After sharing “A Dagger for Protection” in the D&D Basic Set (Holmes) Facebook group, an exchange of ideas with old-school gamer J. Sebastian Pagani yields two more magic daggers that fit the protection theme.
“Since it’s purpose is to help preserve the life of the low level wizard,” Pagani suggests, “what about allowing it to restore 4 hit points, at the cost of its enchantment.”
That power, put into its own item, gives us the Dagger of Sacrifice.
Pagani’s inspiration for the other dagger comes from Argentine literature. In Leopoldo Lugones’s historical novel La guerra gaucha (1905), a threat, directed at whoever might attack its possessor, is engraved on a gaucho’s knife blade.
Quien á mi dueño ofendiere
De mí la venganza espere;
A gaucho is a brave, free-spirited, and rebellious horseman of the pampas. His lifestyle is the theme of Gaucho literature, the epitome of which is the epic poem El Gaucho Martín Fierro by José Hernández.
Martín Fierro, the character, became a symbol of the gaucho spirit, and the poem, published in two parts (1872, 1879), remains a celebrated cultural icon. Hernández is held in high esteem by generations of Argentine writers.
In 1913, Lugones gave a lecture series, collected into El payador (1916), in which he canonizes the work Martín Fierro and depicts the gaucho culture. Detailing the habiliments of the gaucho, Lugones describes the horseman’s weapon as “a great hunting and fighting knife.” The blade often bore chivalric mottos. As an example, he cites the couplet from La guerra gaucha.
Pagani read the couplet quoted in an essay by another Argentine writer, possibly Jorge Luis Borges. Pagani was struck by the essayist’s reaction to the engraved motto: “He was moved that the blade was speaking in the first person, as if it had a life of its own.” Hence, the inspiration for the Dagger of Vengeance.
Inspired in my turn, I stormed around the gray matter for inscriptions on the other daggers, which I include below with brief commentary.
The Dagger of Protection is copied from the earlier article.
New Magic Items
Phrases set off below a dagger’s description may be engraved upon the blade.
Dagger of Sacrifice — a dagger +2. When the possessor reaches 0 hit points, the dagger restores 1 to 4 hit points. It can so save the possessor’s life one time only. Then it becomes a dagger +1 forever after with no other power.
now i am become life the restorer of weal
Fangled from a line in the Bhagavad Gita, which Robert Oppenheimer called to mind on witnessing the first nuclear weapons test: “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Dagger of Protection — as a dagger +1 in combat. It is paired with a steel sheath. Only while sheathed does the dagger protect the carrier, adding +1 to armor class and saving throws. Also called a “mageblade.”
to wield or protect
Brainstorming protection quotes got me the 23rd psalm and the LAPD motto. I find the motto more malleable.
Dagger of Vengeance — a dagger +1. If the possessor, whether wielding the weapon or not, is slain by an attacker, the dagger becomes animated and attacks the slayer. Treat the dagger as the same class and level as the slain. It has an armor class of 2. When the animated dagger is hit, or when its vengeance is served, it falls to the ground.
whoever offends my master let him expect my vengeance
Lugones’s couplet translated but otherwise unadulterated.
