Mountebank's Surprise

Description

A wand and a one-handed sword are a common combination for a mountebank in the League. This particular pair of enchantments are favoured by those who specialise in two person confidence tricks. When both of the swindlers are armed with these, they can often take on a surprising number of angry marks by empowering each other. A particularly notorious Tassatan pair named Tullio and Miguelito were known to employ such tactics in the latter part of their career, most notably to escape the guards of the de Guerra Carta after conning their Merchant Prince out of his signet ring, a tale immortalised in the popular opera The Golden Trod.

In Dawn, these items are known as Mirrors of Glory, for by strengthening an ally, the war witch is also strengthened. Those among the Navarr who have taken the oaths of both the vate and the thorn sometimes wield these in the form of a green iron axe and a stout worldmarrow rod, calling them Star-Sworn Legacies in remembrance of Star, one of the first vates, who provided Navarr and Thorn with magical aid in their battles against the Vallorn. A number of Navarr artisans make this items only at night, under visible stars, while reciting the oaths of vates, thorns and brands to teach the two items to support each other and to assist their wielder in aiding others.

In the League, both items often bear Lann, the rune of bargains, representing the benefit of the spell to both parties, while Dawnish versions use the Gryphon runes, placing Feresh and Verys on the rod and Jotra and Tykonus on the blade.

Rules

• Form: Weapon. A pair consisting of a one-handed weapon and either a rod or a wand. You must be wielding both the weapon and the implement to use the set's magical properties.
• Requirement: You must have both the ambidexterity and magician skills to bond to these items.
• Effect: Once per day after casting the empower spell on a target you also gain the benefit of the empower spell.
• Materials: Crafting a Mountebank's Surprise requires no special materials. It takes two months to make a pair of these items.

The tavern-master sighed, and went back to his glasses.

"...and then I said.... 'That old saw? Your thumb? Ambition's balls, that was old when Richilde first called for minstrels! Is that your best?', and her friend hissed 'And who are you to say?' and I say 'Why, nothing but a street rat, oh king of cats!', and she spits 'A rat indeed, by the state of your doublet! And what do you want of me?' and so I said 'One of your nine lives; and if that goes well, I'll have the other eight...'"

The ragged man winced to an ill-judged movement. He kept his left arm close to his body, tied up in a makeshift sling.

"Oh, I forget what else. It was witty, though. Of course, then they came for me, the pair of them. Now, I clocked the one of them tap the other with their wand, and so I was ready for her to be good with her blade, and I caught it on my guard, but I wasn't expected the other to come through so hard and so damned fast! They only had a wand out: but no, they drew a blade, and caught me under the standard, right in the pit. Over I went, then it was down to boots in the gutter... Near the church-door by the well, you know it?"

He coughed, into a blood-stained handkerchief.

"Everyone's a critic, aren't they? Now, do you have a spot of Anodyne Analgesic to go with this wine...?"