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Capillary Extraction Needle 9904

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by

Dale
in

From: Hive 2049 of the Shifting Petal Swarm

A delicate, hollow needle carved from the high-tier amalgamation bone used in ancient alchemical mortars. It is fitted with a small, transparent reservoir made of volcanic glass.

Function: The avatar utilizes this tool to perform precise extractions of its own Volatile Quantum-Toxin. By carefully drawing the fluid from the stingers of its constituent modules, the hive can store the toxin in a stable environment for future use or for trading in the sellers’ market of the walled towns.

Lore: The Alchemical Vessel of the Hive’s Venom

The Capillary Extraction Needle 9904 is a bridge between biology and trade. In the high-altitude vaults of Saṃsāra, the bone of the Amalgamation Beast—an ancient creature that once served as a living mortar for the metropolitan lords—was discovered to be the only substance capable of holding Quantum-Toxin without eroding. To touch the toxin with steel is to watch the metal dissolve into “Nowhere-Time”; to touch it with wood is to see the grain age a thousand years in a second.

The needle represents the Hive’s first step into the global economy. By carving these needles from the sanctified bone of the mortars, the Hive learned to harvest its own lethality. This tool is the reason why the walled towns fear yet welcome the Hive; it is the only way to bottle “The Scream.” It is a tool of surgical discipline, ensuring that the Hive does not merely kill, but harvests and preserves the very essence of its power.

Use: The Precision Draw

The 9904 Model is used in the “Quiet-Time” between conflicts. The avatar must enter a state of deep synchronization with its constituent modules. Using the High-Tier Amalgamation Bone, which acts as a stabilizer, the avatar carefully inserts the needle into the base of a module’s stinger.

The Volcanic Glass reservoir allows the wielder to see the toxin as it is drawn. Because the toxin is “Volatile,” it must be kept at a specific pressure. The needle uses capillary action to pull the violet fluid into the glass, where it sits in a suspended state. Once bottled, the toxin can be applied to other weapons, used as a component in high-level alchemical “Blight-Potions,” or traded for the rare industrial components the Hive cannot grow itself.

Item Specifications

  • Specific Slot: Handheld (Surgical/Alchemical Tool)
  • Tier One Stats:
    • Toxin Harvest: As a 10-minute ritual, you can produce one Vial of Volatile Toxin. This vial can be used to add +1d6 Force damage to any weapon for one hit.
    • Stabilizing Reservoir: Vials stored in the volcanic glass do not expire and cannot be detected by standard magical sensors (they are “phased out”).
    • Surgical Precision: Grants Advantage on checks made to extract fluids or tissues from living or dead biological creatures.
  • Skills Gained:
    • Medicine (Biological): You gain Proficiency (or a +2 bonus) in Medicine when treating or analyzing insectoid or gestalt lifeforms.
    • Venom-Crafting: You gain the ability to create specialized poisons that ignore 2 points of Damage Reduction or Armor.
  • Cost:
    • Suggested Value: 310 Silver Pieces.
    • Merchant Note: “The needle is expensive, but the liquid inside? That can buy you a small house in the lower districts.”
  • Tags: Tool, Surgical, Bone, Volcanic-Glass, Toxin-Gathering, Tier-1, Quantum, Alchemy, Trade-Good, Bio-Mechanical, Amalgamation-Bone, Venom-Stabilizer, Surgical-Glass, Quantum-Syringe, Essence-Vessel, Toxin-Anchor, Bio-Alchemy, Capillary-Focus, Void-Needle
  • Appearance:
    • A 6-inch needle of bone that is pale, porous, and warm to the touch, resembling ivory but with a faint, pulsing blue vein.
    • The reservoir is a bulb of dark, translucent obsidian-like glass that turns a swirling, stormy violet when filled.
    • The tip is impossibly fine, tapering to a point that seems to disappear into a blur when viewed closely.
    • Small, etched numbers “9904” are visible near the hilt in a clean, metropolitan font.

The Enchantments: The Stillness of the Void

The Capillary Extraction Needle 9904 is bound by a high-tier preservation enchantment known as Stasis-Link. Because the Volatile Quantum-Toxin naturally seeks to dissipate into neighboring timelines, the needle must do more than simply hold the liquid; it must anchor it.

  • Temporal Suspension: The volcanic glass reservoir is enchanted to create a “micro-pocket” of frozen time. Once the toxin enters the bulb, its decay is halted. This ensures the venom remains at its peak potency, preventing it from “phasing out” of reality or eating through the container.
  • Molecular Guidance: The Amalgamation Bone is enchanted with Sanguine Attraction. It possesses a preternatural instinct for locating the exact primary vein or toxin-sac within a biological entity, guiding the wielder’s hand to ensure the extraction is clean and does not kill the donor module.

Protective Aura: The Sterile Shimmer

When the needle is unsheathed, it generates a 2-foot field known as the Void-Sanctuary.

  • Anti-Contamination Field: The aura acts as a molecular sieve, instantly vaporizing any bacteria, dirt, or non-alchemical impurities that enter the space. This ensures the extracted toxin remains 100% pure, which is vital for its stability in the “sellers’ market.”
  • Distortion Buffer: The field creates a minor visual distortion, making the needle appear to “flicker.” This protects the delicate tip from being damaged by sudden kinetic impacts, as physical objects often “slip” around the needle’s precise spatial coordinate.

Significance and World-Building

The significance of the 9904 model is the Professionalization of the Hive. It represents the moment Hive 2049 stopped being viewed by the walled towns as mere “vermin” and started being recognized as Alchemical Merchants. By bottling their own venom, the Hive gained a seat at the negotiating tables of the metropolitan lords. The needle is a tool of diplomacy as much as surgery; it allows the Hive to trade its lethality for the resources it cannot yet grow—refined electrum, steam-core components, and ancient data-scrolls.

Symbolism: The Gift of the Bone

  • The Amalgamation Bone as Sacrifice: Using the bone of an ancient beast to harvest modern venom symbolizes the “Cycle of the Devoured.” It is a reminder that the Hive builds its future upon the skeletons of the old world’s giants.
  • The Transparent Glass as Transparency: Symbolically, the volcanic glass represents the Hive’s “Open Intent.” While the toxin is hidden within the stingers of the swarm, putting it in a glass vial is an act of showing one’s cards—a gesture of commerce and truth.
  • The Needle as the Sharp Mind: It represents the Hive’s transition from brute-force swarm tactics to surgical, high-precision intelligence.

Other Technical Information

  • The Blue Vein: The blue vein running through the bone is a “Life-Indicator.” If the vein stops pulsing, it means the needle’s stasis enchantment is failing, and the toxin inside is about to become dangerously unstable.
  • The Sellers’ Market Premium: In the walled towns of Saṃsāra, a single reservoir filled by a 9904 needle is often used as “Liquid Currency.” It is highly sought after by assassins, chronomancers, and industrial engineers looking to “clean” friction from their high-speed gear assemblies.
  • Vibration Sensitivity: While the needle is in use, the wielder must remain perfectly still. If the wielder’s heart rate exceeds a certain threshold, the volcanic glass may resonate and shatter, releasing the quantum-toxin in a localized “Blight-Burst” that can erase the wielder’s arm from existence.

White-Grave-Tooth and Bottling of Purple-Scream

It is scratched upon the oily-insides of the great-beetle-wings, moved from the needle-clicks of the Amalgamation-Walkers into the stumbling-charcoal of the mud-sleepers. Long ago, before the Hive 2049 did sit at the “Stone-Table-of-Coins,” they were only the “Biters-in-the-Dark.” They did have the Quantum-Toxin, the fire-water that makes the clockwork-men melt into the nowhere-time, but they did not have the “Hands-to-Hold.” To carry the scream was to be the scream, and the consensus did lose many modules to the “Self-Blight” when the venom did leak into the wrong-places.

The translated-skins say the First-Surgeon did wander the “Graveyard-of-the-Big-Mortars.” They did find the Bone-of-the-Old-Beast, which is the only white-stone that does not fear the purple-fire. They did carve the Capillary Extraction Needle 9904 from the marrow-hilt. They did bind it to the Dark-Glass-of-the-Mountain-Belly, the volcanic-bubble that can hold the “Nowhere-Time” without becoming the “Nothing.”

One time of the “Great-Hunger-for-Gears,” the Hive did approach the Walled-Town of the Iron-Lords. The Iron-Lords did pull their steam-bows, for they did fear the “Thousand-Stings.” But the Hive-Avatar did not bring the war-lash. They did bring the White-Grave-Tooth.

The translated-skins say the Avatar did perform the “Ritual-of-the-Still-Heart.” In front of the Lords, they did insert the bone-needle into the stinger of a peripheral-module. The Lords did gasp with the mouth-holes, for they saw the Purple-Scream move through the bone and into the glass-bulb. It did sit there, swirling like a trapped-storm, but it did not eat the glass. It was “The-Lethality-Made-Still.”

The Avatar did slide the glass-bulb across the dirt to the High-Lord. They did trade the “Stored-Death” for three-wagons of the Refined-Electrum and the “Books-of-the-First-Piston.” This was the first-time the Hive did not eat the enemy, but did “Buy-the-Enemy’s-Respect.” The White-Grave-Tooth did prove that the Hive could bottle its own soul and sell it as a “God-Liquid.”

The translated-skins say the needle did stay warm with the blue-vein-pulse, proving that the “Surgical-Mind” is stronger than the “Swarm-Bite” when the belly is empty and the gold is needed.

Moral: He who carries his poison only in his teeth is but a beast of the forest, but he who carries his poison in a “Vial-of-the-Trade” is a master of the market and the king of the quiet-room.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu

The Mortar-Bone Aspirator

  • Item Type: Medical/Alchemical Artifact
  • Skill: Medicine or Science (Pharmacy)
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Stabilized Extraction: Allows for the safe extraction of volatile biological fluids (venoms, extra-dimensional residues). A successful Medicine or Science roll harvests one dose. A Fumble results in the reservoir shattering, exposing the user to the substance.
    • Quantum Toxin: If the extracted fluid is Hive Quantum-Toxin, it deals 2d10 damage if applied to a weapon or ingested. The target must succeed on a Hard CON roll or be “Phase-Blurred,” suffering a Penalty Die on all physical actions for 1d6 hours.
    • Sterile Field: Grants a Bonus Die to First Aid or Medicine rolls intended to prevent infection or stabilize a dying patient.
    • Sanity Loss: 1/1d4; using the needle requires a cold, clinical detachment from the “living” components of the Hive that feels deeply inhuman.

Blades in the Dark

The Essence Needle

  • Item Type: Gear (Utility, Fine)
  • Load: 0 (Small enough to be concealed)
  • Mechanics:
    • Harvesting the Scream: During downtime, you can use the needle to produce a Fine Alchemical Toxin. This toxin has the Potency to bypass heavy armor or supernatural resistance.
    • Precision Draw: When you Tinker or Doctor to extract a rare substance from a creature (living or dead), the needle provides +1 Effect level.
    • Volatile Storage: You may spend 1 Stress to ensure a substance stays “fresh” in the volcanic glass. This allows you to ignore any “Expiring” or “Volatile” tags on the substance for the duration of the score.
    • The Blue Pulse: If the needle’s blue vein glows brightly, it acts as a warning. You gain +1d to Resistance rolls against accidental poisoning or alchemical backfire.

Dungeons & Dragons

Capillary Extraction Needle 9904

  • Item Type: Wondrous Item (Tool), Uncommon
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Venomous Bounty: Over the course of a short rest, you can use the needle to extract toxin from a willing or incapacitated poisonous creature. You produce one Vial of Quantum-Toxin. As a bonus action, this vial can be applied to a weapon. The next hit deals an extra 2d6 Force damage and the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be Stunned until the end of its next turn.
    • Anatomical Insight: While holding the needle, you have advantage on Wisdom (Medicine) checks and Intelligence (Nature) checks related to poisons or anatomy.
    • Stasis Reservoir: The needle can hold one dose of any liquid indefinitely. While inside, the liquid is immune to the effects of Purify Food and Drink or Dispel Magic.
    • Surgical Precision: You can use the needle to perform a “Needle Decompression” or similar surgery. This grants a creature 1d4 + your Wisdom modifier in temporary hit points.

Knave

The Bone Syringe

  • Item Type: Tool (1 Slot, Quality 10)
  • Mechanics:
    • Bottle the Venom: Can store one dose of any monster’s special attack (breath, poison, etc.) if the creature is dead or sleeping.
    • Lethal Trade: A full needle counts as “Luxury Goods” for the purpose of trading with high-level NPCs or merchants in walled cities.
    • Surgical Strike: If used as a weapon, it deals only 1 damage but bypasses all armor. If the needle is full of toxin, the target must save vs. Poison or die/become incapacitated instantly.
    • Fragile Glass: If the wielder takes more than 10 damage from a single physical attack, they must roll a d6. On a 1, the needle shatters and the wielder is affected by whatever was inside.

Fate

The Surgical Needle of Chronos-Vitreous

  • Item Type: Extraordinary Tool Extra
  • Aspect: Precision Between the Heartbeats. This aspect can be invoked to perform perfect medical extractions, resist the effects of your own toxins, or negotiate with alchemists. It can be compelled to cause a Localized Timeline Fracture if the volcanic glass is cracked during a high-stress conflict.
  • Mechanics:
    • Harvesting Lethality: You may use the Crafts or Science skill to create a Bottled Quantum-Toxin advantage. This advantage has two free invokes that can be used to add +2 to an attack’s damage or to bypass an opponent’s physical armor entirely.
    • Temporal Preservation: Any liquid Aspect stored within the needle does not vanish at the end of a scene. It remains available for use until the wielder chooses to expend it or the needle is destroyed.
    • Anatomical Bypass: When using the needle in a medical capacity, you ignore any passive opposition or situational hurdles related to “Infection” or “Contamination.”

Numenera & Cypher System

Capillary Extraction Needle (Model 9904)

  • Level: 4
  • Form: A hollow, white bone needle with a dark glass bulb that flickers in and out of focus.
  • Effect: Allows for the extraction and indefinite storage of any biological or energetic fluid.
  • Specific Mechanics:
    • Stabilized Draw: Using the needle eases all tasks related to harvesting organs, venoms, or cypher-fluids from creatures by two steps.
    • Quantum Payload: If filled with the wielder’s own essence (or Hive-toxin), the needle can be used as a one-time cypher that deals 6 points of damage (ignores Armor) and causes the target to be Dazed for one minute.
    • Stasis Storage: Any fluid stored in the reservoir is immune to environmental degradation, even if the wielder travels between dimensions or through extreme heat/cold.
    • Depletion: 1 in 1d20. On depletion, the blue vein in the bone turns grey and the glass becomes opaque, requiring a “Recharge” from a high-tier bio-mechanical source.

Pathfinder (2E)

Capillary Extraction Needle 9904

  • Item Level: 4; Price: 95 Silver Pieces
  • Usage: Held in 1 hand; Bulk: —
  • Description: Carved from high-tier amalgamation bone, this surgical tool can harvest the most volatile alchemical substances without risk to the wielder.
  • Specific Mechanics:
    • Precision Extraction: [one-action] (Manipulate) You attempt to harvest a toxin from a creature (DC varies by level). On a success, you create a Vial of Volatile Toxin.
    • Volatile Toxin: (Poison) When applied to a weapon, the next successful strike deals 1d6 persistent Force damage. The target is Sickened 1 while taking this persistent damage.
    • Surgical Focus: You gain a +2 item bonus to Medicine checks to Treat Wounds or Administer First Aid. When you use the needle to treat a poison, the target gains a +2 circumstance bonus to their next saving throw against that poison.
    • Stasis Reservoir: The needle can store one dose of an alchemical elixir or poison. While stored, the item does not expire and cannot be detected by Detect Magic.

Savage Worlds

Amalgamation Bone Syringe

  • Type: Alchemical Gear
  • Rank: Novice
  • Weight: —
  • Specific Mechanics:
    • Venom Extraction: With a successful Healing or Science roll, the wielder can extract a “Venom Charge” from a defeated or willing creature.
    • Quantum Edge: A weapon coated with the extracted Toxin gains +2 AP and +1d6 damage on the next successful Fighting or Shooting roll.
    • Sterile Precision: The needle grants a +2 bonus to Healing rolls when used to remove embedded objects, treat toxins, or perform delicate surgeries.
    • Temporal Anchor: Any substance kept in the volcanic glass reservoir never spoils. If the wielder has the “Alchemist” or “Weird Science” Edge, they gain a +1 bonus to their activation rolls when using a substance stored in the needle.

Shadowrun

Amalgamation Extraction Focus (Model 9904)

  • Category: Alchemical Gear / Weapon Focus (Rating 2)
  • Availability: 12R
  • Cost: 12,000¥
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Quantum Harvest: As a Complex Action, the wielder may extract a dose of “Quantum-Toxin” from a biological source. This requires a Biotech + Logic [Mental] (3) Test. Success grants one dose of toxin stored in the glass reservoir.
    • Phase-Toxin: When the needle is used to deliver a toxin (standard melee attack), the attack ignores Immunity to Ageing and treats the target’s hardened armor as normal armor due to the temporal destabilization.
    • Stabilized Storage: Any reagent or toxin stored in the volcanic glass reservoir is protected from “Background Count” interference and does not lose potency over time.
    • Surgical Precision: Provides a +2 dice pool bonus to Medicine tests involving delicate internal repairs or cyberware maintenance.

Starfinder

Capillary Extraction Needle

  • Item Level: 5; Price: 3,100 Credits
  • Category: Technological Item (1 Hand)
  • Bulk: L
  • Capacity: 10; Usage: 1/extraction
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Toxic Draw: You can use the needle on a dead or helpless creature as a full action to extract a dose of its natural poison or a “Quantum-Toxin” sample. This produces a medicinal or poisonous “vial” with an item level equal to the creature’s CR (max level 5).
    • Temporal Stability: Vials stored within the needle’s volcanic glass reservoir do not expire and are immune to the effects of environmental radiation or vacuum.
    • Surgical Accuracy: You gain a +2 insight bonus to Life Science and Medicine checks. When used to treat a poisoned creature, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to automatically succeed at the first check to stabilize them.

Traveller

TL 14 Bone-Graft Aspirator

  • TL: 14; Weight: —; Cost: Cr4,500
  • Description: A surgical tool crafted from lab-grown high-density bone and obsidian-glass, used for extracting pure bio-samples in high-radiation or temporal-anomaly zones.
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Sample Preservation: Any bio-sample (venom, blood, DNA) stored in the reservoir is kept in perfect stasis. It provides a DM+3 to any subsequent laboratory analysis or Medic check performed using the sample.
    • Hazardous Extraction: The needle allows a character to extract fluids from a contaminated or radioactive source without exposing themselves to the hazard.
    • Precision Tool: Grants a DM+2 to any Medic check involving surgery or the administration of specialized antitoxins.

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay (Wrath & Glory)

The Chirurgeon’s Bone-Needle

  • Value: 5 (Rare)
  • Keywords: [HIVE], [MEDICAL], [ALCHEMICAL]
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Harvest the Venom: As a Combat Action, you may attempt a DN 3 Medicae (Int) Test on a creature to extract its essence. On a success, you gain one dose of Quantum-Toxin.
    • Quantum-Toxin Effect: A weapon coated in this toxin gains the Arc (1) and Rending (2) qualities for its next attack as the liquid eats through reality itself.
    • Master of Biology: You gain +2d to all Medicae (Int) Tests. When you use this needle to perform a Regain Shock action on an ally, they recover an additional 1d3 Shock.
    • Stasis Bulb: The needle can hold one dose of any drug or toxin. The contents cannot be destroyed by psychic powers or environmental effects while sealed.