Cloak & Dagger

One of Tjaart's recent constructions: a Spanish falcata.

I am blessed with some truly awesome players.

A few months back, a member of our 4th Edition group left the country to pursue a new job in Singapore, so we held a long weekender in Cambridge to see him off and tie up the group's current adventure. In the run-up to the game I exchanged quite a few emails with my players, plotting various events, power choices, and so forth. One of these conversations took me quite by surprise.

When Tjaart told me he wanted to craft weapons for each of his allies, I naturally assumed he meant that his character would be doing the crafting. I soon learned otherwise! Tjaart had been teaching himself metalwork, and had crafted a set of real-life blades for the group. Best of all, each weapon was tailored to that player's character: a military-looking dagger for the warlord, a curved blade for the eladrin warlock, a hand-axe for the dwarf, and so on.

Drizzt's scimitar

Just before the adventure's final battle, an NPC appeared to present the blades to the heroes - and as each was handed across in-game, we handed them out across the table. As you can imagine, it was a pretty spectacular surprise!

Tjaart has since crafted many more blades - some of which you can see here - and has started taking commissions. If you're interested in seeing more of his work, you can reach him through his Facebook page: The Adventurer's Emporium.

In the meantime, check out the magical weapons I made to accompany each real-life gift. I gave each a utility power tied to its owner, but they should be broad enough for general use. Also, the cloaking dagger isn't completely my own invention: it's essentially an exodus knife with a few mechanical tweaks to make it less powerful.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

Note: The above link should work fine for viewing onscreen, but you'll need to 
register with Scribd to actually download the file. Yes - I'm still working on alternatives!