Description:  Taragarth is a bastard
sword, of steel fire-blackened along the
length of the blade so that only the sharp-
ened edges gleam. On the base of the
blade, just ahead of the simple crossbar
guard, is a rune etched into the metal.
The rune is non-magical and evidently
the mark of the blade?s maker, but who
the maker was has been lost over time.

Taragarth requires strength and stature
to wield, but while it is held unsheathed,
the bearer is protected from fire (effects
equal a  ring of fire resistance)  and will be
protected by a  feather fall  if descending
10? or more precipitously.

Taragarth strikes normally but does +3
damage. It does not glow and is not sen-
tient. While gripping Taragarth (even
sheathed), the bearer is protected from
ESP  and  detection  spells (including  know
alignment).  Such spells will simply have
no effect. This protection does not affect
charm, sleep,  other control-related spells,
or psionic attacks.

Lore: Taragarth was forged by Elfgar
of Silverymoon in the early days of the
North, and was given to the champion
Aeroth when he led the armies of the
kingdoms of the North against the trolls
of the Evermoors. The might of the trolls
was broken at the Long Battle (of nine
days duration) across the moors, and
Taragarth was brandished aloft bloodily
so often by the valiant Aeroth that it was
dubbed ?The Bloodbrand.?

Much later, when Aeroth was grey-
bearded, Rayuth of Silverymoon died,
and the throne passed to his son. Aeroth,
grieving for his lord (and none too fond
of the sadistic, proud Tulven, Rayuth?s
son), took ship west from Waterdeep, sail-
ing first to the isle of Toaridge-At-The-
Sun?s-Setting and later to the Moonshae
Isles. There, with his wife and six sons,
Aeroth founded the city of Vlan. His de-
scendants, the nucleus of a group swelled
by other disenchanted or dispossessed
mainlanders, were to become the feuding
merchant houses of the Moonshae Isles.

But Aeroth?s sword was not seen on his
voyage, and most legends hold that he left
it in Silverymoon, where it has been lost
in some concealed hoard or in one of the
many warren-like caverns beneath the
city. A few sages know that, in truth,
Aeroth hid the blade in a ruined well on
the isle of Toaridge so that his argumen-
tative sons would not fight over it.

There it lay while ages passed, until an
exploration party of illithids found it and
carried it to their underground city on the
mainland near what is now Beregost.
There it was studied for only a short time
before a band of adventurers plundered
much of the city and gained it.

The names of the band are now lost;
one was a fighter who later took service
in the merchant-guards of Amn and died
battling bandits on the banks of the Sul-
duskoon river. It seems likely that he bore
Taragarth, but no word of it can be found
after it (presumably) fell into the hands of
the- bandits, until a wandering peddler
offered it for sale in a market at Berdusk.
It brought 400 pieces of gold from an
adventurer who recognized it, but he mis-
takenly told a companion what he
thought the sword was, and was dead by
the next morning. So was the companion,
murdered in turn by the assassin Turl.

Turl carried the blade north to the city
of Scornubel, using it to pay off a debt to
his guildmaster Iritan. Little is known of
Iritan, who evidently ruled the guild with
an iron hand for more than twenty win-
ters, but one spring he appeared in
Waterdeep, dying of poisoned wounds,
and gave the blade, plus more wealth, to
the wizard Marune. Much of Marune?s
wealth was lost in subsequent upheavals,
and The Bloodbrand fell into the hands
of an unknown someone in Waterdeep.
Where it traveled then is not known, but
four winters ago it was brought to
Elminster when he was visiting Westgate,
for examination, by a swarthy, much-
scarred fighting man of Calimshan who
gave his name as Vulph. The present
whereabouts of Vulph and of the blade
Taragarth are unknown.

by Ed Greenwood