It seems there is a consensus that aldryami mostly use "grown" hardware. Martin Crim wrote that cooper swords, spearheads and armor are grown. This I like a lot. But some toughts came up...
Should not it be that these weapons could have their spirit awakened, as the elven bows have ? After all the process is similar. I would think that every aldryami could awake the spirit in one "object" that he has grown with the special skills of the gardener subcult. Some will awake their weapons, other will awake pieces of clothes, musical instruments or tools, according to the needs of the forest.
Talking about the elven bows, I never felt comfortable with them. I feel shades of ADD/Tolkien elves here. Bow doesn't seems to be the best weapon for the aldryami mindset.
In an adventure I ran some time ago, I armed a small party of aldryami with blowguns. That I feel is the perfect weapon for them. Perfect for guerilla-style warfare in forest. It's small and light so you are not encumbered. It has a short range, but elves in a forest can came close to their foe without being noticed. Of course it doesn't do much damage unless the dart is poisoned. Aldryami can have a wide range of vegetal poisons, but I gave mine something I like better:
They collected special magical seeds in the soil of a glade where a wood nymph was killed. These seeds can be used as darts in a blowgun. When a character is striken by one he feels something like a sting, something not uncommon when you travel in a forest. The seed then sproot roots that reaches into the body, inflicting great pain and eventually reaching the heart, killing the host other some time. When the end is near, a beautiful flower hatches on the spot where the seed hit. Some rarer seeds work differently. They must hit the head beacause their roots are shorter. When it reach the brain, the host is turned into a plant-zombie, and he must obey every command from any aldryami. He keeps his own personalty, but is unable to disobey such orders. Also a flower appear when it's too late.
I feel that such things are more close to aldryami POV that the elven bow, even if it means that you should be wary of friendly people with flower crown met in the forest !
Any comments ?
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