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Gaoler Drill of the Horizon Veil 918

—

by

Dale
in

Lore

During the late Steam-Powered era across the 73 sovereign island nations, high-ranking magistrates of the subterranean vault-districts faced elusive infiltrators and rogue elemental spirits capable of slipping through stone and iron alike. To establish absolute containment and diagnostic supremacy, a master artificer bound five disparate relics in an alchemical forge powered by elemental fire and water. The cold iron binding-key of the ancient prisons, the adamantine core-sampler of the Delvers’ Sodality, the woven shadow-threads of the mirage-makers, the meditative insight-crystal, and the fragrant wind-elixir were collapsed within a high-pressure crucible under the divine gaze of Gaialilith. The resulting synthesis drew upon a Tier 5 crystal matrix to forge an indivisible relic of Tier 5 supremacy—a tool of piercing analysis, inescapable binding, and illusory silence.

Description

A single, articulated gauntlet-sleeve of cold iron, darkened tungsten steel, and diaphanous shadow-silk that fits seamlessly over the forearm and hand, tapering into an elongated index digit tipped with a rotating, fluted drill-bit of diamond-sheathed star-iron. Set into the back of the wrist is an unblinking glass eye bead surrounded by an etched endless knot, while a fist-sized prismatic crystal rests above the knuckles, faintly pulsing with violet, silver, and gold light. The relic feels perpetually cool, making no sound when it brushes against stone or iron, and continuously emits a faint scent of crushed pine, eucalyptus, and ozone.

Stats

  • Tier: 5 (Legendary)
  • Armor Check (AC): +3
  • Item Hit Points: $\text{Avatar Maximum Hit Points} + 50$ (Resilience 10 $\times$ Tier 5)
  • Weight: 2.2 pounds
  • Resilience: 10
  • Attunement Time: 1 minute (simple attunement)
  • Trading Baseline: 85 Rhodium coins (sellers’ market, value subject to local access and availability)

Skills Gained While Openly Worn

  • +6 Temporary Skill Points in Stealth and Infiltration checks
  • +6 Temporary Skill Points in Structural and Geological Analysis checks

Tags

  • Tier 5, Legendary, Forearm Slot, Cold-Iron, Tool, Infiltration, Containment, Illusion, Optical Camouflage, Structural Analysis, Divine Insight, Single Physical Object, Star-Iron, Solomon-Knot, Ethereal-Thread, Pine-Resin, Sonic-Dampening, Abyssal-Sight, Vault-Breaker, Gaoler-Will, Stasis-Chamber, Infiltration-Gear, Prismatic-Lens

Multiple Passive Magics

  • Vibrationless Core-Bore: The serrated drill-bit and gauntlet mechanics are warded by deep sonic dampening runes; when boring into granite, steel, or reinforced vaults, the tool produces no vibrations or sound, masking the user’s presence from acoustic and tremorsense detection.
  • Veil of Shifting Form: Ambient light curves around the wielder’s silhouette, blurring outlines into a translucent heat-haze. The wearer gains advantage on all checks made to remain unseen while motionless or moving through dim light.
  • Warden’s Unyielding Ward: The glass eye and Solomon’s knot protect the bearer from deceit and mental coercion. The wearer cannot be intimidated, charmed, or deceived by captured or restrained entities, and automatically senses if a lock, manacle, or binding within 30 feet is being tampered with.
  • Cosmic Harmony Sight: The prismatic knuckle crystal aligns the user’s Mind’s Eye with the natural mana currents of Gaialilith’s realm, providing an intuitive awareness of structural flaws, hidden cavities, and magical conduits within barriers.
  • Perpetual Cutting Stasis: The bore-edge never dulls or chips against non-magical and magical alloys alike, while extracted material samples drawn into the interior chamber are held in indefinite preservation against decay and elemental corruption.

Multiple Active Magics

  • Zephyr-Bore Surge (1 Action): Channeling elemental air through the forearm conduits, the drill spins at supernatural velocity while the wearer is propelled forward with sudden speed. The wearer immediately ignores difficult terrain, moves up to 40 feet in a straight line, and can drill a clean 2-inch diameter hole up to 4 feet deep through solid stone, iron doors, or reinforced barricades.
  • Seal of the Seven Towers (1 Action): The wielder presses the star-iron bit against any lock, vault door, or set of chains, releasing a burst of blue-white luminescence. For 1 hour, the touched object is spiritually locked, tripling its durability threshold and preventing picking or forced opening by mundane or low-tier magical means.
  • Mirage Cloak Shroud (1 Action): The shadow-silk along the sleeve flares, enveloping the wearer in complete optical invisibility and muting all emitted scents and footfalls for 1 minute. Attacking or triggering destructive magic ends the invisibility.
  • Gaze of the Cosmic Cycle (1 Action): Gazing into the prismatic knuckle crystal, the wielder directs its focused light at an obstacle, barrier, or restrained subject. The wielder instantly learns the exact material composition and prime structural weakness of the target, or compels an interrogated captive to answer a direct question with undeniable truth.
  • Pneumatic Shard Ejection (1 Action): The gauntlet releases a high-pressure jet of compressed elemental steam and wind, cleanly ejecting an extracted core sample as a high-velocity piercing projectile with a range of 60 feet.

Specific Slot for this Single Item

  • Tool (Hand/Forearm Slot)

Targeting, Disabling, and Repairing Gaoler-Drill of the Horizon Veil 918

  • Targeting and Disabling Thresholds:
    • When an attacker declares a targeted strike against the gauntlet-sleeve tool itself, the attack roll must overcome a specialized defense threshold rather than the wearer’s standard evasion.
    • The threshold to hit the item equals the target avatar’s total Armor Check plus the avatar’s tier level (5) plus the roll of the avatar’s tier dice (5d12) plus the tool’s own Armor Check value (+3).
    • If the targeted strike hits, the gauntlet is instantly disabled and unattuned, causing all passive wards, active magics, and skill bonuses to shut down immediately.
    • If a targeted attack hits while the item is already unattuned or disabled, incoming damage applies directly against the item’s total hit point pool.
    • The tool possesses a total hit point pool equal to the avatar’s maximum hit points plus 50 (calculated as base resilience 10 multiplied by Tier 5).
    • The gauntlet becomes broken and physically compromised when it sustains damage equal to or exceeding half of its total hit points:$$\frac{\text{Avatar Maximum Hit Points} + 50}{2}$$
    • Once reduced to half health or below, the item’s mechanical gears lock, its shadow-threads fray, and its enchantments cannot be accessed or attuned until full repairs are completed.
    • If targeted damage reduces the gauntlet to zero hit points, the item is destroyed beyond salvage, shattering into fragments of cold iron, sheared tungsten plates, loose glass beads, and crushed quartz dust.
  • Repair Procedures:
    • The tool does not naturally regenerate lost durability over time, rests, or sleep; all damage must be repaired manually.
    • The item cannot be re-attuned or activated while in a broken state; its hit point pool must be completely restored back to full capacity before attunement is possible.
    • Restoring the item requires an artisan, technomancer, or an avatar possessing advanced proficiencies in Metallurgy, Artificing, and Arcane Rune Lore with a minimum skill level of 10 (base 5 plus 5 for Tier 5).
    • The artisan must perform the work in an advanced workshop equipped with a steam-powered lathe, closed-circuit elemental boilers, and a jeweler’s micro-etching rig to safely work with the miniaturized gears and shadow-silk seams.
    • Physical repairs require supplementary materials matching the original build: cold-forged iron wire, refined tungsten solder, a pinch of crushed lapis lazuli flux, and distilled resin to realign the vibration-dampening conduits.
    • Once the structural cracks are welded, the gear assemblies recalibrated, and the item’s hit points are restored to maximum, the wielder must undergo a standard attunement process of at least one full minute before the tool’s passive and active properties can function again.

Acquisition and Commerce of the Gaoler-Drill of the Horizon Veil 918

  • Methods of Acquisition:
    • Master Artificing Synthesis: An avatar possessing advanced proficiencies in Metallurgy, Gemcutting, Arcane Rune Lore, and Artificing at skill level 10 can forge the gauntlet by synthesizing the five prerequisite Tier 1 items: Finger Mounted Core Sampler 227, Whispers of the Wind, Vāhrðāns Gaze Crystal, Mirage Cloaks, and Turkish Djinn Binder 444 of the Gaoler. The merger demands an artisan workshop equipped with closed-circuit steam conduits combining elemental fire and water, payment of the mandatory 15% consolidation fee based on base item values, and a successful synthesis check avoiding a roll of 1 on a d20.
    • Infiltration of High-Security Sovereign Keeps: Elite adventuring squads can obtain the tool by infiltrating the deepest subterranean vault complexes of the 73 sovereign island nations. The gauntlet may be found locked in the inner sanctuary of a high gaoler or grand inquisitor, secured inside a stasis vault protected by clockwork sentries and pressure wards.
    • Extraction from a Fallen Tier 5 Sovereign Operative: Defeating a possessed Tier 5 rogue inquisitor, master burglar, or sovereign warden who wields the tool presents an opportunity for salvage. Because non-soulbound equipment carried by Tier 5 avatars typically disintegrates into sparks upon the wielder’s final destruction, the tool must be disarmed, stolen through targeted sleight of hand, or yielded through a formalized surrender treaty before the avatar is annihilated.
    • Deep Subterranean Ruin Salvage: Explorers delving into pre-industrial ruins beneath the island continental plates, lost Delver Sodality facilities, or sunken underwater enclaves may discover the gauntlet encased within an ancient elemental stasis sphere that survived mechanical collapse.
  • Commercial Venues, Transaction Methods, and Costs:
    • The High Warden’s Sovereign Armory (Capital Citadel):
      • Type of Shop: A heavily fortified, restricted-access military depot situated inside the citadel walls of a sovereign island nation’s capital. The facility is overseen by the Grand Gaoler and royal factors, featuring stone-reinforced iron displays, steam-pressurized gear cages, and armed royal watchmen.
      • How It Is Bought and Sold: The shop does not cater to common adventurers; entry requires verified security clearance or a signed decree from a constitutional monarch. The item is inspected through the Mind’s Eye to ensure its binding runes and stasis matrix are intact. Sellers must pass rigorous interrogation regarding the item’s provenance. Transactions are processed directly through the World Bank, logging the transfer and deducting the standard 1% banking fee.
      • Cost to Purchase: 85 Rhodium coins (equivalent to 850 Platinum or 8,500 Gold).
      • Value if Sold: 40 to 42 Rhodium coins deposited directly into the seller’s World Bank ledger.
    • The High-Altitude Spire Laboratory (Floating Megacity):
      • Type of Shop: A secluded experimental workshop perched within a soaring clockwork aerie 3,000 feet above the ocean, accessible only by steam-cable gondolas or airship docking platforms. The shop is run by an eccentric Tier 5 master mechanist and archaeo-engineer.
      • How It Is Bought and Sold: The proprietor demands that prospective buyers demonstrate adequate attunement capability prior to handling to prevent dangerous kinetic or mana discharge. Purchases can be made using physical high-denomination metal coins or through trade-ins of high-capacity arcane steam cores, massive Tier 5 magic crystals, and rare clockwork transmission schematics.
      • Cost to Purchase: 90 Rhodium coins (commanding a premium due to high-altitude logistics and exclusive diagnostic calibration).
      • Value if Sold: 45 Rhodium coins, or a direct exchange for a Tier 5 arcane crystal and 35 Rhodium coins.
    • The Deep Trench Vault Exchange (Submerged Regional Center):
      • Type of Shop: A pressurized glass-and-coral dome situated in one of the twenty regional underwater centers beneath the ocean surface, maintained by permanent water-warding barriers and aquatic trade emissaries.
      • How It Is Bought and Sold: The establishment is managed by deep-sea archivists and salvage syndicates. Transactions are conducted via telepathic exchange and recorded on wax-sealed slate tablets. Buyers must demonstrate that the tool will be utilized for archaeological recovery rather than structural destruction of benthic habitats. Payment is accepted in standard coinage or regional non-metal tokens of equivalent precious weight.
      • Cost to Purchase: 80 Rhodium coins (equivalent to 800 Platinum).
      • Value if Sold: 38 to 40 Rhodium coins, with a 5% bonus applied if the seller holds an active ranking in the local Cartographers’ or Delvers’ Guild.
    • The Subterranean Shadow Bourse (Uncharted Mining Warrens):
      • Type of Shop: An illicit, unmarked stone vault hidden behind false mine collapses beneath an industrial manufacturing district, completely detached from municipal tax collectors and royal watch patrols.
      • How It Is Bought and Sold: The bourse operates strictly off-the-books and deals exclusively in physical Gold, Platinum, or Rhodium bullion to bypass World Bank logging. Master thieves, guild dissidents, and unaligned bounty hunters barter in hushed voices. The brokers demand no identification, maintain no paperwork, and ask no questions regarding previous owners.
      • Cost to Purchase: 105 to 120 Rhodium coins (heavily marked up due to the extreme danger of carrying unlogged Tier 5 infiltration technology).
      • Value if Sold: 50 to 55 Rhodium coins in loose, physical metal, provided the seller assumes all security risks of transporting heavy physical currency.

Tactical Application and Environmental Roleplay of the Gaoler-Drill of the Horizon Veil 918

  • Fortified Vaults, Dungeons, and High-Security Keeps:
    • Offensive Tactics:
      • The avatar approaches a massive, multi-ton vault door reinforced with arcane wards and sliding deadbolts. Rather than detonating explosives or loudly hacking at the hinges, the avatar presses the cold-iron digit to the masonry flanking the frame. Activating the silent Zephyr-Bore Surge, the drill spins with zero acoustic or seismic signature, coring a series of clean holes through the mortar to silently detach the locking brackets from within the wall.
      • In an infiltration corridor guarded by roaming patrols, the wielder triggers Mirage Cloak Shroud, vanishing into the ambient shadows while masking all footstep sounds and the scent of pine. Slinking past iron gates, the avatar uses Gaze of the Cosmic Cycle through the Mind’s Eye to peer into the tumblers of an adjacent security gate, discerning its internal alignment and boring out the brass pins in absolute silence to breach the inner sanctum.
      • When pursuing a high-value fugitive through a prison corridor, the avatar extends the gauntlet and activates Pneumatic Shard Ejection, launching a dense granite core extracted moments earlier with the velocity of an arquebus shot, striking the runner’s knee to immobilize them without lethal trauma.
    • Defensive Tactics:
      • When pursued into a holding block by an overwhelming force of alerted dungeon guards, the avatar slams a heavy cell gate shut and touches the lock with the star-iron tip to trigger Seal of the Seven Towers. An iridescent blue weave locks the tumblers and spiritual framework, tripling the door’s structural threshold and completely neutralizing the guards’ lockpicks and battering rams.
      • While interrogating a cunning, captive spy who attempts to misdirect the party with false escape routes, the wielder relies on the passive Warden’s Unyielding Ward to completely resist the captive’s manipulative social deceptions and intimidation, while using Whisper-level truth discernment from the knuckle crystal to instantly detect intentional lies.
      • If ambushed in a narrow cell block, the gauntlet’s internal vibration nullifiers prevent sound reverberation, enabling the avatar to evade echo-locating guard beasts while ducking into unlit alcoves cloaked by Veil of Shifting Form.
  • Bustling Industrial Districts and Clockwork Spire Metropolises:
    • Offensive Tactics:
      • Amid towering factory smokestacks, whirring overhead cable systems, and pressurized steam lines, the avatar employs the gauntlet to conduct surgical sabotage against hostile syndicates. Crawling across iron roof trusses cloaked in optical invisibility, the wielder presses the drill against a high-pressure steam distribution valve, boring a microscopic tap that vents driving steam into an enemy watchtower to disorient lookouts.
      • When hunting an elusive technomancer through a crowded market square, the avatar uses the gauntlet’s swift Zephyr-Bore propulsion to dash across grease-slick cobblestones and vendor awnings at high speeds, closing the gap instantly before the target can access an escape gondola.
      • Facing an enemy automaton or steam-powered combat rig, the avatar activates Gaze of the Cosmic Cycle to locate the machine’s primary mechanical shear-pin. Boring directly through the armor plating with the diamond-sheathed bit, the avatar shatters the drive shaft, disabling the construct while leaving its valuable arcane core intact for salvage.
    • Defensive Tactics:
      • In dense factory sectors where corporate enforcers deploy directional acoustic sensors, the gauntlet’s passive vibration dampening ensures that any mechanical sabotage or door breaching registers zero decibel spikes, denying the enemy automated alarm alerts.
      • When trapped in a collapsing warehouse as gear assemblies and boiler tanks give way, the avatar uses Zephyr-Bore Surge to cut a clean escape tunnel through a foot of reinforced iron plating, leading the squad safely outside into the alleys.
      • If hostile infiltrators attempt to tap into the party’s personal workshop or safehouse door, the gauntlet hums faintly via its Silent Alarm passive, immediately notifying the sleeping avatar that a lock within 30 feet is being tampered with.
  • High-Altitude Floating Megacities and Sky-Dock Spire Networks:
    • Offensive Tactics:
      • Operating across aerial boardwalks suspended 3,000 feet above the open sea, the avatar activates Mirage Cloak Shroud to slip past perimeter sky-guards aboard moored patrol zeppelins. Moving silently along tether ropes, the avatar presses the sampler into the zeppelin’s ballast anchor, drilling a precise core to vent lift-gas controls and ground the vessel before it can scramble fighter gliders.
      • When cornering a sky-pirate captain on a swaying rope bridge, the avatar channels Gaze of the Cosmic Cycle, naming the captain and compelling them to reveal the location of the hidden skyship cargo hold or surrender their command without a fight.
      • The avatar uses the high-velocity Pneumatic Shard Ejection to sever distant steering cables on enemy airskiffs, disabling their maneuvering rudders from across an open aerial divide.
    • Defensive Tactics:
      • If targeted by enemy sniper fire from adjacent floating towers, the avatar activates Veil of Shifting Form to warp light across the bridge, turning their silhouette into a shimmering mirage that imposes severe visual targeting penalties on enemy sharpshooters.
      • When knocked from an aerial gangplank during high-altitude combat, the avatar activates Zephyr-Bore Surge, channeling elemental air currents to arrest their fall, leap 40 feet laterally onto an adjacent docking pylon, and anchor their fingers deep into the stone disk using the drill tip.
      • The cold-iron structure and unblinking evil eye bead shield the wearer from the vertigo-inducing telepathic screams of passing wind-elementals and predatory sky-drakes, maintaining total mental composure above the void.
  • Submerged Abyssal Domes and Ocean Trench Enclaves:
    • Offensive Tactics:
      • Delving into the depths of the twenty underwater regional centers, the avatar glides through pressurized water zones. Using the drill’s stasis core mechanism, the wielder takes precise core samples of hydrothermal mineral chimneys or deep-sea leviathan carapaces without cracking the surrounding rock or provoking predatory megafauna.
      • When breaching a flooded undersea vault, the wielder cores through corroded brass hatch seals underwater without producing cavitation bubbles or audible sonar ripples, preventing aquatic sentries from detecting the breach.
      • In combat against armored deep-sea crabs or carapaced monstrosities, the wielder uses Kinetic Bore to punch a clean channel through chitinous plating, depositing paralytic alchemical agents directly into the creature’s circulatory system.
    • Defensive Tactics:
      • If a crack develops in a deep-sea glass dome or pressure hatch during a leviathan assault, the avatar rushes to the fracture, presses the star-iron bit to the frame, and invokes Seal of the Seven Towers. The cold-iron wards arrest the spreading fracture, reinforcing the barrier against the catastrophic inward rush of abyssal water.
      • The passive preservation field of the Stasis Tube prevents harvested benthic flora, deep-sea water samples, and volatile sulfur compounds from dissolving, oxidizing, or reacting with air when returning to surface pressure.
      • If engulfed in the bioluminescent tracking field of a deep-sea predator, the avatar triggers Mirage Cloak Shroud to extinguish light reflections along the gauntlet, masking their visual signature in the pitch-black ocean trenches.
  • Subterranean Cave Labyrinths and Fungal Deep Vaults:
    • Offensive Tactics:
      • Navigating pitch-black mining warrens and ancient cavern complexes, the wielder relies on the silent, vibrationless drill to create climbing rungs, peepholes, and ventilation shafts through solid stone without alarming tremorsensitive cavern beasts or troglodyte hunting packs.
      • When tracking burrowing subterranean horrors through solid rock, the avatar uses Gaze of the Cosmic Cycle to read the density of surrounding stone layers, pinpointing hollow nests or unstable fault lines to trigger controlled rockfalls on the pursuing beasts.
      • To bypass heavily trapped subterranean gates rigged with collapsing ceiling weights, the avatar utilizes the tool’s non-destructive analysis to sample the trigger mechanisms inside the stone, carefully coring out the counterweights without releasing the deadly trap.
    • Defensive Tactics:
      • When caught in a sudden cave-in, the avatar unleashes Zephyr-Bore Surge, utilizing the high-speed kinetic spin and elemental air buffer to shatter falling boulders and hollow out a temporary survivable cavity within the rubble.
      • When resting within dangerous cavern networks, the wielder seals the stone entrance slab with Seal of the Seven Towers, while the gauntlet’s Silent Alarm stands watch against burrowing worms or stealthy subterranean stalkers attempting to breach the perimeter.
      • The avatar leverages the knuckle crystal’s constant pine and ozone aroma to neutralize the disorienting, nauseating spores emitted by subterranean fungal blooms, ensuring the party navigates toxic fungal forests with clear senses.

Perception of Activation:

  • User’s Perspective:
    • Sight: The fluted star-iron drill tip begins to spin at supernatural speed, blurring into a luminous silver cone wrapped in tight, spiral rings of white-hot arcane friction. The prismatic crystal mounted across the knuckles flares with shifting bands of amethyst, mercury, and pale gold, casting stark crystalline beams along the forearm. Looking down at the arm, the shadow-silk fabric along the sleeve dissolves into a shimmering heat-haze, making the avatar’s forearm appear translucent and detached from the shoulder.
    • Sound: The deep dampening runes swallow the mechanical roar of the high-speed drill, reducing it to an ultra-high-frequency, velvet hiss—like an angry hornet sealed within a crystal jar. Simultaneously, the wielder hears a heavy, mental reverberation like a subterranean vault door dropping shut, followed by the faint rustle of dry wind through tall mountain pines.
    • Touch: A powerful, perfectly balanced high-speed oscillation runs from the fingertip up through the wrist bones, vibrating with immense mechanical torque without jolting the forearm. The cold iron casing remains chilled to the touch, while a crisp, static charge tingles across the palm as the ethereal shadow-threads tighten securely against the skin.
    • Smell: A sharp, refreshing rush of crushed eucalyptus leaves, green pine needles, and freezing winter frost floods the nasal passages, rapidly cutting through the burnt-metal and stone-dust odors thrown off by the drilling friction.
    • Taste: A dry, mineral sharpness coats the back of the mouth, tasting faintly of cold well-water, powdered granite, and the electric, metallic tang of raw starlight.
    • Extra-Sensory Perception (Structural Resonance): Through the Mind’s Eye, the user perceives the molecular grain and hidden stresses of the target barrier as an array of glowing blue fault lines, instantly identifying hidden cavities, concealed lock pins, embedded alarm runes, and the optimal angle for silent penetration.
    • Extra-Sensory Perception (Aegis of the Watcher): A rigid, unyielding cage of cobalt willpower snaps into place around the wielder’s consciousness, actively repelling hostile deception, guilt, or mental coercion from nearby captives and revealing deceitful intentions as discordant vibrations.
    • Extra-Sensory Perception (Planar Drift): The wielder senses a micro-second elongation of space and momentum, feeling the physical body slip partially out of phase with the local atmosphere, rendering movement fluid, buoyant, and unimpeded by gravity or friction.
  • Observer’s Perspective:
    • Sight: The elongated index finger of the gauntlet becomes an incandescent, blurred spindle of white and blue luminescence that leaves thin, spiraling light trails in the air. The user’s arm and torso flicker and ripple like a desert mirage, with the edges of their silhouette bending and dissolving into the ambient shadows. The blue glass eye on the wrist pulses with a cold, piercing stare that seems to lock onto onlookers.
    • Sound: Observers hear no grinding metal or violent stone cracking; only a low, hypnotic hum that vibrates faintly in the teeth of anyone within arm’s reach, accompanied by a sudden, unnatural deadening of all background room noise.
    • Touch: A sudden wave of cool air rolls outward from the user, dropping the local temperature by several degrees. Those standing adjacent to the activation feel a prickle of static along their arms and a faint breeze brushing their clothing.
    • Smell: A clean, pungent forest fragrance of pine resin and ozone drifts through the room, masking all scent signatures of the user and their gear.
    • Extra-Sensory Perception (Inescapable Authority): Anyone attempting to lie, conceal guilt, or hold hostility toward the wielder feels a sudden, suffocating spiritual pressure—as if a massive iron gate has slammed shut behind them, leaving their thoughts laid bare beneath an ancient, pitiless magistrate.
  • Positives:
    • The total dampening of acoustic and seismic vibration allows heavy, structural drilling and vault breaches to occur directly adjacent to enemy sentries without triggering alerts.
    • The instant mental clarity and structural projection provide absolute precision, eliminating guesswork when dismantling traps, picking high-tier locks, or coring through load-bearing stone.
    • The veil of shifting light and pine fragrance effectively masks both the optical silhouette and the physical scent of the operative during infiltration.
    • The psychic warding completely immunizes the user to manipulation, bluffing, and intimidation during high-stakes prisoner interrogations.
  • Negatives:
    • The intense white-hot luminescence and prismatic flare of the knuckle crystal create a high-contrast visual flash that can easily betray the user’s position in pitch-black environments if not shielded.
    • Channeling the high-torque kinetic bore draws heavily on the user’s physical stamina, leaving the arm feeling heavy, drained, and stiff once the rotation stops.
    • The overwhelming flood of structural micro-data and the scent of freezing air can cause momentary sensory disorientation if the drill strikes an unanticipated dense arcane alloy or ward.
    • Overuse of the authoritarian gaoler-ward can leave the wielder emotionally rigid, impatient, and disconnected from empathy for several hours following prolonged containment operations.

Synthesis Rite of the Unseen Warden: Gaoler-Drill of the Horizon Veil 918

  • Items Merged:
  • Additional Materials Needed:
    • One Tier 5 Magic Crystal (massive, wagon-sized crystalline battery functioning as the primary arcane catalyst and power reservoir)
    • 4 pounds of refined cold iron and darkened tungsten steel ingots (to forge the unified gauntlet casing, articulated digits, and fluted drill)
    • 3 flasks of concentrated biological fluid (harvested via fluid collectors from abyssal kelp and cave-creature glands to sustain stasis-field conductivity)
    • 1 ounce of powdered lapis lazuli and crushed silver dust (flux medium used to engrave the dampening runes and Solomon’s knotwork)
    • 2 drams of distilled eucalyptus oil and pine resin essence (stabilized in elemental steam to permanently bind the sensory wind-enchantments)
    • 1 spool of shadow-spun silk filament (to weave the inner sleeve and optical mirage lining)
  • Tools Required:
    • Master Steam-Powered Forge and Gear-Driven Lathe (utilizing closed-circuit steam lines combining elemental fire and water to turn and bore the metal components)
    • Alchemical Crucible and Infusion Vat (heat-resistant basin for liquidating, merging, and purifying the sacrifice items)
    • Jeweler’s Loupe and Diamond-Tipped Micro-Engraving Stylus (precision instruments for scribing sub-audible vibration nullification runes)
    • High-Tension Crystal Channeling Rod (crafted from brass and quartz to guide the Weave from the Tier 5 power core into the gauntlet chassis)
    • High-Resilience Rune Quenching Basin (filled with stagnant, ley-infused fortress water to shock-bind the containment and gaoler wards)
  • Skill Requirements:
    • Master Metallurgy and Artificing: Minimum skill level 10 (base 5 plus 5 for Tier 5 synthesis)
    • Arcane Rune Lore and Inscription: Minimum skill level 10
    • Alchemical Distillation and Reagent Binding: Minimum skill level 10
    • Mind’s Eye Deep Focus (active structural inspection capability to balance kinetic torque and stasis conduits throughout the melt)
  • Crafting Steps:
    • Prepare the artisan forge workshop, adjusting the elemental steam pressure valves to maintain a constant, vibrationless equilibrium across the drive shafts, lathes, and crucible mounts.
    • Align the Tier 5 Magic Crystal directly beneath the central forge vat, using the high-tension channeling rod to draw a continuous, low-resonance mana flow into the workstation.
    • Place the cold-iron Djinn Binder key, the tungsten Core Sampler 227, the silk filaments of the Mirage Cloak, the Vāhrðān crystal, and the Whispers of the Wind elixir into the ceramic crucible.
    • Vent pressurized elemental steam into the crucible chamber, bringing the heat to a controlled melt where the physical metals soften and dissolve while the channeling rod captures and suspends their five distinct enchantments in a luminescent alchemical vapor.
    • Add the refined cold-iron billets, tungsten steel, and biological fluid extracts to the molten pool, stirring with the channeling rod as the original forms collapse into a single, seamless, high-density alloy.
    • Mount the cooling alloy onto the steam-powered lathe; turn and bore the metal into a fully articulated forearm gauntlet and extended index sleeve, grinding the tip into a fluted, serrated drill bit of diamond-hard star-iron.
    • Carefully set the unblinking Nazar glass eye bead into the wrist plate, crimping the cold-iron Solomon’s knot securely around its circumference, and seat the prismatic insight crystal directly across the knuckle bridge.
    • Roll a d20 to verify the structural and magical stability of the synthesis: a roll of 2 through 19 results in a successful Tier 5 merger; a roll of 20 imparts unintended harmonic masteries; a roll of 1 causes a catastrophic containment rupture, destroying all materials into slag.
    • Using the jeweler’s loupe and diamond-tipped stylus, etch the unbroken dampening runes and binding prayers along the interior sleeve and drill housing, filling the grooves with the silver dust and pine resin flux.
    • Stitch the shadow-spun silk lining into the underside of the gauntlet plates, sealing the edges with the distilled wind essence to anchor the optical concealment and silent-step enchantments.
    • Plunge the completed gauntlet into the rune quenching basin for three minutes to shock-seal the cold iron and freeze the stasis chambers in place.
    • Remove the finished Gaoler-Drill of the Horizon Veil 918 from the bath, verify the alignment of its internal gear trains and enchantment pathways through the Mind’s Eye, dry the cold metal, and prepare the singular physical relic for its one-minute attunement sequence.

Bored Stone, the Silent Wind, and Great Iron Lock

In the age when the great white circle of Gaialilith was yet wet with the milk of the first clouds, and the seventy and three rocks of the sea had not yet received their boundary-poles from the kings of clay, there stood upon the high island of the basalt columns a house that had neither roof of thatch nor doors of wood. It was called by the first mouth-scratches The Deep House of the Seven Knots, though the men who dig up the lead plates in our day say the marks may also mean The Basket Where Smoke Is Kept From Flying.

In that place sat a gaoler whose name the clay-tablets give as Yakub-Ur, which in the common speech of our fathers means He Who Has No Softness in His Knees. His arm was not like the arm of an ox-plowman, for it had been eaten away by the white rot of the deep mines, and in its place the smiths of the steam-pipes had beaten a sleeve of star-metal and black iron that was long as a heron’s bill. Upon his wrist was tied the blue eye of glass that does not shut when the sand blows, and upon his knuckle-bones lay the five-cornered stone that drinks the sun and spits out the color of squashed plums.

The tablets of the king say: In those turnings of the water, a great spirit of the grease-smoke and the sulfur-holes, whose name was Har-Tash-Ifrit, tore the belly of the earth beneath the sulfur-mills. He was an eater of oaths and a drinker of the tallow of the temple-lamps. When the king sent three hundred bronze shields to spear him, the spirit breathed upon their buckles, and the bronze turned into hot soup that ran down the shins of the war-men until their bones were white as parsnips. When the priests threw the sacred grain upon him, he laughed with the noise of dry branches cracking in an oven, and the grain became burning fleas that bit the women and the cows.

Then the king, who had forty wives and no teeth in his upper jaw, cried out from his high tower: “Is there no peg to stop this leak? Is there no iron shoe to tread upon this burning worm?”

The lords of the city-gates said: “There is the long-fingered gaoler of the Seven Knots. But he does not walk upon the road like an honest man. He wraps himself in the skin of the evening-mist that Nyxel the web-spinner left in the thorn-bushes, and when he moves, the dogs do not bark, and the dust does not know that a heel has pressed it. He is a watcher of holes, and his heart is as cold as a well-bucket in the ninth moon.”

The king sent his nephew, who wore shoes of dyed calfskin, to the deep hole. The young man went down the seven hundred stone steps, where the steam-boilers wept greasy water from their bronze joints. He found Yakub-Ur sitting upon a sack of pine-needles, grinding the tip of his iron finger against an oily hone-stone. The finger went whir-whir-whir, but the sound was no louder than the breath of a sleeping cat, for the sleeve had been quenched in the silence of the high pines and the breath of the mountain-wind that Aer the child had dropped upon the grass.

The king’s nephew spoke with trembling lips: “The smoke-spirit has eaten the southern granary. He sits upon the black stone of the treasury, and he says he will turn the king’s crown into an iron pan for cooking turnips. The king promises you three hundred silver spoons and four carts of dry wood if you will put the spirit into a pot.”

Yakub-Ur looked through the glass eye upon his wrist. He did not blink, for the glass was made from the sand of a grave that no one visits. “The king’s silver is soft as pig-fat,” said the gaoler, and the translation says his voice was like dry peas rattling in a bladderskin. “I do not want spoons. I want the great red stone that lies under the king’s hearth, which the moles have licked since the water was salt. And I want the king’s oath, written upon the dried belly of a dog with the silver water that does not lie.”

The nephew swore by the moon-goddess Gaialilith, who hangs the sky with white linen, that the king would give the stone and the dog-skin.

Then Yakub-Ur arose. He pulled the hood of shadow-threads over his forehead, and the stone walls forgot that he was there. The nephew looked to the left and looked to the right, but he saw only the water dripping from the ceiling and a little heap of pine-dust upon the floor. Yet when he walked, he smelled the smell of eucalyptus and cold frost, as if a winter wind were blowing through his coat, though the month was the month of the fig-harvest.

They came to the king’s treasury. The great door of three-fold oak was gone, for the smoke-spirit had blown upon it, and only black charcoal lay upon the sill. Inside sat Har-Tash-Ifrit, sitting upon the sacks of copper coin. His head was like a sheep-skull that had been roasted in a kiln, and his hands were long tongues of blue fire that played with the gold dishes.

“Who comes to the smoke?” the spirit roared, and his voice was the noise of an iron pot dropping down a dry well. “If you are flesh, I will boil your fat. If you are stone, I will crack you like a walnut.”

Yakub-Ur did not shout. He did not show his chest. He stood in the corner where the grease from the lamp had made the stone black. The mist of Nyxel covered his thighs, his ribs, and his face, so that the spirit saw only the empty corner where the rats drink oil.

The gaoler lifted his left arm, which was iron and long. The five-cornered stone upon his knuckles caught the red glare of the spirit’s belly and turned it into the pale light of morning-stars. Through that stone, Yakub-Ur did not look at the fire; he looked at the marrow of the fire. He saw the one tiny seed of cold coal that sat in the very navel of the spirit, which had fallen from the high stars before the mountains had grass upon their backs. It was the seed that kept the smoke together, for without that cold knot, the smoke would be only wind and would fly away to the clouds.

Then the gaoler took between his thumb and his iron digit a little pinch of the green powder that the forest-elders had made from crushed pine and the ice of the northern hollows. He breathed upon it, and the room was filled with the smell of wet woods after the snow melts. The spirit sneezed, for the smell of growing leaves is a sickness to the smoke that comes from pits. In that one beat of a bird’s wing, while the spirit’s eyes were shut with weeping, Yakub-Ur was behind him. He did not run; the wind-sleeve lifted his heels so that he fell forward like a shadow that lengthens when the torch goes out.

He pressed the sharp iron finger against the spirit’s flank.

The finger was not a spear; it was a thief that had a hollow belly. The tip of star-iron spun with the great speed of a water-wheel that has broken its rope. It made no scream, but only the hiss-shhh of a hot nail dropped into a sheep-trough. The drill bored through the wall of yellow flame; it bored through the grease of the smoke; it reached the black knot that sat in the navel of the beast.

The spirit yelled with the screech of forty saws biting into an unseasoned ash-log: “You have pricked my seed! You have tasted my mother’s tooth!”

With a twist of his long iron wrist, Yakub-Ur drew the drill backward. Inside the hollow tube of the finger lay a tiny core, no thicker than a straw from a broom, of the cold, unburnt star-stuff that had made the spirit strong. The preservation-field of the tube snapped shut upon it like the teeth of an otter-trap. The seed could not burn; it could not grow; it was held fast in the dark of the iron finger, cold and asleep as an egg in winter.

When the seed was gone, the great fire of Har-Tash-Ifrit fell down like an old tent whose center-pole is snapped by the camel’s kick. The blue flames became gray smoke, and the gray smoke became thin steam that smelled of sulfur and dead beetles. The spirit cried: “Give me back the grain of my bone, and I will be the hound that lies beneath your stool! I will blow your kitchen-fire, I will boil your water-casks, I will carry your messages upon the clouds!”

Yakub-Ur did not answer with soft words. He took from his hip the cold knot of iron that the ancient warden had hammered upon the anvil of the Seven Towers. He touched the smoke with the bit of the key, where the silver letters of the binding-prayer lay like frozen worms. He spoke the one word that the lead plates pronounce as Hah-Khem, which the old men say means Sit Still Until the Stone Weeps.

A light like blue milk ran out from the iron gauntlet. It did not shine upon the walls; it wrapped itself around the thin gray vapor of the spirit like a wet linen cloth wrapped around a loaf of dough. The vapor squeezed itself into a ball no bigger than a dried fig. The gaoler pressed the glass eye of his wrist against the fig, and the eye drank the blackness of the smoke until the glass was the color of a horse’s gall-bladder.

The spirit was bound. The room was cold. The gold dishes of the king had not melted, but they were black with the soot of the fight.

The king’s nephew came crawling through the charcoal on his knees, his dyed shoes full of ashes. “Is he dead?” cried the boy. “May my uncle now eat his broth without fear of the fire?”

“He is not dead,” said Yakub-Ur, and the wind-threads of his sleeve began to gather the daylight once more, so that his iron arm seemed to grow out of the air like a bough growing from an oak. “He is tied to the iron. If he speaks a lie, the key will twist his belly. If he moves an inch without my leave, the drill in my finger will drink the rest of his name.”

The king came down from his high room, surrounded by his women who carried fans of goose-feathers. When he saw the small gray ball that lay upon the palm of the iron gauntlet, and when he saw that the treasury was whole, his old eyes became narrow like the slits in a swine-pen.

“You have done well, gaoler,” said the king, coughing into his hand. “The town-treasurer shall give you two sacks of salted herrings and a copper coin with my head upon it. But the red stone beneath my hearth is the bone of the kingdom; an old man with an iron finger has no need of such a jewel to buy milk.”

Yakub-Ur did not pull a sword, for he carried none. He lifted the long index-point of his gauntlet and aimed it at the king’s great stone chair, which was made of red granite three cubits thick.

With a sound like a puff of breath from a bellows—fuff—the gauntlet spat.

The tiny core of rock that the sampler had taken from the deep labyrinth three hundred years before flew through the air like a hornet. It did not hit the king; it struck the very heart of the granite seat. The stone of the chair did not crack into fragments; it fell into red sand that ran between the floor-stones like dried lentils from a broken basket. The king fell backward upon his buttocks, his crown tumbling into the dirt, his mouth open like a dry frog’s.

“The stone under your hearth,” said the gaoler, his voice steady as the plumb-line of a mason, “has three cracks in its belly. If I touch the threshold of your palace with this iron, the walls will slide into the cove before the sun turns yellow. The contract was sworn upon the moon, and Gaialilith does not wash out the lead with rain.”

The king wept. With his own old hands, he pulled up the stones of his hearth, his fingers bleeding from the soot, and gave unto Yakub-Ur the red stone that had the likeness of a sleeping mole.

The lead plates finish with three lines that are broken by the teeth of the ocean-salt: The gaoler walked out through the north gate. The guards upon the wall did not see him go, but they felt a cold wind that smelled of pines pass over their faces, and their spears made no sound when they struck the flagstones. He returned to the Seven Knots, and he hung the ball of smoke above the boiler that feeds the deep engines. It is said the spirit still turns the great wheel that pumps the black water from the mines, and whenever it tries to grow hot, the star-iron finger taps upon the casing, and the spirit remembers the cold dark and is still.

The moral of the story is: The loud hammer only scatters the fire, but the patient needle that drinks the heart of the stone can bind the storm and make the mountain pay its debt.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

Item Name: The Gaoler-Bore of the Shrouded Firmament

Classification: Major Hyper-Geometrical Relic / Artifice

  • Description: An articulated sleeve and gauntlet of non-magnetic star-iron and light-refracting ethereal fabric. The elongated index finger terminates in an ultra-hard, fluted drill bit. A pale blue glass eye is set into the wrist, and a prismatic, faceted quartz rests across the knuckles, perpetually exuding a faint scent of pine resin and ozone.
  • Sanity Cost to Attune: 1D6 Sanity points.
  • Attunement Process: Requires 1 hour of quiet concentration while aligning the eye bead to the North Star and allowing the iron digit to draw a droplet of blood from the wearer’s hand.
  • Magic Point Reservoir: Contains a pool of 15 Magic Points (MP) that recharges at dawn.

Passive Mechanics

  • Vibrationless Infiltration: The wearer gains a Bonus Die on all Stealth rolls. The gauntlet completely silences the physical operation of the drill and dampens the wearer’s footfalls on stone or iron.
  • Warden’s Bastion: The bearer gains +20% to Psychology and Intimidate rolls directed at captives or restrained subjects. The wearer is completely immune to mundane intimidation and gains a Bonus Die on POW rolls to resist mind control or emotional distortion.
  • Silent Alarm: The wearer instinctively feels a tingling sensation if any locked portal, safe, or binding within 30 yards is actively tampered with.

Active Mechanics

  • Kinetic Core Extraction (Cost: 2 MP): The wearer places the drill against any non-living surface (up to 2 feet of solid granite or 6 inches of steel). Over 1 combat round, the drill silently cuts and extracts a pristine core sample without triggering structural alarms. When analyzing the extracted specimen, the user gains an automatic Extreme Success on Geology, Archaeology, or Art/Craft checks to deduce the age, composition, and physical flaws of the structure.
  • Veil of Horizon (Cost: 3 MP): The shadow-silk activates, bending light around the user. For 10 combat rounds (or 10 minutes outside combat), the wearer is completely invisible to normal sight. Attacks made from this state gain a Bonus Die, but taking an overtly violent combat action immediately collapses the shroud.
  • Seal of Seven Towers (Cost: 4 MP): By pressing the drill bit against a physical door, chest, or lock, the bearer supernaturally reinforces it for 24 hours. Any attempt to bypass, break, or pick the sealed portal suffers two Penalty Dice and requires an Extreme STR or Locksmith roll.
  • Pneumatic Shard Shot (Cost: 1 MP): The gauntlet forcefully expels a stored stone core as a silent, high-velocity projectile. Skill: Firearms (Handgun), Damage: 1D8+2, Base Range: 20 yards, Malfunction: 99.

Blades in the Dark

Item Name: The Warden’s Whisper-Bore

Classification: Masterwork Arcane Implement / Tool (Tier V Quality, 1 Load)

  • Description: A forearm harness of blackened leviathan-forged steel and whisper-silk, fitted with an elongated spinning bore-finger, a vigilant nazar eye, and an iridescent ghost-field crystal across the back of the hand.

Passive Mechanics

  • Silent Intrusion: All Prowl and Finesse rolls involving drilling, breaking seals, or picking locks have Potency and never produce audible sound or vibration.
  • Inquisitor’s Dominance: When you Command or Sway a captive, or Study an interrogated subject to detect deception, you gain +1d.
  • Containment Ward: You are instinctively alerted whenever a door or container within your immediate vicinity (about 20 paces) is opened or breached by someone else.

Active Mechanics

  • Pneumatic Breach (1 Stress): You engage the high-speed drill against a wall, bulkhead, or lock. You gain +1 Effect on a Wreck or Tinker action to create a silent, surgical entry point through an otherwise impassable physical barrier.
  • The Horizon Shroud (2 Stress): The whisper-silk engages an optical phantom-veil. For the current stealth maneuver or infiltration exchange, you are completely unseen. Your next Prowl or Infiltrate action operates with Potency and Great Effect. Taking a direct violent combat action immediately dispels the camouflage.
  • Seal of the Seven Towers (1 Stress): You touch an existing physical door, safe, or set of manacles. The object becomes supernaturally locked and reinforced for the remainder of the score. Any opponent attempting to bypass it must pay 2 Stress before even rolling, and their action suffers Limited Effect.
  • Pneumatic Ejection (1 Stress): Expel an extracted stone or metal slug with the kinetic force of a heavy pistol shot (Tier V damage) as a silent surprise attack, usable during a Skirmish or Finesse roll.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Item Name: Gaoler-Drill of the Horizon Veil 918

Wondrous Item, Legendary (Requires Attunement)

  • Armor Class (AC) Bonus: While wearing this gauntlet, you gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class.
  • Weight: 2 lbs.
  • Charges: The item has 8 charges and regains 1d6 + 2 expended charges daily at dawn.

Passive Properties

  • Aura of the Panopticon: You have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) and Charisma (Intimidation) checks made against restrained or imprisoned creatures. You are immune to the charmed and frightened conditions.
  • Silent Infiltration: You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks. The physical use of this item produces no audible sound, and your footfalls make no noise on stone or metal surfaces.
  • Preservation Chamber: Any geological, mineral, or alchemical sample stored within the gauntlet’s internal bore tube remains in absolute stasis, immune to rot, decay, oxidation, and magical degradation.

Active Properties

  • Silent Core-Bore (1 Charge): As an action, you touch the drill to a non-magical structure or object up to 3 feet thick. The drill silently bores a clean 2-inch hole and extracts a perfect core sample. You instantly learn the material composition, exact age, and any structural vulnerabilities of the object. The next attack roll targeting that structural weak point is an automatic critical hit.
  • Veil of the Mirage (2 Charges): As a bonus action, you activate the shadow-silk weave. You become invisible for 1 minute, as if under the effects of the Invisibility spell. While invisible, your speed increases by 10 feet. If you make an attack roll or cast a spell, the invisibility ends early.
  • Seven Towers Binding (2 Charges): As an action, you press the drill against an adjacent door, window, lock, or set of manacles. For the next 8 hours, the object is magically held shut and reinforced, as if targeted by the Arcane Lock spell. In addition, its damage threshold and AC increase by 5, and the DC to pick the lock or force it open increases by 10.
  • Pneumatic Shard Ejection (1 Charge): As an action, you fire an extracted stone or metal core from the drill. Make a ranged weapon attack against a target within 60 feet (using your Dexterity modifier). On a hit, the target takes 3d8 piercing damage and must succeed on a DC 18 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
  • Vāhrðān’s Cosmic Gaze (3 Charges): As an action, you peer into the prismatic knuckle crystal to align with the cosmic flow. For 1 hour, you gain truesight out to a range of 30 feet and have advantage on all Intelligence and Wisdom checks.

Knave (2nd Edition)

Item Name: Horizon Warden’s Gauntlet

Classification: Relic (Occupies 1 Item Slot)

  • Armor Defense: +1 Armor Defense when worn.
  • Durability: Quality 7. When the gauntlet absorbs targeted trauma, test its Quality as normal.

Passive Properties

  • Silent Worker: You automatically succeed on checks to move silently across hard stone, metal walkways, or rocky ground.
  • Inquisitor’s Eye: You have advantage on Wisdom saves to detect lies, resist deception, or withstand mental intrusion from captive or subdued foes.
  • Tethered Alarm: You are instinctively awakened from sleep or alerted if a door, chest, or lock within 60 feet is disturbed.

Active Properties

  • Silent Bore (1/Day): By taking 1 exploration turn (10 minutes) of uninterrupted work, you can silently drill through up to 3 feet of solid stone or 6 inches of forged metal, bypassing locks or extracting an analyzed sample. The GM reveals any hidden compartments, traps, or structural flaws in the drilled barrier.
  • Shadow Cloak (1/Day): You become completely invisible for 1 turn (10 minutes). Moving silently requires no rolls while invisible. Any attack, casting of a spell, or forceful action ends the effect immediately.
  • Adamant Ward (1/Day): You touch an adjacent door, portcullis, or set of shackles. For the next 8 hours, the barrier cannot be picked by lockpicks or forced open by any mundane force short of siege machinery.
  • Pneumatic Blast (3/Day): You fire a compressed gravel pellet at a target within 40 feet. Make an attack roll using Dexterity. On a hit, it deals 1d8 direct damage and pushes a human-sized target back 10 feet.

Fate (Fate Condensed)

Item Name: Gaoler-Drill of the Horizon Veil

Classification: Personal Extra (Arm/Forearm Slot)

  • Cost: 2 Refresh (or 1 Refresh plus 1 Stunt slot).
  • Description: An articulated sleeve and gauntlet forged from cold iron and dark tungsten steel, lined with shimmering shadow-threads. The index finger forms an adamantine, fluted core drill. A watchful evil-eye glass bead sits embedded above the wrist, while an uncut prismatic quartz rests across the knuckles, radiating a crisp fragrance of pine resin and cold mountain wind.

Aspect

  • Gaoler-Drill of the Horizon Veil: Invoke this aspect to gain a +2 bonus or a reroll on Stealth, Investigate, Notice, or Provoke actions related to silent infiltration, structural analysis, interrogation of restrained subjects, or reinforcing physical barriers. Compel this aspect when the item’s severe gaoler-will induces cold emotional detachment, or when the brilliant light of the spinning drill or crystal matrix draws unintended notice in darkness.

Stunts

  • Vibrationless Core-Bore: You ignore difficulty increases or opposition when attempting to silently penetrate stone, masonry, or locks. Once per scene, when overcoming a physical barrier or analyzing an artifact, you may spend 1 Fate point to immediately discover its critical architectural flaw, placing a situation aspect such as Structural Fracture with one free invoke.
  • Veil of Shifting Form: Once per scene, you may spend 1 Fate point to cloak yourself in bending light and muted scent. For the next exchange, you are completely invisible; all Stealth rolls have +2, and opponents cannot target you with direct attacks unless they possess exotic or supernatural detection methods. Any hostile physical attack made by you immediately ends the effect.
  • Seal of the Seven Towers: When you lock a door, chest, or set of restraints, you may place the situation aspect Bound by Cold Iron and Starlight on the portal with two free invokes instead of rolling Crafts. Any hostile entity attempting to force or pick the portal must overcome great (+4) opposition.

Numenera & Cypher System (Cypher System Revised)

Item Name: Gaoler-Bore of the Horizon Veil

Classification: Level 5 Artifact (Forearm Worn)

  • Form: An articulated arm-sleeve composed of dark alloy and shifting, diaphanous nanofiber fabric, ending in a high-torque fluted drill on the index digit. Features an embedded blue biosensor lens and a prismatic power crystal across the hand.
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (checked each time an active function is triggered).

Passive Mechanics

  • Infiltration Dampening: The wearer is specialized in all Stealth and Sneaking tasks involving silent movement across hard or resonant surfaces. The operation of the drill produces zero audible vibration.
  • Warden’s Oversight: The wearer is trained in tasks to detect lies, resist mental coercion, or interrogate restrained individuals. The wearer instinctively senses whenever a secured portal or container within immediate range (10 feet) is manipulated.
  • Stasis Reservoir: Mineral and alchemical core samples extracted into the internal chamber are held in indefinite temporal stasis, preventing degradation or chemical reaction until intentionally released.

Active Mechanics

  • Kinetic Core Extraction (2 Speed points): As an action, the user engages the high-speed drill to bore a clean 2-inch diameter hole up to 2 feet deep through any material of level 5 or lower. The user extracts an intact core sample and learns the material’s structural integrity and primary weakness, easing the next attack or demolition task against the structure by two steps.
  • Optical Shroud (3 Speed points): As an action, the nanofiber fabric bends light, rendering the user completely invisible for 10 minutes. Tasks to remain hidden or bypass visual sentries are eased by two steps. Making an attack or triggering an explosive force immediately ends the camouflage.
  • Seven Towers Ward (3 Intellect points): As an action, the user touches the drill bit to an adjacent portal, door, or restraint. For the next hour, the difficulty of any task to pick, force open, or bypass the portal is increased by two steps, and its effective level against structural damage is treated as 7.
  • Pneumatic Shard Ejection (2 Might points): The user launches an extracted rock core as a high-velocity projectile at a target within short range. This counts as a Level 5 ranged attack dealing 5 points of physical damage.

Pathfinder (2nd Edition Remaster)

Item Name: Gaoler-Drill of the Horizon Veil

Item 16

  • Traits: Unique, Invested, Magical, Transmutation
  • Price: 10,000 gp
  • Usage: Worn (bracers/gauntlet); Bulk: 1
  • Perception: An articulated gauntlet of dark star-iron and shimmering shadow-silk that extends into a fluted, diamond-edged drill bit on the index finger. A central eye bead and a multi-faceted violet crystal crest the wrist and hand, emitting the faint aroma of eucalyptus and ozone.

Passive Properties

  • Sovereign Infiltration: You gain a +3 item bonus to Stealth checks and Thievery checks to Disable a Device or Pick a Lock. The drill operates with absolute silence, imparting no acoustic or vibrational footprint.
  • Gaoler’s Command: You gain a +2 item bonus to Perception checks to Sense Motive and Intimidation checks against creatures that are grabbed, restrained, or imprisoned. You are immune to the frightened condition.
  • Silent Alarm: You immediately sense if any lock, portal, or restraint within 30 feet of you is subjected to a Thievery check or targeted by an opening effect.

Activated Abilities

  • Surgical Core-Bore [two-actions] (concentrate, manipulate); Frequency: once per 10 minutes; Effect: You press the drill against an adjacent solid barrier, wall, or lock up to 3 feet thick. The drill silently extracts an analyzed core sample, and you learn the barrier’s material composition, hardness, and one structural defect. The next Strike made by you or an ally against that structure treats its Hardness as halved.
  • Horizon Veil [one-action] (concentrate, illusion, visual); Frequency: once per day; Effect: You pull the shadow-threads over your form, gaining the effects of a 4th-rank Invisibility spell for 1 minute.
  • Seal of the Seven Towers [two-actions] (abjuration, manipulate); Frequency: once per day; Effect: You touch an adjacent non-magical door, chest, or set of manacles. For 8 hours, the object gains the benefits of Arcane Lock, its Hardness increases by 5, and its Hit Points double.
  • Pneumatic Shard Shot [one-action] (attack, evocation); Effect: You eject an extracted core sample at a target within 60 feet. Make a ranged weapon Strike with the gauntlet (using your Dexterity modifier with a +3 item bonus). On a hit, the Strike deals 3d8 piercing damage. On a critical hit, the target is knocked prone.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

Item Name: Gaoler-Drill of the Horizon Veil

Classification: Veteran Rank Relic (Forearm/Hand Worn)

  • Weight: 2 lbs.
  • Armor Check: +1 Armor to the arm.
  • Major Relic: Requires harmonization (1 hour attunement).

Passive Mechanics

  • Silent Intruder: The wearer gains a +2 bonus to all Stealth rolls. Mechanical actions performed with the drill are completely soundless, imposing a -4 penalty on notice rolls made to detect the drilling.
  • Inquisitor’s Presence: The wearer gains a +2 bonus on Intimidation and Notice rolls (including checking for deception) when dealing with captives or restrained subjects. The wearer is immune to Fear and the Intimidation skill.
  • Containment Sensor: If a door, hatch, or lock within 6 paces (12 yards) is tampered with, the wearer is instantly alerted by a mental vibration.

Active Powers

  • Kinetic Core-Bore (Action): The wearer touches the drill to a solid surface (wood, stone, or metal) up to 24 inches thick. The tool drills through in one round, extracting a core sample. The user gains the benefit of the analyze foe effect against the material, granting +4 Armor Piercing to any subsequent attack made against that specific barrier.
  • Veil of the Horizon (Action): The wearer activates the invisibility power on themselves using an Arcane skill die of d10. The effect lasts for 3 rounds. Any direct offensive combat action terminates the concealment prematurely.
  • Seal of the Seven Towers (Action): By spending 1 Benny, the wearer touches a lock, door, or portal. The object gains +4 Toughness and cannot be picked or opened by non-magical means for the next 4 hours.
  • Pneumatic Ejection (Action): The wearer expels an extracted mineral plug as an attack: Range 12/24/48, Damage 2d8, AP 2.

Shadowrun (6th Edition)

Item Name: Horizon Warden Cyber-Implant Rig

Classification: Exotic Cyberware / Sustained Qi-Focus Hybrid (Forearm/Hand Slot)

  • Rating: 6
  • Essence Cost: 0.8 (or 14 Karma if bonded as an external Qi Focus by an Adept)
  • Availability: 18F
  • Cost: 125,000¥
  • Form: A reinforced dark-tungsten forearm sleeve housing an integrated diamond-fluted micro-bore digit, an optical-chameleon mesh lining, a resonant quartz crystal processor, and a synthetic cobalt ocular lens embedded above the wrist unit.

Passive Mechanics

  • Vibrationless Infiltration: The user gains a +3 dice pool bonus to all Sneaking tests. The mechanical operation of the drill produces zero auditory or seismic signature, imposing a -4 dice pool penalty on acoustic sensors attempting to detect structural tampering.
  • Inquisitor’s Dominance: The user adds the item Rating (+6) to all Judge Intentions and Intimidation dice pools directed against restrained, subdued, or captive subjects. The wearer is immune to mundane fear and receives +3 dice to resist magical mental manipulation or emotional intrusion.
  • Silent Alarm: The rig interfaces with the user’s sensory feed, providing an immediate mental alert if any maglock, hatch, or digital restraint within 30 meters is subjected to an unauthorized Cracking or Electronics test.

Active Mechanics

  • Kinetic Core-Bore (Major Action): The user engages the high-speed drill against any barrier or structure up to Structure Rating 12. The tool bores a clean 2-inch channel through 50 centimeters of material in a single Combat Turn, bypassing armor without triggering pressure sensors. The user extracts an intact core sample, revealing structural stress vectors; subsequent physical or demolition attacks targeting that point reduce the barrier’s Armor Rating by half.
  • Horizon Mirage Shroud (Minor Action, 1 Edge): The light-bending mesh activates, casting an optical camouflage field over the user. The user gains the benefits of improved invisibility, imposing a -4 dice pool penalty on visual Perception tests to detect them. Hostile attacks made by the user immediately terminate the shroud.
  • Seal of the Seven Towers (Major Action): The user touches the drill bit to an electronic or mechanical portal, vault, or maglock. For the next hour, the device is spiritually and structurally locked; the Threshold to pick, bypass, or crack the lock increases by +4, and its barrier Armor Rating is doubled.
  • Pneumatic Shard Ejection (Major Action): The forearm mechanism pneumatically expels an extracted mineral core as a silent, high-velocity projectile. Damage: 4P, Attack Rating: 12/9/5/—/—, Ammo: 1 (Internal Chamber).

Starfinder (2nd Edition)

Item Name: Gaoler-Drill of the Horizon Veil

Item 16

  • Traits: Rare, Invested, Magical, Tech, Transmutation
  • Price: 160,000 credits
  • Usage: Worn (bracers/gauntlet); Bulk: 1
  • Description: An articulated sleeve constructed from cold-forged alloy plates and light-distorting nano-weave. The index finger terminates in a micro-drill sheathed in diamond plating, flanked by an integrated cobalt optical sensor and a multi-faceted violet crystal matrix.

Passive Properties

  • Infiltration Protocol: You gain a +3 item bonus to Stealth checks and Thievery checks to Disable a Device. The operation of the drill is soundless and produces no structural vibration.
  • Gaoler’s Command: You gain a +3 item bonus to Perception checks to Sense Motive and Intimidation checks against creatures that are grabbed, restrained, or imprisoned. You are immune to the frightened condition.
  • Proximity Ward: You immediately sense if any lock, hatch, or electronic security console within 30 feet is being manipulated or bypassed.
  • Stasis Chamber: Geological, alchemical, or organic specimens held within the gauntlet’s internal bore tube are preserved in temporal stasis, preventing degradation, contamination, or oxidation.

Activated Abilities

  • Surgical Core-Bore [two-actions] (concentrate, manipulate); Frequency: once per 10 minutes; Effect: You press the drill against an adjacent solid barrier, door, or starship bulkhead up to 3 feet thick. The drill silently extracts an analyzed core sample, revealing material composition and structural flaws. The next Strike made by you or an ally against that structure treats its Hardness as halved.
  • Horizon Veil [one-action] (concentrate, illusion, visual); Frequency: once per day; Effect: You activate the nano-weave light refraction, gaining the effects of a 4th-rank Invisibility spell for 1 minute.
  • Seven Towers Hard-Lock [two-actions] (abjuration, manipulate); Frequency: once per day; Effect: You touch an adjacent airlock, security door, or set of binders. For 8 hours, the object gains the benefits of Arcane Lock, its Hardness increases by 5, and its Hit Points are doubled.
  • Pneumatic Shard Shot [one-action] (attack, evocation); Effect: You eject an extracted core sample at a target within 60 feet. Make a ranged weapon Strike with the gauntlet (using your Dexterity modifier with a +3 item bonus). On a hit, the Strike deals 3d10 piercing damage. On a critical hit, the target is knocked prone.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Item Name: TL 16 Horizon Infiltration & Containment Gauntlet

Classification: Advanced Covert Reconnaissance Rig (Forearm Slot)

  • Tech Level: 16
  • Weight: 1.0 kg
  • Cost: Cr 1,500,000
  • Power: Internal micro-cell (recharges automatically via kinetic and atmospheric induction).

Passive Mechanics

  • Sub-Acoustic Dampening: The gauntlet is wrapped in active acoustic-cancellation fields. The wearer gains DM+2 on all Stealth checks. Drilling operations register zero acoustic decibels and no seismic feedback (adversary sensor checks suffer DM-4 to detect).
  • Inquisitorial Biosensors: The wrist-mounted optical sensor monitors involuntary pupil dilation, dermal electric conductivity, and micro-tremors. The user gains DM+2 on all Investigate and Persuade checks when interrogating restrained subjects.
  • Integrity Perimeter: The rig passively monitors local electronic and physical seal frequencies, instantly signaling the wearer via neural link if a lock, security panel, or hatch within 20 meters is compromised.

Active Mechanics

  • Molecular Core Sampler (Minor Action): The user deploys the diamond-surfaced micro-bore against a hull, bulkhead, or vault door (up to 30 cm of bonded superdense armor). It silently extracts an intact 2-cm cylindrical core within 3 combat rounds. A successful Average (8+) Science (materials) or Engineer check reveals the precise armor rating and internal wiring paths, easing subsequent demolition or breach attempts by DM+2.
  • Refractive Camouflage Screen (Minor Action): The gauntlet projects a light-bending distortion field around the wearer for up to 10 minutes. Visual detection checks against the wearer suffer DM-4. Firing a weapon or executing high-impact kinetic actions collapses the field.
  • Seven Towers Structural Seal (Significant Action): The user touches the drill bit to a hatch, bulkhead, or docking clamp. The device discharges a localized molecular cohesion field, doubling the portal’s structural Armor rating and locking down electronic bypass protocols for 4 hours.
  • Kinetic Ejection Dart (Minor Action): The unit uses a compressed pneumatic charge to fire an extracted core plug at a target within 20 meters. Damage: 2D+3, AP: 4.

Warhammer (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition)

Item Name: Gaoler-Drill of the Horizon Veil

Classification: Magical Artifice / Masterwork Talisman (Forearm/Hand Slot)

  • Cost: 350 Gold Crowns (Extremely Rare)
  • Encumbrance: 1
  • Qualities: Attuned, Fine, Trap Blade, Ward (9+)

Passive Properties

  • Vibrationless Tread: The gauntlet is warded with runes of deep silence. The wearer gains the Shadow and Strider (Rocky) Talents, along with a +20% bonus to all Stealth tests on stone or metal flooring. Drilling or breaching actions make no audible sound beyond arm’s reach.
  • The Gaoler’s Unyielding Glare: The embedded eye bead and containment runes grant the In-fighter and Menacing Talents. The wearer gains a +20% bonus to all Intimidate and Intuition tests against captive or restrained foes, and is entirely immune to the Fear condition.
  • The Slumbering Alarm: The wearer instinctively feels a cold prickle along the wrist if a barred gate, manacle, or chest lock within 20 yards is picked, broken, or tampered with.

Active Abilities

  • Surgical Core-Bore (Action): The wearer presses the star-iron drill against a stone wall, wooden gate, or iron safe. Over the course of 1 round, the drill silently cuts through up to 1 foot of solid material, extracting an undamaged core. The wearer immediately discovers any structural weaknesses; all subsequent melee or ranged attacks directed at that barrier ignore 2 Armour Points.
  • Horizon Veil (Action): The wearer invokes the woven shadow-threads to wrap themselves in shifting mist. The character becomes completely invisible for a number of rounds equal to their Willpower Bonus. Making an attack or casting an offensive spell immediately ends the invisibility.
  • Seal of the Seven Towers (Action): The wearer touches the drill bit to an adjacent portal or set of chains and speaks the ancient binding phrase. For the next 8 hours, the portal gains +2 Armour Points, its structural Wounds are doubled, and any attempt to pick the lock suffers a -30% penalty.
  • Pneumatic Core Dart (Action): The gauntlet uses stored pneumatic force to launch an extracted rock core as a silent ranged Strike. Range: 20 yards, Damage: +SB + 4, Qualities: Armour Piercing.