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When the Sun God and his minions escaped ultimate destruction on their plane, they sought safety from a powerful god that could undo the whole of their existance. Safely behind the Shield, Arpelos and his Chosen thought themselves safe from the vast evil that could destroy them.
The evil god, however, was in his death throes when Arpelos escaped him. Unable to think coherently, his wishes for the end of the Sun God and the undoing of all his heroes' work were undone -- save one. Just before his extinction, he called into being the greatest threat the minions of Arpelos had ever faced -- a powerful lich by the name of Kilreptus. Kilreptus was bestowed with the death power of the evil god, and his considerable resources in undeath, as well as his vast spell research, eneabled him to punch through the Shield surrounding Gaeleth. He schemed and planned, preparing to destroy the Heroes of the War of the Undead. As the Shield collapsed, he tapped into the resources of other planes, and set a trap that would kill the Chosen of Arpelos, and all his friends. Unfortunately, the intervention of the elite Rakoran guard known as Firestorm saved the Chosen and his comrades. Armed with a Gaelethic sword that could destroy the undead, the Night-Hunter, Kilretpus died in an explosion of power that near wrecked the mountain ruins he had constructed as a trap. Kilretpus' sword, Vyis Yar, fell to earth in the midst of the ruins. His bones were left -- the powerful enchantments that had bound his spirit to them broken by the Night-Hunter. Rather than destroy Vyis Yar, the Chosen of Arpelos and Firestorm opted to leave the dread sword behind. Bound to no one, the sentient weapon would forever keep the orcs and the Ore Nations from taking Mount Kilreptus. And the sword would also protect Kilretpus evil treasure horde from being taken by the ogremai for use in their war against the Srik. The weapon seems to be made of rusted silver, with a wickedly jagged edge that can cut through stone as easily as through flesh. Five sets of runes appear along the main axis of the blade, though they float a hair's width above the surface of the blade. The hilt is bound in razored wire, and the pommel is a jagged stone that cuts flesh with the merest touch. In the darkness, the blade takes any incipient light into itself, and seems to glow with an unholy light. The War of the Undead, and the necromancer Demik Coruth, enhanced the necromantic powers of the blade without Kilreptus' aid, making it very formidable. Vyis Yar is a two-handed sword of sharpness +5, with an ego of 32. The sword has an Intelligence of 17, speaks nine languages, and communicates via speech and telepathy, as well as reading conventional and magical languages. It can detect good in a ten-foot radius, cast invisibility to the living, and detect prescious metals in a twenty-foot radius (such as silver), each once per day. In addition, it can teleport undead without error once per day. A specially designed weapon, Vyis Yar exists to aid the undead in defeat of the living, no matter their race, alignment, or intent. The sword can animate and maintain up to fifteen Hit Die of undead per day, from mummies to death knights, skeletons to zombies. Any living that attempt to touch the weapon must save vs death magic; success indicates the person takes 5d4 points of damage -- failure indicates possession by Vyis Yar.
The weapon can only be destroyed by a paladin of a god against the undead, in a priest-given quest. The quest requires that he annoint the weapon in oils derived from the sveyell plant of the Laekenala Jungle -- an oil that acts as holy water against the undead. The oil must be blessed by a priest of Curiss prior to the annointing. So long as a single drop of the oil remains on the blade, it will be unable to harm a living wielder directly with its necromantic energies. As such, the paladin must wield the blade in combat for close to a month, wearing away every last vestige of necromantic magic within it -- loosing roughly one power or language or point of Intelligence, or even a Hit Die of animation each day. Once all of the powers have been exhausted, and the weapon is down to one point of Intelligence, another day's worth of wielding will force the blade to make a saving throw versus death magic, or be disenchanted, and cease to function. The moment anyone other than the paladin wields the blade, or worse yet, an undead creature wields the blade, all of its powers are instantly restored, and the process would have to begin again from the start. During the time the paladin wields the blade, Vyis Yar would function as a cursed two-handed sword -5, attempting to use its ego against the paladin. Disjunctions and dispellments have no effect against the evil blade.
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