Charon's Claw
8 \+ v V/ Q: p! b( f' M"The sword had a slender, razor-edged, gleaming red blade, its length inscribed with designs of cloaked figures and tall scythes, accentuated by a black blood trough running along its center. Entreri opened his hand enough for the wizard to see the skull-bobbed pommel, with a hilt that appeared like whitened vertebrae. Running from it toward the crosspiece, the hilt was carved to resemble a backbone and rib-cage, and the crosspiece itself resembled a pelvic skeleton, with legs spread out wide and bent back toward the head, so that the wielder's hand fit neatly within the 'bony' boundaries. All of the pommel, hilt and crosspeice was white, like bleached bones—perfectly white, except for the eye sockets of the skull pommel, which seemed like black pits at one moment and flared with red fires the next." — Servant of the Shard% l$ {# j: @/ {* e7 S
. |0 ?$ x7 S; `- YIn the later books, after losing his deadly sabre in his first battles with Drizzt, Artemis was given a longsword upon allying with Bregan D'aerthe. This and his jeweled dagger served as his weapons up until he stole a deadly, sentient, ancient, evil blade forged by the Netherese called Charon's Claw in the novel Servant of the Shard. Anyone who touches the blade or handle of this sword unprotected must compete with it in a battle of wills. This is a highly difficult task, as the sword is immensely strong-minded. If the wielder fails in this task, his/her soul is consumed by the blade, while the skin and flesh of the skull is also burned away. This ability can be used by the bearer of the sword, but it requires prolonged contact with the enemy, several seconds (Entreri has been seen to impale an enemy with it and let it work). Charon's Claw can be willed by its wielder to leave trails of ash in the air, creating temporary opaque walls to give an edge in battle and also to produce a strange black glow to act as a light in the darkness which renders the wielder invisible to infravision. The sword is also enchanted so that even a small nick or cut will prove eventually fatal, as the wound will fester and eventually poison the victim. Without defeating the blade in a battle of wills, the only way for the wielder to safely use the item is to cover his or her hand with an enchanted, black, red-stitched, magical gauntlet to protect him or her from the blade's effects. This is in fact how Entreri stole the weapon. He had a fake duplicate of the gauntlet created and then switched it for the real one during a duel with the Charon Claw's former wielder. In addition, the real gauntlet can detect, absorb and redirect magical energy as well as psionics, so long as the spell's target is the wearer. Entreri and now Grandmaster Kane are the only known people who have defeated the sword's will, and thus can wield the sword without the gauntlet and not suffer a horrible death.
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The gauntlet, however, was recently destroyed when Entreri braved a lich's tower with his partner, the dark elf Jarlaxle. Although Entreri could still suppress Charon's Claw through sheer willpower, he had lost the formidable defenses against magic and psionics that the gauntlet had granted him. However, near the end of Road of the Patriarch, Jarlaxle has the gauntlet "repaired" (he has an almost identical copy of it made, with the same powers,(re-created by Kimmuriel Oblodra) and gives it back to Entreri.- ~1 [: r5 c% E% x
' U; j% x7 i& u0 K6 n8 B H- JIn Salvatore's short story "That Curious Sword" in the Realms of Shadow: Return of the Archwizards • Anthology, it is revealed that Charon's Claw is a Netherese artifact. After killing a Shadovar messenger sent to retrieve the blade with his vampiric dagger, Entreri absorbed some of the shade's life-force, thus becoming more attuned to the blade and gaining some shade (a creature infused with the stuff of shadow) characteristics.
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: z/ M- d" A/ d2 ^"A Netherese blade…" Jarlaxle mused. He looked at Entreri, and his eyes widened for just a moment, then a smile spread across his face. "Tell me, how does your sword feel about you now?"/ ^6 ?5 k+ @8 n9 X9 H
) g% j+ [ i/ o7 ] _9 I+ j! X4 u4 \看来手套在后面的书里被毁了
