Tyrant's End

Weapon (greataxe), legendary (requires attunement)

This blade is a grisly guillotine, whose edge was used to put an end to the tyrants of a broken age. You gain a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon, which has the following properties.

Fling Blade. The blade of the axe is attached by a piece of its original rope. Once on each of your turns when you make an attack with the weapon, you can choose to fling the blade at a creature within 20 feet of you. Make a melee attack roll against the target. Hit or miss, the blade is then retracted back to the weapon immediately after the attack. If the target is no more than one size larger than you and you hit it, it is pulled with the blade to the nearest unoccupied space to you between you and the target.

Revolutionary Spirit. Within the blade is Simon Livoel, the spirit of a revolutionary warrior who built the original guillotine. You can use a bonus action to shout the weapon's command phrase ("Down with tyranny!") and summon the weapon's spirit in your space. Alternatively, the spirit appears in your space when you're reduced to 0 hit points. While Simon exists, he remains in your space, moving with you. He uses the veteran stat block with the following changes: he is undead, he has darkvision out to a range of 60 feet, this greataxe replaces his longsword (+8 to hit, 1d12 + 6 slashing damage), and he has no other weapons. For the duration, you have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, and Simon takes the same amount of bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage as you. Simon can't otherwise be targeted or harmed by any attack or effect. Simon doesn’t take his own turns, but you can use a bonus action on your turn to command him to make one attack against a target within the greataxe's range, using his statistics. If you're incapacitated, he'll attack the nearest creature that is hostile to you on his own. Simon remains until he's reduced to 0 hit points, at which point this property can't be used again until the next dawn.

Sentience. Simon's spirit remains in the weapon's blade, and his dim reflection can be sometimes seen in its scarred surface. Tyrant's End is a chaotic neutral sentient weapon, with an Intelligence of 15, a Wisdom of 15, and a Charisma of 17. It has hearing and darkvision out to a range of 60 feet.

Personality. Simon has beheaded hundreds of tyrants over the course of his life and the weapon's existence. He is quick to call out the telltale signs of a tyrant's rise to power. Otherwise, he is taciturn and thoughtful, speaking rarely and only when he feels he can push someone away from the mistakes he made in life. A creature that Simon considers to be a tyrant gains no benefits from this weapon.

In an open clearing, Freedom finally set down her heavy axe and set to making camp. As she worked, her blade—cleaned and polished as far as its aged iron would take—reflected the rough hues of its surrounding, although in place of the tiefling's red skin and black leathers were the colors of a long-forgotten revolution. For a time the shape followed her motions exactly, until she directed a question towards it.

"Hey, Simon, y'there?"

The blade's edge rang like a sigh and the form seemed to approach the metal, resolving into the vague reflection of a wiry man, revolutionary colors marred by bloodstains.

"Yes, what do you need?"

Freedom sat down beside the axe, matching Simon's pose as she replied, "How'd you end up haunting that thing? Did it kill you?" Simon's image smiled bitterly. "You know the saying 'live by the sword, die by the sword?'"

"Don't tell me you're going to say something like 'violence begets violence, so put down the weapon and become a farmer,' are you?" The revolutionary looked grave in the face of Freedom's grinning flippancy. "No. I'm saying even tyrants have friends, or at least enemies too far away to care. And when I became a pattern, there were plenty who wanted my death to send an ironic message."

"So, what? I should slow down, stop fighting evil any time I find it?"

"No, not at all. You shouldn't give it space to breathe."