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The water slowly dripped down as Beh’as and Franz crept down the tunnel, the dark stone slick with condensation and moss. A dark drumming rose up from beneath them, the cult couldn’t be too far away now.
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The going was slow, they dare not light a torch for fear of revealing themselves, each step a cautious movement.
Soon they came to the edge of a cavern, opening out beneath them. The drumming echoed around the room, beating into their heads. Looking down they saw the huddled circle of the cultists, a dark stone in the centre, dripping with blood. Beh’as hefted his bow, taking aim, as a small noise behind him stopped him in his tracks.
In the gloom, it was but an outline, a figure in the darkness. With the quiet noise of steel on leather, they drew two axes, darker still in the gloom.
“You seem lost”, a raspy voice hissed out at them.
“Nah, right were we want to be” Franz grinned back, a mote of flame in his hand.
And then the figure moved, axes swirling in the dark, and Franz grinned no more…
The Gloomcarver
Gloomcarver
Weapon (handaxe), rare, requires attunement
A pair of red steel handaxes, somehow always darker that the world around them, as if forever in shadow. There handles and blade are carved with intricate sigils and runes.
Wielded as a joined pair, Gloomcarver operates as a single double-handed weapon. Wielding just one will confer no benefits.
You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. In addtion, whilst attuned, you get the following benefits:
If your attack roll is more than 5 above your target's AC, you hit with both axes, doing double damage.
You gain darkvision of 60ft. If you already have darkvision, it increases by 60ft.
Magical darkness doesn't affect you.
Crafted in the deep forges within Quartzel, The Gloomcarver was the crowning triumph of Gurat The Unkneeling, a master craftsman unparalleled talent. Commissioned as a nameday gift for a Duergar Princeling, Gurat poured all of the Underdark’s power and darkness into the blades, forging them in total darkness, quenching them in the deepest parts of the Glimmersea.
But the blades were never to find their master, Gurat was betrayed by another, an apprentice whos name is purged from the histories, who desired the power of the blades, and took them for herself. But she was never their master, and soon she was betrayed in turn. To this day, the axes emerge occasionally, granting their wielder a sliver of the essence of darkness, but with that, their betrayal is only a turn away.
More from the Underdark! I’m on a theme this month.
The Gloomcarver. I’m spoken before on my deep disinterest in +1 weapons, I think they end up being the laziest of magical upgrades, it’s much better to infuse that weapon with personality, a theme, and infuse it with powers that align to that theme.
With this one, I wanted to embrace the sense of darkness and gloom that the Underdark plies in as well as give a feel of a whirlwind of dual blades, without relying on the standard dual-wielding bonus action.
For this latter, I’m always open to the ideas of sliding scales of success/failure. Aside from a new notable examples, 5e is a simple pass/fail outcome to most checks, but I think that leaves somethings on the table. And here, the idea that it you hit well, you can hit twice is a idea that appealed.
And on top of that, I wanted to play into the idea of the owner being a master of darkness, granting them darkvision, but also that magical darkness holds no fear either, they are one with the gloom and it doesn’t affect them.
There are going to be good to give your edgiest rogue, or a dark fighter, but I’d be tempted to offer them to a good-aligned player, see if they will take that first step into darkness, into the gloom, and see who ends up mastering who…