The Latchkey Grandaxe is among the most fearsome weapons carried by the Fyreslayers, a two-handed greataxe of such size that only the strongest of their number can bear it to war. Forged from fyresteel drawn out of the magma-veins beneath a lodge's volcanic hold, its head is a broad crescent that glows with retained heat, as though a sliver of molten rock had been beaten into a blade and never allowed to cool.
Such axes are entrusted to the Grimwrath Berzerkers, oathbound champions who have sworn to spend their lives in the defence of the lodge and its precious hoard of ur-gold. When the battle-madness takes them, they wade into the thickest press of the enemy with the Latchkey Grandaxe whirling about them in great arcs, each stroke cleaving through shield, armour, and monstrous hide with equal contempt. The weapon's weight, which would exhaust a lesser warrior, becomes a virtue in their grip, adding brutal momentum to every blow.
The name of the grandaxe speaks to an older duty, for such blades once guarded the doors of the deepest vaults. A Berzerker who carries one is a living lock upon the lodge's honour, and to slay him one must first shatter the axe from his hands. Few foes ever manage it, for the Grimwrath fights on through wounds that would fell any mortal, roaring the oaths of his ancestors as the fyresteel edge burns ever hotter.
The armoury continues
