Order of the Last Hunt

The Order of the Last Hunt represents one of the oldest and most austere philosophies among Aetheris' Bloodsworn traditions. Its members are professional hunters of creatures too dangerous, unnatural, elusive, or resilient for ordinary warriors to confront reliably. They do not believe courage is enough. Nor do they trust rage, superior numbers, or blind faith to compensate for ignorance. Before the blade comes observation. Before pursuit comes identification. Before execution comes understanding.

Last Hunters study anatomy, spoor, feeding patterns, magical residue, planar disturbances, wounds, nests, discarded skin, blood, tracks, lairs, folklore, and surviving witnesses. Their quarry traditionally includes aberrations, fiends, monstrosities, undead, shapechangers, cursed creatures, supernatural predators, and other beings whose capabilities demand specialized knowledge. Yet their doctrine does not teach that an unfamiliar creature deserves death merely for being strange. The true quarry of the Last Hunt is the dangerous predator—the being that has demonstrated through intent or action that it will continue to prey upon others if not stopped.

This distinction is essential to the order. The hunter who kills everything they do not understand has learned nothing. The hunter who understands a monster but refuses to stop it when innocent lives remain threatened has likewise failed.

Members therefore cultivate a state of controlled violence unusual even among Blood Hunters. They sacrifice their own blood not to frenzy themselves, but to sharpen perception, accelerate reflexes, expose weaknesses, deny regeneration, and mark a quarry so completely that escape becomes increasingly difficult.

The Crane-Sigil of the Last Hunt reflects this philosophy almost perfectly. Its associated tradition emphasizes preparation, anatomical knowledge, supernatural awareness, and exact violence, while the crane symbolizes a creature that waits patiently before striking with extraordinary precision.

An Order of the Last Hunt Blood Hunter is consequently less a berserker than a supernatural executioner.

Observe. Understand. Pursue. End.

Origins in Aetheris

The precise origin of the Order remains disputed.

The oldest surviving Claret records describe itinerant hunters carrying silver medallions engraved with long-beaked birds generations before the Order appears by name. These wanderers traveled between isolated villages, border keeps, ruined settlements, mining camps, forest lodges, and caravan routes, investigating creatures that conventional soldiers could neither identify nor reliably kill.

They rarely remained afterward to receive praise.

Their earliest doctrine seems to have emerged from a simple problem: Bloodsworn could possess extraordinary weapons and supernatural abilities yet still die because they misunderstood what they were fighting.

An unfamiliar creature might regenerate.

A seemingly mortal opponent might actually be possessing another body.

A wounded predator might flee by teleportation.

An undead creature might reform unless destroyed under specific circumstances.

A shapechanger might simply abandon one identity and begin again elsewhere.

The hunters who survived began recording everything.

Blood became ink.

Scars became lessons.

Autopsies became instruction.

Monster hunts became field research.

Eventually, these methods developed into a recognizable Claret tradition.

The surviving Crane-Sigil tradition describes precisely this philosophy: knowledge and patience preceding exact violence, with the crane chosen because it strikes efficiently and wastes nothing.

Today, Last Hunters can be encountered throughout Aetheris wherever supernatural predation is common.

They are particularly useful along dangerous frontiers, near Underdark entrances, in Shadowfell-tainted territory, around unstable planar boundaries, and wherever monsters have learned to hide among civilization.

Some maintain formal lodges.

Others travel alone.

Many work within adventuring companies, monster-hunting organizations, military reconnaissance units, or mixed Claret cells.

Philosophy and Doctrine

The Order teaches Five Lessons of the Crane.

1. See Before You Strike

Ignorance kills hunters.

A Last Hunter observes before committing to battle whenever circumstances allow. Tracks, corpses, eyewitness accounts, magical residue, wounds, feeding behavior, local disappearances, unusual weather, and damaged terrain may reveal more than direct confrontation.

The order has a common saying:

"A footprint is the first wound the quarry gives you."

Information is not preparation for the hunt.

Information is part of the hunt.

1. Know What You Kill

The Order rejects indiscriminate monster extermination.

A creature is not quarry simply because it is an aberration, fey, undead, shapechanger, or otherwise supernatural.

Intent matters.

Behavior matters.

Threat matters.

A cursed person seeking treatment is not quarry.

A peaceful outsider from another plane is not quarry.

A lycanthrope controlling their affliction is not automatically quarry.

A vampire feeding upon unwilling victims and preparing another killing spree is.

The Last Hunt begins when the hunter has reasonable evidence that a creature poses a continuing grave threat.

III. Waste Nothing

This principle gives the crane its symbolic importance.

A hunter should waste neither:

• movement;
• ammunition;
• blood;
• magic;
• lives;
• opportunities;
• nor suffering.

A clean kill is preferable to a prolonged battle.

A single decisive strike is preferable to theatrical violence.

A monster should never be tortured merely because it deserves death.

Justice and cruelty are not synonymous.

1. Do Not Let the Quarry Choose the Battlefield

Predators prefer advantageous terrain.

Last Hunters deny them that advantage.

They study:

• escape routes;
• alternate lairs;
• teleportation patterns;
• feeding territories;
• hunting grounds;
• allies;
• disguises;
• weaknesses;
• magical defenses;
• regenerative mechanisms.

A hunt should ideally end where the hunter planned—not where the quarry hoped.

1. The Hunt Must End

The final lesson is the most severe.

When a creature has unmistakably demonstrated that it will continue killing, enslaving, corrupting, possessing, or preying upon others, hesitation may become its own form of negligence.

Last Hunters distinguish mercy from indecision.

They may accept surrender.

They may capture.

They may seek cures.

They may spare redeemable enemies.

But when the evidence proves that none of those options will protect future victims, the Order expects the hunter to finish the task.

This is the philosophy reflected in the old Crane-Sigil maxim:

Precision is mercy.

The relic itself similarly associates the hunt with decisive action against continuing supernatural threats.

Visual Identity

Last Hunters deliberately cultivate a restrained appearance.

Their equipment tends toward practical traveling gear, layered leathers, reinforced coats, fitted armor, weather-resistant cloaks, and weapons chosen for reliability rather than spectacle.

Common materials include:

• cold-forged silver;
• blackened steel;
• dark leather;
• bone or ivory grip inlays;
• crimson thread;
• monster hide;
• alchemical glass;
• engraved silver-steel plates.

Weapons frequently bear extremely small anatomical or runic markings identifying known strike locations, ritual formulas, or notable kills.

The Order's defining emblem is the crane.

Unlike heraldic eagles or lions, the crane is rarely depicted roaring, flying, or displaying its wings.

Instead it is shown in profile:

still,

watchful,

its long beak poised like a blade.

A crimson eye is common.

Senior hunters often wear circular medallions inspired by the same design eventually embodied in the legendary Crane-Sigil.

When a Last Hunter invokes hemocraft, thin crimson lines sometimes appear around the eyes, forearms, throat, or weapon hand. Rather than erupting wildly, the blood tends to form disciplined markings resembling anatomical diagrams, targeting lines, concentric circles, or feather-like strokes.

Their fighting style is equally distinctive.

There is little wasted movement.

They often seem almost inactive until the exact moment they attack.

Then they move extraordinarily quickly.

Role in Aetheris

The Order of the Last Hunt fills the role of specialized supernatural predator hunter.

They are frequently employed as:

• monster trackers;
• supernatural investigators;
• bounty hunters;
• curse hunters;
• tactical scouts;
• lair infiltrators;
• forensic investigators;
• bodyguards against supernatural assassins;
• military monster specialists;
• planar-predator hunters.

In combat, they specialize in single-target pressure.

Where another warrior may simply attack whichever enemy stands closest, the Last Hunter identifies the most dangerous creature in the encounter and progressively dismantles its advantages.

Their ideal battlefield sequence is:

Identify. Mark. Pursue. Cripple. Execute.

They are particularly dangerous against enemies that rely upon:

• regeneration;
• healing;
• invisibility;
• shapechanging;
• high mobility;
• retreat;
• supernatural defenses;
• ambush;
• hit-and-run tactics.

Subclass Integration

Major Polities

Last Hunters are especially valued in states possessing dangerous wilderness frontiers, Underdark connections, supernatural threats, or professional adventuring communities.

The Concord of Veltrion frequently has need of hunters capable of tracking Shadowfell-influenced predators.

The Helbrann League respects their methodical approach and sometimes employs them alongside specialist military or Underdark expeditions.

The Republic of Aurimundus may license experienced hunters for investigations involving supernatural murder, fiendish influence, undead activity, or monsters operating within populated territory.

In frontier territories, a single Last Hunter may effectively serve as detective, ranger, executioner, and monster scholar.

Organizations, Guilds, and Orders

The Order has strong working relationships with:

• other Claret Orders;
• monster-hunting lodges;
• ranger organizations;
• adventuring companies;
• military scouts;
• wilderness wardens;
• occult investigators;
• alchemists;
• anatomists;
• arcanists specializing in supernatural creatures.

They sometimes cooperate with members of the Order of the Eclipsed Flame, though the two groups differ in emphasis.

Eclipsed Flame hunters focus heavily upon aberrations, planar breaches, Old One influence, containment, and sealing.

Last Hunters are broader predator specialists.

Where the Eclipsed Flame asks:

"How do we contain this?"

the Last Hunt more often asks:

"How does it die?"

Religious and Philosophical Movements

Last Hunters frequently practice Harmonic Reverence rather than dedicating themselves to a single deity.

Many honor Valdor before dangerous confrontations, emphasizing discipline, strategy, and protective warfare.

Sylvara is often acknowledged when pursuing unnatural predators through wilderness environments.

Nerath may be invoked when the hunter acts under lawful authority or investigates crimes.

Moriganna, the Matron of Ravens, receives solemn respect after hunts involving undead, stolen souls, or creatures that violate the proper passage of death.

The Order itself is not religious.

Its authority comes from discipline and demonstrated competence rather than divine sanction.

Rival Factions and Enemies

Frequent enemies include:

• predatory undead;
• fiends;
• hostile aberrations;
• cursed predators;
• shapechangers who prey upon settlements;
• corrupted monstrosities;
• slavers employing supernatural beasts;
• necromancers;
• monster-breeding cults;
• intelligent predators that deliberately hunt mortals;
• cults attempting to conceal supernatural killings.

Last Hunters especially despise enemies that repeatedly escape consequences through regeneration, resurrection, replacement bodies, shapeshifting, or false identities.

Subclass Features

The Order of the Last Hunt follows the Aetheris Blood Hunter subclass progression at levels 3, 7, 11, 15, and 18, as established by the Subclass Template.

Blood Hunter Level	Feature
3rd	Hunter's Appraisal, Bloodmark of the Quarry
7th	Crane's Pursuit
11th	Crimson Anatomy
15th	No Escape from the Hunt
18th	Rite of the Final Stroke

 

Optional Subclass Techniques

At the Game Master's discretion, the following Hunting Maledicts may be selected whenever an Order of the Last Hunt Blood Hunter learns a Blood Maledict.

They use your normal Blood Maledict rules.

Blood Maledict of the Open Wound

When a creature you can see within 60 feet regains Hit Points, use your Reaction to curse it.

Reduce the Hit Points restored by one roll of your Hemocraft Die + your Hemocraft modifier.

Amplify: The creature regains no Hit Points from the triggering effect unless it succeeds on a Constitution saving throw against your Hemocraft save DC.

Blood Maledict of the Broken Step

When a creature you can see within 30 feet moves willingly, use your Reaction and choose it.

Subtract one roll of your Hemocraft Die × 5 feet from its remaining movement for that turn.

Amplify: If the creature is your Quarry, its Speed becomes 0 until the beginning of its next turn on a failed Strength saving throw.

Blood Maledict of the Revealed Predator

As a Bonus Action, curse one creature you can see within 60 feet.

Until the end of your next turn, the creature gains no benefit from being Invisible against you.

Amplify: If it is magically disguised or transformed, it must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or its true form becomes faintly superimposed over its current appearance for 1 minute.

Blood Maledict of the Stilled Heart

When your Quarry makes a Constitution saving throw, you may use your Reaction to subtract one roll of your Hemocraft Die from the roll.

You must declare this after seeing the roll but before knowing whether it succeeds.

Amplify: Roll the Hemocraft Die twice and use the higher result.

Blood Maledict of the Last Refuge

When your Quarry attempts to regain Hit Points, become Invisible, teleport, or change shape, use your Reaction to curse it.

It takes Crimson Rite damage equal to one roll of your Hemocraft Die.

Amplify: The creature must also succeed on a Constitution saving throw or the triggering effect fails.

Playing This Subclass

The Order of the Last Hunt is primarily a single-target striker and pursuit specialist.

Your strength lies in identifying the most dangerous enemy and forcing that enemy to remain engaged.

A typical combat begins with Bloodmark of the Quarry.

Hunter's Appraisal reveals useful information.

Crane's Pursuit prevents a mobile enemy from effortlessly disengaging.

Crimson Anatomy then allows you to determine how the target is dismantled.

Against a regenerating monster, suppress healing.

Against a fleeing predator, attack its movement.

Against a spellcaster, attack Concentration.

Against a shapechanger, pin its form.

The subclass becomes especially dangerous when fighting elite enemies, bosses, supernatural assassins, and monsters whose encounter design relies upon mobility or recovery.

Strengths

• excellent single-target pressure;
• strong tracking;
• high monster-investigation utility;
• anti-regeneration;
• anti-escape;
• effective against invisible and shapechanging opponents;
• excellent pursuit;
• adaptable tactical debuffs.

Weaknesses

• less effective against large groups;
• significant Bonus Action competition;
• strong abilities generally require committing to a Quarry;
• several defensive benefits apply only indirectly;
• comparatively little area control;
• less useful when enemies are mundane and straightforward.

Tactical Identity

Choose the most dangerous thing on the battlefield and make its advantages stop working.

Roleplaying This Subclass

A Last Hunter does not need to be humorless.

The Order attracts many personalities:

• scholarly investigators;
• grim veterans;
• sardonic monster hunters;
• compassionate protectors;
• obsessive trackers;
• quiet professionals;
• former victims of supernatural predators;
• wanderers who simply discovered they were exceptionally good at the work.

What binds them together is deliberateness.

A Last Hunter normally wants to know:

What is it?

What does it want?

How does it hunt?

What can hurt it?

What makes it dangerous?

Can it be reasoned with?

Can the danger be ended without killing it?

If not—

where is the killing stroke?

An excellent narrative tension for a Last Hunter is the boundary between certainty and obsession.

A hunter must be decisive.

But certainty without evidence can become fanaticism.

The Order therefore considers disciplined investigation a moral safeguard as much as a practical tool.

Faction and Organization Connections

Order members commonly interact with:

Claret Orders: Shared training, archives, safehouses, monster reports, and hemocraft knowledge.

Ranger Lodges: Tracking information, frontier intelligence, and wilderness operations.

Adventuring Companies: Last Hunters make exceptional specialists when a company routinely encounters unusual creatures.

Arcane Colleges: Hunters sometimes consult scholars regarding obscure magical anatomy, planar biology, and curse mechanics.

Temple Orders: Clergy may assist with fiends, undead, possession, or corrupted relics.

Military Commands: Experienced hunters are sometimes retained as specialist officers or consultants when conventional forces face monsters.

The Order is suspicious of organizations that collect supernatural creatures for experimentation without adequate containment.

They are even more hostile toward groups deliberately breeding or weaponizing monsters.

Adventure Hooks

The Footprints Stop

A caravan was slaughtered on an open road.

Tracks show a massive predator leaving the site.

Twenty yards away, the tracks simply end.

The local Last Hunter insists the beast did not teleport.

Something picked it up.

A Monster Asking for Protection

A notorious shapechanger voluntarily approaches an Order lodge.

Someone is hunting members of its species.

The creature claims the killer is a celebrated Last Hunter.

The Perfect Corpse

A monster is found dead with a single wound through an anatomically impossible weak point.

The kill bears all the signs of Order technique.

No local Last Hunter claims responsibility.

Then another corpse appears.

The Quarry That Does Not Know It Is Hunting

Villagers disappear every seven nights.

Evidence points toward a local healer.

The healer has no memory of harming anyone and appears genuinely horrified.

The Last Hunter must determine whether the healer is lying, possessed, transformed, cursed—or merely being framed.

The Crimson Migration

Hundreds of predators begin fleeing the same wilderness simultaneously.

None attack settlements.

Every creature seems terrified.

A senior Last Hunter delivers only one instruction:

"Do not hunt what is running. Find what made it run."

The Last Feather

A dying hunter leaves behind a broken crane medallion.

The blood engraved into its back contains the name of a creature supposedly killed two centuries ago.

The final line reads:

"It learned how we hunt."

Notable NPCs

Merovan Vale, the Quiet Beak

Caelari Blood Hunter, Order of the Last Hunt

Merovan spent decades investigating supernatural killings throughout the Republic of Aurimundus. He speaks softly, dresses conservatively, and keeps meticulous notebooks documenting every creature he has encountered.

He believes the greatest danger to the Order is certainty without investigation.

His apprentices are forbidden from killing an intelligent supernatural creature unless they can first explain what it is, what it has done, and why lethal force is necessary.

Sereth Willow-Scar

Cae'lindras Blood Hunter, Order of the Last Hunt

A wilderness specialist who hunts creatures corrupted by hostile planar influence.

Sereth is remarkably patient, sometimes following a quarry for weeks before acting.

She refuses trophy hunting completely.

After a kill, useful anatomical samples are preserved for research, necessary materials are recovered, and what remains is burned, buried, returned to the land, or otherwise treated according to local custom.

Thalen Korr, the Red Cartographer

Helbranni Blood Hunter, Order of the Last Hunt

Thalen creates extraordinary anatomical diagrams of monsters.

His field journals contain cross-sections of organs, magical circulatory systems, venom glands, rune structures, sensory organs, and observed weaknesses.

Several of his books are considered indispensable texts among professional hunters.

Unfortunately, something has recently begun adding notes to the margins.

In Thalen's own handwriting.

While he sleeps.

Balance Notes

The Aetheris Subclass Template calls for explicit consideration of combat role, damage, survivability, utility, resource economy, and comparison with similar subclasses.

Intended Role

Primary: Striker
Secondary: Controller / Scout

The Order specializes in single-target elimination rather than raw battlefield-wide damage.

Damage Profile

Bloodmark of the Quarry supplies a once-per-turn Hemocraft Die damage rider.

This scales at higher levels but remains restricted to:

• one target;
• once each turn;
• Crimson Rite weapons.

The 18th-level capstone substantially increases burst damage but lasts only 1 minute and functions once per Long Rest.

Survivability

The subclass receives comparatively few permanent defensive bonuses.

Its survival tools instead emphasize:

• mobility;
• pursuit;
• disabling enemy recovery;
• preventing escape;
• killing dangerous enemies efficiently.

The capstone provides limited resistances appropriate to its tier.

Utility

Utility is one of the subclass's strongest areas.

Hunter's Appraisal and the tracking features provide significant investigative value without replacing dedicated divination magic.

The subclass should excel in campaigns where identifying what a monster is matters as much as reducing its Hit Points.

Resource Economy

Bloodmark uses are tied to Proficiency Bonus per Long Rest.

Crane's Pursuit also uses Proficiency Bonus per Long Rest.

Both compete with:

• Bonus Actions;
• Reactions;
• Crimson Rite;
• Blood Maledict;
• ordinary Blood Hunter actions.

This prevents the subclass from effortlessly employing every feature simultaneously.

Comparison to Other Blood Hunter Orders

The Order of the Malefic Veil functions as an occult striker-controller with spellcasting, magical disruption, and defensive measures against supernatural influence.

The Order of the Last Hunt deliberately occupies a different niche.

It has:

Less spellcasting.
Less party defense.
Less generalized anti-magic.

But significantly more:

tracking, pursuit, anatomical exploitation, anti-regeneration, anti-shapechanging, and single-quarry pressure.

It remains fundamentally a martial Blood Hunter.

Summary

The Order of the Last Hunt transforms the Blood Hunter into Aetheris' consummate supernatural pursuit specialist.

Its members believe monsters are defeated first through understanding and only afterward through violence.

They identify their quarry.

They study it.

They follow it.

They discover how it survives.

They remove those advantages one by one.

And when the moment finally arrives, they strike with the disciplined efficiency represented by the crane.

Mechanically, the Order emphasizes:

• supernatural investigation;
• quarry marking;
• tracking;
• bonus single-target damage;
• pursuit movement;
• anti-regeneration;
• anti-Concentration;
• anti-shapechanging;
• anti-teleportation;
• decisive high-level execution.

The subclass carries forward the philosophy already embodied by the Crane-Sigil of the Last Hunt: preparation over swagger, knowledge over superstition, and exact violence over uncontrolled brutality.

"Watch long enough and every monster tells you how it can be killed. The trick is surviving the lesson."

 

Hunter's Appraisal

Action Type: Passive / Bonus Action
Uses: At-will; detailed appraisal Proficiency Bonus per Long Rest
Duration: Instantaneous / 1 minute
Scaling: Additional information at higher levels

A Last Hunter learns to read creatures the way others read written language.

You gain proficiency in the following skills of your choice:

• Arcana
• Investigation
• Nature
• Perception
• Religion
• Survival

If you already possess proficiency in the selected skill, you instead gain Expertise in the skill.

Additionally, whenever you make an Intelligence or Wisdom ability check to:

• identify a creature;
• examine its tracks;
• inspect its wounds;
• study its remains;
• investigate its lair;
• analyze magical residue associated with it;
• recall information concerning its behavior or supernatural nature;

you may add your Hemocraft modifier to the roll if it is not already included.

Exacting Appraisal

As a Bonus Action, choose one creature you can see within 60 feet.

You study it until the end of your next turn.

You learn its creature type.

Additionally, choose one of the following categories:

• Defenses: AC and any damage resistances.
• Vulnerabilities: any damage vulnerabilities.
• Immunities: one damage immunity or condition immunity of the DM's choice.
• Mobility: its Speed types and whether it possesses teleportation or similar supernatural movement.
• Recovery: whether it possesses regeneration, healing, or a trait allowing it to return after reaching 0 Hit Points.
• Predatory Nature: whether the creature possesses shapechanging, invisibility, possession, or another innate concealment ability.

The information represents what your hunter can deduce through supernatural perception, anatomical knowledge, and hemocraft rather than literal game-stat awareness.

You may use Exacting Appraisal a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus and regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

At 11th level, choose two categories whenever you use this feature.

At 18th level, choose three.

Bloodmark of the Quarry

Uses: Proficiency Bonus per Long Rest
Range: 120 feet
Duration: 1 hour
Scaling: Damage increases at 11th and 18th level

You place a minute trace of your own blood upon your weapon, tongue, fingertip, or sigil and designate one creature you can see within 120 feet as your Quarry.

The creature remains your Quarry until:

• it dies;
• you become Incapacitated;
• the duration expires;
• or you designate another creature.

While a creature is your Quarry, you gain the following benefits.

Quarry's Direction

While your Quarry remains on the same plane of existence and within 1 mile of you, you know its general direction.

You do not know its exact distance or location.

Quarry's Trail

You have Advantage on Wisdom (Survival) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks made to:

• track the Quarry;
• identify evidence of its passage;
• locate its lair;
• distinguish its tracks from others;
• examine creatures it has wounded or killed.

Exacting Strike

Once on each of your turns when you hit your Quarry with a weapon bearing your Crimson Rite, the attack deals additional damage equal to one roll of your Hemocraft Die.

This additional damage is the same type as the weapon's Crimson Rite damage.

At 11th level, this becomes two rolls of your Hemocraft Die.

At 18th level, it becomes three rolls.

Blood Knows Blood

Your Quarry cannot gain Advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide from you through magical means.

Additionally, if your Quarry is Invisible and within 30 feet of you, you know the space it occupies, though it still gains other benefits of the Invisible condition.

Passing the Mark

If your Quarry is reduced to 0 Hit Points, you may designate another creature you can see within 120 feet as your Quarry as a Bonus Action without expending another use.

The original duration does not reset.

Crane's Pursuit

Action Type: Passive / Reaction
Uses: Reaction benefit Proficiency Bonus per Long Rest
Duration: Immediate
Scaling: Movement increases at 15th level

You have learned that once a true hunt begins, distance is merely another defense to overcome.

Your Speed increases by 10 feet.

Additionally, Difficult Terrain does not cost you additional movement while you move toward your Quarry.

Pursuit Reaction

Whenever your Quarry that you can see:

• moves at least 10 feet away from you;
• teleports;
• becomes Invisible;
• changes shape;
• or Disengages;

you may use your Reaction to move up to half your Speed.

This movement:

• must end closer to the Quarry than where you began;
• does not provoke Opportunity Attacks from the Quarry;
• may pass through nonmagical Difficult Terrain without additional cost.

If you end this movement within your weapon's reach or normal range of the Quarry, you may immediately make one weapon attack against it.

The attack does not gain Extra Attack.

You may use this Reaction a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, regaining all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

At 15th level, you may move up to your full Speed instead.

Crimson Anatomy

Action Type: Passive / Triggered
Uses: At-will; special wound once per turn
Duration: Until the start of your next turn
Scaling: Hemocraft Die

You no longer simply wound your Quarry.

You dismantle it.

Whenever you deal your Exacting Strike damage to your Quarry, choose one of the following Anatomical Wounds.

A creature can suffer only one Anatomical Wound from you at a time.

Sever the Recovery

The Quarry cannot regain Hit Points until the start of your next turn.

If it possesses Regeneration, that trait is suppressed for the same duration.

Cut the Tendon

Reduce the Quarry's Speed by 15 feet until the start of your next turn.

The creature cannot take the Dash action during this period.

Break the Concentration

The Quarry subtracts one roll of your Hemocraft Die from the next Constitution saving throw it makes to maintain Concentration before the beginning of your next turn.

Open the Guard

The next attack roll made against the Quarry by a creature other than you before the beginning of your next turn gains Advantage.

Pin the Shape

Until the start of your next turn, the Quarry cannot willingly change shape unless it succeeds on a Constitution saving throw against your Hemocraft save DC.

Amplified Anatomy

Whenever you amplify a Blood Maledict targeting your Quarry, you may immediately apply one Anatomical Wound to it without requiring Exacting Strike damage.

You may do so only once per turn.

No Escape from the Hunt

Action Type: Passive / Reaction
Uses: At-will; reaction once per round
Duration: Continuous

Your Bloodmark has become something between tracking sigil, supernatural tether, and death warrant.

Your Bloodmark of the Quarry now lasts 24 hours.

Its directional awareness functions anywhere on the same plane of existence rather than only within 1 mile.

Additionally, your Quarry gains no benefit against you from becoming Invisible.

You can see your Quarry if it is Invisible and within 30 feet of you, provided it is not behind Total Cover.

Sever the Escape

When your Quarry attempts to:

• teleport;
• shift planes;
• become Ethereal;
• magically enter an extradimensional space;
• or magically transform into another form;

you may use your Reaction to force it to make a Constitution saving throw against your Hemocraft save DC.

On a failure, the triggering effect fails and any action, Bonus Action, Reaction, spell slot, charge, or other resource used to attempt it is expended.

On a success, the effect functions normally.

A creature that succeeds on this saving throw becomes immune to Sever the Escape until the beginning of its next turn.

The Quarry Cannot Hide

Your Quarry cannot remove Bloodmark of the Quarry through Dispel Magic.

Remove Curse or similar magic can suppress the mark for 1 hour if cast using a spell slot of 5th level or higher.

The mark ends normally if the Quarry dies.

End the Trail

When your Quarry is reduced to 0 Hit Points, its body cannot become Invisible, change shape, teleport, or be possessed until the end of your next turn.

If it has a trait that would immediately cause it to regenerate, reform elsewhere, or return automatically after death, that effect is delayed until the end of your next turn.

This gives the hunter and their allies a brief opportunity to employ whatever special method may be necessary to permanently end the creature.

Rite of the Final Stroke

Action Type: Bonus Action
Uses: Once per Long Rest
Duration: 1 minute
Scaling: Capstone transformation

You enter the supreme state taught by the Order of the Last Hunt: complete predatory clarity.

For 1 minute, your breathing slows, unnecessary thought falls away, and every movement of your enemies becomes information.

Your blood traces fine crimson targeting lines across your eyes, weapon, and exposed skin.

While the Rite lasts, you gain the following benefits.

Predator's Pace

Your Speed increases by 20 feet.

Opportunity Attacks against you have Disadvantage.

Hunter's Sight

You gain Truesight out to 30 feet.

Refusal of Pain

You gain Resistance to:

• Necrotic damage;
• Poison damage;
• Psychic damage.

Perfect Quarry

Bloodmark of the Quarry no longer requires a use while this feature is active.

At the start of each of your turns, you may designate one creature you can see within 120 feet as your Quarry without using an action.

You may have only one Quarry at a time.

Final Stroke

Once on each of your turns when you damage your Quarry with a Crimson Rite weapon, you deal additional Force damage equal to three rolls of your Hemocraft Die.

This damage replaces the additional damage normally granted by Exacting Strike rather than adding to it.

Anatomical Perfection

Whenever Final Stroke triggers, you may apply two different Anatomical Wounds from Crimson Anatomy instead of one.

Relentless Pursuit

Your Crane's Pursuit Reaction no longer expends uses while Rite of the Final Stroke is active.

You still possess only one normal Reaction each round.

The Last Hunt

When your Quarry is reduced to 0 Hit Points during the Rite, you may immediately:

1. move up to half your Speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks; and
2. designate another creature you can see as your Quarry.

If you end this movement within range of the new Quarry, you may make one weapon attack against it as part of the same effect.

You may benefit from this movement and attack only once per turn.

Once you invoke Rite of the Final Stroke, you cannot do so again until you finish a Long Rest.

The Legendary Crane-Sigil's supreme ability follows a remarkably similar philosophy, combining accelerated movement, supernatural sight, resistance, and a decisive damage increase during a one-minute state of ruthless clarity.