The Eagle's Claw
by Kevin TurnerA fairly simple +1 broadsword, this is the heirloom of the Crouthers family. Straight steel with few flourishes, it has a basket hilt of worked steel, with an emerald set in the base of the pommel. When wielded by one of the Crouthers line, the gem is magicked to provide a limited telepathic contact with one who touches the great Eagle's Eye (see below). This contact can be initiated by either party, lasts up to d6 minutes, and can be used once per week.
The blade is currently in the hands of Simon Eyeward, son of Crouthers VII, Lord of Eagle's Eye Keep, who is out in the world to make a name for himself and bring honour to the Crouthers family. His whereabouts are unknown, and no attempts at contact through the Eye have been successful.
The Eagle's Eye
A rare treasure indeed. This fist-sized emerald was carved from a much larger chunk, the fragments helping to fund the building of the mining operation and keep at Eagle's Eye. Only one flaw exists in it, giving it the appearance of the eye of a bird, and the faceting and finishing give the flaw the appearance of a pupil.
Legend holds that the progenitor of the Crouthers line, Falstaff Crouthers, a miner with dreams of his own operation, came to the Blanchepeake mountains to sink a shaft and try his luck. In the shaft he half made, half found, at the top of a cliff overlooking the Sunbrazier Desert, he came upon a gargantuan chunk of emerald that flickered almost with a life of its own. He laboured for two days to free it from its surrounding granite. Once it came loose, the water walled up behind it and below into the mountain burst forth and gave birth to the White River.
A third of the gem was lost in the
freeing and finishing, but as it stands, as a unique piece with a
minor enchantment on it, its worth is around 30,000 gp to a
collector. Seeing as it's the symbolic heart of the Crouthers'
mining operation and the morale of all who dwell within the Keep,
its worth is very likely much more to them.