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Claws 842 of the Broadside Barker

—

by

Dale
in
  • Lore: Along the crowded thoroughfares, theatrical boardwalks, and market rotundas of the island nation of Yamato, competition for civilian coin is fierce. Street criers, traveling playhouse promoters, and commercial hawkers often include beastfolk avatars possessing natural talons. Standard paper leaflets crumble under rough handling, and chalk signboards wash away under coastal squalls. Hand-hammered by street-level artisans from sheet brass and polished horn, these digit caps were designed to turn physical talons into walking commercial presses. By channeling ambient kinetic energy into the tips, a hawking avatar can scratch vibrant, glowing advertisements onto plaster walls, stamp promotional heraldry into trade boards, and catch the eye of passing crowds without dulling their natural claws.
  • Detailed Tier 1 Stats:
    • Item Tier: Tier 1
    • Item Rarity: Common
    • Item Level: Level 1
    • Designated Slot: Claws
    • Armor Check (AC): +1
    • Item Hit Points: 10 plus wearer’s maximum health points
    • Resilience: 10
    • Weight: 1 pound
    • Suggested Valuation: 9 silver (subject to local merchant stock and regional market pricing)
    • Attunement: Requires simple attunement (one full minute spent pacing and rhythmically clicking the claw caps together while projecting a vocal pitch)
  • Skills Gained When Openly Worn:
    • +1 temporary skill point to Performance / Oratory (aids in projecting promotional pitches, street banter, and commercial rhyming)
    • +1 temporary skill point to Persuasion / Streetwise (improves success when drawing crowds, distributing handbills, and pitching wares)
  • Passive Magic:
    • Luminescent Chalk Scritch: When guided against brick, slate, wood, or paving stones with deliberate intent, the tips leave behind vibrant, neon-hued mineral lines (choice of gold, vermilion, or cobalt). The markings do not rub off in rain or wind and glow with faint phosphorescence for twelve hours before flaking cleanly away without defacing municipal property permanently.
    • Attention-Grabbing Cadence: Whenever the claw tips are tapped against each other, a hollow brass counter-tone rings out that pierces ambient urban din. Bystanders within 30 feet suffer a -1 penalty to passive perception checks directed elsewhere as their attention is drawn toward the wearer’s gesturing hands.
    • Grip of the Bill-Poster: The inner pads feature micro-grooved ridges that prevent paper handbills, broadsides, and pasted placards from crumpling or sliding from the avatar’s grasp, allowing dozens of fragile flyers to be fanned, displayed, or separated without tearing.
  • Activable Magic:
    • Broadside Brand:
      • Action Cost: 1 Action
      • Effect: The avatar presses the thumb or index talon firmly against a surface (wood, canvas, or stone) and focuses their intent. The claw burns a glowing, circular commercial emblem or promotional brand up to six inches in diameter into the material. The mark remains brightly lit for one hour, clearly visible through fog or darkness. Usable at will.
    • Rhythm Ballyhoo Strike:
      • Action Cost: 1 Action
      • Effect: When cornered by hecklers or rival hawkers, the avatar lashes out in a theatrical, wide-sweeping arc. The avatar makes an attack roll using 1d20 plus their tier die (1d4). On a hit, the strike deals base claw damage plus 1d4 kinetic shock, and a sharp, firecracker-like acoustic pop discharges on impact. The target is Dazed until the end of their next turn, reducing their movement speed by half. Usable twice per day, resetting after a long rest.
    • Crowd Siphon Focus:
      • Action Cost: 1 Action
      • Effect: The avatar snaps all four claws outward in a flourish and delivers a rapid-fire promotional slogan. Up to three non-hostile creatures within 15 feet must make a Willpower or Charisma check against the avatar’s tier difficulty. On a failure, they stop walking and listen attentively to the avatar’s pitch for one full minute, giving the avatar advantage on subsequent commercial haggling or entertainment rolls against them. Usable once per day.
  • Tags: Claws Slot, Tier 1, Common, Armor Check, Advertising, Performance, Oratory, Persuasion, Utility, Brass Alloy, Phosphorescence, Acoustic Focus, Non-Lethal Utility, Barker, Streetwise, Signage, Commerce, Broadside, Handbill, Distraction, Projection, Flamboyance, Crowd Control, Ephemeral Pigment
  • Additional Information:
    • The assembly consists of segmented brass digit sheaths connected by flexible leather bands that buckle around the wrist joint.
    • The bright polished metal is often decorated by street performers with colorful ribbons or branded merchant guild crests to serve as visual props while talking to crowds.
    • While classified as commercial tools, the rigid brass construction provides enough reinforcement to catch blades and blunt weapons in close-quarters street skirmishes.

Acquisition and Marketplace Trade of the Broadside Barker Claws

  • Methods of Acquisition:
    • Direct Artisan Commission: Avatars can commission these claw sheaths directly from theatrical metalsmiths, print-shop tinkerers, or boardwalk mechanics operating in bustling urban entertainment districts.
    • Street Barker Apprenticeship: Many commercial syndicates, traveling carnivals, and broadside print houses issue these claw caps to newly hired hawkers, beastfolk criers, and promotional apprentices as standard trade gear upon signing an advertising service contract.
    • Urban Salvage and Street Sweepings: Following major festival riots, carnival strikes, or turf wars between rival theatrical troupes, discarded or broken sheaths can occasionally be recovered from gutters, festival trash heaps, or alleyway pawn stalls.
    • Pawn Stalls and Secondhand Flea Markets: Hard-pressed street performers frequently pawn their promotional gear between theatrical runs, leaving these sheaths behind in secondhand flea stalls and curio shops along dockside boardwalks.
  • Commercial Print Houses and Broadside Stationers:
    • Setting: Located on busy city avenues, near broadsheet press alleys, or adjacent to civic notice boards, these shops smell of mineral turpentine, fresh printer’s ink, pressed hemp paper, and heated rosin. Shelves hold rolls of newsprint, wooden stamping blocks, brass stylus points, and drying frames for commercial placards.
    • Buying: Walk-in customers buy the sheaths at the standard retail listing price of 9 silver coins. A character holding verified credentials in a Printers’ League, Town Criers’ Guild, or Merchants’ Association receives the standard Tier 1 faction discount of 10%, reducing the cost to 8 silver coins and 1 nickel (or 8 silver and 2 nickels, depending on local change conventions).
    • Selling: Shop proprietors buy back intact, undamaged claw sheaths under the baseline valuation formula of 10% per tier of the seller. A Tier 1 avatar is paid 9 copper coins (or up to 1 silver coin if street-level advertising broadsides are experiencing high local seasonal demand), logging the sale into the municipal business ledger and crediting the seller’s World Bank ledger balance.
  • Theatrical Costumers and Carnival Haberdasheries:
    • Setting: Found within fairgrounds, carnival encampments, and theatre concourses, these vibrant shops feature racks of bright velvet coats, feathered hats, street megaphones, display signage, and mechanical novelty props. The air smells of sweet incense, leather dressing, and greasepaint.
    • Buying: Proprietors cater to entertainers, hawkers, and side-show promoters, selling the brass sheaths for 9 silver coins during off-peak dates. If an annual trade fair or provincial festival is actively underway, high demand can push the price up to 10 or 11 silver coins. Troupe members with verified guild affiliation pay 8 silver coins and 1 nickel.
    • Selling: The costumer inspects the brass for dents, checks the leather wrist straps, and ensures the luminescent chalk channels flow cleanly. A Tier 1 character receives the standard 9 coppers (or a rounded 1 silver coin in store credit toward costumes, stage props, or makeup kits).
  • Alleyway Pawnbrokers and Dockside Fences:
    • Setting: Tucked inside shaded alleyways behind gambling dens, under pier boardwalks, or adjacent to dockside sailor dive bars, these cluttered counters deal in fast exchanges, pawned tools, and unvetted curios. The environment is dusty, lit by single tallow candles or dim oil lanterns, with iron-barred service windows.
    • Buying: Black-market traders and independent pickpockets value the sheaths for their luminescent marking utility and concussive distraction strike. Operating outside the legal World Bank framework, these dealers demand hard, unrecorded physical coin. Fences price the item at a premium markup, typically charging 11 to 14 silver coins in hand, granting no faction discounts or professional exemptions.
    • Selling: An avatar wishing to unload claw caps taken from rival street barkers or found abandoned in festival refuse receives immediate, unrecorded payment. The broker offers 9 coppers in loose physical change; however, if city guards are currently cracking down on illicit street signage and demand for rapid-marking tools is surging among underground agitators, the fence will pay up to 1 silver and 8 coppers in physical coin.

Tactical Roleplay and Environmental Applications of the Broadside Barker Claws

  • Bustling Market Rotundas and Carnival Midways:
    • Defensive Roleplay: When a disgruntled patron or rival vendor tries to rush the hawking booth, the avatar doesn’t need to brandish lethal steel. Rapping the brass digits sharply against each other, the avatar unleashes a hollow, piercing metallic counter-tone that startles the assailant and halts their momentum. If the aggressor lunges with a knife or broken bottle, the avatar catches the blade across the reinforced brass finger plates, letting the rigid metal deflect the cut while projecting a booming, theatrical voice that alerts surrounding spectators and municipal guards to the assault.
    • Offensive Roleplay: To break through a hostile wall of competing shills or scatter aggressive hecklers, the avatar initiates a rhythm ballyhoo strike. Flaring their talons in an exaggerated showman’s flourish, the avatar snaps a backhand across the agitator’s chest. The concussive discharge detonates like an exploding firecracker, filling the air with a bright flash and deafening pop that leaves the instigator dazed and stumbling backward, all while the avatar effortlessly pivots back into their promotional sales pitch.
  • Tight Dockside Boardwalks and Pier Underpasses:
    • Defensive Roleplay: Trapped beneath dripping timber pilings by cutpurses seeking the evening’s promotional earnings, the avatar uses the enclosed gloom to their advantage. Slashing a wide arc against a greasy wooden support beam, the claw tips deposit a scorching line of vibrant cobalt luminescence. The sudden neon flare blinds the dark-adjusted eyes of the ambushers, while the avatar uses the physical brass sheaths to block a club swing, driving the kinetic vibration down into the wet sand.
    • Offensive Roleplay: While cornered near the water’s edge, the avatar slams their thumb talon onto the salt-crusted timber decking, triggering a broadside brand that scorches a glowing, radiant sigil directly beneath the feet of the footpads. The sudden burst of heat and light startles the attackers, allowing the avatar to deliver an acoustic snap with the claws that echoes violently off the low pier boards, rattling the thugs’ balance and forcing them to splash helplessly into the harbor shallows.
  • Damp Masonry Alleys and Tenement Corridors:
    • Defensive Roleplay: Cornered in a blind brick alley by syndicate enforcers, the avatar quickly traces erratic, glowing vermilion runes down the walls as they back away. The persistent phosphorescence paints the attackers in stark, unmistakable neon hues, ruining their ability to stalk through the shadows. When an enforcer thrusts an iron crowbar forward, the avatar parries the blow with their armored fore-talons, using the brass-reinforced knuckle band to absorb the impact and wrench the implement aside.
    • Offensive Roleplay: In narrow hallways where sound reverberates violently, the avatar utilizes their crowd siphon focus. Snapping their claws in a crisp, rhythmic cadence against the stone, the avatar projects a rapid-fire rhyming broadside. The acoustic harmonics bounce between the tight tenement walls, locking the approaching toughs in an involuntary trance-like pause. Exploiting this momentary paralysis, the avatar surges forward with a sweeping brass swipe, knocking the leader flat against the brickwork before slipping out into the street.
  • High-Society Theatrical Foyers and Grand Auditoriums:
    • Defensive Roleplay: When an aristocratic brawl or an assassin’s guild intrusion disrupts a sold-out performance, draw-and-strike combat risks royal execution for brawling in the theatre. The avatar adopts the role of an unflappable stage master. Interposing their brass-clad hands between an armed assailant and a fleeing patron, the avatar deflects an incoming stiletto with the hardened plates, keeping the clash masked as a scripted theatrical parry so the upper-tier box guests do not stampede toward the exits.
    • Offensive Roleplay: Spotting an agitator attempting to sabotage the lighting pulleys in the theater gallery, the avatar vaults over the velvet balustrade and slaps a broadside brand onto the saboteur’s cloak. The glowing, radiant brand marks the target as a bright beacon across the darkened hall. The avatar then delivers a precise, subduing ballyhoo tap to the target’s sternum, dropping them with an acoustic pop that mimics stage thunder while security rushes up the stairs to secure the intruder.
  • Open Steppe Caravan Stops and Dusty Crossroad Outposts:
    • Defensive Roleplay: When wild hyena-folk or highway bandits encircle a supply wagon at a remote junction, weapon range is a severe disadvantage. As a charging bandit rushes on horseback, the avatar drags their claws across the wagon’s iron wheel rims, throwing off a blinding spray of bright sparks and a rhythmic screech that spooks the raider’s mount, forcing the horse to rear up and break the charge.
    • Offensive Roleplay: Moving between stranded merchant carts, the avatar gathers the nervous caravan guards with a sharp, resonant snap of the brass claws. Delivering a ringing oratorical rallying cry, the avatar’s crowd siphon focus snaps the panicked mercenaries out of their fear. With the guards rallied behind them, the avatar executes a broad, sweeping strike against the lead bandit’s spear shaft, the explosive acoustic pop shattering the enemy’s concentration and creating the opening needed to drive off the raiders.

Perception of Activation:

  • Sight:
    • What is Perceived: The micro-grooves across the brass plates ignite with saturated ribbons of neon light—flaring in vivid hues of bright gold, vermilion, or cobalt—while the tips of the claws discharge a steady corona of phosphorescent sparks.
    • Description: As intent surges through the brass digit sheaths, thin luminous filaments trace the metal seams and race toward the talon tips. When drawn across surfaces or flared in theatrical gestures, they leave behind bright, floating trails of light that linger in the air for several heartbeats and illuminate the immediate surroundings with the intensity of a lantern.
    • Positives: Illuminates dark corridors, back alleys, or dim boardwalks without occupying an off-hand with a torch, making it easy to spot obstacles, read broadsheets, or inspect goods.
    • Negatives: The radiant glow completely betrays the wearer’s position in darkness, making stealth, silent stalking, or covert escapes virtually impossible.
  • Hearing:
    • What is Perceived: A sharp, metallic click that rapidly magnifies into a hollow, resonant brass chime, culminating in a sharp, firecracker-like acoustic snap whenever strikes or brands are discharged.
    • Description: Rapping the digits together produces an amplified, brassy resonance that cuts cleanly through ambient street chatter, shouting hawkers, and wagon rumbles. When the claws impact wood or stone, the acoustic release mimics a miniature stage thunderclap.
    • Positives: Immediately draws wandering eyes, commands attention in crowded squares, and acts as an acoustic focus to drown out distractions.
    • Negatives: Can be heard from several street blocks away, alerting municipal constables, rivals, or watchful predators to the user’s exact location.
  • Touch:
    • What is Perceived: A tingling, fizzy vibration that travels up through the keratin of the natural claws, settling into a firm, warming pressure around the knuckle straps.
    • Description: The interior leather lining warms comfortably against the skin, while a light, effervescent electrical hum pulses along the nail beds. Upon impact or surface stamping, the kinetic shock is diverted away from the joints and into the outer brass shell, leaving the wearer’s hands completely free from recoil or bone-jarring strain.
    • Positives: Insulates the fingers against the sting of hard impacts, prevents hand fatigue during long hours of gesturing or flyer-handling, and cushions the claw beds.
    • Negatives: The persistent buzzing vibration slightly numbs fine finger-pad tactile sensitivity, making it difficult to pick delicate locks, feel microscopic tripwires, or handle feather-light fabrics.
  • Smell:
    • What is Perceived: A distinct, dry aroma of struck flint, ozone, and warm printer’s sizing resin mixed with scorched brass.
    • Description: The immediate air surrounding the hands becomes thick with the scent of an active print shop—sharp electrical ionization blended with the earthy, sweet tang of hot mineral pigments and drying linseed press ink.
    • Positives: Strong enough to cut through and mask the nauseating odors of rotting harbor refuse, sewer stench, or stagnant canal water.
    • Negatives: Leaves a telltale trace of ozone and burnt chalk in enclosed spaces, providing tracking beasts or keen-nosed trackers with an unmistakable scent trail.
  • Taste:
    • What is Perceived: A metallic, copper-and-zinc tang along the back of the palate, accompanied by a faint sensation of effervescent soda water on the tongue.
    • Description: As the magical charge cycles through the avatar’s upper body, a slight galvanic charge stimulates the salivary glands, leaving an astringent, dry taste similar to resting a clean copper coin on the tongue.
    • Positives: Stimulates salivation during continuous, rapid-fire oratorical delivery, preventing the throat and mouth from parching during extended theatrical pitches.
    • Negatives: Lingers on the taste buds for several minutes, interfering with the subtle appraisal of food, drink, or alchemical potions.
  • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
    • Commercial Attention Lattice:
      • What is Perceived: The avatar perceives the surrounding crowd as a web of faint, shifting sightlines and attentional tethers.
      • Description: In the mind’s eye, the gaze of nearby humanoids appears as translucent, shimmering threads connecting their eyes to points of interest. Wandering threads indicate distracted marks, while snapped or taut threads highlight spectators whose focus has been fully hooked by the avatar’s performance.
      • Positives: Grants precise awareness of crowd dynamics, revealing instantly who is receptive to a pitch, who is drifting away, and which onlookers are actively watching with hostile intent.
      • Negatives: The constant visual noise of dozens of crisscrossing mental lines can cause cognitive overload, making it difficult to concentrate on complex analytical tasks or spellcasting while active.
    • Resonant Acoustic Projection:
      • What is Perceived: An intuitive feedback pulse that measures the acoustic boundaries of the immediate architecture.
      • Description: The avatar feels an echoic pressure wave in their inner ear and sinuses, mapping the reflective angles of nearby walls, wooden ceilings, and alley corners as if the environment were a hollow instrument waiting to be played.
      • Positives: Allows the user to naturally angle their voice and claw-clicks to achieve maximum vocal throw and acoustic resonance with minimal physical strain.
      • Negatives: Sudden, unexpected loud noises (such as cannon fire or thunder) reverberate sharply through the wearer’s skull, causing brief ear-ringing and disorientation.

Recipe: Broadside Barker Claw Sheaths

  • Materials Needed:
    • One Tier 1 Magic Crystal (coin-sized and coin-weighted, functioning as the kinetic-acoustic battery and luminescent catalyst).
    • Six ounces of rolled cartridge brass sheet (clean, uncorroded, and rolled to approximately 18-gauge thickness).
    • One strip of oil-tanned cowhide or tough goat leather (one inch wide by twelve inches long, for the wrist harness and digit linings).
    • Four miniature brass roller-buckles and copper harness rivets.
    • Two drams of luminescent mineral chalk powder (ground realgar, lapis, or orpiment treated with phosphorescent river-algae dust).
    • One ounce of boiled linseed sizing or amber spirit varnish (harvested via fluid collector as an adhesive conductive binder).
    • One sacrificial common horn printing-brayer or wooden broadside stamping-block (consumed entirely during crafting to transfer commercial imprinting properties).
  • Tools Required:
    • One curved metal shears and hand chasing hammer.
    • One steel digit mandrel or hardwood claw horn.
    • One scoring burin and fine triangular needle file.
    • One hand-held fluid collector with an ultra-fine extrusion nozzle.
    • One bench crucible and spirit torch with blowpipe.
    • One small anvil stake and rivet setting punch.
  • Skill Requirements:
    • Metalsmithing / Tinkering: Skill Level 2 (for precision brass cutting, annealing, riveting, and mandrel-forming).
    • Calligraphy / Typography: Skill Level 1 (required to cut clean acoustic sound-channels and reverse-engraved promotional emblems).
    • Kinetic Arcana Manipulation: Basic familiarity with channeling vocal intent and kinetic impact through metallic resonant matrices.
  • Crafting Steps:
    • Digest and Transfer the Commercial Implement: Place the sacrificial wooden broadside stamping block or horn brayer into the bench crucible over the spirit torch. Suspend the coin-sized Tier 1 magic crystal directly above the implement. Direct a steady current of kinetic intent into the crucible as the heat chars and reduces the sacrificial tool to fine carbon residue. Guide the liberated printing and imprinting resonance directly into the crystal structure until the gemstone pulses with a warm, amber-gold luminescence and the sacrificial tool is fully consumed.
    • Sheet Blanking and Mandrel Forming: Using curved metal shears, cut the cartridge brass sheet into four elongated, segmented digit blanks and a matching thumb plate. Heat the brass blanks with the blowpipe until dull red, quench in clean water to anneal, and hammer the segments over the steel digit mandrel using the chasing hammer. Form hollow, tapered sheaths that closely match the natural curve of the claw, leaving a thin flex seam along the lower underside for sizing adjustments.
    • Leather Lining and Harness Fitting: Cut the oil-tanned leather into strips matching the internal belly of each brass sheath. Skive the edges thin and adhere the lining to the interior of the brass caps using a smear of warm amber varnish to protect the natural claw keratin. Cut the remaining leather into a wrist cuff, riveting the four miniature brass roller-buckles and connecting straps to the bases of the digit sheaths so the entire harness anchors securely around the lower wrist joint.
    • Chasing Channels and Engraving the Brand: Mount each brass sheath on the anvil stake. Using the scoring burin, carve deep, micro-grooved conduction lines along the dorsal spine of each finger cap, extending from the knuckle collar to the talon tip. On the outer face of the primary index or thumb cap, reverse-engrave a crisp circular heraldic border intended to serve as the broadside brand matrix.
    • Compounding and Filling the Phosphorescent Matrix: In a clean stone dish, blend the luminescent mineral chalk powder with one ounce of boiled linseed sizing resin. Draw the semi-fluid mixture into the fluid collector. Using the ultra-fine nozzle, extrude the phosphorescent paste evenly into the carved conduction grooves along each brass sheath, ensuring no air voids or breaks interrupt the traced channels.
    • Crystal Setting and Acoustic Harmonization: Using the burin, cleave the attuned Tier 1 magic crystal into matched flat shards. Seat the primary shard into a raised bezel mount across the dorsal wrist collar, and set the secondary chips into the base collars of the finger sheaths. Trace fine brass bridge wires from the crystal mounts into the paste-filled conduction channels. Pass the entire assembly through a low spirit flame to cure the resin into a glassy, rock-hard inlay. Click the finished caps together in a four-beat rhythm while projecting a vocal pitch to complete the acoustic lock, causing the channels to flash with brilliant phosphorescence.

Badger-Mouthed Hawker Who Printed King’s Melons upon Mud-Wall

In that period of the world when the upper star of the south did vomit forth yellow bile and the planetary orb VaporSphere did cast a greenish ring about the head of the moon, there dwelt in the commercial seaport of the lower kingdom of Yamato a low-born beast-person whose syllables in the wet-clay tablet are rendered as Huro. Now Huro was not a rider of horned lizards, nor had he five souls within his chest to throw lightning against the sky-vessels of the sky-raiders, being only an avatar of Tier One whose limbs were covered in stiff grey bristles and whose jaw was like the jaw of an earth-burrowing badger. Huro held no spear from the city guard, nor did he possess a garden of turnips, but earned his daily cup of boiled peas by standing upon a salt tub at the turn of the dock-alley and crying out the cheap prices of salted fish, theatrical spectacles, and old oil cakes to the crowd that came from the morning boats.

Now the square of that seaport was very noisy, for there were four hundred hawkers who possessed lungs like leather bladders, and sixty men who blew upon long copper horns to call the carters to the warehouse. Huro had claws upon his forelimbs that were very broad and flat, such as the goddess Gaialilith had given to his ancestors to dig out beetles from beneath the dead oak roots. When Huro took into his fingers the flimsy slips of yellow mulberry paper which the printers called handbills, his heavy talons sheared the paper into rags, and the ink smeared upon his palms like soot. If he sought to mark the prices upon the lime-washed walls with sticks of burnt vine, the sea fog of the third watch did wash the charcoal into grey streams, and the carters walked past his tub without casting a single nickel into his tin pot.

The overseer of the fish-market was a man of iron belt whose teeth were stained blue with betel gum. He kicked the salt tub beneath Huro and shouted with great wrath: “You clumsy beast of the ditches, your handbills are only torn straw upon the flagstones, and no man knows whether my mackerel are three pennies or thirty! Go out into the tidal muck and dig clams with your broad paws, for the voice of the crier belongs to men who can hold a pen!”

Huro departed from the fish dock with his snout held low, walking along the ditch where the copper-beaters and scrap-burners cast their slag. In that ditch sat a worker of discarded pots whose grandfather had come over the salty water from an empire whose name is no longer found upon the stone pillars. The pot-worker was very lean, having eyes like glass beads, and was tapping thin yellow brass over a stump of iron.

Huro held forth his forelimbs and spoke in the grunting dialect of the low diggers: “Master of the fire-dross, my paws are made to dig the clay, but my heart desires to stand upon the tub and tell the people where the cheap cakes are sold. When I grasp the placards, my claws cut them like shears, and when I shout, the horns of the harbor drown my tongue. Hammer out for me casings that will fit these heavy bones, so that my talons may speak to the eyes of the city.”

The pot-worker took six ounces of cartridge brass which had been peeled from the broken boilers of a water-pump, and a strap of hide from a swamp cow that had drowned in the spring spate. He cut the brass into hollow pipes, annealing the metal four times in a charcoal pot until it was soft like lead, and drove it over an iron claw-stake with a round-nosed hammer. He carved deep gutters along the back of the metal with a triangular scraper, and on the thumb-pipe he scratched a round sigil bearing the sign of the three-legged frog that brings coin.

Then the worker took a grain of magic crystal, small as a bean, which a scavenger had shaken from the gizzard of a sea-pelican. He took also a horn-brayer that had rolled the black oil on twenty thousand playhouse posters, and laid the horn upon the coals. As the horn dissolved in bitter blue smoke, the worker held the crystal within the smoke and blew upon it with a hollow reed, reciting the thirty syllables of the market-cant until the crystal took the essence of the print-horn into its core and shone with a fierce yellow flame. He ground chalk from the high sea-cliffs with the gum of an amber bush, and packed the glowing paste into the gutters of the brass.

When the worker buckled the brass pipes upon the talons of Huro, a strange buzzing passed through the marrow of Huro’s arms, like the stinging of small hornets in the flesh. When Huro tapped his index talon against his thumb, the brass did not make a dull clink, but gave forth a sound like the cracking of a bull-whip against a leather sail, so loud and clear that all the crows upon the roof of the fish-house took flight together.

Huro returned to the market square when the sun was high and the market was boiling with merchants from the foreign islands. A foreign merchant had brought three wagons of golden winter melons from the royal valleys, but the people did not buy them, for the melon-carter was a mute who could only point with a stick, and the crowd surged toward the booths where the roasted tripe was sold.

Huro leaped upon a stone mounting-block. He did not wave flimsy paper flyers in his hairy fingers. He stretched his right paw outward and dragged his four brass-sheathed claws down the white plaster wall of the customs house.

The tablet says: “The brass did not tear the stone, nor did it turn to powder. From the tips of the metal there burst forth a grease of yellow fire that clung to the lime like liquid sun.” In four sweeps of his great arm, Huro drew upon the wall the image of a melon as large as a shield, and beside it he carved the numbers of the price in lines of deep vermilion fire that burned brighter than the torches of the watchmen. The people in the center of the square ceased their shouting, for the bright writing upon the plaster seemed to float three finger-breadths off the wall, and the golden paint did not fade under the wet sea mist.

Then the melon-seller’s rival, a man who sold sour plums from an iron cart, became furious because the crowd turned away from his fruit. He hired three dock-brawlers with heavy ash bludgeons to break the mounting-block and cast Huro into the sewer canal. The three men came forward through the stalls, raising their bludgeons to strike Huro upon the collarbone.

Huro did not jump down into the dirt, nor did he call upon the municipal guards. He clicked his brass claws together in the three-beat tempo of the town crier. The tablet records: “A great crack went out from the metal, like the bursting of an oil jar in the oven.” The acoustic pop struck the ears of the three brawlers so sharply that their knees loosened and their cudgels dropped into the cabbage leaves. Before they could raise their fists, Huro lunged forward and struck the flat of his brass paw against the wooden cart of the plum-seller.

The thumb talon branded the round sigil of the three-legged frog directly into the wet oak of the cart with a blinding flash of white smoke. The kinetic discharge shook the cart so violently that all the sour plums rolled out of their baskets into the gutter, and the shockwave threw the three brawlers upon their rumps in the mud, their heads humming like iron kettles. Huro raised his arm, his claws burning with cold blue light, and shouted with his badger-throat: “Behold the golden melons of the royal valley, sweet as honey, three copper bits for the head of an ox!”

The crowd gave a great shout of joy, believing the display to be a planned exhibition of the guild of jugglers. They rushed upon the three wagons, trampling the plums underfoot, and in half a turn of the water-clock every melon was bought and paid for with bright silver. The mute merchant was so overcome with gratitude that he filled Huro’s leather pouch with thirty bits of milled silver and gave him a heavy melon to eat upon his journey.

For thirty summers Huro stood upon the mounting-blocks of the great wharves. Whenever a playhouse was empty, or a ship-captain sought passengers for the dangerous run through the pirate reefs, they sent a boy running with two silver coins to fetch the badger-faced crier. With four sweeps of his brass nails, he would write the tidings upon the city gates in fire that lasted through the darkness of the rain-storms, and with a single clap of his fingers he could silence five thousand men in the forum. His natural claws grew strong beneath the brass, never blunting against the stone, and when the fever of the marsh finally took his lungs, the city printers took the brass casings from his dead hands and hung them over the doorway of the guild-house, where they remained shining through four dynastic wars, never showing a speck of green verdigris upon their plates.

Moral of the story: He who possesses a voice that is loud in an empty field accomplishes nothing, but he who writes his message in light upon the wall and strikes the ear with true cadence shall gather the multitude to his door.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

Talons of the Street Ballyhoo

  • Description & Lore: A set of heavy brass claw sheaths fastened by miniature roller-buckles over leather harnesses, recovered from early 20th-century theatrical carnivals and vaudeville syndicates. Originally engineered for freak-show performers with clawed extremities, these apparatuses channel kinetic bio-galvanism into luminous, temporary scrawls while producing deafening acoustic claps to distract crowds and ward off street muggers.
  • Item Type: Minor Arcane Device / Street Apparatus
  • Sanity Cost: None under normal commercial use; 1 Sanity point if an investigator witnesses the sheaths independently discharge blinding neon phosphorescence or emit unnatural concussive acoustics without a percussion cap.
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Commercial Pitch & Oratory: When delivering public announcements, hawking wares, or attempting to command the attention of a distracted crowd, the investigator gains a bonus die on Charm, Fast Talk, and Persuade rolls.
    • Phosphorescent Scribe: The tips can scratch glowing script or symbols (in bright gold, vermilion, or cobalt) onto brick, stone, wood, or glass without physical chalk. The script glows for 12 hours before flaking cleanly away.
    • Defensive Deflection: Grants 1 point of localized physical armor to the hands and forearms against non-firearm melee strikes (such as clubs, knives, or unarmed strikes).
    • Ballyhoo Concussion: The user can strike their claws together or make an unarmed strike dealing 1D3 + Damage Bonus blunt/kinetic damage accompanied by an explosive acoustic crack. The target must pass a CON roll or be Dazed, losing 10% from their physical skill rolls until the end of their next turn.

Blades in the Dark

The Barker’s Brass Claws

  • Description & Lore: Hand-hammered brass digit sheaths lined with tanned leather, designed for clawed scoundrels, Skovlander hawkers, and carnival barkers along the docks of Doskvol. They allow the wearer to mark temporary glowing graffiti, manipulate fragile broadsheet leaflets without tearing them, and unleash concussive sonic snaps to stagger watchmen.
  • Item Category & Load: Specialized Social & Subterfuge Gear (1 Load)
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Public Ballyhoo (Fine Tool): Functions as a set of fine oratory and street-marketing gear. When attempting to gather a crowd, shout down a rival hawker, pitch contraband to passersby, or post glowing notices across a district during a score, you gain +1 Potency on your action roll (Sway, Consort, or Command).
    • Phosphorescent Tagging: You may drag your claws along stone, wood, or metal to leave bright, neon-glowing marks or commercial emblems that resist weather and remain legible in fog or pitch darkness for several hours.
    • Defensive Plating (Armor): You may expend an armor use to absorb or parry a physical melee strike aimed at your upper body.
    • Concussive Ballyhoo: When taking a Skirmish action to create an opening or stagger a crowd of opponents, spend 1 Stress to discharge a deafening, firecracker-like acoustic clap. In addition to standard effect, the target or immediate group suffers the consequence “Dazed / Off-Balance.”

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition / 2024 Revision)

Claws of the Broadside Barker

  • Wondrous Item, Common (Requires Attunement by a creature with natural claws)
  • Description & Lore: A set of segmented brass claw sheaths mounted on leather wrist bands, devised for beastfolk criers and theatrical promoters. They allow the wearer to distribute fragile broadsheets, illuminate temporary signage, and command the attention of busy thoroughfares with ringing acoustic flourishes.
  • Item Properties:
    • Protective Brass: While wearing these sheaths, your unarmed strikes using your claws deal bludgeoning or slashing damage (your choice) and gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class against the first melee weapon attack that targets you in any round.
    • Showman’s Cadence: You gain proficiency in the Performance and Persuasion skills as they relate to public oratory, street advertising, and crowd engagement. If you are already proficient, you add double your proficiency bonus to checks made to draw crowds or deliver commercial pitches.
    • Phosphorescent Scritch: As an action, you can use your claw tips to trace glowing mineral lines onto stone, wood, or slate. The resulting text or symbol sheds bright light in a 5-foot radius and dim light for an additional 5 feet, lasting for 12 hours before dissolving without permanent damage.
    • Ballyhoo Concussion: Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an unarmed strike using your claws, you can release a sharp, firecracker-like acoustic snap. The target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or have its speed halved until the start of your next turn. You can use this property a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all expended uses after a long rest.

Knave (2nd Edition)

Barker’s Brass Talons

  • Description & Lore: Four tapered brass digit sheaths backed by leather wrist straps. Built to let clawed street criers post fragile broadsides without slicing the paper, scrawl luminous chalk notices on dockhouse walls, and parry cudgels in back-alley skirmishes.
  • Item Slots: 1 Gear Slot (Claws / Hands)
  • Item Quality: 10 / 10
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Armor Bonus: Provides +1 Armor Defense (stacking with unarmored or light armor gear, up to standard campaign limits).
    • Luminous Chalk Tip: The wearer can trace glowing neon inscriptions on any solid surface without chalk or ink. The marks glow in the dark for half a day before dusting away cleanly.
    • Orator’s Presence: The wearer makes all Charisma checks with Advantage when delivering commercial pitches, shouting street news, or attempting to gather an inquisitive crowd in a public market.
    • Acoustic Snap: When an enemy misses the wearer with a melee weapon, the wearer may test Dexterity to rap the brass claws together. On a success, the concussive pop forces the attacker to test Wisdom; on a failure, the attacker is Dazed and cannot make reaction or opportunity attacks until the end of the round.

Fate (Fate Condensed)

Claws of the Broadside Barker

  • Aspect: Segmented Brass Hawking Talons
  • Description & Lore: These brass sheaths fit snugly over natural claws, secured by leather straps. Created for street criers and carnival promoters, they allow the user to scrawl glowing advertisements on walls, project their voice above the urban din, and deliver concussive, attention-grabbing strikes that disorient rivals or hecklers.
  • Stunts:
    • Attention-Grabbing Cadence: You gain a +2 bonus to create an advantage using Rapport or Provoke when attempting to command the attention of a crowd or distract bystanders in a public, noisy environment.
    • Luminescent Scritch: When you make a roll to create an advantage related to leaving a visible message or signal (such as an advertisement or a warning), you may use Crafts or Notice in place of Rapport. The message glows faintly and resists removal for up to one day.
    • Rhythm Ballyhoo Strike: Once per conflict, when you successfully attack an opponent with your claws using Fight, you may immediately place the situation aspect Dazed on the target with one free invoke, as a deafening acoustic snap accompanies the impact.

Numenera & Cypher System

Vocal-Kinetic Augment Array

  • Item Level: 2
  • Form: Segmented brass digit coverings and a wrist-mounted resonator unit, etched with micro-circuitry and connected by synthetic leather straps.
  • Kind: Cypher or Artifact (Artifact, Depletion: 1 in 1d10)
  • Description & Lore: A minor relic from an era where administrative directives were transmitted via amplified somatic expression. These claw sheaths convert kinetic impact and vocal focus into luminous energy and focused sound, allowing the user to mark surfaces with temporary glowing code, capture attention through sonic resonance, and overwhelm opponents with localized concussive force.
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Broadside Brand (Passive): The user gains an asset on all tasks involving public speaking, persuasion, drawing crowds, or distributing printed media.
    • Luminescent Chalk Scritch (Passive): As part of an action, the user can use the claw tips to write or draw on any solid surface without defacing it permanently. The markings glow like a dim light source and fade after 12 hours.
    • Armor Check (Passive): The reinforced metal structure grants +1 Armor, but only against direct physical melee attacks aimed at the hands or arms.
    • Rhythm Ballyhoo Strike (Active): As an action, the user makes a melee attack roll. On a success, the attack deals ambient damage (equal to the item level + 1), and a sharp, explosive acoustic pop discharges on impact. The target is hindered on all actions until the end of its next turn.
    • Depletion Check: A depletion roll is required only when the user channels a concentrated surge of kinetic energy through the matrix to absorb a physical attack that would otherwise move them down the damage track.

Pathfinder (Second Edition / Remaster)

Barker’s Brass Claws

  • Item 1
  • Traits: Invested, Magical, Tech
  • Price: 8 gp
  • Usage: Worn on natural claws; Bulk: L
  • Description & Lore: These fitted, segmented brass coverings are mounted on leather wrist bands, adorned with tiny resonator gears and internal phosphorescent channels. Originally forged for beastfolk town criers, these sheaths allow the wearer to distribute broadsheets without damaging them, illuminate temporary signage, and command the attention of crowded thoroughfares with ringing acoustic flourishes.
  • Item Properties & Mechanics:
    • Protective Casing (Passive): While invested, you gain a +1 item bonus to AC against the first melee weapon attack that targets you in any round. Your unarmed attacks using your claws deal bludgeoning damage instead of slashing damage and gain a +1 item bonus to damage rolls.
    • Broadside Ballyhoo (Passive): You gain proficiency in Diplomacy and Performance as they relate to public oratory, street advertising, and crowd engagement. If you are already proficient, you add double your proficiency bonus to checks made to draw crowds or deliver commercial pitches.
    • Phosphorescent Scritch (Action): You use your claw tips to trace glowing mineral lines onto stone, wood, slate, or glass. The resulting text or symbol sheds bright light in a 5-foot radius (and dim light for an additional 5 feet) and lasts for 12 hours before dissolving without permanent damage.
    • Rhythm Ballyhoo Strike (Action): Frequency: once per turn. Effect: You make an unarmed claw Strike. On a successful hit, you release a sharp, firecracker-like acoustic snap. The target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be dazzled until the start of your next turn.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

Barker’s Brass Talons

  • Description & Lore: A set of tailored brass sheaths secured by miniature roller-buckles over leather harnesses. Developed for metropolitan street criers and theatrical promoters, these apparatuses channel kinetic bio-galvanism into temporary luminous markings while producing concussive acoustic claps to distract and disorient.
  • Item Type: Personal Gear / Minor Enchanted Item
  • Weight: 1 lb
  • Cost: $80
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Attention-Grabbing Cadence (Passive): The wearer adds +1 to Performance or Rapport rolls made when attempting to command the attention of a crowd or distract bystanders in a public, noisy environment.
    • Luminescent Chalk Scritch (Passive): As an action, the user can draw glowing neon-hued mineral lines onto any solid surface (wood, stone, or glass). The resulting text or symbol glows brightly for 12 hours and then dissolves without defacing the surface.
    • Protective Plating (Passive): Provides +1 Armor Defense to the wearer’s forearms and hands against physical melee attacks and unarmed brawling blows.
    • Rhythm Ballyhoo Strike (Active): Once per encounter, when the character successfully hits a target with an unarmed claw attack, they may choose to deal non-lethal kinetic damage. If the strike causes the opponent to be Shaken, the opponent suffers a -1 penalty to their next Spirit roll made to recover from being Shaken.

Shadowrun (Sixth World)

Broadside Barker Talon Caps

  • Item Type: Weapon Accessory / Minor Qi Focus (Force 1)
  • Subtype: Natural Weapon Modification / Street Tech Apparatus
  • Availability: 3 (Legal)
  • Cost: 1,600 nuyen
  • Description & Lore: Originally tailored for changelings, shapeshifters, and metas with natural claws who work the sprawl’s commercial strips, carnival midways, or independent pirate-broadcast circuits. These cartridge-brass sheaths strap over natural claws, housing micro-capillaries of phosphorescent conductive compound and acoustic amplification rims. They allow the user to project handbills without shredding print media, sketch ephemeral neon tags on ferroconcrete, and deliver concussive sonic strikes.
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Defensive Guard (Passive): When calculating Defense Rating against physical melee strikes (unarmed blows, blades, and blunt clubs), add +1 to the user’s Defense Rating.
    • Sprawl Oratory (Passive): When attempting to gather an audience, pitch commercial wares, shout down street competition, or distract a crowd in a noisy urban environment, the user gains a +1 dice pool modifier to Con (Fast Talk) or Influence tests.
    • Phosphorescent Tagging (Active / Minor Action): The claw tips extrude a self-illuminating chemical chalk in vivid neon gold, vermilion, or cobalt. The user can mark walls, vehicles, or pavement with symbols or script. The markings shed light as a low-output lamp and naturally dissolve after 12 hours without permanently damaging surfaces.
    • Ballyhoo Concussion (Active / Major Action): The user performs an Unarmed Combat attack with the brass sheaths, dealing base Unarmed Stun damage. If the attack hits with Net Hits, the kinetic impact detonates an explosive acoustic crack; the target suffers the Dazed status until the end of their next combat turn.

Starfinder (Second Edition)

Promotional Barker Claws

  • Item 1
  • Traits: Analog, Invested, Tech, Wearable
  • Usage: Worn on natural claws; Bulk: L
  • Price: 90 credits
  • Description & Lore: Precision-stamped brass-alloy digit casings fitted with adjustable polymer straps and internal luminescent chalk micro-wells. Common among xenobiological barkers, dockside promoters, and entertainment guild criers on Absalom Station and frontier trade posts, these talons protect delicate physical flyers, project vibrant promotional light graffiti, and deliver sharp sonic disruptions against rowdy hecklers.
  • Item Properties & Mechanics:
    • Protective Plating (Passive): While invested, the claw sheaths grant a +1 item bonus to AC against the first physical melee weapon Strike that targets the wearer in any combat round. Unarmed Strikes made with the claws can deal bludgeoning or slashing damage.
    • Midway Cadence (Passive): The wearer gains a +1 item bonus to Performance and Diplomacy checks made to attract a crowd, deliver public announcements, or pitch trade goods.
    • Phosphorescent Scritch (Single Action): The wearer drags their talons across bulkheads, ferrocrete, or glass to scribe glowing graffiti. The text sheds bright light in a 5-foot radius (and dim light for an additional 5 feet) for 12 hours before harmlessly flaking away.
    • Rhythm Ballyhoo Strike (Single Action):
      • Frequency: Once per 10 minutes
      • Effect: You make an unarmed claw Strike. On a successful hit, the brass resonators discharge an acoustic concussion. In addition to taking normal damage, the target must succeed on a DC 13 Fortitude save or be dazzled until the start of your next turn.

Traveller (Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition)

Acoustic Barker Digit Sheaths

  • Tech Level (TL): 8
  • Mass: 0.5 kg
  • Cost: Cr 500
  • Description & Lore: Manufactured for Vargr or other clawed sophonts working as concourse hawkers, starport barkers, and public relations criers. Built from hardened brass alloy with acoustic resonance plates and internal phosphorescent marking sticks, these caps prevent claws from tearing lightweight paper manifests, trace temporary glowing signage on concourse walls, and offer localized personal defense against rowdy passengers.
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Defensive Rim (Passive): Provides +1 Armor to the hands and arms against unarmed brawling and light melee weapon attacks.
    • Concourse Showmanship (Passive): The user gains a +1 DM on all Persuade and Steward checks made to command the attention of a distracted crowd, pitch goods, or deliver public addresses in high-noise starport concourses.
    • Luminescent Marking: The wearer can scribe glowing messages directly onto plasteel, masonry, or composite hulls. The glowing mark remains clearly visible in low-light environments for 12 hours before degrading completely, leaving no permanent residue.
    • Acoustic Ballyhoo Strike: In close combat, an unarmed strike made with the sheaths deals 1D6-1 Stun damage (minimum 1) accompanied by an acoustic blast. If the attack achieves an Effect of 1 or greater, the defender must make an immediate END check (DM equal to the Effect) or suffer a -1 DM on their next action due to disorientation.

Warhammer (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition)

Barker’s Brass Talons

  • Price: 1 GC 4/–
  • Encumbrance: 0
  • Availability: Rare
  • Qualities: Defensive, Pummel, Subtle
  • Description & Lore: Commissioned by beast-blooded town criers, mutant carnival shills, and theatrical mummers operating in the grand plazas of Altdorf or Nuln. These heavy brass slip-ons encase claws and talons in reinforced plates. Fitted with mineral-paint reservoirs and sound-amplifying rims, they let the wearer post delicate broadsides, mark luminous street signs on guild walls, and crack hecklers across the jaw with an ear-splitting report.
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Armored Digits: Provides 1 Armor Point to the Arm/Hand hit location against physical melee attacks.
    • Crier’s Flourish: The wearer gains a +10 bonus on Entertain (Storytelling) and Charm tests made to gather a crowd, drown out rival street vendors, or hawk playhouse tickets in public markets.
    • Luminous Scrawl: The tips can scratch glowing mineral script onto timber, masonry, or paving stones without chalk. The writing glows faintly in the dark for 12 hours before turning to harmless dust, circumventing municipal vandalism decrees.
    • Ballyhoo Concussion: When the wearer scores a successful Unarmed hit, the attack gains the Pummel Quality. In addition to damage, the concussive acoustic pop forces the opponent to make a Challenging (+0) Cool test; on a failure, the target gains 1 Stunned Condition.