Imerin's Tears

[Harrowed]

Imerin’s Tears

Imerin was a town built in the Second Age just west of Riismark in Northern Erenland. It was rich in resources since the forests were plentiful and game was easy to find but most importantly the town was on the supply route to a major Fortress that was under construction. Life was hard in the frozen north but Imerin flourished for many years.

When the probing attacks against the completed Fortress Wall started in 1920 SA Imerin swelled in size. Supplies were rushed from far to the nearby Fortress. Comforted by the Fortress the citizens of Imerin grew lax. “The Fortress is so close”, they said, “the soldiers will protect us.”

A particularly cunning group of Gray Mother Orc raiders snuck through the Fortress Wall and fell upon Imerin. Unprepared for war Imerin’s few defenders died quickly and the town was defenceless. The legate leading the raiders, Dihrain the Cruel, was a Dorn traitor who had turned to the Shadow. With a hate that only a traitor can have for his own people he earn his nickname on the people of Imerin. The town blacksmith was forced to create a branding iron for the Legate.

It was a wickedly ugly thing of iron and dark wood. An iron head in the shape of a horned skull was mounted to the end of its shaft. The blacksmith reward for his work was to have the hot steel quenched in his blood. The raiders forced all the surviving people to the town’s centre and Dihrain burned that horned skull brand into every man, woman and child. There were so many to be branded that it took an entire day for Dihrain to brand them all.

The townspeople of Imerin were then forced from their city and marched north. The march took a horrible toll on the weak and elderly. The raiders left any who collapsed where they fell to freeze and die in the snow. The citizens of Imerin were marched by the raiders, through a gap in the Fortress lines and further north to vanish forever.

The next supply train to the Fortress found Imerin empty, not a single soul remained of the town of twenty-five hundred.

Imerin’s Tears passed from slaver to slaver and has gained power from the misery that it caused.

1st Level: Imerin’s Tears has a fearsome reputation. Wielding the item gives the bearer +2 on Intimidate checks.

2nd Level: Once per day the bearer can cast Bane as a Legate equal to his level.

4th Level: If Imerin’s Tears is heated and used to brand an intelligent humanoid the branded creature is crippled. The branded can only run at half their maximum movement rate (x4 reduced to x2). This effect has a DC of 14 to resist and lasts for 1 day. A number of humanoids up to the wielders level can be branded per day.

This effect cannot be used in normal combat. The humanoid to be branded must be helpless.

By Harrowed