The Father of Bows

There are many bows in the world today. Seemingly, they always have been by our sides, helping us fight our foes from afar. Once, though, there was only one, the first, the father of all bows. Every entity with a scrap of wisdom knows, when something truy unqiue is born, it must have a name. This bow's name is

Crux...

Carved from the bones of a titan, strung with woven shadow, Crux was not just first, it was best. No one knows the name of its maker, and truly it never mattered; all he did was fill a waiting gap in existence. Once the idea had been given form, the creator faded away into obscurity, eclipsed by his work.

Crux, the Father of Bows





Weapon (longbow), artifact (requires attunement by a creature with the "Archery" fighting style and with a minimum attack bonus of +10 to ranged attacks)



Crux is a truly unique weapon. When found, it appears in its unfolded state, which is that of a wicker bow woven from thing flexible strips of pearly bone, carved with thousands of tiny runes and pictographs, with an ethereal bowstring of shadows and dust. Crux is a massive bow, nearly 6 feet long and with a pronounced, elegant recurve. A large, inward-pointing thorn grows out of the center of the handle and takes a small sacrifice of blood and pain when gripped. After the exchange is made, Crux forms itself tightly onto the hand and forearm of its wielder. In this state, it looks more like a bracer woven from thin strips bone with a handle carved extending out to rest in the palm of the hand. It can be unfolded and strung with a thought (as a free action), reweaving itself into its bow form. Likewise, a thought from its wielder can fold it back up into a bracer. Crux will not allow itself to be removed until its wielder has been killed and burned on pyre of ash and yew.

What little scholars have been able to passed down about this bow does make two things abundantly clear: Crux is monstrously jealous and loathes its children.

Crux will not allow its legend to be eclipsed, by its owner or by any other bow. Over the course of its existence, it has devoured the reputations of it's owners, ensuring that all the deeds of the archers that have carried it are attributed only to itself. Every truly breathtaking example of marksmanship down the ages, every split shaft, every intercepted arrow, Crux wants the credit for, if deserved or not. It yearns to be the quintessential ideal of "bow,"the first thing anyone thinks of when they hear the word.

Crux hates the existence of other bows, its children, especially enchanted bows. Any chance it sees to destroy its progeny, it will gleefully take, and has been known to force its wielder to snap unstrung bow-staves and target strung bows before it targets the archers using them. When all the other bows near it are "dead" Crux will compel its owner to feed it the remains, in order to gain whatever strengths they may have. It was first and best, and it wants to be last and only.

Sentience. Crux is a true neutral aligned weapon with 12 Intelligence, 17 Wisdom, and 15 Charisma. It has hearing out 120 feet and darkvision out to 600 feet.

The weapon can speak to its wielder telepathically in their native language, but often prefers to communicate through compulsions, suggestions, and feelings. It only speaks to archers of exceedingly masterful skill, and even then it is terse and brief. On the rare occasions that it says anything, it manifests its voice in a gruff growl.The only thing The Father of Bows consistently shares is its ability to see in the dark. An attuned creature has ½ of Crux's dark-vision range.

Personality. Crux is patient, collected and focused. It only ever becomes passionate when it encounters what it considers to be a "threat" to its legend, such as particularly noteworthy bow or archer. Somewhat paradoxically, it wants above all else to be used by an apex archer, even though its ideal wielder has the potential to overshadow it. It will hold a worthy user in a kind of jealous, begrudging respect, but is never truly rooting against them. It will encourage them to new heights of mastery. It doesn't want to be eclipsed, but it does want a sort of rivalry between legendary weapon and legendary marksman. Contests of will can take place between it and its wielder when its wielder tries to take sole credit for a truly impressive shot.

Above all things, Crux fears to be the weapon of a substandard archer. A weak bowman would besmirch its glory, and thus cannot be tolerated. If a creature that does not have the Archery fighting style attempts to attune to Crux it must make a DC 20 Constitution saving throw. On failed save, Crux will deal 20d10 magical piercing damage to the creature and devour its dominant arm. On a successful save, the target takes half damage, but will still lose its dominant arm. This damage ignores resistances. If a creature has the Archery Fighting Style but has a ranged attack bonus below +10, they can attune to Crux without penalty, but it will only act like a +1 Longbow until their ranged attack bonus is equal to or greater than 10.

Crux will actively fight to kill all opposing archers before any other threat, specifically aiming at destroying their bows as first priority. It takes a DC 14 Wisdom save to overpower its jealous compulsions and target a non-archer enemy while a living enemy archer is within 100 feet.

Crux absolutely refuses to let its wielder use another bow for any reason. It will transform into large pincer-like jaws and devour the offending weapon immediately. Curiously though, Crux does not seem to mind crossbows, as it considers them toys, rather than true bows.

Magic Weapon. When a new archer first picks up and attunes to Crux, they will gain a +1 to attack and damage rolls and will roll 2d4 as the weapons damage dice. As the wielder adds more astounding deeds to Crux's legend, its damage dice will "grow," (at the DM's discretion 1) from 2d4 to 1d4+1d6, and then to 2d6, then 3d4, then 4d3, and finally to a maximum of at 4d4. Every-time the damage dice grows, the weapon becomes a little more complex and ornate, both in its bracer and unfolded form. It also grows slightly in size as it does so. With each iteration, the close range of the bow will increase by 15 feet and the maximum range will increase by 30 feet. Crux's dark-vision range keeps up with its maximum range with each increase.