Hate Bolt (5e Equipment)
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Ammunition (crossbolt), artifact (requires attunement)
It began on a cloudless night. Winter was fast approaching and the biting winds reflected that. Through the slums, a hooded figure walked. A lone beggar, too desperate for coins to hide from the chilling breeze, sat cross-legged at a street corner, some coins falling into his hat as the figure passed by. This town was not a nice place to live; the people have been bled dry and poverty ran rampant. But, in the palace far above the hills of the town, a rally was being held. The hooded figure walked at an unnatural pace up the winding road, passing others making a similar pilgrimage. The rally was a public event, no invitation necessary. Much-needed food was freely given, so many peasants who had the health to make the trek simply could not afford to show up, no matter their feelings towards the host. A small crowd had pooled around the entrance to the palace, much smaller than the many inside the grand hall. The figure walked through the crowd. It parted as the figure traveled, each person instinctively and unknowingly stepping out of its way. The first person to truly notice the figure was a child who managed to squirm her way to one of the buffet tables and swiped a meaty drumstick for herself. The child flashed a smile to the figure, and under the hood, the figure smiled back. And the child felt at ease. There was a speech. The host, a greedy tyrant, spouted hypocritical words of love and hate. Love for the kingdom and all those in it, and hatred against all those who would defile it. The tyrant shouted accusations and pointed fingers, stirring the rally-goers into a frenzy. Through passionate and emotional words, the tyrant had long since managed to rob the town blind, taking money from the poor and putting it in his own hands, plus a few nobles who have curried favor with him. Even more devilishly, the tyrant tricked the townspeople into blaming not the nobles, but their neighbors. The rampant distrust the poor had for each other prevented any sort of uprising and served as a distraction from the true source of their misery. The hooded figure approached the center of the crowd. She reached her hands up and removed her hood, a piercing glare traveling through the crowd to grab the attention of the tyrant. It did not dissuade his words or his promises until the figure spoke. A single word, loud but not deafeningly so, yet still fully capable of rendering the room silent. "Enough," she said. Every torch in the hall, save for the two closest to the tyrant went out. All eyes in the darkness gazed on the figure, before traveling back to the tyrant, silenced and in the spotlight. The figure opened his mouth to speak, to incite the mob's fury against the figure, but the first syllable was all he could speak before she spread her arms out and floated out of the crowd. In a blur too fast for the eye to follow, she traveled over the crowd to the stage where the tyrant stood. A full head taller than him, she glared down at him, her gaze boring holes, piercing the tyrant's pupils like a concentrated flame. Full of fear, the tyrant took a step back, but she had already taken two steps closed. "For too long, you have exploited this kingdom. For too long, people have suffered by your hand. That ends, tonight. After you, there may be more, but I will be back by then." Each word was quiet and cold, yet it carried through the entire hall as if spoken directly into each person's ear. Not a single person in the hall could even contemplate standing against her now. Save for one, a guard by the side of the stage, armed with a crossbow, who overcome with his fear to fired a lone bolt at the figure. Without even lifting her gaze, she snatched the bolt out of the air, breaking her gaze to the tyrant to stare at the bolt. Toying with it in her fingers, as if curious about its nature, she took a deep breath then spoke once more. "I imbue power into this bolt. I imbue it with all the pain you've inflicted, all the hatred you've incited, and all the death you've caused." The tyrant found his feet unable to carry him backward and opted instead to simply fall over, cowering in fear. The figure leaned over, and gently placed the bolt on the tyrant's forehead, before slowly driving it into his skull with her finger. In that instant, the tyrant was gone, but his cry could be heard in the minds of all who witness that day for months on end.
The Hate Bolt is a magic sentient ammunition that grants a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it. Once per turn, it deals an extra 2d10 psychic damage against non-good aligned creatures. When you make a ranged attack with this artifact it appears back in your crossbow. Strength from Hate While within the lands of a tyrant you have the following benefits:
Tyrant Slayer When in the presence of a creature that the bolt deems to be a tyrant you can disappear in a trail of red smoke appearing near the creature and plunging the bolt into them. Make a ranged weapon attack against the creature with this artifact. When you do so you appear within 5 feet of the target grabbing the bolt out the air and plunging it into the creature. Afterwards, as a bonus action, you can teleport back to the location you shot this bolt from. When hit by the bolt in this manner, if the target has 100 hit points or fewer they instantly die. If the creature has more then 100 hit points they instead take 10d10 psychic damage. Creatures killed by this property If the creature is killed by this property they can only be returned to life with a wish spell and the bolt then reappears in some other area where tyranny is prevalent; breaking attunement with you. If the creature is not killed by this property the bolt appears back in your hand but loses all magical bonuses for a fortnight. Sentience The Hate Bolt is a sentient chaotic good ammunition with an Intelligence of 15, a Wisdom of 13, and a Charisma of 16. The bolt communicates by transmitting emotion to the creature attuned to it. Personality The bolt's purpose is to bring an end to tyrants. Killing those that support them, destroying their works, and foiling his machinations all help to fulfill this goal. The bolt's obsession with this eventually becomes a fixation for its user. While the bolt was created for a good cause, it is fueled by negative energy and is easily angered with hatred towards evil. The bolt considers a tyrant to be a cruel and oppressive ruler, a person exercising power or control in a cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary way or a ruler who seized absolute power without legal right. Destroying The Hate Bolt It is said that if the Hate Bolt is used by its attuned user to kill an innocent good-aligned creature, and the user cannot justify to the bolt why its death was necessary, the bolt will turn on its user and in its rage will force the user to use Tyrant Slayer on the user itself. If this doesn't kill them the bolt appears in front of its creator and that creature can never attune to the bolt again. Otherwise, the bolt will be destroyed.
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