Hi Guys,

I have a question at the Battle of Lindsey the players have a chance of meeting Octa and possibly defeating him!!! :D

He is in possession of a magical axe, does the axe break on a fumble as normal and should the players defeat him what happens to it, can they take it as loot?

Cheers,

BigSteveUK

Hi Guys,

I have a question at the Battle of Lindsey the players have a chance of meeting Octa and possibly defeating him!!! :D

He is in possession of a magical axe, does the axe break on a fumble as normal and should the players defeat him what happens to it, can they take it as loot?

Cheers,

BigSteveUK

If it known as being magical (and it is), then it you captured it, my feeling is you would offer it to your liege or army commander. If he's feeling generous, then you might get it.

You might offer it to your liege if u want a lonesome generous check..... but you are in no way obligated to do so if you capture it by force of arms. Will your liege and several others be jealous? Probably, and that is another story and posssibly the background for an adventure in itself. But if u take him... its yours. Forget the axe anyway..... If you take Octa or eosa alive.... what is their RANSOM?!@!!!!!!!!! A lot. More than an axe, surely. So dont overlook the 1000+ libra they are worth. Or at least several hundred. ;D

OH YEAH. i WOULD SAY THE AXE DOESNT BREAK. oR IF IT DOES IT CAN BE REPAIRED FOR 1-3 lIBRA JUST like in the book of knights and ladies when you roll a special weapon for your background, that is what it says.

I don't actually know what the properties of Octa's axe are, but if it gives combat bonuses, you could just say that on a fumble the axe becomes dulled and no longer confers those bonuses. That way it can still be used; it's magical nature setting it apart from ordinary axes. If it fumbles again, then have it break as Palomydes suggests, with both states being repairable by a smith.

Your mystical axe, praised in song and legend, has a 5% chance to be ruined forever every time you swing it at someone.

Haha.

Assuming it's wielded by someone with less than 21 Axe skill :)

Also, it's not "every time you swing at someone" - it's every substantial exchange of blows in life-or-death battle. (Each roll of the dice is not a single swing of the weapon.)

But yes, I'd probably ignore breakage for most enchanted weapons - though enchanted weapons do break in legends, so maybe not. Depends on the weapon probably.

If your axe does break maube u need to make an adventure out of it. Seek a lady of the lake , or the Near mythical smith Godric Argnason of Trond to fix it, or whatever. That seems like a fair trade off. Or.... another option is that if a tie occurs and a normal axe would break, the magic one has a 2 in 20 chance of breaking, so everytime it rolls as though it should breal a SAVE is made. As long as u dont roll a 1 or 2 on a 20 dice, the axe is fine. There are a lot of possibilities. As A gm you should pick whatever u like best. Octa's axe I believe is simply a +2 to weapon skill for the wielder. So it is good, but not super awsome unbalance the game cool!!!! So I wouldnt be too hard on the breakage end of things. :)

There appear to be 2 versions of it, both are +2, but one would hint it ignores shields, and the other would indicate it destroys shields on the first strike (so the person would get shielf protection for the first round 1d6 armour, but then the shield shatters/splits).

So potentially it is fairly powerful, but not overly so and it's hard to get hold of.

I like the idea of the players getting it because.

1. It could become a family heirloom
2. Other knights and lords may vie for it
3. In the anarchy period if the Saxons recognise it, they are going to want it back!!!


I like the idea where if it break they have to seek out a famous smith, maybe treat it as a sword for fumbles, but then break it at some point as a plot point.

After all that the cowards went for the banner ;D

I even did a nice little hand-out for it.