Gailerust's Grand Gauntlet

Appearance: Gailerust's Grand Gauntlets are a pair of matching plate mail style metal gauntlets or gloves. They have pronounced knuckle bars and a bright brushed metal finish. They constantly look brand new, no matter if they just came out of a pile of pig manure or the guts of an orcish berzerker.

Benefit: Gailerust's Grand Gauntlets grant the wearer immense personal strength. Weapons are swung with great force, and things like wooden doors are childs play to open. The same goes for wooden chests, and pretty much anything not made out of foot thick stone.

Drawback: The gauntlets have two major drawbacks. Gailerust was a showman and a braggart, and that has translated over into his handiwork with metal. The gauntlets do not function well or at all if put to menial tasks, such as mundane stone cutting, lumberjacking, or the like. They are meant for combat, for accolades of peers and the terror of foes, not to make labor more efficient. Secondly, the gauntlets are able to increase the 'effective' strength of the wearer, not his actual strength. The gauntlets do not increase his ability to lift or carry objects. An example, when faced with the portcullis of a fortress, the gauntlets would be able to pull the metal bars apart, but not allow the wearer to lift the weight of the structure (you don't lift with your hands). Finally, the best weapon for the gauntlets is to generally use the gauntlets themselves. Most wooden weapons, wood handled weapons, and the like will not last long in the grip of the gauntlets.

Lore:

The magus and mercenary Gailerust created his signature gauntlets some years ago to assist him in his quest to become wealthy, influential, and famous. He was and remains a brilliant but shallow enchanter, more interested in the fairer sex, impressive weapons, and spending a queen's ransom on wine and and song. While his career as a sellsword has not been quite what he expected, as getting caught in a kobold trap is painful and embarassing, his career as an enchanter and armor mage has been moreso. He has crafted around a dozen pairs of these gauntlets, all of the heavy plate armor style.

The first puchased set of Gauntlets were bought and used by the kingdom wide hero, Redgar the Valiant. This endorsement has put quite a lot of gold in Gailerust's pockets, and the magical gauntlets have garnered Redgar some impressive war stories, such as the time he took up a troll's dropped stone hammer and knocked the beast all the way to the back of it's own cave with one mighty swing!

The well renowned hero Ironshod Horst used his set of Gauntlets to singlehandedly save the walled city of Diryen-on-Diryen. The city was besieged by a mixed band of orcs, goblins, and a gang of chain trolls. While the defenders were desperate, running short on arrows and food, Horst and his compatriots rode out of the gates, fought their way free of the greenskin army and north to the old stone dam above the city. Taking up a great iron bar, Horst prised the stones of the damn apart, breaking the stone wall. The resulting flood drowned the greater part of the goblins, sent the rest of the horde into chaos and disarray and allowed the soldiers inside the walls to pick them off one at a time. The city was moistened, the horde was broken, and Horst was honored with a parade, a statue and much gratitude.

The gauntlets have also been used for ill, such as when a pair fell into the warty lumpy hands of a guildsman. Robare Junfankle was the rotund sort of man that women only paid attention to because of how fat his gold purse was and for no other reason, fat, short, balding, and suffering from both gout and impotence he was an angry man. How he got the gauntlets is a mystery. The next week saw Junfankle beating several city constables silly, killing a pair of thieves, and then barricading himself in a brothel after wounding a number of bystanders, working girls and guardsmen. He was arrested in his sleep, and hung for murder, assault, and robbery.

The gauntlets are still availible for purchase, provided the PCs can find Gailerust, pay his fees and accept a spot on the waiting list.