Beautiful. Two epic and three legendary creations. What a wonderful sight.
Anyway. So in that sense... I was thinking, if you're thinking of Steel and electricity then... well, that says railgun, doesn't it?
Master Rune of Steel + Rune of Lightning + Rune of Impact!
The Rune of Transference might be what you're looking for: Master Rune of Steel + Rune of Lighting + Rune of Transference. Armor becomes more resilient and steel like, and then the other two are about transferring lighting using that steel.
So I've been thinking on things a bit, and thinking about how the story so far has tried to draw on things or inspirations or events and... I think that looking to Dragon Ogres for inspiration might be a good idea. That is. Imagining Dragon Ogres in Norsca, and the interaction they have with these Griffons, and how they might interact in the story in the future. Imagine such a fight had already happened, we witnessed it, and were drawing inspiration from said fight: imagine the inspiration that the Runesmith would draw from that. Right? So...
The excel sheet is hellish to use as a reference (the limit of how much it can show, and the way that horizontal scrolling interacts with reading a thing... I'd prefer having these runes be in a threadmark rather than an excel sheet!) but I eventually saw that there's a Master Rune of Thunderbolts under weapon runes. I wondered whether there was a Rune of Thunderbolts too, but suspected it might exist only in the form of the Rune of Lightning.
Anyway. Thinking about railguns, lightning, thunder, Storm Griffons (as I'm sometimes calling them) and Dragon Ogres made me wonder. Dragon Ogres eat lightning, right. Storm Griffons generate lightning. The armor... is there any way we could make the armor redirect lightning bolts (and electricity) that would have been devoured by a Dragon Ogre? Whether it uses it to empower itself or buff its wearer is fine; the point is that it will steal lighting from Dragon Ogres that might otherwise eat it.
... Actually, that could be one potential good name for such a combo:
Lightning Thief. (Storm Armor or Stormclad is another one. Though those could be the name of the armor rather than the theoretical rune combo.)
"
The armor draws in lightning and empowers (itself/its bearer?/delivers an impact). It feeds from stormclouds and lightning bolts, but its wearer can also choose to feed it himself."
(I'm picturing the fluff on the rune, rune combo, or artifact, having a bit where it says something like: "Said to be inspired by the rivalry and clashes of Griffons and Dragon Ogres.")
I'm not sure yet whether the armor should use that energy to power a defense, to buff the wearer, or to be stored for a calamitous impact or what. I'm not sure how to achieve it, either. Or rather, I have too many ideas for how it might be done and am not sure what is most appropriate.
Transference + Lightning + Impact or Iron + Lightning + Impact feels like they might be something. (And also reminds me a bit of the Master Rune of Lightningbolts too!) Of course... it could have several ways it works out. Does such a combo mean that it transfers lightning into impact hits? Does it convert impact into lightning generation? Or does it just deliver impacts and lightning (like a thunderbolt) upon a charge attack?
Would using the Master Rune of Steel or Rune of Iron, for the metal's magnetism, be worth considering? Iron + Lightning + Absorption (or Impact) of some sort perhaps. (I don't quite want to use Spelleating or Spellbreaking because... because those are runes that are anti-
spellcaster right? Whereas we want to absorb energy from a natural, and sometimes supernatural, phenomena; we want to catch lightning. Hence, me wondering about some kind of rune like that. And it because it feels a bit uneasy to just assume that we can use it for all "I want X to absorb energy of some sort..." catch-alls... but anyway! Nevermind.)
Have some fluff from 6th and 8th on the rune of Iron, which made me more optimistic about this idea:
"When iron is saturated with magic, it is known as lodestone. This rune focuses the magnetic properties of lodestone to create magical armor."
"Runesmiths have learned to incorporate this potent rune of protection in multiples, increasing its powers like folded steel."
The 6th edition fluff sounded very promising -- and the excel sheet notes that it creates magical armor -- so...
Adding Lightning and Impact (or Transference? Impact is an armor rune, and ended up making Meteorfall, so) would probably get an effect of a "thunderbolt strike" or a "railgun strike." That'd be cool of course. But would swapping Impact for Absorption allow for the desired ability of maximum "Dragon Ogres can't have nice things"? With perhaps an ability to be charged by lightning?
Master Runes are nice, yes. But rune combos and creative utilization of what Griffons are or do or who they fight, or ways to represent Griffons or thunderbolts, seem better; it feels like a story or description, like it tells a tale... like it can be something
representative of the race or events. And thus, be more likely to be a
legend. And being able to turn a bad Pokémon type-matchup into a
good type-matchup -- and have it serve as a rune combo that has good utility and defense even
outside that specific scenario -- would be great.
