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Boots of the Still Path 45

—

by

Dale
in

From: Lineage 13 of the Veridian

These soft-soled boots are made of dark doe-skin that reaches up to the mid-calf. Their true uniqueness lies in the soles, which are not leather but a compressed and living mat of fibrous roots from the Silencior Tree. These roots subtly adapt to the surface below, allowing Liatris to walk over cobblestones, floorboards, or dry leaves with almost no sound. In natural environments like soil or mud, the roots actively prevent her from leaving a discernible track, making her an exceptionally stealthy traveler and forager.

Expounded Lore

The Silencior Tree is a subject of reverence in Veridian lore. It does not grow in boisterous, sun-drenched forests, but only in places of profound, supernatural quiet, such as the heart of a mist-shrouded valley where sound itself is dampened. The tree is psionically sensitive and has evolved to live without making noise—its leaves do not rustle, its branches do not creak in the wind. Its roots, in their search for nutrients, learned to move through the very soil with an impossible gentleness, leaving no trace of their passage.

The soles of these boots are not merely slabs of root, but a living, woven lattice of these very roots, still humming with the quiet energy of their parent tree. They are psionically bonded to the doe-skin uppers and, by extension, to the wearer’s intent. When the user wishes for silence, the roots subtly shift, absorbing the vibration of a footstep and creating microscopic pockets of dead air. When the user wishes to hide their trail, the roots actively pull displaced earth, leaves, or mud back into place. The number “45” refers to the 45th Verse of the Silent Creed, a Veridian teaching that states, “The greatest journey is the one that changes only the traveler, leaving the world as it was found.” These boots are the physical embodiment of that philosophy.

Item Values

  • Tier 1 Stats: +1 Dexterity
  • Skills Gained: Proficiency in Stealth.
  • Passive Magics:
    • Still Path: The wearer’s footsteps are supernaturally silenced on any surface. They have Advantage on all Dexterity (Stealth) checks that rely on moving quietly.
    • Traceless Step: When moving across natural, non-man-made terrain (such as soil, mud, sand, or snow), the wearer leaves behind no physical tracks. Magical means of tracking may still be effective, but are made with Disadvantage.
    • Sure-Footed: The living roots constantly adjust to provide a perfect grip. The wearer has Advantage on any ability check or saving throw made to resist being knocked prone or to maintain balance on treacherous surfaces.
  • Activatable Magics:
    • Earthen Meld (1/Day): As an action, if standing on soft, natural ground like earth or mud, the wearer can command the roots to partially draw them into the ground. They become restrained, but are submerged up to their chest and are heavily obscured from view. Any attempt to spot them is made with Disadvantage. The user can emerge from the ground as a bonus action on their turn.
    • Rooted Stride (3/Day): As a bonus action, the wearer can command the roots to dig in and propel them forward with a burst of natural energy. The wearer can immediately Dash without using their action. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.
  • Specific Slot: Feet Slot
  • Tags: Living Item, Veridian, Stealth, Mobility, Earthen, Utility, Infiltration, Psionic, Sylvan, Adaptive, Concealment, Agility, Warden-Gear, Traceless

The Boots of the Still Path 45 are the physical embodiment of a Veridian philosophy. To a Veridian, they are a sacred text one wears. To anyone else, they are the ultimate tool for stealth and infiltration. Their sale is a rare event, indicating they have been stolen or looted, and the venues capable of handling such an item are few and far between.

1. The Underworld Auction House

  • Type of Shop: This is not a shop but a secret, high-stakes auction held for the absolute elite of the criminal and espionage worlds, known only as “The Night’s Appraisement.” It is held perhaps once a season in a magically-secured, undisclosed location. Attendees are guildmasters of thieves and assassins, spymasters, and unimaginably wealthy nobles with a need for absolute discretion.
  • How It Is Bought & Sold: The boots would be the prize lot of the auction. Their capabilities would be dramatically demonstrated by having a skilled cat burglar navigate an obstacle course of crushed glass, hanging bells, and pressure-sensitive floor panels in complete silence. The bidding would be intense, silent (using coded gestures), and final. The boots would be sold to the highest bidder with no questions asked about their origin or intended use.
  • Cost: The price would be driven to incredible heights by the competitive bidding between factions who understand that possessing these boots is a massive strategic advantage.
    • Price: An opening bid of 5,000 Gold Sovereigns, with a final price likely exceeding 10,000 GS. Payment would be demanded in untraceable assets like flawless gemstones, bearer bonds from a neutral bank, or deeds to valuable, legitimate businesses.

2. The Legendary Outfitter

  • Type of Shop: A discreet, appointment-only establishment that caters to legendary adventurers, explorers, and the heads of respectable spy agencies. The shop, known by a name like “Pathfinder’s Providence,” is run by a retired, world-famous adventurer who has personal connections to an incredible network of suppliers.
  • How It Is Bought & Sold: The boots would have been acquired through a personal adventure or traded for another artifact of immense power. They would never be on display. A potential buyer must have a significant reputation and be vouched for. The sale would be a long negotiation, with the proprietor gauging the buyer’s character and purpose. They would be unwilling to sell such an item to someone they deemed reckless or malicious, regardless of the price offered.
  • Cost: The price is a mixture of currency and purpose.
    • Price: A significant sum, perhaps 7,000 Gold Sovereigns, but the proprietor would also demand a non-monetary price: a detailed map of a newly discovered ruin, the sworn testimony of a dragon, or a binding promise to use the boots to accomplish a specific, legendary feat.

3. The Ranger’s Conclave

  • Type of Shop: This is not a place of commerce, but a council of the most respected rangers, druids, and nature wardens in a region, which would include any Veridian present. The boots would be brought here not for sale, but for stewardship, likely by a ranger who found them on a fallen Veridian and recognized their sacred nature.
  • How It Is “Bought & Sold”: The boots are not sold; they are granted. The council would convene to determine the best course of action. A Veridian character would have the strongest claim, as it is a piece of their cultural heritage. If no Veridian were present, the council would decide who among them has the greatest need for the boots’ abilities to protect the natural world. The “transaction” is a solemn ceremony.
  • Cost: The cost is one of service and responsibility.
    • Price: No gold changes hands. The recipient is tasked with a great quest that requires the unique stealth of the boots. Examples: “You must use these boots to enter the blighted fortress of the Iron Cultists and destroy their forest-killing poison.” or “You must carry this sacred seed to the peak of the Crystal Spire, a place guarded by sight-based sentinels, and plant it at the summit.” The boots are the tool, and the quest is the price.

The Boots of the Still Path 45 are not weapons or armor in a traditional sense; they are tools of absolute tactical control over movement and position. Their use in any situation is about deciding exactly where you are and ensuring no one else knows it until it is too late.

1. In a Guarded Keep or Urban Environment

In these environments of hard surfaces and watchful eyes, the boots excel at silent infiltration and dramatic escape.

Roleplaying Defense:

  • Evading Pursuit: You have been discovered in a noble’s manor. Guards are storming down the hallway, and the only escape is a precarious ledge outside a high window.
    • Roleplay: “The guards are thundering towards me, their armor clanking on the stone floors. I kick open the shutters and leap onto the narrow ledge. The rain has made it slick. I can feel the roots on my soles splay out, gripping the wet stone like a climbing vine, granting me perfect balance where anyone else would slip. The Sure-Footed passive makes me completely stable. I can move along the ledge at a full run while the guards can only watch in disbelief.”
  • A Desperate Escape: You are cornered in a marketplace cul-de-sac. There are no exits, and a dozen guards are closing in.
    • Roleplay: “There’s no way out. They have me trapped. I look at the rooftop three stories up—an impossible jump. ‘Now!’ I whisper, activating Rooted Stride. The boots dig into the cobblestones, and I feel a surge of primal energy. I sprint towards the wall in a blur of motion, using the impossible speed not to run away, but to run up. The momentum carries me up the wall, and my hands find a hold. I have turned an inescapable trap into a dramatic exit.”

Roleplaying Offense:

  • Silent Infiltration: You must get to the lord’s study on the third floor, but the grand staircase is squeaky and patrolled.
    • Roleplay: “I won’t even try the stairs. I’ll use the thick ivy growing on the outer wall. As I climb, my boots make no sound against the stone. The living roots find purchase alongside the ivy, making my ascent silent and secure. When a guard passes by the window, I freeze, my feet locked to the wall. Thanks to the Still Path, there is no scuff of leather, no dislodged pebble to give me away. I am just another shadow on the wall.”
  • Perfect Ambush: You need to eliminate a corrupt merchant who is walking through a quiet, echoing plaza. You are hiding in a doorway ahead of him.
    • Roleplay: “He’s approaching. He thinks he’s safe here because he could hear a rat sneeze a hundred paces away. He doesn’t know I don’t need to run at him. I wait until he is perfectly positioned. I activate Rooted Stride. From a dead standstill, I explode forward, crossing the thirty feet between us in a silent instant. My blade is at his throat before the first echo of his own footsteps has finished bouncing off the walls. He never heard a thing.”

2. In the Wilderness or Natural Caves

In the wild, the boots allow the wearer to become a true phantom, a part of the environment itself.

Roleplaying Defense:

  • Losing a Tracker: A skilled ranger or monstrous beast is hunting you, relentlessly following your trail through the muddy forest.
    • Roleplay: “He’s good, I’ll give him that. But he’s tracking footprints, and I’m not leaving any. I can feel the roots on my soles working with every step, pulling the mud and leaves back into place, erasing my passage. To him, it will look as if my trail simply… ends in the middle of this clearing. While he casts about in confusion, I’ll use Earthen Meld, sinking into the soft soil at the base of a tree. I will become the ground he is searching, completely invisible until the danger has passed.”

Roleplaying Offense:

  • Stalking Unseen: You are the one doing the hunting. Your prey is a magically-aware creature that is highly sensitive to sound and vibration.
    • Roleplay: “This beast can hear a heartbeat from fifty yards. A direct approach is impossible. I will spend an hour moving through its territory, a ghost in the undergrowth. The Still Path ensures no twig snaps, no leaf crunches. I can get within striking distance, not by being fast, but by being an absence. I will be so close that when I finally choose to make a sound—the drawing of my bowstring—it will be the last thing it ever hears.”
  • Setting a Trap: You need to lure a monster into a specific location, but it’s too clever to be led.
    • Roleplay: “It won’t follow us. So I will make it think we are already gone. I will use the boots’ Traceless Step to walk our entire party’s trail backwards, erasing our tracks from the entrance of this dead-end canyon. Then, we will use Earthen Meld to hide ourselves within the canyon walls. The monster, finding the trail gone cold, will assume we have moved on and will wander into the canyon to rest, thinking it is now a safe place. The trap is not the canyon; it is the monster’s own assumption of safety.”

3. On a Chaotic Battlefield

Amid the clash of armies, the boots provide unparalleled tactical mobility, allowing the wearer to dictate the terms of engagement.

Roleplaying Defense:

  • Escaping a collapsing Front Line: You are engaged with an enemy warrior when a cavalry charge breaks through your flank. You are about to be trampled.
    • Roleplay: “There is no time to disengage and run. I shove the warrior back to create a sliver of space, then activate Rooted Stride. In a single, explosive burst that doesn’t draw an attack, I surge sideways, clearing 60 feet and putting a line of my own spearmen between me and the charging horses. I have gone from certain death to a safe, fortified position in a single bonus action.”

Roleplaying Offense:

  • Assassinating a Key Target: An enemy wizard is behind a line of armored bodyguards, raining fire down on your allies. He must be stopped.
    • Roleplay: “I can’t fight through his guards. So I won’t. I point him out. ‘Keep them busy!’ I shout. I use my turn to move to the edge of the fray, then activate Rooted Stride. I don’t charge the guards; I use the burst of speed to go around them. The silent, opportunity-attack-free movement lets me bypass his entire frontline. I appear like a phantom at his side, right in the middle of his spellcasting, where he thought he was safest.”

Perception of Activation:

User’s Perspective (The Wearer)

By the Five Senses

  • Sight: A soft, verdant light emanates from your feet, briefly illuminating the ground beneath you. If using Earthen Meld, you see the living roots physically extend from your soles and burrow into the earth, pulling you down. If using Rooted Stride, your peripheral vision blurs into a streak of motion for a split second.
  • Hearing: The world goes quiet for a moment, replaced by a low, organic sound that is felt more than heard—the sound of deep roots stretching and gripping the earth.
  • Touch: This is the most intense sensation. You feel the boots cling to your feet and ankles, becoming a seamless extension of your own body. There is a powerful, controlled lurch as the roots either propel you forward with immense force or pull you down into the ground with irresistible strength.
  • Smell: A clean, potent scent of freshly turned soil and mineral-rich earth fills your senses, regardless of the surface you are standing on.
  • Taste: A fleeting, earthy taste on the tongue, like the air in a deep, damp cave.

By Extra-Sensory Perception

  • Proprioceptive/Kinesthetic: You are overcome with a perfect, momentary sense of balance and an absolute understanding of the ground beneath you. You feel its texture, density, and stability as if it were an extension of your own feet, allowing you to move with flawless confidence.
  • Psionic/Mental: The activation is preceded by a single, clear, instinctual command that seems to blossom in your mind, originating from the boots themselves. It is a one-word impulse that you reflexively obey: MOVE for a burst of speed, or HIDE to sink into the earth.

Positives

  • A thrilling feeling of absolute control over your own movement and position.
  • The ability to perform feats of speed or stealth that feel both impossible and completely natural.
  • A deep sense of security, knowing you can escape nearly any situation or set up the perfect ambush.

Negatives

  • The powerful, involuntary push or pull from the boots can be disorienting the first few times it is used.
  • While using Earthen Meld, the feeling of being held fast and unmovable by the earth can be momentarily claustrophobic.
  • Each activation leaves a faint feeling of physical exertion, a slight strain in the legs as if you had just performed a great feat of athletics.

Observer’s Perspective

By the Five Senses

  • Sight: The effect is startlingly quick. A soft, emerald-green light flares around the wearer’s feet for an instant. If using Rooted Stride, the wearer vanishes from their position and reappears up to 60 feet away in a seamless, fluid blur. If using Earthen Meld, the wearer appears to sink directly into the ground as if it were water, vanishing from sight in a second.
  • Hearing: There is no loud magical crack or whoosh. The only sound is a faint, low thump of displaced earth or a rustle of leaves, often so quiet it is missed entirely in a noisy environment.
  • Touch: If you were touching the wearer, you would feel a sudden, powerful, and unnaturally swift lurch of movement as their leg muscles contract with impossible force.
  • Smell: A faint, clean scent of damp soil and moss might linger in the air for a moment where the wearer activated the ability.
  • Taste: None.

By Extra-Sensory Perception

  • Magical/Aural: Anyone capable of seeing magic would perceive a sharp, contained burst of green energy around the wearer’s feet. The magic feels primal, instinctual, and psionic, registering as Transmutation magic focused on movement. It lacks the complex structure of a prepared spell.
  • Subconscious/Intuitive: For most observers, the effect is too fast to be properly understood. It creates a powerful sense of disorientation, the feeling of having blinked at a critical moment. One moment the person was there, and the next they are over there or simply gone. This makes the wearer seem unpredictable and difficult to track with the eye.

Positives

  • To an ally, it is a sign of the wearer’s incredible tactical skill and mobility, a reliable way to get them into or out of trouble.
  • The activation is quiet and relatively discreet, leaving behind little evidence compared to a teleportation spell.

Negatives

  • The wearer’s ability to defy the normal rules of movement is clearly supernatural and can be deeply unnerving to superstitious onlookers or witch hunters.
  • To an enemy, the wearer is an incredibly frustrating and elusive target, making them a high-priority threat to be immobilized or neutralized with area-of-effect attacks.

Artisan’s Guide: The Traceless Treads

Materials Needed

  • Uppers Component: The expertly cured hide of a Shadow-Pelt Lynx. (Note: This magical beast’s hide naturally absorbs light. To retain this property, it cannot be tanned with traditional chemicals, but must be treated in an herbal solution of crushed nightshade and water drawn from a stagnant, sunless bog.)
  • Living Soles Component: A large, healthy culture of Cave Hush-Moss. (This rare, faintly phosphorescent moss thrives in absolute silence and has natural sound-dampening properties. It must be harvested and worked in a soundless environment, as loud noises can cause it to permanently lose its unique qualities.)
  • Binding Agent: A fist-sized glob of resin from an ancient, elder Treant. (The resin must be a gift, freely given. Resin taken by force or from a dead Treant will be brittle and lack the magical properties needed to bind living moss to cured hide.)
  • Stitching Thread: One spool of thread spun from the Achilles tendon of a Displacer Beast, prized for its strength and reality-bending resilience.
  • Attunement Stone: A single, perfectly smooth river stone taken from a streambed that runs through a magically-enforced zone of silence.

Tools Required

  • Masterwork Cobbler’s and Leatherworker’s Kit: For shaping the rare hide and attaching the living soles without damaging the delicate materials.
  • An Alchemical Mortar and Pestle: For grinding the nightshade and other herbs for the tanning solution.
  • A Lightless, Soundproofed Chamber: This is an absolute requirement for the most critical stage of crafting. The Hush-Moss must be handled and bonded in an environment of complete silence to retain its magic.
  • Bone or Obsidian Needles: Metal needles will ring and vibrate at a microscopic level, disrupting the Hush-Moss. The final stitching must be done with non-metallic implements.

Skill Requirements

  • Mastery in Leatherworking: To shape the Shadow-Pelt hide and stitch it with the difficult Displacer Beast sinew.
  • Expertise in Herbalism: To correctly identify and prepare the Hush-Moss, and to create the specific tanning solution required.
  • Proficiency in Stealth: A crafter must understand the philosophy of silence to imbue the boots with the proper intent. This is a roleplaying requirement; the crafter must be able to move quietly themselves.
  • Profound Patience: The process, especially the pressing of the moss and the silent binding, takes days of slow, meticulous, and completely silent work.

Crafting Steps

  1. Tanning the Uppers: First, the Shadow-Pelt hide is submerged in the alchemical tanning solution for three full days, kept in total darkness to preserve its light-absorbing nature. After tanning, the hide is cut into the patterns for the boot uppers.
  2. Pressing the Soles: This is the most difficult step. Inside the soundproofed chamber, you must take the living Hush-Moss culture and carefully, slowly compress it into the shape of two durable, flexible soles. This process takes at least 24 hours of continuous, gentle pressure. Any sudden movement or loud noise will ruin the moss.
  3. The Silent Binding: While still inside the silent chamber, the Treant resin is gently warmed with ambient body heat until it is pliable. It is then carefully applied as a binding agent between the compressed moss soles and the tanned leather uppers. The pieces must be pressed together and left to cure for another full day in total silence.
  4. The Final Stitch: Once the resin has set, the boots are mostly complete. The final structural integrity is given by meticulously stitching the edges of the moss sole to the leather upper using the Displacer Beast sinew and bone needles. This requires great strength and precision.
  5. The Awakening Ritual: The boots are now constructed but dormant. To awaken their magic, you must place the smooth river stone inside one of the boots. Then, you must take them to a place where your footsteps would be exceptionally loud (a floor of loose gravel, a cave filled with dry leaves). You must put on the boots and walk across this surface, concentrating entirely on the concept of silence and leaving no trace. If the ritual is successful, your steps will fall utterly silent as the psionic link between you, the stone, and the living soles is forged. The boots are now active.

Wanderer’s Footsteps and Beast of Many Ears

Hear this telling of a time that was, of a man who loved the green world, but whose love was a great sorrow. He was called the Wanderer, for he never had a home, only a path. When he walked in the forest, his heart was happy, but his feet were sad. For his feet sang a loud song of broken twigs and crushed leaves. He was a good hunter, but his coming was known to all things. He could not look upon the deer drinking from the stream, for the sound of his walking was a warning. And this was his sadness.

In this age, a great trouble awoke. From a deep hole under the oldest mountain came the Beast of Many Ears. The stories say it was blind, for it had no eyes in its head. But the ground was its eye, and the wind was its servant. Its ears were not two, but a hundred, like the petals of a great flower, and they could hear a mouse’s heart beat from across a valley. When a creature took a step, the Beast felt the talk of the ground and knew its path. It was a great hunter, for no creature could flee, and no creature could hide. The Great Forest became a quiet and fearful place, for all things were afraid to move.

The Wanderer saw the fear in the forest, and his liver grew heavy. He knew he must hunt this hunter. But his own feet were loud traitors. How could he walk a path the ground could not feel? He remembered the old lore, the teachings of the first Veridian. He remembered the forty-fifth verse of the Great Poem of Being, which spoke of the Still Path. To walk the Still Path, one must not force the world to move, but ask it for passage.

The verse spoke of a tree, the Silencior Tree, which grew at the heart of the world, in a place called the Soundless Vale. The Wanderer sought this place. His journey was long. He had to cross the Screaming Peaks, where a single loud noise would make the snow-that-cuts come down in a great white anger. He had to cross the Whispering Marshes, where the reeds would tell your secrets to the water-spirits if you disturbed them. He learned to move as the smoke moves, as the shadow moves.

At last he came to the Soundless Vale. The air in that place was thick and heavy, for it held all the sounds that had never been made. For other men, this great quiet was a madness that would break the mind. For the Wanderer, it was a great peace. He had found the end of his own sad noise. In the center of the vale stood the Silencior Tree. Its leaves made no sound in the wind. Its bark was smooth like a river stone. It was a tree made of quiet.

The Wanderer stood before it. He did not speak. He did not pray. He did as the forty-fifth verse instructed. He took forty-five breaths. Each breath was slower, quieter than the one before it. On the forty-fifth breath, he became as quiet inside as the vale was outside. The tree, feeling his still spirit, knew his purpose was true. It did not speak, but it lowered a branch, and from the branch hung a bundle of its living roots, woven together like a net. The roots hummed with a song that could not be heard, but could be felt. A song of silence.

The Wanderer took the roots and wove them onto the bottoms of his soft boots. He now had feet that knew the forty-fifth verse.

He returned to the Great Forest. He walked now, and the leaves did not cry out beneath his feet. He walked, and the mud did not remember his passing. He was a man made of quiet. He went to the den of the Beast of Many Ears. The great beast was sleeping, its hundred ears twitching, listening to the dreams of the fearful forest.

The Wanderer walked to its side. He was as a shadow, a thought, a thing that was not there. He stood beside its great head. He did not draw a knife. He did not lift a spear.

He lifted his foot.

And with all his purpose, with all the will of the quiet man who wished to walk without sorrow, he brought his foot down upon a stone. THUMP.

One sound. A single, willed, purposeful sound.

The Beast, who could hear a feather fall from a flying hawk a mile away, had not heard the man who stood beside it. The shock of this impossible sound, born from a perfect silence where no sound should be, was a thing its mind could not understand. It was a sound that broke the rules of the world. The old texts say its fierce heart, which was made of hunting and listening, broke from the surprise. And it was so. The great Beast was dead, killed not by a blade, but by a single footstep.

The Moral of the Story: Great power is not in making the loudest noise. Great power is having the choice to make a sound, or to make none at all.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Boots of the Still Path Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)

These soft, dark leather boots are surprisingly durable, reaching up to the mid-calf. Their soles are not made of leather, but a strange, living lattice of fibrous roots that feel cool and pliable.

While you wear these boots, you gain the following benefits:

  • Your steps make no sound, regardless of the surface you move across. You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks that rely on moving silently.
  • You cannot be tracked by nonmagical means. You leave behind no tracks or other traces of your passage.
  • You can move across difficult terrain made of earth, mud, or natural vegetation without expending extra movement.
  • The boots have 3 charges. As a bonus action, you can expend 1 charge to take the Dash action. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks. The boots regain all expended charges daily at dawn.

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Wayfarer’s Silent Treads Strange Artifact

A pair of mid-calf boots made of unusually soft, dark doe-skin. The soles are the most remarkable feature: a compressed, living mat of dark, fibrous roots that seem to subtly writhe when not observed directly. They allow the wearer to move with a silence that is deeply unnatural.

  • Supernatural Stealth: The wearer gains two Bonus Dice on any Stealth roll.
  • Untraceable Passage: The wearer leaves no discernible footprints or tracks on any natural surface (soil, mud, snow, etc.), making non-magical tracking impossible. An entity using supernatural means to track the wearer does so with one Penalty Die.
  • Sudden Evasion: Once per day, the wearer can activate a burst of impossible speed. This allows them to use their full MOV again in a single round, even if they have already done so. This can be used to automatically escape a grapple or to flee an engagement.
  • Sanity Cost: Comprehending the alien, non-Euclidean way the living roots function to erase one’s presence from the world requires a successful Cthulhu Mythos roll, at a cost of 1/1d4 SAN points.

Blades in the Dark

The Echo-Eater Treads Special Gear | Worn | Arcane

A pair of perfectly preserved boots from before the cataclysm, crafted in a way no longer understood. The supple, dark leather is bonded to living root-soles that seem to actively absorb sound and erase the wearer’s passage from the world’s memory. A priceless tool for any thief, spy, or hunter.

  • Perfect Silence: When you wear these boots, you get +1d to Prowl rolls that involve stealth and silence. You do not need to take extra Load for “stealth tools” when on a score that requires quiet infiltration.
  • Untrackable: When another faction attempts to track you or discover your location, you may start a 4-segment clock labeled “Vanished from the Ghost Field.” Any time they succeed on an information-gathering roll or spend Coin to find you, tick the clock once. When the clock is full, your trail has gone permanently cold.
  • Impossible Stride (Costs 2 Stress): Once per score, you can activate the boots’ true power. Describe how you move with an impossible, silent speed to overcome one obstacle without a roll. (e.g., “I use the Impossible Stride to blur past the guard in the hall before he can even turn his head,” or “I activate the Stride to run up a wall and through a high window, escaping the chase.”)

Knave (2nd Edition)

Living Root Boots Footwear

These dark, soft leather boots have strange soles made from a tightly woven mat of living, fibrous roots. They feel cool and damp to the touch.

  • Slots: Occupies 1 inventory slot.
  • Properties:
    • You make no sound when you walk, regardless of the surface.
    • You leave no footprints or tracks when walking on natural ground (soil, snow, mud, sand, etc.).
    • You automatically succeed on any save made to keep your balance or avoid being knocked prone by slipping or tumbling.
    • Once per day, you may move up to three times your normal speed during your turn.
  • Drawback: The living roots require nourishment. The boots must be buried in rich, fertile soil for at least one hour each day. If this is not done, they become simple leather boots and lose all special properties until the requirement is met.

Fate Core System

The Wanderer’s Still Treads

In Fate, a legendary item like this is best represented as a core Aspect of the character, providing both narrative permissions and opportunities for compelling drama, along with a powerful stunt.

New Character Aspect: Walks Without Leaving a Trace This Aspect defines the character’s relationship with movement and the world. They are a ghost, a whisper, a presence that is felt but not seen or heard.

  • Invoking this Aspect: A player can spend a Fate Point to invoke this for a +2 bonus or a reroll on any Stealth roll to move silently, any Athletics roll to navigate treacherous terrain with impossible grace, or any Notice roll when looking for tracks (as they are an expert in hiding their own).
  • Compelling this Aspect: A GM can offer a Fate Point to compel this. For example: “Because you Walk Without Leaving a Trace, your allies have a difficult time following your path through the blizzard, and you risk becoming separated. Or perhaps a superstitious guard captain sees your lack of footprints in the dust and becomes convinced you are a ghost or demon, raising a very different kind of alarm.”

Stunt Granted:

  • Path of Silence: Because I wear The Wanderer’s Still Treads, I have narrative permission to move in complete silence and leave no physical tracks, unless I choose to. Additionally, once per session, I can spend a Fate Point to appear in any location within the current zone, describing how my supernatural speed and silence allowed me to get there unnoticed.

Numenera & Cypher System

Inertial Dampening Treads

This artifact from a prior world takes the form of dark, supple boots made of a synth-fabric that actively absorbs and cancels vibration. The soles are a semi-living material that constantly adapts its texture and grip to the surface below.

  • Level: 6
  • Form: A pair of durable, dark doe-skin boots with adaptive, fibrous soles.
  • Effect: Passively, the wearer’s footsteps are completely silent on all surfaces, and they leave no physical tracks. Any task to move silently or remain balanced is eased.
    • Action: The wearer can trigger a burst of motive force from the boots’ internal power source. This allows them to move a long distance in a single round.
    • Enabler: The wearer can traverse difficult terrain (such as rubble, mud, ice, or steep inclines) as if it were normal ground.
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (Check once per 28 hours of continuous use, or each time the motive burst Action is used.)

Pathfinder (2nd Edition)

Boots of the Silent Step Item 7 Traits: Magical, Invested, Illusion, Transmutation Price: 360 gp Usage: Worn, boots

These soft, dark leather boots feel unusually light. The soles are made of a strange, living root-like material that seems to cling to surfaces without making a sound.

  • Passive: When you wear these boots, you are constantly under the effects of a 2nd-level pass without trace spell, which grants you a +1 status bonus to Stealth checks and makes you difficult to track. The DC to Track you is increased by 10.
  • Passive: You ignore the effects of non-magical difficult terrain.
  • Activate [Free-Action] command; Frequency once per 10 minutes; Trigger You begin your turn; Effect You gain a +10-foot status bonus to your Speeds for 1 round.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

The Ghost-Walker Boots Magical Gear

A pair of perfectly crafted dark leather boots with living, root-like soles. They allow the wearer to move with a supernatural grace and silence, making them a legendary tool for spies and scouts.

  • Pace: The boots increase the wearer’s Pace by +2 and their running die by one step.
  • Silent & Swift: The wearer gains a +2 bonus to all Stealth rolls. They leave no tracks and cannot be tracked by mundane means.
  • Sure-Footed: The wearer ignores penalties for Difficult Ground and automatically succeeds on any roll made to maintain their balance.
  • Burst of Speed (Special Ability): Once per encounter, as a free action, the wearer may double their Pace for one turn. This allows them to easily withdraw from combat or close a great distance to a foe.

Shadowrun, 6th Edition

Ghost-Step Treads Magical Gear

These synth-leather combat boots are a bizarre fusion of technology and magic. The soles are interwoven with living roots from a magically active paracritter, while the interior is lined with mana-conductive fibers that attune to the user’s intent. The result is a pair of boots that allows the wearer to move with a silence that fools both mundane senses and technological sensors.

  • Availability: 15R
  • Cost: 45,000 nuyen
  • Effects:
    • Silent Running: The wearer gains a dice pool bonus of +3 on all Stealth tests. Their footsteps make no sound and they do not leave behind a thermal signature from their feet, rendering them invisible to basic thermal sensors and mundane tracking.
    • Burst of Speed: Once per run, the wearer can activate a surge of magical energy. They may take the Sprint action as a Free Action.
    • Sure-Footed: The wearer gains the Steady Feet positive quality (or +1 die to resist knockdown if they already have it). They are not slowed by difficult terrain.

Starfinder

Phase-Walker Boots Hybrid Item, Level 10 Price: 18,000 credits Slot: Feet Bulk: 1

These sleek, dark boots are crafted from the hide of a phase beast, and their soles are integrated with teleportation-field micro-emitters. They allow the wearer to move with uncanny speed and silence, taking short, nearly instantaneous strides that blur their motion.

  • Bonuses: These boots grant a +3 item bonus to Stealth checks and a +5-foot enhancement bonus to your land speed.
  • Special Properties:
    • You leave no tracks or other traces of your passage. The DC to track you by any means is increased by 10.
    • You can move through difficult terrain as if it were normal terrain.
    • Once per day, as a swift action, you can activate the boots’ phase stride ability. For 1 minute, whenever you use a move action to travel, you can teleport to your destination instead of moving normally. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Inertia-Nullifying Treads Advanced Personal Gear, Tech Level 15

A pair of boots that are a marvel of Ancients-era technology. They contain a sophisticated inertial dampening field generator within their soles, effectively negating the user’s mass in relation to the ground. This results in completely silent and traceless movement. The power source is a miniaturized fusion cell that is nearly impossible to replicate.

  • Cost: Cr 2,500,000 (if found on the open market)
  • Skill Bonus: The boots grant the wearer two Boon dice on all Stealth checks. They also automatically pass any Athletics check made to maintain balance.
  • Silent & Traceless: The wearer’s footsteps are completely silent, and they leave no impression on any surface they walk across. They cannot be tracked by non-psionic means.
  • Zero-Inertia Stride: Once per day, the user may activate the boots’ primary function. They may move up to 50 meters as a free action. This movement ignores difficult terrain and allows them to run up vertical surfaces or across liquids for the duration of the move.
  • Power: The internal power cell has enough energy for approximately 50 activations of the Zero-Inertia Stride. Recharging it requires a TL-15 facility and is extremely expensive.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

Boots of the Moon-Glade Magical Leather Boots

These exquisite boots are crafted from the supple, night-dark leather of a stag from Athel Loren and stitched with thread spun from shadow. It is said the soles were blessed by Lileath herself, allowing the wearer to walk upon the path between moments, unheard and unseen by mortal eyes. They are a treasure of the Asrai, and to be found in human hands is a great crime or a sign of immense favor.

  • AP: 1
  • Locations: Legs
  • Qualities: Magical, Elven-Craft, Silent, Durable
  • Passive Properties:
    • The wearer gains a +10 bonus to their Agility characteristic.
    • The wearer gains a +20 bonus to all Stealth Tests. Furthermore, unless the wearer wishes it, their passage leaves no tracks and makes no sound.
  • Active Ability – Step of the Gloaming: Once per round, the wearer may choose to use this ability when they take a Move action. They may move up to twice their normal Movement and may pass through solid objects as if they were ethereal, so long as they end their movement in an open space. This movement does not provoke Disengage strikes. Using this ability in a round inflicts one Fatigued Condition on the user.