Lore
This item is said to have been first crafted by a cliff-dwelling surveyor caste that mapped unstable mountain chains by walking their edges rather than climbing them. They learned that stone speaks through pressure, and that air carries the memory of weight. The artifact was developed to “listen” to landforms without touching them, allowing geologic readings to be taken even across ravines or fault lines. Over time, wandering geomancers adopted it not only for study but for survival, as the winds it commands respond instinctively to shifts in mass, density, and subterranean movement. It is considered a humble but respected tool among stone-readers and faultwalkers.
Item Type and Slot
• Slot: Waist or Harness Slot
• Appearance: A layered stone-and-bronze medallion suspended in a loose gyroscopic frame, with thin veins of pale crystal floating between its rings. The crystals slowly rotate as if responding to invisible slopes beneath the wearer’s feet.
• Rarity: Common
• Tier: 1
Base Stats
• Weight: Negligible when worn
• Attunement: Required
• Activation Type: Passive and Active
• Durability: High (stone-based, resistant to shock)
Skills Gained While Openly Worn
• +1 to geological assessment, terrain reading, or structural analysis
• +1 to detecting unstable ground, faults, sinkholes, or hollow spaces
• Enables basic interpretation of wind behavior near rock formations, cliffs, or underground voids
Passive Magical Effects
• Stone Sense: The wearer constantly perceives subtle vibrations through air pressure changes, allowing instinctive awareness of unstable ground or shifting terrain within a short distance.
• Weight Buffer: The wearer’s effective weight is slightly reduced when standing on stone, gravel, or packed earth, reducing fatigue and improving balance.
• Drift Alignment: The item naturally aligns its internal crystal toward the direction of least resistance in terrain, subtly guiding movement along safer paths.
Activatable Magical Effects
- Faultlift Pulse
Activation: Concentration, brief gesture
Effect: The wearer becomes partially buoyant for several seconds, allowing them to step across gaps, unstable rubble, or sloped stone as though walking on firm ground. This does not allow flight, only controlled reduction of downward force. - Strata Reading
Activation: Focused stillness for several breaths
Effect: The wearer gains a momentary mental image of underground layers, faults, or cavities within a short radius. This reveals weaknesses, hollow spaces, or buried stone features but not exact contents. - Stone-Drift Guard
Activation: Reactive
Effect: A brief cushion of directed air deflects falling debris or stabilizes footing during cave-ins, landslides, or collapsing terrain. Reduces physical impact and prevents being knocked prone.
Tags
windbound, levitation-assisted, terrain-reader, geomantic, pressure-sense, fault-aware, stone-guided, passive-buoyancy, structural-attunement, surveyor-tool, elemental-air, subsurface-sense, cliffsafe, tremor-aware, terrain-flow, weightless-step, rockwise, geostable, earth-listening, pressure-guided, faultline-attuned, drift-balanced
How the Item Is Obtained:
• Field Discovery
The most common way this item enters circulation is through geological expeditions. It is often recovered from collapsed survey shrines, abandoned cliffside observatories, or old fault-monitoring pylons left behind by early geomancers. These locations are usually dangerous to reach, which keeps the item’s availability low despite its common classification.
• Crafted by Stone-Readers
Some are deliberately made by wind-callers who specialize in geological mapping. These artisans require access to naturally levitating stone fragments or wind-stabilized crystals found near fault lines, floating mesas, or pressure vents. The crafting process involves aligning the item during a period of strong atmospheric flow, often at altitude or near tectonic movement.
• Passed Down Through Survey Orders
Many are inherited by apprentice geomancers or explorers from mentors who no longer travel. These items often show signs of wear, surface smoothing, or slight drift imperfections that indicate long-term use rather than recent creation.
• Traded by Caravans That Cross Dangerous Terrain
Merchants who operate in mountainous or unstable regions sometimes carry these as survival tools rather than luxury items. They may sell them reluctantly, often only when supplies or protection are needed in exchange.
Types of Shops and Where the Item Is Found
• Geological Supply Houses
These are specialty shops located near mines, mountain passes, or fault-heavy regions. They sell surveying tools, resonance rods, pressure gauges, and wind-stabilized gear.
The item is usually displayed inert, with a shopkeeper explaining its purpose rather than activating it.
Typical Cost: 8–14 silver, depending on condition and calibration quality.
• Windwright or Levitation Workshops
Found in cities with airship docks or floating infrastructure. These shops specialize in wind manipulation tools, levitation harnesses, and atmospheric instruments.
The item may be sold as a “terrain stabilizer” rather than a magical artifact.
Typical Cost: 10–16 silver, higher if the internal crystal is well-balanced or recently tuned.
• Surveyor Guild Exchanges
Not open to the public. Members may trade service credits or geological data in exchange for equipment.
These versions are usually well-maintained but not decorative.
Effective Cost: Equivalent to 6–10 silver or a completed field survey.
• Border Town Traders
In settlements near cliffs, canyons, or seismic regions, the item may appear among survival gear.
Often mislabeled as a climbing charm or balance talisman.
Typical Cost: 12–18 silver due to scarcity and misunderstanding of its true function.
• Relic Resale Markets
Occasionally found among old expedition gear or estate liquidations.
These pieces often show signs of heavy use but still function reliably.
Price fluctuates widely based on perceived authenticity: 5–20 silver.
How It Is Bought and Sold
• Transactions are usually done in person due to the need to demonstrate stability and responsiveness.
• Buyers often test the item by placing it near uneven stone or sloped flooring.
• Sellers rarely allow activation indoors unless the space is reinforced.
• The item is commonly bundled with climbing gear, survey notes, or terrain maps rather than sold alone.
Cultural Notes on Trade
• In many regions, selling one without explaining its limitations is considered dishonest but not illegal.
• Some guilds mark authentic pieces with subtle etchings that indicate safe calibration.
• A poorly tuned example is more dangerous than useful and may be sold cheaply to unsuspecting travelers.
This item is considered common not because it is abundant, but because it is well understood, widely applicable, and reproducible by trained hands within the world of Saṃsāra.
Roleplay in different environments:
• Mountainous or Cliffside Environments
Defense:
The wearer instinctively shifts their weight as the circlet reads subtle wind deflections and stone tension. When rockslides begin or footing gives way, the item lightens the avatar just enough to prevent being dragged or crushed. Loose gravel behaves as if packed, and sudden drops feel muted rather than lethal. The avatar appears unnaturally sure-footed, stepping where others would hesitate.
Offense:
The avatar can maneuver along sheer faces or unstable ledges to gain superior positioning. By triggering brief buoyancy at the right moment, they can leap across gaps, strike from above, or force enemies into unstable ground where their own weight betrays them. Against grounded foes, collapsing footing or dislodging stone becomes a tactical advantage rather than a risk.
• Caverns and Subterranean Spaces
Defense:
The circlet hums faintly when pressure shifts occur, warning of cave-ins or hollow spaces. The avatar reacts before cracks widen, stepping into zones of relative stability. Falling debris is softened by directed airflow, preventing full impact and allowing escape routes to be found quickly.
Offense:
The wearer can sense weak ceiling strata or unstable walls and position themselves to trigger controlled collapses. Enemies unfamiliar with the terrain find themselves trapped or disoriented as the avatar moves with confidence through areas that feel treacherous to others.
• Open Plains and Rocky Wastes
Defense:
Strong winds are subtly redirected around the avatar, reducing drag and fatigue. Sudden gusts that would knock others down are absorbed and bled off through the circlet’s levitation field. The wearer remains steady even during dust storms or seismic tremors.
Offense:
By reading wind flow and terrain slope, the avatar positions themselves to strike with momentum. Enemies charging uphill or against the wind find themselves slowed or off-balance, while the wearer moves as if assisted by the terrain itself.
• Urban or Ruined Environments
Defense:
Collapsed buildings, broken stonework, and unstable floors become less dangerous. The circlet detects weak structural points, allowing the avatar to avoid falling through floors or being caught in cave-ins. When debris falls, the impact is softened and redirected.
Offense:
The avatar can navigate rooftops, broken stairways, and ruined corridors with ease, using verticality to outmaneuver opponents. Strikes delivered from above or from unstable terrain become unexpectedly precise and difficult to counter.
• Underground Cities or Stone Megastructures
Defense:
Constant low-level vibration detection allows the avatar to anticipate shifts in massive structures. This grants protection from sudden collapses, tremors, or shifting platforms.
Offense:
By exploiting pressure points and airflow currents, the avatar can force enemies into unstable zones or use falling stone and structural movement as indirect weapons.
• Airborne or Levitation-Based Environments
Defense:
The circlet stabilizes the avatar against sudden altitude changes, preventing vertigo or uncontrolled descent. Even on floating platforms or airships, the wearer maintains balance as if standing on solid ground.
Offense:
The wearer can use brief levitation to reposition mid-combat, redirecting momentum or stepping through open air in ways that appear impossible to observers.
• Psychological and Roleplay Impact
The avatar appears unnervingly calm in environments others find terrifying. They pause where others panic, step where others freeze, and move as if the world itself is cooperating. Enemies often misjudge their footing, assuming the avatar is reckless, only to realize too late that the terrain favors them.
The item encourages a patient, observant fighting style. The wearer rarely rushes. They wait for the land to offer advantage, then move decisively, as though the world itself has whispered permission to act.
The circlet does not make the avatar stronger or faster—it makes the world more predictable to them than to anyone else.
Perception of Activation:
User’s Perspective:
• The moment the medallion activates, the avatar feels a subtle lifting sensation in the soles of the feet, as if the ground has softened into a slow-moving current rather than solid stone.
• A cool, steady pressure spreads upward through the legs and spine, similar to standing inside a calm updraft.
• The ears fill with a low, steady hum that resembles wind passing through deep caverns rather than open air.
• The sense of balance sharpens unnaturally; slopes, ridges, and subtle inclines become immediately apparent even with eyes closed.
• The avatar perceives invisible gradients in the terrain, feeling where stone is dense, hollow, unstable, or drifting.
• A faint inner awareness forms, like a mental map slowly assembling itself beneath conscious thought, showing elevation changes and mass distribution nearby.
• Emotionally, the user experiences grounding mixed with lightness, a paradoxical sensation of being anchored and buoyant at once.
Observer’s Perspective:
• The medallion’s floating crystal begins to rotate more quickly, tilting in small, precise motions that correspond to unseen slopes.
• Thin currents of air spiral around the avatar’s lower body, lifting dust, sand, or loose debris in controlled arcs.
• The wearer’s movements become smoother and more deliberate, as if walking along invisible rails.
• Subtle distortions in the air appear around their feet, giving the impression they are barely touching the ground.
• The crystals emit a soft, steady glow that brightens when terrain becomes uneven or unstable.
Positives:
• Greatly improved balance and footing on uneven, rocky, or shifting terrain.
• Enhanced awareness of elevation, underground voids, and structural weaknesses in stone or soil.
• Reduced physical strain when climbing, descending, or traversing unstable ground.
• Increased control over personal movement, allowing precise steps and safer traversal.
• Improved confidence when navigating cliffs, slopes, ruins, or broken landscapes.
Negatives:
• Prolonged activation can cause vertigo when returning to flat, stable ground.
• The heightened perception of terrain can become overwhelming in chaotic environments such as collapsing caves or earthquakes.
• The constant low hum may distract the wearer during moments requiring absolute silence.
• Overreliance can dull natural balance if used continuously without rest.
• Sudden loss of activation may result in disorientation or a brief loss of footing as the body readjusts to normal gravity and perception.
Recipe Title: The Wind-Bound Geostabilizer
Materials Needed:
• One palm-sized plate of sky-bronze or wind-tempered bronze, lightly alloyed to respond to levitational currents
• Three thin rings of basalt or dense volcanic stone, carved to precise concentric tolerances
• A shard of naturally levitating crystal or aerated mana-glass, no larger than a thumb
• Fine crystal dust derived from ground quartz or wind-polished stone
• One vial of condensed air essence or bottled high-altitude vapor
• Leather or woven cord suitable for a waist or harness mounting
• A small amount of binding resin made from tree sap exposed to high winds
• Charcoal ash from a kiln or forge used at altitude
Tools Required:
• Precision metalworking tools capable of fine engraving
• Stone-shaping chisels or lapidary tools
• A low-temperature forge or kiln
• Suspension rig or balance frame for alignment work
• Fine engraving stylus for runic airflow channels
• A shallow bowl or dish for ritual airflow circulation
• Polishing cloths and stabilizing clamps
Skill Requirements:
• Basic metal shaping and stoneworking
• Familiarity with wind or levitation magic principles
• Ability to sense or interpret airflow or pressure changes
• Steady hands and controlled breathing
• Knowledge of ritual timing and stabilization techniques
• Optional but beneficial: experience with geological surveying or terrain reading
Crafting Steps:
• The bronze plate is heated and shaped into a medallion base, engraved with shallow contour lines representing elevation changes and pressure gradients. These lines must be continuous and unbroken.
• The basalt rings are carved and fitted into a loose gyroscopic arrangement around the bronze core, allowing free but balanced movement. Each ring must rotate smoothly without friction.
• The levitation crystal is suspended within the rings using fine threads of mana-resin, ensuring it never physically touches the metal. Its balance must be perfect or the item will drift erratically.
• The crystal dust is mixed with air essence and brushed lightly into the etched grooves, then sealed with heat so the magic binds to the metal.
• The entire assembly is placed within a controlled airflow, either atop a high structure or before a strong, steady wind source, and allowed to stabilize for several hours.
• During this time, the crafter performs slow, rhythmic movements around the item, guiding airflow through it to teach the artifact how to “listen” to terrain and pressure.
• Once the crystal begins rotating on its own in response to subtle air currents, the item is removed and mounted to its harness or waist rig.
• Final tuning is done by walking across uneven ground while wearing the item, allowing it to attune to natural movement and balance.
If properly crafted, the medallion will respond immediately to shifts in terrain and air pressure, gently adjusting its internal flow to guide and stabilize the wearer.
Stone That Learned to Breathe
In the age before names were held still, when the world had not yet agreed which way was down and the winds argued constantly with the mountains, there lived a walker whose feet never left marks. The old words do not give this one a name, for the name was said to change each time it was spoken, but the fragments call them the Listener of Slopes.
This Listener walked where others fell. They crossed shale that slid like water, and climbed faces of stone that rejected hands and rope alike. It is said that the Listener did not conquer the land, nor bend it, but asked it questions until it answered. The mountains answered with silence at first, and the silence nearly broke the Listener’s bones.
For in those days, the land did not forgive missteps.
The story tells that the Listener once fell into a ravine so deep that even sound feared to follow. They lay broken upon stone that hummed with hidden wind. In the darkness, the Listener heard a voice that was not sound and felt a breath that was not air. The voice said nothing, but the Listener understood it as: “If you would stand, then learn how I stand.”
For seven cycles of cold and heat, the Listener remained there. They watched dust drift upward instead of down. They felt pressure shift before stone cracked. They learned that even the heaviest mountain was held aloft by patience, and that air itself remembered the shape of the world.
When the Listener finally rose, they carried a fragment of that place, a shard that would not fall, a breath that would not fade. They bound it in rings of metal and stone, not to command it, but to remind it of its own balance.
The old text claims that when the Listener first wore the device, the land sighed. Hills softened beneath their steps. Wind bent to show safe paths. The Listener walked where rivers would someday be, and the rivers remembered.
People came to the Listener with broken legs, broken paths, broken homes built too close to trembling ground. The Listener never healed them directly. Instead, they stood still and let the land explain itself. Those who listened survived. Those who rushed did not.
As ages passed, the device was copied badly, then better, then worse again. Some versions hummed too loudly. Others forgot how to listen. Many were lost when their wearers mistook guidance for command.
The final lines of the tale are damaged, but one phrase repeats in every surviving fragment:
“The ground does not move for you.
You move because the ground allows it.”
Moral of the story:
Those who walk with the world endure. Those who try to master it are eventually taught to fall.
Suggested conversions to other systems:
—
Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)
Hanging Strata Wind-Medallion 742
Item Type: Enchanted Talisman (Terrain Pressure Sense / Buoyancy)
Slot: Worn at waist or harness (openly)
Rarity/Availability: Uncommon to civilians; common among surveyors and stone-readers (Keeper treats as a minor talisman)
Core Effects (while openly worn)
• Stone-Pressure Tell: Gain +10% to Spot Hidden when noticing unstable ground, hidden hollows, hairline cracks in stonework, or the “wrongness” of a collapse-prone space.
• Sure Footing: Gain +10% to Climb, Jump, or Dexterity-based movement rolls when crossing rubble, scree, slick stone, or broken architecture.
• Subsurface Intuition: Gain +10% to Science (Geology) or Survival when interpreting landforms, faults, and erosion patterns.
Passive Magical Perceptions
• Mass-Gradient Sense: Within a short distance, you sense “heavy” stone vs. “empty” void as a pressure difference in the inner ear and soles.
• Drift Alignment: The medallion’s floating crystal subtly “leans” toward safer footing; once per scene the Keeper may offer a warning sensation before a misstep.
Activated Abilities
• Faultlift Pulse
– Cost: 1 Magic Point
– Time: 1 round to brace and breathe
– Effect: For 1d6 rounds, reduce effective body weight for movement. The Keeper may: grant a bonus die to a jump/climb/balance roll, negate a slip, or halve falling damage from a short drop. Not flight.
– Use: Once per day.
• Strata Reading
– Cost: 1 Magic Point
– Time: 1 round of stillness
– Effect: For 10 minutes, gain a bonus die on one roll to interpret underground features (voids, fault direction, weak strata) in the immediate area. Provides impressions, not a map.
– Use: Once per day.
• Stone-Drift Guard
– Cost: 1 Magic Point
– Time: Reaction (Keeper allows when debris falls or footing collapses)
– Effect: You reduce damage from falling debris or a collapse event (Keeper reduces damage by 1d6 or one “step” of severity) and may avoid being knocked prone if it makes sense.
– Use: Once per day.
Drawbacks / Risks
• Overwhelm: If you use two activations in the same day, make a CON roll. Failure causes vertigo: penalty die on Dex-based tasks and Listen for 1d10 minutes.
• Stone Noise: In dense urban stonework or deep caverns, constant pressure impressions can be distracting (roleplay; Keeper may impose situational penalty to concentration).
—
Blades in the Dark
Hanging Strata Drift-Medallion 742
Item: Arcane Implements (Load 1, worn)
Keywords: Terrain Sense, Buoyancy, Collapse Guard, Subsurface Reading
Always-On (when worn openly)
• You have potency on Survey when reading landforms, stone stability, and hidden voids.
• You have potency on Prowl or Finesse when crossing rubble, scree, ledges, or broken structures.
• Once per score, you may declare you “felt the shift” to avoid a slip or reduce the severity of a falling complication.
Special Uses (activate in the fiction)
• Faultlift Pulse
– Spend 0 stress to gain improved position on a climb/jump/escape across unstable ground.
– Spend 1 stress to negate harm from a fall once, if the fiction supports a buoyant catch.
• Strata Reading
– Spend 0 stress to ask one clear question about what lies beneath (void, fault, weak support, safest stone). GM answers honestly, impressionistically.
– Spend 1 stress to create an advantage “Stable Line,” “Hidden Hollow Marked,” or “Safe Footing,” with one free invocation.
• Stone-Drift Guard
– Spend 1 stress as a reaction to reduce harm from a collapse or falling debris by one level.
Limits and Consequences
• If you activate two different effects in one score, start or tick a 4-segment clock: Vertigo. When filled, take level 1 harm “Dizzy” until you rest.
—
Dungeons & Dragons (5e compatible)
Wind 742, Medallion of the Hanging Strata
Wondrous Item (common), requires attunement
Slot/Use: Worn at waist or harness; must be worn openly to function
Passive Benefits (while attuned and openly worn)
• Stonewise Instinct: You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks to notice unstable ground, hidden sinkholes, hollow stone, or imminent collapse.
• Sure Footing: You have advantage on Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks made to climb, jump, balance, or move across rubble or slick stone.
• Geological Read: You have advantage on Intelligence (Nature) checks related to geology, strata, erosion, and faults.
Activated Features
• Faultlift Pulse (1/day)
– As a bonus action, you become buoyant for 1 minute. During this time, you reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to twice your proficiency bonus (each time you take such damage), and you have advantage on Athletics checks to climb and jump. This does not grant flight.
• Strata Reading (1/day)
– As an action, you read the ground. For 10 minutes, you can’t be surprised by nonmagical collapses, sinkholes, or shifting stone in your immediate area, and you have advantage on checks to predict the safest route through unstable terrain.
• Stone-Drift Guard (1/day)
– As a reaction when you would take bludgeoning damage from falling debris, collapsing stonework, or a cave-in, reduce the damage by 1d6 + your proficiency bonus and you may remain standing if you were not incapacitated.
Drawbacks
• If you use two different features before finishing a long rest, you must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or suffer vertigo for 1 minute (disadvantage on Dexterity checks).
—
Knave (latest edition compatible)
Hanging Strata Wind 742
Type: Worn medallion (waist/harness)
Slots: 1 slot
While Worn (openly)
• Stone Sense: You have advantage on checks to detect unstable ground, hollows, sinkholes, weak supports, or imminent collapse.
• Sure Footing: You have advantage on checks to climb, jump, balance, or cross rubble and slick stone.
• Strata Intuition: You have advantage on checks to interpret geological features, faults, and erosion.
Activations
• Faultlift Pulse (1/day)
– For one combat or exploration turn, you become buoyant: advantage on movement checks and halve falling damage from a short fall.
• Strata Reading (1/day)
– For one exploration turn, you gain immediate intuitive sense of nearby voids/faults and the safest line through unstable terrain.
• Stone-Drift Guard (1/day)
– Reaction: reduce damage from falling debris or collapse events and avoid being knocked prone if it makes sense.
Costs / Risks
• If you use two activations in the same day, you suffer “Vertigo” until a long rest: disadvantage on balance checks and delicate footing.
—
Fate Core / Fate Condensed
Wind 742 – Medallion of the Hanging Strata
Item Type: Worn Relic (Geomantic Focus)
Scale: Personal
Slot: Waist or Harness
Aspects
• “The Ground Whispers Before It Breaks”
• “I Walk Where Stone Allows”
Permissions
• You may justify navigation, balance, and terrain-related actions through awareness of air pressure and geological stability.
• You may use the medallion to interact with terrain as if it were an active participant in the scene.
Passive Benefits
• +2 to Notice when detecting unstable ground, collapses, or hidden voids.
• +2 to Athletics when balancing, climbing, or moving through rubble or uneven terrain.
• You may treat rough stone or unstable footing as one step less hazardous when determining difficulty.
Activated Stunts
Faultlift Pulse
Once per scene, spend 1 Fate point.
• Gain a free invoke on an aspect such as “Carried by the Land,” “Weightless Step,” or “Stone Knows Me.”
• Reduce or negate the consequences of a fall or collapse if narratively appropriate.
Strata Reading
Once per session, spend 1 Fate point.
• Ask the GM one question about underground structure, weak points, or safest terrain in the immediate area.
• The answer is truthful but impressionistic rather than precise.
Drawbacks
• The medallion creates sensory overload in chaotic terrain; the GM may compel hesitation or disorientation.
• In artificial or sealed environments, its effects are muted or unavailable.
—
Numenera / Cypher System
Wind 742, Medallion of the Hanging Strata
Level: 3
Type: Wearable Artifact (Geomantic Stabilizer)
Form: Worn (waist or harness)
Passive Effects
• Asset on all tasks involving climbing, balance, or moving across unstable terrain.
• Asset on all perception tasks related to ground instability, tremors, or hollow spaces.
• Always aware of slope direction and mass distribution within short range.
Activated Abilities
Faultlift Pulse
Cost: 1 Intellect
Action
Effect: For 1 minute, reduce effective weight and gain an asset on Speed defense and movement tasks. Falling damage is reduced by one step.
Strata Reading
Cost: 2 Intellect
Action
Effect: For 10 minutes, gain intuitive knowledge of underground features, weak points, and safe routes within immediate range.
Depletion
• 1 in 1d20 if both abilities are used in the same day.
GM Intrusions
• Overstimulation causes vertigo.
• Conflicting pressure fields distort perception.
—
Pathfinder Second Edition
Wind 742 – Medallion of the Hanging Strata
Item Level: 1
Item Type: Wondrous Item (Invested)
Usage: Worn (waist or harness)
Bulk: L
Passive Effects
• +1 item bonus to Athletics checks involving climbing, jumping, or balance.
• +1 item bonus to Survival checks to navigate hazardous or unstable terrain.
• You always know which direction slopes downward within 30 feet.
Activated Abilities
Faultlift Pulse
Frequency: Once per day
Activation: 1 action
Effect: For 1 minute, reduce falling damage by half and gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Athletics checks related to movement.
Strata Reading
Frequency: Once per day
Activation: 1 action
Effect: For 10 minutes, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Perception and Survival checks to detect unstable terrain or hidden voids.
Drawback
• If both abilities are used before daily preparations, you become Fatigued for 10 minutes.
—
Savage Worlds Adventure Edition
Wind 742 – Hanging Strata Medallion
Item Type: Minor Relic
Slot: Worn
Rarity: Common
Passive Effects
• +1 to Athletics and Survival when dealing with uneven terrain, climbing, or geological hazards.
• You ignore up to one point of movement penalty from difficult terrain caused by stone or elevation.
Activated Powers
Faultlift Pulse
Power Points: 1
Activation: Action
Effect: For 3 rounds, gain +2 to Athletics and reduce falling damage by half.
Strata Reading
Power Points: 2
Activation: Action
Effect: For one scene, gain +2 to Survival and Notice checks involving terrain stability or hidden features.
Limitations
• Using both abilities in one encounter requires a Vigor roll or the user becomes Fatigued.
• The item provides no benefit in environments without solid ground or meaningful terrain features.
—
Shadowrun (Sixth Edition)
Wind 742 – Medallion of the Hanging Strata
Item Type: Enchanted Focus (Environmental Utility)
Availability: Low–Moderate
Bond Cost: 1 Karma
Slot: Worn (waist or harness)
Passive Effects
• +1 die to Athletics tests involving climbing, balancing, or movement across unstable terrain.
• +1 die to Perception tests related to ground stability, vibration, or structural weakness.
• The wearer always knows relative slope direction and can instinctively identify unstable footing.
Activated Effects
Faultlift Pulse
Activation: Simple Action
Cost: 1 Drain (Stun)
Effect: For one Combat Turn, the wearer reduces falling damage by half and gains +2 dice to Movement-based tests involving terrain. Does not grant flight.
Strata Reading
Activation: Simple Action
Cost: 1 Drain (Stun)
Effect: For up to 5 minutes, the wearer gains +2 dice on Navigation or Tracking tests and may identify weak stone, hollow ground, or collapse-prone areas.
Drawbacks
• Using both abilities in the same scene causes vertigo: –1 die to Physical tests until the end of the scene.
• The item ceases to function in sealed or zero-atmosphere environments.
—
Starfinder
Wind 742, Medallion of the Hanging Strata
Item Level: 1
Item Type: Hybrid Magic Item
Usage: Worn (waist or harness)
Bulk: L
Passive Effects
• You always know the direction of gravity and slope.
• +1 insight bonus to Athletics and Survival checks involving terrain or elevation.
• Reduce falling damage by 5 feet.
Activated Abilities
Faultlift Pulse
Usage: 1/day
Action: Swift
Effect: For 1 minute, gain a +2 enhancement bonus to Athletics and ignore the first 10 feet of falling damage.
Strata Reading
Usage: 1/day
Action: Move
Effect: For 10 minutes, gain a +2 insight bonus to Survival and Perception checks related to terrain, underground spaces, or stability.
Special
• In zero-G, the medallion provides orientation but no propulsion.
• Repeated use may cause disorientation at the GM’s discretion.
—
Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)
Wind 742 – Hanging Strata Medallion
Item Type: Environmental Assist Device
Tech Level Equivalent: TL10 (Magitech)
Slot: Worn
Effects
• DM+1 to Athletics (Dexterity) for climbing, balancing, or traversing unstable ground.
• DM+1 to Survival or Recon checks involving terrain assessment.
• Always aware of slope and gravitational direction.
Activated Functions
Faultlift Pulse
Activation: Minor Action
Effect: Reduce falling damage by half and gain DM+2 to movement-based checks for one round.
Usage: Once per scene.
Strata Reading
Activation: Minor Action
Effect: Gain advantage on one Navigation or Survival check involving terrain within the next 10 minutes.
Limitations
• Ineffective in vacuum or sealed artificial environments.
• Extended use causes mild vertigo, applying DM–1 to Dex-based checks for 1d6 minutes.
—
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)
Wind 742 – Medallion of the Hanging Strata
Item Type: Enchanted Trinket
Rarity: Scarce
Encumbrance: 0
Worn Location: Belt or Harness
Passive Effects
• +10 to Outdoor Survival Tests involving navigation, elevation, or unstable ground.
• +10 to Athletics (Climb) Tests in rocky or ruined terrain.
• Always aware of slope direction and structural instability.
Activated Effects
Faultlift Pulse
Frequency: Once per day
Effect: The wearer halves falling damage and gains +10 to Agility Tests for one round.
Strata Reading
Frequency: Once per day
Effect: For 10 minutes, gain +20 to Navigation Tests and ignore movement penalties caused by unstable ground.
Drawbacks
• Using both abilities in one day causes Fatigued for 10 minutes.
• In sealed stone structures or magically reinforced environments, the medallion’s effects are reduced or suppressed.