Bolthor's Axe started out as an average dwarven battleaxe wielded by Bolthor, the dwarven fighter. That changed during a fight against some generic evil monsters or other, when one ( or more) improbable events were called on a critical miss with said axe. The axe flew out of Bolthor's hands and landed several feet away breaking an unidentified half buried item. This in turn caused the apparition of an upset spirit which promptly dissappeard in a flash of blinding light. The perfect obvious recipe for a cursed item if I ever saw one. That didn't stop Bolthor from picking it right up though.
The curse, and related magical effects were:
The curse, and related magical effects were:
- The morning after each solar day during which the axe had not been used to kill anything the curse would trigger
- When the curse was triggered, the wielder would immediately lose 1d6 of their maximum health, this number would be added to any attack rolls and be subtracted from any hit rolls made with the axe
- This number would stack across several days. Day1: 1d6=4 the axe has +4 damage, -4 hit and the wielder has 4 less maximum health; Day2: 1d6=3 the axe has +7 damage, -7 hit and the wielder has 7 less maximum health
- The wielder must pass a DC 18 will check to let go of the axe for any reason, the DC increases by 3 for each time it is failed
- If forcefully separated from the axe the wielder must do anything within his/her power to become reunited with the weapon (lie, cheat, steal, kill). These actions may be resisted with the same dc as above, with the same increase in case of failure
- When separated from the wielder the weapon's bonus/penalty as well as the user's maximum health recover at a rate of 1/week
In the case of Bolthor, a steady flow of killing was no issue, and a natural high attack bonus evened out the hit penalty so I don't believe anybody ever noticed it was there. This is quite possibly the most potentially destructive weapon in the campaign, and one of my favorite items.
