:: Random Item—Diamantaire's Rouge of Decimation ::

Diamantaire’s Rouge of Decimation

by Wm Jay Carter III, 5/16/15

Tool: Gemcutting

Color: Jungle Green

Conditions: Broken, Cold

Keyword: Decimation

The gemcutter’s worktable is coated in a thin layer of red dust that smells of dried blood. To one side, you locate the slashed remains of a pouch made from tightly-woven jungle grasses, out of which has spilled a sprinkling of the crimson powder. Beside the pouch lays the rusted skeleton of a jeweled silver knife, the metallic components—blade, handle, and fittings—having completely disintegrated. The gems that had once been set in the handle, however, remain intact and brilliant as ever. A chill races up your spine as you hold your breath and clutch your own metal weapons a little tighter.

Among gemcutters there is only one known to have no rival: Diamantaire. While the name is actually a title, there are no other gemcutters who know (or are brave enough to ask) his true name, and so it serves a dual purpose. Besides having the skills of a master gem cutter, Diamantaire was also an accomplished alchemist, and constantly sought ways to perfect one art with the other.

One such cross-disciplinary experiment yielded a jeweler’s rouge that could instantly dissolve all metallic substances it touched—even non-ferrous ones—leaving other minerals intact. Its original purpose was to aid in ridding metallic ore from gemstones, but the full range of its possible applications brought it to the attention of the Espionage Guild of Burgundy.

Though the master jeweler was offered increasingly higher sums of money in exchange for even a small pouch of the transmuted ferrous oxide, Diamantaire summarily refused. None can be certain what happened to the gemcutter thereafter, but one day his jeweler’s shop suddenly closed. The only evidence of his fate is a series of threatening letters from the Espionage Guild and a single slashed pouch of jeweler’s rouge, both found on his worktable.

Some say the gemcutter fled for his life, or fell victim to one of the Espionage Guild’s assassins. Those who have actually met Diamantaire, however, harbor no such illusions of cowardice, but maintain that he has only regrouped and soon plans to launch a counteroffensive that promises to decimate the Espionage Guild.