“Every blow writes a scripture of blood upon the flesh of your foe.”

Description

The Wraps of the Crimson Strike are lengths of enchanted crimson cloth, stained with the lifeblood of countless battles and sealed with arcane sigils of sacrifice. Once plain monk’s training wraps, they have been steeped in the hemocraft rituals of the Claret Orders, transforming them into conduits of both discipline and ferocity. When bound around the fists and forearms, the wraps fuse lightly with the wearer’s skin, tightening with each heartbeat and glowing faintly when blood is spilled.

Designed for Blood Hunters and Monks who walk the edge between precision and savagery, these wraps transform unarmed strikes into devastatingly efficient weapons. They whisper of the wielder’s every wound, feeding off the pain and channeling it into power. More than tools, they are symbols — a declaration that the wielder has embraced the covenant of blood: power at a price.

The crimson cloth never seems to tear or fray, though faint scars of old stains shift and coil across its weave. Under moonlight or in the throes of combat, they seem almost alive, tightening with a pulse like veins running down the wearer’s arms. Many claim they hear a faint heartbeat when striking with the wraps, each blow echoing like a drumbeat of war.

Magical Properties and Features

• Crimson Channel. While wearing the wraps, your unarmed strikes count as magical and deal 1d6 bludgeoning damage (instead of the normal monk die if lower).
• Hemocraft Infusion. Whenever you take damage from a Blood Hunter feature (such as Crimson Rite or a Blood Curse), your next unarmed strike within 1 minute deals an additional 1d4 necrotic damage.
• Sanguine Flurry. Once per turn when you use Flurry of Blows, you can add your Constitution modifier to the damage of one of those unarmed strikes.
• Hunter’s Marking. As a bonus action, you can mark a creature you’ve damaged with an unarmed strike. Until the start of your next turn, you have advantage on your next unarmed strike against that creature. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.

Weapon Bonuses

• Attribute Bonus: +1 Strength or Dexterity.
• Magic Bonus: +1 to attack and damage rolls made with unarmed strikes while wearing the wraps.
• Skill Bonus: Advantage on Athletics checks made to grapple or shove while attuned.
• Proficiency Bonus: If you are proficient with unarmed strikes, you are proficient with the wraps.

Drawbacks and Risks

• Blood Tax. Each dawn, if you are attuned to the wraps, you must lose 1d4 hit points as they siphon your vitality. This damage cannot be reduced or avoided.
• Frenzied Pull. On a natural 1 with an attack roll, the wraps constrict violently. You take 1d6 necrotic damage, and you cannot benefit from healing until the end of your next turn.

Lore and History

The Wraps of the Crimson Strike were first created by the Order of the Tigris during the height of the Blood Wars. Seeking to combine the monk’s art of precision with the Blood Hunter’s grim sacrifice, they steeped martial wraps in ritual bloodletting and battlefields’ essence. Many were lost, burned, or sealed away after their corruption proved too dangerous — but a few still circulate among the Claret Orders, often awarded to those who have proven mastery over both discipline and the darkness within.

Additional Roleplay Features

1. The wraps tighten when you enter combat, as though eager for violence.
2. When you spill blood, the crimson stains on the cloth glow faintly, like embers.
3. Striking with the wraps produces faint sounds like a heartbeat or distant war drums.

Weapon Information

• Weapon Type: Unarmed Strike Enhancer (Monk Weapon)
• Weight: Negligible
• Market Value: 2,000 gp
• Black Market Value: 5,500 gp (coveted by cultists, gladiators, and rival hunter orders)

Summary of Weapon

The Wraps of the Crimson Strike are enchanted crimson bindings that turn every unarmed strike into a weapon of ritual bloodletting. They amplify martial prowess through hemocraft, strengthen Flurry of Blows, and let the wielder mark enemies with predatory precision. But their cost is constant: blood, pain, and the temptation of rage. To wear them is to accept the covenant that every strike must be paid for in kind.

"Each scar is a verse. Each drop of blood, a prayer. And the fist that strikes is the hymn that binds them."

Notes: Damage: Bludgeoning, Damage: Necrotic, Bonus: Choose Strength or Dexterity, Advantage: Athletics, Bonus: Magic, Buff, Combat