Honored sirs, I seek your guidance! (i.e., Help!)

I picked up this ordinary looking sword but found out later that it's a magickal. I had it identified and it turned out to be the Black Stone blade.

it can petrify enemies but it has a -4 to dex penalty.

I equipped it once to try it out (my dex fell from 21 to 17) but even after I unequipped it, my dex still has that -4 penalty! WTF. Is the effect of cursed items PERMANENT? :-(

 

The effects of the Black Stone Blade are very permanent, and it teaches you not to equip things you find before identifying them. I don't know if it was intended to be permanent, but it is now, much like the Dark Helm in that castle in Ashbury that'll curse you to lower alignment and higher magick aptitude every single time you put it back on.
Whatever you do, don't re-equip the Black Stone Blade, because it will keep dropping your dexterity. It's the only item like that in the game, every other cursed or hexed item will only effect you for as long as you have it equipped. Also, don't throw it on the ground, because one of your followers will probably pick it up and get himself cursed.

 

Maybe we should put a notice about the unofficial patch somewhere on the forum. Many newbies seem to not know of its existence.

 

curses!!

oh well, thanks for the info. I sold the damned thing to Ristezze. It looks as if I will have to repeat my fav character.

 

This is also VERY true With the Dark Helm, if you re-equip it Repeatedly you will go to -100 and 100, evil and magic apt respectively.

The effects Of it CAN be reversed, BUT it depends on when you find it, if you find it early, and go for the magic apt boost THEN you wont have to worry because you can do good stuff and Barely Peter out the Evil Alignment, but if You find it late and go for the apt bonus your gonna find yourself being banished by Nasrudin For being so goddamn evil. Course being evil has its perks, you get to Butcher Stillwater, Virgil doesn't leave you after you leave T'sen Ang, you get to kill Joachim, and Virgil sounds like a mad man and actually "Is impressed by the ruthfulness you demonstrated in Stillwater"

 

You know, I find it really amusing that whatever game I play, I just can't bear to play the bad guy (even though it's just a game!). The same applies to Fallout 1, Fallout 2, Baldur's gate etc... So therefore, I don't mind the Dark Helm's - Holy Allignment, in fact, I use it to balance out the morally rigid nature of all the characters I play (in order to get Z'an Alurin) to join me.

It's the Black Stone Blade that really pissed me off. I never encountered it before when I finished Arcanum some years back.