Items · Ranged Weapons · Villanous
Bolt of Twilight
A crossbow bolt crafted from the deepest shadows, which infects those struck with a terrible spiritual corruption.
Full Item Description
The Bolt of Twilight is a rare bolt crafted from the deepest darkness in the most vile and and unhallowed of places with a single purpose - not the injury or death of those struck, bur rather the insidious corruption of their very spirit, the decay of their ethics and morals to turn them into depraved, villainous mockeries of themselves, and upon their deaths drawing their souls away for foul purposes.
In appearance, the Bolt of Twilight is an ebon-black shaft of apparent metal, fletched with what appear to be raven feathers, although the rainbow sheen of oils in such feathers seems oddly dark and foul, unsettling to the sight. The bolt is tipped with a razor-thin blade, crafted of a metal so black that it reflects absolutely no light. When fired, it makes a faint, sibilant hissing sound, but is otherwise noiseless.
History
Originally crafted by a priesthood dedicated to a since-vanished god of decay and vengeance, the Bolt of Twilight has appeared several times over the course of history; while the god has vanished, the priesthood remains, scheming to restore their master to glory. Despite the efforts of those who oppose the rebirth of their terrible god of vengeance, every so often a priest crops up, bearing the bolt in an apparent attempt at assassinating a known champion of Good and Virtue. Invariably, the 'assassin' is caught, and the bolt's terrible magic activated when the champion has the 'assassin' executed, bringing forth the desire for vengeance, a lust for blood, and a hateful intolerance of any who differ from the victim, eventually leading them to fall from grace and arise as a champion of the bloody ideals of the vanished god - sowing destruction, decay, and bloody vengeance against any slight, real or imagined.
The Dark Templars of Nurmel were created by the first person struck by the bolt, rising to dominance as an order of dark knights dedicated to the suffering of others for three centuries before finally falling in the Midnight War. The second struck was the Highlord of the Holy City of Shemel, who proceeded to create the Inquisition, and causing the Heresy Wars as a result. The third and fourth were struck in sequence by a sly lizardman whose death sparked the War of the Brothers, when the victims tore apart their homeland in a bloody feud that turned into a century-long war. The most recent use was three centuries ago, when the Bolt of Twilight was used to strike the Sun Dragon; to this day, the wyrm continues the rampage in the mountains of the western mountains, laying waste to any attempts at settling by any creatures. The bolt is presumed to be wedged in the wyrm's hoard, but none have survived to reach the hoard, much less escape with any treasures of any kind.
Magic/Cursed Properties
The Bolt of Twilight has a one primary property; if used to strike a living creature, and that creature later causes the death of the bolt's wielder, the bolt's magic corrupts their spirit, perverting and corrupting their morals and ethics until they fall into a depraved mental state where they exemplify the virtues of death, decay, and vengeance.
The bolt has a secondary effect as well - those corrupted by the bolt have their spiritual essence siphoned away upon their death, being drawn away to fuel the god's eventual rebirth. This fact is known only among the priesthood, as none have ever felt a need to call forth such depraved souls from the lands of the dead, and as such have no clue that they never reach the spirit world.
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This article links to 1
- Valeras the Forgotten, Lord of Vengeance Kassil linked by Kassil
Links to this article 2
- Fletcher's Delight Murometz linked by Murometz
- Valeras the Forgotten, Lord of Vengeance Kassil linked by Kassil
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The mighty Kassil awakes!
There are only two things that I dislike about this item... One, it is a sort of 'evil for evil's sake' item, which I can live with, the other, that it is associated with 'lone assassins', and Cthulhu knows we don't need any more of THOSE.
But in any case... It's good!
Nice comeback post, Kas!
I semi agree with CP here... the item itself is great. It is well thought out and has a perfect reason to exist. However the reason for reasons sake of being created to repeat the cycle of evil, while a perfect reason, is old and been done and nto really realistic anymore. But again as CP said, this is good. The way it is brought forth makes this that much better. A normal 3.0 out of me came to a 4.0 due to the unique quality of the tie in with the punishment of the assassin and the actual effect of the item. Kudos.
Well, that's exactly what I was saying, you just phrased it differently... The 'evil for evil's sake' quality of the weapon.
Reading what Iw rote I realize that now. I know it says I replied at 7pm but it was closer to 1am and I was not really with it.
The thing that stands out above was the use of the 'lone assassin'. It makes me think of that movie Arlington Road where it summed up the theory of the Lone Person being the most publicly favored since once the person is arrested or killed, their evil is ended. No one wants to think that the assassin was really just a single person in a group that could be much, much larger.
Updated: Taking into account the overdone evil-for-the-sake-of-evil and lone-assassin comments...
I adjusted it so the bolt has a purpose (reviving the dead god; only corrupted souls can be used to fuel his rebirth) and to remove the 'lone gunman' effect by making the priesthood responsible - for a reason that fits them - they want their master revived, his power restored, and presumably a horrible vengeance exacted upon whoever or whatever caused him to vanish in the first place.
Cool item - excellent backstory.
The fact that it is a unique item and is currently in a rather unobtainable situation mitigates it's rather powerful effect.
Sending the PC's on a quest to regain the 'holy relic' from the dragon would be a good lesson for the PC's to do their research first...
Nicely done. It grants a certain degree of explanation as to why certain groups and things exist. Perhaps the various members of these groups were nicked by the bolt by the creating member.
5/5 A very realestic weapon.
Updated: Minor adjustment - changed a couple words to read better.