Blooddrinker (Patreon)

Weapon (greataxe), legendary (requires attunement)

This axe's handle ends in a bloodied stake, which was once used to slay a powerful vampire. Its blood has since stained the handle and granted it magical properties. You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. The first time on each of your turns that you hit a creature using this weapon while you have fewer than half your hit points, you regain a number of hit points equal to the number rolled on the weapon's damage die; you don't regain hit points in this way if the target is a construct, plant, or undead.

The axe can also be used as a wooden stake for the purposes of paralyzing a vampire. A vampire that's reduced to 0 hit points by an attack made with this weapon is automatically destroyed.

The weapon also has the following additional properties. It loses these properties while in sunlight.

Swarm Step. While holding the weapon, you can use a bonus action to magically teleport to an unoccupied space that you can see within 30 feet of you. When you do, you reappear in the new space surrounded by a swarm of bats. If the sun isn't up, the bats remain with you until the start of your next turn and heavily obscure you. Otherwise, the bats immediately fly away.

Thrown. This greataxe has the thrown property, with a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet. When thrown at a target within its normal range, the weapon flies back to your hand immediately after the attack.

Vampiric Resistance. While the weapon is on your person, you have resistance to necrotic damage and have advantage on saving throws against being charmed.

Curse. This axe is cursed, and becoming attuned to it extends the curse to you (even if you're in sunlight). As long as you remain cursed, you are unwilling to part with the axe, keeping it within reach at all times. You also have disadvantage on attack rolls with weapons other than this one, unless no foe is within 60 feet of you that you can see or hear. In addition, if the axe doesn't deal damage to at least one other creature that isn't a construct, plant, or undead each day, you suffer one level of exhaustion the next time you finish a long rest.

It was done. Lord Etienne had been destroyed... staked by my own hand. Still, the land had been scarred by his reign, and there was much yet to do.

Though macabre, it was clear that Etienne's weapon was of unrivaled quality. I'd have been a fool to leave such a tool behind: not only did I find its edge sharper than any other, I also tasted a fraction of the dark lord's sickly power.

I should have known then. I should have left it there. But this power was... intoxicating. I could feel it pull me to bloodshed, reveling in each spilt drop of crimson. I let its confidence trick me into wandering deeper through the mists.

I knew too late that I had been a fool, and that I should have stayed well within the embrace of mankind. For when I returned from those mists, I thought of only how small they seemed... I thought of only my thirst.