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Onmyodo 83 of the Vitreous Sealing Chisel

—

by

Dale
in

Lore

  • In the humid border valleys and seasonal river basins of Saṃsāra, corrupting spirit-oozes, volatile alchemical slurries, and bleeding miasmas frequently threaten settlements before traditional exorcists can arrive.
  • Early onmyoji artisans of the Earth and Water ministries developed specialized ritual implements capable of arresting fluid chaos by forcing it into rigid, crystalline mineral lattices through five-phase elemental transmutations.
  • Numbered 83 in a standardized batch of containment instruments struck for itinerant boundary-wardens, this chisel was designed to bind fleeting liquids, vapors, and decaying spirit residues into inert, gem-like glass prisms suitable for preservation and safe study.
  • By drawing upon the geomantic weight of the Earth phase and aligning its strikes with the descending transit of the planet VaporSphere across Helios, the user freezes dynamic corruption into harmless, permanent geode deposits.

Description

  • The implement is a six-inch-long cold-forged iron ritual chisel, tapering from an octagonal striking butt down to a razor-sharp, beveled spade-shaped tip.
  • Its central shank is wrapped in a tight spiral of braided five-phase metal filaments—gold, silver, copper, refined lead, and tin—anchored into shallow, chiseled grooves along the iron facets.
  • Set into a recessed bronze collet directly beneath the striking head is a tier 1 magic crystal, cut to the precise weight and circumference of a standard silver piece, glowing with an internal, pale quartz-white luminescence.
  • The beveled cutting faces are acid-etched with Onmyodo Earth-trigram seals (Kun) and astrological coordinate grids corresponding to planetary solidification nodes.
  • When held near loose fluids, poisons, or ethereal vapors, a cold frost coats the beveled blade, releasing a faint chiming sound like clinking glass shards whenever ambient mana brushes its edge.

Detailed Stats

  • Tier: Tier 1
  • Rarity: Common
  • Item Level: 1
  • Item Armor Check: 0
  • Item Resilience: 10
  • Maximum Item Hit Points: The avatar’s maximum hit points plus 10
  • Attunement Type: Handheld attunement (attunes instantly upon being picked up or held; does not occupy a worn equipment slot while held as a work implement)
  • Weight: 1 pound
  • Operational Scope: Fluid petrification, vapor crystallization, hazard sealing, and structural reinforcement
  • Structural Integrity: Whenever the bearer concludes an active activation involving crystallization or mineral binding, roll a d20; on a roll of 1, the white catalyst crystal fractures into brittle powder, neutralizing all active magical functions until replaced and consecrated.

Slot

  • Hand Slot (Right or Left) Tool

Passive Magics

  • Vitreous Viscosity Ward: While the chisel is held in hand, any non-magical fluid or semi-liquid hazard (such as quicksand, standing mud, acid spills, or slippery grease) within three feet of the bearer’s boots thickens into brittle, glassy crust underfoot, allowing normal movement without slipping or sinking.
  • Mineral Resonance Sight: Holding the iron shank extends the bearer’s perceptual awareness, highlighting unstable fluids, pressurized pipes, hairline container cracks, and leaking toxins within twenty feet as brightly glowing amber veins in the avatar’s Mind’s Eye.
  • Brittle Cleave: When the chisel is used as an improvised striking tool against naturally crystalline, calcified, frozen, or petrified targets, it ignores the first 5 points of the target’s hardness or damage threshold, chipping clean mineral facets without dulling its blade.

Activable Magics

  • Crystallizing Strike: By spending one action to tap the chisel against a volume of open liquid (up to five gallons) or a fluid puddle while chanting an Onmyodo phrase lasting fewer than six seconds, the liquid instantly vitrifies into solid, translucent quartz glass. The resulting crystal block is completely inert, sealing any poisons, pathogens, or spiritual taints trapped inside for twenty-four hours before gradually crumbling into non-toxic sand.
  • Vapor-Glass Condensation: By spending an action to hold the chisel aloft and rotate it clockwise to align the Earth trigrams with the midday sky, the user draws ambient smoke, gaseous poison, or mist within a ten-foot cube into the blade. The captured gas condenses instantly around the chisel’s tip, dropping to the ground as a cluster of fragile, violet glass beads that permanently seal the vapor until intentionally crushed.
  • Shard-Wall Hardening: By spending one action to drive the chisel into loose gravel, sand, or porous earth, the user channels five-phase Earth mana through the pommel crystal. A three-foot-wide, three-foot-tall jagged barricade of interlocking white quartz spikes erupts upward from the ground, providing half-cover against ranged projectiles and turning the immediate square into hazardous, jagged terrain.

Tags

  • Tool, Onmyodo, Crystallize, Earth Phase, Vitrification, Handheld, Chisel, Tier 1, Common, Hazard Sealing, Mineral Divination, Vitrification Ward, Liquid Petrification, Gas Condenser, Quartz Spikes, Earth Trigram, Kun Seal, Toxic Containment, Glass Spire, Brittle Cleave, Geode Matrix, Masonry Implement

Stonemason Guildhalls, Hazard Yards, and Alchemical Exchanges

  • Excavators’ Quarters and Stonemason Guild Smelteries:
    • Located along the quarry rims, canal foundations, and architectural cut-yards of expanding settlements, these heavy industrial workshops cater to sappers, quarry-men, and foundation-wardens.
    • The air is dry and thick with stone dust, pulverized lime, and sulfurous forge-smoke, featuring heavy timber benches laden with iron mallets, splitting wedges, plumb bobs, and crates of raw slate and granite.
    • Buying a chisel from an authorized quarry-master carries a catalog cost of 10 silver, though demand during sudden canal breaches or bedrock collapses often pushes the price between 10 silver and 14 silver.
    • Avatars holding active apprentice or journeyman credentials in an Excavators’ Union, Masons’ Consortium, or Canal Engineering Bureau qualify for an institutional 10% discount per character tier level, purchasing the chisel for 9 silver.
    • Selling the chisel to a stonemason involves testing the beveled tip against raw basalt; the guild foreman assesses the braided wire wrap and pays 10% of the baseline value times the avatar’s tier level, transferring 1 silver into the seller’s World Bank ledger.
  • Imperial Alchemical Repositories and Exorcism Ateliers:
    • Situated along the paved hospital avenues, academy terraces, and Onmyodo bureaucratic plazas of provincial capitals, these clean establishments supply hazardous-material handlers, apothecaries, and court geomancers.
    • The interior is quiet and smells faintly of camphor, distilled spirits, and crushed feldspar, lined with glazed porcelain jars, bronze balance scales, leaded specimen cabinets, and glass distillation retorts.
    • These academic dealers stock the chisel primarily as an emergency reagent-containment tool, pricing it firmly between 10 silver and 13 silver based on the clarity and cut of the quartz-white catalyst stone.
    • Avatars presenting credentials from a recognized College of Natural Philosophy, Alchemical Board of Control, or Bureau of Onmyodo Exorcism receive a professional 10% discount per character tier level, bringing the price down to 9 silver.
    • When liquidating a chisel here, the curator strikes a bell near the blade to check the resonance of the Kun trigrams and logs 1 silver into the bearer’s World Bank balance, issuing a stamped receipt of hazardous-tool transfer.
  • Subterranean Salvage Dens and Smugglers’ Bilges:
    • Hidden within the flood vaults, sewer sluice intersections, and unmapped drainage catacombs beneath waterfront towns, these clandestine operations trade with tunnel-rats, grave-robbers, and illicit alchemical brewers.
    • The vaults are damp and reek of stagnant marsh-gas, rotting wood, and caustic runoff, crowded with salvage cages, stolen pipe-fittings, unmarked glass carboys, and salvaged mining gear.
    • Unlicensed scrapper-fences bypass imperial tax registries, refuse World Bank scrip, and deal exclusively in physical coinage.
    • Acquiring a chisel through an undercity fence commands an elevated price because subterranean salvagers rely on it to instantly freeze toxic gas pockets and sewage leaks, driving the cost to between 15 silver and 22 silver in physical silver coin.
    • Selling the implement to a black-market scrapper is quick and anonymous; the dealer checks that the white crystal has not fractured and hands over between 1 silver and 2 silver in raw physical coin, offering closer to 2 silver if local sewer leaks have made vitrification tools scarce that week.

Tactical and Environmental Deployments of the Vitreous Sealing Chisel

  • Flooded Subterranean Catacombs and Sewer Vaults:
    • In dank, stagnant drainage conduits where sudden pipe bursts or rising toxic sludge threaten to drown an exploration team, the chisel provides rapid defensive stabilization. Defensively, when a torrent of sewer muck, industrial acid, or black grease rushes toward the party, the bearer drops to one knee and drives the beveled tip into the approaching wave while reciting the Earth incantation. The fluid flash-freezes into a solid, jagged wall of clear quartz glass, halting the floodwaters and turning dangerous liquid sludge into stable crystalline stepping stones underfoot via the Vitreous Viscosity Ward.
    • Offensively, when cornered in a slick sewer channel by amphibious ghouls or fluid-borne oozes, the avatar spots hair-line fissures and pressurized drainage conduits illuminated by Mineral Resonance Sight. The user slams the chisel into the stone floor, activating the Shard-Wall Hardening. A three-foot barrier of white quartz spikes erupts upward, impaling charging enemies, providing half-cover against hurled filth, and turning the immediate wading pool into a field of glass spikes that shreds the soft bellies of pursuing horrors.
  • Alchemical Laboratories and Chemical Smelteries:
    • In unstable alchemical workshops where shattered retorts, boiling caustic vats, and toxic fumes create an volatile battlefield, the chisel functions as a containment weapon. Defensively, if an enemy alchemist shatters a carboy of creeping yellow poison gas or choking mustard smoke, the user raises the chisel and spins it clockwise under the light. Activating Vapor-Glass Condensation sucks the expanding toxic fog into the blade, condensing the lethal vapor into a handful of inert, violet glass beads that drop harmlessly to the floorboards, saving the party from asphyxiation.
    • Offensively, the avatar targets the enemy’s own unstable supplies. Peering through the Mind’s Eye reveals pressurized alchemical conduits and simmering copper boilers glowing like bright amber veins. Darting forward, the user delivers a Crystallizing Strike directly into the open cooling trough or fuel barrel. The liquid flash-vitrifies into expanding crystal lattices, violently bursting the metal vat from the inside and spraying razor-sharp glass shrapnel across the opposing line.
  • Volcanic Mud Pools and Sulfur Fumaroles:
    • Across treacherous geothermal mud flats, boiling geyser fields, and bubbling sulfur basins where the ground can collapse beneath a traveler’s weight, the chisel ensures survival. Defensively, when traversing bubbling mud pots that threaten to pull heavy pack animals down into scalding clay, the user carries the chisel low. The Vitreous Viscosity Ward turns the scalding ooze beneath their boots into a brittle, walkable quartz sheet, letting the vanguard lay down a safe path across otherwise impassable boiling bogs.
    • Offensively, when ambushed by molten mud-crawlers or sulfurous magma-sprites that reform their bodies from liquid sludge, the user steps into melee. Striking a fluid beast with the chisel’s cutting edge forces the creature’s semi-liquid mass into rigid glass, dealing severe structural trauma through the Brittle Cleave property while locking its limbs in brittle mineral prisons that allies can shatter with standard warhammers.
  • River Crossings and Estuarine Marshes:
    • Along wide, rapid rivers, tidal salt-marshes, and brackish deltas where deep water and quicksand isolate expedition members, the tool alters the natural landscape. Defensively, if the party is being pursued along a riverbank by mounted cavalry or river-pirate skiffs, the avatar plunges the tool into the shallows. The river surface vitrifies into a rigid shelf of quartz glass, allowing the party to sprint across the deep water while denying boats their passage and blocking the pursuers’ ford.
    • Offensively, when fighting water-elemental spirits or river predators lurking beneath the surface, the user kneels at the bank and taps the chisel to the surface to trigger Crystallizing Strike. Five gallons of the surrounding water instantly solidify around the submerged target’s fins or legs, encasing the swimming threat in a heavy, anchor-like crystal block that drags it to the muddy bottom or holds it stationary for ranged strikes.
  • Arid Sand Dunes and Shifting Dust Washes:
    • In desert canyons, loose gravel screes, and collapsing sand dunes where footing is unstable and ranged snipers hold the high ground, the chisel serves as mobile fortification. Defensively, when caught in an open sand wash under a volley of enemy arrows or sling-stones, the user hammers the chisel into the loose sand. The Shard-Wall Hardening erupts an instant barricade of interlocking white quartz spikes from the dunes, soaking kinetic projectile impacts and establishing a sturdy breastwork in an otherwise barren landscape.
    • Offensively, the avatar exploits the Brittle Cleave passive against mineral-aspected desert monsters. When facing petrified stone-gargoyles, sand-golems, or calcified carapace-scorpions, the user wields the chisel as a precision melee pick, puncturing natural stone armor and chipping wide structural fractures into hardened mineral hides that mundane steel swords merely bounce off of.

Perception of Activation:

  • User’s Perspective:
    • Sight: Upon speaking the Earth incantation and striking, the white catalyst crystal in the collet flares with a sharp, brilliant alabaster glare. The acid-etched Kun trigrams along the iron blade ignite in luminous amber lines. Target fluids or vapors do not merely freeze; geometric fractures spiderweb instantly outward, turning liquid ripples or swirling fog into sharp, hexagonal facets of clear quartz-white glass.
    • Sound: The strike produces a resonant, metallic ring that transitions abruptly into a high-pitched, harmonic chime—resembling hundreds of crystal wine glasses vibrating in unison—followed by a crisp, dry crackle as mineral bonds rapidly snap into alignment.
    • Touch: A sudden pulse of dry, frigid air courses down the wrapped grip, making the five elemental wire coils feel distinctly cold and vibrating with a steady, clock-like mechanical hum against the palm. When walking near puddles, the ground beneath the user’s boots feels instantly solid, chalky, and brittle.
    • Smell: A clean, sharp scent of ozone and pulverized dry limestone cuts through the ambient air, completely neutralizing the foul stench of sewer muck, stagnancy, or sulfurous chemical fumes.
    • Taste: A powdery, dry mineral taste settles on the back of the throat, resembling the dust kicked up from freshly cleaved slate or pulverized chalk.
    • Mind’s Eye Perception: The user’s Mind’s Eye perceives a sudden geometric map overlay: ambient fluid pressures, structural stresses, hidden pipework, and creeping toxins glow as vibrant amber fault lines, highlighting the exact weak points where a strike will shatter or seal a target.
    • Extra-Sensory Resonance: An overwhelming sensation of absolute stillness and physical density washes through the spirit, as if the user’s center of mass were anchored directly into the planetary bedrock, banishing all fluid chaos and kinetic vertigo.
  • Observer’s Perspective:
    • Sight: Onlookers see the chisel’s white pommel stone emit a bright, cold flash that casts stark, sharp-edged shadows. As the blade touches fluid or air, a crystalline wave rolls outward across the surface, leaving behind glittering white quartz spires or glassy sheets that reflect the light like polished diamond.
    • Sound: Observers hear an ear-piercing, crystalline ping that echoes off nearby walls, followed by the sound of rapid, dry crystallization, like thousands of tiny glass rods snapping simultaneously.
    • Touch: Those within ten feet feel an immediate drop in humidity, as moisture is violently ripped from the air, accompanied by a gritty dusting of airborne quartz powder settling over their armor and clothing.
    • Smell: Bystanders detect an instantaneous transition from wet, rancid air to a sterile, dry odor reminiscent of a subterranean quarry or a hot stone kiln.
    • Taste: A dry, alkaline film coats the lips and tongue of anyone standing downwind of the vitrification shockwave.
    • Aura Perception: Observers sensitive to spirit weaves witness the five elemental phase lines visibly condense, folding dynamic Water and Wind streams into rigid, unmoving Earth cubes that pin ambient spirits in place.
  • Positives:
    • Rapidly neutralizes lethal airborne toxins, boiling acid spills, and bio-hazardous sludge by permanently locking them within stable, solid glass.
    • Provides instantaneous structural fortification, transforming unstable quicksand or rushing water into walkable quartz highways and solid stone cover against ranged fire.
    • Grants the user tactical geomantic insight, exposing structural stress points and hidden mechanical conduits that mundane vision cannot detect.
    • The resulting crystal barriers and mineral beads can be harvested, transported, or disposed of without risking liquid contact or inhalation of volatile vapors.
  • Negatives:
    • The high-pitched crystalline chime and brilliant white flash instantly compromise stealth, echoing down enclosed stone corridors and alerting nearby sentries.
    • Vitrified surfaces become slick or dangerously sharp; shattered fragments create hazardous terrain that can tear through light boots or injure unarmored allies.
    • The sudden desiccation of the local atmosphere can cause throat irritation and coughing fits for companions who are unprepared for the rapid drop in humidity.
    • Confining living slimes or fluid-aspected creatures into rigid glass can result in violent, pressurized explosions if the vitrified shell is struck prematurely before the core destabilizes.

Recipe: Cold-Forging and Vitreous Alignment of the Sealing Chisel

Materials Needed

  • One Billet of High-Carbon Bog Iron: A dense, six-inch bar of cold-forged bog iron, free of slag pockets, annealed and squared for chisel forging.
  • One Tier 1 Magic Crystal: A flawless quartz-white arcane catalyst crystal ground to the precise weight and diameter of a standard silver piece.
  • Five-Phase Filament Bundle: Measured spools of annealed wire in gold, sterling silver, native copper, refined lead, and pure tin.
  • One Cast Bronze Collet Ring: A machined circular bronze collar with an internal retention seat and set-screw threading to secure the catalyst gem below the striking head.
  • One Sacrificial Minor Binding or Freezing Charm: A functioning tier 1 magical talisman, petrification scroll, or cold-focus amulet, consumed entirely to transfer its crystalline matrix.
  • Two Drams of Purified Tree Resin: Refined clear amber sap harvested from a mountain elder tree using a fluid collector, used as a shock-absorbing setting compound.
  • Three Drams of Alchemical Etching Acid: Concentrated vitriol solution prepared for biting deep trigrams and planetary grids into hardened iron.
  • One Pinch of Pulverized Quartz Grit: Fine abrasive powder used for lapping the beveled cutting faces to a razor edge.

Tools Required

  • Armorer’s Anvil and Hand Forging Hammer: Heavy metalworking tools used to draw the octagonal taper and dress the spade cutting edge.
  • Diamond-Tipped Scribing Stylus: An ultra-fine engraving burin used to trace the Kun Earth-trigrams and coordinate grids through the acid resist.
  • Fluid Collector: A calibrated mechanical syringe extractor used to measure and inject the tree resin without introducing air pockets.
  • Lapidary Lapping Plate: A flat cast-iron honing bench used with quartz grit to true the beveled cutting faces.
  • Jeweler’s Wire-Tensioning Pliers: Pliers used to wind, anchor, and burnish the five-phase wire filaments into the iron shank.
  • Astrological Planar Inclinometer: A brass sighting instrument used to measure the descending orbital transit of VaporSphere across Helios during the quenching phase.

Skill Requirements

  • Blacksmithing and Cold-Iron Metallurgy: Level 6 (Base skill level 5, plus 1 additional level corresponding to the creation of a tier 1 item).
  • Arcane Etching and Calligraphic Engraving: Level 6 (Base skill level 5, plus 1 additional level corresponding to the creation of a tier 1 item).
  • Alchemical Crafting and Reagent Purification: Level 4 or higher (Required for handling the acid bite and sacrificial charm dissolution).

Crafting Steps

  • Forging the Octagonal Shank and Spade Blade:
    • Heat the bog iron billet in a low-oxygen charcoal forge, drawing it out to an overall length of six inches with an octagonal cross-section tapering toward the business end.
    • Form an octagonal striking butt at the pommel end, truing the striking face to resist mushrooming from hammer blows.
    • Flare and forge-weld the working end into a wide, spade-shaped cutting blade, establishing a double-beveled edge.
    • Cut five spiral recessed tracks along the flats of the octagonal shank to seat the metallic phase wires flush with the grip.
    • Machine a recessed mounting seat just below the striking butt to accept the bronze collet ring.
  • Acid-Etching the Earth-Phase Trigrams:
    • Coat the spade blade and lower facets with a thin, uniform layer of beeswax resist.
    • Using the diamond-tipped stylus, scribe the eight Onmyodo Earth seals (Kun) and the astrological grid coordinates of planetary solidification nodes through the wax to expose the raw iron.
    • Submerge the prepared blade into the alchemical etching acid for precisely twenty minutes, allowing the vitriol to bite deep, clean channels into the metal.
    • Neutralize the acid in an alkaline bath, melt away the remaining wax resist, and hone the cutting edges on the lapidary plate using quartz grit until razor-sharp.
  • Five-Phase Filament Winding:
    • Braid the five metallic wires—gold, silver, copper, lead, and tin—into a tight, single elemental cable.
    • Anchor the head of the braided cable beneath the bronze collet shoulder and wind it tightly along the pre-cut spiral tracks down the length of the iron shank.
    • Secure the lower end into an anchor notch at the base of the blade using the wire-wrapping pliers, burnishing the filaments flat so the grip remains smooth and unbroken in the hand.
  • Sacrificial Charm Transference and Crystal Setting:
    • Place the sacrificial minor binding or freezing charm and the quartz-white catalyst crystal inside a stone crucible.
    • Heat the crucible over steady alchemical coals while reciting a continuous Onmyodo incantation of the Earth phase lasting longer than six seconds.
    • Guide the dissolving charm’s white, frosty mist into the crystal’s facets until the stone emits a stable, internal alabaster radiance.
    • Using the fluid collector, inject two drams of purified tree resin into the bronze collet seat.
    • Press the glowing white crystal firmly into the resin bed and secure the retaining collar, creating an airtight, shock-absorbing seal beneath the striking head.
  • Celestial Harmonization and Quenching Integration:
    • Heat the etched blade to a dull red over the forge embers.
    • Using the astrological planar inclinometer, align the chisel’s longitudinal axis with the descending transit of VaporSphere relative to Helios.
    • Quench the blade in a brine bath infused with pulverized chalk and crushed feldspar while maintaining direct physical grip on the wired shank to establish handheld attunement.
    • Roll a d20 to finalize the structural bonding: on a roll of 2 through 19, the components harmonize cleanly, producing the completed Onmyodo 83 of the Vitreous Sealing Chisel; on a roll of 20, the mineral matrix achieves crystalline perfection, granting an unexpected minor enhancement; on a roll of 1, the bond fails violently, shattering the white catalyst crystal into chalky dust and ruining the components.

Iron Spade That Turned Stinking Marsh into Salt-Stone

In the distant turning of the great sky-wheel, before the white mothers had taught the mountain streams to run in clay ditches and while the belly of the fiery eye was still darkened by the passage of the seven-ringed smoke star, there lived a low ditch-measurer whose maternal aunt held the bone needle of the weavers’ lodge. His name was Master Hiko the Mud-Counter, though in the ruined leather sheets of the western salt-collectors, the marks are rubbed away so that certain ignorant students have carved his name as The Man Who Pours Chalk into Porridge. He was not a breaker of wooden fortresses with great log-swings, nor did he possess twenty bronze kettles to make him loud when the clan mothers sat upon the rush mats. In his brain-case there slept the heavy, moldy dust of a dead world from beyond the dry horizon where the moon has no sister, remembering straight stone ditches where gray mud turned hard in an hour without the fire of wood, and white-shirted builders who laid straight lines of glass across the water so that iron carts could cross the swamp without drowning.

In those turnings, the broad river basin of the Three Reeds fell into a very deep trembling, not on account of the red-spotted cough or the iron-headed locusts that chew the wicker doors, but because of the black bile that came out from the crack in the weeping hill. Behind the lower rice ditches rose the Hill of the Rotting Badger, where the ground had always been soft like dead flesh and where no willow tree could keep its green leaves. In the fourth month, when the purple globe hung low in the midday sky and made the skin of men itch with cold fire, the rock-root cracked open, and out rushed a great tongue of bubbling black grease.

It was not sweet water from the snows, nor was it the thick red broth that comes from the fire-holes of the mountain. It was an ancient, creeping rottenness of dead water-demons that had died before the sun had five faces. Where the black tongue licked the marsh, the fat river-carp floated to the top with their bellies split open like rotten plums. The mud did not dry into crust, but turned into a warm, sucking porridge that pulled down the water-buffalo by their hocks. From the belly of the pool rose a yellow vapor that smelled of boiled toad-skin and copper-rust, and whenever the morning wind blew toward the thatched houses, the babes at the breast choked upon their mothers’ milk and the hair fell out from the tails of the work-oxen.

The ruler of the three dikes in that season was Lord Masaru of the Iron Cleaver. He was a man with shoulders like an anvil, who wore seven thick shirts of boiled horse-leather and carried an iron pole so heavy that two boys had to walk behind him with a wooden trestle to rest it when he spat. Masaru shouted with a great bull-throat until the drying-racks shook: “This muck is the dung of an earth-pig! Fetch five hundred shovel-men with wicker baskets! We shall dig a trench seventy cubits broad and pour the whole swamp into the great river, and what cannot be moved we shall smother with thirty wagon-loads of burning pine-pitch until the black mud is baked into gray bread!”

The elder women tore their hair-cords and wept into the ditch, for to throw five hundred men into the yellow fog would rot their lungs before the third watch, and to burn the pitch would choke the valley with soot so that the winter barley would never put forth ears.

Then Master Hiko came walking from the tool-sheds by the lime-kiln. He was not wearing seven coats of horse-leather, but only a worn hemp apron stained with sour lye, and his left foot dragged upon the stones because a falling curb had crushed his ankle in his youth. In his right hand he held an iron chisel six fingers long, octagonal in the body like a pillar of the sun-temple, its shank wound round with five fine metallic hairs of gold, silver, red-copper, dark lead, and soft tin. Under the heavy striking-butt, where an ordinary mason would strike with a wooden maul, there was a round bronze band holding a white quartz-stone that had no fire in its belly, looking like a blind sheep’s eye.

Lord Masaru laughed until his horse-leather groaned: “Here is the ditch-sweeper with his little iron pin! Will you pick the teeth of the earth-demon with that toothpick, old lame-foot, or do you mean to carve your name upon the rock before the yellow fog rots your gullet?”

Master Hiko did not open his teeth to make a dog-bark. He limped through the dead reeds until his straw sandals touched the edge of the bubbling black porridge. He saw where the grease was crawling toward the main water-gate that fed the drinking-wells of seven hundred families. He did not wave the dried tail of an ox, nor did he slice the neck of a white goose to smear the clay. He only raised the iron spade-point toward the high road, took the measure of the planet VaporSphere as it crossed the face of the blazing Helios, and whispered into the cold iron the ancient phrase that means “The floor of the mountain does not dance.”

Then he drove the beveled spade-blade three inches deep into the boiling black muck.

A sound went out through the reeds that caused the crows to drop from the willow branches like stones. It was not the wet splash of mud or the iron clatter of an anvil, but a high, singing scream, as if ten thousand crystal cups were being broken against an iron shield in the upper sky.

The white stone in the bronze collar of the chisel flared with a stark, blinding light like the flash of lightning when it strikes an empty salt-pan. Along the flats of the iron shank, the five braided metal hairs began to burn with five colors of cool fire, and the acid-carved marks of the Earth-Mother Kun woke up in bright saffron lines.

From the spade-point, a white wave rolled across the black bile. Where the iron touched the bubbling slush, the fluid did not splash; it stopped running. It did not freeze into soft river-ice that melts when the sun grows hot, but turned in a single breath into a great, gleaming floor of solid quartz-white glass. The greasy bubbles of the bog were caught inside the mineral belly like flies inside tree-sap, fixed in place as clear, unmoving spheres. The yellow vapor that was rising to choke the village stopped in the air, pulled downward by the cold weight of the chisel, and condensed upon the quartz face as three thousand hard, purple glass beads that clattered across the newly hardened ground like dry peas.

Master Hiko did not lift the iron. He took two steps forward onto the black grease that was now hard stone, and his sandals made the dry clicking sound of an iron nail walking upon porcelain. Where his boots trod, the soft mud around the margins thickened into a brittle, walkable crust. He drove the chisel a second time into the throat of the weeping fissure where the black stream was gushing from the rock-root.

He spoke the second ancient word that means “The gate is shut with granite.”

The earth beneath the Hill of the Rotting Badger gave a hollow groan like an old water-mill breaking its axle. From the gravel of the slope, three cubits high and three cubits thick, there sprang upward a jagged fence of white quartz spikes, locking together like the teeth of a great stone hound. The black grease inside the mountain was sealed behind twelve inches of solid vitreous rock; its poisonous tongue was frozen into an unyielding pavement of clear crystal; and the sweet water of the upper creek ran over the new glass shelf as pure and cold as rain falling upon a clean roof-slate.

The shovel-men who had come with wicker baskets dropped their tools and fell upon their knees, believing that the mountain-mother had come down in a white robe to lay her hand upon the spring.

Lord Masaru stood upon the riverbank with his iron pole dragging in the gravel. He pulled from his neck a chain of thirty silver disks, each stamped with the mark of the royal storehouse, and held it out with both fists: “Take this silver, ditch-measurer, and let your name be written upon the gate-house of the province! Build forty iron pins like this one, so that we may turn the whole river into a highway of glass and march our spearmen across the valleys without wetting their leather shoes!”

Master Hiko pulled the chisel from the stone, where it came away with a sharp clink like a key leaving a brass lock. The white crystal beneath the striking-butt had grown cold again, and its light was hidden inside its belly like an ember under ash.

He wiped the dry white dust of the petrified muck from the beveled blade with the edge of his hemp apron, then placed the iron implement into the loop of his rope belt.

“The river was made to run, not to stand like a wall,” Hiko said, turning his face back toward the lime-kiln where his wheelbarrow waited. “If you turn the living water into glass, the fish will have no bed to lay their eggs, and your spearmen will starve upon their stone highway with empty bellies. Keep your thirty pieces of silver to buy oats for the men whose lungs were sickened by the vapor, and do not dig what you cannot shut.”

He limped away down the stone dike, his crushed ankle dragging in the dust, while behind him the great white quartz shelf lay cold and silent under the purple sky, keeping the ancient poison locked within its belly for a thousand generations.

Moral of the Story: The boastful warrior seeks to conquer the poison of the earth by digging vast wounds and burning the fields with fire, but the wise artificer uses the weight of the five changes to freeze the roaring chaos into unmoving stone, knowing that true power lies not in breaking the world, but in giving the wild flood a permanent and harmless bone.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons

Vitreous Sealing Chisel Wondrous Item, Common (Requires Attunement)

  • Item Description: A six-inch-long ritual chisel forged from cold iron, tapering from an octagonal striking butt to a beveled spade-shaped blade. Five-phase metal wires (gold, silver, copper, lead, tin) spiral down the shank, and a coin-sized quartz-white arcane crystal sits in a bronze collet beneath the butt. The blade is acid-etched with Onmyodo Earth-trigrams (Kun) and celestial coordinates. When held near liquids or vapors, it chimes softly like clinking glass.
  • Vitreous Viscosity Ward (Passive): While holding this chisel, nonmagical liquid or semi-liquid hazards (such as mud, quicksand, oil, or acid) within 5 feet of you solidify into a brittle, glassy crust under your feet. You ignore difficult terrain caused by liquids or sludge and do not sink into them.
  • Mineral Resonance Sight (Passive): While holding the chisel, you can focus your senses to detect pressurized pipes, structural stress fractures, hidden voids, and fluid or gas containers within 30 feet, seeing them as faint amber lines of light in your mind’s eye.
  • Brittle Cleave (Passive): When used as an improvised simple melee weapon (dealing 1d4 piercing or slashing damage), it scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20 against crystalline, petrified, calcified, or frozen creatures and objects.
  • Crystallizing Strike (Active): As an action, you tap the chisel against an open, nonmagical liquid volume of up to 5 gallons. The liquid instantly vitrifies into a solid block of translucent quartz glass. Any poison, acid, or disease contained within the liquid is rendered completely inert. The glass persists for 24 hours before crumbling into harmless, non-toxic sand. Once used, this property cannot be used again until the next dawn.
  • Vapor-Glass Condensation (Active): As an action, you hold the chisel aloft and speak an Onmyodo incantation. Nonmagical smoke, toxic vapors, or mist within a 10-foot cube centered on you are drawn into the blade and condense into a cluster of 1d6 fragile violet glass beads that drop into your hand or onto the floor. The gas remains safely sealed within the beads indefinitely until a bead is deliberately crushed or shattered. Once used, this property cannot be used again until the next dawn.
  • Shard-Wall Hardening (Active): As an action, you strike the chisel into loose sand, dirt, or gravel at your feet. A 5-foot-wide, 3-foot-tall wall of jagged quartz spikes erupts from the ground along the edge of your space. The wall provides half cover (+2 bonus to AC and Dexterity saving throws) against attacks originating from the other side, has AC 13, and has 15 hit points. The space it occupies becomes difficult terrain, and any creature forced into it takes 1d6 piercing damage. The wall crumbles into ordinary gravel after 1 hour. Once used, this property cannot be used again until the next dawn.
  • Crystalline Strain: Whenever you roll a natural 1 on an ability check or attack roll while utilizing the chisel’s active properties, roll a d20. On a roll of 1, the central white crystal shatters, rendering the item nonmagical until a gem-cutter installs and consecrates a cut white quartz crystal worth at least 50 gp over a long rest.

Call of Cthulhu

The Vitreous Sealing Chisel of Kun Occult Relic / Talisman

  • Description: A heavy, octagonal cold-iron ritual chisel bound in five braided metallic wires and etched with ancient Taoist-Onmyodo Earth hexagrams. Directly beneath the striking pommel sits a glowing, milky quartz focal stone. The implement transmutes unstable fluids and miasmas into crystalline glass, grounding chaotic spirits and neutralizing hazardous leaks.
  • Sanity Cost: Experiencing the mind-bending geomantic resonance of instant matter solidification or witnessing unnatural oozes petrify costs 0/1 Sanity points. Activating its active crystallization rites costs 1d3 Sanity points and 4 Magic Points.
  • Geomantic Insight (Passive Effect): An investigator holding the chisel receives a bonus die on Art/Craft (Masonry), Science (Geology), and Spot Hidden rolls made to locate structural stress points, pipe fractures, weakened masonry, or subterranean water veins.
  • Viscosity Stabilization (Passive Effect): The investigator can cross standing mud, shallow bogs, grease slicks, and quicksand without penalty; the ground underfoot forms a temporary brittle crust that supports their weight.
  • Fluid Vitrification (Active Ritual): By spending 1 combat round, expending 4 Magic Points, and touching the blade to a pool of liquid (up to approximately 20 liters), the fluid instantly vitrifies into solid, harmless quartz glass. Chemical poisons, caustic acids, and biological pathogens trapped within are neutralized for 24 hours before dissolving into inert sand.
  • Vapor Condensation (Active Ritual): By spending 1 combat round, expending 3 Magic Points, and raising the chisel, any mundane or chemical poison gas within an area roughly 3 meters across is sucked into the iron and condenses into a clutch of violet glass marbles, clearing the air immediately.
  • Structural Strain: If an investigator pushes a roll while using the chisel and results in a Fumble (96–100, or 100 if skill is 50+), the white pommel stone shatters violently into chalky dust, permanently neutralizing the relic’s supernatural properties.

Blades in the Dark

Five-Phase Vitrification Chisel Arcane Implement / Curio (1 Load)

  • Description: A cold-forged iron chisel spiraled with five-metal alloy filigree and set with a glowing white spirit-crystal. It channels Earth-phase qi to flash-solidify volatile liquids, miasmic vapor, and corrosive ectoplasm into brittle glass lattices.
  • Quality & Tier: Tier I Fine Arcane Masonry & Containment Tool. When used to fortify barriers, seal hazardous leaks, breach petrified materials, or contain volatile fluids, it counts as Fine quality (+1 Quality level to your position or effect).
  • Vitreous Step (Passive): You never suffer reduced Effect or risky positioning from unstable, liquid, or slippery footing (such as flooded bilges, chemical slicks, or sewer slime); the surface flash-vitrifies into a solid crust beneath your boots.
  • Flash-Vitrify (Active): You spend an action and suffer 1 Stress to touch the chisel to an open pool of liquid, toxic discharge, or spirit-slime. The fluid instantly vitrifies into a solid block of quartz-like glass, trapping and neutralizing the hazard. When used against fluid-based or amorphous spirit entities, you gain Great Effect on an action to trap or immobilize them.
  • Vapor Condensation (Active): You mark 2 Stress and spend an action to raise the chisel. A cloud of lethal gas, fog, or smoke filling a small room (or immediate area) condenses instantly into a handful of violet glass beads, leaving the air clear and breathable.
  • Shard Barricade (Active): You strike the chisel into stone or gravel and mark 1 Stress. A jagged, chest-high crest of white quartz spikes erupts from the ground, establishing immediate cover against ranged attacks and turning the threshold into hazardous terrain.
  • Misfire Clock: The item features a 4-segment countdown clock titled “Crystal Shatter.” Whenever a Complication occurs during an Attune, Wreck, or Tinker roll involving the chisel, the GM may tick 1 segment. When full, the white focus crystal cracks, rendering the chisel an ordinary iron tool until repaired during downtime.

Knave

Vitreous Sealing Chisel Item Slot: 1 (Handheld or Stowed)

  • Item Type: Arcane Masonry Tool / Weapon (Can be wielded as an improvised weapon dealing d4 damage, 1 slot).
  • Item Durability: 3/3 Item Hit Points.
  • Passive Benefit (Solid Footing): While holding this chisel, the bearer treats mud, grease slicks, quicksand, and liquid surfaces as solid, stable ground, ignoring movement penalties caused by fluid terrain.
  • Passive Benefit (Brittle Strike): Attacks made with this chisel against stone, ice, petrified targets, or crystalline constructs gain advantage on the attack roll and deal +2 bonus damage.
  • Active Spell: Vitrify Liquid (Action): Once per day, the wielder touches the chisel to a body of liquid up to the size of a large tub. The liquid instantly crystallizes into clear, solid quartz glass for 1 exploration turn (10 minutes) before crumbling into harmless powder. Any poisons or acids inside are completely neutralized.
  • Active Spell: Condense Vapor (Action): Once per day, the wielder raises the chisel to siphon all smoke, poisonous gas, or dense fog within a 10-foot cube into the blade. The gas condenses into d6 small glass beads that fall to the ground. The gas remains safely trapped until a bead is broken.
  • Active Spell: Quartz Spire (Action): Once per day, the wielder drives the chisel into dirt or stone to erupt a 5-foot-wide wall of jagged quartz spikes. The spikes provide half cover against missile attacks (+2 AC) and inflict d6 direct damage to any creature shoved into or attempting to climb over them.
  • Item Degradation: Whenever the bearer suffers direct damage to their inventory while holding the chisel, or whenever an action using the chisel results in a critical failure (natural 1), roll a d6. On a roll of 1, the chisel loses 1 Item Hit Point. At 0 Item Hit Points, the quartz catalyst stone shatters into inert chalk, rendering the chisel nonmagical until repaired with 100 copper coins worth of cut gemstones.

Fate

The Vitreous Sealing Chisel of Kun Extra: Earth-Phase Focus Implement (Requires Fate Point or Refresh)

  • Item Description: A six-inch cold-iron chisel bound in a five-metal alloy spiral (gold, silver, copper, lead, tin) with a glowing alabaster catalyst crystal set beneath the octagonal striking head. Acid-etched with Onmyodo Earth-trigrams (Kun), the tool petrifies unstable liquids, condenses toxic miasmas into solid glass beads, and fractures calcified substances with minimal effort.
  • Aspects:
    • Invoke / Compel Aspect: Rigid Anchor of the Five Phases
    • Flaw Aspect: Brittle Crystal Matrix
  • Stunts and Extra Mechanics:
    • Vitreous Step (Athletics): You ignore environmental difficulty or movement penalties caused by standing mud, quicksand, oil slicks, or semi-liquid terrain; surfaces flash-crystallize into a brittle, walkable crust directly beneath your boots.
    • Geomantic Insight (Notice): You gain a +2 bonus to Notice when inspecting masonry, pressurized pipework, subterranean hollows, or hairline container fractures, viewing structural stress points as glowing amber fault lines.
    • Flash-Vitrify (Crafts): Once per scene, you can spend an action to touch the chisel to an open body of liquid or hazardous sludge, creating an advantage using Crafts with +2 to instantly solidify up to five gallons into inert quartz glass, completely sealing any poisons or acids inside.
    • Vapor Condensation (Will): Once per scene, you may spend an action and invoke the Earth phase to clear toxic gas, smoke, or miasma from your zone, condensing the vapor into a cluster of fragile violet glass beads that drop harmlessly into your hand.
  • Fracture Condition:
    • The implement tracks structural integrity with a two-box stress track labeled Quartz Core [1] [2]. Whenever you fail a Crafts or Athletics roll involving the chisel’s active powers with style on an opponent’s defense, or suffer item-targeted trauma, mark one box. When both boxes are marked, the white catalyst crystal shatters, disabling all stunts until repaired during a milestone.

Numenera & Cypher System

Vitreous Containment Spike Artifact (Level 1d6)

  • Form: A six-inch cold-iron wedge wrapped in a braided wire coil of five elemental alloys, tipped with a recessed white luminescence emitter directly below the striking face.
  • Effect:
    • While carrying this artifact, the user treats all fluid, mud, or unstable liquid surfaces as solid ground, eliminating terrain-based movement penalties.
    • The user gains an asset (reducing task difficulty by one step) on all tasks related to detecting structural stress, finding weaknesses in stone or crystalline constructs, and identifying pressurized conduits.
    • As an action, the user strikes an open volume of liquid (up to 20 liters) or fluid hazard to instantly vitrify it into solid, inert quartz glass for twenty-four hours, neutralizing any chemicals or toxins within.
    • As an action, the user holds the spike aloft to draw all ambient gases, vapors, or airborne poisons within immediate range into the tip, condensing them into 1d6 inert glass beads that fall to the ground.
    • When swung as a light weapon against crystalline, petrified, or frozen targets, the attack’s difficulty is reduced by one step, dealing 3 points of damage.
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (Roll depletion whenever the user vitrifies liquid, condenses vapor, or strikes a crystalline target in combat).

Pathfinder

Vitreous Sealing Chisel Item 2 (Uncommon, Earth, Magical, Transmutation)

  • Price: 35 gp
  • Usage: held in 1 hand; Bulk: L
  • Description: A cold-forged iron chisel wrapped in braided filaments of five elemental metals. Beneath the octagonal striking pommel, a coin-sized quartz-white crystal sits inside a bronze collet. The beveled spade blade is acid-etched with Onmyodo Earth-trigrams (Kun). It turns shifting fluids into unyielding mineral sheets and draws airborne poisons into solid form.
  • Vitreous Stride (Passive): While holding this chisel, you treat nonmagical mud, quicksand, grease slicks, and standing water as normal terrain rather than difficult terrain, as a brittle crust forms beneath your steps.
  • Structural Intuition (Passive): You gain a +1 item bonus to Crafting checks made to Repair, Assess, or locate structural weaknesses in stone, masonry, and containers, and to Perception checks made to detect hidden fluid conduits or cracked pipes.
  • Brittle Fracture (Passive): When used as an improvised simple weapon (dealing 1d4 piercing or bludgeoning damage), your attacks against crystalline, petrified, or frozen creatures gain a +1 item bonus to attack rolls and ignore up to 5 points of the target’s Hardness.
  • Vitrify Liquid (Two Actions):
    • Frequency: once per day
    • Effect: You strike the chisel into an open pool of nonmagical liquid of up to 5 gallons. The liquid instantly vitrifies into solid, translucent quartz glass, neutralizing any poisons, acids, or contaminants within. The glass persists for 24 hours before crumbling into harmless sand.
  • Condense Vapor (Two Actions):
    • Frequency: once per day
    • Effect: You raise the chisel and speak an Earth-phase command. Nonmagical smoke, toxic vapor, or mist within a 10-foot emanation condenses into a cluster of 1d6 fragile glass beads at your feet, clearing the air in that area immediately.
  • Erupt Quartz Barrier (Two Actions):
    • Frequency: once per day
    • Effect: You drive the chisel into sand, dirt, or gravel. A 5-foot-wide, 3-foot-tall jagged wall of interlocking white quartz spikes erupts from the ground along the edge of your space. The wall provides standard cover (+2 circumstance bonus to AC and Reflex saves), has AC 10, Hardness 5, and 15 Hit Points, and creates difficult terrain that deals 1d6 piercing damage to any creature forced into it. The barrier crumbles to gravel after 1 hour.
  • Core Brittleness: If you critically fail a Crafting or attack roll while using the chisel’s active properties, roll a DC 5 flat check. On a failure, the pommel stone fractures, rendering the chisel nonmagical until repaired with 15 gp of gemstone materials and 1 day of downtime.

Savage Worlds

Vitreous Sealing Chisel Arcane Device (Minor Artifact)

  • Description: A heavy octagonal cold-iron chisel bound in a five-metal alloy wire wrap, housing a glowing alabaster catalyst gemstone beneath the striking butt.
  • Trappings: Onmyodo Earth-phase magic, mineral solidification, instant vitrification, crystalline fractures, quartz barriers.
  • Passive Trait (Solid Footing): The wielder ignores Difficult Ground penalties caused by mud, quicksand, slime, or shallow liquid surfaces, as the matter temporarily vitrifies underfoot.
  • Passive Trait (Mason’s Insight): The bearer gains a +1 bonus to Notice and Repair rolls to locate structural stress points, compromised masonry, pressurized pipes, or hairline fractures in containers.
  • Passive Trait (Brittle Strike): When used as an improvised weapon (Str+d4, AP 1), attacks against constructs, stone, ice, or petrified targets deal +2 damage.
  • Powers:
    • Vitrify Fluid (Specialized Environmental Control):
      • Power Points: 1 (The device maintains an internal pool of 5 Power Points that recharge at a rate of 1 per hour).
      • Action: Tapping the chisel to an open body of liquid or sludge instantly turns up to 5 gallons into solid quartz glass, neutralizing any poisons or acids inside for 24 hours.
    • Condense Gas (Specialized Dispel):
      • Power Points: 2.
      • Action: The user raises the chisel to siphon all smoke, poisonous gas, or mist within a Medium Blast Template into the blade, condensing the hazard into small, harmless glass beads and instantly clearing the air.
    • Shard Wall (Specialized Barrier):
      • Power Points: 2.
      • Action: Striking the chisel into loose earth or gravel creates a 1-inch-thick, 1-section jagged barrier of white quartz spikes (Hardness 8). The barrier provides Medium Cover and deals 2d4 damage to anyone attempting to climb or force their way across.
  • Device Malfunction: If the user rolls a Critical Failure on any Trait roll while utilizing the chisel’s powers, roll a d6. On a roll of 1, the white catalyst crystal shatters, neutralizing all arcane features until restored with a successful Repair roll at -2 and $100 in replacement gemstone components.

Shadowrun

Onmyo Vitrification Chisel Enchanting Focus / Alchemical Earth Implement (Force 2)

  • Item Type: Enchanting Focus
  • Force: 2
  • Availability: 6R
  • Cost: 7,500 Nuyen
  • Description: A cold-forged iron chisel spiraled with a five-phase alloy braid of gold, silver, copper, lead, and tin. Beneath its octagonal striking butt sits an awakened milky quartz crystal mounted inside a bronze collet. The blade face is acid-etched with Onmyodo Earth seals (Kun). When brought near volatile chemicals, sewer sludge, or airborne pollutants, it chills rapidly, emitting faint harmonic glass-clinking chimes.
  • Passive Mechanics (Vitreous Step): While held in an active hand, the chisel hardens fluids and unstable slurries under the bearer’s boots into a brittle, glass-like crust. The wielder ignores environmental movement penalties and difficult footing caused by mud, quicksand, standing water, chemical spills, or grease slicks.
  • Passive Mechanics (Structural Assensing): The bearer adds +[Force] (2) dice to Perception and Engineering tests made to locate structural stress points, compromised masonry, pressurized conduits, and hairline container cracks.
  • Passive Mechanics (Brittle Cleave): When swung in melee (using Clubs, Reach 0, Damage: (STR + 1)P, AP -1), attacks directed against crystalline, petrified, frozen, or hardened mineral barriers/drones increase their Armor Penetration to AP -4.
  • Active Mechanics (Crystallizing Seal): By spending a Complex Action and touching the chisel to an open body of non-living liquid (up to twenty liters), the fluid instantly vitrifies into solid, translucent quartz glass, neutralizing all toxins, acids, or pathogens inside for twenty-four hours before decaying into inert dust.
  • Active Mechanics (Vapor Condensation): By spending a Simple Action to elevate the chisel and channel Earth mana, airborne toxins, smoke, or gas within a three-meter radius are pulled onto the blade and condensed into 1d6 violet glass beads, leaving the air clear.
  • Active Mechanics (Quartz Barricade): By spending a Complex Action to strike the chisel into loose earth, concrete rubble, or gravel, a one-meter-tall, two-meter-wide jagged barrier of interlocking quartz spikes erupts upward. The barrier possesses Armor 8, Structure 6, provides Partial Cover, and deals 6P (AP -2) damage to any character shoved into or vaulting across it.
  • Focus Burnout: If the wielder suffers Drain while channeling the chisel’s active powers and rolls a Glitch on their Drain Resistance test, the quartz crystal experiences structural strain. On a Critical Glitch, the crystal shatters into chalky dust, stripping all magical properties until replaced and re-bonded.

Starfinder

Five-Phase Vitrification Chisel Hybrid Item (Level 2)

  • Price: 720 Credits
  • Bulk: L
  • Capacity: 20 (Charges)
  • Usage: 1/round or 2/minute
  • Description: An industrial-grade cold-iron wedge combining Onmyodo geomantic runecraft with a high-density molecular solidification field. An energized white quartz matrix sits below the striking pommel, wired to five metallic phase conduits along the octagonal handle. It solidifies hazardous liquids, captures toxic atmospheres, and pierces crystalline armor.
  • Solid Surface Field (Passive): While held, the chisel generates a micro-gravitic solidification aura beneath the user’s feet. You treat liquid surfaces, thick mud, oil spills, and quicksand as normal terrain rather than difficult terrain.
  • Structural Scanner (Passive): You gain a +1 insight bonus to Perception and Engineering checks made to detect pressurized pipes, hairline fractures in bulkheads, structural stress points, and hidden hollows.
  • Brittle Cleave (Passive): When used as an improvised melee weapon (dealing 1d4 piercing damage), attacks made against crystalline, frozen, or mineral-based targets ignore up to 5 points of the target’s Hardness or Energy/Kinetic Damage Reduction.
  • Fluid Vitrification (Active): As a standard action, you expend 2 charges to touch the chisel to an open liquid volume of up to five gallons. The liquid flash-solidifies into a solid block of translucent quartz glass, neutralizing any chemical toxins, acids, or radiation suspended within for twenty-four hours.
  • Atmospheric Condenser (Active): As a standard action, you expend 2 charges and raise the chisel. Any mundane or chemical gas, smoke, or vapor in a 10-foot-radius sphere centered on you condenses into 1d6 inert violet glass spheres that drop to the deck, clearing the atmosphere immediately.
  • Crystalline Barricade (Active): As a standard action, you expend 3 charges and strike loose earth, sand, or scree. A jagged wall of white quartz spikes (5 feet wide, 3 feet tall) erupts along your space. It has EAC 10, KAC 12, 15 Hit Points, Hardness 5, and provides partial cover (+2 bonus to AC and Reflex saves). Any creature entering its square takes 1d6 piercing damage.
  • Circuit Strain: If you roll a natural 1 on an Engineering or attack roll while operating the active crystallization features, roll a d20. On a roll of 1, the quartz power matrix fractures, neutralizing all active functions until repaired with an Engineering check (DC 15) and 150 Credits in replacement parts.

Traveller

Vitreous Field Chisel Psionic Instrument / Xenotech Implement (TL 12)

  • Characteristics: Length 150 mm, Mass 0.5 kg.
  • Cost: Cr 11,000 (Hazard Response Teams / Specialty Excavation Enclaves)
  • Description: An octagonal cold-iron chisel wound with a five-phase alloy filament harness, housing an optically tuned quartz resonator beneath the striking head. The beveled tip is etched with Onmyodo geomantic coordinates that interface with psionic matter-manipulation fields, flash-solidifying fluid matter and clearing atmospheric contaminants.
  • Surface Stabilization (Passive): While holding the chisel, an operator with an active Psionic Strength (PSI) rating treats unstable mud, grease slicks, chemical spills, and quicksand as solid ground, ignoring movement penalties.
  • Structural Diagnostics (Passive): The user gains a +1 DM to Engineer (Civil or Structure), Recon, and Sensors checks made to detect structural shear stress, pipeline overpressure, subterranean voids, and hairline breaches.
  • Vitreous Cleave (Passive): When wielded as a melee tool (Damage: 1D6, AP 2), attacks directed against ice, stone structures, or mineral-armored entities increase Armor Piercing to AP 6.
  • Fluid Vitrification (Active): By expending 1 PSI point (or drawing power from an auxiliary TL 12 micro-cell) and touching the blade to an open pool of liquid up to twenty liters, the fluid flash-vitrifies into inert quartz glass for twenty-four hours, neutralizing toxic, caustic, or biological agents within.
  • Vapor Condensation (Active): By expending 1 PSI point and raising the chisel, airborne gas, smoke, or toxic mist within a three-meter radius is pulled into the tip, condensing into dense glass marbles that drop to the floor, instantly restoring local air quality.
  • Quartz Rampart (Active): By expending 2 PSI points and driving the chisel into soil or debris, the user projects an instant barrier of interlocking quartz spires (two meters wide, one meter tall). It provides Armor 6 against incoming kinetic fire and functions as hazardous obstacles for movement.
  • Resonator Integrity: If the user fails an Engineering or melee check by an Effect of -3 or worse while utilizing active solidification features, the quartz crystal suffers harmonic feedback. The tool remains inert until repaired at a TL 12+ workshop with an Electronics (Sensors) check at DM -2 and Cr 1,800 in parts.

Warhammer

The Vitreous Chisel of the Earth Mother Enchanted Artisan Relic / Cathayan Earth-Phase Masonry Focus

  • Item Category: Arcane Artefact / Engineering Implement
  • Encumbrance: 0
  • Availability: Exotic (Imperial Engineers’ Guilds, Cathayan Mason-Scribes, or Altdorf Fire/Metal College Laboratories)
  • Description: A six-inch cold-iron chisel spiraled with a five-metal alloy cord and tipped with an octagonal striking head. A glowing milky quartz stone rests inside a bronze socket, above a beveled blade engraved with Earth hexagrams (Kun). It hardens loose sludge beneath a traveler’s stride, petrifies volatile acids into glass, and condenses toxic fogs into solid mineral beads.
  • Solid Step (Passive): While carried in an active hand, the bearer treats mud, quagmires, marsh pools, and slippery chemical runoff as solid, firm ground, ignoring movement penalties caused by fluid hazards.
  • Mason’s Eye (Passive): The bearer gains a +10 bonus to Trade (Mason), Perception, and Artisan (Engineering) Tests made to identify structural faults, cracked pipes, subterranean hollows, and undermined fortifications.
  • Brittle Fracture (Passive): When used as an improvised hand weapon (Damage: SB + 1, Qualities: Undamaging), attacks against stone constructs, petrified targets, ice, or crystalline entities gain the Impact Quality and ignore 2 points of Armor.
  • Vitrify Fluid (Active): As an Action, the bearer touches the chisel to an open body of liquid or sludge (up to twenty paces across). The fluid vitrifies instantly into a solid shelf of quartz glass, neutralizing any poisons or acids inside for twenty-four hours before crumbling into fine sand.
  • Condense Vapors (Active): As an Action, the user raises the chisel and speaks an Earth incantation. Any non-magical poisonous gas, choking smoke, or miasma within a four-yard radius condenses into 1d6 violet glass marbles at the bearer’s feet, clearing the air immediately.
  • Rampart of Quartz (Active): As an Action, the user strikes the chisel into gravel or earth. A jagged wall of white quartz spikes erupts along a two-yard span, providing Light Cover (AP 3) and inflicting 1d10 + 2 damage to any foe driven into or scaling the spikes.
  • Aethyric Strain: If the bearer rolls a Miscast (or any double on an unsuccessful Test) while using the chisel’s active properties, the central quartz stone suffers an aethyric shock. Roll a d100; on a roll of 01–10, the gemstone shatters, rendering the implement a mundane iron chisel until repaired by a master lapidary.