General Stonewall Jackson once famously said “draw the sword and throw away the scabbard.”

He also said “OUCH!!! You corny-faced sons of blowsabellas shot me!” after the Confederate general – never one to leaf through the PHB – learned firsthand that, without darkvision, his own troops had disadvantage imposed on their Wisdom (Perception) check in lightly obscured / dim light conditions.

Read the PHB, folks.

Anyhoo, where was I? Oh yeah. There’s a trinket that’s “an ornate scabbard that fits no blade you have found…”

“…yet.”

There are two swords of note in Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak.

The former is Talon, the +1 longsword of Aldith Tresendar, forgotten for half-a-millenium in the redbrand hideout evil wizard’s abode beneath Tresendar Manor in Phandalin.

The latter is Dragon Slayer, a +1 longsword which deals an additional 3d6 slashing damage vs. any creature with the dragon type. The sword is interred with Lady Tanamere Alagondar at the Dragon Barrow in the grasslands between the High Road and the western edge of the Neverwinter Wood.

Since Aldith Tresendar died in 951 DR and Lady Alagondar died in the late 14th century DR, this scabbard would be anywhere from 100-500+ years old if used as an adventure hook for characters to search out either of these swords. As such, I’d go with the scabbard being constructed from some extremely durable material like dragon scales which, in the case of Lady Alagondar’s blade, fits well thematically.

Using this scabbard as a trinket (with the name of either of these NPCs attached to it) provides an opportunity to bestow the lore of Aldith Tresendar or Lady Tanamere Alagondar upon a single player at character creation, allowing them to deliver that lore to others in the party a time of their choosing, rather than leaving it to the DM to shoehorn it in there somehow.

It could also be a personal quest for a character to reclaim the sword that came with the scabbard. A blade of some renown!

Take it a step further and suggest to the player that, perhaps it would be fun if their character is a distant relative of either Aldith Tresendar (and therefore the heir to Talon AND to Tresendar Manor). Or go nuclear and ask if they’d like to be a descendant of the line of Alagondar, FORMER KING OF NEVERWINTER. The latter would be good for a long-running game with political intrigue, since Dagult Neverember does not take kindly to Alagondars popping in, claiming their right to rulership.

Someone with a charlatan background might have a lot of fun with either of those scenarios as well.

At a minimum, you’ll likely have at least one character who wants to check out adventure sites like Tresendar Manor or the Dragon Barrow. Or the Tower of Storms, if you want to attach this trinket to the nameless enchanted shortsword in one of the sunken shipwrecks.

I’ve been having fun sharing my random D&D thoughts over at Bluesky. If you’re interested in following, I’m at @ticklecorn.bsky.social. I’ll follow back.

If you’d like to support my work, please consider checking out my supplements for Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak over on Dungeon Master’s Guild! All of my titles are Free/PWYW offerings.