THE WITCHBLADE

AND ACCOMPANYING RULES

By Viktor Hammering
v2023-07-08-ENG

This game is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB. This
Supplement was created under Fria Ligan AB’s Dragonbane Third Party
Supplement License.
 HISTORY
How the Witchblades, and by extension the
The betrayal is absolute.
Witchhammers, came to be is something of a stain on
the otherwise spotless record of the Ethercliff school of My god, the honored Tevatenu's perfect creation
magic. Officially spotless record... defiled.
Half a century ago a group of dwarves from
My soul and everyone else’s soul is sacred and
Northtone’s ice-cold mountains found a way for mages
to use metal. What initially began as something you have taken a part of it from me. You will
beautiful in the hands of the dwarves ended up, as it regret this, I swear by everything I hold sacred.
often does, tarnished in the hands of humans.
The dwarves combined hammers and magic to make
The next time you see me, I and the others
beautiful jewelry and ceremonial armor, but the
Ethercliff mages soon used the dwarves’ techniques to whose eyes I have opened will show no mercy.
create an order of magical warriors: the Witchblades. Not to you or anyone else who serves you and
your twisted agenda.
The elitist cabal of mages leading Ethercliff at the time
neither dared nor wanted to make the sacrifice needed
to wield a sword in combination with their magic.
They quickly realized that the answer to their problem The Witchhammer
was the poor people of the town, the gullible, dirty
rabble.
They conjured up a multitude of misleading rumors
about a new-found type of magic that would allow Ethercliff
anyone to become a mage. All that was required of the
mage-to-be was that they perform a simple ritual and Ethercliff is simply the name of our
of course pledge their loyalty to the mages’ guild of world's capital. Its main purpose is to act
Ethercliff. What they deliberately forgot to tell the as the primary seat of the mage guilds.
hopeful candidates was that the price for this seemingly The town is located on a raised
god-given gift was a piece of their soul. Even after the promontory in the middle of a lake. It’s
truth came out, many people were just happy to have a here the three main schools of magic
place to live and a job... But not all. have their, well… schools—one building
complex for each of the schools.
Shortly after the truth surfaced a deeply religious half-
elf named Malvus Malekar took nearly half the
witchblades and disappeared. All he left behind was a
dying mage with a note clutched in his broken fingers
— a note signed ”The Witchhammer”. In the note he
wrote that the mages had robbed him of his path to the
afterlife with their lies and that he will avenge this
betrayal.
With time Malvus went from a symbol of justice to a
symbol of brutal, zealous violence against any and all
who practice magic. His order is now a corrupted shell
of itself and no longer makes any distinction between a
peaceful healer and an archmage of Ethercliff.

1
 WITCHBLADE
What good is a soul anyway? You Witchhammers
are exaggerating.. I personally don’t see what all
the fuss is about. Why look a gift horse in the
mouth, is what I say. Well now, whatever it is you
intend to do with me, just get it over wi..
- ELRIK VEINWETHER

✦ Key attribute: STR

✦ Skills: Swords or Axes or Hammers, Animism or
Elementalism or Mentalism, Spot hidden, Crafting, Brawling,
Evade, Languages, Myths & Legends
✦ Heroic Ability: Witchblade

Because their origins are controversial, to say the

least, the order of Witchblades have had to deal with
more than a little side-eye and taunting. But this
doesn’t generally bother them, seeing as they
themselves know that they are the best of two
worlds, learned in both magic and martial arts.

But each individual Witchblade tends to favor either

the magical or the martial, for as the learned say: a
jack of all trades is a master of none.

Heroic Ability: Witchblade

✦ Requirement: Any melee weapon skill 12

✦ Willpower Points: 3
As a Witchblade you bind a part of your character’s
soul to your weapon. The mechanical effect of this is
that they lose 1 point each in WIL and CHA. A
Witchblade who has bound part of their soul to a
weapon in this way can use magic even while
wielding this weapon. If the weapon breaks only the D6 GEAR
witchblade’s wielder or a mage at Ethercliff can 1-2 One-handed weapon of choice, grimoire, fur,
repair it, roll with a boon. leather armor, sleeping pelt, flint & tinder, smith’s
tools, D8 food rations, D8 silver
When a Witchblade binds their soul to the weapon 3-4 One-handed weapon of choice, grimoire,
the weapon is affected by the character of their soul. sleeping poison (one dose), lockpicks (simple), rope
Roll or choose one of the effects from the table on (hemp), grappling hook, smith’s tools, D8 food
p.4. Activating the witchblade’s ability costs 3WP. rations, D8 silver
This heroic ability can be selected up to three times.
5-6 One-handed weapon of choice, grimoire,
Using this heroic ability counts as using magic and chainmail (spell armor), bandages (10 st), smith’s
follows the rules around metal and magic. (p.58 tools, D8 food rations, D8 silver
Dragonbane Rules).
As a Witchblade you only start with the base chance
D6 NICKNAME D6 NICKNAME
in your chosen magic school and you can only learn 1 The Slayer 4 Inquisitor
tricks, which you start with 3 of. To learn how to 2 The Blade of Woe 5 The Avenger
cast spells you need the heroic ability Magic Talent.
3 Wrathbane 6 Shadowblade

2
 SPELLBLADE
Creating a spellblade
The weapon that the Witchblades are named after
is also sometimes called a "spellblade" by
magicians who have chosen to create their own
blade but at the same time wish to distance
themselves from the simple village peasants who
cast simple spells and wave their swords. Creating
such a weapon places great demands on those who
are willing to pay the price.
In other words, any mage can choose to bind a
sword to himself, although many avoid doing so
for both religious and practical reasons.
What makes such a blade possible is the high
content of copper or its alloys, bronze and brass.
This material, combined with the ritual, creates a
blade that allows magic to be freely exercised by
its wielder, even if the caster has the weapon at
hand. Creating a weapon suitible for the ritual
involves a fair amount of expensive metals and
therefore normally costs twice the normal amount.
Spellblades and witchblades also act as a focus for
spells.
The main difference between a witchblade and a
spellblade is that a spellblade is just a normal
weapon aside from the fact that a mage can wield it
freely. In order to realize its true potential, the
heroic ability Witchblade from the previous page is
required. An ordinary spellblade is also not as
taxing on the body as a witchblade and therefore
costs no CHA.
A mage can choose to start the game with a
spellblade if they want, but if they do so they start
the game knowing only two magic tricks and two
rank 1 spells instead of the usual three, and they
must reduce their starting WIL by one point. They
may also replace the profession skill Staves with
the relevant weapons skill for their spellblade.
The ritual
The practical requirements for creating the weapon
are as follows:
✦ 5 gold to pay the mage for his services
✦ A mage who knows the ritual
✦ A metal weapon of your choice
✦ A voluntary sacrifice of one's own blood
✦ A shift spent meditating while holding the weapon
3
Magical armor
Crafting spell armor is possible, and just like a
weapon, this costs 1 WIL, but there are also a
number of additional rules:
✦ Since copper alloys or other similar metals are
less resistant than steel and iron, the Armor
Rating of all spell armor is reduced by 1.
✦ It takes two mages to perform the ritual so the
cost is doubled. The amount of metal to be bound
to your soul is simply too great for one person.
✦ Assuming that all rivets are made of copper
alloys or similar metals, no ritual is required to
create studded leather armor.
Upgrading or switching
Upgrading or just switching to another type of
weapon or armor is possible but this is costly and
requires:
✦ A blacksmith who knows any form of magic.
Such mages are usually found among the dwarves
or on Ethercliff.
✦ The weapon or armor must be melted down and
re-made from scratch. As long as the majority of
the metal in the new item is from the original
weapon, after just a few days in-game it will work
as if the new item is now charged with your soul.
✦ Because it is a special order of the highest order,
the cost is three times that of the normal cost of
crafting an item of the same type.
Knives, spears and arrows
Mages who choose to start with a knife begin the
game with either a copper, bronze, bone, or stone
knife. This, combined with its size, does not
interfere with a mage's ability to cast spells.
Buying one after character creation requires a
special order and costs three times as much.
As a rule of thumb, the same applies to spears and
arrowheads, three times as expensive and made of
some form of copper alloy, bone or stone.
 THE WITCHBLADE
Changing the ability of the witchblade
Forcing an almost conscious weapon to function in
a different way is not easy, but it is possible. If the
character undergoes a change, this may also cause
the weapon’s ability to change. Examples of such
changes could include the character's weakness
being overcome, or that they have reached a
personal milestone or are going through a
traumatic experience.
In terms of the rules it makes no difference whether
the weapon’s ability is changed by force of will or
because of the character undergoing a change.
To change a witchblade’s abilities, at the end of a
play session, you must use an advancement mark
(p.29 Dragonbane Rules). Make a roll against INT,
with a boon. If successful, your sword has changed
abilities, otherwise it does not.
Changing the secondary effect is easier and doesn't
require a roll, but still requires an advancement
mark.
Secondary effect
In addition to their main ability, which usually
gives the wielder an advantage in melee combat, all
witchblades also start with a secondary effect
which provides a more practical kind of benefit. See
the table below.
D6 SECONDARY EFFECT
1-2 Shrinking weapon: When the weapon is not
active, it shrinks to the size of a dagger, or, in the
case of two-handed weapons, to the size of a short
sword. This effect can be maintained even when
the weapon is being used , but then costs 1 WP per
stretch.
3-4 Illuminated Weapon: The weapon can act as a
light source for one turn. Lights up a 10 meter
radius. Illuminates up to a shift, but roll D8 each
stretch. On a one, the sword goes out and must be
activated again (action).

If you upgrade a one-handed witchblade with an
exclusive ability to a two-handed one, you are
allowed to switch abilities for free.
D8 WITCHBLADE
5-6 Returning weapon: The weapon always
returns to your possession. It requires either a
gesture or a word to return, and the weapon is
always recalled to a safe location within reach.

1 Animated weapon: You can use your action in a round to have the weapon make an independent attack
next round. The weapon’s reach and movement are the same as your own.
2 Elemental weapon: You can add 1D4 elemental damage, for example fire, frost or lightning. Earth
counts as physical damage. The effect lasts for one stretch.
3 Extended weapon: You can increase the weapon’s reach by 2 meters. Exactly how this effect comes
into play should be discussed with the GM. The effect lasts for one stretch.
4 Indestructable weapon: The weapon’s durability is increased by 5. Activating this ability doesn’t count
as an action, but it must activated on your turn. The effect lasts for one stretch.
5 Devastating weapon: The weapon hits with such force that rolling either a 1 or a 2 counts as a Dragon
roll when attacking or parrying with it. The effect lasts for one stretch and can be combined with the
spell Enchant Weapon.
6 Guiding weapon: The weapon seems to find its way into gaps or weak spots which gives you a boon to
attack rolls. Activating this ability doesn’t count as an action, but it must be activated on your turn.
7 Enlarged weapon: The weapon goes from one-handed to two-handed, with all the pros and cons that
entails. The STR requirement, however, remains unchanged. Exlcusive to one-handed weapons. The
effect lasts for one stretch.
8 Subtle weapon: The weapon weighs almost nothing in your hands and is so nimble that it is considered
to be a subtle weapon (see p.73 of the Dragonbane Rules). Exclusive to one-handed weapons.