Steven's pact blade
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| Steven's dagger · Steven's pact dagger · the tobacco-smoke dagger · Steven's Pact of the Blade weapon | |||||||||||||||
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Steven’s pact blade is the Pact of the Blade dagger summoned by Steven (the halfling warlock who joined the party in session 17) as a bonus action. It manifests in his right hand with the distinct smell of expensive tobacco smoke [1] — the campaign’s first concrete sensory tell of Steven’s patron’s flavour register. It drew first blood on the s17 water-wolf pack with a natural 20 crit on its debut strike for 9 damage [13], with the bonus that the water-wolf’s luminous purplish-blue blood on the blade was the visual moment the table immediately compared to Hugo’s Voidforged biology [14]. Patron: Fiend (Steven plays a Fiend warlock with the Pact of the Blade boon); the patron’s individual identity is unspecified on-transcript, though Steven has nightmares from a previous contract [7].
Overview
Steven’s pact blade is the Pact of the Blade dagger that Steven (Ash’s halfling Fiend warlock with the Pact of the Blade boon) summons in combat as a bonus action. Its defining flavour beat is the smell of expensive tobacco smoke that accompanies the summon — the campaign’s first concrete sensory cue to Steven’s patron’s identity, though the patron itself is unspecified on-transcript and Steven has been tight-lipped about the prior contract that gave him nightmares [7], L611).
Summoning
Steven’s first summon on-screen, mid-combat against a water wolf that had just run across the boat to attack his companions:
“you’ll see in his right hand as a bonus action I’m going to summon my my blade it will just you’ll smell a distinct smell of like expensive tobacco smoke as it appears in his right hand” — Steven, [1]
Standard Pact of the Blade rules: bonus action to summon, free hand required, can be dismissed at will. The tobacco-smoke sensory cue is Steven’s player’s flavour — not in RAW; canonical at the table for this character.
Mechanics observed in s17
- Weapon type: dagger (Terry’s lament at [3] — “It’s a shame it’s a shame as a fucking dagger” — confirms the choice; Steven’s response at [8] confirms it’s deliberate).
- First strike: nat 20 crit on a water wolf [2].
- Damage: 7 base, doubled to 9 per the RAW double-dice crit rule. The DM checked mid-fight whether the table was still applying the “max + roll” perfect-crits homebrew and confirmed it is not in use for routine crits — only headline events [9].
- Crit-extra detail: snapped a water wolf’s hind leg; purplish-blue blood drips onto the blade [10].
The wolf-blood visual
The crit-bloodstain on the blade triggered the table’s immediate comparison to Hugo’s Voidforged biology — Hugo’s blood is luminous blue, the water wolves’ blood is luminous purplish-blue, the two reads are visually adjacent on a Steven-dagger blade. Steven [11]: “Hey, this guy is real like you. I blew some people say that purple is just a darker shade of blue.” The DM has not confirmed any genealogical link between the wolves and Hugo’s biology; the visual echo is canonical, the causation is open.
The prior pact (open backstory hook)
Steven’s character profile establishes that he is already pact-bound by a previous patron:
“well, look, last time I signed a contract, I got nightmares. So I’m good.” — Steven, [7]
The patron is not named in s17. The “expensive tobacco smoke” sensory cue is the only concrete texture on the patron’s identity, and is suggestive — refined, intoxicating, indulgent — but does not pin to any of the campaign’s named devils or extraplanar agents. This is an open backstory hook: see Steven for full context.
Session 19 — the blade runs warm and whispers (open thread)
On Steven’s night watch at the party’s first camp outside Aurelia, the dagger gave the first sign that it — or its patron — may be becoming communicative. As Steven went through his waterlogged gear and his eye drifted to the blade:
“As you kind of look back and forth to your dagger, it does feel almost more warm than the small fire that you guys have made to stay warm. And you swear, as you kind of hone in on it, you can feel a small whisper coming from it.” — Nick (DM), [5]
Terry’s deadpan reaction — “Oh god we’ve got another sentient contract” [6] — frames the table’s read: a sentience or Fiend-patron-contact hint on a weapon that had previously shown only the tobacco-smoke summoning flavour. The beat was not resolved this session; the watch moved straight on to the goblin Gristleback arriving in camp [12]+). It remains an open thread: whether the dagger itself is waking up, or whether Steven’s unnamed Fiend patron is reaching through it, is unconfirmed. Custody and properties otherwise unchanged.
Status as of session 19
Carried by Steven (custody unchanged from s17). The s17 combat against the Rimeclaw Skulker and the water wolves had left it summoned and available; by s19 it is at rest on his person, where it newly ran warm and whispered on his watch [5]. No combat use is logged in the s19 fey ambush. Active; the warmth/whisper is an unresolved sentience/patron-contact hook going into s20.
See also
- Steven
- Pact of the Blade
- Ash
- Voidforged — the biology the wolf-blood visually echoes
References
- ^ Session 17, line 1826 — First summoning: "I'm going to summon my my blade ... you'll smell a distinct smell of like expensive tobacco smoke as it appears in his right hand".
- ^ Session 17, line 1840 — Nat-20 crit on debut strike against a water wolf.
- ^ Session 17, line 1845 — Terry confirms the pact weapon is a dagger: "It's a shame it's a shame as a fucking dagger".
- ^ Session 17, line 1846-1850 — Damage roll — 7 doubled to 9 per the RAW double-dice crit rule (DM declines max-damage-crit homebrew); purplish-blue water-wolf blood drips onto the blade.
- ^ Session 19, line 477 — On Steven's night watch the dagger runs "more warm than the small fire" and emits "a small whisper" — a new sentience/patron-contact hint (DM).
- ^ Session 19, line 478 — Terry reacts: "Oh god we've got another sentient contract.".
- ^ Session 17, line 567 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 17, line 1846 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 17, line 1846-1849 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 17, line 1850 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 17, line 1853 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 19, line 481 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 17, line 1840-1846 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 17, line 1850-1857 — Inline citation.