The Six Swordsmen.

[JayTee]

Looking over how many types of mythical swords there are, I noticed that there is a good amount of plotting that can be done with them, here is my idea for a plot, any GM is free to use it or simply draw inspiration from it for their own games.

We have Six Swords:

Three Swords of the Cross, two Swords of the Fairy and the Warden's Sword.

Now, gathering all this power into one place for one purpose means that some heavy mojo is going down, I'm talking Heinrich Kemmler level bad.... Or at least that was my first thought. Then I realized I could do better then just bringing a dead dude back to life, why not have the issue threaten the whole of reality?

What if the Outer Gates have simply opened too far? Outsiders were slipping through with greater and greater frequency with chaos and panic in the streets, both on the Mortal and Supernatural side of things? What do the Swords have to do with all this you might ask?

Consider what each Sword represents. Summer's Fire represents universal growth, life, the blaze of heat and warmth. Winter's Frost represents death and decay, cold and darkness. They are born of forces that consist of roughly a third of reality itself. Likewise the Swords of the Cross each represent the collective Faith, Hope and Love of all Mortalkind, while the Warden swords represents the forces of magic and the cosmic power of the universe being used for justice and duty. Pretty heavy stuff, huh?

What if, in order to close the Outer Gates once and for all, you needed to SACRIFICE these weapons? Not just a conventional "I give this up so this can happen" sacrifice, the kind of sacrifice that means that those tools can NEVER be used or even MADE again!

Think on the gravity of that for a second. The Knights of the Cross would lose one of their only weapons against the Denarians, the Fey would lose a significant amount of leverage over mortalkind with the loss of the Knights, and the Wardens would have a much rougher time dealing with Warlocks and The Circle, not to mention all the other nastiness out there.

What could possibly be the upside of that? How about the Outer Gates being closed, not just now, but Forever? No amount of knowledge and ritual can open them again, regardless of how much power you pour into it. You have saved the world, the Nevernever and the whole of creation from Outsider threat for all time.

Was it worth it?

[InFerrumVeritas]

Um, there are lots of warden swords.  Unlike the other swords, they're enchanted items, not items of power and thus not really that special.  I don't think there is any special significance to them all being swords.  It's just something humans (probably men) tend to see as a good symbol of power. 

[Katarn]

Um, there are lots of warden swords.  Unlike the other swords, they're enchanted items, not items of power and thus not really that special.  I don't think there is any special significance to them all being swords.  It's just something humans (probably men) tend to see as a good symbol of power. 

I'm inclined to agree.  However, WoJ mentions that the term 'Warden' used to be singular.  So a possible breakdown of UNIQUE swords could be as follows.  (Hypothetical swords- for example, assuming there are 4 faerie courts as the DFRPG itself alludes to):

*Fidelacchius- Sword of Faith
*Amoracchius (aka Excalibur)- Sword of Love
*Esperacchius- Sword of Hope
*Sword of Summer's Flame- Knight of the Seelie Court
*Sword of Winter's Frost- Knight of the UnSeelie Court
*(Original Warden's sword)
*(Autumn Court's sword- Autumn's Tremor)
*(Spring Court's sword- Spring's Gale)

So depending which combination of unconfirmed swords you take, you could have 5, 6, 7, or 8 non-evil swords (I'd say only the 3 Holy Swords are good, the other 2-5 are neutral).  Jim could always introduce more as well....

[Team8Mum]

I'm inclined to agree.  However, WoJ mentions that the term 'Warden' used to be singular. 
*(Original Warden's sword)

//Cough// Blackstaffs black Staff.....

who says swords have to the swaord shaped - especially if the wielder is more familiar/associated with a different type of weapon - after all we know the swords of the cross have been 'restruck'

[paul_Harkonen]

uh guys... I don't think he's saying, "I want to try this thing." I think he's saying "In our campaign we have decided that there are 6 swordsmen of significance, they are the bearers of the following swords"  Knowing this, he's wondering what types of catastrophic events could bring all 6 together to face off against it.  (or more precisely suggesting reasons they could all come together.  I think the focus is on the types of events that could require all 6 swordsmen, rather than on "can we have these 6 swords".

To that end, you could also include events such as Nevernever Entity X (or crazed Wizard X with sufficient power to do so) wishes to forever tear open the barrier between the Nevernever and the mortal world, causing them to merge and blend together.
You could do something where the Denerians have all come together (and I do mean all) to free (maybe not the right term) Lucifer and allow him to freely interact with the mortal world as well as the Nevernever.

Pretty much any other event involving destruction and\or a complete restructuring of the Nevernever as well as the mortal realm would suffice.  Possibly the rebirth of one of the Old Ones (who I think of as distinct from Outsiders).

[Obsid]

So, if you take the nails that pierced the Christ can be forged into Swords of Power. Then how 'bout the Lance of Longinus? What'd you make out of the Holy Grail? There are enough items of religious significant that the Swords of the Cross can't reasonably be the only, or even most powerful available (even if they're the only ones located by the Church).

Trying to make the Swords of the Cross into a set with Fairy Swords and Warden Swords is just silly. The Faerie power comes from the Queens of Faerie. The Swords of the Cross are empowered by Micheal's Boss, The Almighty, The White God, or my personal Favorite, The Creator (sounds like a job description rather than a title). The Warden Swords' power comes from Anastasia Luccio, or more broadly, from Mortal Magic. So maybe we have a broad trilogy, Faerie Magic, Faith Magic, and Mortal Magic, but then there's also Demon Magic, Outsider Magic, Rune Magic, God Magic, maybe even Goblin Magic. The fact that there are Two (known) Faerie Swords and Three (Known) Holy Swords, plus 200 known Warden Swords (granted, since they're customized to each Warden, there's less than 50 working now)...

Still, it would be interesting to see what completed item sets can accomplish. All three Swords of the Cross don't seem to do anything special, but maybe there's a reason Arthur sought the Grail. I doubt the Faeries would ever work together long enough to see any synergy out of their powers. And Warden Swords aren't really Items of Power, so lets forget them.

Maybe a complete set of Faerie Powers working together can bridge all of the NetherNether. Maybe a complete set of Faith Powers working together can call forth the image of god, rain of fire, a lessor Flood of Holy Water, Maybe a complete set of Mortal Powers (including such things as the

(click to show/hide)

Black Staff

, maybe similar items) can allow the unlock the Outer Gates. I suppose if you combine all three of them together, you have a nexus to all of the Nevernever, the Wrath of God, and unlocked Outer Gates, sending Outsiders everywhere and killing them. A hunt worthy of the Earlking's participation. But I don't see this being a "We six swordsman" deal.[/color]

[Rechan]

I'm missing something - where is specific faerie Knight swords mentioned?

[JayTee]

Yeesh, seems like almost everyone missed the point of this thread. I blame myself really, it was two in the morning when I wrote it and was probably unclear about most things. Lets see if we can clear up a few misunderstandings.

First and foremost: Yes, the Warden's have multiple swords and they are not Items of Power. The important thing about each sword is not what it can DO, but what it REPRESENTS. The Warden's Swords represent the power of White Magic defending against and overcoming the power of Black Magic, something I feel is just as much importance as the Swords of the Cross or the Fey Swords, if not in power but in purpose. It does not matter how much power each sword has, or how many of each type of sword, but what it will give up in order to close the Outer Gates.


Second Issue: The point of this thread was to throw down a plot idea for two reasons; refining the basic idea (six magical swords being brought together for a purpose) and fodder for other GMs to use for their own games. I currently do not have anyone to run a game for me, and have never played a game as of yet, however I don't feel that should stop me from thinking up cool ideas for others to use for themselves.

So, now that we are all on the same page, lets get down to brass tacks. We have six swords of metaphysical (and sometimes physical) significance. What awesome things can we do with them?

[Richard_Chilton]

What happens when six Swords that either powers or symbols of power come together...

It is reveal that they are mere reflections of the Black Sword and summon the Eternal Warrior to this world?
Note: Only do this during "end of the World" plots.  The Eternal Warrior rarely shows up unless it's a world defining battle.

Alternate:
As above, but reveals that one of the PCs (or NPC) is an incarnation of the Eternal Warrior.  All this means is that he has a spark that connects him to others throughout the multiverse, he might sometimes dream about strange places, and is Fated (or Doomed) to fight in world defining type battles.  Fighting neither for ultimate victory for Good nor Evil, Law nor Chaos, the Eternal Warrior is a servant of the Cosmic Balance and strives for a world that isn't dominated by any extreme.  And yes, he can die in the battle, or the lead up to the battle, or after the battle.  His friends and lovers often pay the price of hanging out with this dangerous pawn of Fate/Destiny/Freewill (yes, he can be a Pawn and Unwilling (or Unwitting) Servant of Freewill).
 
There's no refresh cost involved - other than an IoP "This World's Incarnation of the Black Sword" that's a kick ass weapon of some type.  Anything from a soul drinking sword to a powerful runestaff to a needle gun or vibro gun.  The Eternal Warrior usually has (or will gain) excellence combat skills and may have some powerful magical abilities.  Oddly enough, weird capitisation happens when he is talked about.


And that's all I can think of for "collect the blades" - other a Voltron sword ("And the Sword of Love will form the hilt!") which is just too silly to mention.

Richard

[easl]

So, now that we are all on the same page, lets get down to brass tacks. We have six swords of metaphysical (and sometimes physical) significance. What awesome things can we do with them?

While it doesn't really fit with the three faith swords, you could go Lord of the Rings on them.  Maybe some evil bad hid a bit of his soul in each, and he wants it back.  Maybe he controls one of them, and through it, has partial control over the rest. To fit this into the DFRPG, you could say one of them has a denarian coin in the hilt.

Or go Dragonbone Chair.  Act 1: face the group with a big outsider bad.  The big bad seems unstoppable for a few sessions.  Act 2: the PC's get wind there's a prophesy about the forces of evil being defeated if they're all brought together.  They work to bring them together. Act 3: somewhere close to the very end let them discover that it's an outsider prophesy, and the "evil" in it is referring to the forces of creation.  So now they've got them together and they have to figure out how to stop the things in motion they started.

[JayTee]

And that's all I can think of for "collect the blades" - other a Voltron sword ("And the Sword of Love will form the hilt!") which is just too silly to mention.
Richard

No, this is what we do, I demand that someone play this out for the sheer hilarity of it all.

[SunlessNick]

All three Swords of the Cross don't seem to do anything special  -  Obsid

Although a real crucifixion done with nails instead of ropes would very likely have used four, whatever later artistic traditions suggest, so the Knights might not have the complete set (in my version of the setting Rashid has the fourth).

If there is a Word of Jim mentioned upthread that there was originally only one Warden, then maybe there is an Item of Power Warden's Sword out there.  Although I would suspect that it's set will be made up of different tools.  Either five, representing the evocable elements (equivalents of athame, wand, pentacle, chalice, and another for spirit):  perhaps the original Warden's Sword (either Excalibur or the Sword in the Stone), the Blackstaff, the Holy Grail, the Stone (as in the one the Sword was in), and a crown or torc.  Or seven, and that's why the Senior Council ended up with seven members.

[Team8Mum]

I have the holy grail hiding out in "the pool of life" in Hangover city - but it's a plot device level of an item@,  not something a P.C. Is ever going to get their hands on*.

@Like Faerie queen Plot level

* of course give what happened in my last con game that's probably a very dangerous assumption to make.