Swordtember Day 28 - Metamorphosis

Arthropod Armaments

Chrysalis Cutter

Weapon (dagger, shortsword, scimitar, or longsword), very rare (requires attunement)

Crafted from the chrysalis of the Razor-Tail Butterfly before its full maturation, this unique set of sword and sheath harness the creature's life force, allowing it to still grow due to the arcane enchantment techniques of Nihaya’khayr's followers. The sheath, a weapon in its own right, is crafted from the caterpillar caught mid-metamorphosis, while the blade is shaped from the developing butterfly. As the sword engages in combat, the caterpillar feeds on the enemy's blood, advancing its transformation until a complete blade emerges. Remarkably lightweight, the sword infuses its wielder with the accumulated life energy, enabling swift, butterfly-like movements across the battlefield. Yet, mirroring a butterfly's fleeting existence, the blade's vitality wanes and must be sheathed to rejuvenate its energy.

Crawler Stance

When the sword remains in its sheath, its exterior, reminiscent of a jagged caterpillar, becomes a weapon in its own right. In this form, the sword deals its standard weapon damage plus an additional 1d4 poison damage. When you hit a creature with the sheathed sword, you can force it to make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is poisoned until the end of its next turn. This effect can be used once per turn.

Ravenous Growth. Each time you consecutively strike a creature twice with this weapon, reduce a creature of small size or larger to 0 hit points, or score a critical hit, the sword absorbs some of the target's essence, gaining a charge. The blade within the sheath begins to form more distinctly with each charge. The sword can accumulate up to 5 charges in this state, but all charges dissipate after 1 hour.

Flutter Stance

The sword can be drawn from its sheath only when it has accumulated at least 3 charges. Drawing the sword reveals a blade patterned like the wings of a butterfly, shimmering with radiant energy. The sword remains in its drawn form for 1 minute. After this duration ends or when you put the sword back into the sheath, it loses all of its charge and becomes too fragile to use until it regains enough charge. While drawn, the sword has the following properties:

Quick Draw. As an action, upon drawing the sword, you can move up to your movement speed without provoking opportunity attacks. During this movement, you can make a melee weapon attack against any one creature adjacent to you. For each hit, the sword gains an additional charge. Once you use this feature you can’t use it again until the sword is sheathed again.

Elegant Execution. The sword has a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls. When you hit a creature with this weapon, you can expend a charge to deal an additional 2d6 radiant damage. For each additional charge you expend, the damage increases by 1d6.

Butterfly Dance. Your movement speed increases by 20 feet while the sword is drawn. You can also take the Disengage action as a bonus action. If an attack misses you, you can use your reaction and spend a charge to make a melee attack against the attacker. Before or after this attack, you can move up to half your speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

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As mentioned before, the sword + sheath concept originally came up when I was thinking about this prompt.

All the files will be added to a new Swordtember 2023 folder that you can find in the Vault