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Noaidi 442 of the Sovereigns Bone Psaltery

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by

Dale
in
  • Lore:
    • Across the high island bastions of Saṃsāra, court musicians are often regarded merely as melodic ornaments to royal feasts, yet the most revered players were initiated as noaidi song-smiths.
    • Rather than relying on rigid southern scales, these court bards tuned their instruments to the luohti—the animist vocalizations that call upon the spirits of deep water, hearth coals, and wandering mountain winds.
    • Crafted originally by a northern bard serving in the sovereign seat of the Three Sounds, this compact psaltery was built to bridge the gap between ancestral spirit divination and the delicate courtesies of imperial banquets.
    • Legends state that when the first psalm was struck upon its reindeer-bone bridges, the royal courtiers stopped whispering treason, held in thrall by the resonance of singing spirits.
    • Over eras of dynastic strife, court harpers and chamber soloists have passed down these instruments to subtly soothe violent sovereigns, divine hidden court grievances, and protect themselves against poisoned malice.
  • Description:
    • An eighteen-inch, wedge-shaped lap psaltery hollowed from a single block of resonant silver birch, stained a dark slate gray with elderberry wash and finished with beeswax.
    • Along the upper soundboard, nine strings twisted from cleaned reindeer intestinal gut are strung across carved movable bridges fashioned from the bleached rib-bones of a wild snow-stag.
    • The soundboard features a laser-fine fretwork sound-hole carved into the likeness of an encircling northern sun-wheel, through which a thumb-sized, uncut Tier 1 magic crystal sheds a gentle, flickering azure light.
    • Each string is secured with an ivory tuning peg carved from ancient walrus tusk, engraved with miniature noaidi runic notations denoting wind, water, and animal spirits.
    • A braided sash of white hare-fur and green wool thrums hangs from the tapered base, tipped with three dangling hollow swan bones that vibrate softly when a chord is plucked.
  • Detailed Stats:
    • Item Tier: Tier 1 (Common)
    • Item HP: Avatar maximum HP plus 10
    • Resilience: 9
    • Armor Check (AC): +1 AC to the avatar when held openly or played (the rhythmic harmonic barrier deflects minor physical and ranged grazes)
    • Weight: 2.2 pounds
    • Attunement: Simple attunement (requires spending one uninterrupted short rest tuning each bone bridge by ear while singing a soft, ancestral joik to the instrument’s bound spirit)
  • Slot:
    • Held (Two Hands to play, One Hand to carry), or Chest / Torso (slung via shoulder strap)
  • Passives Magic:
    • Chamber Resonance: While the psaltery is held or slung across the chest, the user gains an intuitive sense of the emotional climate of any room; nearby courtiers, guards, and nobility project subtle spiritual vibrations that tell the player whether an audience leans toward wrath, melancholy, or fear.
    • Sovereign’s Grace: The harmonic vibration of the reindeer-gut strings naturally softens rigid court tensions, making aristocrats and armed retinues perceive the musician as an essential, untouchable artistic presence exempt from immediate scrutiny.
    • Spiritual Dampener: The lingering hum of the bone bridges passively muddles small sonic scrying, eavesdropping, and audio eavesdropping devices or spells within 15 feet of the bearer, turning surveillance into pleasant, unintelligible background chords.
  • Activable Magics:
    • Luohti of the Soothed Beast (Normal Somatic):
      • Taking an action to pluck an arpeggio across the three lowest bone-bridged strings while humming a soft, two-syllable spirit cadence for less than six seconds.
      • A target humanoid, beast, or domestic animal within 30 feet that can hear the music must pause as a washing wave of emotional tranquility settles over its pulse; the target cannot take aggressive reactions or initiate hostile strikes for 1 round.
      • Expends 1 charge from the crystal core; the crystal regains its charge after a long rest or ambient arcane flow recovery.
    • Divining the Hidden Strain (Ritual, Somatic):
      • Taking an action to place the psaltery upon a banquet table or floor, sprinkling a drop of spring water upon the sun-wheel sound-hole, and continuously bowing or plucking the middle strings for greater than six seconds.
      • The nine gut strings vibrate autonomously as the noaidi spirits mimic the underlying tension of the chamber, producing a chord progression that reveals the dominant unvoiced emotion, hidden secret, or immediate grudge held by the highest-ranking noble present in the room.
      • This ritual requires two uninterrupted minutes of focused plucking and rhythmic humming to complete.
    • Discordant Shock Chord (Silent Action):
      • The performer violently slaps the palm across all nine reindeer-gut strings simultaneously without speaking a word.
      • A localized, invisible burst of concussive acoustic force erupts in a 10-foot cone from the psaltery’s sound-hole; hostile creatures caught in the blast are buffeted backward five paces and must steady their footing or drop held handheld weapons, allowing the court musician to slip away cleanly.
  • Tags:
    • Noaidi, CourtMusician, Psaltery, Birch, Bone, StringedInstrument, Music, Performance, Soothing, Divination, Harmony, Sound, Tier1, Common, Focus, Bard, Joik, ReindeerGut, WalrusIvory, SwanBone, Calming, CourtProtocol, Empathy, Shockwave, Acoustic, Resonance

Commerce and Outlets for the Sovereign’s Bone-Psaltery

  • High-Quarter Luthiers and Royal Instrument Guilds:
    • Located within the grand palace promenades and conservatory courtyards of capital islands, catering to virtuosos, chamber soloists, and aristocratic patrons.
    • The master luthier displays the psaltery on a padded velvet stand beneath glass cases, showcasing the delicate bone bridges and walrus ivory tuning pegs.
    • Transactions are finalized through signed imperial guild scrip, certified promissory drafts, or pure gold coinage.
    • When appraising an incoming psaltery, the guildmaster checks the grain of the silver birch, tests string tension across the rib bridges, and listens for the azure crystal’s hum before tendering an offer.
    • Retail prices in an upscale conservatory range from 110 to 140 silver coins, while direct buyout offers to an unseated musician settle between 55 and 70 silver coins.
  • Noble Estate Liquidators and Masquerade Salons:
    • Found along the cobblestone terraces of sovereign trade districts, specializing in the estates of fallen dynasties, deceased chamberlains, and disgraced court poets.
    • The liquidator keeps the instrument stored among brocade cloaks, carved lap-harps, and silver tableware, treating it as an antique conversation piece for domestic salons.
    • Deals are concluded with mixed municipal coinages, stamped trade ingots, or traded heirlooms.
    • Appraisers at these salons often focus on the ivory pegs and bone fretwork rather than the underlying noaidi enchantment, occasionally pricing it as ordinary court parlor furniture.
    • Standard shelf prices run between 95 and 125 silver coins, with direct walk-in purchase offers hovering between 45 and 60 silver coins.
  • Itinerant Troubadour Carts and Festival Barges:
    • Operating along coastal waterways, canal locks, and open-air festival wharves where wandering minstrels, bards, and mummer troupes exchange instruments between seasonal engagements.
    • The barge-master hangs the psaltery from cedar rafters wrapped in oiled sheepskin to protect the reindeer-gut strings from damp sea salt.
    • Business is conducted through silver coin, traded sheet music, cured gut strings, or bundles of dry seasoning herbs.
    • Troubadours assess the psaltery by playing an impromptu joik to test the acoustic balance, bargaining hard over minor cosmetic dings in the birch body.
    • Field purchase prices range from 85 to 110 silver coins, with trade-in or resale values averaging 40 to 55 silver coins.
  • Animist Hearth Lodges and Northern Skald Encampments:
    • Situated along the rugged outer shores, fjord settlements, and seasonal reindeer camps where community noaidi preserve ancestral song rituals.
    • The elder skald keeps the instrument wrapped in cured wolf pelt inside a pine chest near the lodge fire, valuing the bound spirits of snow and water residing within the wood.
    • Transactions bypass minted coinage, relying on barter in the form of seasoned birch billets, bundles of reindeer sinew, dried lingcod, or carved walrus ivory blanks.
    • An animist elder will only purchase or trade for the psaltery if the seller plays the instrument before the hearth spirits to prove its resonance has not been corrupted.
    • Equivalent barter value typically equates to 80 to 105 silver coins, with trade-in returns yielding approximately 40 to 50 silver coins worth of northern goods.

Tactical and Roleplay Applications of the Sovereign’s Bone-Psaltery Across Diverse Environments

  • Grand Banquet Halls and Royal State Auditoriums:
    • During tense political summits or formal banquets where sovereign tempers flare toward immediate arrest or summary execution, armed intervention is fatal. Defensively, the player leans into Sovereign’s Grace, slinging the psaltery openly and providing continuous ambient chamber music. Moving gracefully between dining tables, the musician observes the room’s emotional undercurrents via Chamber Resonance, identifying which courtiers harbor quiet treason or panic. The ambient vibration also acts as a Spiritual Dampener, neutralizing eavesdropping bugs or directional listening devices deployed by rival noble factions.
    • Offensively beneath the crystal chandeliers, when an iron-willed regent orders the royal guard to draw weapons against an allied ambassador, the musician strikes the low strings for Luohti of the Soothed Beast. The washing harmonic wave arrests the guards’ aggressive momentum, stalling unsheathed swords and buying crucial seconds. To expose an aristocratic conspiracy before the court, the musician performs Divining the Hidden Strain at the foot of the dais, forcing the vibrating bone bridges to audibly mimic the guilt or panic of the chief conspirator, shattering their composure before the court.
  • Crowded Harbor Docks and Portside Guildhalls:
    • In salt-slick warehouse alleys, dry docks, and rowdy harbor masteries where merchant cartels use armed press-gangs to silence whistleblowers, open steel draws the harbor militia. Defensively, the operative sits atop a stack of dried fish barrels, casually plucking reindeer-gut melodies. The soothing drone lowers suspicion, causing brute dock-enforcers to view the musician as an innocuous busker, while the Chamber Resonance flags sudden spikes of violence in the approach of concealed cutthroats through the sea mist.
    • Offensively along a narrow pier, when backed against the water by a wall of charging dock mercenaries, the musician unleashes the Discordant Shock Chord. Slapping both palms across all nine strings, an acoustic pressure wave bursts in a wide cone from the sun-wheel sound-hole, blowing the attackers off their feet, tumbling crates across the planks, and tossing the vanguard into the murky harbor water while the musician vaults across an unmoored skiff.
  • Frontier Taverns and Remote Outlaw Garrisons:
    • Within rowdy border roadhouses and mercenary strongholds where drunken brawls frequently escalate into bloody massacres, staying unnoticed is essential to gathering frontier intelligence. Defensively, the player takes a seat beside the hearth, letting the psaltery rest across the lap. As the strings softly hum, Spiritual Dampener scrambles the listening devices of foreign scouts, while the performer sifts through the room’s emotional climate to pinpoint the nervous dread of an outlaw courier carrying stolen provincial maps.
    • Offensively when a brawling warlord draws an axe across the common room to butcher an informant, the musician plays a sharp arpeggio of Luohti of the Soothed Beast. The warlord’s boiling rage drains away into stunned tranquility, locking his arm mid-swing. If surrounded by restive brigands attempting a robbery, a sudden Discordant Shock Chord blasts the front rank through the tavern’s wooden trestle tables, allowing the party to scatter into the night before steel can be cleared from scabbards.
  • Subterranean Catacombs and Forgotten Fane Vaults:
    • In ancient echoing sepulchers, sunken dwarf-halls, and subterranean labyrinth choke points where cavern horrors hunt by acoustic vibrations, conventional sound usually spells death. Defensively, the musician tunes the psaltery to harmonize with ambient cavern echoes. The soft resonance masks the gritty scuffing of party boots against gravel, acting as a kinetic harmonic buffer that cushions footsteps, while Chamber Resonance detects the predatory hunger of stealthy underground monstrosities lurking in the upper darkness.
    • Offensively inside a tight subterranean corridor, when pursuing ghouls or tunnel raiders bottleneck the party against a collapsed arch, the musician takes point and delivers the Discordant Shock Chord. In the enclosed stone confines, the acoustic blast acts with devastating kinetic force, repelling the beasts into stalagmites, concussing their sensory organs, and knocking them backward, creating an open path to fall back behind a portcullis or seal an iron door.
  • Windswept Northern Tundras and Reindeer Nomad Camps:
    • Out upon the frozen northern plains where bitter blizzards rage and encounters with nomadic war bands or territorial predators turn deadly, diplomatic survival requires animist legitimacy. Defensively, the psaltery is kept slung across the chest, where its reindeer-bone bridges resonate with the whistling arctic gale. Northern animists, raiders, and clan noaidis recognize the walrus-ivory pegs and sacred joik tunings, according the musician sacred hospitality and the sanctuary granted to ancestral song-smiths.
    • Offensively when attacked by a feral tundra predator or pack of ravenous dire-wolves, the musician channels Luohti of the Soothed Beast into the biting wind. The calming noaidi frequency diffuses the wild predators’ primal bloodlust, causing them to break their charge, lower their heads, and retreat into the scrub, conserving the traveling party’s vitality and ammunition without spilling blood on ancestral land.

Perception of Activation:

  • User’s Perspective:
    • Visual Perception: The moment the gut strings are struck, the thumb-sized crystal beneath the fretwork sun-wheel flares with a soft, pulsing azure luminescence. Rays of cool blue light project through the open sound-hole, casting web-like geometric shadows across the birch soundboard and the player’s fingers.
    • Auditory Perception: A deep, resonant droning chime rolls through the instrument, blending the bright snap of twisted gut with the hollow, rhythmic click of the three vibrating swan bones. Layered behind the music is an intimate, harmonic undertone resembling a choir of distant northern voices humming an ancient joik directly into the user’s ears.
    • Tactile Perception: A soothing, rhythmic vibration thrums outward through the silver birch wood and into the user’s chest and forearms. The reindeer-gut strings feel glassy and friction-free beneath the fingertips, while the polished wood emits a mild, fever-cooling chill.
    • Olfactory Perception: A sudden scent of fresh snowfall over pine needles, dried sweetgrass, and warmed mountain beeswax fills the player’s breathing space, cutting through the stagnant odors of banquet tallow or cellar damp.
    • Gustatory Perception: A clean, crisp taste settles on the back of the palate, like melted glacial spring water lightly tinged with sweet juniper berry juice.
    • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
      • Empathic Harmonics: The player’s mind perceives the emotional atmosphere of the room as visual ripples of colored mist—sharp crimson streaks revealing simmering wrath, muddy grays signaling fear and hesitation, and dull golds indicating complacency.
      • Spiritual Resonance: An intuitive connection opens with nearby animist room spirits residing in hearth ashes and drafty eaves, granting the performer an instinctive sense of hidden eavesdroppers, scrying sensors, and concealed weapons drawn beneath cloaks.
  • Observer’s Perspective:
    • Visual Perception: Onlookers see the musician pluck or strike the strings, immediately accompanied by a gentle flare of pale blue light shining through the carved sun-wheel. The light softens harsh facial shadows in the room, drawing eyes toward the performer’s deliberate, graceful posture.
    • Auditory Perception: The music carries with surprising, room-filling acoustic volume without being harsh. The notes land with a mellow, chest-vibrating cadence that naturally commands silence, making side conversations feel jarring and out of place.
    • Tactile Perception: Those standing within ten feet feel a faint, rhythmic barometric pulse against their skin, similar to standing near a low cathedral organ pipe or feeling the gentle pressure drop before a snow squall.
    • Olfactory Perception: Nearby listeners catch a brief, crisp draft of outdoor winter air, temporarily masking the scents of roast meats, stale wine, and perfume.
    • Gustatory Perception: A faint, dry coolness touches the tongue and throat, subduing the lingering heat of spiced spirits or rich foods.
    • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
      • Subdued Aggression: Hostile observers experience a sudden, involuntary softening of their combative resolve; the urge to shout or strike an enemy is blunted by a tranquil lethargy settling over the nerves.
      • Vocal Hesitation: Those harboring deceit or treason feel a heavy constriction in their throats, making calculated lies feel awkward and difficult to articulate while the chords linger in the air.
  • Positives:
    • Non-Violent Crowd Control: The instrument can instantaneously quell escalating violence, pacify dangerous beasts, and stall aggressive retinues without causing injury or provoking blood feuds.
    • Emotional Reconnaissance: The user gains accurate, real-time insight into the unspoken emotional state and hidden malice of nobles, sentries, and negotiators.
    • Surveillance Disruption: Passive and active harmonics scramble mundane eavesdroppers and subtle acoustic scrying magic within the chamber, protecting party secrets during high-stakes diplomatic exchanges.
  • Negatives:
    • Acoustic Conspicuousness: The deep, carrying resonance of the bone-bridged strings makes subtle or completely silent activation impossible in enclosed spaces.
    • Distinct Azure Beacon: The blue light shining through the soundboard immediately draws line of sight to the performer in darkened rooms, catacombs, or moonlit encampments.
    • Performance Vulnerability: Activating the psaltery’s complex ritual divinations or sustained calming melodies requires both hands and continuous focus, leaving the user unable to wield weapons or run at full speed while playing.

Crafting Recipe: The Sovereign’s Bone-Psaltery

  • Materials Needed:
    • One Tier 1 Magic Crystal (thumb-sized, uncut, resonant with water or wind spirit ichor, harvested from an alpine creature).
    • A seasoned, straight-grained billet of silver birch, 20 inches long by 8 inches wide and 3 inches thick, air-dried for at least two seasons.
    • A 5-inch section of dense wild snow-stag rib bone, boiled clean, bleached, and dried.
    • Nine lengths of cleaned, dried, and counter-twisted reindeer intestinal gut (each roughly 24 inches long).
    • A 6-inch rod or scrap block of ancient, dense walrus tusk ivory for carving tuning pegs.
    • Three hollow, matched swan wing-bones, cleaned and scraped thin.
    • Two yards of spun white hare-fur yarn braided with forest-green sheep’s wool yarn for the suspension sash.
    • Two fluid drams of dark elderberry juice reduction mixed with crushed soot for the wood wash.
    • Three fluid drams of rendered, clarified mountain beeswax for surface sealing and acoustic resonance.
    • One fluid dram of natural pine-resin glue, heated and filtered.
    • One fluid dram of pure melted glacial water or virgin spring water for spiritual consecration.
  • Tools Required:
    • A set of fine joiner’s gouges, spoon chisels, and a curved carver’s draw knife.
    • A fine-toothed fretsaw or jeweler’s piercing saw for cutting the sound-hole lattice.
    • A hand auger or brace with fine bone drill bits (one-quarter inch for peg holes, needle-gage for string anchor points).
    • A wood rasp, scraper blades, and dried horsetail rushes (or sharkskin) for abrasive smoothing.
    • A small horn spirit-burner or brazier to liquefy the beeswax and pine resin.
    • A bone needle, an awl, and an iron tuning key sized to square-headed pegs.
  • Skill Requirements:
    • Trained Skill Level 4 or higher in Musical Instrument Crafting (Luthier), Woodcarving, or Arcane Artifice.
    • Practical training in Sámi noaidi spirit lore, luohti vocalization, and animist attunement rituals.
    • Basic competence in bone-carving, ivory scrimshaw, and gut-string dressing.
  • Crafting Steps:
    • Step 1: Hollowing and Shaping the Birch Soundbox
      • Take the aged billet of silver birch and true the edges, profiling the body into an 18-inch tapered wedge that narrows from the bass side to the treble end.
      • Turn the block over and use curved spoon gouges to hollow out the internal acoustic soundboard from the underside, maintaining a uniform soundboard thickness of approximately one-eighth of an inch.
      • Carve an interior mounting bracket or shallow socket into the floor of the cavity directly beneath the intended center sound-hole to cradle the focus crystal.
      • Prepare a thin backboard of split birch, brush the mating perimeter with warmed pine-resin glue, clamp the back firmly to seal the resonator body, and scrape the seams completely flush.
    • Step 2: Piercing the Sun-Wheel and Insetting the Core
      • Map out the circular northern sun-wheel motif across the center of the upper birch soundboard using a bone scribe.
      • Drill pilot entries and use the fine fretsaw to cut away the negative spaces, creating an openwork wheel with radiating spokes through which sound and light can pass cleanly.
      • Seat the thumb-sized Tier 1 magic crystal into the interior mounting socket beneath the wheel, cementing its base with two drops of warm pine resin to ensure it does not rattle against the wood when played.
      • Stain the entire birch exterior with the dark elderberry-and-soot wash, allowing the deep slate-gray tone to cure before rubbing warmed beeswax into the grain using coarse wool until the surface glows with a matte sheen.
    • Step 3: Carving Bridges and Walrus-Ivory Tuning Pegs
      • Cut the snow-stag rib bone into three distinct movable bridge segments, carving stepped string-notches along their upper ridges to accommodate the nine gut strings at varying scale lengths.
      • Shape nine square-headed, tapered friction tuning pegs from the walrus ivory rod using small rasps and scrapers.
      • Etch miniature noaidi runic notations for wind, spring water, and hearth spirits into the head of each ivory peg, rubbing soot into the lines to darken the glyphs.
      • Ream nine evenly spaced, tapered peg-holes into the wide upper side-rail of the psaltery, seating the ivory pegs to ensure a firm, non-slipping friction fit.
    • Step 4: Stringing, Anchoring, and Suspension
      • Drill nine fine string-anchor holes along the narrow tail-rail of the instrument, knotting the ends of the reindeer-gut strings with small bone beads on the underside.
      • Draw the gut strings across the body, set them over the snow-stag bone bridges, and thread the upper ends through the eyelets of the walrus-ivory pegs.
      • Wind each peg to establish preliminary tension, aligning the movable bone bridges until the strings produce a true modal pentatonic scale when plucked.
      • Splice the braided white hare-fur and green wool sash into a secure carrying strap, anchoring it to carved wooden lugs at both ends of the instrument.
      • Suspend the three hollow swan wing-bones on short sinew cords from the tapered tail of the sash so they hang free, brushing lightly together behind the tail-rail.
    • Step 5: Animist Consecration and Spiritual Harmonization
      • Rest the psaltery upon a clean linen cloth at nightfall beside a bowl containing one dram of pure melted glacial water.
      • Dip a finger into the cold water and trace the outer rim of the pierced sun-wheel sound-hole three times in a sun-wise circle.
      • Pluck the strings from the lowest bass note to the highest treble in a continuous rolling arpeggio while softly singing an ancestral noaidi joik into the sound-hole for two uninterrupted minutes.
      • Continue the vocalization until the bound crystal responds with a stable, azure luminescence through the fretwork and the three swan bones begin to vibrate in harmonic sympathy, binding the spirit to the wood and gut.

Nine-Gut Singing Board of Man Who Sat Before Angry Sea-Bull

In the days when the sky of Saṃsāra had only two small stars and the ocean was so hot that the great codfishes jumped out upon the black rocks to cool their skins, there was a high hall made of stone upon the Island of the Three Sounds. In that hall sat a sovereign person whose name was Ragnarr of the Broken Horn. His head was very square, like a block of salt that has been dried in the fire, and when he walked, his iron boots broke the small stones of the floor into gray flour.

Now Ragnarr of the Broken Horn was a master of many boats and five hundred iron clubs, but inside his heart there was a great red worm that ate his sleep. The red worm whispered to him in the night: “Look upon thy brother who sits upon the adjacent island; he has six more baskets of dried seals than thou hast, and his daughters wear dresses of white otter.” Because of this red worm, Ragnarr had not closed his eyes for forty moons. If a servant dropped a bronze plate, Ragnarr caused the head of that servant to be put upon a pole; if a dog whined at the cold wind, Ragnarr commanded that the dog be cast into the salt pit. The seventy captains who sat around his high table were always looking at their own thumbs, for they knew that if Ragnarr saw a white spot upon a captain’s finger, he would say: “Thy hand shakes because thou hast stolen my pig-fat!” and then the spears would come down like hail upon the barley.

In the low moss beside the blue creek lived a singer of songs whose name was Ante of the Soft Finger. Ante was a noaidi who knew the talk of the white geese and the secret words that are spoken by the water-spirits when they wash their hair in the falls. Ante had no coat of ringed iron and no knife of broad bronze; he wore only a tunic of gray wool washed in elderberry juice, and he had a small wedge of birch wood that he had hollowed with the tooth of a beaver three winters before.

Ante saw that the smoke from Ragnarr’s stone chimney was black and oily, like the smoke that comes from a burned house where men have died in anger. Ante said to his hearth-pot: “The great chief is going to put his sixty boats into the cold water. He will go to the island of his sister’s sons and burn their drying-racks, and the sea-birds will have nothing to eat but the eyes of dead children. This is not good for the grass, nor is it pleasing to the spirits that sit inside the water-bubbles.”

So Ante went to the high mountain where the snow-stags run faster than the south gale. He did not shoot an arrow into the beast; he sat upon a flat boulder and sang the luohti of the wild moss until an old stag came and laid its gray chin upon his knee. The stag died of great age while Ante was singing, and Ante took from its rib-bones three curved pieces, white like the foam of the rapids, and carved them into little bridges with three steps upon each bridge.

Then he went down to the salt bay where the wild walruses fight upon the floating ice. He found a tusk that had been broken in the fight ten summers before, buried deep in the blue clay. He scraped nine small pegs out of the ivory, and upon each peg he scratched the running-sign of the wind that blows from the north, the sign of the water that runs under the ice, and the sign of the little yellow mouse that sleeps under the snow.

He took the nine guts of an old reindeer bull that had died while leaping across a frozen ravine, and he twisted them with the oil of mountain pine until they were as clear as the eye of an owl. In the belly of the hollow birch block he placed a stone of blue light that he had found inside the frozen lung of a mountain troll who died of listening to the wind. Over the blue stone he carved the wheel of the sixteen-spoke sun, and he strung the nine gut-cords across the rib-bridges, and he hung three small bones of a white swan from the braided wool of his girdle.

When the thing was done, Ante did not eat barley-cake; he did not drink sour broth. He took the wedge of wood into his two palms and walked up the rocky road to the great stone gate of Ragnarr of the Broken Horn.

The iron guards stood at the gate with two-headed axes, looking like two pillars of frozen lard. When they saw Ante coming with his wooden board and his gray coat, they raised their axes to split his tunic. But Ante did not turn his back; he put his thumb upon the ninth string of reindeer-gut and drew it with a long sliding stroke, singing in his throat the song of the little trout that sleeps under the green river-weed.

The iron axes of the two guards stopped in the cold air. The fingers of the guards grew heavy and soft, like pieces of wet bread. The elder guard, whose name was Torstein the Skull-Crusher, let his jaw drop until the wind blew into his mouth, and he said: “Why do we stand upon this cold stone with heavy iron when the sun is shining upon the cloudberries in the high swamp?” And the two guards sat down upon the threshold and began to pick their teeth with grass-stalks, letting Ante walk past the heavy oak doors without a word.

Ante entered into the great hall. It was as cold as a burial mound. Ragnarr sat upon his high bench of black whale-ribs, his hands clutching two short daggers of yellow bronze. Before him lay a great map of sheepskin where the islands of his cousins were drawn in the red blood of an ox. Around the hearth-trench sat forty captains, each man holding his spear between his knees, not daring to spit or scratch his sleeve, for Ragnarr was shouting:

“We shall go at the rising of the three-cornered moon! We shall break the oars of their boats! We shall throw their grandmothers into the salt surf, and their barley-pots shall belong to my dogs!”

The captains wished to say: “Lord, our wives have no grain, and our boats have holes in the bottoms,” but they were afraid that Ragnarr would take their eyes out with his bronze knives, so they said only: “Yea, lord, let the grandmothers be thrown to the sea-eels.”

Ante walked into the grease of the floor. He did not fall upon his knees; he did not offer a gift of salted fat. He sat down upon a three-legged milking stool right before the black whale-bone seat, set the birch wedge upon his knees, and struck the nine strings with the flat of his four fingers.

DOU-U-U-N-G-G-G-K-L-A-A-H!

The blue stone inside the pierced sun-wheel woke up like a blue eye opening in a deep well. A great shaft of sky-colored light shot upward into the smoke-hole of the roof, cutting through the greasy soot like a clean knife through a tub of cold lard. The three hollow swan-bones at the base began to hum against each other: twee-twee-krrrr, twee-twee-krrrr!

The great voice of Ragnarr of the Broken Horn stopped in his throat with a dry rattling sound, like a dry pea shaken in a pig’s bladder. The yellow bronze daggers fell from his fat knuckles and rolled across the sheepskin map, leaving two smears of red grease across his cousins’ houses.

Ante did not look at the King’s face; he looked at the ninth string, which was the string of the deep snow that falls upon the quiet forest. He moved his ivory pegs with his thumb and began to draw his fingers over the snow-stag ribs, singing the ancient joik of the great gray mother-wolf who sits upon the hill and counts her seven pups while the night is very long and cold.

As the sound went into the ears of the forty captains, their iron coats seemed to weigh sixty stones. Their hands let go of the long spears, and the spears rolled into the ashes of the hearth-trench without a sound. The captain who was most terrible in slaughter, whose name was Brand of the Red Beard, laid his hairy cheek down upon the oak board and began to snore like a fat hog that has eaten a basket of warm grain.

Then Ante struck the middle strings, which are the strings of the water that runs through the gravel under the world. He sprinkled three drops of clean creek-water through the fretwork sun-wheel upon the blue stone.

The wood of the birch box began to sing of its own accord, without the hand of Ante touching the gut. From the open sound-hole came a thin, sweet voice that was like the voice of Ragnarr’s dead mother, who had been buried thirty winters before in the mound of the white stones.

“Ragnarr,” sang the hollow wood, using the small child-name that no man in all the seventy islands knew, “thou hast a stone in thy belly because thou didst take the three milk-goats from the widow of the creek when thou wert a boy of fourteen summers. The goats are dead, the widow is dead, and the hair upon thy own forehead is thin like dry moss, yet thou dost still roar like a wounded walrus because thou hast no rest in thy blood.”

The great King of the Island of the Three Sounds heard the voice of his mother speaking from the nine cords of gut. The thick veins in his temples, which had been swollen like purple leeches, became small and pale. The red worm that had eaten his sleep for forty moons crawled out from under his tongue and fell into the ashes, where it shriveled like a dry leaf and was gone.

A great water came out of the King’s right eye; then a great water came out of the King’s left eye. The tears washed the soot from his red cheeks and fell upon the sheepskin map, blurring the red ox-blood until the houses of his cousins were washed away into the yellow grease.

“Old singer,” whispered Ragnarr, and his voice was no longer like the horn of an iron bull, but like the sound of the wind blowing through a field of ripe oats, “my boats have no pitch, my captains are tired, and the meat in my tubs smells like the belly of a dead seal. What shall I do that my house may be sweet again?”

Ante did not take his hands from the nine strings. He played the third joik, which is the song of the hearth-smoke that rises straight up to the high sun when there is no wind in the world.

“Roll thy sheepskin map into the salt tub,” said Ante. “Take off thy coat of iron and put on a coat of sheep-fur. Give the forty bags of barley to the women whose husbands died in the bay of the rocks, and sit upon thy stool to listen while the pot boils. For a king who fights when his belly is empty is only a dog that barks at the moon, but a king who listens to the bone-psaltery remembers that the grass will grow over his own head before the winter is seven times older.”

Ragnarr of the Broken Horn took off his iron rings and cast them into the corner where the dogs slept. He commanded the kitchen-women to bring forth seven tubs of sweet porridge made with hazel-milk and honey, and he gave a wooden bowl with a silver rim to every captain in the hall. For seven days and seven nights no man lifted a sword; no man spoke of burning boats; no man cursed his neighbor’s cattle. They sat in the great stone hall and ate the porridge, while Ante sat upon his three-legged stool and let the blue stone within the birch wood sing to the white rafters.

And when Ante went down the mountain road to his small turf house beside the blue creek, the forty captains stood upon the ramparts and threw green twigs of birch before his boots, while the great King Ragnarr slept upon his black whale-seat with his mouth open to the sky, sleeping so soundly that a small swallow came down through the smoke-hole and built its nest within the gray curls of his beard.

Moral of the Story: The iron axe may cut down the forest and the bronze spear may divide the meat of the weak, but only the nine cords of the spirit-wood can reach into the dark cellar of the tyrant’s chest to slay the worm of malice; for the strongest chief is not he who makes the great noise of thunder, but he whose spirit can sit still while the small bone sings of the quiet snow.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

Ante’s Resonant Birch-Psaltery of the Northern Spirits

  • Description: An eighteen-inch wedge of aged silver birch stained slate gray with elderberries and beeswax. Nine twisted reindeer-gut strings run across three bleached snow-stag rib bridges, secured by walrus-ivory friction pegs etched with animist runes. A pierced northern sun-wheel sound-hole houses a raw azure crystal, while three hollow swan bones dangle from a hare-fur and wool carrying sash.
  • Item Type: Unique Shamanic Focus / Animist Relic
  • Sanity Cost: 0 to inspect or carry; 1 Sanity point upon witnessing the psaltery resonate on its own or emit a concussive shockwave of solid harmonic sound.
  • Powers and Mechanics:
    • Chamber Resonance (Passive): While the psaltery is held or slung across the chest, the bearer gains an intuitive read on interpersonal tension. The user receives a Bonus Die on Psychology rolls made to gauge an individual’s true emotional state, unvoiced malice, or hidden anxiety during social interactions.
    • Sovereign’s Grace (Passive): The soothing hum of the instrument lowers hostility. The wielder gains a Bonus Die on Charm and Persuade rolls when performing before an audience or attempting to diffuse volatile, escalating arguments.
    • Spiritual Dampener (Passive): The ambient resonance disrupts surveillance. All attempts by outside observers to eavesdrop using mechanical bugs, directional microphones, or scrying magic within 5 yards of the psaltery suffer a Penalty Die.
    • Luohti of the Soothed Beast (Active): As an action, the bearer spends 3 Magic Points and plucks a low arpeggio while humming a two-syllable joik. One humanoid or natural beast within 10 yards must succeed on an Extreme POW check or enter a state of sudden emotional placidity for 1D4 rounds, unable to initiate hostile actions, shout alarms, or trigger combat reactions.
    • Divining the Hidden Strain (Active): Over 2 minutes of continuous ritual playing and a sacrifice of 5 Magic Points, the user sprinkles spring water into the pierced sound-hole. The gut strings vibrate autonomously, whispering the dominant unvoiced fear, guilt, or secret objective of the most influential individual present in the chamber.
    • Discordant Shock Chord (Active): As a defensive reaction when charged in melee, the bearer expends 4 Magic Points and slaps both palms flat across all nine strings. A concussive 5-yard cone of focused acoustic force erupts from the soundboard; all creatures in the area must pass a Hard STR or CON check or be thrown backward 3 yards and knocked prone, losing their next turn.

Blades in the Dark

The Sovereign’s Bone-Psaltery

  • Item Details: A Tier I Rare Arcane Implement / Courtier’s Instrument. Carried as 1 load (held in two hands to play, or slung across the torso via sash).
  • Qualities and Tags: Rare, Arcane, Melodic, Calm, Divination, Force.
  • Mechanics and Operation:
    • Sovereign’s Grace (Passive): While the psaltery is openly carried or softly played during social gatherings, you are regarded as an esteemed, protected court performer. Take +1d on Consort or Sway rolls when navigating high-society protocol, diffusing aristocratic fury, or blending into noble banquets.
    • Acoustic Veil (Passive): The low hum of the strings confuses eavesdroppers; attempts by adversaries to listen into your conversations or use whisper-scrying across the room suffer reduced effect.
    • Luohti of the Soothed Beast (Action: Sway or Attune): Spend 1 Stress and roll to calm an aggressive person or guard beast with a soft spirit melody.
      • Standard Effect: The target’s aggression evaporates for several vital moments, allowing you or your allies to slip by unhindered or de-escalate a lethal confrontation.
      • Complication: On a 1–3 or 4/5, the azure flash through the sound-hole or the carrying chime attracts unwanted aristocratic scrutiny, marking 1 or 2 ticks on a trouble clock (e.g., “Suspicious Chamberlain Watches”).
    • Discordant Shock Chord (Action: Prowl or Finesse): Spend 1 Stress as a defensive reaction when cornered or charged in close quarters. You violently strike all nine strings to release a focused blast of acoustic force. This improves your Position on defensive rolls from Desperate to Risky, or Risky to Controlled, driving foes back into furniture or walls.
    • Divining the Strain (Downtime Action): During downtime, spend 1 Coin or 1 Rep to perform a spirit-divination ritual over the psaltery. Clear 2 segments on a long-term project clock related to exposing noble blackmail, discovering a rival faction’s hidden motives, or unraveling palace treason.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Noaidi Sovereign Bone-Psaltery

  • Wondrous Item, Common (Requires Attunement by a Bard or a creature proficient in Performance)
  • Item Properties:
    • Weight: 2 lbs.
    • Attunement: Requires attunement over a short rest spent tuning each bone bridge by ear while singing an ancestral joik to the instrument’s spirit.
  • Item Traits:
    • Harmonic Barrier: While held in two hands or slung openly across your torso, the psaltery provides a protective harmonic screen, granting a +1 bonus to Armor Class against ranged attacks.
    • Chamber Resonance: You have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks made to read the emotional climate of a room or determine whether humanoids are harboring hostile intent.
    • Acoustic Dampener: The soft ambient hum of the strings imposes disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks made by creatures outside a 15-foot radius attempting to eavesdrop on your spoken conversations.
    • Charges: The psaltery has 3 charges and regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.
  • Actions and Spells:
    • Luohti of the Soothed Beast (1 Charge): As an action, you pluck an arpeggio on the lower strings and hum a spirit cadence. You cast the calm emotions spell (save DC 13) centered on a point within 30 feet of you.
    • Divining the Hidden Strain (1 Charge): Over 2 minutes of continuous ritual playing, you sprinkle a drop of water onto the sound-hole. The strings autonomously vibrate to divine palace intrigue, granting the benefits of a detect thoughts spell that functions only to read the surface emotions and dominant immediate secret of the highest-ranking humanoid within 30 feet.
    • Discordant Shock Chord (1 Charge): As an action, you violently slap your hand flat across all nine strings. A blast of sonic power erupts in a 15-foot cone originating from the soundboard. Each creature in that area must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 2d6 thunder damage and is pushed 10 feet away from you. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and isn’t pushed.

Knave (2nd Edition)

The Bone-Bridged Spirit-Psaltery

  • Item Slots: 2 Slots (carried in two hands to play, or slung across the back/chest).
  • Durability: 3/3 Quality.
  • Tags and Properties: Wood, Bone, Instrument, Noaidi Focus, Calm, Sonic.
  • Mechanics:
    • Courtier’s Protection: While carried openly, civilized guards, retainers, and nobles recognize the bearer as a guest performer, granting a +2 bonus on Charisma checks made to avoid arrest, de-escalate tension, or secure entry into private chambers.
    • Emotional Intuition: The bearer receives a +2 bonus on Wisdom checks to sense hidden ambushes, malicious intent, or palace deceit in enclosed rooms.
    • Soothe the Savage: Once per encounter as an action, the wielder may play a calming spirit cadence. A targeted beast or humanoid must make a Wisdom save; on a failure, it loses its combative aggression and cannot take hostile actions for 1 round.
    • Acoustic Shockwave: When pressed in melee combat, the bearer may expend 1 point of Quality by slamming their hand down across all nine strings. A concussive wave of sound erupts in a 10-foot cone; all creatures in the area must pass a Strength save or be pushed back 10 feet and knocked prone.
    • Repair: Restoring 1 lost point of Quality requires 20 copper coins worth of fresh gut-stringing, dried beeswax, and 1 hour of patient tuning beside an open fire.

Fate (Fate Core / Condensed)

The Sovereign’s Bone-Psaltery

  • Item Type: Personal Extra / Shamanic Instrument Focus
  • Permissions: Carried in hands or slung across the torso; requires an aspect or character concept reflecting courtly musicianship, skaldic performance, or noaidi spirit communion.
  • Costs: 1 Refresh point (or treated as a Campaign Aspect with free invocations).
  • Aspects:
    • Function Aspect: Noaidi Birch-Psaltery of the Sovereign Court
    • Flaw / Vulnerability Aspect: Resonant String Clatter and Fragile Bone Bridges
  • Stunts and Special Mechanics:
    • Chamber Empathy: Gain a +2 bonus on Empathy rolls to read the emotional climate of an audience, detect unvoiced palace malice, or uncover hidden court agendas during formal gatherings.
    • Luohti of the Soothed Beast: Once per session, invoke the bound spirits of the gut strings to place the situation aspect Pacified by the Ancient Joik on a target or mob with two free invocations. Affected targets cannot take violent action against you or your allies until they overcome this aspect with a Will roll.
    • Discordant Shock Chord: Once per scene as a free reaction when charged or cornered, spend 1 Fate Point to violently slap all nine gut strings. You create a zone aspect named Concussive Sonic Backlash with one free invocation; enemies in your zone must overcome a Fair (+2) obstacle or be pushed out of the zone and knocked off balance.

Cypher System / Numenera (Discovery & Destiny)

Psaltery of the Sovereign Court

  • Item Type: Cypher (or an Artifact of Level 2)
  • Level: 2 (1d6 rolled, balanced for Tier 1 play)
  • Form: An eighteen-inch, wedge-shaped psaltery of slate-gray birch featuring nine gut strings, three snow-stag rib bridges, walrus-ivory tuning pegs, and an azure core visible through a sun-wheel sound-hole.
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d10 (check each time Luohti of the Soothed Beast or Discordant Shock Chord is activated)
  • Effect and Properties:
    • Harmonic Presence (Passive): While held or played openly, the instrument establishes an acoustic screen. The wielder gains +1 to Armor against ranged attacks, and all social interaction tasks to defuse hostility, navigate aristocratic protocol, or blend into high-society gatherings are eased by one step.
    • Luohti of the Soothed Beast (Active): As an action, the performer plucks a low arpeggio while humming a soft joik. An aggressive biological target within immediate range is washed with tranquil lethargy; the task to pacify the creature or halt its attack is eased by two steps for 1 minute.
    • Divining the Hidden Strain (Active): Over 2 minutes of continuous ritual playing with a drop of water applied to the sun-wheel, the strings hum autonomously. Tasks to detect hidden deceit, uncover court blackmail, or deduce the dominant unvoiced emotion of the highest-ranking noble present are eased by two steps.
    • Discordant Shock Chord (Active): As an immediate defensive reaction, the user slaps both hands across the nine strings. A concussive acoustic burst erupts in an immediate cone; physical movement and balance tasks for affected enemies are hindered by two steps, pushing them back an immediate distance and knocking them prone on a failed roll.

Pathfinder (Second Edition)

Sovereign Bone-Psaltery

  • Item Details:
    • Item 1
    • Traits: Divination, Emotion, Enchantment, Magical, Primal, Sonic
    • Price: 20 gp
    • Usage: held in 2 hands (to play), held in 1 hand or worn on torso (to carry); Bulk: 1
  • Description:
    • An eighteen-inch wedge of resonant silver birch stained dark slate gray with elderberry wash and sealed with beeswax. Nine twisted reindeer-gut strings rest atop three carved snow-stag rib bridges and anchor to walrus-ivory pegs. A pierced sun-wheel sound-hole reveals an uncut azure crystal that pulses in sympathy with chord changes.
  • Passive Bonuses:
    • While worn openly or held, you gain a +1 item bonus to Performance checks made to entertain courts or soothe tempers, and a +1 item bonus to Perception checks to Sense Motive against creatures in the same room.
    • The ambient hum of the strings grants a +1 circumstance bonus to AC against ranged weapon attacks while you are actively playing.
  • Activate — Luohti of the Soothed Beast:
    • Actions: Two Actions (concentrate, manipulate)
    • Frequency: once per day
    • Effect: You pluck the lower strings and hum an ancestral joik. One creature within 30 feet that can hear you must attempt a DC 17 Will save. On a failure, it is overcome with tranquil placidity (as the calm emotions spell, affecting only the target) for 1 round; on a critical failure, it becomes pacified and cannot take hostile actions for 1 minute or until attacked.
  • Activate — Divining the Hidden Strain:
    • Actions: 2 minutes (concentrate, manipulate)
    • Frequency: once per day
    • Effect: You place a drop of pure spring water onto the sound-hole and play a soft modal progression. The strings autonomously resonate, revealing the dominant unvoiced emotion or immediate hidden grievance of the highest-ranking creature within 30 feet (functioning as mind reading, restricted to surface emotional tension).
  • Activate — Discordant Shock Chord:
    • Actions: Reaction (manipulate)
    • Trigger: An enemy within your reach initiates a melee Strike against you.
    • Frequency: once per hour
    • Effect: You slap both palms down across all nine strings. A blast of sonic force erupts in a 15-foot cone. Creatures in the area must succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save or take 1d6 sonic damage and be pushed back 5 feet (falling prone on a critical failure).

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

Noaidi Sovereign’s Bone-Psaltery

  • Item Type: Minor Arcane Device (Enchanted Instrument)
  • Weight: 2 lbs.
  • Value: $500
  • Power Points: 5 (recharges at a rate of 1 Power Point per hour)
  • Inherent Properties:
    • Courtier’s Poise: While worn or played openly, the bearer gains a +2 bonus on Performance and Persuasion rolls during formal social events, and a +2 bonus on Notice rolls made to discern the emotional undercurrents or hostility of nearby audiences.
  • Embedded Powers:
    • Luohti of the Soothed Beast / Empathy (Cost: 1 Power Point):
      • Range: Smarts
      • Duration: 1 round
      • Mechanics: Plucking the lower bone-bridged strings releases an azure light pulse. The user rolls their Spirit die; with a success, a targeted hostile person or wild beast becomes docile and cannot take aggressive or offensive actions on its next turn (-2 to resistance rolls with a raise).
    • Divining the Strain / Divination (Cost: 2 Power Points):
      • Range: Touch (flat surface)
      • Duration: 2 minutes of ritual concentration
      • Mechanics: Bowing or plucking the middle strings over a drop of pure water reveals courtly intrigue. On a successful Spirit roll, the psaltery’s autonomous vibration whispers the unspoken grudge, fear, or treasonous intent of the primary noble in the room.
    • Discordant Shock Chord / Sound / Kinetic Pulse (Cost: 1 Power Point):
      • Range: Cone Template
      • Duration: Instant
      • Mechanics: As a free action when targeted by a melee charge or cornered, the musician slaps all nine strings flat. A wave of kinetic acoustic force washes over a Cone Template originating from the user. All creatures caught within the template must succeed on an Agility check (at -2 with a raise on the arcane skill roll) or be knocked back 1d4 yards and fall prone.

Shadowrun (Sixth World / 6e)

Ante’s Spirit-Psaltery Focus

  • Item Type: Force 2 Health / Manipulation Focus (Shamanic Tradition)
  • Concealability: +2 (Lap instrument slung via braided sash across the chest or held in hands)
  • Availability: 4 (Rare tribal heirloom / high-society curio)
  • Cost: 9,000 nuyen
  • Description: An eighteen-inch wedge of aged silver birch treated with elderberry soot wash and beeswax, holding nine reindeer-gut strings over snow-stag rib bridges. Anchored by runic walrus-ivory friction pegs, its center features a pierced northern sun-wheel displaying an azure spirit crystal. Three hollow swan bones dangle from its braided white fur and green wool carrying strap.
  • Game Mechanics and Rules:
    • Focus Bonding: Bonding this focus requires Karma equal to twice its Force (4 Karma). Once bonded, the Awakened character receives a +2 dice pool bonus on Sorcery tests to cast Manipulation spells geared toward pacification, emotion dampening, and acoustic disruption.
    • Harmonic Presence (Passive): The constant, subtle resonance of the strings softens ambient malice and deflects incoming velocity. The runner gains +1 Defense Rating against ranged physical attacks while the instrument is slung or played openly, and +1 Edge on Influence tests during high-society corporate banquets or formal diplomatic summits.
    • Acoustic Scramble (Passive): The lingering hum of the snow-stag bridges muddles listening bugs, micro-drones, and directional microphones within 5 meters, inflicting a -2 dice pool penalty on electronic surveillance tests to parse spoken speech.
    • Luohti of the Soothed Beast (Active): As a Minor Action, the performer plucks a low arpeggio while chanting a quiet two-syllable joik, testing Sorcery + Charisma against a target’s Willpower. On 1 or more net hits, the target suffers the Pacified status for 2 combat rounds, rendering them unable to take aggressive, hostile, or attacking actions.
    • Divining the Strain (Active): Over 2 minutes of continuous ritual playing with pure water applied to the sun-wheel, the runner tests Sorcery + Intuition (Threshold 2). Net hits reveal the dominant unvoiced emotion, hidden agenda, or immediate grievance of the highest-status corporate officer or noble in the room.
    • Discordant Shock Chord (Active): As an immediate defensive Reaction when targeted by an incoming melee charge, the user strikes all nine strings with both palms. A localized acoustic shockwave erupts in a 5-meter cone; all targets in the path must make an Agility + Athletics test (Threshold 2) or be thrown backward 3 meters and fall Prone.

Starfinder (Second Edition)

Sovereign Bone-Psaltery

  • Item 1
  • Traits: Emotion, Enchantment, Magical, Primal, Sonic
  • Price: 25 credits
  • Usage: held in 2 hands (to play), held in 1 hand or worn on torso (to carry); Bulk: 1
  • Description: A birch resonator wedge housing nine gut strings over carved stag-bone bridges, fitted with an azure focus crystal that pulses through a sun-wheel aperture. Designed to harmonize ancestral animist vibrations with courtly diplomatic protocol, it soothes aggression, cuts through sensor arrays, and unleashes concussive acoustic bursts.
  • Game Mechanics and Rules:
    • Courtier’s Poise (Passive): While slung or displayed openly, you gain a +1 item bonus to Diplomacy checks during formal social functions and a +1 item bonus to Perception checks to Sense Motive against creatures in the same chamber.
    • Harmonic Screen (Passive): The low vibrational aura of the bone bridges grants a +1 circumstance bonus to AC against ranged attacks while you are actively holding or playing the instrument.
    • Activate — Luohti of the Soothed Beast:
      • Actions: Two Actions (concentrate, manipulate)
      • Frequency: once per day
      • Effect: You play a descending arpeggio across the lower strings and hum an ancestral joik. One creature within 30 feet that can hear you must attempt a DC 17 Will save. On a failure, it is overcome with tranquility (functioning as the calm emotions spell, targeting only the selected creature) for 1 round; on a critical failure, it is pacified and cannot take hostile actions for 1 minute or until attacked.
    • Activate — Divining the Hidden Strain:
      • Actions: 2 minutes (concentrate, manipulate)
      • Frequency: once per day
      • Effect: You place a drop of pure water onto the central sound-hole and play a sustained modal drone. The strings vibrate autonomously to read the emotional atmosphere, revealing the dominant hidden fear, grievance, or secret objective of the highest-ranking creature within 30 feet.
    • Activate — Discordant Shock Chord:
      • Actions: Reaction (manipulate)
      • Trigger: An enemy within your melee reach initiates a Strike against you.
      • Frequency: once per hour
      • Effect: You violently strike your open palms across all nine strings. A concussive blast of sonic force bursts out in a 15-foot cone originating from the soundboard. Creatures in the area must succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save or take 1d6 sonic damage and be pushed back 10 feet (falling prone on a critical failure).

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Ancients’ Resonant Bone-Psaltery

  • Tech Level (TL): 11 (Psionic / Bio-Resonant Artifact)
  • Mass: 1.0 kg
  • Cost: Cr 12,000 (Black-market artifact / imperial cultural curio)
  • Description: A dark-stained wooden acoustic array using bio-synthetic gut filaments stretched across calcium-dense stabilizer bridges. A piezoelectric azure crystal set behind an openwork radial emitter responds to kinetic plucking, projecting calming neuro-acoustic carrier waves and concussive kinetic frequencies.
  • Game Mechanics and Rules:
    • Chamber Empathy (Passive): The device registers biometric tension and emotional volatility through air pressure changes, granting a +1 DM on all Persuade and Diplomat checks during embassy summits or high-stakes arbitrations.
    • Surveillance Jammer (Passive): The ambient harmonic pitch of the strings naturally interferes with audio sensors, directional microphones, and laser eavesdroppers within 6 meters, imposing a -2 DM on electronic surveillance and listening efforts.
    • Neuro-Acoustic Pacification: When operated by an individual with a Psionic Strength Rating (PSR) of 1 or higher, the user can spend 1 action plucking the lower filaments. The user makes an Average (8+) Art (instrument) or Psionics check modified by their PSR DM. On a success, one targeted biological creature within 10 meters must pass an Average (8+) Endurance check or be overcome with calm lethargy, losing the ability to initiate attacks or draw weapons for 1D combat rounds.
    • Acoustic Concussion Blast (Shock Chord): As an immediate defensive Reaction when rushed by hostile combatants, the user slaps both palms flat down across the filament array. A sudden concussive wave erupts across a 3-meter cone. Any individual caught in the field must pass an Average (8+) Athletics (dexterity) check or take 2D6 stun damage, be pushed back 3 meters, and fall prone.

Warhammer (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition)

The Sovereign’s Bone-Psaltery of the Northern Skalds

  • Classification: Magical Curio / Shamanic Musical Focus
  • Encumbrance: 1
  • Availability: Exotic (Court minstrels, Kislevite bards, or Norscan song-smiths)
  • Description: An eighteen-inch lap psaltery carved from resonant silver birch, washed with dark elderberry extract and bees-waxed to a slate-gray finish. Nine reindeer-gut strings rest across carved snow-stag bone bridges and turn upon walrus-ivory pegs. An azure crystal glows behind a carved sun-wheel, flanked by dangling swan wing-bones on a braided wool-and-fur sash.
  • Game Mechanics and Rules:
    • Courtier’s Protection (Passive): While worn or held openly, the psaltery commands artistic reverence. The bearer gains a +10 bonus to all Entertain (Singing or Instrument), Charm, and Etiquette (Noble) tests during aristocratic banquets or formal court audiences.
    • Reading the Room (Passive): The strings softly vibrate in response to emotional malice, granting a +10 bonus to Intuition tests made to sense hidden hostility, ambush preparations, or noble treason within 10 yards.
    • Luohti of the Soothed Beast (Active): As an Action, the musician plucks a slow modal cadence across the lower strings and sings an ancestral joik. One targeted humanoid or beast within 10 yards that can hear the music must pass a Challenging (+0) Cool test or gain 1 Pacified Condition, preventing them from making attacks or using hostile Talents for 1D3 rounds.
    • Divining the Strain (Active): By spending 2 minutes in focused ritual play with a drop of clear water applied to the sun-wheel, the musician tests Entertain (Instrument) +10. Success reveals the primary unvoiced grievance, fear, or hidden motive harbored by the highest-ranking noble present in the room.
    • Discordant Shock Chord (Active): As a Free Action triggered when engaged in melee or charged by an enemy, the musician strikes all nine strings with both palms. A sudden wave of concussive sonic energy blasts outward in a 2-yard cone. Opponents within the area must pass a Challenging (+0) Athletics test or gain the Prone Condition and be pushed back 2 yards, allowing the musician to immediately disengage without giving a free strike.