The eye that blunts the sword

This episode went live early, so here’s the text!  Sorry if it turned up twice in your podcast schedule.

***

I’ve been listening to Saga Thing, a podcast about Icelandic sagas, recently and there are some ongoing tropes.  One is this fun little power: if the character sees a sword, the sword becomes blunt.

Let’s model this.

MuTe 20 (R:Eye, D:Sun, T:Ind.) The sword becomes blunt, having a -3 Damage modifier.

It’s basically “Edge of the Razor” in reverse. If a player argued for a Perdo Terram alternative, I’d allow it. (Base 3, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +2 metal)

This sounds like a really useful power, although oddly in the sagas it never seems to make any difference to the outcome of battles. One hero is surprised by the power, and is unable to hurt his enemy for a few strikes. Then he adjusts his strategy and then hits the man hard enough to break the bone in his rival’s arm. After that he works over the rest of the guy’s skeleton. A hero knows his foe has this power, so he so brings two swords to a duel, letting the power fall on one before using the other to cut his enemy’s head off.

I often feel the second look at a subject is the stronger, and my second take on this is that rather than altering the damage rating of the sword, it should just make it so that the sword cannot inflict Light or Medium wounds. This matches what’s described above better: the first hero gets around the power by causing a Heavy wound, and then using the combat advantage given him by his opponent’s injury to keep inflicting them.

Let’s model this.

MuTe 25 (R:Eye, D:Sun, T:Ind.) The sword becomes blunt, having a -3 Damage modifier.

(Base 4 (highly unnatural), +1 Eye, +2 Sun, +2 metal)

A character without Might can spend a Fatigue level to spark a mystical power. Arguably both powers could be vested in one person, but there’s something, to me, that seems a little odd about double dipping. There’s something cosmological going on: you shouldn’t have two bites at this particular cherry.

No hero seems to have this power: only villains, and no-one who uses it seems to prosper. Might it be a minor gift of the Infernal? If that’s the case, you might trigger it with a Confidence point gained by sin.