Rodric's Sword of Triggering

DESCRIPTION: An ornate longsword of 6' with a gilded guard, pummel, and hilt wrapped in fine leather. The blade shines brightly in the light in which subtlety etched runes translate to 'Just as this blade rends the flesh of your foes, so shall your spirit be scarred for life'


BACKGROUND: There was once a mighty warrior named Rodric whom no foe could defeat. He was boastful of his god like skills and of the victories he had made. However his self inflated ego and narcissism would eventually be his undoing. For you see,

One day he was challenged by another man to single combat. This man was unlike any others he had encountered and looked to be about 13 to 14 years old. When Rodric asked why he dared to challenge him, the man only responded that he has slain his only father while he was out adventuring. While the fight was fair, the reason was not.

The mysterious man had revealed himself to be the son of the one man who dared to boast about how he could probably beat Rodric in a duel. Now Rodric could not recall exactly who this was until the son gave his description. Then Rodric immediately know who this was. It was an equally boastful war veteran who cracked jokes as his expense. He had no idea that person had a son.

Rodric knew that this was about revenge. For he knew that the man's rantings were true. He has shown extreme disrespect during the fight and after it. But Rodric believed it was justified for foolishly claiming that he could defeat him. He accepted his challenge to single combat and slew him. That was all there was to it. Just the life of a warrior running its course.

However this man would not listen to his explanations. Rodric knew what this person wanted. Revenge for his father's death. He sensed that he might not survive this fight. However Rodric knew that refusing this challenge would damage his reputation. With no choice in the matter he accepted this young man's challenge.

So he prayed to the deity of war for assistance in this upcoming fight. The deity in response granted him a magic sword called the Sword of Triggering that would ensure victory in all of his future fights. But warned him that these victories would come at a price. Rodric scoffed at the price even though he was never told what it would be.

'Wait! Don't you want to hear it?' the deity asked.
'No, I can deal with any price.' Rodric responded.

On the day of the big fight, the son of the man he slew was seen in his father's old armor. Still with the puncture wound inflicted by Rodric years ago. His new sword inflicted a crippling wound in the first strike. As he was bleeding out he begged for mercy. He tried to yield to Rodric but he only laughed and gutted him. As he laid dying on the ground his face had a pleading look of despair. Rodric ignored him and walked away leaving him to die slowly.

Later that night Rodric had a nightmare in which there was a flashback to the fight against that man before. Only it was in much more vivid detail. Now this was weird to him as he never had flashbacks before. However Rodric dismissed it because after all, there is first time for everything.

However this soon started to become more frequent. With every person he defeated, these nightmares would get worse. He still did not think that anything was wrong though. Eventually it became more then just nightmares. Soon these flashbacks started happening during the daytime. As each new person died by his new sword, the worse his condition became.

Eventually once they started causing panic attacks Rodric knew something was wrong. This was not normal for him. Various stimuli began to trigger these flashbacks. The power of the sword began to scare him and he tried to dispose of it by any means possible. But regardless of what he tried, he could not dispell it nor destroy it.

While examining it Rodric saw some very subtle runes etched into the blade that he had not noticed before. Thinking this would reveal some answers he went to have these translated. He took them to a person who specialized in unknown languages. Showing him the runes he copied of the blade this man translated them after a bit of time studying them.

These runes which were in an old and dead language revealed a cryptic sounding curse. But with some guessing based on the disturbing visions Rodric described having, the man speculated that with every foe he defeated with this sword, that foe's death would then come back to haunt him as a flashback or nightmare.

Resigned to his fate, Rodric decided to find someone who could defeat him in combat. He lived out the rest of his life seeking this one person who could kill him in battle. Only being felled once he was nothing more then an unrecognizable rambling mad man. Rodric looked into his foe's eyes and told him to get rid of his sword and hide it somewhere where no can find it before he finally died ending the visions for good.

SPECIFICATIONS/PROPERTIES:

This is an unbreakable blade made of an unknown metal alloy that grants powerful skills in combat.

Anyone who wields it will slowly become haunted by visions of all of the people he/she kills with it.

The curse is impossible to remove and it will also bind the sword to the wielder. But there might be a way to separate the sword from the wielder safely.

This curse will slowly get progressively worse to the point where it begins to turn the wielder slowly insane. Once it reaches a certain stage, serious things will start triggering these visions instantly.

This curse will not take effect until the sword is used to kill/severely wound someone. So if you get rid of it before it is used on someone by you, then you are safe.

Potions containing certain anti-psychotics might mitigate the visions temporarily.

It might be possible to resist the visions sometimes. But other times it might not be. It depends on the PCs stats.

NOTES: This is basically a cursed weapon that will slowly give the wielder PTSD so looking up the symptoms of PTSD, specifically of soldiers will be helpful. Best used with PCs that are boastful warriors or egomaniacs.