Blade of Searing Agony

The Blade of Searing Agony is the first named weapon produced through Ashbringer and Karl's collaboration, combining armor penetration, poison, fire, skill amplification, and an agony effect.

History

A masterpiece seals a smithing partnership

Ashbringer refuses to join the Darklight Host on reputation alone and asks Karl to prove that Runecrafting can improve a Grandmaster Smith's work. The half-Elemental smith rapidly shapes glowing green metal into a sailor's cutlass, then gives Karl the blade to enchant. Karl adds runes for skill damage, sharpness, lethal poison, and [Flaming Body], raising them to Overlord rank; their ghostly blue glow resembles Ghostfire despite that skill not being part of the inscription. Ashbringer's [Appraisal] names the result the Blade of Searing Agony, and its combined effects convince him that the proposed partnership is worthwhile. (Chapter 803)

Karl declines to place a weapon he cannot confidently counter in ordinary shop stock, proposing custom order or auction as the most he would consider. Ashbringer goes further, arguing that a crafter should keep masterpieces for themselves or people bound to them, then reluctantly stores the cutlass in his own inventory before meeting the rest of the crafting team. The scene establishes his custody and the guild's caution around exceptional work, but it does not show a later wielder or confirm whether the blade is ever sold. (Chapter 803)

Abilities and properties

• The blade adds thirty-five percent skill damage and ignores forty-five percent of the target's armor value. The source does not state whether the penetration applies only to strikes with the blade or also to every skill channeled through it. (Chapter 803)
• It deals poison damage each second equal to twenty percent of weapon damage until the poison is cured. A cure is therefore an explicit counter, while duration without treatment is not otherwise bounded in the description. (Chapter 803)
• It adds fire damage equal to two hundred percent of skill damage and applies [Agony] to the target. Karl expects poison and agony together to impair resistance, but the exact mechanical penalties of [Agony] are not enumerated. (Chapter 803)
• The base cutlass is Ashbringer's Grandmaster metalwork, while the named supernatural effects come from Karl's Overlord-rank inscriptions. The finished blade is thus collaborative equipment rather than evidence that either crafter innately possesses all of its combat effects. (Chapter 803)

Ownership and custody