SWORDTEMBER

According to some of my art friends, it's SWORDTEMBER 2022, which apparently means that you draw a sword each day of the month with a theme for each day. I'm no artiste, but I still enjoy drawing stuff and think I'm at least okay at it, so I figured I'd join in. You can also sculpt or 3D-model sword media, but that is far outside my artistic capabilities. Also, to justify the D&D-themed name of this blog despite the overwhelming majority of my posts being about Delta Green, I figured I'd stat the swords up.

 

The Waxblade (a magic sword for D&D and OSR games)

 

Forged by an order of scholars, the Waxblade does not initially look like a weapon. But light the wick and a flame bursts into the shape of a hilt and cross-guard. It costs 1 HP (or some other minor but not meaningless cost, depending on your game's HP scale) to draw and wield, but otherwise, gripping the burning hilt does no further damage. Stats as a shortsword that deals bludgeoning and slashing damage and counts as magical for creatures immune to normal weapons. The user only takes half damage from fire while holding it.

The Candlestick (a Noble Weapon for Into the Odd or Electric Bastionland)

 

You might find it in the mansion of your patron or some highly-placed bureaucrat who doesn't know what it is. Maybe it's in a museum, under guard as a historical artifact. Maybe it's a treasure in a vault, worth at least £1k for the fancy foil that's plating the wax. Maybe it's a holy artifact or god in a shrine of some Underground weirdos. Unlit, it's just a club, 1d4 damage. Light it, and a cold flame tickles your palm as you grip the flame-hilt.

 

1d8 damage, one-handed, splashes burning hot wax all over its victims

Tongue of the Salamander (an artifact for Delta Green)

 

This ceremonial candle is a little over half a meter in length, every centimeter decorated with twisting fire-breathing lizards and Greek, Latin, and another script that Occult identifies as Enochian. Despite its appearance and texture, it's solid yet springy like steel. Scans reveal a dense core running along its length, which drilling confirms. The outer layers are easily pierced, but the center resists even diamond-tipped drill bits, 0/1 SAN from unnatural. If swung like a club, it uses Melee Weapons and deals 1D8 damage.

By having the appropriate Foreign Language skills or succeeding on an Occult test, an Agent can decipher the tiny writing running up and down the surface of the candle. It's a series of prayers to angels, demons, and other spirits along with an instruction to "light the wick to find the true light and deliver the deserving fates upon false pretenders so that they might be cast out." By lighting the candle and paying the cost of 3 WP and 1 SAN, unseen or invisible things within the light of the flame are revealed as per The Voorish Sign (Handler's Guide, pg 186).

While holding the candle, the wielder takes no damage from fire and is immune to the effects of both extreme cold and heat, 0/1D4 SAN from unnatural when this is discovered. History and Occult can hint at this, as the salamander was said to be able to extinguish fires with the frigidity of its body. Even the melting wax doesn't hurt you, 0/1 SAN from unnatural to feel the icy fluid dribble over your fingers. While lit, the candle ignores supernatural damage resistances and every successful attack is a critical hit that drains 1 WP from the wielder. The air whispers as the flame whips through it and it casts strange shadows at the edges of its light, 0/1 SAN from unnatural.

If a Handler feels their Agents are overusing the Salamander's Tongue, they can have it grow noticeably shorter as it melts, 0/1 SAN from helplessness. Eventually it shortens into a club, dealing 1D6 damage, or into a fat stick, dealing 1D4 damage. Extensive research taking place over a Home scene or a particularly long operation could find a 'consecration ritual' to restore the candle to its former glory.

 

Study: elaborate, weeks, 1D4 SAN. Time: 1 week of vigils. Cost: 22 WP, 1D6 SAN 

        By chanting prayers over pots of wax and mixing in oils, blood, and herbs, the operator and their assistants can enchant a enough wax to extend the Salamander's Tongue to its full length. A failed activation roll means the chandlers just affix a misshapen tube of wax to the base of the candle which melts away and sloughs off when lit.