I jumped back into my first playthrough of the Yakuza series over the holiday weekend due to FFXIV being down for server maintenance, picking up at the the remaster of Yakuza 3. And like any installment in the series the map is absolutely littered with collectibles to pick up. And one of these item pickups led me to receiving a weapon called the “Shadow Blade.” And that gave me some ideas on a new magic weapon that I could bring into 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons.
These weapons are created by forging a blade of a specific alloy near an entrance to the Shadowfell and then thrusting the blade through the rift in the planes before it cools. Then several other rituals are performed to enchant the weapon with magic. This particular alloy reportedly shares some kind of harmonic resonance with the native Shadowfell and thus absorbs some of it’s energy during the creation process. But the process itself is quite dangerous, as it also attracts the denizens of that plane which can endanger the crafter if they are not suitably careful or prepared. Compounded with this is the fact that the materials required to create the alloy are quite rare and hard to obtain, and so very few of these blades exist making them incredibly prized and sought after.
I wanted to create a weapon that contained several different abilities without going into “intelligent item” or “artifact” territory. I can’t think of too many items off the top of my head that can affect vision in spectacular fashion, and especially not a weapon. And so I hit on the idea of the weapon being able to grant truesight to it’s wielder, an ability that might not make sense at first glance, but as one thinks about the Shadowfell’s historical connection to the Border Ethereal the connection becomes more and more appropriate. It’s a very powerful ability used in the right circumstances – enough that it can be very tempting to go back to that well several times in a day. But instilling your being with the energy of a foreign plane of existence is a dangerous proposition to say the least…
So there you have my interpretation of this weapon. How would you use this blade in your campaigns?
Ben Erickson
