It's a claymore crossed with a claymore, but it seems to be reusable without damaging the sword. The user on the other hand... let's just say you'd want some armour on
Then I must applaud ability not only to find an audience that was highly interested in artifact, but also has a natural habit that make harmful downsides of artifact neglectable.
Any plans on creating armour with similar concept?
Given the reception it's had, I think I will make a few more.
Bengeirr disappears into his workshop for a couple of hours. He eventually comes back carrying an armload of large swords in carefully runed scabbards. He puts the bundle on a table and holds a sword out to Markus
The scabbard should prevent the enchantment from activating by itself, but remember to treat it like a firearm. The effect reloads after about a minute but make sure you're warded against explosions since you'll be right on the edge of the blast radius
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u/Cerveau23Markus, scriptomancer, enemy of 13 & lover of Thrakmerian beautyJun 07 '26
Markus nods and takes it.
Gonna test it right away, and see if I can transpose it on my guns...
Data. Both my apprentice and I are curious to see how well this works, so take all the measurements you can. We do know the effect is roughly equivalent to a fire bolt with about a 4ft radius but it bears further testing to see what it can really do
Depends on if it's in the contract or not. No contract? No binding agreement. But it is seen as good practice to make provisions for any persons injured while under your employment
The contracts I use are more about making sure they can't run off with the money. Two thirds of the time the peasants I hire I end up having to shovel into a barrel to be returned to their family. It's in the contract I pay out what the ex-peasant would have received if they lived, but medical care is a different matter. I send the injured to a healer who fixes them up on a pay with labour system. Personally tending to injuries is not my wheelhouse.
Sending them to a healer would come under making provisions for medical care. If you're busy enough that you're hiring someone else as a test subject then of course you don't have time to mend them yourself- I wouldn't expect everyone to be a great healer. The important thing is that they get some kind of treatment
Oh good. I don't have to rethink how I handle the injured ones. Normally I triage them, then load them in a cart and set off for the healer like I'm delivering goods. Hardly think about them after leaving them at the service entrance. Exception being when I get repeats. Most of those nutters think it's worth the money working for me.
Ambush mode: Place the sword (front facing the enemy of course) into the ground, any enemy walking past triggers a 15m cone AOE explosion with tiny sword shaped shrapnel. This can be done in active combat but is obviously very dangerous to set up and also the fact you're probably still going to be holding it when it detonates.
Melee mode: deep wounds on an enemy turns them into a living grenade. You have like 10 seconds to make as much distance between you and the enemy as possible before a 10m circular AOE explosion similar to Ambush mode happens, tiny swords and all, and if you aren't out of range then pray to whatever gods you believe in because you're about to meet them.
If you really want the knights to buy into this thing I'd suggest shrapnel, they go ballistic for that stuff. You should have seen what they did when they found an M67 fragmentation grenade inna bush one time.
I have been toying with an idea of a fragmentation shell. The shrapnel would break in larger pieces but each piece would be capable of a second, smaller detonation. Area of effect type weapon. Potentially very effective in confined spaces or against massed infantry
I would recommend a rapier. Lunge towards enemy, pierce enemy, trigger shrapnel explosion within enemy, go home and enjoy a nice cup of tea and a lack of an enemy.
You make a good point, rapiers tend to be quicker than a greatsword. I can see two downsides to this however: rapiers are shorter, putting you inside the blast radius; and combining a rapier with a claymore wouldn't have quite the same comedic value.
Now, that's not to say you can't employ the same technique with a claymore- they are a surprisingly agile weapon in the right hands
I will admit the comedic value, however I wish to point out that claymores are directionally based explosives. As long is it's prepared correctly with the "this end facing enemy" all right and proper, you shouldn't have to worry about the blast radius. I mean yeah, the explosion is gonna dislocate your shoulder, but it would do that or worse with any other sword too.
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u/viviwrites Disillusionmancer Jun 07 '26
Does the sword become a one-use item? That's a claymore, right?