Blackbow

Bloodscreamer (or Blackbow, or Bow of the Black Archer) is one of two great weapons wielded by the ancient dwarven folk hero Bhazad Khrar. (Khrar’s other legendary weapon was the warhammer Bloodcrier).) Although wielded by Bhazad Khrar for a time, the bow was not actually his making.

Blackbow is a plain, unadorned longbow made of solid black wood. Black leather wrapped around the staff provides a firm grip, and even the bowstring has been dyed black. It is far larger than even a longbow, requiring great strength to use effectively.

Shevarash is the elven deity of revenge and hatred of the drow. Once, he was a mortal elf, famous as one of the finest archers in the world. When drow raiders attacked his village and slaughtered his family, Shevarash foreswore his former life, vowing to never rest until the drow were purged from the world. Shevarash slew many dark elves, gaining infamy as the "Black Archer" in drow folklore, before he was finally captured and slain. Upon Shevarash’s death, Corellon Larethian granted him the spark of the divine, transforming him into a minor deity.

After Shevarash’s passing and apotheosis, the bow he carried as a mortal was lost for centuries, probably locked away in the treasure vaults of the drow priestess who had killed the Black Archer. Three hundred years after Shevarash was made into a deity, one of his devoted followers, a ranger called Valaderion, began a crusade to recover the holy bow. He followed in the footsteps of his god, venturing into the underground lairs of the drow. Striking from the shadows and never allowing himself to be detected, Valaderion slew every dark elf he came across.

Valaderion succeeded in recovering the Bow of the Black Archer, and he journeyed toward the surface with it. As he traveled upward, he met a drow woman—an exile named Kiralasha—and was forced to cooperate with her to destroy a nest of beholders occupying tunnels they both had to cross. As the pair worked together, hatred gave way to grudging respect, then to admiration, and finally to love. Torn between the dictates of his god and his feelings for Kiralasha, Valaderion decided to return the bow to Shevarash’s clerics and retire for a time to consider his path. Sadly, he never got the chance. As soon as he set foot inside one of Shevarash’s temples, he was struck down by the deity’s wrath, slain for daring to consort with one of the hated drow.

After Valaderion’s death, the Blackbow was presumed to be safe in the most prominent of all Shevarash’s temples, and many clerics and rangers made pilgrimages to see the weapon. Seven centuries later, when drow once again menaced elven lands, Salariel, the high priestess of Shevarash’s clergy, carried the bow into battle. With the weapon’s help, she led the mustered elven forces to victory but was slain in a battle against a hideous spider demon conjured by drow priestesses. The Blackbow was lost once again, presumably carried back into the dark places of the earth by the retreating dark elves.

It was not until many years later that Bhazad Khrar would rediscover the bow in the deep mines that pierced to the center of the earth, little to his knowledge very near to the Conclave at the Heart. When he took the bow and slew an Earthmagus, he raised the ire of the conclave who eventually sought him out and returned the favor. While Bloodcrier was later rediscovered, the Blackbow remains lost in the annals of history.