The original 2nd Edition entry from the Forge.

write up by Stefan Rac. Contest Design Winner April 28, 2000.

Dul'Cray is the current weapon of General Morgoth, an orc general within the Guardians army. Dul'Cray was forged around five hundred years ago by the great Dwarven weaponsmith Davion Dul'Cray, it was to be his last great creation. Originally designed and made for the battlelord of the northern reaches a great general of the time and a fierce warrior. During the second Giant wars between the dwarves of dwarfgate and the Giants of Milgar the battlelord was slain and his army was routed leaving the dead on the field of battle, during the aftermath a young giant took the axe as a trophy for his leader hoping to gain favor by presenting the weapon to him as a gift. The leader a Giant by the name of Heragin took the weapon and in turn gave it to an evil wizard in return for a small favor, up until know the Dul'Cray had been a magical weapon of small importance.

The wizard needing a vessel for the soul cleaver he was creating changed the magic of the axe to except the Demon spirit he was planning to capture and imprison within the blade. In preparation for the ritual he inscribed runes of evil to attract the spirit to the axe. During the summoning something went wrong the Demon was too powerful to be controlled by the wizard. In an attempt to close the interplanar gate the wizard was injured and dying, to save his life he projected his soul into the Dul'Cray thinking he would escape later. The runes of imprisonment he had engraved on the weapon were too much, he was trapped! The Demon believing the wizard was dead tried to leave the tower to explore the world he had been summoned to found he could not. In his rage he destroyed the summoning room burying everything in it and left through the gate before it close trapping him.

For two centuries Dul'Cray remained buried within the ruins of the wizards tower in the Northern Reaches until a group of adventurers stumbled upon the ruins and uncovered it. In the group was a young Dwarf who recognized the weapon and took it back to Dwarfgate were it stayed mounted on a wall for 200 years. For it took the wizard that long too manipulate a young dwarf to betray his people and steal the weapon and flee the dwarven nation. For the next century until the Dul'Cray came into the possession of General Morgoth the wizard learned to use his powers thru the host of the Dul'Cray, for that is what he did he possessed the wielder of the axe and did as he pleased until he grew bored and then moved on. When Morgoth came into possession of the axe things changed, the wizard was unable to dominate Morgoth so for the first time in the history of the Dul'Cray it was being used as it should.

The Dul'Cray is a two handed Battleaxe designed to be used by a Dwarf so in the hands of an Orc it can be wielded one handed with the same damage.

Appearance: The Dul'Cray is a two handed battleaxe of medium size, the blade seems to have an inner darkness about it and no one looking at it has any doubt as to its intentions. It wants to kill. Inscribed all over the blade of the Dul'Cray are tiny runes of imprisonment created by the evil wizard, to stare to long at the inscriptions can cause the user to become partially possessed by the Dul'Cray, similar to a charm spell.

Powers and Abilities:
Damage: s-m 1D8+4 large 1D10+4
Weight: 7lbs
Size: Medium
Speed: 7
Bonus: +4
Alignment: Lawful evil
Intelligence: 16 (can use mental speech to communicate with user)
Ego: 23
Limitations: Only useable by evil aligned creatures
Special Powers:

- +4 to attack and Damage
- Immune to mind affect type spells when held
- Detect good in 10' Radius
- Understand type of spell being cast by anyone within site
- At will cast minor globe of Invulnerability
- Once per day cast charm person (cast at 20lvl)
- Once per week cast Domination (cast at 20lvl)

When the Dul'Cray first came into the possession of General Morgoth it was most annoyed that he could not obtain control over the powerful Orc, as it had been a while since the wizard had found a host as strong and well placed as Morgoth. In time he came to realize that his aims could still be meet without complete control for sometimes he did manage to win the mental battles that he and Morgoth had, and it was during these times that he went about his true aim. That of trying to free himself from the Dul'Cray.

The wielder of the Dul'Cray if they are able to with stand the wizards great ego have full access to the powers of the axe as well as the memories of the wizard trapped with in, that is if they realize this for the wizard is very crafty and will offer no information unless asked or it is to his own benefit.

This weapon in the hands of an evil wizard is the most destructive as the wizard trapped within was a 20 lvl wizard and as such can be a very useful teacher he still has a full selection of spells memorized and with years of experience learned since is quite a formidable adversary.