As a mortal, the Devil who is now known as the Blademartyr was a swordsman and poet, renowned as being a master of both arts. He wove songs with his weapons, cut down foes with his dark mockeries alone, and dazzled with his displays of swashbuckling. He indulged every nefarious vice, sated every desire, and sought out ever more challenging creatures with which to write his bloody story. Eventually, a cult sprang up around him, worshipping him as an immortal and powerful being, begging him to perform miracles for them.
When he met his ignominious end, hacked down by a mob of talentless and disappointed peasants with farming-tools, he cursed every being that had ever drawn breath, swearing an oath of such vileness that he came to the attention of the Ten Thousand Kings of Hell, and was instantly acclaimed as one of their peers. His grand court consists of fawning sycophants who battle one another, scoring bloody introductions on one another's skin to momentarily win their master's attention. His decaying corpse glows with a scalding inner fire, and his head is constantly surrounded by a halo of spinning daggers, melting into slag and reforming. Those who swear loyalty to the Blademartyr find themselves gifted with an uncanny fascination with any bladed weapon, and find themselves absently tracing their passage through the air with a finger from a distance. They find that this fascination often becomes a preternatural awareness of how to avoid the blades of others. Statistics: The Blademartyr's statistics are about equivalent to a Pit Fiend, but with no bite, claw, or tail attacks. Instead, he can make six attacks with his sword every round, inflicting 17 (2d8+8) slashing damage, plus 21 (6d6) fire damage. Warlocks who swear loyalty to the Blademartyr favour use of longswords, and the Blade Ward and True Strike cantrips. How you can use the Blademartyr in your game: - A favoured opponent of both the Exarch of Blades and the Decapitate Captain, the Blademartyr is a philosopher-savant of sword use, and honoured as one of the finest blademasters who ever lived. Many go to him to learn at his vile court, and shed blood or viscera for a glimmer of his teaching. - The Blademartyr's servants are holy warlock-warrior-poets, disdainful of foes who would seek anything less than pure mastery of their chosen weapons. They are often sneering, swaggering elitists who wander the world seeking trouble, and are likely to pick fights with famed adventurers. - It is rumoured that each year, on the anniversary of his death, the servants of the Blademartyr pick one inhabitant of the village that killed him, and ritually torture him to death for the four days it tooks him to die in a plague-pit. Those who stand in defence of the village earn his ire, and perhaps his grudging respect. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 18 November 2020. Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
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