Dupre's shield

Dupre's shield is a unique, enchanted heater shield that belongs to its namesake, and appears only in Ultima VII Part Two. Emblazoned with a gold compass star upon azure between two flaunches argent, its mystic qualities are directly comparable to other magic shields of the period, offering greater protection than mundane varieties whilst affording a characteristically fractional burden for its wielder.

History
Dupre's shield was prepared by Lord British as an addition to the armaments with which the king furnished the Avatar's party—also including Iolo and Shamino—for their journey to Serpent Isle. Once setting foot on a small peninsula to the southwest of the fabled continent, however, the wayfarers abruptly experienced their first encounter with one of the realm's bizarre teleport storms: a series of the aberrant lightning strikes instantaneously substituted much of their equipment with an assortment of peculiar items, as well as transposed the Avatar's companions, themselves. While Shamino was reunited with the hero a short distance from the location of his sudden disappearance, Iolo and Dupre were soon found within the walls of nearby Monitor, the city of Courage.

Upon rejoining the ranks of the Avatar's party, Dupre reported his escutcheon to have been supplanted during the storm with one bearing unfamiliar colors. Through further investigation, it was learned this foreign design originated from the very city in which the Britannian contingent found themselves, and that a local knight—Luther of the Bear Command—had recently taken to brandishing a shield with extraordinary properties, which only served to bolster his proclivity for challenging less able brethren to spar with him, that he might gloat over their inevitable defeat.

Confronting Luther about the matter would reveal his newfound armament to be none other than Dupre's; however, the braggart would fraudulently assert it to be a family heirloom inherited from his father and would express great offense at any implication of dishonesty, refusing to relinquish the shield and take back his own until bested in a duel at the city's List Field.

Trivia

 * Dupre's shield has a defensive value of 4.


 * The heraldic device emblazoned upon Dupre's shield originates from a similar coat of arms used by its eponymous owner's real world counterpart, Greg Dykes, when participating in the Society for Creative Anachronism as Sir Christian Richard Dupre.


 * There are frames of the shield hanging on a wall in the game code, despite this being impossible in the game.