Thursday, October 28, 2010

Infamous Arrows of Kwille


Infamous Arrows of Kwille

No one knows the origins of the legendary fletcher and bowman Kwille, but dedicated archers are sure to come running when the colorfully dressed, odd little traveler is in town. He crafts and sells a wide range of peculiar arrows* not found anywhere else. Kwille is good at sizing up his customers, and so charges 20gp per level (based on the average level of the party) per arrow, rather than a fixed price. For instance a party averaging 4th level will be charged 80gp per arrow.

Kwille is not very forthcoming about the properties of his arrows, typically offering only one-word descriptions of their abilities ("fire.", "love.", etc) and has been known to heap scorn or even deny sales to those who demand more explanation.

Occasionally a brave (or foolish) man will challenge Kwille to a contest of skill at archery, but if any have beaten him, it has yet to be recorded or verified (any bow is treated as a +5 weapon when held in Kwille's hands). When beaten, the challenger is doomed to buy Kwille's drinks for the remainder of the day and night, and suffer through his countless inappropriate jokes and nauseating tales of seduction.

Kwille typically has 2d6 arrows of various sorts available for sale on any given visit. All arrows lose their magic upon being successfully striking a target. Arrows that miss have a 50% chance of retaining their charm. Roll on the table below (1d12) for each arrow to see what Kwille has:

1. Red Arrow - This arrow is made of some reddish wood with a flame-shaped copper-burnished arrowhead, and cardinal feather fletching. Upon striking its target, it bursts into flame for an additional 1d6 points of damage to anything within 5'.

2. Gray Arrow - This arrow is made of chalky wood with mica fletching and a slate arrowhead. Upon striking, a target must save vs. petrification or turn to stone. It will sink as deeply into solid stone or metal as a normal arrow would into soft wood. This arrow is also unbreakable, and is useful for spiking doors open or shut, hanging a rope from, etc.

3. White Arrow - This arrow is made of white wood, with goose feathers and a silver, feather-shaped tip. Upon striking its target, that target must save vs. spells or fall into an unbreakable slumber for 2d6 turns. Sleeping with an unfired white arrow held in loosely in one hand results in double the normal healing for the night, but there is a cumulative 5% per night that this drains away the arrow's magic.

4. Yellow Arrow - This arrow is made of bamboo, with canary feathers and a bronze tip. Handling it imparts a vague feeling of unease and a mild case of heartburn. Any target struck must save vs. fear or fall into a helpless fit of panic and shakes for 2d6 rounds, fleeing if possible.

5. Green Arrow - This arrow is made of fresh, mossy pine, fletched with parrot feathers, and tipped with an eroded-looking copper arrowhead. Anyone sniffing at it is nauseated. Targets struck take 2d6 points of poison damage (save for half).

6. Black Arrow - This arrow is made of pale bone, fletched with crow feathers, and tipped with a chip of obsidian. It is unnerving to handle. Targets struck must save vs. spells or lose 1d3 levels (or HD, death if reduced to "0"). Only one such arrow is available at a time, reroll any further results of "6".

7. Blue Arrow - This arrow is made entirely of glass and fletched with gull feathers. It will cause frostbite if handled barehanded for more than a round. Upon striking a target, it releases a blast of freezing cold, doing 1d6 points of damage to anything within 5'.

8. Pink Arrow - This arrow is made of balsa, fletched with doves feathers, and tipped with a soft pewter arrow head that only does 1hp of damage. It is pleasantly warm to the touch. Anyone struck by this arrow must save vs. spells or fall madly in love with the first individual they see.

9. Ghost Arrow - This arrow appears to made entirely of some sort of cohesive mist. It can be bent and even crumpled up, but will straiten back out in a round or so. Anyone struck by one takes no damage, but must save vs. spells or suffer total amnesia.

10. Hollow Arrow - This slightly wider than normal arrow is hollow, fletched with pigeon feathers, and tipped with a glass arrowhead. The arrowhead unscrews, and the shaft can be filled with one magical potion, vial of acid, or vial of holy water. Upon striking its target, the arrow does only 1d2 points of damage, but injects or splashes the arrows contents as appropriate.

11. Gold Arrow - This arrow is made of willow, fletched with red-tailed hawk feathers, and tipped with a gold-leafed arrowhead. These arrows are treated as +5 magic arrows, and will return to their owner's quiver upon a miss (unless that miss is a natural "1"*.

12. Motley Arrow - This arrow is made of random-looking, seemingly cobbled together materials. Its appearance belies its potency, however, as upon firing it bursts into 2d6 separate normal arrows (roll to-hit for each, against up to 3 targets).

*It should be noted Kwille's arrows are "Infamous" because any arrow fired has a 5% chance of flying off into the distance for a round before turning back around and targeting the person who fired it (determined by the person firing it rolling a natural "1" to-hit). The archer must then roll to-hit a second time against their own AC.

2 comments:

  1. Awesome post! Snagged! Thanks for sharing! Love this part "*It should be noted Kwille's arrows are "Infamous" because any arrow fired has a 5% chance of flying off into the distance for a round before turning back around and targeting the person who fired it (determined by the person firing it rolling a natural "1" to-hit). The archer must then roll to-hit a second time against their own AC."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Really great post. Consider it stolen!

    WV: "Norepolo" : an out-of-office message sent whenever you go horseback riding.

    ReplyDelete

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