The Stonestaff

The final days of the siege of Letheradim were grim for Achshad and the defenders of the city. Achshad had already began formulating his plan for the escape of the survivors and was waiting for the approaching moonless night to carry it out. Meanwhile his people suffered as the food ran out and the water dried up. The siege had drug on for nearly three months and it appeared to Achshad that no relief was coming for his beleaguered population.
In truth, there was no relief that could come for Letheradim. The Traazorite rebels had struck every major city in the area at once, dangerously dividing their forces in the hopes that either swift victories or prolonged sieges would keep the Krai-Jan bottled up in the cities unable to help each other. The Traazorite gambit worked to an extent: none of the cities fell swiftly as the rebels had hoped; there simply weren't enough rebels to breach them in a single rush. The Traazorites did manage to keep any of the garrisons from helping each other as the cities were encircled and starved out of their walls.
As Achshad became aware of the hopelessness of the situation he also began to plan for a way to save his people. the idea that took shape in his head saw the need for a magic item with enough power to help him buy the time needed for the civilians to escape after he and his brave few had broken the Traazorite lines.
Achshad already had a few magic items in his possession; certainly more than most magic users of his capability and station. He planned to be generous with these on the day of battle however, and poured his thought into what he could best fashion that wouldn't drain him of life as the day of battle approached.
Achshad settled on a staff; always a fitting weapon for a wielder of magic. This staff would be shaped from the earth itself and give Achshad a reserve of power he could use to power spells in the thick of the fight. He also poured one other ability into it, knowing that he may have to face a rebel caster.
The making of a magical item takes the life energy itself from the caster, aging them or otherwise shortening their life in some way. This was also true of Achshad's creation, but it mattered very little to a man who planned to be dead in a few days.
Achshad's plan worked perfectly, with the civilians escaping through the breach in the rebel's lines long before the battle was over. This suited Achshad just fine and was all that he could have wished for. The longer the Traazorites were held by his forces the fewer could pursue the hungry and exhausted civilians fleeing into a nearby wooded range of hills. Achshad and his brave warriors used their extra time to further decimate the ranks of the Traazorites. As Achshad had suspected his magical energy gave out long before his will to fight did. The last of his soldiers were cut down around him and the Traazorites closed in for the kill.
With the last power available to him in the Stonestaff Achshad said his last words: recitation of a spell that sent shockwaves rippling out through the ground around him. The Traazorites that had crept arrogantly close were thrown violently backwards or sucked into the ground by the shifts in the earth. The soldiers behind the blast hesitated for just a moment before they resumed the attack. Achshad looked around him and knew that the sacrifice had been enough. He sighed with exhaustion and relief as he was cut down by the encircling rebels.
In the end the Traazorites were far too tired and bloodied to pursue a group of civilians into the woods. The ferocity and direction of Achshad's attack had caught them by surprise and had it not been for a competent Traazorite general the siege could have been lifted and the rebels defeated in the early morning hours of the attack.
In the moments right after the battle the triumphant Traazorite general Heffon Lysa strode near the pile of bodies that marked where Achshad and his troops had made their final stand. A blinding ray of light struck Achshad and some of his retinue that had fallen around him. Heffon's Priest Adaz commanded all Traazorite soldiers to stand completely still; to recognize Runah's presence among them. Adaz proclaimed the beam of light Runah's blessing upon the sacrifice of the enemy and ordered that no soldier strip the bodies touched by the light on pain of death. Heffon and Adaz ordered those soldiers touched by the light to be buried in a special tomb with their weapons and armor. Traps were to be constructed for the sarcophagus and a curse put upon the door of the tomb so that none would bother what Runah had consecrated.
And thus the Stonestaff saw its one and only battle before being buried beneath the field its bearer had died on.