depending on various conditions, if the sword is held vertically. This light is dim, but consistent. The other option is to hold the blade horizontally to allow for the flame to lick down the length of the blade, allowing for more light to be emitted at the expense of less time providing a brighter light source. 

Whether or not this could work is dependent on whether enough oxygen can reach the flame to continue the burning reaction. I'll have to build a mockup to see if this is at all possible. As with the previous SwordTember post, feel free to offer critiques or ideas to change things. 

SwordTember 1: The Crystal Sword

 So, someone suggested an idea for art of swords throughout the month of September. I'm well aware that this is way late, but  still going to try for this. For those who want to see the original Twitter post I saw this on, and you can view the original post here. The first prompt is for a crystal sword, and this can easily be done in tabletop.

Firstly, a crystal sword cannot be forged, not can it be filed to a razor sharp edge due to its nature as a crystal. Many different materials can be made into a crystal, but it needs to be grown into a crystalline structure, which takes time and a fair amount of magic. Once grown, you can (very carefully) shape part of the sword into an integrated handle and go to town. 

Now, reality says that you may not even be able to get a swing off, let alone still have more than a handle after the blow strikes your target due to the shearing factors involved when making such an attack. That's why weapons are made out of hard, yet flexible material. Wood is durable and flexible, but not hard enough to keep an edge. Diamond, by contrast, is unbelievably hard and can be wicked sharp, but due to its rigid crystalline structure, would shear at a solid enough impact if it was weaponized. Regardless, diamond still makes for a good candidate as a crystal sword, and since this has magic involved in the creation of said weapon, we can improve the flexibility factor in our favor.

As the weapon is harder than steel (diamond wheels are used in industrial manufacturing to grind metals, and is the only thing hard enough to grind a diamond, after all)that means we can have a better edge for much longer than steel, and we can reflect this on the dice. The easiest way to do so is to step up the damage dice to reflect this. You can still do a minimum damage, but the maximum damage can improve. Mass dictates the change is marginal, but your damage potential is still higher, so I consider this a wash.

Both Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder both declare a longsword as 1d8 damage when used in one hand. The longsword also gains a stepped up damage dice in D&D 5e and in Pathfinder gains more damage when using both hands based on your Strength score.  With the Crystal Sword, the damage dice would be 1d10 (5e 1d12 both hands) with a keen edge, and Pathfinder can allow double your Strength bonus as opposed to only half. A keen edge allows for deeper cuts and makes for a more powerful critical hit at x4, with the massive drawback of causing the blade to break and become unusable. 

Most warriors wouldn't dare consider using such a blade due to its brittle nature save as a clutch backup, especially in battlefield situations. However, as mentioned before, magic is used to craft the weapon. As such, it is effective against incorporeal targets, like ghosts and specters, and due to their insubstantial presence, don't cause the blade to break if a critical blow is delivered. Such blades would be highly prized amongst occult hunters in their duties. However, regardless of the target, you don't want to screw up the strike against your target, lest you risk breaking the blade against the ground, or any other hard and unforgiving surface you fight near. 

Not every sword can receive a crystallization form. For example, longswords and shortswords can be made using crystal, as could stout blades like a falchion, but the rapier is too thin, and greatswords are too large before they crumble under their own weight. Axe blades receive brutal treatment even before they are used, and as such cannot be made without shattering during construction. Crystal growers are known to experiment with other sword types to obtain "perfection", but they also have massive piles of broken drek to show their failures.

If you have any other thoughts as to how this can be advanced, feel free to let me know. Nothing is perfect, but I freely open up my writings to critiques to improve.