The bastard sword known as "Acerbic" was a gift from the dark god of strife to the evil knight Valim. It is a sword of suffering and chaos. Its blade is forged from rare mithril metals combined with the crushed teeth of infant dragons.

   The sword is cursed by the god who created it. It influences the wielder to abandon their god and join the dark god. Over a period of months it will shift the alignment of the wielder to that of chaotic evil, one alignment shift a month (or lawful evil if the god you choose is that). The shift goes from law to neutral to chaos and good to neutral to evil. Lawful good characters will be chaotic evil in 4 months, 2 shifts down in each category (law to chaos, good to evil).

Abilities: The sword is a +3 sword of sharpness removing a limb on a natural 18-20 (a critical hit for 3E for the type of sword). Determine randomly which limb it removes, including the head.

   The sword does not gleam in the light and its blade always appears dull. It allows the wielder to hide in shadows as a thief of his level (3E: 1 skill point per level). It also allows the wielder to spread sickness and disease to as many people as the wielder has levels once per week. The wielder is immunse ti disease as long as they own the sword.

Note: any paladin touching the sword will know its exact intent and which god it serves. For 3E this is a greatsword.