Steven's pact blade

Steven's pact blade

Steven's dagger · Steven's pact dagger · the tobacco-smoke dagger · Steven's Pact of the Blade weapon

Item

Status Active First seen s17 Last seen s17 Type Pact of the Blade pact weapon (dagger) Attunement Patron-pact (warlock) Holder Steven Origin Summoned via Steven's warlock pact (patron unspecified on-transcript)

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 ^[10], 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 ^[11]. 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 ^[5].

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 ^[5], 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 ^[6] 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 ^[7].
• Crit-extra detail: snapped a water wolf’s hind leg; purplish-blue blood drips onto the blade ^[8].

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 ^[9]: “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, ^[5]

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.

Status as of session 17

Summoned, in Steven’s right hand, mid-combat against the Rimeclaw Skulker and the surviving water wolves on the cold-water reef line. Active. Available for one more strike when combat resumes in s18.

See also

• Steven
• Pact of the Blade
• Ash
• Voidforged — the biology the wolf-blood visually echoes

References

1. ^ 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".
2. ^ Session 17, line 1840 — Nat-20 crit on debut strike against a water wolf.
3. ^ Session 17, line 1845 — Terry confirms the pact weapon is a dagger: "It's a shame it's a shame as a fucking dagger".
4. ^ 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.
5. ^ Session 17, line 567 — Inline citation.
6. ^ Session 17, line 1846 — Inline citation.
7. ^ Session 17, line 1846-1849 — Inline citation.
8. ^ Session 17, line 1850 — Inline citation.
9. ^ Session 17, line 1853 — Inline citation.
10. ^ Session 17, line 1840-1846 — Inline citation.
11. ^ Session 17, line 1850-1857 — Inline citation.