Briar Weapons from EG

[Kitsun]

Didn't see anyone post anything comprehensive about the briar weapons from EG so...

Xynwen released a new flare type at EG2010 called "briar" flares. They came in 3 tiers and were raffled off. The katar and main gauche came as a TWC package.
1 Tier 3 7x Bastard Sword
1 Tier 2 5x Handaxe
1 Tier 2 5x Katar
1 Tier 2 5x Main Gauche
1 Tier 1 4x Broadsword
5 Tier 1 (Player selected weapon)

Briar Flare explanation:
Lyrarose has a rare talent for infusing weapons with some pretty vicious vines of briars and thorns. When you take hold of the weapon, they will dig into you and slowly siphon a health point off you. Having enough blood points stored in its greedy vines will allow a flare to go off that has a chance of damaging the critter/person you are fighting and poisoning it.

You remove a base sword from in your velvet box.
As soon as the base sword is in your hand, several vines of briar and thorn slither out of the top of the blade and twine about your wrist. Droplets of crimson blood are quickly absorbed by the writhing vines.

You feel a slight prick as the briar imbedded in your wrist digs a little deeper. The vines writhe briefly, veins of crimson pulsing within the viridian vegetation.

As you strike the giant, droplets of blood are sucked from it to your base sword, running up the blade to be absorbed by the vines wrapped around your wrist.

You swing a base sword at a frost giant!
AS: +466 vs DS: +215 with AvD: +9 + d100 roll: +2 = +262
... and hit for 21 points of damage!
Minor puncture to the right leg.
As you strike the giant, droplets of blood are sucked from it to your base sword, running up the blade to be absorbed by the vines wrapped around your wrist.
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your base sword, raking The giant with its thorns. The giant looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 30 points of damage!
Hard shove to the chest staggers the frost giant.
It is knocked to the ground!
The frost giant is stunned!

No enchant limitation provided that's all that's been done to it. Basically, no special abilities and no scripts, so enhancives are out for example.

The weapon shown was Tier 3.

Tier 1 has less max BPs than Tier 2 which has less than Tier 3 Tier 2 has a couple fluff verb traps, and Tier 3 has a couple more. Tier 3 also has the potential to do extra damage on a flare than normal and to possibly get BPs from the critter. All of them, when full of BPs, can give an AS boost if you RAISE it and drain it of all blood points. The AS boost varies from tier to tier. All of them have a way to retract the thorns before putting the weapon away. If you forget to do this, expect pain. Every flare does cost some BPs, and these flares won't work against things that don't have blood.

--Xynwen--
"My real name is Mephistopheles, but you can call me baby"

[Kitsun]

Apparently putting it all in one post is too long and breaks the PC. So splitting it up.

The briar weapons are capable of having a LONG desc and a SHOW. Big love to Xynwen for coming up with the description on the fly with a tiny bit of input from me (glowing black dye and illthorn).

an ornate twin-bladed katar inlaid with glowing black illthorn briars
A grey vultite blade is polished to a lustrous gleam and has tiny, interlocking briars of illthorn inlaid into the flat of the blade on both sides. Strips of onyx and black pearl outline the briars, which have been alchemically altered to permanently glow black as a deep lake's waters on a moonless night. The punching blade's handle is steel-strengthened illthorn carved with life-like vines and ruby-tipped thorns.
You see something written on the katar.
You gaze intently at the vines of briar and thorn wrapped about your wrist. They pulse and twist, as if uncomfortable with your scrutiny. Judging from the tinges of crimson throughout the vines, you estimate their influence on your twin-bladed katar to be about 100 percent.
In the Common language, it reads:
Spite
a lustrous tri-bladed main gauche with glowing black illthorn briars
The sharp blade of the main gauche is matched with a pair of quillons almost as long and as sharp as the blade itself. They have been polished to a deep luster, and along both sides of the main blade, alchemically dyed illthorn briars glow black, made more brilliant by outlines of flawless rubies. Vine-carved illthorn comprises the hilt, with ornate workings of steel and vultite to strengthen it. A rose-carved ruby nestled in malachite leaves serves as pommel.
You see something written on the gauche.
You gaze intently at the vines of briar and thorn wrapped about your wrist. They pulse and twist, as if uncomfortable with your scrutiny. Judging from the tinges of crimson throughout the vines, you estimate their influence on your main gauche to be about 100 percent.
>read gau
In the Common language, it reads:
Malice

Abilities:
Influence is based on how full of HP the briar weapon currently is. Every 30 seconds, a briar weapon will drain 1 HP from the wielder if the thorns are connected. For a tier 2 weapon, 1 HP is equal to 1%. So the tier 2 can hold 100HP.
Each flare costs a seemingly random amount of influence; approximately 15 to 25. Does damage and DoT Poison effect.
There is an AS booster if the weapon is full and it drains all charges.


RAISE:
+10AS for ~1 minute. Drains all charges. 2x does NOT stack.

>rais gau
1st: As you raise your main gauche, the briars imbedded in your flesh release their stored blood in a massive pulse of power that you can feel in the core of your very being. The vines lose all crimson hues, and strength courses through your blood.
3rd: XXXX raises his main gauche and suddenly looks stronger. The red-veined briars imbedded in his flesh pulse with power then fall quiescent, losing all crimson hues and reverting to a normal, dark green state.
HP Drain (Every ~30 seconds, 1 HP)
You feel a slight prick as the briar imbedded in your wrist digs a little deeper. The vines writhe briefly, veins of crimson pulsing within the viridian vegetation.
STOW without TAP:
The thorns need to be retracted before putting the weapon away or the thorns will do a number on you. Damage seems to range from 5 to 15 with possibility of a stun.
As the twin-bladed katar leaves your hand, the vines of briar and thorn viciously rip themselves from your wrist, leaving a bloody mess behind.
... 5 points of damage!
Loose arm hold.

[Kitsun]

LORESONG

You sing gently to the twin-bladed katar, and a tiny vine winds its way out of the blade. Nothing else happens.

You focus your voice on an ornate twin-bladed katar inlaid with glowing black illthorn briars and its thorns pulse in time to your voice. A haze of crimson covers your eyes. When it passes, you see a young girl dressed in a clean, but ill-fitting, rough homespun dress. She plays happily with a few well-dressed children until a band of town guards runs them away. The vision skips a bit, catching up with the girl and her friends standing outside a vine-covered wall. The children look a bit frightened, and they keep jostling one another, pointing at the vines and making challenges. No one gives into the peer pressure, however, and what is behind the wall remains unseen.
The vision flashes forward, showing numerous occasions of the children standing outside the garden daring one another to climb the wall. None do.
You take a deep breath then softly begin to sing to an ornate twin-bladed katar inlaid with glowing black illthorn briars. Once again, the briars imbedded in your wrist dig in deeper, and veins of pulsing crimson run through the vines. The pain is bearable, however, and your singing is rewarded quickly as a vision wavers then solidifies in front of your eyes.
The young girl is slightly older and dressed in the same garment, now even more ragged and instead of hanging loosely, it is obviously too small. The girl walks by the group of children from your previous vision, but this time, she is trying hard not to be noticed. Her attempts are in vain, however, and cruel teasing ensues. A few rocks are thrown, one hitting its mark and knocking her into the dirt. Her hand closes on a scrap of metal, and you can feel pain in the palm of your hand mirroring her own as she squeezes it tightly enough to draw blood. She waves it at the largest child looming over her, and a small thorn shoots from the metal and bounces off the boy's shirt.
The vision cuts forward to the girl at home, an impoverished but loving mother tending her bleeding hand. The girl explains animatedly what happened, but it is obvious from the look on her mother's face, that she does not quite believe her daughter's story. However, when the girl refuses to give up her scrap of metal, the mother smiles indulgently and is rewarded with an impulsive hug.
A single stab from a briar in your wrist pulls you out of the vision.
The first note of your song is barely out of your mouth when the twin-bladed katar jabs viciously at you, its briars turning dark crimson. The vision is immediate and crystal clear.
The young girl hovers on the edge of adolescence and is running desperately away from a gang of well-dressed children. The leader is bleeding from a cut on his cheek, and he is screaming epithets at her in a murderous rage. She clutches the same shard of metal in one hand, a tiny thorny vine imbedded in her palm. She outruns them momentarily, finding herself once again at the vine-covered wall. She hesitates a moment, but the shouts of the bloodthirsty gang make her decision for her, and she scrambles up the vine and drops quickly over the wall.
The child gazes around at an amazing sight. She has landed next in a garden, located just behind a cottage, filled with bright-colored roses, a small pond filled with waterlilies, and more. An old woman, hunched over and dressed all in black, looks startled at the child's arrival, but just then, the screams of the gang leader can be heard. The woman mutters something under her breath as her unnaturally bright emerald eyes grow wide with understanding. She murmurs something soothing to the young girl, and they walk together toward the cottage.
The vision becomes erratic suddenly, and all you can see are flashes of happiness as the girl spends more and more time at the cottage, safe from the well-to-do children who would make her life miserable. Once, she reaches as if to pluck a rose, and the old woman calls out in near panic, stopping her. She shakes her head and admonishes the girl, who bows her head contritely and promises never to pluck a rose.
In a haze of rose petals, the vision stops.
Vines writhe across your vision as you sing to an ornate twin-bladed katar inlaid with glowing black illthorn briars. The erratic vision you ended on coalesces into something more substantial. The old woman and young girl work on together on the shard of metal you have seen in visions past. A sense of mentorship permeates the scene, and you realize the woman is teaching the girl to enhance her obviously innate magical talents.
Time moves forward in snippets of visions:
The woman takes the girl to a metalsmith who teaches her to work the metal, and she quickly eclipses his talents.
The woman and the girl work in the garden among the roses, metal and vine, blood and rose and magic.
The girl blossoms into young womanhood, and her talents in metal put food on her home table.
Unseen by either, a young man lurks in several of these scenes. The faint scar on his cheek mark him as the ringleader from the young woman's earlier years. In one scene, he smirks triumphantly as he watches the young woman's mother scrub the floors of his elegant manor.
An overwhelming sense of foreboding hangs over the vision, which abruptly cuts off.
The vines of an ornate twin-bladed katar inlaid with glowing black illthorn briars tighten around your wrist as you sing to it, and your vision comes swifty.
Several years have passed, and the young woman is now in her early twenties. She moves throughout the old woman's small cottage, but it is quickly evident the old woman is no longer here and that the young woman calls the cottage home.
Every so often, the woman leaves the scene, and a pretty ebon cat strolls through.
Sorrow and regret tinge your vision until the young woman enters a gem shop and meets its proprietor, a handsome man about her age. Love suffuses the scenes that now flash you by, as the young man and woman court and marry, making the cottage with its bright rose garden their home.
In an unusual scene, the pretty ebon cat strolls along the top of the stone wall surrounding the garden, watching the man carve gemstones.
You are about to stop singing on this happy ending when a jab from the briar in your wrist jerks you forward. The couple argue about the woman's semi-frequent disappearances, and doubt suffuses the scene. You can feel the woman's panic at losing the love of her life undercut with a sense of helplessness.
Another jerk forward, but this time, all you can see is dark green water around you and the shadows of water lilies above. Hands are around your neck or is it the young woman's? Reality and vision blur for an instant, and it takes the burrowing of several briars into your wrist to pull you out of your magical weavings.

[Kitsun]

Flare shots. I haven't had time to do testing of the poison effect on a PC yet. Each poison seems to take out approximately 15-25 HP.

Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The rogue with its thorns. The rogue looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 8 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The thug with its thorns. The thug looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 7 points of damage!
Roundtime: 4 sec.
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The brigand with its thorns. The brigand looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 9 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The robber with its thorns. The robber looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 7 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The robber with its thorns. The robber looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 6 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The thug with its thorns. The thug looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 8 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The thief with its thorns. The thief looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 9 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The marauder with its thorns. The marauder looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 7 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The mugger with its thorns. The mugger looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 10 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The marauder with its thorns. The marauder looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 8 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your main gauche, raking The thug with its thorns. The thug looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 7 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your main gauche, raking The robber with its thorns. The robber looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 6 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your main gauche, raking The brigand with its thorns. The brigand looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 6 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your main gauche, raking The robber with its thorns. The robber looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 6 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your main gauche, raking The mugger with its thorns. The mugger looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 10 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The construct with its thorns. The construct looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 5 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The construct with its thorns. The construct looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 6 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The construct with its thorns. The construct looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 5 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The construct with its thorns. The construct looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 9 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The construct with its thorns. The construct looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 10 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The adept with its thorns. The adept looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 10 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The construct with its thorns. The construct looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 6 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your main gauche, raking The seer with its thorns. The seer looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 8 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your main gauche, raking The construct with its thorns. The construct looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 9 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The construct with its thorns. The construct looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 10 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The herald with its thorns. The herald looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 5 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The construct with its thorns. The construct looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 6 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The construct with its thorns. The construct looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 5 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The construct with its thorns. The construct looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 10 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The construct with its thorns. The construct looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 7 points of damage!

Your flurry of strikes leaves you off-balance and out of position.
Roundtime: 5 sec.
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The initiate with its thorns. The initiate looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 7 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your twin-bladed katar, raking The bandit with its thorns. The bandit looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 6 points of damage!
Roundtime: 4 sec.
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your main gauche, raking The brigand with its thorns. The brigand looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 8 points of damage!
Vines of vicious briars whip out from your main gauche, raking The thief with its thorns. The thief looks slightly ill as the glistening emerald coating from each briar works itself under its skin.
... 7 points of damage!

[droit]

I hope those flares inflict a pretty substantial poison, because 5-10 damage kind of blows.

[Gsgeek]

Sadly those kind of remind me of the greater elemental weapons. Some neat actions/scripts but extremely sub par on the flares/damage dealt.

[rolfard]

few bugs on my broadsword;

doesn't give the show on "show (sword) to (player)"

hurling briar sword while its "connected" gives damage messaging but no damage, AND targets (hurls at) the hurler instead of the target

[rolfard]

the show description IS visible, when you have 'detached' from your sword.

so if its feeding, you can't show it, but if it is not feeding you can show it

[droit]

Has anyone tested the poison on a PC yet?

[Kitsun]

Speaking in Elven, Nuadjha says, "Tier 1: Flares a bit less frequently than normal and poisons on a flare, perhaps in proportion to the attack, but it does 6-8 per/dissipating at 1 per on a rank 0-rank 1, at least. The poison stacks (separate fields) and is activated by a script, which takes a moment after the attack to register. 2%/30 seconds/1hp to fill it up, raise it to drain it and boost your attack by +5 for one minute.

My limited testing of tier 2 matches Briar's. Stackable but I've only see like 6-8 poison damage that dissipates 1 per round.