Adjatha, the Drinker (Magic Sword)

Adjatha is a sword +2 of fine blue steel, hilled with a steel, single quillon and a plain, spherical, polished knob pommel. Set in the heart of the tang, where the quillons meet, just above the fine chain-wrapped grip, is a large (l-inch-diameter), cabochon-cut black sapphire (worth 6,000 gp). There are no markings or nines on the blade, and it does not shed any radiance.
However, when this sword touches any magical item (not including scrolls), Adjatha siphons off magical energy, causing the item to glow, shedding a pale green-white radiance, until the item is drained of dweomer or the sword and the item are separated.
The Drinker can never permanently drain an artifact, but it can steal the magic of lesser items. In all cases, the touch of Adjatha causes one power or effect (per round of contact) of the item to be nullified for 1d4 turns, after contact. If the item has limited charges or operates but once, sufficient contact with Adjatha can drain it entirely of magic. The blade absorbs the dweomer into itself in a peculiar way, retaining magical energy to protect itself and its bearer.
Adjatha gains 2 hit points per charge drained or round of contact (many lesser items of magic are drained after 13 or so rounds of contact). It has 9 points of Strength, and may add any magically drained points to its own, without (known) limit. Any attack on Adjatha or its bearer must exhaust the phantom hit points before they can harm the physical entities of blade or bearer.
When reduced to its original 9 hit points, Adjatha cannot absorb further damage for its bearer, and is itself vulnerable. Anyone grasping the grip of Adjatha receives its hit point protection: there is room for a maximum of two bare human hands to grasp the hilt at one time. Adjatha, it must be noted, cannot repeatedly drain the vitality of the same item: after two contacts with any single item, the Drinker cannot drain any more from it-but note also that a contact, if uninterrupted, can continue for up to one turn before any bearer must withdraw or risk the onset of feeblemindedness due in a magical backlash (10% chance each round beyond one turn of continuous contact). Drained hit points gained by Adjatha do not cure existing damage to the user, but merely absorb all further attacks until exhausted.
Adjatha cannot drain or negate spells cast at it or its bearer, and confers no special magic resistance except immunity to psionic domination, charm spells, and similar direct mind-control spells. That immunity does not extend to sleep, suggestion, ESP, and the like.
The Drinker is first known to have existed more than 400 years ago, in the reign of Kurskos Ironhand: it was the sword of that monarch's herald and chief counselor, Amrok of the Dwarves. Kurskos slew Amrok in a night of revelry after a Shieldmeet, and took Adjatha the Drinker (and the enmity of the dwarves) as his own. Amrok was of almost human stature, and it has often been said Adjatha is of human and not dwarven manufacture, for it is of the full size and heft for a strong, long-armed, human swordsman.
The stories of its creation are many and colorful-most are doubtless as fanciful as the tale told by Thyri of Amn, who Stole Adjatha from the palace vaults in the sack of Aumraeyum on the death of Kurskos. Thyri held that Adjatha was given to his grandfather by the gods, and made any of the family who wielded it invulnerable in battle.
Thyri was easily, almost contemptuously, slain by the first man who challenged him, a merchant from Calimshan. That merchant, whose name is lost, was slain while in a caravan soon after by a mischievous kenku. In like manner, the Drinker has often changed hands over the years, usually remaining with any one owner for only a short time. Elminster saw Adjatha 40 winters ago at the court of Nesker of Mulmaster, when the sorcerer king was studying it to increase his own arts. It disappeared before Nesker's death and came to light briefly in reports of fighting in the Shaar, apparently being wielded by one of the nomad chieftains. The sword was stolen from him, and despite sending agents far afield, he was unable to recover it. The present whereabouts of the blade are unknown.
Category:Encyclopedia Magica Magic Items
Category:Magic Items
Category:Magic Swords
Category:Magic Weapons