Twigs of Rot

Karamus Wheilum the weaponsmith was not always a self-employed person. He was once the head blacksmith of the 'leafsentry', the elite bowmen of the forest of Demala - dedicated to preserving life and nature of the forest. They were the ones who eradicated loggers that set up encampments in there. For several years, he crafted arrows, constructed bows and forged swords and armor, dedicated to the defence of Demala.

One day, however, as the elves scryed the forest, they found that, during the night, an enormous encampment of humans had cut away all the trees for a large radius in the forest, and built a rough fort, with four unscalable, wooden walls, and many sentries posted at the entrance. Such a thing would be incredibly difficult to break through. Of course, they could not use fire to burn down the walls and encampment - That would endanger their forests! Since the trees had been cut back, they couldnt climb trees and leap over the wall, and there was no way the small group of rangers could get past all the sentries and slay such a large encampment! So, for many weeks, they pondered on this, whilst the loggers smugly razed their forest. Finally, Karamus had a burst of insight - they thought their walls impenetrable so rarely guarded it... What if there was a way to get through there of a night, and destroy them while they were sleeping...? Karamus left the forests, travelling several days to ask the wisdom of a reknowned seer, who gave to him, a solution.

So, Karamus returned to the forests briefly, then left once more with a druid of 'Leafsentry', travelling a week to a little known lake, deep within some unnammed mountain ranges. This lake bubbled darkly and had an obvious aura of death about it. The seer had told Karamus about this lake - The properties of the water were such that it would accelerate the life of any who touches it dramatically, causing those who came into contact to turn into ash before peoples very eyes.
And Karamus and the druid got to work. First, Karamus dipped an arrow into the liquid, bieng careful not to get any on himself. And then the druid would alter the properties of the water, making it effect only plant-life: Karamus did not want an item which would be capable of slaughtering people effortlessly. Besides, there were poisons for that anyway. The liquid was then dried, soaking into the arrows and instead of destroying them, suspending their life so they could NOT decompose.

two hundred arrows were made in total, brought back to the Leafsentry encampment, and that night, the sentries attacked.

The few humans not sleeping or on guard at the front of the place at the time, simply heard the *Thunk*ing of five or ten arrows into the back wall. But, before their very eyes, the walls began to move, altering its form and curling in on itself. In a rough radius about 10 feet from where each arrow sunk in, the wood rotted and decomposed before their very eyes, turning into ash and blowing away in the wind. the stunned humans did not have a chance to call out warning, before a score of black-clad elves slipped through the effortlessly-made holes, and slashed their throats. It was then simple business to slay the slumbering people. The elves did not even bother killing the sentries - let them come in for their shift change, and notice their entire encampment slain.

Karamus Wheilum left after this skirmish, taking 195 of those arrows, and leaving but 5 for protection of the forests to the leafsentries. He placed these arrows in a green quiver, and hung it behind the counter of his new weaponsmithing store, which he decided to open as a more peaceful life. He hung it next to the blue quivered normal arrows. He decided never to sell them - to keep them as a momento. They could not be bought from him for any price.

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A bowman entered his store, one fine day, asking for a quiver of 200 arrows. It had been 15 years since he opened the store, and he was just beginning to get absent-minded. So, chatting jovially to this man, he plucked a quiver off, and gave it to the man, taking the 200 gold pieces in return. It was not for another twenty minutes until he realised there was no green quiver on his rack anymore...

- These arrows, after the bowman discarded them by the road, have been separated, passed all over the world. They look very similar to normal arrows, barring the distinguishing withering vine pattern along them. only 200 of these were ever made, so if someone uses one, they would often go to great troubles to get it back.

Magical Properties:

These arrows accelerate the life of any wood or plantlife they touch, whether that wood is still 'living' or not. This includes the bows that they were shot from. The bow will rot in the very hands of the archer, crumbling away into dust. It is therefore suggested it not be shot out of heirloom bows, or expensive ones.

Suggestions of things to be destroyed with this bow

-Wooden armor or shields
-Wooden walls
-wooden cage bars - one merely has to grab an arrow and run in across each of the bars to decompose them.
-Wheels of horsedrawn carts.

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This item is particuarly useful when people need to destroy wooden items without use of fire (which may cause undesirable results - for example, in a forest, one fire arrow may cause a huge forest-fire, endangering much life.)

This item is a possibility to use in my Mojena setting, where fire is one of the more dangerous things on the entire planet. Perhaps in the middle of the null zone of Mojena, a single arrow is imbedded into the ground...