Ebonbane II (Magic Sword)

Not all of Ravenloft's foul lords are living or once-living things. One, at least, is fashioned from cold metal and even colder darkness. Manufactured in a forge of foulest evil, the enchanted sword Ebonbane has repeatedly proven its right to a domain in the Demiplane of Dread.
Physically, Ebonbane appears as a slender bladed, long sword. Its hilt has been cast from a single piece of silver that, mysteriously, never seems to tarnish. Although ornate, Ebonbane's pommel has no special powers or abilities. Its blade is fashioned from a strange, alien metal that was brought to the Prime Material Plane from another dimension. Along its length, the keen blade is set with foul-looking runes of purest evil. These runes have many powers, all described later: they seem to glow with an eerie black aura.
The macabre lore that surrounds the origins of Ebonbane begins, curiously enough, with a tale of justice and devotion to the holy cause of truth. Centuries ago, there lived a young woman named Kateri Shadowborn. Her parents were wealthy, but they were humble and just people. Much of their money went to the betterment of life for all those who dwelled in their lands.
As Kateri grew from a little girl into a young woman, she began to feel an emptiness in her heart, for all the good that she and her ancestors had done, there was something missing. By the time she had reached her mid-teens, Kateri Shadowborn knew what it was that she needed. From that time on, she vowed to follow the holy path of the paladin. No longer would the Shadowborn name be simply associated with kindness and mercy: now it would be synonymous with justice and holy vengeance. As the years passed, Kateri Shadowborn fought evil on every front. She single handedly drove back hordes of marauders and destroyed nests of evil that threatened the well-being of her church. Despite her prowess, Kateri Shadowborn was as vulnerable to time as any mortal. Eventually she was forced to lay down the holy sword that had served her for so many years. Having had no time in her busy life for romance, courtship, or motherhood, she planned to live out her autumn years peacefully. From her home in the ancestral Shadowborn Manor, she would oversee the family wealth and its allocations to charity. In the end, when she died, she planned to turn all of her family's possessions over to the church. The Shadowborn name would die with her, but the good that it had done would live on for decades.
Such a quiet end to a warrior's life was not to be, however. In her day. Kateri had made many enemies. While most of those who had opposed her church and its teachings had been destroyed or converted, there were others who plotted revenge.
One such group, a band of evil priests in the service of a dark deity whose name is best unspoken, decided that Lady Shadowborn had to die. Further, as an example to all who opposed their dark designs, she had to die horribly and in some way that would destroy her much-vaunted faith. Over the course of several months, they began to fashion an evil magical weapon: the sword that was to be called Ebonbane. When the final dark rune was set upon the blade, an evil being from the Outer Planes was imprisoned in the weapon. Much to the surprise of the sword's creators, however, the spells that they had woven to control the extradimensional entity were woefully inadequate. When they cast the last component of this mystical enchantment upon Ebonbane, they found its power turned back upon them. Now they were slaves of the presence they had attempted to contain.
One aspect of the magical spell cast on Ebonbane did succeed, however. Although the sword was free-willed it still had become gripped with an utter hatred for Lady Shadowborn and all her works. The weapon quickly began to plan her destruction.
Ebonbane arranged to be found by a monk from a monastery near the Shadowborn estate. As soon as the unsuspecting holy man reached out to touch the weapon, Ebonbane struck. Lashing out with its titanic will, it utterly destroyed the monk's vital life energies and took over his body. With the body of the monk nothing more than a puppet under the control of the evil Ebonbane, the sword instructed the monk to carry it to Shadowborn Manor. When the monk was received by Lady Shadowborn, he explained that the workers at the monastery had found this sword and wanted her advice on what to do with it. When Lady Shadowborn saw the unholy weapon, her natural ability to sense evil warned her of the treachery.
The battle that followed was magnificent. With every ounce of faith that she could muster, the aging paladin fought off the influences of the weapon. Time and time again, the animated sword tried to run Lady Shadowborn through, but always her holy sword turned it aside. In the end, however, Ebonbane was too much for her. Calling on all the power of the dark dimension that had spawned it, Ebonbane delivered a final titanic blow that shattered Lady Shadowborn's holy avenger.
As the battle had raged on, Ebonbane was unaware that it was drawing the attention of Ravenloft's dark powers. With each iota of fiendish energy that it drew from the evil plane of its birth, it increased their interest in it Finally, as the last stroke of this deadly artifact took the life of Kateri Shadowborn, the Mists engulfed the estate.
When Ebonbane, thrilled with the victory that it had won, tried to leave the grounds, it found that it could not. At every turn, it was confronted by an impassable stone wall. It was imprisoned in the Demiplane of Dread. Ebonbane has found its time in Ravenloft utterly unbearable. It knows that its powers here are a hundred times what they were in the outside world, but it feels that this is no consolation for the loss of its own freedom.
Curiously, Ebonbane has never been able to grasp the full meaning of what has happened to it. It believes that it has been imprisoned by some trick of Lady Shadowborn. Even if confronted with absolute proof that it is imprisoned in a special demiplane full of evil creatures, Ebonbane would not believe this. In fact, the odds are good that anyone who dares to confront it with such information would die horribly.
In addition to its own rage over having been imprisoned in Ravenloft, Ebonbane finds that it has not been wholly successful in its attempt to slay Lady Shadowborn. The paladin, now in the form of a geist, remains a part of her ancestral home and, thus, of Ebonbane's domain.
Ebonbane has tried many times to drive Lady Shadowborn from its land, but it has always failed. The vital faith and religious strength that guided her through her life as a paladin still serve her in death. So long as Lady Shadowborn's pure faith remains unshaken, she seems to be able to resist Ebonbane's powers.
From time to time, when certain signs are right and the stars are in their proper positions, Lady Shadowborn is able to reach out of Ravenloft and draw in persons who are directly related to her. Thus, in addition to serving as a thorn in the darklord's side, Lady Shadowborn has sought to destroy it several times. While she has been no more successful at defeating it than it has been at breaking her spirit, these occasional attacks have only served to remind Ebonbane that it is not the absolute master of all that takes place in its domain. Ebonbane has destroyed every group of heroes that Lady Shadowborn has been able to call into Ravenloft to battle it. With each defeat it feels the faith of its enemy slipping a little bit.
Lady Shadowborn has learned that Ebonbane can be destroyed only by those who can gather together four “keys” and use them against the evil blade. Each of these magical components is based upon one of the four elements and has a special significance. The key of earth, for example, is symbolic of the metal from which Ebonbane was fashioned, and the key of fire represents the evil flames that forged its body into its current shape. Ebonbane is unaware that these elemental components even exist, let alone that it can be destroyed by them. Thus, it is possible that a group of heroes drawn into the domain by Lady Shadowborn may one day be able to assemble these keys and use them against Ebonbane. With each failure, however, the power of Ebonbane becomes stronger and the faith of Lady Shadow born diminishes. If she is to be freed from the curse of an eternal battle of wills with Ebonbane, it must happen soon.
Although Ebonbane is as much a thinking creature as any of Ravenloft's other lords, it is wholly inorganic and, as such, difficult to quantify in game terms. The following conventions should suffice for encounters with the dreaded Ebonbane:
Ebonbane: AL Chaotic Evil: Str N/A, Dex N/A, Con N/A, Int 17, Wis 17, Cha 15. AC -10: MV 9: Level/HD n/a: hp n/a: THAC0 10: AT 1: Ego 17: Dmg 1d8: SA See text: SD See tact: MR Nil.
Long before its imprisonment in Ravenloft, Ebonbane was both powerful and intelligent. Infused with a cruel and cunning intelligence by its creators, it could communicate telepathically or by speech with anyone who held it. If wielded in combat, it acted as a +4 weapon. When not in the hand of a warrior, however, Ebonbane was far from helpless. It could move about via an innate form of levitation and strike on its own.
As is often the case, however, Ebonbane found that its transformation into a darklord greatly increased its abilities. Like all the lords of Ravenloft's domains, Ebonbane is now an almost unstoppable force.
The runes on Ebonbane's blade are powerful and unholy, so much so that they act as symbols of whatever type it wishes. It can invoke each manner of symbol but once per day, however, so some measure of protection against this attack form can be had by careful record keeping on the part of those exploring its domain. Ebonbane is a +4 weapon able to move about and attack at will via its own levitation ability. Since coming to Ravenloft, however, Ebonbane has also acquired the powers of a vorpal sword and a flame tongue.
Although Ebonbane's domain (Shadowborn Manor and its grounds) is small, its power there is virtually absolute. For example, the weather around the manor is wholly under its control. It can change a peaceful spring day into a freezing ice storm. This power extends to the point of controlling day or night, the phase of the moon, and similar effects. Thus, Ebonbane could cause the sun to stand high in the sky, as if at noon, for hours on end only to have it suddenly plunge beneath the horizon when a party of adventurers nears the manor itself.
Another of Ebonbane's more dangerous powers is the ability to animate blades. No sword or dagger is safe from the evil powers of Ebonbane, not even holy avengers or artifacts like the sword of Kas or the mighty Excalibur. At will, Ebon can animate any and all swords and daggers in its domain and cause them to attack nearby characters or creatures. These weapons strike with a THAC0 of 10 and inflict their normal damage with each successful strike. Magical abilities inherent in the weapon, such as those of a vorpal blade or a sword of life stealing, function normally, while those requiring a trigger by the wielder, as is the case with the sunray power of a sunblade, do not work. Ebonbane greatly enjoys turning a party's own weapons against its members and will often bold back on more lethal attacks in order to satisfy its taste for this vicarious hacking away at victims.
Ebonbane is able to dominate those who wield it in accordance with the normal rules for intelligent weapons in the DMG. When it takes control of the person wielding it, Ebonbane instantly destroys its holder's spirit. What remains of the living body of someone who has lost such a duel of wills with Ebonbane is nothing more than a husk. The body remains alive for a few days (a week at most) and then simply collapses and dies. While the body lives, it obeys Ebonbane's commands and, in game terms, acts much like a zombie.
Since it is an unnatural creature, Ebonbane survives by drawing off the life energies of living creatures that enter its domain. Because of this, nonmagical healing does not take place in or around Shadowborn Manor. The natural recuperative powers normally associated with living creatures are drawn off by this dreadful sword and serve to satisfy its dark hunger.
Category:Encyclopedia Magica Magic Items
Category:Magic Items
Category:Magic Swords
Category:Magic Weapons