Twin Axes of Leeching Marrow - Magic Item (Patreon)

🪓💀👻 Long before the kingdoms of the current age were established, in the lush and wild forests of Eldara, two gnomish brothers, Elkin and Brevor, renowned for their unmatched skill in battle and their unbreakable bond of brotherhood, wandered the realms, always side by side. Though they were inseparable in life, their paths were forcibly diverged by a cruel twist of fate when a ferocious dracolich brought ruin to their homeland.

The brothers, having fought courageously but in vain, met their demise under the ominous shadow of the dracolich. However, their spirits were too intertwined, too potent to pass into the afterlife. The magical cataclysm wrought by the dracolich infused their souls into the axes they wielded in their final battle, casting a spell of eternal brotherhood upon the weapons. Thus, the Twin Axes of Leeching Marrow were born from the ashes of tragedy, their edges forever sharp and their spirits forever bound.

Though Elkin and Brevor could no longer continue as mortal beings, their spectral existence within the axes carried the memories of their camaraderie and their skilled warriorhood. The axes thrived on the bony remains of fallen creatures, always in search of reconnection with the physical world they were snatched away from.

Through centuries, the axes witnessed empires rise and fall, observing the impermanence of life and the everlasting bond of death. The spirits of the brothers occasionally found kinship with the mortal beings that wielded them, offering guidance and a spectral sort of comfort amidst the chaos of battle. Their melancholic souls often lingered in places dense with the essence of bygone battles and unquiet dead, ever bound to the material world by their unfulfilled destinies and undying brotherly love.

Thus, the axes wander through epochs, from one bearer to another, whispering tales of long-lost battles, and seeking solace in the unity of combat and the quietude of deathly places, always together, forever apart, in an endless dance of battle and brotherhood. 🪓💀👻

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Twin Axes of Leeching Marrow

Weapons (handaxes), very rare (requires attunement)

Ancient bone constructs, these handaxes seem animated by a quiet, persistent spirit. Adorned with ominous, judging skulls and blades that whisper of past wars, the axes are unified through marrow that pulses with spectral energy.

You gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. If the axes are more than 60 feet apart, skeletal legs sprout from them at the start of the wielder’s next turn, and they scuttle toward each other, unimpeded by non-magical barriers, until they are once again within 60 feet of one another.

Twin Throw. Once per turn, when you make a ranged weapon attack by throwing one of the axes, you can choose to throw the other axe as part of the same action. If the attack rolls of both axes are identical and hit the target, the axes absorb fragments of the target’s bones (providing it has bones), dealing an additional 5d4 piercing damage to the target.

Marrowbound Return. If either of the axes hit the target when thrown, they magically return to your hand immediately after the attack.

Sentience. The Twin Axes of Leeching Marrow are sentient neutral items with an Intelligence of 11, a Wisdom of 15, and a Charisma of 14. They have hearing and darkvision out to a range of 120 feet. The axes can speak, read, and understand Common, and they can communicate with each other telepathically. Their voice is soft and eerily calm. The axes express a faint, melancholic desire to bring peace to restless spirits, often guiding their wielder to linger in places steeped in death and the past.

Personality. The Twin Axes harbor the spirits of two ancient warriors, forever bound in a pact of brotherhood. Though their names are forgotten to time, their loyalty to one another remains unbroken. They seek a wielder who values camaraderie and respect for the departed, offering their spectral might in return. The axes may offer cryptic guidance or warnings to those who listen and may become restless or mournful in the presence of needless violence or disrespect for the dead.