Gnawing Barbed Arrows

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Gnawing Barbed Arrows


Aura: Moderate Transmutation and Conjuration
Caster Level: 9th
Slot: — (Ammunition)
Price: 326 gp per arrow (see below)
Weight: —

Description

These vicious +1 arrows are crafted with segmented, inward-hooking barbs resembling jagged mandibles. Upon striking a living target, the arrowhead embeds itself deeply and animates with a disturbing, predatory motion - twisting, flexing, and biting into flesh as if alive.

A successful hit deals normal damage. In addition, the arrow lodges in the wound and continues to “gnaw” at the target for 1d4 rounds, dealing 1d6 points of damage per round at the start of the target’s turn.

Removing a gnawing barbed arrow requires a full-round action and a DC 15 Heal check. Failure causes an additional 1d6 damage as the barbs tear deeper. Magical healing that restores at least 10 hit points in a single application automatically expels the arrow harmlessly.

A creature can only be affected by one gnawing barbed arrow at a time; additional hits function as normal arrows.

Construction

Requirements: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, animate objects, summon monster III
Caster Level: 9th

Cost to Create (per 50 arrows):

  • Materials: 8,150 gp
  • XP Cost: 326 XP
  • Time: 9 days

(Market Price: 16,300 gp per batch of 50 arrows)

Lore

No one agrees on whether the first gnawing barbed arrows were inspired by nature or nightmare. Some claim they were modeled after the mandibles of deep swamp carrion insects, creatures known to burrow into prey and consume them from within. Others insist they were the result of arcane experimentation gone too far - an attempt to create self-guiding ammunition that instead developed a hunger of its own.

The most widely accepted origin traces back to a reclusive pair of artificers who worked along the fetid riverways of a trade city not unlike your setting’s river ports. They sought to create ammunition that would ensure no quarry escaped, even after a glancing blow. Their breakthrough came when they fused minor animating magic with barbed arrowheads, binding a fragment of conjured instinct into each shaft. What they created did not simply persist - it pursued, even after impact.

Hunters and assassins prize these arrows, though many refuse to carry them for long. There are persistent rumors that unused arrows twitch in their quivers at night, their barbs flexing softly against the leather as though eager for flesh. A few grim accounts even describe arrows that, once embedded, refused to be removed - continuing to gnaw long after their magic should have faded, as if something inside them had learned to linger.

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