Rampager's Soft Wood Longbow of Peril

Rampager's Soft Wood Longbow of Peril rests on the table like a captured whisper from a hunter who never finished his last breath. Its limbs, grown from pale soft wood, bend with a resilience that seems almost liquid, the grain running like faint rivers under a lacquered sheen. The grip is wrapped in worn tan leather that smells faintly of campfire smoke and pine sap, and the string sings a low note when you nock a quarrel. Along the upper curve are careful runes — not glittering enchantments but the weathered scratches of a master craftsman who believed a bow should remember the path it travels. The belly bears a stag sigil, its antlers etched with a dozen little scars from arrows long since shed, and at the tip a fragment of resin gleams like a stowed spark. It is a Rampager’s longbow, forged for those who walk the perilous edge between stealth and push, between patience and stride, who trust the wood to answer their faith with speed. In the world it's more than a weapon; it's a companion that has walked along for campaigns, from forest trails to rain-slick roads near siege lines. The Soft Wood lends a particular grace: it flexes with the wind, rebounds in a heartbeat, and when the shot breaks, the arrow finds its mark with a whistle that seems to cut through smoke and fear. Its praise comes not from loud chants but from the quiet math of a hunter: more accurate shots, quicker follow-through, a faint edge of ferocity that nudges critical hits just a touch higher, and the sense that you can keep firing before the world can swallow your breath. The Peril that crowns it is a myth of risk turned into reward — a whispered pact that the archer who carries it will endure, will scout the edge of danger and pull back, not with collapse, but with lightning speed. I learned of it through traders who know every road, including the ragged lanes that feed Saddlebag Exchange. There, in a stall dusted with spindrift and coin dust, a broker laid out the bow beside a ledger full of names and prices. The talking point was simple: rare and desirable, it moves between two and three gold pieces depending on who’s buying, what they'd traded away to get it, and the patience of the buyer’s hand. You hear the price and feel the market’s breath on your neck, as if the weapon itself leans closer to whisper its own terms. The Saddlebag Exchange is more than a shop; it is a crossroads where stories meet steel. When you hold Rampager's Soft Wood Longbow of Peril, you’re not merely arming yourself for a duel; you’re stepping into the narrative of a world that keeps score in timber and sinew, in risk and reward, in the quiet bravery of those who choose the peril and carry on. Its story continues as the next hunter decides where it will aim.