NAME: The Oloyon’s Delving Gauntlets
LORE: The shamans of the Sakha218 clans hold that the Middle World is not merely a surface upon which people walk, but a deep, layered vessel of history and spirit. While many oloyons journeyed up to the sky-realms or down to the worlds of shadow, there was one named Borso who found his calling by journeying inward. Borso was a quiet man who felt the beat of the world’s heart more keenly than the rhythm of any drum. He believed that stone held memories, that clay held the echoes of the hands that shaped it, and that veins of metal sang a song of their birth in the deep fires. He did not dowse for water with a stick; he would lay his hands upon the earth and listen for the murmur of hidden streams. He did not prospect for ore with a pick; he would ask the mountains which of their children they were willing to share. To better focus his unique gift, he crafted a pair of gauntlets from the hide of a great cave bear, an animal that knew the deep places intimately. He stitched them with sinew and reinforced the knuckles and fingertips with fossilized bone from a creature untold ages old. With these gauntlets, Borso led his people to rich, untouched clay pits for their pottery, uncovered the buried tombs of their ancestors without disturbing the spirits within, and found the deep, iron-rich earth that allowed their settlement to forge stronger tools and thrive. Common versions of these gauntlets are now crafted by those who seek to understand the earth not just as dirt to be moved, but as a living library of silent stories.
DESCRIPTION: The Oloyon’s Delving Gauntlets are not the plate armor of a warrior, but the robust hand-coverings of a tireless laborer. They are crafted from thick, dark-brown hide, tough and scarred from use, yet kept supple with applications of rendered fat. The stitching is thick and utilitarian, made of animal sinew. Across the back of each hand, faint circular patterns resembling the surface of a shaman’s drum are tooled into the leather. The knuckles and fingertips are capped with pieces of polished, stone-grey fossilized bone, which feel unnaturally dense and cold compared to the warm, living leather. The gauntlets extend a few inches past the wrist, and a simple leather tie allows them to be secured snugly. They smell of earth, leather, and the faint, mineral scent of a deep cave.
DETAILED STATS: Physical Might (while digging or mining): +1 Environmental Perception (underground): +2 Fatigue Resistance (from manual labor): +3
PASSIVE MAGIC: Song of the Stone: When the wearer touches natural earth, stone, or ore, they receive a constant, low-level tactile and psychic impression of its nature. It is not a detailed analysis, but a feeling. Compacted clay feels “stubborn,” loose soil feels “willing,” solid bedrock feels “asleep and immovable,” and a vein of ore feels “vibrant and resonant.” This allows the user to get a general sense of the material they are about to dig through without needing to strike it first.
Earthly Endurance: The fossilized bone in the gauntlets acts as a conduit, drawing a minuscule amount of stable, grounding energy from the earth below. This energy flows into the wearer’s arms and shoulders, magically soothing the strain of repetitive physical work. The wearer’s muscles tire at a significantly slower rate when performing tasks like swinging a pick, shoveling earth, or hauling rock.
ACTIVABLE MAGIC: Rhythm of the Drumming Earth: Once per day, the avatar can initiate a short ritual by kneeling and placing their gauntleted hands flat on the ground. They must then tap out a slow, deliberate rhythm on the earth for one full minute, mimicking the beat of a great drum. For the next ten minutes, the earth in a 15-foot radius around the avatar becomes strangely cooperative. Loose gravel and soil seem to part more easily for the shovel, soft stone offers less resistance to the pickaxe, and the spiritual cohesion of the immediate area is reinforced, lessening the chance of minor cave-ins or tunnel collapses.
Echo Inquiry: Once per day, the avatar can press their hands against a large stone surface, a cave wall, or the packed earth and enter a brief trance by chanting a quiet question into the gauntlets. They receive a single, symbolic, and silent vision from the “memory” of the earth in response. If searching for a hidden fossil, the vision might be of a swirling vortex, indicating it is inside a concretion. If trying to locate a buried chest, the vision might be of a skeletal hand pointing in a certain direction. The vision is a cryptic clue, not a direct answer, guiding the user’s next efforts.
SLOT: Hands
TAGS: Common, Magical, Leather, Armor, Sakha218, Divine, Roleplay, Tool, Exploration, Shamanistic, Earthen, Digging, Mining, Perception, Endurance, Ritual-Use, Geomancy, Gauntlets
In the world of Saṃsāra, where the ground beneath one’s feet can be a source of wealth, danger, or ancient history, the Oloyon’s Delving Gauntlets are sought after by a specific subset of the working and adventuring populations. They are not sold in the high-end armorories of city centers, but in establishments that cater to those who make their living by disturbing the earth.
THE MOUNTAIN’S ROOT OUTFITTERS
Where: These shops are staples in the wind-battered towns that cling to the foothills of major mountain ranges, serving as hubs for miners, prospectors, and quarry workers. The building is invariably sturdy and practical, constructed from local stone and thick timber. The air inside smells of metal dust, lantern oil, and the damp, clean scent of deep earth. The shelves are laden not with gleaming swords, but with heavy-duty gear: pickaxes with reinforced handles, coils of thick rope, steam-powered drills, canary cages, and stacks of sturdy work clothes.
How: The transaction here is grounded in practicality. The proprietor, often a retired miner with a pragmatic view of the world, knows of the gauntlets and their effectiveness. They may not understand the shamanistic lore, but they have heard firsthand accounts from customers that wearing them means less fatigue and a better “feel” for where a vein of ore might be. They sell the gauntlets as a “luck charm that works.” There is little ceremony; it is a straightforward purchase for a tool that gets results. Haggling is minimal and usually involves trading raw ore or other useful mining equipment rather than coin.
Cost: 9 Silver. This is a fair price for the working class, an investment that can pay for itself in a few good days in the mines.
DEEP-FORGE IRONWORKS
Where: Located in the cavernous, steam-hissing Dwarven or Gnomish quarters of a major metropolis, these forges are a world away from the surface. The air is thick with heat, the smell of burning coal and hot metal, and the constant, rhythmic clang of hammers on anvils. The smiths here are masters of their craft, specializing in items related to stone, metal, and the deep places of the world.
How: A customer seeking the gauntlets here would find them treated with a craftsman’s respect. While not of their own making, the Dwarven smiths recognize the item’s purpose and its attunement to the earth. They see it not as a mystical object, but as a specialized tool that uses a different kind of logic—the logic of stone-spirits rather than geology. The sale would be a serious affair. The smith would ensure the fit is proper and might offer advice on caring for the leather. They guarantee the quality of their wares, and these gauntlets, procured through their own trade networks, are no exception.
Cost: 1 Gold, 3 Silver. The price is higher, reflecting the guarantee of quality, the prime urban location, and the simple fact that the smiths value any well-made item related to their life’s work.
THE LAST LANTERN TRADING POST
Where: Situated on the very edge of an untamed frontier, be it a sprawling jungle hiding ancient ruins or a desolate wasteland rumored to hold forgotten treasures. The “post” is often a fortified wooden stockade, a bastion of society against the wilderness. It is chaotic, muddy, and smells of unwashed adventurers, exotic beasts, and cheap ale. It serves pioneers, explorers, monster hunters, and anyone else daring enough to venture into the unknown.
How: Buying the gauntlets here is an unpredictable experience. The trader is a pure opportunist who might have taken the item off a prospector who met a grim fate in the wilds. They will have a dozen stories about the item’s power, each more exaggerated than the last. The sale is a game of wits and negotiation. The trader would be more than happy to barter, valuing practical goods over coin. A functioning steam-winch, a map of a recently discovered ruin, or a large quantity of potent monster-repellent might be worth more to them than a pouch of platinum.
Cost: The trader will start by asking for an exorbitant price, perhaps 2 Gold. A shrewd negotiator could likely acquire the gauntlets for around 8 Silver, or for a trade of goods that meets the trader’s immediate needs.
THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY PROVISIONER
Where: This is not a public shop, but the quartermaster’s office within the hall of a guild dedicated to archaeology, surveying, or historical research in a major city. The environment is quiet, scholarly, and smells of old paper, preserving oils, and dust. The shelves are obsessively organized, holding delicate brushes, measuring tools, cartography equipment, and carefully cataloged artifacts.
How: The gauntlets are not for sale to the general public. They are procured by the Society for their own field agents. The Society values them not for finding ore, but for their subtle abilities. The “Song of the Stone” and “Echo Inquiry” functions are invaluable for locating fragile, buried artifacts without resorting to destructive blind digging. An independent avatar might be able to acquire a pair only if they are being hired by the Society for a specific expedition and the gauntlets are deemed essential to the mission’s success. The transaction would be a formal issuance, logged in a ledger, and likely with a contractual obligation to return the item upon completion of the job.
Cost: The Society’s internal procurement cost might be around 8 Silver per pair. If they were to sell one to a trusted, long-term contractor as a special favor, they would charge a significant markup to discourage the practice, likely 1 Gold, 5 Silver.
The Oloyon’s Delving Gauntlets are tools of creation and discovery, but in the world of Saṃsāra, any tool can become a weapon or a shield in the right hands. Their power is not in striking blows, but in turning the very ground upon which a conflict takes place into an active participant. The roleplay of their use in defense and offense is one of environmental manipulation and clever, indirect tactics.
IN AN ANCIENT, COLLAPSING TOMB
This environment is claustrophobic, dark, and unstable. Every surface is stone and packed earth, and every sound echoes. Combat here is about controlling choke points and using the crumbling architecture to one’s advantage.
Defensive Roleplay: The avatar and their companions are retreating from a horde of reanimated skeletal guardians down a narrow, rubble-strewn corridor. The path ahead is blocked by a recent cave-in, and the clattering of bone is getting closer. To defend the party, the avatar uses the gauntlets’ passive Song of the Stone. They press their hands against the tunnel walls, ignoring the dust and focusing on the tactile feedback. Their eyes close as they feel the story of the stone: one wall feels solid, “asleep and strong,” but the other feels “brittle and nervous,” a thin facade of rock hiding a hollow space or a pocket of loose sand.
The defensive action is to find an escape where none exists. The avatar yells to their party, “The wall, here! It’s hollow!” Instead of trying to clear the impassable rubble ahead, they direct the group’s efforts to break through the weak point they have discovered. The roleplay is one of calm, focused intuition amidst chaos, using the gauntlets to listen for a secret weakness in the environment, providing a path to safety and transforming a dead end into a defensible doorway.
Offensive Roleplay: Now in a new chamber, the skeletal guardians are pouring through the breach the party just made. The avatar needs to stop the pursuit, permanently. They look up and use Song of the Stone on the ceiling, identifying a large, precariously balanced section of rock directly above the entrance. They then activate Rhythm of the Drumming Earth. They don’t need to touch the ceiling itself; they place their hands on the floor directly beneath it and begin to tap out the shamanistic beat.
The offensive act is a calculated, environmental attack. The faint glow from the gauntlets’ fossil-bone knuckles reflects in the avatar’s determined eyes. The rhythmic pulses of magic travel up through the stone, not with explosive force, but as a sympathetic vibration that resonates with the unstable ceiling. The rock groans and cracks begin to spiderweb across its surface. With a final, loud tap, the weakened section gives way, and tons of rock crash down, sealing the entrance and crushing the skeletal pursuers beneath. The avatar has weaponized the tomb itself.
IN A WIDE, ROCKY BADLANDS
This environment is open, exposed, and rugged. The ground is a patchwork of hard-baked earth, loose scree, and large rock formations. Conflict is about managing lines of sight and using the terrain for cover.
Defensive Roleplay: The avatar’s party is caught in the open by mounted marauders who are circling and taking shots with crossbows. There is no cover in sight, only flat, hard-packed earth and piles of loose rock and gravel. The avatar knows they can’t outrun the mounts, so they must create a defense from nothing. They activate Rhythm of the Drumming Earth, slamming their gauntleted hands onto a wide patch of gravel.
The roleplay is one of desperate, frantic creation. The earth becomes supernaturally compliant. With a shovel or even just their magically protected hands, the avatar begins to move the earth at an impossible rate. They are not just digging a trench but pulling the earth up, shaping it into a solid berm. The gauntlets’ Earthly Endurance passive kicks in, warding off the fatigue of the frantic work. In less than a minute, they have constructed a crescent-shaped earthwork, providing the party with solid cover from the harassing fire of the circling riders.
Offensive Roleplay: The marauders, frustrated by the new earthwork, decide on a direct charge. The avatar sees their path and uses Echo Inquiry. They press their hands to the ground, chanting a quick question not about a lost item, but about the ground’s hidden weaknesses. “Where are you hollow? Where do you hide your traps?” They receive a cryptic vision: a flash of a large, underground lizard’s burrow, long abandoned, directly in the path of the charge.
The offensive tactic is to turn the battlefield into a minefield. The avatar doesn’t need to dig a pitfall; nature has already done it. They simply need to wait for the right moment. As the riders charge, their horses’ weight is too much for the thin layer of earth covering the collapsed burrow. The ground gives way, and the lead horses and riders tumble violently into the hidden cavity. The charge is broken, and the marauders are thrown into chaos, crippled by an attack launched by the earth itself, guided by the shaman’s vision.
Perception of Activation:
SIGHT
User’s Perspective: Positives: When magic is channeled, the circular, drum-like patterns tooled into the leather begin to glow with a steady, deep amber light, like magma seen through a crack in stone. The polished fossil-bone on the knuckles and fingertips does not glow, but instead seems to absorb the light, gleaming with a profound, internal darkness. During an Echo Inquiry, the user’s physical sight is completely replaced by a brief, symbolic vision, which is perfectly clear and vivid regardless of ambient light. Negatives: In darkness, the amber glow is an unmistakable beacon, instantly giving away the user’s position. The vision from an Echo Inquiry is immersive and absolute, rendering the user blind to their physical surroundings for a few critical seconds, making them vulnerable.
Observer’s Perspective: Positives: The visual effect is impressive and deeply primal. The slow, pulsing amber light seems both powerful and controlled, a clear sign of potent earth magic at work. It inspires confidence in allies and can be intimidating to foes unfamiliar with shamanistic traditions. Negatives: The sudden glow is highly conspicuous and immediately identifies the user as a magic-wielder. When the user performs an Echo Inquiry, their eyes go blank and unfocused, making them appear helpless and disconnected from reality, a potential invitation for an enemy to strike.
HEARING
User’s Perspective: Positives: Activation is accompanied by a deep, resonant hum that is felt in the bones as much as it is heard in the mind. The sound is like a powerful, slow drumbeat or the tectonic groan of the earth itself. This sound helps the user focus, attuning them to their task. The “Song of the Stone” passive is a form of psychic hearing, where the nature of different materials translates into distinct tones of this resonant hum. Negatives: The constant, low-frequency hum can be distracting if one is trying to listen for physical sounds like footsteps. When touching a tectonically stressed area or magically corrupted land, the hum becomes a grating, discordant drone that can cause headaches and make it difficult to concentrate on anything else.
Observer’s Perspective: Positives: The sound is almost entirely imperceptible to an observer. If one were to press their ear directly to the ground near the user during the Rhythm of the Drumming Earth activation, they might hear a faint, deep thrumming, like a distant, giant heartbeat. Negatives: The lack of audible sound can be confusing. An observer might see the user wince or appear distracted for no apparent reason, unable to understand the grating psychic noise the user is experiencing.
TOUCH
User’s Perspective: Positives: The primary sensation is one of immense stability. The user feels rooted to the spot, their balance becoming unshakable as if they were part of the bedrock. The leather of the gauntlets grows warm and feels alive against the skin, while the fossil-bone caps become intensely cold, a grounding contrast of living warmth and ancient, stony cold. Negatives: If the user touches a patch of magically unstable ground, they feel a violent, jarring vibration through their entire body, as if they have struck a dissonant chord. Touching earth tainted by profound necromantic or chaotic energy can create a sensation of greasy, spiritual slime seeping through the leather, a deeply unpleasant feeling of contamination.
Observer’s Perspective: Positives: There is no direct tactile perception for an observer. Negatives: There is no direct tactile perception for an observer, though they may notice the user’s posture become uncannily solid and stable, as if their weight had suddenly doubled.
SMELL
User’s Perspective: Positives: The air around the user’s hands fills with the rich, clean scent of petrichor—the smell of fresh rain on dry earth—along with the aroma of cool, deep caves and freshly broken stone. This happens even in a dry or sterile environment, grounding the user in the essence of earth. Negatives: The geomantic sense can translate negative properties into scent. Land that is blighted or poisoned gives off a sour, stagnant odor of rot and decay directly to the user’s senses. Magically corrupted earth might carry the smell of sulfur or industrial sludge.
Observer’s Perspective: Positives: A person standing very close to the user during an activation might catch a faint, pleasant, and clean earthy smell, which can be calming. Negatives: An observer may see the user react with disgust to a smell that no one else can perceive, leading to confusion.
TASTE
User’s Perspective: Positives: A faint but clean, mineral taste fills the user’s mouth, like drinking from a cold, pure underground spring. It is a refreshing sensation that enhances the feeling of connection to the earth’s stable, life-giving properties. Negatives: When analyzing blighted or cursed ground, the user may experience a foul taste of grit, sand, or bitter ash in their mouth, a psychic reaction to the earth’s “sickness.”
Observer’s Perspective: Positives: There is no direct taste perception for an observer. Negatives: There is no direct taste perception for an observer.
EXTRA-SENSORY PERCEPTION: GEOMANTIC SENSE
User’s Perspective: Positives: This is the true “Song of the Stone.” The user perceives the earth as a living, breathing entity. They can feel the internal structure of a rock formation, sense the subtle difference between a load-bearing pillar and a decorative facade, and feel the presence of a hollow space or a dense vein of ore as if it were a physical sensation on their skin. Negatives: The sheer scale of the perception can be overwhelming. Touching the base of a mountain can induce a feeling of being physically crushed by immense weight. Sensing a major fault line can cause extreme vertigo and a dizzying awareness of the catastrophic power held in check beneath their feet.
Observer’s Perspective: Positives: A psionically or magically sensitive observer might feel an aura of profound stability and ancient calm radiating from the user during activation. Negatives: If the user is sensing something immense or unstable, a sensitive observer could be hit with a sudden, inexplicable wave of vertigo, dizziness, or claustrophobia that seems to emanate from the user’s position.
EXTRA-SENSORY PERCEPTION: PSYCHOMETRIC ECHO
User’s Perspective: Positives: During the Echo Inquiry, the user receives a direct, symbolic vision from the earth’s “memory.” The vision is always relevant, providing a vital, metaphorical clue to guide their actions. It is a moment of pure, unadulterated insight. Negatives: The visions are never literal and can be easily misinterpreted. More dangerously, the earth remembers everything. When inquiring about an object lost in a violent event, the user might experience a brief, agonizing echo of the event itself—the fear of a person buried in a cave-in, the heat of a volcanic eruption, or the sorrow of a forgotten battlefield.
Observer’s Perspective: Positives: There is no positive perception for an observer. Negatives: The observer sees the user go rigid, their eyes glazing over. Following the vision, the user might suddenly cry out, stumble, or show signs of intense emotional distress, with no apparent cause. To an ally, it can look as if the user has just suffered a debilitating psychic attack.
Artisan’s Path: The Earth-Singer’s Gauntlets
MATERIALS NEEDED:
Pelt of an Adult Cave Bear: The hide must be sourced from a mature cave bear, known for its resilience and deep connection to subterranean spaces. The thickest sections from the back and shoulders are required.
Five Petrified Knuckle Bones: These must be sourced from a single, large, prehistoric creature found fossilized deep within the earth. The bones should be dense and stone-like, retaining the vague shape of knuckles.
Spool of Giant Spider Silk: Not sinew, but the stronger, more magically conductive silk harvested from mature giant cave spiders. It is needed for all structural stitching.
A Handful of Cave Echo Moss: A rare, phosphorescent moss that grows only in deep caves where a single sound can echo for several minutes. It must be harvested in complete silence and stored in a sound-dampened container.
One Lodestone Nodule: A naturally magnetic piece of iron ore, unshaped and raw, that hums faintly when held. It must be dense enough to feel heavy in the palm.
Deep Boar Tallow: A pot of rendered fat from a wild boar that made its den near a cave system, used for conditioning and waterproofing the final product.
TOOLS REQUIRED:
Heavy-Duty Leatherworking Kit: Includes sharp hide scrapers, cutting knives, sturdy awls, and large, strong needles capable of piercing thick bear hide.
Bone Saw and Polishing Rasps: A fine-toothed saw for cutting the petrified bone and a series of rasps and files for shaping and polishing it.
Leather Tooling Stamps: A set of specialized stamps, including several with smooth, circular faces of varying sizes to create the drum-like patterns.
Shaman’s Mortar and Pestle: A heavy stone mortar and pestle, preferably carved from granite, used for grinding magical components without contaminating them.
Stretching and Tanning Rack: A large, sturdy wooden frame for preparing, softening, and working the bear hide.
SKILL REQUIREMENTS:
Leatherworking (Journeyman): The crafter must be skilled in working with thick, difficult hides. This includes knowledge of patterning, heavy-duty stitching, and setting hard materials like bone into leather.
Geomancy (Basic): A fundamental understanding of earth-based magical properties is necessary. The crafter must be able to handle and prepare magically resonant minerals and flora without destroying their inherent power.
Ritualism (Fledgling): The crafter needs to be able to perform a simple imbuement ritual, focusing their will and the ambient energy of the earth into a physical object to awaken its latent magical properties.
CRAFTING STEPS:
Step 1: Tanning the Hide The cave bear pelt must be scraped, cleaned, and stretched on the tanning rack. It is treated with a mixture of tannins and brain-tanning techniques to render the incredibly thick hide supple enough to be worked, yet tough enough to withstand heavy use. This is a physically demanding process that takes several days.
Step 2: Cutting the Pattern and Shaping the Bone Once tanned, the hide is cut into the precise shapes for the gauntlet’s body, fingers, and cuffs. Concurrently, the petrified knuckle bones are carefully sawn into five caps for the fingertips and five larger, shield-like pieces for the main knuckles. Each piece is then filed and polished until smooth.
Step 3: The Echo Imprint In a quiet workspace, grind the Cave Echo Moss and the Lodestone Nodule together in the shaman’s mortar and pestle. This creates a fine, slightly magnetic, and faintly glowing grey powder. Lay the cut leather pieces for the back of the hands flat. Using the circular tooling stamps, press the drum-like patterns into the leather. Before each impression, dip the stamp into the powder, embedding the magical substance deep into the tooled grooves.
Step 4: Assembly and Bone Setting Begin the most difficult construction phase. Using a heavy awl and the giant spider silk, stitch the bone caps securely onto the fingertip and knuckle sections of the leather. Then, assemble the main body of the gauntlets, using a strong saddle stitch to join the pieces. This process is slow and requires significant strength to pull the needle through the multiple layers of hide and bone settings.
Step 5: The Ritual of Awakening With the gauntlets fully constructed, the final imbuement must occur. The crafter takes the gauntlets to a place of natural, undisturbed earth, preferably at dusk or dawn. They must put on the gauntlets and kneel, placing their hands flat on the ground. For a full ten minutes, they must enter a meditative state, chanting a low, rhythmic verse that speaks of the earth’s strength, patience, and memory. They channel their own will through the gauntlets, coaxing the power of the lodestone and echo moss to attune to the earth below. A successful ritual is marked by a deep, resonant hum that seems to rise from the ground itself, and the drum patterns on the gauntlets will pulse with a faint amber light before fading.
Step 6: Final Conditioning The awakened gauntlets are now magically active. The final step is to liberally apply the Deep Boar Tallow, working it into every seam and surface. This waterproofs the leather, protects the stitching, and gives the gauntlets their final, rugged, and ready-for-work appearance.
BORSO AND HANDS THAT HEARD THE GROUND
It is known from the old tellings that the people of the Red Clay settlement suffered a great stillness. The sky-father turned his face away, and his tears of rain did not fall for a long count of seasons. The ground became a hard, cracked pot. The people’s digging-tools, made of soft iron, broke against the earth’s anger. The earth had closed its fist, and would not give up the water that slept in its veins, nor the hard-metal bones that gave a tool its strength. The people grew thin, and their spirits were low like the evening sun.
The oloyons of that time were great chanters. They sent their voices to the sky, begging for rain. They sent their drum-beats down, to frighten the lower spirits who they thought had stolen the land’s luck. But the sky did not answer, and the ground remained hard.
There was a man among them named Borso, who was also an oloyon, but of a quiet sort. The others looked at him with sideways eyes. Borso did not send his soul to the sky on a ladder of song, nor did he ride a drum-horse into the shadows. He would sit, day after day, with his bare hands pressed to the cracked clay, his eyes closed. He looked like a man listening for the footfalls of a mouse a long way off. The drum-shamans said of him, “His spirit has no wings and no horse. He only speaks to the dirt.”
But in his stillness, Borso’s inner eye saw what the others did not. He saw that the world was not just a sky above and a shadow below, but also a great depth beneath his feet. He saw the layers of rock and soil like pages in a great book of history. He saw the spirits of the stone, the clay, and the sleeping water. And a vision came to him, of the Great Cave Bear, a spirit whose fur was the color of deep earth and whose claws were like iron roots. The vision spoke, not with a voice, but with a feeling: “The ground’s tongue is sleeping. To wake it, your hands must wear the earth’s own hide. They must be given the fingers of ages.”
Borso left the settlement. He traveled to the deep caves where his people feared to go. He did not go as a hunter. He went as a pilgrim. In the deepest chamber, he found the place where the Great Cave Bear spirit slept. There, as the vision had shown, lay the ancient body of a true cave bear, a giant of its kind that had lived many ages ago and had come to this sacred place to die. Its hide was thick and tough as ironwood. Respectfully, Borso took the hide. Then, he began to dig with his bare hands at the floor of the cave. For three days he dug, until he found what the vision had promised: the knuckle bones of a creature from the First Age, a titan so large its fingers were like small boulders. The bones were no longer bone, but stone, hard and grey.
He returned and worked through one turning of the moon. He softened the great hide with fats and river water. He cut and stitched it with the sinew of a great stag. He carefully shaped the stone-bones and fixed them to the knuckles and fingertips of the hide-hands he made. When he was done, he had not made a warrior’s gauntlets, but a listener’s tools.
Borso put on the gauntlets. He went to the center of the settlement and placed his new hands upon the hard, cracked earth. And what happened then was a great wonder to him. Before, he had felt only hardness. Now, through the hide of the bear and the bones of the titan, he felt the world’s true texture. He felt the sad, tired spirit of the dry clay. He felt the deep, stubborn spirit of the bedrock far below. It was a kind of hearing with the skin, a song of substance. He turned his head, and he walked, with his hands held low, sweeping them over the ground. He was listening for a different song.
The people watched him, thinking his sadness had finally broken his mind. He walked for a long time, until he stopped in a place that looked no different from any other barren place. He knelt. “Here,” he said, his voice soft. “Here, the deep water sings its sleeping song.”
The people dug. Their soft iron tools scraped and bent. They dug for days, finding only more hard clay. They began to curse Borso’s name. Borso said nothing. He knelt again, and placing his gauntleted hands on the bottom of the dry pit, he began to tap. He tapped a slow, patient rhythm, like a deep and steady heartbeat. He was not striking the ground; he was waking it. And the hard clay began to soften. It became willing. It crumbled easily before their tools. They dug again, and soon there was a sound, a wet sound, and then water, pure and cold, gushed up from the deep earth. The people cried with joy.
But Borso was not done. He told them, “The earth has given us its life-water. Now we must ask for its bones.” He walked out toward the hills, his hands held out, listening again. He walked past veins of soft rock and crumbly stone. Then he stopped, his head cocked. He pointed to a hillside. “There,” he said. “The song of hard-metal is very loud there. The earth is proud of these bones and sings of their strength.”
The people dug where he pointed, and the digging was easy. They soon found a great vein of iron ore, dark and rich, stronger than any they had known. With it, they forged new tools that did not break, and plows that could turn the hard earth. The settlement of the Red Clay grew strong again, all because one man chose to listen not to the sky, but to the ground he stood upon.
Moral of the story: The answers to thirst and hunger are not always in the empty sky above, but often in the full ground below, if you only have the right hands to listen.
Suggested conversions to other systems:
CALL OF CTHULHU
GLOVES OF THE LOMINSAN SHAMAN
These appear to be crude, heavy leather work gloves, though the leather is of an unidentifiable tough hide and the knuckles are capped with fossilized bone of some prehistoric creature. They are artifacts of the shadowy and little-understood Lominsan culture, a people rumored to have dug great cities beneath the mountains of central Asia in ancient times and to have trafficked with inhuman entities from below.
GAME MECHANICS:
Geological Insight: The wearer gains a bonus die on any Geology or Archaeology roll. Furthermore, by placing a gauntleted hand on a wall or floor, the Investigator can make a Listen roll to determine if the space beyond is hollow, solid, or filled with liquid. This offers no clue as to what might be in the hollow space.
Supernatural Endurance: Once per day, the wearer may re-roll a failed Pushed skill roll for any Strength-based test involving manual labor (digging, breaking down a door, etc.).
Ritual of Softening Earth: The Investigator can spend 10 minutes and 5 Magic Points to perform a ritual on a patch of earth or soft stone up to 10 feet square. For the next hour, the material becomes loose and easy to excavate, halving the time required for any digging.
Subterranean Inquiry: This is the gloves’ most dangerous function. The Investigator can press their hands to the earth and make a Cthulhu Mythos roll to ask a question about something lost or buried nearby.
- Success: A cryptic, fleeting vision provides a clue (e.g., an image of a struggle, a glimpse of a strange symbol). The glimpse into the earth’s buried horrors costs the Investigator 1d3 SAN.
- Failure: The Investigator’s mind plunges into the aeons-old darkness beneath the earth, witnessing visions of buried cities of non-Euclidean geometry or feeling the psychic pressure of the Great Old Ones sleeping below. The Investigator gains no useful information and loses 1d8 SAN.
BLADES IN THE DARK
EARTH-SINGER’S GAUNTLETS (Fine, Occult, Tool)
A pair of heavy leather gauntlets, stitched with sinew and capped with petrified bone. They feel cold and heavy, like holding stones. They are sometimes used by reclusive cults who dig for pre-cataclysmic artifacts in the Deathlands or by crews planning to tunnel into secure vaults.
GAME MECHANICS:
Passive Ability: You get +1d to your tier when acquiring specialized digging assets or hiring a crew of excavators. When you Survey a location, you can always ask “What is the most fragile or easily destroyed structural element here?”
Ignore Fatigue: When you face a consequence from overexertion or physical fatigue (such as from a Desperate roll while engaged in heavy labor), you can choose to ignore it. This ability can be used once per score.
Ritual of the Drumming Earth: This is a setup action. When you are preparing to infiltrate a location by going under or through its foundations, you can lead a short ritual. The crew gains +1d to its subsequent group action roll for the infiltration, be it Wreck to smash through a wall or Finesse to tunnel silently.
Attune to the Under-Ode: You can use the gauntlets to Attune to the echoes in the stone and soil. You can ask the GM a question about what is hidden or buried in your immediate vicinity. The answer will be a single, sensory feeling: the “cold dread” of a buried corpse, the “hungry greed” of a hidden treasure vault, the “skittering fear” of a creature’s lair. You must pay Stress equal to the obscurity of the answer (1-3 Stress, at the GM’s discretion).
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
BORSO’S GAUNTLETS OF THE DEEP (Wondrous item, common, requires attunement)
These thick, dark-brown hide gauntlets are reinforced with polished, fossilized bone over the knuckles and fingertips. While wearing them, you feel a deep, grounding connection to the earth, and the strain of physical labor seems to fade.
Stonecunning. While wearing these gauntlets, you have advantage on any Wisdom (Perception) check made to spot unusual stonework, such as secret doors, traps, or structural weaknesses in a wall or ceiling.
Tireless Labor. You have advantage on any Constitution saving throw made to avoid suffering levels of exhaustion as a result of physical labor or a forced march.
Rhythm of the Compliant Earth. As an action, you can touch a 5-foot cube of nonmagical, unfinished earth or stone. For the next minute, that section of earth becomes as easy to dig through as loose sand. This effect ends if the targeted area takes any damage.
Echoing Inquiry. Once per day, you can use an action to press the gauntlets to the ground or a stone structure. You cast the locate object spell, but the spell can only locate objects that are made of stone or metal, or objects that are fully enclosed within stone or earth.
KNAVE
DELVER’S MITTS (1 inventory slot)
A pair of tough, hide work gloves with large, grey knuckle-bones stitched onto them. They feel heavy, like you’re already holding stones.
- Earth-Sense: You can automatically tell if a section of wall, floor, or ceiling is unstable, hollow, or load-bearing just by touching it.
- Tireless: When performing strenuous manual labor like digging or mining, you make any associated saves to resist fatigue with Advantage.
- Soften Ground: If you spend a full turn concentrating and tapping the ground, a 10-foot by 10-foot area of dirt, clay, or soft stone becomes loose and can be excavated in half the normal time. This effect lasts for one hour.
- Find the Lost: Once per day, you may press your hands to the ground and ask the referee, “What is the most direct path to [name of a specific underground location or known buried object]?” The referee will place a spectral, glowing handprint, visible only to you, on the surface pointing in the correct general direction. The handprint fades after one minute.
FATE
THE HANDS OF THE EARTH-SINGER
This item is an Extra, representing a pair of unique gauntlets that attune the wearer to the voice of the earth.
ASPECT: My Hands Hear the Stone’s Story
DESCRIPTION: Thick, tough hide gauntlets capped with fossilized bone. They feel ancient and heavy, and when worn, the world’s deep, slow pulse becomes faintly perceptible.
MECHANICS:
Permission: Because you have The Hands of the Earth-Singer, you can perceive and interact with the spirits of mundane earth and stone. You can attempt to persuade, bargain with, or intimidate these geological spirits.
Create an Advantage with Will: When you take time to survey your surroundings by placing your hands on the ground or a stone structure, you can use your Will skill to Create an Advantage. A success could create aspects like This Wall Remembers a Secret Door, The Foundation is Unstable Here, or A Rich Vein of Ore Sleeps Below.
Overcome Obstacles with Rapport: Once per session, you may attempt to bypass a physical barrier of natural earth or unworked stone (such as a rockfall or a sealed cave entrance) by making a special Overcome action with your Rapport skill. You are not moving the obstacle, but persuading its spirit to grant you passage, causing a temporary opening to form just long enough for you and your allies to pass through. The GM sets the difficulty based on the obstacle’s size and stubbornness.
Compel the Earth’s Pain: The GM can offer you a Fate Point to compel your aspect. When you are in an area that has been grievously wounded by strip-mining, chaotic magic, or a great cataclysm, you feel the earth’s pain. You might be overcome by a wave of sorrow and be forced to either stop and attempt to soothe the area with a ritual, or suffer a penalty to your next action as you fight off the psychic distress.
NUMENERA & CYPHER SYSTEM
GEOMANTIC HAPTIC GAUNTLETS
LEVEL: 4 FORM: A pair of heavy gauntlets made from a leathery, genetically engineered hide, with dense, polished plates of fossilized material over the knuckles. EFFECT: These gauntlets were likely a form of advanced terraforming or excavation equipment from a prior world. They create a haptic and psychic link between the user and any terrestrial mass they touch.
- Passive Geological Analysis: The difficulty of any task related to identifying minerals, understanding geological formations, finding structural weaknesses in stone, or predicting cave-ins is decreased by one step.
- Action: The user can touch a 10-foot by 10-foot area of earth, clay, or soft rock (level 4 or lower). The gauntlets emit a localized vibratory field that destabilizes the material’s cohesion, making it as easy to excavate as loose soil for the next hour.
- Action: The user can initiate a psychometric scan. They become aware of the direction and approximate depth of the most significant metallic deposit or hollow space within a short distance.
- Action to Initiate: The user can attempt to gain a brief, cryptic vision about a specific object they know to be buried or hidden within a stone structure they are touching. The difficulty of this Intellect-based task is equal to the level of the structure or the obscurity of the object.
DEPLETION: 1 in 1d20 (When an Action effect is used)
PATHFINDER
DELVER’S GAUNTLETS OF BORSO (ITEM 2) COMMON, DIVINATION, MAGICAL, TRANSMUTATION Usage: Worn Gauntlets; Bulk 1
These gauntlets are made of thick, scarred hide and capped with polished fossilized bone. They feel preternaturally heavy and instill a sense of deep, geological time in the wearer.
You gain a +1 item bonus to Athletics checks made to Climb on surfaces of earth or stone, and you are not slowed by difficult terrain caused by rubble or uneven earth.
Activate—Earthen Meld [two-actions] (concentrate, magical, transmutation) Frequency: once per hour Effect: You press your hands against a surface of unfinished earth or stone. You move up to 5 feet into the substance. This movement does not provoke reactions. You can’t see, hear, or be targeted by anything outside the substance, and you can’t end your turn inside it. If you do not exit the substance on the turn you enter it, you are violently shunted to the nearest open space, taking 2d6 bludgeoning damage.
Activate—Stone’s Tale [ten-minutes] (concentrate, divination, magical) Frequency: once per day Effect: You place your hands upon the ground or a stone structure and concentrate. You gain a brief, symbolic vision related to a single, significant event that has occurred in that spot within the last week, as if you had cast the Augury spell, but you can only ask about a past event.
SAVAGE WORLDS
ROCK-READER GLOVES
A pair of thick, hide gauntlets reinforced with what looks like polished grey stones over the knuckles. They are surprisingly flexible and seem to hum with a low energy when near large rock formations.
GAME MECHANICS:
- Natural Explorer: The wearer gains a +1 bonus to any Athletics (climbing) or Survival roll made while underground or in a mountainous region.
- Earth Mover: The wearer is immune to mundane Fatigue from sources of physical labor, such as digging, mining, or hiking.
- Find the Flaw: By spending an action to examine a stone structure (a wall, a natural bridge, a statue), the user can automatically identify its weakest point. A successful attack against this point with a suitable weapon (a pick, a sledgehammer, an explosive) adds a +4 bonus to the damage roll.
- Ground Sense: Once per session, the user can spend a full turn concentrating with their hands on the ground. They become aware of the location of all living creatures in contact with the ground within a Large Burst Template centered on themselves, though it does not reveal their identity.
SHADOWRUN
GEOMANTIC HARMONIZER GAUNTLETS (GEOMANCY FOCUS, FORCE 2)
A pair of magically active gloves crafted in the tradition of Yakut shamanism. They are not flashy, appearing as tough, hide work gloves with strange, fossil-like plates on the knuckles. They allow a shaman to attune to the man-made and natural “earth” of the urban environment, feeling the stress in concrete and the flow of mana through the ground.
GAME MECHANICS:
As a Focus: The gauntlets are a Force 2 Geomancy Focus. A shaman following an earth-attuned tradition can activate the focus to gain its Force in bonus dice (2 dice) to any spell from the Detection category used to locate hidden objects or analyze structures (such as Detect Object or Analyze Device).
Structural Perception: The wearer gains a constant intuitive sense of their surroundings’ structure. They gain 1 point of Edge on any Perception test made to find hidden compartments, structural weaknesses, or hollow spaces in walls, floors, and other structures.
Fatigue Resistance: The wearer’s connection to the grounding energy of the earth provides stamina. When the character takes Stun damage from fatigue (from a chase, strenuous work, etc.), the damage taken is reduced by an amount equal to the Focus’s Force (2 boxes).
Resonant Destabilization: As a Complex Action, the wearer can make a Sorcery + Magic (3) Test while touching a section of non-living material like rock, concrete, or packed earth. Success destabilizes a one-cubic-meter section. For the next minute, any attempt to physically break through that section gains a 2-dice bonus to the relevant attribute + skill test.
STARFINDER
GLOVES OF THE LITHOVORE (MAGIC ITEM, LEVEL 3) PRICE 1,500 credits; BULK 1
These heavy gloves are made from the hide of some unknown creature, with polished meteorite fragments reinforcing the knuckles and fingertips. They were discovered in a pre-Gap ruin on a remote world, believed to be the ritual tools of a shamanistic culture that communed directly with the geology of their planet.
GAME MECHANICS:
Engineer’s Insight: The wearer gains a +4 circumstance bonus on Engineering checks made to analyze or disable traps, secret doors, or other devices built into stone or earth structures.
Tireless Laborer: Once per day, when you would gain the fatigued condition from a source of nonlethal physical exertion (such as a forced march or digging), you can attempt a DC 10 Fortitude save to ignore the effect completely.
Matter Disruption: Once per day as a standard action, you can touch an object or structure made of stone, earth, or a technological equivalent like concrete or standard plastics. The target’s Hardness is treated as 5 lower than normal for the next minute. This has no effect on magical or supernatural materials.
Psychometric Echo: Once per day, you can spend one minute concentrating while touching a stone or metal object. You receive a single, cryptic visual image representing the last creature to have touched that object within the past 24 hours. The image is symbolic, not a clear portrait (e.g., a flash of a corporate logo, the glint of a Vesk’s scales, the shadow of a kasatha’s four arms).
TRAVELLER
HAPTIC-RESONANCE PROSPECTOR’S GLOVES (SURVEY GEAR, TL 15)
These appear to be rugged work gloves, but are in fact a sophisticated piece of survey equipment. The synth-hide fabric is interwoven with a microscopic sensor mesh, and the knuckle guards contain powerful sonic emitters and receivers. They allow a user to perform detailed geological analysis simply by touching a surface.
GAME MECHANICS:
Geological Scan: The gloves provide DM+2 on any Science (Geology) or Engineer (civil) check. By touching a surface, the user can get a detailed reading of material density, composition, and structural integrity, which is displayed on an integrated screen on the back of the glove.
Fatigue Dampening System: The gloves contain kinetic dampeners and a micro-stimulant delivery system. The wearer ignores any negative DMs from fatigue caused by physical labor for up to 12 hours of continuous use. The gloves must be recharged for 6 hours after use.
Resonant Breach: The gloves can focus their sonic emitters on a single point of a wall or structure. After one minute of continuous application, the material (rock, concrete, standard alloys of TL10 or less) becomes brittle. Any subsequent attempt to breach that single point gains DM+4.
Molecular Echo: The gloves’ sensor suite can detect and analyze lingering molecular traces. Once per day, the user can scan a surface to attempt to identify the last substance or species to have made significant contact with it. This is an Average (8+) Recon check, with success providing a chemical breakdown or a species profile if one is on file in the ship’s computer.
WARHAMMER FANTASY ROLEPLAY
DWARFBOND GAUNTLETS ENC: 10
Though of human (likely Ungol) origin, these thick hide gauntlets with polished granite knuckles are highly prized by Dwarf prospectors and tunnel fighters. They believe the gloves “speak the stone’s tongue,” an idea that other races find foolish, but that Dwarfs treat with grudging respect.
GAME MECHANICS:
Stone-Sense: The wearer gains a +10 bonus on all Perception Tests related to stonework. This includes finding secret passages, spotting structural weaknesses, or noticing the subtle signs of a trap. When interacting with Dwarfs on matters of mining, stonework, or delving, the wearer gains a +1 Success Level bonus on relevant social Tests, as the Dwarfs appreciate the tool’s utility.
Unflagging: The wearer automatically passes any Endurance Test required to resist gaining Fatigue from marching, digging, or other forms of prolonged physical labor. They must still rest and sleep as normal.
Find the Flaw: By spending a full round examining a stone wall or earthen barrier, the wearer can make an Average (+20) Intuition Test. If successful, they find the weakest point. For the next minute, any character attempting to damage that specific point adds a +10 bonus to their Melee or Ranged Test.
Grave-Memory: Once per day, the wearer may place their hands on the ground in a place of great significance (a battlefield, a tomb, a site of a ritual). They receive a brief, visceral, and emotional flash of the event that took place there. They must immediately make a Challenging (+0) Cool Test or gain 1 Corruption point from the raw psychic echo.