The Sword then, the one we seek, breaking it, again? will remove the Scarred Orcs, ‘The Made,’ from the board and weaken the Dark Hand.”
Ezrin looks to Alexis for confirmation.
“So, it’s not the Sword Chaotic, and the weilder of the Chaos Sword doesn’t want it found? Or the Chaos Sword itself? And it is connected to a dead god what weeps and whose wound is being used by the… Dark Hand to do something with Orcs referred to as The Made?
An I missing something? Do we know anything about the Peacemakers? The Sword Chaotic itself? Who calls these three stripe orcs the The Made? Any clue how the sword was broken before? Mended?
Alexis gives a hopeful shrug when Ezrin mentions removing the scarred orcs and weakening the Dark Hand.
“Many questions. I’ll tackle them as I remember you saying them.
The Sword Chaotic is older, much older, than the twice-broken sword. I can also tell you from first-hand experience that the Sword Chaotic has never been broken. Never. Not physically. Not non-physically. Never. Not once. Ever. By any being. Ever. Never.
The current wielder doesn’t want the sword re-broken. Perhaps a different wielder will feel differently.
Raff’s words were something along the lines of:
‘As long as [the twice broken sword] is defeated, it will not be wielded. As long as it is not wielded our dream still lives.’
‘If it broken it is no longer defeated.’
Thinking about this again, I wonder if ‘broken’ for the sword is more in the Westland sense: like breaking a horse. Perhaps this twice-broken has had two previous true masters, and only by bringing it ‘to heel’ will it be broken a third time. Seems a bit far-fetched, but goes to show how little we know.”
Alexis thinks on what he’s just said, looks in his book-of-notes briefly, and then continues.
“The twice-mended sword is ‘the Peacemakers weapon’. As we understand it. the twice-mended sword ‘holds the last of the dead god’s powers’. By breaking the sword a third time, the dead god can be released in time for a coming war, presumably against the slavers, or those allied to the slavers.”
“The original peacemakers made a blood-oath with She-Who-Is-Fierce. The specifics of the blood-oath might be lost to time. But the original peacemakers were defeated by the slavers, who are also great enemies of She-Who-Is-Fierce.”
“The Sword Chaotic…” Alexis gives a dismissive shrug “… is not our treasure, although I would like to see it kept safely in Suth–” Alexis seems to doubt what he was about to say “… someplace safe.”
“The Made. Not entirely sure who told us they were called the Made, but I think it was probably Mavon. There are three kinds of Made: “Boar breaths”, “Bear killers”, “Red eyes”. It seems like the purpose of the Made is to ‘enslave gnolls to dig in earth to find the last of the dead god’. The Made ‘feast on an ancient wound. It’s the reason the dead god weeps. The wound is poisoned daily with blood’.”
“The nature of the broken, and mended, history of the sword is beyond me. Red might have some insight there.”
“The current weielder… Raff! Not the wielder of the Twice Broken Sword…”
Ezrin is lost in thoughts.
“Is ‘Chaos River’ your code for Ra — Sorry, never mind.”
“Do you know which kind of Made you have faced?”
“Do you know anything about the Gnoll’s She-Demon? She Who Is Fierce? Peacekeepers making blood-oaths… what would a gnoll consider a Peace Maker?”
Ezrin shakes his head.
“Sorry.. Red what do you know about the Twice Broken Sword?”
“Basically Nothing.”
Ethelred pauses for a bit. The words from Alexis echo. The memories of the night in the woods drinking that foul tasting tea are hazy, fogy.
“While we have said we are seeking the sword, that we are on the path of the peace makers, we have done little to actually move along that path since arriving where we believe the sword is located: The Copper Hills Fort. We could be wrong about where the Twice Broken Sword is located.
From a sheer material perspective something that has been broken before should be easy to break again. Often when you repair something other changes take place. The area broken might be stronger, but other areas are weakened.
Of course the Twice Broken Sword is probably not quite like other swords. Breaking it might somehow make it stronger, make it impossible to break the same way again.
What I know is that we must take some decisive action to move us along the path of the peace makers. Else we will dwell in the shadow of the Copper Hills Fort doing tasks to aid the Kingdom of Aedlefrid. Which all well and good, but not what we are meant to be doing here.
Let us leave the breaking as task to delve into once we have the sword. The way to break it will be aided greatly by actually inspecting the sword. Speculating only slows us from our first task of locating the sword.
As I said at the begining: I know nothing.”