Baros of the Burning Blade

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Lowthor

Lowthor

Idea Man
Name: Baros
Age: 32
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 200lbs
Build: Athletic
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Blue

Strength: Above Average
Dexterity: Above Average
Constitution: Above Average
Intelligence: High
Wisdom: Average
Charisma: High

Abilities: None
Skills: Swordsmanship, Magic

Personality: Baros is extremely loyal to his order, and is generally a quiet contemplative type. When roused to action he tends to act quickly and decisively, with little fanfare.

Spells: Various magic composed mostly of defensive and utility spells, although he also knows some simple offensive magic for use when the blade is not enough.

Equipment:
- Sword of the flame: The six spells stored are fireball, blink, dispel magic, iron flesh, sapping touch and wings of the eagle.
- Dagger
- Mithril chain shirt marked with symbol of the Burning Blade
- Bracers of spell shielding (protect against simple offensive spells)
- Red cloak, plus practical clothing in browns and greys
- Ring of planeshifting (1 charge)

Bio: Baros is the fourth in a line of Spellswords running from his great grandfather through to him, who have served the Order of the Burning Blade. He is the only member of the family currently in the order, although it is expected that he will be joined by his nephew eventually. His career in the order has been unremarkable up to the point. As a squire he spent most of his time in a chapterhouse in the Orgul Mountains. Since reaching the rank of Knight, and then Knight Leutenant, he has carried out various missions for the order from the recovery of a Sword of the Flame, to hunting Gnolls in the southern jungle.
 
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The Order of the Burning Blade​

There are many knightly orders throughout Ayenee, with many different philosophies and codes, and the Order of the Burning Blade are one of the stranger groups that currently exist. Whilst their aims; to protect from injustice, those unable to protect themselves, are similar to many other orders, their methods as well as their lack of respect for national boundaries or the laws within them, tend to make them distrusted in some places, and hated in others, by those in power. In addition to this, the fact that nearly all of the Order’s members are spellswords, means that they are viewed by the general population in the same way as other practitioners of the arcane arts; varying from awe and respect, to distrust and resentment depending on region.

Religion:
The members of the order are tied to no specific religion. They are not palldins despite certain similarities between this and other Knightly orders. Members often worship those gods that hold domain over aspects of the order’s work, such as Herimus the God of Justice (called Tyr in other regions).

Organisation
The order is divided into regional chapters, each commanded by a Knight Major and based in a self contained walled chapterhouse complex. The headquarters of the whole order is twenty miles to the west of the Imperial City of the Meutal Empire, and is a much larger version of the smaller chapterhouses.

Ranks:
- Squire
- Knight (Upon completion of training)
- Knight Leutenant
- Knight Captain
- Knight Major
- Knight General (Head of the Order)
- Knight Magus (Special: Reserved for those with extremely powerful magical training)
 
Order of the Burning Blade: Sword of the flame

The bastard swords used by many amongst the numbers of the order of the Burning Blade, are possibly one of the most intuitive merging of purposes in all the realm. They are sought after by many spellswords, battlemages, and other individuals to whom the combination of martial and arcane skill is the best route to success upon the battlefield. It is rare for one to be found outside the hands of a member of the order, but when they do they fetch an enormous amount of gold upon the black market. The order are loathe to let their creations enter the hands of non members, and have been known to go to extreme lengths to prevent this from happening.

To the untrained eye, the only special power inherent within a Sword of the Flame, is magical fire than can be made to envelope the blade. However this is merely a useful enchantment, and not the quality so prised that one sword was sold for twenty five thousand gold pieces. This feature, is what is referred to as the spell battery, which is the sword’s ability to hold six spells, so that they can then be cast rapidly during combat. The spells are each held within a specially cut quartz crystal, and the six crystals that sword can hold are placed within chambers in the pommel.

Each crystal is capable of containing a spell up to and including spells of the same power level as a 5th level D&D spell. In order to bind a spell to a blank crystal, a special ritual casting takes place, with the spell being bound, cast mid way through. This charges the spell into the crystal, and sets up the method by which it can be cast. Another element of the ritual that varies between castings, is the single command word that must be spoken to trigger the spell. The crystal is then inserted into one of the six slots of the pommel. To deploy the spell, the specified wielder simply speaks the command word, whilst holding the hilt of the sword with at least one hand. This is a safety mechanism to prevent accidental casting of dangerous spells, and also a means of preventing another, even if they know the trigger word, from casting the spell.

In order to specify the wielder, another part of the ritual speaks the name of them, in the event that the crystal is being prepared by another than the person who would cast it. When a crystal is being prepared for personal use, the ritual is altered slightly to specify self. The crystals are held in place by an arcane locking mechanism, which can be opened by pressing the six runes marked onto the pommel in the correct order. An unfortunate side effect of infusing the crystal with a spell, is that the crystal becomes permanently marked with the spell, and only that spell can then be used with that crystal. For this reason, members of the Order will often be seen searching through bags of boxes of seemingly identical crystals in order to locate a suitable one. The way in which the crystals can be differentiated, and that blanks can be recognised, is that there is a tiny series of runes visible within the core of the crystal. The crystals are expensive, so in cases where a spell is unlikely to be used again, a member will often purchase a scroll, wand or potion that can be deployed fairly quickly, but far more cheaply than by using the sword.

The sword itself is a straight bladed bastard sword with a cruciform grip. It is forged from an alloy of steel and mithril, in order to create a strong, light blade that has excellent magical conductance. The spell battery mechanism is composed of Gorandor Silver* because of the metal’s high magical conductance. There are four small runes two thirds of the way up the blade that are responsible for the burning blade effect, and the Order’s crest; a sword wreathed in flame is engraved upon either face of the sword, two inches above the cross guard.

*an extremely rare metal from the isle of Gorandor that is worth far more than gold as a result of its peculiar arcane properties.
 
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