Wherever the gnomes came from, they brought precious little with them. These refugees from another world managed to bring one item with them; it was a single sliver of metal from their homeworld. Whatever metal the sliver had once been a part of, it was all they had with them.

Homeless, hungry, and without weapons, that sliver of metal was the first tool to provide for the gnomes. The blood of animals flowed, and then the blood of gnomes in a civil war caused by desperation and unrest. The sliver shed blood, again and again, until it was stolen by the first gnomish smith, Ehnemlark. Ehnemlark reforged the sliver into a dagger that embodied the heart of gnomish evil and baser extinct.

The blade had no name, until it began to slide between the ribs of gnomes -- and then elves, dwarves, and humans alike. The gods themselves were startled by the bloodthirsty nature of the new race. The baser and more evil gods thoroughly enjoyed the new race, and made overtures to win them over.

Whatever goodness lay within the gnomes might have been buried for all eternity, save for the Nilihirith War. Nilihirith, a human warrior of considerable repute, decided that genocide was the only option; to his banner, he called a great many peoples that wanted the blood-thirsty gnomes annihilated. Nilihirith launched a dangerous and bloody campaign, using limited strength forces in daring raids.

The gnomes, bloodthirsty as they were, had no defense against Nilihirith's attacks. Slider began to be used not to slay, but to defend. The gnomish civil wars ended rather abruptly, as they found one common goal, and one common enemy. Nilihirith and his warriors continued their devastating attacks, but the gnomes withdrew to strategic mountain holds, adopting strategies that would serve them well enough until the Storm Wars.

Slider bit deeply. Gnomic illuisionists made good use of the mountainous terrain, luring the enemy strike units into ambushes and providing cover to their warriors. Traps, trips, pits, and war engines gave the usual gnomic inventiveness a boost of creativity. The threat of Nilihirith and others like him faded, as the mountain bastions of the gnomes were built up and shored up against almost any invader. The new race withdrew, bottling up even tighter than the dwarves. Their only contacts, the mountain dwarves and the desert elves, kept their domains a secret for many years.

While the other races had their petty squabbles amongst themselves, the gnomes restricted their access to the outside, having learned their lessons. They exchanged secrets of hiding with the desert elves, and learned the technical arts of forging and smithing from the dwarves. The gnomes had other worries than war with the humans or the elves or the dwarves. The other races, the deep races -- creatures and peoples that only the derro had ever seen -- waged war upon the gnomes. The gnomes became a strong, hard race, intermingling war and magic very carefully. And still Slider bit.

The centuries wore on. Slowly but surely, the gnomes opened greater contact with the other races, finally opening their doors up to trade and an exchange of ideas. Old hatreds and distrusts died slowly, but the gnomes managed to make themselves quietly known.

Slider was finally turned over to the warrior-illusionist Anirekt. Anirekt was both its guardian, and its wielder. Being a sliver of the homeworld, the dagger may have had inherently magical powers or abilities. Whatever its original strengths, Anirekt set about enchanting the blade, using human and elven sages brought to secret citadels within the Heavensbane Mountains. The sages advised the gnomic mages in the fashioning of enchantments that would act as illusions and phantasms.

The dagger became illusory and phantasmal -- more extradimensional, than real. It's abilities were altered as the years wore on, as Anirekt analyzed the metals in the blade, and reforged them time and again with enchantment upon enchantment. The gnomes had thought they'd turned the weapon over to Anirekt for safe-keeping. They were fascinated and frightened by the decades' long work that the gnomic warrior-illusionist performed.

After a board of inquiry established that the essence of the homeworld sliver was intact, Anirekt was allowed to continue his work. The gnome was finished, and sought only to guard the weapon deep in the heart of Yersolakth Il'Murabikth, one of the mightiest of the gnomic citadels.

Centuries passed, and the guardianship of the Slider was turned over to Anirekt's descendants. They continued their watch over the sliver of their homeworld, until the Storm Wars. The drow, magically and strategically a match for the gnomes, proved quite dangerous. The dark elven penchant for using the underworld for movement proved useless against the gnomes, and the gnomic weapons and traps were designed for the deep denizens. However, the drow had numbers on their side, as well as the agents of Nathel.

Outnumbered perhaps ten to one, the gnomes fought as best they could. Their illusions proved useless against the drow infravision -- it was simply too acute. The drow also specialized in battle-magics that were direct attacks against the illusions and defenses of the gnomes. Either due to overconfidence or surprise tactics, Slider was captured by the Dark Race of gnomic prophecy.

Slider was turned over to Simon Luminar, the antipaladin of Nathel that led the drow against the gnomes. Though a dagger, the damage the blade dealt was incredible; the sharpness of the edge was frightening. The antipaladin wielded the Slider to dangerous effectiveness, slicing through gnomic defenses as though they did not exist. After the defeat of the last of the gnomes at Amianzril Il'Murabikth, Simon Luminar betrayed Nathel -- retaking the paladinhood.

What happened to the Slider after that is unknown, a mystery of the Storm Wars.

Slider was a keen dagger of returning +4, longtooth. The illusions and phantasms woven into the blade made it assume different sizes and shapes. From dagger to bastard sword, the old sliver of the gnomic homeworld could deal damage as needed, be it small or large amounts. Nearly folded extradimensionally, the edge of the blade could slice through stone and metal, cutting opponents in half -- and devastating gnomic machinery. The wielder had only to imagine a shape or a size, and the dagger would comply, from 1d4+4 to 1d10+4 points of damage, thrown or hewing. Modifiers to accuracy and damage from strength, belts, girdles, and all other modifiers are cumulative for the Slider.

In its normal dagger form, Slider looked like an old, classic-style dagger. It's leather-wrapped hilt was stained with centuries of sweat. The metal looked to have a blued, 'old steel' appearance, no amount of polishing could remove the seeming tarnish of the blade. When the wielder needed a longer blade with more damage, Slider complied, altering size and shape at the behest of the bearer from dagger to longsword, and still bearing the heft and feel of a dagger. Characters proficient with daggers can use all of Slider's sizes with no penalties to attack; other characters may use a particular size if they are proficient in it, though they will be penalized for sizes with which they are not proficient. When thrown, Slider counts as a dagger for bonuses or penalties because of proficiency, no matter what size it is thrown at.

The most dangerous aspect of this blade is its ability to cast persistent image three times per day. The wielder can determine the exact nature of the figment, though sometimes the blade draws upon the wielder's darkest nightmares or most immediate needs. Though the blade has no intelligence, its apparent semi-sentience is merely a fleeting shadow of the wielder's mind. 

Caster Level: 14th. Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, keen edge, persistent image, telekinesis. Market Price: 95,000gp.