To a Vesk, a weapon is not a tool; it is a limb you haven't grown yet. We do not "learn" to use the Doshko; we are introduced to it in the nursery. By the time a Vesk hatchling can walk, they know the weight of cold steel. By the time they can speak, they know how to charge a plasma coil.
The Doshko is the symbol of our history—a brutal, three-bladed energy axe designed not just to kill, but to ruin. It was with Doshkos that we carved the foundations of the first Hegemony cities from the bedrock of Vesk-Prime. To carry one is to carry the weight of that conquest. In the Starfall, where ammunition is scarce and tech fails, the Doshko remains eternal. It is the only promise we keep.
Vesk Weapon Familiarity Feat 1
Source Player Core pg. 76
You're trained with all doshkos. In addition, you gain access to all uncommon weapons with the Vesk trait. For the purposes of proficiency, you treat any of these that are martial weapons as simple weapons and any that are advanced weapons as martial weapons.
At 5th level, whenever you get a critical hit with one of these weapons, you get its critical specialization effect.
Non-Combat Applications
Engineering Breaching: A Doshko’s plasma edge cuts through bulkhead doors as easily as flesh. Vesk engineers often use them as "universal keys" for stuck airlocks.
Ceremonial Oaths: Vesk contracts are signed with blood, but they are sealed with steel. Touching the flat of a Doshko blade to a partner’s forehead is a binding vow of protection.
Intimidation Tactics: You don't always need to strike. The distinct thrum-snap of a Doshko activating is a sound that triggers a primal flight response in most mammalian species.
Societal Impact
The ubiquity of Vesk Weapon Familiarity has shaped the galactic arms market. "Vesk-Pattern" weapons are a standard classification in the Free Worlds Union black markets—heavy, reliable, and impossible for non-Vesk to wield comfortably.
In the Scale Hegemony, citizenship is often tied to martial readiness. A Vesk who cannot field-strip a tactical shotgun in under thirty seconds is looked upon with pity, like a human who cannot read.
Adventure Hooks
The Ancestral Edge: You discover a pre-Gap Doshko in a salvage drift. It has no energy cell, yet it hums with a faint, violet Rift-light. To wield it, you must prove your lineage to the weapon's machine spirit.
The Duel of Silence: A rival Vesk challenges you to a duel, but with a twist—you must use their weapon, a poorly maintained, rusted Doshko, to prove that the warrior makes the weapon, not the other way around.
The Shotgun Wedding: A Vesk dignitary's child is being married to a trade partner's heir. The traditional gift is a masterwork Tactical Shotgun, but it has been stolen by Skittermander thieves who think it's a "boom-stick toy." You have 24 hours to retrieve it before the ceremony becomes a bloodbath.
Conclusion
In a galaxy of fragile lasers and fickle magic, the Vesk rely on the heavy, the loud, and the sharp. We do not fight with elegance; we fight with inevitability.
Comments
Post a Comment