That is indeed due to a random blade assignment during the stormy start setup:Someone would have to check in both_reaction.c, but I think for some variety, it selects a random blade from a range of blade numbers.
Probably the blade names and stats have changed since, so one of those blades happens to be excessively better than the others.
Code:
GiveItem2Character(PChar, "blade"+ (1+ rand(9)) );
Code:
GiveItem2Character(PChar, "blade"+ (2+ rand(6)) );