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<blockquote data-quote="ColonelHardisson" data-source="post: 1022769" data-attributes="member: 363">Well, I guess &quot;silly&quot; is subjective, especially in a game about elves and dragons and wizards, so I'll not try to explain why I don't think they're all that silly <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Anyway, in the books from which the sword sprang, these swords were absolutely not very common at all. They were, in fact, very rare, and only seemed to be available to members of the torturer's guild. They also seemed to have been made in the distant past, presumably using forgotten techniques, which made them work exactly as described in the books - the mercury drained into the handle when the sword was raised, and flowed out when the sword was swung down, giving the blow greater impact - without shattering, or without the mercury easily escaping. I'm sure this could be done now, of course, but given that the story is set millions of years hence, one might assume that metallurgical techniques would be vastly improved, or at least different, from what we have today. Or maybe they used magic, or technology sufficiently advanced to be indistinguishable from magic (to borrow from Clarke).Anyway, in my own campaign, they are not easy to come by. They certainly aren't available for sale. They would only be found by PCs after a grueling series of adventures, in the hands of enemies that will use them against the PCs. Oh, and I'll address another point, but it involves a SPOILER BELOWSeverian's sword, Terminus Est, does, indeed, shatter during use at one point in the story, destroying it irreparably.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ColonelHardisson, post: 1022769, member: 363"] Well, I guess "silly" is subjective, especially in a game about elves and dragons and wizards, so I'll not try to explain why I don't think they're all that silly ;) Anyway, in the books from which the sword sprang, these swords were absolutely not very common at all. They were, in fact, very rare, and only seemed to be available to members of the torturer's guild. They also seemed to have been made in the distant past, presumably using forgotten techniques, which made them work exactly as described in the books - the mercury drained into the handle when the sword was raised, and flowed out when the sword was swung down, giving the blow greater impact - without shattering, or without the mercury easily escaping. I'm sure this could be done [i]now[/i], of course, but given that the story is set millions of years hence, one might assume that metallurgical techniques would be vastly improved, or at least different, from what we have today. Or maybe they used magic, or technology sufficiently advanced to be indistinguishable from magic (to borrow from Clarke). Anyway, in my own campaign, they are not easy to come by. They certainly aren't available for sale. They would only be found by PCs after a grueling series of adventures, in the hands of enemies that will use them against the PCs. Oh, and I'll address another point, but it involves a SPOILER BELOW Severian's sword, [i]Terminus Est[/i], does, indeed, shatter during use at one point in the story, destroying it irreparably. [/QUOTE]

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