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"Rule-of-Three" Bolts (BOLT03)
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RULE-OF-THREE CROSSBOW BOLTS
Damage: 6-15 Piercing
Special: Head Splits into Three on Impact
Speed: 10
Weight: 0
Proficiency: Missiles
These crossbow bolts are the work of a twisted mechanical genius. Just beneath the head of each bolt is a small catch, that when pressed, unlocks the head of the bolt, allowing it to divide. From what you can tell, once the bolts are unlocked, the pyramid-shaped heads are carefully fashioned so that each one splits into three on impact. Each triangle-shaped fragment then tears a different route through the target's body, wreaking havoc on his internal organs.
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Value: 25
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Acidic Sponge Bolts (BOLT02)
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ACIDIC SPONGE BOLTS
Damage: 1-2 Crushing
Special: 6 Acid Damage on Impact
Speed: 10
Weight: 0
Proficiency: Missiles
The putty-like globes on the heads of these crossbow bolts are actually dried-up aquatic sponges found in many of the great lakes of Bytopia. Seemingly unremarkable to most scholars, these tiny sponges were accidentally discovered to have the property of being able to absorb acids and store them in their bodies with no harm to themselves.
As a result, great masses of these creatures were gathered and bred for use as weapons against fiends in the Blood War. After being fed a steady diet of acid for a few days, the sponges are harvested, dried, and covered with a resin that keeps a soft bubble around the sponge. The sponge is then mounted on the head of an arrow or crossbow bolt and is ready for use.
When the tip of the bolt strikes a creature with sufficient force, the resin bubble bursts, the sponge flattens, and the target is doused with acid.
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Value: 10
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Bolts of Acheron (BOLT01)
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BOLTS OF ACHERON
Damage: 2-5 Crushing
Enchanted: +1
Special: Causes Stunning
THAC0: +1
Speed: 10
Weight: 0
Proficiency: Missiles
These enchanted bolts have been fashioned from one of the great cubes of Acheron. According to many planar scholars, Acheron is a plane in perpetual war with itself, where huge cubes the size of continents float through the ether and smash against each other. On the surface of these cubes, legions of soldiers wage war on each other, swarming from cube to cube and attacking whoever else they can find. The plane is filled with the ringing of steel and the great thundering impacts of the cubes striking each other.
These bolts carry a portion of Acheron's heart within them. When these bolts strike an opponent, they do so with so much force that the impact has the potential to stun an opponent and leave him helpless for a period of time.
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Value: 50
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Bolts of Kessek the Devourer (BOLT09)
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BOLTS OF KESSEK THE DEVOURER
(Minor Artifacts)
Damage: 4-8 Piercing
Enchanted: +2
THAC0: +4
Speed: 5
Weight: 0
Proficiency: Missiles
Also called "Kessek's Teeth," the head of these enchanted bolts are made of bone and have two long fangs curving out from the center. When one of these bolts strikes an opponent, the fangs takes on a life of their own and begin eating their way slowly and painfully through the victim's body.
According to legend, Kessek was a bariaur chieftain on the Outlands who was forced to watch his people starve during a winter storm in the Cleft of Tears many centuries ago. Trapped in the Cleft because of heavy snows, he sent scouts from his tribe out to seek aid from his neighbors, the province of Ohinru.
Learning of the bariaurs' plight, the merchant princes of Ohinru saw an opportunity to wipe out the "nomadic pests" and claim their lands for their own. The bariaur scouts were executed and their heads mounted on the walls so that, "the vultures might feed while the bariaurs starved."
When the storms cleared and more than half of his tribe had died of starvation, Kessek finally learned what had happened to his scouts. Consumed with an insane fire, he fashioned a sheaf of bolts from the teeth and bones of his people who had starved to death. Once he had finished, he traveled to Ohinru in the night and fired his bolts blindly in the city streets, the name of each bariaur that had died whispered on his lips as he released each shaft.
Each bolt he fired twisted in flight, hungrily searching for a victim and each found one... then another, then another. The night was filled with the choked screams of the citizens of Ohinru as the devourers claimed their bodies.
When dawn touched the city, the vultures fed again. No trace of Kessek could be found.
The bolts of Kessek the Devourer can still be found scattered across the planes. It is said that for each victim the bolts claim, that another bolt is born... with the same hunger as the first.
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Value: 533
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Bolts of Whistling Doom (BOLT05)
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BOLTS OF WHISTLING DOOM
Damage: 4-16 Crushing
Enchanted: +2
THAC0: +2
Speed: 10
Weight: 0
Proficiency: Missiles
These bolts have somehow captured the deadly harmonic of Pandemonium and then added insult to injury by imprisoning an enraged air elemental inside the head of the bolt. When one of these bolts strike an opponent, the head shatters, and the air elemental is released. The elemental will whip around the opponent in a frenzy, making one strike before it vanishes.
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Value: 100
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Bolts of Wincing (BOLT06)
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BOLTS OF WINCING
Damage: 2-9 Piercing
Enchanted: +1
Special:
2-9 Slashing Damage on Impact
Increases Chance of Critical Hits
THAC0: +1
Speed: 10
Weight: 0
Proficiency: Missiles
These crotch-shaped bolts have been enchanted with one thing in mind: emasculation. When fired, they home in on the most vulnerable point on a victim's body, sink into the flesh, then the head of each bolt scissors outwards, making it nearly impossible to pull out and increasing the damage considerably. The name of the bolts comes from the reactions of spectators after the bolts are fired.
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Value: 200
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Jagged Bolts (BOLT08)
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JAGGED BOLTS
Damage: 3-6 Piercing
Enchanted: +1
THAC0: +1
Speed: 10
Weight: 0
Proficiency: Missiles
These enchanted bolts have a series of jagged black runes traced along the shaft. When fired, the runes rise upwards like spines, forming an additional row of vicious edges that tear into a target.
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Value: 13
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Nordom's Crossbow Bolts (NORDBOLT)
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NORDOM'S CROSSBOW BOLTS
Damage: 2-5 Piercing
THAC0: +1
Speed: 10
Weight: 0
Proficiency: Missiles
Usable only by Nordom
Nordom's crossbow bolts are created by his gear spirit crossbows. The exact process they use to create them is unknown, but there does seem to be an infinite supply of them... the gear spirits seem to be able to make as many as needed on demand. Whenever the crossbow strings are pulled back, a new crossbow bolt is there and ready to be fired.
The bolts vanish after they strike an object or once they reach their maximum range, then they disintegrate. If they should strike a creature with metal armor, then the crossbow bolts will actually chip away at the metal, reducing the target's armor class. This seems to be a natural ability of the gear spirits.
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Value: 0
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Nordom's Crossbows (NORDXBOW)
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NORDOM'S CROSSBOWS
Damage: Varies According to Ammo
Enchanted: +1
THAC0: +1
Speed: 10
Weight: 7
Proficiency: Missiles
Usable only by Nordom
Nordom's home plane of Mechanus is driven by great clockwork gears. Tending these gears and making sure they run smoothly are given to creatures called "gear spirits." These gear spirits have the ability to turn themselves into almost any tool or common mechanical device... even crossbows. Nordom's two crossbows are actually two gear spirits, and they seem to have willingly fled with him from Mechanus.
Their duties are so essential to the smooth functioning of Mechanus that the modrons have officially assigned these spirits to the various gears. While the gear spirits love the gears they tend so much, their servitude to the modrons rankles them, making them somewhat disgruntled. As a result, there are tales of gear spirits that leave the great gears of Mechanus, leaving their duties for a while to sample the Planes beyond their own. Most likely, Nordom's two crossbows caught this wanderlust, and they now piggyback along with him, peppering any hostile creature they see with crossbow bolts. The gear spirits can make endless supplies of these bolts, so there is never any need for Nordom to reload unless he wishes to fire new crossbow bolts.
The crossbows occasionally make small clicking and rattling noises. They seem to be talking to each other, but their conversation is indecipherable. They're most likely discussing the finer points of crossbow mechanics.
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Value: 0
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Winged Bolts (BOLT07)
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WINGED BOLTS
Damage: 3-6 Piercing
THAC0: +1
Speed: 5
Weight: 0
Proficiency: Missiles
These head of these bolts have been carved to resemble a pair of feathered wings. The bolts are extremely light and look more like arrows than crossbow bolts. Although not magical, they are more accurate and do more damage when they strike an opponent than standard crossbow bolts.
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Value: 10
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Zephyr Bolts (BOLT04)
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ZEPHYR BOLTS
Damage: 2-5 Piercing
Enchanted: +1
THAC0: +1
Speed: 10
Weight: 0
Proficiency: Missiles
These crossbow bolts have heads with grooves cut into the sides. They do no more damage than normal crossbow bolts, but they bear a minor enchantment that allows them to correct their path in flight, making them more likely to hit an opponent.
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Value: 25
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