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Ritual 742 of the Hermetic Epidermal Seal

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by

Dale
in

Lore: Originating during the early consolidation of the Apothecary Guilds along the coastal reaches of Aterian, this implement was fashioned by early Esoteric practitioners who viewed the skin not merely as flesh, but as the outer boundary separating the microcosm of the vessel from the volatile macrocosm of the world. Adherents of the Golden Dawn tradition inscribed geometric formulas and Hermetic seals onto curved metallic tools, seeking to transmute surface ailments, purulence, and dermal abrasions through ritual cleansing. By aligning bodily humors with planar elements, the tool allows a practitioner to treat the skin as a living parchment, purging physical corruption and reinforcing the barrier between the mortal form and foreign arcane blight.

Description: A curved, palm-sized curette and stylus forged from cold-beaten bronze and inlaid with fine copper wire that forms concentric circles and planetary seals. The scraping edge is dull to the touch, designed to lift sloughed tissue, cysts, and epidermal impurities without drawing venous blood. A hollow glass reservoir at the base of the handle contains suspended, iridescent alchemical oil that reacts to skin contact, changing shade when it detects malignant fungal spores, parasite trails, or dead keratin. Geometric diagrams corresponding to the Tree of Life are etched along the shaft, glowing with a faint, steady ember-orange luminescence whenever applied directly to an exposed wound or dermal blemish.

Stats:

  • Item Tier: Tier 1
  • Rarity: Common
  • Item Hit Points: Avatar Maximum Hit Points plus 10 (Resilience 10 multiplied by Tier 1)
  • Armor Check (AC): 1
  • Bound State: Unbound
  • Conduit Classification: External focus object for ritual manipulation
  • Attunement Requirement: Requires 1 minute of skin contact (Simple attunement)

Slot:

  • Hand Slot (Right or Left)

Passives Magic:

  • Pores of the Microcosm: While held and openly carried, the wielder gains an instinctual awareness through the Mind’s Eye of non-magical skin ailments, parasitical infestations, and topical toxins on any creature within arm’s reach.
  • Dermal Ward: The user receives a passive +1 Armor Check bonus against attacks or environmental hazards that deal direct contact-based acid or caustic poison damage, as the outer layer of the avatar’s epidermis densifies against surface corrosion.
  • Humoral Exfoliation: While actively held in hand, the wielder is immune to non-magical blistering, flaking, and mundane skin irritations caused by harsh sunlight, dry winds, or volcanic ash.

Activable Magics:

  • Seal of the Golden Cleansing: The user performs a 1-minute dermatological ritual, tracing the bronze edge along an infected, scarred, or blemished patch of skin while chanting the Hermetic principles of purification. Upon completion of the full minute, the target creature sheds damaged surface tissue, curing any mundane rashes, eliminating non-magical parasitic larvae, and restoring 1d4 health points to the treated avatar. This ritual can be completed three times per daylight cycle.
  • Scribe of the Calloused Aegis: As an action requiring a 6-second somatic chant, the wielder draws the blunt stylus across an exposed, unarmored patch of an ally’s skin, raising an intricate, glowing calligraphic lattice across the surface of the flesh. This temporary epidermal sigil increases the target’s Armor Check by 2 against the next physical strike that targets them. The effect lasts for 10 minutes or until an attack strikes the target, after which the glowing dermal markings flake away as fine bronze dust.
  • Purgation of the Malignant Follicle: The wielder spends an action to scrape the curette over a bleeding or venomous lesion, drawing the foreign fluid into the handle’s glass chamber. If the target is suffering from the Bleeding condition, the bleeding ceases immediately. The extracted essence is contained in the reservoir for use as an alchemical reagent.

Tags: Instrument, Tool, Bronze, Dermatology, Healing, Hermetic, Divination, Ward, Reagent-Gathering, Consumable-Cure, Alchemy-Component, Cutaneous, Cleansing, Esoteric, Sigil, Extraction, Medicament, Exfoliation, Topical, Transmutation, Antiseptic

Commerce and Acquisition of the Hermetic Epidermal Seal

  • Apothecary and Chirurgeon Boutiques: Found tucked along the narrow, cobblestone alleyways of coastal port cities and artisan wards, these intimate family-run establishments specialize in biological salves, balms, and surgical implements. Within these cramped quarters, drying herbs hang from overhead beams beside glass display cases lined with velvet where precision instruments rest. An apothecary purchases the seal from an adventurer who has scrubbed it clean of organic matter, typically evaluating the integrity of the copper inlay before negotiating a price around 9 silver pieces for a Tier 1 seller. To an unaligned patron seeking reliable skin-cleansing tools, the merchant lists the implement for 10 silver pieces, though a registered member of the local Apothecary Guild receives the customary 10% reduction, securing the tool for 9 silver pieces.
  • Esoteric Ritual Sanctuaries and Occult Bookbinderies: Operating on the upper tiers of multi-story tenements or quiet temple districts, these specialized curiosities shops cater to ritualists, hermetic scholars, and mages seeking physical conduits for formal spellcraft. The air smells of cedar incense and parchment, with the shopkeeper presiding over shelves packed with glyph-carved tablets, ritual chalks, and uncharged talismans. A scholar in need of a pristine stylus for ritual purification examines the item’s Tree of Life etchings with the Mind’s Eye, buying it from a traveling party for 10 silver pieces or occasionally trading specialized scroll reagents of equal merit. Should a character wish to buy the implement here, the proprietor asks 12 silver pieces due to the added prestige of the shop’s consecrated surroundings, though an affiliated initiate of an allied esoteric faction acquires it for 10 silver and 8 copper pieces.
  • Barber-Surgeon Shacks in Industrial and Mining Quarters: Set near the sulfur vents, steam boiler plants, and mechanical docks where workers frequently suffer caustic burns, scale build-ups, and ash rashes, these utilitarian storefronts operate as half-salon, half-clinic. The proprietor operates a hydraulic barber chair powered by basic steam piping, keeping rows of fluid collectors, razors, and skin scrapers arrayed on iron trays. Because these practitioners prioritize immediate utility over scholastic pedigree, a wounded laborer or scavenger can sell a salvaged seal to the proprietor for roughly 8 silver pieces, deposited directly into their world bank account. When purchasing the implement from the barber-surgeon’s workbench to treat chemical irritation in the field, the standard asking price is 11 silver pieces, reflecting the heightened regional demand for topical protection against airborne factory particulates.
  • Alchemical Pawnshops and Gear Exchanges: Situated near crowded bazaar gates and central carriage routes, these cluttered general-trade pawnshops are run by haggling merchants who deal in second-hand adventuring surplus and oddities. Goods are secured behind heavy wooden bars, with tags identifying past owners or legendary claims hanging from every hook. A merchant here treats the item strictly as a common Tier 1 tool, offering an adventurer a baseline of 7 silver pieces, provided the wielder can demonstrate that the glass vial is free of fractures. If an adventurer spots the seal resting among miscellaneous calipers and compasses on a display shelf, the merchant sets the sticker price at 10 silver pieces, refusing any reduction unless the buyer holds formal standing with the local Merchant League.
  • Under-Dock Black Markets and Smugglers’ Caches: Located below the tideline in shadowy cavern vaults or hidden beneath the false hulls of beached river barges, these illicit dens operate strictly without documentation or bank ledgers. Here, cutpurses and renegade scavengers trade contraband stripped from fallen travelers, where items with identification marks are quietly scrubbed clean. When an avatar offloads the seal to a back-alley fence seeking untraceable instruments to drain venom or harvest monster fluids without alerting city guards, the fence pays out 15 silver pieces in cold, heavy physical metal coin. An adventurer wishing to buy the piece directly from the black market without official records or tax oversight must pay an inflated cost of 20 silver pieces in raw metal, with the sellers maintaining absolute silence regarding the tool’s former lineage.

Tactical and Environmental Applications of the Hermetic Epidermal Seal

  • Subterranean Cave Systems and Fungal Caverns: Deep within sunless grottos where moisture clings to stone and toxic spore colonies carpet every surface, an avatar encounters severe caustic and parasitical threats. For defensive roleplay, the bearer uses the dull curette edge to constantly plane away aggressive fungal mats and virulent molds attempting to take root in an ally’s porous flesh. While crouching behind stalagmites during an encounter with cavern crawlers, the wielder holds the bronze tool aloft, allowing its passive wards to neutralize the caustic dampness of acidic ceiling drippings before they can scorch exposed epidermis. When an allied vanguard steps into a patch of corrosive mire, the practitioner spends a full action rapidly chanting a short somatic verse to sketch the glowing calligraphic lattice across the vanguard’s forearms, hardening their dermal layer to absorb the brunt of incoming stinging tentacles. On the offensive side, the wielder targets bioluminescent spores or parasitic burrow-worms clinging to aggressive subterranean beasts. By making a calculated strike to scrape open a creature’s venom gland or fungal carapace, the wielder draws the foreign fluid directly into the hollow glass reservoir, simultaneously stripping away the beast’s natural slime barrier to expose raw subcutaneous tissue, leaving the creature vulnerable to follow-up strikes from the party.
  • Volcanic Calderas and Sulfur Slags: Across jagged basalt ridges where subterranean magma fissures vent superheated steam and toxic sulfur dust, survival demands rigorous protection of external membranes. Defensively, the avatar roleplays maintaining the integrity of the party’s physical skin against relentless thermal abrasion and floating pumice grit. The wielder invokes the Hermetic cleansing rite during brief pauses in the rocky lee of an active vent, rhythmically scraping away blistered ash crusts and necrotic heat scales from an ally’s shoulders while muttering the formulas of elemental balance, restoring vital energy before the skin cracks open to the heat. Should a magma hound or fire-spitting salamander lunge forward, the user activates the calloused aegis, manifesting hardened bronze-colored sigils over their own unarmored chest to turn aside searing claws. In offensive maneuvers, the tool acts as a precise harvesting instrument against fire-infused beasts. The user feints around a flame-crested drake, hooking the bronze stylus into the molten seams between the beast’s cooling dermal plates. With a sharp somatic flourish, the practitioner slices open a superficial cooling duct and vacuums the superheated biological secretions into the seal’s containment tube, interrupting the creature’s internal heat dispersion and causing its fiery aura to sputter and dim.
  • Coastal Reefs and Tidal Shallows: Navigating coastal shallows where razor-sharp coral reefs tear at exposed skin and venomous anemones drift on strong west-to-west tides requires intense cutaneous vigilance. Defensively, the practitioner utilizes the instrument to lift micro-barbs, jellyfish tentacles, and sea urchin spines lodged in an ally’s skin before neurotoxins can seep into the bloodstream. When swimming across jagged reef breaks, the tool’s passive wards deflect the stinging discharge of coastal hydrozoans that would otherwise debilitate an unarmored swimmer. If an aquatic raider launches a volley of poisoned bone darts, the practitioner prepares a reaction by tracing the air with the stylus, raising an illuminated geometric ward that hardens the outer layer of an exposed swimmer just before the barbed projectile strikes, causing the tip to deflect cleanly off the temporary bronze sheath. Offensively, the wielder turns the implement against the mucous membranes and slick hides of amphibious hunters. Striking at an attacking sea lizard’s sensitive lateral line, the user draws the curette firmly across the creature’s scaly flank, stripping away its slick, protective slime layer. By locking the harvested marine enzymes into the glass chamber, the wielder leaves the beast’s underlying dermis stinging and exposed to the harsh salinity of the sea, disrupting its streamlined swimming speed and breaking its combat momentum.
  • Industrial Smog Wards and Factory Docks: Within the soot-choked alleys of factory sectors driven by steam pipes, spinning gear assemblies, and battery refineries, caustic chemical runoff and scalding vapor present constant hazards. Defensively, the user roleplays a frontline field medic amid industrial skirmishes. When a steam valve ruptures or an arcane conduit bursts, the wielder brandishes the seal, utilizing its innate warding magic to insulate their neck and hands against scalding condensation and airborne grease. When a mercenary ally is slashed by an assassin’s oil-smeared shiv and begins bleeding out across the cobblestones, the practitioner immediately acts, firmly clamping the bronze curette over the jagged wound to execute the follicle purgation, halting the arterial flow on contact while vacuuming the tainted mechanical grease into the glass vial before it can poison the muscle tissue. Offensively, the wielder uses the bronze stylus in close-quarters brawls against corporate enforcers or feral hounds pacing factory yards. Parrying an enforcer’s heavy wrench, the wielder slides the stylus beneath the enemy’s leather bracer, deliberately gouging pressure points and tracing reverse Hermetic glyphs directly into the foe’s skin. The resultant arcane irritation triggers an instant, agonizing chemical blister across the enemy’s wrist, forcing their fingers to spasm open and drop their weapon to the ground.
  • Dense Swamplands and Toxic Bogs: In festering peat marshes choked with stagnant water, flesh-rotting leeches, and virulent insect swarms, the wielder acts as the party’s shield against relentless biological decay. Defensively, the avatar spends moments at the campsite performing the golden cleansing ritual, systematically running the curved tool across mud-caked limbs to extract buried leech mouthparts, dispel bog rot, and close weeping fungal sores before gangrene can spread. When the party wades into dark water to engage mire scavengers, the wielder maintains a steady somatic chant to coat their companions in shimmering geometric seals that prevent acidic bog water from eroding their flesh. Offensively, when ambushed by giant predatory toads or marsh lurkers, the wielder uses the curette to exploit biological weak spots. Dodging a snapping jaw, the avatar plants the bronze edge into the monster’s dorsal venom nodes, scraping with forceful ritual precision to siphon its paralyzing secretions into the tool’s reservoir. Deprived of its protective mucosal barrier, the wounded section of the beast’s hide rapidly dries and cracks against the ambient air, inflicting sharp pain and preventing the monster from submerging smoothly into the muck to escape.

Perception of Activation:

  • Sight:
    • User’s Perspective: The moment the ritual words conclude, the fine copper wire embedded along the bronze spine flares with a steady, incandescent amber radiance. Microscopic cracks, blemishes, and bacterial colonies across the treated skin illuminate as distinct, luminescent geometric fractals, transforming the patient’s flesh into a clear anatomical map of layered planes and biological boundaries.
    • Observer’s Perspective: A harsh, orange-gold glow pulses outward from the bronze instrument, casting sharp geometric shadows across the chamber walls. As the stylus glides across the flesh, it leaves behind a temporary trail of burning script that hovers directly above the skin before settling into the pores like molten thread.
    • Positives: The wielder gains immediate visual clarity regarding subcutaneous damage, hidden necrotic pockets, and sub-dermal parasites that are impossible to spot with standard vision.
    • Negatives: The stark radiance pierces through dim spaces, ruining night adaptation for the user’s eyes and pinpointing the exact position of both practitioner and patient to hostile watchers.
  • Hearing:
    • User’s Perspective: Close to the ear, the air vibrates with a low, resonant drone resembling a bronze singing bowl struck in a dry room. Each stroke of the curette against tissue produces a high-frequency, glass-like hum that harmonizes as healthy epidermis is reached and turns harsh and screeching when passing over corrupted, septic tissue.
    • Observer’s Perspective: Companions and foes hear a rhythmic, metallic scrape accompanied by a crisp, crackling sound similar to dry parchment catching fire or dead leaves being crushed underfoot.
    • Positives: The acoustic feedback acts as an audible diagnostic guide, letting the wielder know precisely when infected tissue has been completely removed without needing to pause the procedure.
    • Negatives: The persistent hum and shrill resonance echo along enclosed corridors, alerting nearby enemies to active spellcasting and breaking physical stealth.
  • Smell:
    • User’s Perspective: The surrounding air is instantly washed with the dry, sharp aroma of ozone, heated copper, and distilled camphor oil. The rancid stench of festering bodily fluids, swamp rot, or gangrenous skin is neutralized, replaced by the faint, antiseptic scent of burning frankincense and dried myrrh.
    • Observer’s Perspective: Bystanders detect a strong medicinal, chemical odor mixed with singed hair and mineral smoke, creating an atmosphere akin to an alchemist’s furnace or a consecrated embalming chamber.
    • Positives: Neutralizes nauseating olfactory hazards and foul miasmas emitted by decaying beasts or putrid wounds, preventing involuntary gagging or loss of focus during surgery.
    • Negatives: The heavy, medicinal odor lingers persistently in the room and clings to clothing, leaving an easily trackable scent trail for predatory tracking beasts.
  • Taste:
    • User’s Perspective: A distinct, dry metallic tang coats the back of the throat, tasting of pennies, crushed sulfur, and alkaline salt. The moisture in the mouth rapidly evaporates, leaving a sterile, powdery chalkiness on the tongue.
    • Observer’s Perspective: Those standing nearby experience a sudden, involuntary salivation coupled with a faint sourness on their palates, as if inhaling fine mineral powder blown from a newly cracked stone geode.
    • Positives: Serves as an immediate internal check of ambient chemical presence, confirming the barrier has sealed against airborne poisons entering the respiratory canal.
    • Negatives: Induces sudden, distracting thirst and throat irritation for the practitioner, making rapid verbal communication rough and strained immediately following the activation.
  • Touch:
    • User’s Perspective: The bronze shaft turns icy cold against the palm, drawing ambient heat to fuel its seals, while the scraping tip against the subject generates an intense, prickling warmth comparable to dipping a numb hand into hot bathwater. The user feels a subtle mechanical vibration flowing through the bones of their fingers, as though the tool is pulling against invisible subterranean magnetic threads.
    • Observer’s Perspective: The individual receiving the treatment feels a sharp, biting pinch as dead tissue is excised, immediately replaced by a tight, cooling numbness that feels like flexible liquid bronze hardening over their raw dermis.
    • Positives: The rapid numbing sensation acts as a local anesthetic on the patient, preventing flinching, muscle tremors, or violent physical shock during intense battlefield surgical procedures.
    • Negatives: The wielder’s holding fingers become stiff, pale, and partially desensitized from the intense thermal drain, temporarily reducing manual dexterity for fine mechanical manipulation immediately afterward.
  • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
    • Mind’s Eye Resonance:
      • User’s Perspective: Through the Mind’s Eye, the target’s physical vessel momentarily ceases to appear as meat and bone, manifesting instead as an intricate geometric diagram of overlapping lines, runes, and mathematical fractions. Health points appear as a fluctuating internal column of liquid light, and the tool highlights the exact arithmetic reduction of the target’s current condition, registering precise points of structural failure.
      • Observer’s Perspective: An observer possessing the Mind’s Eye sees an overlay of glowing concentric rings expanding from the tool, briefly syncing the avatar’s biological stats with the environmental Weave before fading back into ambient obscurity.
      • Positives: Provides perfect, unclouded comprehension of the patient’s remaining vitality and exact numerical tolerances, eliminating guesswork in emergency triage.
      • Negatives: Risks intellectual disorientation; processing raw systemic data alongside physical reality can cause cognitive sensory lag during fluid, fast-moving combat turns.
    • Astral Boundary Awareness:
      • User’s Perspective: The wielder feels a profound, intuitive tug along their spiritual boundaries, sensing the micro-fractures in the local dimensional fabric where foreign spirits, astral leeches, or ethereal entities might try to slip through the target’s broken flesh. The edge of the skin is felt as a literal planar wall holding back the ambient chaos of Saṃsāra.
      • Observer’s Perspective: Sensitive creatures and planar entities within the vicinity feel a sudden tightening of the local dimensional veil, as if a small, stubborn anchor has been dropped into the ethereal currents around the operating space.
      • Positives: Informs the user instantly if a wound is cursed, soul-tainted, or serving as a physical anchor for possession attempts by lingering planar entities.
      • Negatives: Exposes the user’s mind to the cold, vacant pressure of the surrounding void, occasionally triggering the Dissonant condition if the tool is used repeatedly in areas where the planar veil is already thin.

Hermetic Dermal Seal Forging Recipe

  • Materials Needed:
    • One Tier 1 Magic Crystal (coin-sized and coin-weighted, harvested from a slain creature or beast).
    • Three ingots of high-purity copper and two ingots of tin (smelted together to cast dense, resonant bronze).
    • Five paces of drawn, fine-gauge electrum or copper wire for channeling esoteric conduits.
    • One blown borosilicate glass tube (sized to act as a resilient, heat-treated fluid reservoir).
    • Two measures of distilled spirit or high-proof alchemical alcohol (for sterile acid bathing and purging metal scales).
    • One phial of coagulated beast sap or mineral oil (used to seat the internal vacuum seal).
  • Tools Required:
    • One jeweler’s anvil and precision bronze peening hammer.
    • One set of fine diamond-tipped engravers and chisels (used for tracing minute Hermetic seals and the Tree of Life layout).
    • One alchemical retort with glass tubing (for drawing and annealing the fluid reservoir).
    • One charcoal-fired crucible furnace (capable of controlled, sustained bronze casting).
    • One set of fine jeweler’s tweezers, wire pullers, and clamping vices.
  • Skill Requirements:
    • Metalworking: Rank 3 or higher.
    • Alchemical Crafting: Rank 2 or higher.
    • Esoteric Runecraft: Rank 2 or higher.
  • Crafting Steps:
    • Smelt the copper and tin ingots together within the charcoal crucible, bringing the alloy to an even, bubbling pour. Cast the molten bronze into a preliminary curved rod shaped to fit the practitioner’s palm, letting it cool gradually in fine sand to prevent internal stress fractures.
    • Grind and file the cast blank to fashion the scraping curette head and ergonomic grip, ensuring the working scraping edge is carefully rounded and polished smooth so it can lift dead tissue without slicing vascular structures.
    • Using the precision diamond engraver, inscribe the sacred geometry of the Tree of Life along the tool’s spine, cutting deep grooves that follow the Hermetic paths of purification.
    • Hand-chase the fine electrum or copper wire directly into the engraved channels, burnishing the metal flush with the bronze surface to create a contiguous physical conduit for magical flow.
    • Heat the blown borosilicate glass vial over the retort flame to expand its neck, carefully fitting it onto the base of the bronze handle before applying the mineral oil to establish a permanent air-tight vacuum fit.
    • Pulverize the Tier 1 Magic Crystal into a fine, luminescent dust within a sterile bronze mortar, filtering out all coarse grit.
    • Blend the powdered crystal into the distilled spirit and brush the mixture thoroughly into the wire-inlaid glyphs, allowing the arcane solution to seep into the metal lattice and bind with the conductive wire.
    • Complete the binding by holding the assembled tool over a low spirit flame, chanting the Hermetic verses of bodily preservation for three unbroken minutes to permanently seal the magic into the bronze and activate the resonance of the conduits.

Iron-Copper Scraper and Weeping Peel of King Ormuz

Long time when earth-floor not fully cold, in time of before-clocks, when first kings walked upon the moist clay of the Aterian border, there lived Ormuz who had many sheep and nine wives of royal bloodline. In that time, the sky was not calm, for the great round gas-star VaporSphere did hang too close like a swollen eye, and the people did not know the words of proper naming, calling the skin only the wall-of-meat or the meat-rind.

It happened that upon the eleventh hour of a certain Conjursday, the king did look upon his arm-limb and behold, the wall-of-meat was not smooth like river stone. It was weeping thick yellow broth and had upon it many angry red humps, like small red anthills that had bitter smoke inside. The royal barbers did bring grease from the pig-beast, and they did smear it with duck fat and boiled marsh-moss, but the red humps did grow teeth and began to eat inward toward the dry white bone. The king did shout with great throat-anger, and the noise made the sheep fall sideways upon the grasses.

Then came from the distant salt-marsh an old man whose teeth were green and who walked with crooked spine-bone. His name was translated in the old books as Hermes-the-Thrice-Wetted, though others call him the Scribe of the Dawn-Plow. He carried in his basket neither spear nor bread, but a piece of heavy thunder-copper that had been bent into the shape of a dog’s dry tongue. It had on its middle the marks of circles and branches, which the ignorant translators thought were drawings of garden cabbages, but were truly the ladders of the high spirit-spheres.

The Thrice-Wetted man did say to King Ormuz: “Thy meat-rind is foul because the outer breath of the world hath entered into thy tiny pores, which are like little holes in an earthen jar. The macro-world hath spat into thy micro-world. Thou hast treated the skin like leather for shoe-soles, yet the skin is the holy fence of the spirit. When the fence falleth down, the wild boars and the creeping worms do come in to eat the cabbages of the mind.”

The king was full of pride and commanded his soldiers: “Bind this swamp-walker and scrape his nose with a sharp rock!” But when the soldiers put their iron hands upon the Thrice-Wetted, their palms became full of blistering fire, and the skin of their fingers did crack open like dried lake-mud in the heat of Helios. Therefore, the king became afraid in his kidney-parts and did bow his head until his beard brushed the pig-grease upon the dirt.

The old hermit then did take the curved thunder-copper tool. He did not heat it in the coal-pot, nor did he sing the songs of the city temple. Instead, he did stand facing the north-by-east quarter, which is the path where the two serpents lie coiled in the starry dark. He breathed seven times into the hollow glass bladder that sat upon the rear end of the copper rod, until the broth inside turned the color of dried marigold blossoms.

Then, with great hardness of hand, he did lay the dull bronze edge upon the king’s red humps. The court women did scream, thinking the meat would be torn from the bone like mutton from a spit, but behold, the bronze tongue did not bite the red meat beneath! It only planed away the bitter crust, the yellow scales, and the tiny black maggots that had hatched from the marsh-fog. As he did scrape, he shouted strange, broken syllables: “Sulphur go out! Mercury be still! Salt make straight the house of the person!”

From the king’s weeping humps there came a great smoke that smelled like dead fish roasted upon brass kettles. The court dogs did run into the woods because of the terrible stink of the cleared rot. The yellow broth did run up the hollow stem of the bronze tool, drawn by the invisible hunger of the glass stomach at the bottom, and it did fill the reservoir until the red humps upon the king’s arm were flattened and pale like sheep cheese.

Then the hermit did take the sharp back-point of the tool, which was inscribed with the Tree of Branching Lights. He did scratch the cold bronze against the raw, wet meat-rind of King Ormuz. He did not draw blood-water, but from the scratching there arose a line of yellow fire that did not burn. The yellow fire went in and out of the king’s pores, weaving itself together like the wicker fence that keeps the sea-surge away from the barley patch. The king wept, not from pain, but because his blood felt cold and clean, like well-water drawn before the sun-up.

When the ritual was accomplished, the hermit said unto Ormuz: “Thy wall-of-meat is now a sealed brass gate. No sickness from the swamp shall walk through it, neither shall the stinging midge push her needle through thy arm. But remember: this tool must never be washed in the fat of dead oxen, nor may it be sold for dried beans, for it hath touched the secret path of the higher planets.”

King Ormuz, being now healed and whole, looked upon the scraper with great covetousness in his heart. He thought to himself: “If I keep this magical tongue, I may scrape the meat-rinds of all my soldiers, and they shall become as iron pots that cannot be pierced by the arrows of the Assyrian sea-raiders.” So he ordered his chief eunuch to steal the bronze tool while the old Thrice-Wetted man slept beneath the sheep-trough.

The eunuch did creep like an otter and did take the bronze tool from the hermit’s wool-sack. But as soon as the eunuch’s hand touched the Tree of Branching Lights, the tool did not understand the eunuch’s thoughts, for the eunuch knew not the seventy-two verses of the epidermal path. The tool thought the eunuch was an overgrown cyst of proud flesh! With a sound like a great brass trumpet falling down stone steps, the curette jumped from the eunuch’s fingers and did scrape the eunuch’s own nose entirely from his face, leaving only two smooth holes that blew whistle-noises whenever he drew breath.

The tool then rolled across the clay floor until it rested at the feet of the King’s eldest daughter, who was a woman of silent tongue and had learned the secrets of herbal washing from the mountain priests. She lifted the tool with clean linen and placed it within an ark of cedar wood, burying it beneath seven spans of river gravel so that the kings of the world would not use it as a weapon of war.

As for the hermit, when he awoke and found his bag empty, he did not tear his garments nor did he curse the palace. He merely laughed with a noise like pebbles rattling in an earthen jar, and he said to the winds: “The clay cannot keep what belongs to the stars. The flesh rots, the bone powders away, but the seal of the pure boundary shall return whenever the blood of mortals grows too bitter for the earth to bear.” And he walked away into the western tide-waters, and his foot-tracks were filled with sweet blue flowers that had no roots in the mud.

Moral of the Story: The boundary of the body is the sacred mirror of the soul; he who seeks only to scrape away his outer foulness without learning the holy balance of the spirit shall find that the medicine hath a sharper edge than the disease.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons (Fifth Edition)

Hermetic Epidermal Curette Wondrous Item, Common (Requires Attunement)

  • Description: This curved bronze instrument features a dull scraping loop, an etched handle chased with fine copper wire depicting esoteric planetary pathways, and an integrated borosilicate vial at the pommel that gathers expelled fluid. Originally conceived to maintain the integrity between the physical vessel and the exterior world, it treats the skin as a living barrier against external corruption.
  • Dermal Ward: While you are holding this item, you gain a +1 bonus to your Armor Class against weapon attacks that deal acid or poison damage. Additionally, you have advantage on saving throws against non-magical contact poisons, stinging fauna, and extreme environmental dermatitis.
  • Seal of Purifying Exfoliation: As an action, you can place the curette against the skin of a willing creature and perform a continuous 1-minute cleansing ritual. At the end of the minute, the target creature regains 1d4 hit points, and any non-magical rashes, superficial parasites, or active non-magical bleeding conditions affecting the target are ended. This property can be used three times, and it regains all expended uses daily at dawn.
  • Calloused Inscription: As an action, you can spend a spell slot of 1st level or higher to trace glowing, temporary esoteric runes across the exposed skin of a creature you touch. For 10 minutes or until the target is struck by an attack, the target gains a +2 bonus to AC. Once an attack successfully hits the target, the inscribed runes flake away into inert bronze dust and the effect ends.

Knave (Second Edition)

Ormuz’s Bronze Flesh-Scraper Item, 1 Slot, 3/3 Quality

  • Description: A ritual scraping blade of cold bronze inlaid with thin copper wires in the form of a branching cosmological tree. A small glass reservoir is set into its pommel. Designed to scrape away diseased proud flesh, parasites, and topical rot without piercing living muscle.
  • Item Properties: Occupies 1 inventory slot. Can be wielded as an improvised light weapon (d4 damage, 1 Quality damage on attack roll of 1).
  • Field Surgery: Over the course of 1 exploration turn (10 minutes), a character can use this tool to dress and scrape the wounds of an injured comrade. The patient immediately recovers 1d4 Hit Points, provided they have consumed a ration or resting water. This cannot heal a character above their maximum Hit Points.
  • Parasite & Poison Extraction: When treating an adventurer who has suffered exposure to venoms, rot, or burrowing vermin within the last exploration turn, the user may make a Wisdom check. On a success, the curette draws the offending substance into the glass vial, neutralizing the poison or infestation before it enters the bloodstream.
  • Skin Hardening: By tracing esoteric sigils onto bare flesh using the blunt stylus point, the target treats their unarmored Armor Defense as 12 (+2 bonus) for the next exploration turn, or until they take direct physical damage.

Blades in the Dark

The Esoteric Dermal Siphon Arcane Implement (1 Load)

  • Description: An antique bronze curette bearing stamped alchemical seals and fine copper filigree, fitted with an integrated vacuum chamber. Favored by unorthodox Leaches and Whisper occultists who work in the toxic canalways, soot-fall gutters, and damp undercrofts of Duskwall.
  • Mechanics:
    • Surgical Extraction: When you provide first aid or field medicine to stabilize physical trauma, biological infection, or venomous contact, this fine instrument grants you potency on your action roll (typically Tinker or Doctor).
    • Expel Taint: You can spend 1 Stress to scrape an active, virulent substance or ethereal parasite directly out of a subject’s skin before it takes root. Fill 1 tick on an alchemical harvest clock to capture the purified reagent inside the hollow reservoir.
    • Epidermal Sigil: When you push yourself during a desperate defensive situation against contact chemicals, scalding steam, or spiritual miasmas, you may apply the bonus to resist physical harm by tracing a rapid occult ward directly across exposed flesh, reducing the severity of the consequence.

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Seal of Hermes Trismegistus Occult Artifact and Surgical Relic

  • Description: A tarnished bronze curette of unknown Mediterranean antiquity, wound with intricate electrum wiring depicting the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and astronomical glyphs. A hand-blown glass reservoir is fused into the grip, drawing fluid via capillary suction. Academic inspection confirms its design mirrors Renaissance translations of late-Alexandrian magical texts on bodily balance.
  • Powers and Mechanics:
    • Occult Diagnostics: An investigator holding the artifact who succeeds on an Occult or Medicine roll can visually identify non-terrene skin infections, strange necrotizing spores, deep parasitic eggs, or the early cutaneous manifestations of Mythos-tainted mutations (such as the Innsmouth Look or Dimensional Shambler tracking ichor).
    • Ritual Cleansing: The user spends 10 minutes carefully scraping the affected epidermal area while reciting the Latin or Greek inscriptions along the shaft, expending 3 Magic Points and 1 Sanity Point. This immediately halts standard gangrene, chemical rot, or non-magical blood poisoning, restoring 1D3 Hit Points to the patient.
    • Extraction of the Extraterrene: If used to excise actively burrowing biological entities or alien secretions (such as the spores of Mi-Go or blood taint from an insect from Shaggai), the investigator must succeed on a combined Medicine and Occult roll. Success cleanly traps the alien specimen inside the glass vial without contaminating the surgeon, though witnessing the writhing sample costs the operator 1/1D4 Sanity points.

Fate (Fate Core / Condense)

The Hermetic Cutaneous Siphon Unique Extra / Personal Focus

  • Aspects:
    • Function Aspect: Sacred Bronze Flesh-Stylus of the Golden Dawn
    • Flaw Aspect: Demands Meticulous Hermetic Precision Under Fire
  • Skills:
    • Gives the bearer an effective rating of Good (+3) exclusively when rolling Lore or Crafts to diagnose dermal toxins, excise necrotic matter, or dress chemical burns.
  • Stunts:
    • Alchemical Debridement: Once per scene, when using Crafts or Lore to treat a biological or chemical-based physical consequence (such as Festering Spores or Acid-Scorched Forearm), you may establish an advantage with free invokes equal to your shifts, representing the thorough removal of dead tissue.
    • Macrocosmic Ward: You can spend a Fate Point to invoke the stylus’s etched sacred geometry to defend against a physical attack that relies on caustic fluid, poison spray, or direct contact-rot. If you succeed with style, you gain a boost named Hardened Callus.
    • Humoral Purification: Spend 1 Fate Point to automatically clear a mild physical consequence related to cutaneous parasites, surface venom, or mundane bleeding without needing a recovery scene, provided you spend several uninterrupted minutes performing the ritual scraping.

Numenera & Cypher System

Epidermal Resonator Stylus Level 3 Cypher / Artifact (Depletion: 1 in 1d20)

  • Form: A palm-length rod of ancient, coppery alloy etched with microscopic planar circuitry. The blunt, looped tip vibrates faintly, and a bulbous transparent reservoir at the base glows dull amber when pressed against organic tissue.
  • Effect:
    • Diagnostic Resonance: The bearer eases all tasks related to identifying cutaneous toxins, foreign cellular parasites, or topical radiation burns by one step.
    • Cellular Extraction: When activated as an action, the user carefully scrapes the loop over an exposed patch of damaged or contaminated biological tissue. This action draws the offending agent directly into the vacuum bulb, removing any ambient contact poison, surface parasite infestation, or acid burn. The patient immediately regains 3 points to their Might Pool.
    • Temporary Dermal Hardening: The user can spend an additional point from their Intellect Pool to trace a protective geometric energy field across the subject’s skin. This grants the subject +1 to Armor against physical strikes and ambient environmental heat or caustic chemicals for ten minutes, or until the subject suffers direct physical damage.

Pathfinder (Second Edition)

Hermetic Epidermal Curette Item 1 | Uncommon, Magical, Necromancy

  • Price: 15 gp
  • Usage: Held in 1 hand; Bulk: L
  • Description: Forged from cold bronze with inlaid copper wiring that charts the paths of the cosmos, this surgical implement features a blunt curette loop on one end and a sealed, heavy glass bulb on the other. It approaches healing by treating the outermost boundary of the flesh as an arcane seal against planar impurities.
  • Passive Ward: While wielding this item, you gain a +1 item bonus to saving throws against diseases, contact poisons, and environmental conditions that inflict persistent acid or bleed damage.
  • Surgical Debridement [two-actions] (Manipulate):
    • Requirements: You are holding the curette, and a living creature is adjacent to you.
    • Effect: You carefully trace the loop across a wounded or infected area of the target’s skin, speaking the formulas of bodily equilibrium. Make a Medicine check against the standard DC of the patient’s level. On a critical success or success, you remove the target’s persistent bleed damage or reduce the stage of an active contact poison by 1. The target also regains 1d4 Hit Points. A creature can only benefit from this treatment once every 24 hours.
  • Calloused Seal [one-action] (Abjuration, Arcane, Concentrate):
    • Frequency: Once per day
    • Effect: You trace a quick geometric sigil across the exposed flesh of an ally within reach. The ally gains a +1 status bonus to AC until the end of their next turn, or until they take physical damage, after which the glowing amber sigil shatters into fine metallic dust.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

Aegis Flesh-Scraper Minor Arcane Device (Novice)

  • Description: An ancient bronze scraper wound with copper wire forming sacred occult matrices. It possesses a heavy, dull scraping lip and an empty glass bulb integrated into the base that creates vacuum pressure when ritual verses are spoken.
  • Arcane Mechanics:
    • Arcane Skill / Power Points: The device holds 5 Power Points that recharge at a rate of 1 per hour. Anyone with the Healing skill or an Arcane Background can operate it.
    • Powers:
      • Healing (Dermal Purge): Costs 2 Power Points. With 10 minutes of quiet concentration and careful scraping, the operator can make a Healing roll to treat wounds sustained within the golden hour, removing one Wound on a success (two with a raise), but only if the damage was caused by physical lacerations, burns, or bites. It automatically removes the Bleeding condition and cleanses contact venoms.
      • Protection (Dermal Callus): Costs 1 Power Point. As an action requiring an occult chant and tracing the blunt edge along bare skin, the user grants +2 Armor (+4 with a raise) to the subject. This effect lasts for 5 rounds, protecting exclusively against standard physical blows and caustic environmental damage.
    • Field Medicine Bonus: The wielder gains a +1 bonus to standard non-magical Healing rolls when diagnosing or treating surface parasites, skin rot, and fungal rashes in the wild.

Shadowrun (Sixth World)

Hermetic Dermal Debrider Hermetic Fetish & Biotech Focus (Rating 1)

  • Item Statistics:
    • Availability: 4 (Legal)
    • Cost: 2,500 nuyen
    • Concealability: 0 (Handheld, looks like antique surgical equipment)
    • Type: Sustaining Focus (Health) or Hermetic Tool
  • Description: Fashioned from dense, cold-cast bronze and inlaid with pure copper traces outlining the Hermetic Tree of Life, this archaic surgical curette functions without microchips or wireless circuitry. The pommel features an integrated borosilicate vacuum vial. Awakened hermetic magicians and street-docs use it as a physical anchor to channel mana directly across a patient’s dermal boundary, bridging formal thaumaturgical ritual with biological sanitation.
  • Mechanics:
    • Sterile Field Ward: When held in hand during medical procedures, the wielder gains a +1 dice pool bonus to Biotechnology + Logic tests made to debride chemical burns, neutralize contact toxins, or purge bio-engineered tissue rot.
    • Focus Function: As a Rating 1 Health Focus, an attuned Awakened practitioner can bond the item (Karma cost: 2) to sustain one Health spell (such as Heal or Resist Pain) with an effective Force equal to the focus rating without incurring sustaining penalties, provided the spell targets cutaneous trauma.
    • Topical Purge Action: Spending a Major Action and making an Arcana + Logic test allows the user to trace the bronze edge across an affected runner’s bare flesh. Achieving at least 2 hits immediately stabilizes an active biological toxin or stops ongoing physical bleed effects, siphoning the tainted biological matter directly into the vacuum bulb.

Starfinder (Second Edition)

Epidermal Sigil-Scraper Item 1 | Magic, Tech, Transmutation

  • Price: 45 credits
  • Hands: 1; Bulk: L
  • Description: A fusion of low-tech traditional metallics and subtle arcane conductivity, this bronze curette features an ergonomic grip laced with conductive copper pathways. A thick, vacuum-sealed glass vial caps the grip. Designed originally by planetary field medics working on fringe bio-hazardous frontier colonies, it manipulates the outer cellular layers of humanoids, treating the skin as an active energy seal against environmental hazards.
  • Passive Barrier: While held in hand, the wielder gains a +1 item bonus to saving throws against environmental radiation, caustic spore blooms, and contact poisons that target exposed dermal layers.
  • Cellular Extraction [two-actions] (Manipulate, Medical):
    • Requirements: You hold the scraper, and an adjacent living ally has suffered physical damage or exposure to a biological affliction within the last minute.
    • Effect: You run the curette across the contaminated skin, chanting an esoteric harmonic formula. Attempt a Medicine check against the standard DC of the affliction or hazard. On a success, you remove the persistent bleed condition, reduce the stage of a contact poison by 1, and restore 1d4 Hit Points to the target. This ability can restore Hit Points to a specific creature only once per day.
  • Inscribe Hardened Callus [one-action] (Abjuration, Concentrate):
    • Frequency: Once per day
    • Effect: You draw the blunt stylus across bare skin to manifest a faint, amber-hued geometric force pattern over the patient’s outermost tissues. The target gains a +1 circumstance bonus to AC until the start of your next turn, or until they take physical damage, at which point the energy lattice dissipates.

Traveller (Mongoose Second Edition)

Anomalous Cutaneous Debrider TL 3 / Psionic-Resonant Instrument

  • Item Specifications:
    • Tech Level: 3 (Manufactured with ancient bronze casting, though functioning with unknown micro-resonant metallurgy)
    • Mass: 0.25 kg
    • Cost: Cr 500 (Base metallic value; invaluable to specific xeno-archaeologists or psionic cults)
  • Description: An artifact discovered on ancient, low-tech colony ruins. It resembles a curved surgical scraper made of hand-hammered bronze, interwoven with fine copper wire that forms non-standard geometric matrices. The hollow glass bulb in the handle generates a persistent, passive barometric vacuum without moving mechanical parts or electrical power cells.
  • Mechanics:
    • Field Decontamination: When a medic uses this tool to treat alien spore contamination, caustic acid burns, or necrotizing skin infections, the user gains a +1 DM to their Medic checks, provided the procedure involves manual cleansing of exposed tissues.
    • Psionic Resonance (Bio-Feedback): A character trained in the Psionic: Biokinesis or Telepathy talent can mentally attune to the copper matrix by spending 1 Psi point. While attuned, the user can accurately sense the depth, chemical composition, and viral load of subcutaneous toxins within any patient touched by the bronze loop, granting a +2 DM to diagnose biological xenopathogens.
    • Vacuum Siphon: The bulb can extract up to 50 ml of venom, blister agent, or cellular fluid directly through surface pores without requiring incisions. Once filled, the substance remains sealed and stable indefinitely for laboratory analysis.

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay (Wrath & Glory)

Sanctified Flesh-Curette of the Chirurgeon Wargear (Common / Rare Sanctified Artifact)

  • Item Profile:
    • Keywords: Imperium, Adeptus Ministorum, Hospitaller, Archaic
    • Value: 2 (Rare)
    • Rarity: Uncommon
  • Description: Forged by traditional artisans of the shrine worlds from sanctified blessed bronze, this surgical instrument is meticulously inlaid with holy electrum wiring forming devotional geometric litanies and sacred aquila seals. Its hollow handle is set with an armored pyrex phial blessed to hold biological impurities. Utilized by field chirurgeons and Order Hospitaller sisters, it treats the skin of faithful servants as a sacred temple wall to be purged of xenos filth and warp-spawned cutaneous blights.
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Holy Excision: A character wielding this instrument gains +1 bonus die to all Medicae (Intellect) tests made to excise surface parasites, neutralize acidic spittle, or suture tearing flesh wounds.
    • Purge the Unclean: When treating a patient suffering from the Bleeding or Poisoned condition resulting from contact with feral flora, industrial toxins, or low-tier xenos bile, the chirurgeon can spend an action to scrape the afflicted flesh. On a successful Medicae test (DN 2), the condition is removed, and the extracted venom is safely captured within the phial for incineration.
    • Benediction of the Dermal Seal: Once per combat encounter, the user can invoke the sacred engravings by tracing the blunt stylus over an unarmored or lightly armored ally’s brow while reciting the Litany of Bodily Purity. The target’s Resilience is increased by +1 against the next physical or toxic attack that strikes them.