Darksteel

Properties

Material Characteristics

Darksteel is a matte metal that ranges in color from dark grey to black. No matter how smooth the metal is or how well you polish it, it will not reflect light of any kind. If you have been polishing that new sword or dagger of yours for days to no avail, you might want to take it to a trusted and skilled blacksmith for appraisal.

Physical & Chemical Properties

Armour: While wearing medium or heavy armour made with darksteel, lightning damage that you take from attacks is reduced by 3.

Weapons: When you hit a creature with a darksteel weapon, you deal an extra 1d4 lightning damage.

History & Usage

Everyday use

Aside from the standard uses of armour and weaponry, darksteel also has a few other very beneficial common uses. Sailors and pirates will place a rod of darksteel atop each of their ships masts to prevent lightning damage to the sails during storms, with the darksteel essentially absorbing the harmful effects before it can cause any harm to the ship. The same principle is in play when it comes to any type of tower. The pinnacle of each tower is either capped with darksteel, or has a rod of darksteel to prevent costly damage.

Cultural Significance and Usage

Apart from the functional uses, weapons of darksteel are favored by the followers of Furius. They wield these weapons in his name and glory, passing out his judgement with his personal weapon of choice, lightning.

Industrial Use

Tinkerers of incredible skill are known to use darksteel in special containers in which they store electrical energy. They say that this is possible because not only does it reduce electrical damage, it also stores that electrial potential in a state until it can be safely discharged. These energy containers are quite rare and are worth their weight in platinum.

Hazards

Due to its ability to store electric potential, it can become unstable and discharge all stored energy in a pretty violent flash. Simply walking in darksteel armor will generate enough static electricity to give it a charge.

The base price and physical properties of this metal are just that. Base. Higher qualities of this metal will produce greater effects. But the price adjustment is NOT incremental. You will find quite a difference in price for a slight improvement on any of the base abilities of this metal

Type

Metal

Value

375 GP per Unit

Rarity

Uncommon

Color

Matte dark grey to matte black. Darker colors indicate higher quality.

The famous Dragonborn tinkerer, Yustar Durziros, once created a matching suit of armor and dual maces of darksteel. Being a blue Dragonborn, he would use his breathweapon on himself and then through an ingenius method, would transfer the stored potential from his armor to his maces to devastating effect.