The original 2nd Edition entry from the Forge.

write up by Lord Hannible Sanguin. Contest Design Winner April 28, 2000.

Grim Harvest, as the weapon has become known as, is a weapon forged in the nether realms known as Ravenloft. Its history is as dark as its name and its intelligence is known through out its domain of DarkenReach. The weapon is spoken out of fear of the populace it controls and the mere sight of it can bring a hardened killer to begging for his life like a small child. The simple sickle was once owned by a simple farmer by the name of Shirkar Willowweed who used the sickle to cut the wheat in his fields. Shirkar was a old timer, a man with values, but also a man with a drinking problem. His daughter, a lovely young maid, was in love with a neighboring farm hand, a man that Shirkar disliked with a passion. One night, while still working in his fields, he tripped on something half buried in the ground. After digging for a few seconds he realized it was a half buried body of a warrior. Yellowed aged bones spoke of its long time resting place on his land, however he did find something interesting, a broken sword, the blade had been badly damaged, snapped off its hilt like a weak twig. However the hilt, a brassy looking metal with some red leather wrapped around it was still in fine shape. Looking at the half chipped handle on his sickle, the man proceeded to pull the blade from it and placed it into the hilt of the sword, it was a perfect fit! After saying a prayer to the God of the Harvest, Shirkan stood to leave when a thick mist covered his field in a quiet blanket. The skull of the dead man seemed to laugh at him, a voice coming thick with dirt and muck sounded in the quiet night. It spoke of his daughter laying with a man he hated, of how their passions even now rose in climax in his own bed. Kicking the skull into the under brush he raced for the house, his new weapon now in hand. It is said the screams of his daughter and her lover can still be heard in the almost vacant villages and towns of DarkenReach at night. After the slaying of his daughter, the man known as Shirkan was never seen again, however his ghost has been seen roaming the growing wheat fields on the frequent moonless nights, carrying the bloody sickle he used to slay his only daughter and himself that night so long ago.

Appearance:
This weapon looks like any other sickle, except for the fact that is has an actual hilt, much like a sword. Its long, curved, wicked blade is stainless and flawless in make and the hardened oak its hilt is carved from is ancient and known for its almost unbreakable nature. The ghost wielding the disgusting weapon wears a sorrowful face, his lidless eyes stare forward with great agony and blood countinuously pours from his throat where he used Grim Harvest to end his own life. He wears ragged farm clothes covered with soil from the shallow grave he rests in every day and the apparition glows with a soft light in the darkness of the night.

Personality:
Grim Harvest heralds the personality responsible for Shirkan's mindless rage the night he murdered his daughter and her lover. The sword hilt he attached to his weapon was from an enchanted blade known as BlackSpirit, which has been the primary weapon of a legendary murderer who used the blade to steal the souls of his victims. He could then view their eternal torment through the small gem at the bottom of the pommel. He died however in a great battle with a vengeful spirit that has been too powerful to trap in the swords hilt. Grim Harvest remembers little of its past, however it is wholly evil in nature and by reading the simple farmer's mind it could tell what he hated and feared the most, the loss of his daughter's innocence. It used this to enact its first kill with its new body, and the taste of the innocent, loving souls was sheer pleasure to the long starving weapon. Grim Harvest cares for nothing but its appetite for life energy and will do absolutely anything in order to aquire it. The vampiric weapon can speak telepathically with any being 100 feet from it. It has been known to speak all languages but its voice always has the same result on the one is communicates with, absolute terror.

Powers and Abilities:
Grim Harvest is an intelligent weapon with a INT of 20 and an Ego of 21, it is a demanding piece of farm equipment that needs to feed from the souls of the living every 100 years and does so with a vengeance. The small villages and towns of DarkenReach dread this time of year when they must place the oldest of their children outside the boundries of town to be harvested by their Lord. The screams of the dieing herald the approach of the ghost and its horrid weapon of destruction. The next morning, no one looks for thier beloved children, they carry on with their lives, tears held in, as is the way of the small farming domain.

Grim Harvest is a Sickle +4, Soul Stealing. The ghost that wields the weapon is a mere apparation of Shirkan Willowweed that Grim Harvest uses to move it around to help with its "feeding". The weapon strikes with a natural THAC0 of 1 and doesn't appear to do any actual damage to its opponent's flesh. However with every successful strike the weapons drain an opponent of 1d4 points from all their attributes (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHR), permanently. This drainage can be cured with a Restoration spell but if an opponent loses all of one attribute they are considered dead and their soul is forever trapped in Grim Harvest, to be tormented eternally by the weapon's wicked personality. Grim Harvest can also Cause Insanity in any being it attempts to communicate with. Every round in which the weapon speaks to a living being there is a 25% chance they will aquire an insanity known as Homicidal Mania and attempt to kill and slay everyone near them. Nothing short of a Wish spell can free the tormented mind from this state of mental disintegration and they will kill again and again until they are stopped in a violent manner.

Grim Harvest is also extremely resistant to anything remotely violent, all attacks on it are made as if the weapon and its ghost carrier have an effective AC of -10 and only take half damage from attacks that make it past this considerable defense. This is because of its past history and the origin of its powers. Since it is the embodiment of violence and destruction it is also immune to most magical attacks. Grim Harvest can only be effected by spells that are 5th level and above and is 50% magic resistant to those powerful enchantments as well and confers all its immunities to its host, the ghost of Shirkan Willowweed.

The weapon however is not without its weaknesses. Public shows of love and good will make the weapon physically and spiritually sick as it loses 1d4 attribute points per round to this attack on its existence. The weapon has to be near enough for its host to see the attack for it to take effect and it will move quickly to attack anyone with the audacity to actually do something kind in front of it. The weapon usually has 120 attribute points stored in it at any time, however it has less when it first awakens to feed after a hundred years and will have less than 20 stored at that time. If attacked quickly during this time the weapon will appear to break and disintegrate, however it is merely returning to its lair to rest, where it must stay for another 100 years. In the tradition of Ravenloft Darklords, Grim Harvest can never actually be destroyed, just hurt and forced into hiding, no mortal man can break it, and no mortal magic can banish it from the demi-plane.

"Listen for the ghost man speak, listen for his warning moan, it heralds the Grim Harvest, come to steal your children from their home" - Canticle of DarkenReach