In the far north, after a lengthy battle with orcs that nearly wiped out Clan DeepAxe, the clan leader, Jerdan SteelForge, saw that his people wouldn’t last the winter. He set out to find some way to get supplies for his kinsmen. After braving weather and monsters for weeks, he found himself slumped in a cave, contemplating the futility in his actions. Awaking from a sleep that he expected would be his last, he found a warm fire and an ancient looking dwarf. As payment for removing the orc menace from “his lands”, and continuing to do so, he offered the dwarf a diamond that would create food and drink, maybe not enough to get full, but enough to survive the winter. Upon accepting the old dwarf took on his true shape, a massive dragon that stretched further than the dwarf could see. Its scales were no less impressive, ranging in all the colors of the metallic, chromatic and gem dragons, and all the ones in between. Jerdan realized that this was one of the ancient dragon gods of legend. With its huge claw, it pricked a spot on it’s foot and where the single drop of blood landed, a shimmering gateway appeared, that led to the front gates of Clan DeepAxe. The dwarf also noticed that the blood had solidified into a multi-hued metal. A whisper in his mind told him to take it and go.
After feeding and telling his story to the clan, he was struck with an idea, almost as if he heard a whisper and he gathered the best craftsmen and runesmiths and headed to the forge. Two long, grueling weeks at the forge and it was done, using the dragon’s blood-metal they had masterfully crafted a near-indestructible warhammer, that shone of mithral, but danced with all colors in the light, and safely encased within, was the lifesaving diamond.
Jerdan used the hammer in many conflicts, against unimaginable foes, and when it was time, he passed it to his daughter, the clans finest warrior and their next leader. The tradition continued for generations, passing it to the dwarf that would bear the weight of Clan DeepAxe’s agreement with the ancient god, status and name not mattering, the hammer seeming to choose the next wielder on it’s own, then directing the current owner when it was time to hand it over.
Hammer of SteelForge
Versatile 1d8/1d10.
Returns, has a throwing range of 20/80.
Natural dwarven enemies take damage equal to weapon damage plus one additional damage die every 3 levels. (levels 1 base dmg, level 3 = +1 dice, level 6 = +2 dice, level 9 = +3 dice, etc…).
Starting at 3rd level, the wielder can summon a full meal a number of times equal to their character level +2.
At level 10, the weapon grants the ability to cast Hero’s Feast 1/week for every 5 levels (lvl 15: 2x/week, lvl 20: 3/week).
-Michael
Nice story!