Sunderscale

Weapon (greatsword), legendary (requires attunement)

This claymore's fine steel blade holds a sharp edge, but the hilt looks crudely made. The pommel features a pair of green dragon scales glued back-to-back. Other than the scales and a fuller in the blade, the hilt remains unadorned with a simple square crossguard, the sort of plain reserved for a workhorse weapon used daily rather than a display blade.

Finn Durgin forged it 630 years ago specifically to kill Dur'galad the green dragon and clear the land to found the city of Occam. He forged it in a hurry and didn't spend much time on anything except the blade, which he had enchanted to within an inch of its life. He never liked the look of the sword, but he never found the time to go back and change it. Finn's uncle Seamus Durgin wielded it as his main weapon until his death.

You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. When attacking a dragon, this bonus rises to +3. When you hit a dragon with this weapon, the dragon takes an extra 3d6 slashing damage. When you roll a 20 on the attack roll against a dragon, the dragon takes an additional 14 slashing damage. Then roll another d20. If you roll a 20, you lop off a piece of the dragon, whether a limb, wing, tail, or just a chunk of its body.

The wielder has resistance to poison damage. Anyone within a 20-foot radius of Sunderscale has advantage on saving throws against breath weapons. Sunderscale glows with a pale green light when within 200 feet of a dragon, growing brighter as it gets closer to the dragon. When within melee range of a dragon, Sunderscale emits bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light for an additional 20 feet.

Sunderscale has never acted sentient, except many wielders over the years have reported a feeling of restlessness or impatience when holding the blade. Some speculate that it hasn't faced a dragon in centuries, so it might feel a hunger to fulfill its purpose. Scholars haven't spent any significant time researching whether an ordinary magic item can gain sentience, but it seems Sunderscale might do so in the near future.

Since Sunderscale focuses so narrowly on dragons, the sword hasn't been able to use its full powers in the 500 years since the dragons left Beneterra. The Durgin family treasured it as an heirloom for a while, but traded it away to fund Occam's expansion a few decades after the dragons disappeared. Its hilt seems so crude and its powers pale in comparison to other claymores, but its story in Occam's founding redeems it somewhat. For the past century or two, nobles in Dunhill have gifted it to each other so often that it's become something of a gag gift, given tongue-in-cheek with great ceremony to someone who needs a great gift, but not a gift with actual value.

With the return of the dragons, maybe Sunderscale will earn back the respect it once had as the liberator of Occam. Maeve Duncan, a young warrior from Cullenkirk, currently wields it. She knows its history, and she's happy to have a magic sword at such a young age. Maybe she can talk her family into spending some coin to improve the hilt without disturbing the blade's enchantments. Maybe she will have the chance to clear dragons out of the moors and rise to fame across Dunhill.

Part of T.W.Wombat's Lore 24 project, detailing the world around Fellport.
For all city posts, see the Fellport Index. For posts about the wider world, see the Beneterra Index.