The Blades of Cara Fahd

[Mcgarnagle]

Good day, everyone.

I was reading the magic item for The Blades of Cara Fahd and it posed some questions that I am hoping people can answer or at least give their opinion on it.

The version of the item I am referring to is from the Adventure Compendium and I was planning on doing a straight port of it over to 4th edition rules (is there a 4th edition re-write of it?)

Most of the thread ranks offer bonuses to an ability attached to their group pattern. In the main description of the item, it says

The increase to a wielder’s abilities—via threads woven to his dagger—can never exceed the thread rank woven to that ability from the group’s True pattern or pattern item.

Now, does this mean that, if a character has already maxed out the 5 ranks in one of the threads woven to the group pattern, any bonus they would receive from weaving a thread to the dagger cannot be applied to the maxed out group pattern thread rank? To put it another way, if the blade grants +1 to the ability and the character already has a thread at 5 ranks, the rank 5 thread cannot be bumped up to rank 6 from this bonus.

My other question is concerning thread rank 8. This thread lets the group perform a blood ritual that rips the target's spirit from their body and traps it into one of the daggers. The next text seems to be missing information:

...the spirit can draw magical energy from the active threads attached to the dagger, using that energy to cause various magical effects. To use this special power, each member of the group must make a successful Willpower Test against the target’s Spell Defense. If any test does not succeed, the power does not work. The step number for the trapped spirit’s power is the highest rank among all the threads woven to the Blades.

It doesn't explain what the various magical effects are. Am I missing something?

[Bonhumm]

As for the first question, it states that the bonus given by the blade can never exceed the current thread rank woven into the group pattern for this ability.

This would mean that, for example, if you have woven a thread to Durability to your group pattern and that this thread is currently at Rank 2, you cannot have more than ANOTHER +2 applied to it through the blade. Thus, the blade's bonuses would apply on TOP of the Group Pattern bonuses to a maximum of the equivalent of the current rank woven into the Group Pattern.

In short; thus the maximum bonuses applied to Durability through both channels would be +10.


As for question #2:

I have no idea. I guess they left it vague so that the GM can do what he wants with it.

[Mcgarnagle]

Ah! Thank you, Bonhumm! I don’t know how many times I read that first paragraph trying to decipher what it meant.

I’m going to be running Shattered pattern soon and want to get a full grasp of these items to determine if I should include them in my game. They seem like powerful magic items so I didn’t want to introduce them to the game if they were going to cause balance issues.

[Bonhumm]

Just in case you did not know; those blades are cursed (i.e. Horror-touched) and are at the centerpiece of the 'Blades' adventure module.

[Mataxes]

Yeah, the "Blades" collection of adventures is the ideal campaign-thread follow-up to Shattered Pattern. Each adventure ties in to the discovery of a Key Knowledge, and really highlights what the thread item system allows as far as campaign development.