Thunderfrost (3.5e Equipment)
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Thunderfrost: This +1 frost shock kukri is made of blackened steel, with gold inlays of lightning and silver inlays of snowflakes along the blade. The handle is wrapped in black leather, with a thin chain of alternating gold and silver links encircling the top and bottom. A small golden piece of amber is imbedded in a silver setting on the pommel. Only one edge is sharpened, with the other edge being slightly thicker than a typical kukri. The dwarven runes for ice and lightning are engraved in an alternating row in tiny script along the unsharpened edge.
Thunderfrost was originally created by the dwarven wizard and master smith Grimdal Stone-Eye, but its history actually goes a bit further back than its creation. The metal Grimdal forged the weapon from was recovered from a small meteor the dwarven artificer saw plummet to the earth during a snowstorm. Grimdal was in the far frozen north at the time, searching for gnome prisoner that had been captured by a clan of ice giants. When he saw the meteor strike near the top of a mountain he went to investigate it. Upon arriving at the crash site the snowstorm broke, and Grimdal was able to see the ice giant camp. Seeing this as a good omen, Grimdal gathered the meteor fragments for further research later.
One of the gnomes Grimdal rescued was a young monk named Zarken Fainor. Grimdal was impressed with the resolute determination of Zarken, who was beaten by the giants several times for trying to escape. In the years following the rescue Grimdal and Zarken developed a strong friendship, with Grimdal often acting as Zarken’s advisor and mentor. As Zarken grew in experience and faced increasingly dangerous opponents, Grimdal came to fear his young friend’s slight frame prevented him from using weapons that dealt significant damage. To aid Zarken, Grimdal took the meteor that had led him to the ice giant camp and smelted out the iron ore within it. He then used this to forge Thunderfrost, crafting it with the powers of lightning and ice.
Shortly after Thunderfrost was finished, Grimdal was killed by ice giants in retaliation for his efforts against them years earlier. When Zarken came to visit his wizened friend he discovered Grimdal crushed and his tower ruined. Zarken also found Thunderfrost, and the notes Grimdal had kept describing the process of crafting the weapon, and his intention to give it to Zarken. Zarken took up the kukri, and found it glinted when pointed a particular direction. Following the weapon’s gleam over the corse of several days, Zarken eventually came across the ice giants who had killed Grimdal. Zarken raised a band of heroes to assist him, and wiped out the ice giant clan. The weapon has never since shown any able to direct its wielder.
Zarken grew to be an extremely powerful monk and always carried Thunderfrost, even when his unarmed attacks became so powerful he never actually drew the weapon. After decades of wandering the earth in search of enlightenment, Zarken eventually elevated himself to be more than a mere mortal. Feeling a need to divest himself of worldly possessions, Zarken gave all his material goods (including Thunderfrost) to the next monastery he came across, even though it was a different order of monks than his own. Zarken was never seen or heard from after that day.
The monastery used the weapon to defend its walls for several years, and occasionally allowed monks of small races to borrow the weapon to aid in some quest or another. The monks were cautious who they lent the weapon to, but at least four different monks carried it on rescue missions in the years after it was given up by Zarken. Unfortunately, the monastery of Thunderfrost was sacked by hobgoblin raiders some years ago, and the weapon was lost. There are occasionally reports of a halfling warrior who wields a knife that strikes with ice and thunder waging a solo war against various goblinoid tribes. More than one group of small monks has tried to track down this halfling raider, for Thunderfrost is considered a monastic item of great power. Many claim to have seen the halfling at a distance and confirm that his knife is a kukri, but no definitive evidence that the weapon in question is truly Thunderfrost has ever been produced.
CL 8th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Chill Metal/Ice Storm, Call Lightning/Lightning Bolt; Cost 9,308 gp + 720 XP; Market Price: 18,308 gp
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