> [!infobox|wikipedia] > # Dread's Hunger > [![[Dreads_Hunger_small.webp|cover hsmall]]](Dreads_Hunger.webp) > ###### Basic Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Type | Item | > ###### Item Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Item Type | Weapon | > Owner | [[Ryo]] | > Origin | [[Valtorran Empire\|Valtorra]] | > ###### Status > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Status | Active | **Dread's Hunger** is a great black sword of necrotic power, borne for decades by the [[Dread General Gerard Blackmarsh]] in service of the [[Valtorran Empire]]. A blade that feeds on the vitality of the one who swings it to fuel killing strikes and raise the slain, it is among the most malevolent weapons the [[The Bloody Nails|Bloody Nails]] have ever recovered — a thing so steeped in old evil that those who can read such objects recoil from the touch of it. ## Description #### Appearance The sword is enormous, greatsword in scale, yet it is no simple slab of steel. The blade is a sculpted mass of jagged edges and deep grooves, its black metal dark and oily, drinking the light that falls on it; the fuller channels run like dried veins down toward a heavy cross-guard and a grip wound in cracked black leather. Even sheathed and stowed it gives off an impression of menace — those near it report a faint, settling chill and the sense of being watched. ## Properties Witnessed in battle, the blade draws upon its wielder's own life to power its blows: at the cost of their vigour, its strikes carry a surge of necrotic energy, and a graver effort can wash a wave of dread over everyone nearby, breaking morale before steel is even crossed. A humanoid slain by the sword can be raised from death to serve, briefly, as a shambling corpse. Borne by [[Dread General Gerard Blackmarsh|Blackmarsh]] — already a creature of undeath — these powers came at no cost to him at all. The blade also remembers. It carries within it the deaths it has dealt, and a sufficiently gifted reader who handles it can glimpse those killings as though present at them. When [[Arcanist Levvel]] briefly read the sword in Sumara, she flinched away from a vision of murders decades old. > [!example] ***In Game Item Text:*** > *Weapon (longsword), rare (requires attunement)* > > Forged from black steel streaked with faint crimson veins, *Dread's Hunger* hums with necrotic energy. When you grip the hilt, your pulse quickens and your life essence seems to flow into the blade. > > You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. > > ***Soul Strike*** > When you hit a creature with this weapon, you can expend up to 3 of your Hit Dice. For each Hit Die expended, roll your Hit Die (the die you use to regain HP on a short rest) and add your Constitution modifier. The target takes that total as necrotic damage. > You can decide how many Hit Dice to expend after you see the result of the attack roll, but before you deal damage. > *(Example: a fighter with d10 Hit Dice and +3 Constitution spends 2 Hit Dice and rolls 2d10 + 6 necrotic damage.)* > > ***Aura of Dread*** > When you hit a creature with this weapon, you can expend 4 Hit Dice to release a wave of terror. Each creature of your choice within 30 feet must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of you for 1 minute. A frightened creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. > > ***Raise the Fallen*** > When you reduce a humanoid to 0 hit points with this weapon, you can expend 4 Hit Dice to reanimate its corpse as a zombie under your control for 1 hour. You can control only one zombie created this way at a time. If you animate another, the previous one crumbles to dust. > > ***Undead Resonance*** > If you are undead, you can use these properties without expending Hit Dice. ## History Dread's Hunger was the personal weapon of the [[Dread General Gerard Blackmarsh]], supreme military commander of [[Empress Morganna Eventide]]'s conquering armies on the Valtorran mainland. Raised by the Empress into undeath as a Death Knight, Blackmarsh carried the blade through the empire's campaigns of conquest, where its aura of dread broke defenders' will and its necrotic edge turned the fallen against their own. Among the lives it took were those of [[Ratha Silmara|Ratha]] and [[Rhennaya Silmara|Rhennaya]] of the [[Silmara Family]], run through together in a single thrust near [[Lighthaven]] during the elven exodus from Valtorra — an act that severed the Silmara bloodline. The sword retains the memory of that killing to this day. ## Current Owner The blade now belongs to [[Ryo]], who claimed it from Blackmarsh's corpse after the [[The Bloody Nails|Bloody Nails]] destroyed the General beneath the [[Stoneheart]]. Wary of its evident malevolence, the party has kept it stowed in their bag of holding rather than wield it. When Arcanist Levvel offered to take the sword off their hands, Ryo, after a pause, slid it back into the bag — for him it is the blade that killed his parents, and it is not yet something he is willing to give up. ## [[The Bloody Nails|Campaign: The Bloody Nails]] #### [[Session 40 - General Blackmarsh]] The party faced the sword in the hands of its master. In the cathedral of the [[Stoneheart]], [[Dread General Gerard Blackmarsh|Blackmarsh]] met them wielding the blade, his aura of dread forcing [[Kai]] to raise a Twilight Sanctuary against the necrotic chill; a slam of the sword into the ground loosed a destructive shock-wave that battered the party. After [[Dondar]] severed the General's arm and ended him, [[Ryo]] claimed the dark blade from the body. #### [[Session 41 - Reclaim the Reclaimer]] Safe at last in the Keep of [[Val Noren]], the party examined their spoils. Dread's Hunger was identified as an evil weapon that consumes its wielder's life force to fuel necrotic strikes and reanimate the dead. Unsettled by it, the party chose to stow the malevolent sword away rather than carry it bared. #### [[Session 50 - A New Morning in Sumara]] In the Etherean Canton's Diminished Trove, the party brought the blade to [[Arcanist Levvel]] for identification. She read it only briefly before flinching back — through the steel she had seen [[Ratha Silmara|Ratha]] and [[Rhennaya Silmara|Rhennaya]] killed. *"That blade has a long, long history. A lot of evil and darkness."* She offered to take it from them; [[Ryo]], after a beat, slid it back into the bag of holding. ## Trivia - Though it is greatsword-sized in appearance, the weapon is wielded as a longsword — a quirk noted by those who have hefted it. - The sword is sometimes referred to simply as the Dread Sword, after the general who carried it for so long.