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Apothecary’s Wraps 26

—

by

Dale
in

From: Lineage 13 of the Veridian

These are not armored gauntlets, but fingerless wraps of dark, fibrous material that has been treated to be as flexible as silk yet as durable as cured hide. The material is non-reactive and stain-proof, designed to protect Liatris’s hands from caustic reagents, poisonous saps, or the thorns of a defensive plant. Despite their toughness, they are incredibly thin, allowing for a precise and unimpeded sense of touch, which is critical when grinding delicate ingredients or identifying a plant’s nearly invisible veins.

Expounded Lore

These wraps are woven from an impossibly rare material: the silk of the Saṃsāran Dream-Spider. This creature does not build webs in the physical world, but rather spins its webs across the veil, anchoring them between the material plane and the world of slumbering thought. The dark, fibrous silk is harvested from these metaphysical anchor points, giving it its unique properties. Raw, the silk is only semi-corporeal and completely non-reactive to any physical or alchemical substance.

To make them usable, the silk is treated in an alchemical bath of ground river stone (for grounding) and distilled silence (for focus), which solidifies the material without sacrificing its innate flexibility. The number “26” is not a serial number but a mark of mastery and completion. The Dream-Spider is said to have thirteen legs in the waking world and thirteen in the dream world; a single, complete set of wraps requires silk drawn from all twenty-six conceptual anchor points of a single perfect web. This process imbues the wraps with a supernatural sensitivity, allowing them to not only protect the wearer’s hands but to filter out “dull” sensations like blunt pressure or cold, amplifying the perception of fine textures, temperatures, and vibrations.

Item Values

  • Tier 1 Stats: +1 Dexterity
  • Skills Gained: Proficiency with the Poisoner’s Kit and Alchemist’s Supplies.
  • Passive Magics:
    • Alchemical Barrier: The wearer has Resistance to acid damage dealt to their hands. Furthermore, they are immune to any poison or disease that would be contracted via contact with the skin on their hands.
    • Unimpeded Touch: The wearer ignores any penalties on Dexterity-based skill checks (such as Sleight of Hand or when using Thieves’ Tools) that would normally be imposed by wearing gloves or by environmental factors like cold.
    • Steady Hands: The wearer has Advantage on any ability check required to perform a delicate, non-combat task with their hands, such as mixing a volatile compound, suturing a wound, or disarming a sensitive trap mechanism.
  • Activatable Magics:
    • Diagnostic Touch (3/Day): As an action, the wearer can gently touch a creature or an object. They instantly learn one specific and precise detail about its physical condition. Examples include: the exact location of a hairline fracture in a wall, the weakest link in a chain, the specific nature of a creature’s ailment (e.g., “infection in the lower-left lung”), or the tumblers’ positions in a lock.
    • Deft Application (1/Day): As a bonus action, the wearer can apply a liquid from a container in one hand (such as a poison or a potion) to a weapon or object in their other hand. This action is performed with such subtlety and speed that it does not provoke an opportunity attack and requires a successful DC 18 Perception (Wisdom) check to be noticed by onlookers.
  • Specific Slot: Hands Slot
  • Tags: Alchemical, Protective, Utility, Masterwork, Supernatural-Craft, Precision, Focus, Dream-Woven, Liminal, Surgical, Divination, Artisan-Gear, Subtlety

The Apothecary’s Wraps 26 are not common trade goods; they are masterwork tools, the product of an almost legendary craft. Their value is understood only by those in professions requiring ultimate precision, making the venues for their sale extremely exclusive and secretive.

1. The Commissioned Master Artisan

  • Type of Shop: This is not a shop but the secluded, often hidden, workshop of one of the few artisans in the world who knows the secret of harvesting and weaving Dream-Spider silk. This individual might be a reclusive Veridian elder, an ancient Elven loremaster, or a human who has dedicated a lifetime to forbidden arts. Finding them is a quest in itself, requiring the navigation of social circles, ancient texts, or hidden pathways.
  • How It Is Bought & Sold: The wraps are not “bought”; they are commissioned. A potential client must first prove their worth and demonstrate a legitimate, non-trivial purpose for needing such an item. The artisan will refuse commissions for acts of wanton cruelty or chaos. The creation process is a lengthy collaboration, often taking months and requiring the client to aid in acquiring the rare alchemical components or even assisting in the rituals needed to safely appease and harvest from a Dream-Spider.
  • Cost: The price is a combination of materials, service, and a personal vow.
    • Material & Alchemical Components: The client must fund the venture, costing anywhere from 1,500 to 2,500 Gold Sovereigns.
    • Artisan’s Fee: A direct payment of no less than 4,000 Gold Sovereigns for the master’s time and unique skill.
    • A Binding Vow: The artisan will often extract a magical oath or promise from the client to never use the wraps to harm the innocent or to desecrate ancient knowledge.

2. The Guild’s Black Market Outfitter

  • Type of Shop: A clandestine supply house that caters exclusively to the elite of the underworld: guildmasters of thieves, spymasters, and high-ranking assassins. Operating behind the facade of a legitimate business like a high-end tailor or a rare spice importer, this “shop” is known only by a code name like “The Gilded Needle” and is accessible only by password and reputation.
  • How It Is Bought & Sold: A pair of wraps here would have been looted from a fallen agent or stolen in a guild war. They are kept in a secure vault and shown only to trusted, high-paying clients. The seller knows exactly what they are and their immense value in espionage and sabotage. The sale is a quiet, professional, no-questions-asked transaction where both parties understand the stakes.
  • Cost: The price is exceptionally high, a reflection of the wraps’ power to ensure the success of critical, high-stakes operations.
    • Price: A firm 8,000 Gold Sovereigns. They will not haggle. Alternatively, they may trade the wraps for an item or service of equal operational value—the complete architectural plans for the Royal Mint, a guaranteed poison recipe from a rival’s spymaster, or the assassination of a key political figure.

3. The Shop of Arcane Oddities

  • Type of Shop: A cluttered, dusty shop crammed with the strange, esoteric, and often misidentified treasures of a hundred different lifetimes. The proprietor is an eccentric collector—perhaps a retired wizard who has become absent-minded or a Gremlin with a penchant for shiny things—who knows their items are magical, but often not the specifics of their true nature or history.
  • How It Is Bought & Sold: The wraps would be found by chance, tucked away in a dusty display case, likely mislabeled as “Drow Silk Gloves” or “Surgeon’s Protective Wraps.” The shopkeeper knows they are durable and magical but is unaware of their connection to Dream-Spiders or their ability to enhance dexterity. For a knowledgeable buyer, this represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
  • Cost: This is the only place one might find the wraps for a bargain, though the price may be whimsical.
    • Price: The shopkeeper, thinking them merely fine, acid-proof gloves, might ask for 1,800 Gold Sovereigns. However, being eccentric, they might instead demand a trade for something they find more interesting, such as “a single, unburnt feather from a phoenix,” “the sound of a child’s first laugh captured in a bottle,” or “a map of a place that does not exist.”

The Apothecary’s Wraps 26 are tools of precision, not power. Their role in offense and defense is not about direct confrontation, but about enabling flawless execution of delicate tasks under pressure, turning a chaotic situation into a controlled one.

1. In a Trapped Dungeon or Ruin

This environment is a masterclass in why the wraps were created, testing them against ancient mechanisms, poisons, and failing structures.

Roleplaying Defense:

  • Against a Trap Mechanism: The party encounters a pressure plate connected to a spray of poison-tipped needles. The trap must be disarmed by hand.
    • Roleplay: “Everyone back. The mechanism is old and rusted, but the poison on those needles looks fresh. I pull the wraps tight. My fingers, protected by the non-reactive silk, can confidently probe the mechanism. The wraps filter out the grit and grime, letting me feel only the subtle tension of the trigger wires. I can feel the faint ‘click’ of the sear pin as I ease it out of place, a sensation a normal glove would have hidden. The trap is safe.”
  • Handling Hazardous Materials: To proceed, a key must be retrieved from a basin filled with a powerful, bubbling acid.
    • Roleplay: “Normally, this would be impossible without long tongs or complex magic. But these wraps were made for this. I take a deep breath and slowly lower my hand into the basin. There is no burning, no sizzle. The wraps are completely inert. My hand is shielded, allowing me to calmly feel around the bottom of the basin, locate the key, and retrieve it without harm.”

Roleplaying Offense:

  • Sabotaging a Structure: The party is being pursued by a massive, rolling stone trap down a long hallway. There’s a key support winch for a portcullis on the wall that could be used to stop it.
    • Roleplay: “We can’t outrun it! That winch! I need to jam it!’ I rush to the mechanism, slapping my hand on the central gear and activating Diagnostic Touch. I’m not looking at it, I’m feeling it. Instantly, I know which gear is under the most strain, which cog has a hairline fracture from centuries of stress. ‘There!’ I yell, jamming a crowbar into that precise spot. The gear shatters, the chain snaps, and the portcullis slams down, blocking the rampaging boulder.”
  • Using the Environment: You are fighting creatures that bleed corrosive blood, making melee dangerous.
    • Roleplay: “Don’t let their blood touch you! Every time we strike them, we risk our gear and our skin. But my wraps are immune. I can fight differently. I will intentionally parry their claws with my wrapped forearms, letting the corrosive blood splash harmlessly against them. I can get in close, under their guard, using their own defense as a vulnerability, turning their toxic nature into a non-factor for me.”

2. In a Tense Social Gathering or Infiltration

In this environment of high stakes and subtlety, the wraps allow for actions that must be both perfect and unseen.

Roleplaying Defense:

  • The Poisoned Goblet: You suspect the wine you’ve been offered is poisoned. You must confirm without alerting your host.
    • Roleplay: “I raise the goblet to my lips as if to drink, my thumb ‘accidentally’ dipping into the wine. The wraps protect my skin, but they do more than that. I activate Diagnostic Touch. As my thumb touches the liquid, I get an instant, tactile impression of its nature—the heavy, oily texture of Black Lotus venom suspended within the wine. I lower the goblet with a smile. ‘Delicious,’ I say, ‘but I find I am not thirsty after all.’ My host is none the wiser.”

Roleplaying Offense:

  • Sleight of Hand Poisoning: You need to deliver a non-lethal paralytic to a guard captain’s drink during a crowded feast, without anyone noticing.
    • Roleplay: “The room is a swirl of motion. I have the vial ready in my palm. As I move past the captain’s table, I use Deft Application. My hand sweeps over his goblet in a gesture that looks like I’m shooing away a fly. It’s a single, fluid movement. The wraps ensure my grip on the tiny vial is perfect, and a single, precise drop falls into his wine. There is no splash, no sound. It is a moment of perfect execution, hidden in plain sight.”
  • Document Forgery: You have gained access to the harbormaster’s office and need to subtly alter a shipping manifest to redirect a specific cargo.
    • Roleplay: “I only have minutes. The guards will be back. The wraps allow my hands to be perfectly steady, my fingers moving with a surgeon’s precision. My penmanship flawlessly mimics the harbormaster’s script. The Steady Hands passive lets me work twice as fast, my focus absolute. I’m not just writing; I’m performing a delicate operation on this document, and it will be perfect.”

3. In a Chaotic Melee or Battlefield

Here, the wraps provide moments of perfect clarity and precision in the midst of violence and turmoil.

Roleplaying Defense:

  • Battlefield Surgery: Your ally is down, bleeding from a deep wound, and the fighting is still raging around you.
    • Roleplay: “They need a healer! Get around me and give me ten seconds!’ I kneel, my wraps keeping my hands clean from the mud and grime. I use Diagnostic Touch on the wound. It’s not just a cut; I can feel the nicked artery beneath the muscle. I know exactly where to apply pressure. My hands are rock-steady, ignoring the nearby explosions as I apply the bandage with perfect, life-saving tension.”

Roleplaying Offense:

  • Disarming an Opponent: You are fighting a heavily armored warrior who relies on their complex gauntlets to wield their massive weapon.
    • Roleplay: “I can’t break his guard. I have to break his grip. I will feint high, and as he brings his arms up to block, I will drop low. Instead of attacking him, I’ll attack his gear. Using Deft Application, I will slap a small vial of alchemical solvent onto the locking mechanism of his right gauntlet. He’ll think I missed, but in a few moments, that lock will dissolve, his grip will fail, and his weapon will become an unmanageable weight.”
  • Applying a Contact Poison: You need to poison an enemy commander, but can only get close for a moment during a chaotic fight.
    • Roleplay: “As our lines clash, I will surge forward, targeting the commander. I won’t try to land a killing blow. I will make a simple unarmed strike, a ‘clumsy’ shove against his arm. But in that moment of contact, Deft Application will coat the leather of his vambrace with a slow-acting toxin from the vial hidden in my palm. He’ll shove me back and laugh, thinking me a fool, never realizing the real attack already landed.”

Perception of Activation:

User’s Perspective (The Wearer)

By the Five Senses

  • Sight: The external world remains unchanged. Instead, your own hands become hyper-defined in your mind’s eye. You perceive the subtle shift of every tendon and muscle fiber. For a brief moment, faint, web-like silver patterns may trace the surface of the wraps, visible only to you.
  • Hearing: Ambient sounds become muffled and unimportant. Your sense of “hearing” is momentarily transferred to your fingertips. You perceive the groan of stressed metal, the whisper-thin scrape of a tumbler inside a lock, or the faint, wet sound of a struggling organ as if they were sounds shouted in your ear.
  • Touch: This is an explosion of focused, overwhelming sensation. You don’t just feel a surface; you feel its entire history and texture. The cold, crystalline structure of steel; the porous, fibrous nature of paper; the subtle, unhealthy clamminess of diseased skin. It is a torrent of pure, tactile data about the object of your focus.
  • Smell: A faint, sterile scent, like the air after a lightning strike, appears and vanishes. It does not emanate from the world but seems to be a phantom scent caused by the activation itself.
  • Taste: A fleeting, metallic taste on the tongue, like touching a battery, as your nervous system is momentarily supercharged.

By Extra-Sensory Perception

  • Proprioceptive: You gain a sudden, absolute, and perfect awareness of the position of your hands and fingers. All tremor vanishes. Your fine motor control feels infallible, as if your hands are no longer flesh, but perfectly calibrated masterwork instruments.
  • Psionic/Mental: When using Diagnostic Touch, you experience a direct, non-verbal flood of information. You don’t deduce there’s a crack; you feel the crack’s exact length, depth, and location as a concept mapped directly onto your mind. When using Deft Application, your sense of self momentarily vanishes into a state of perfect “flow,” where conscious thought and physical action become a single, flawless event.

Positives

  • You are filled with absolute confidence in your ability to perform delicate tasks.
  • You can perceive details and execute actions that are physically impossible for others.
  • The focused sensory input allows you to block out distracting pain or fear related to the task at hand.

Negatives

  • The sensory overload is mentally exhausting. Each use leaves a lingering mental fatigue.
  • While your focus is absolute, you become dangerously oblivious to anything outside of your immediate task, making you highly vulnerable.
  • The experience is alienating. After feeling the world with such impossible detail, normal touch can feel dull, clumsy, and frustrating.

Observer’s Perspective

By the Five Senses

  • Sight: The effect is extremely subtle, making it ideal for covert actions. There is no great flash of light. A sharp-eyed observer might notice a brief, silvery shimmer trace the patterns on the dark wraps, like a flicker of static electricity. More noticeably, the wearer’s hands move with an unnerving, fluid grace and precision that seems unnatural.
  • Hearing: None. The activation is completely silent to any observer.
  • Touch: If you were touching the wearer’s arm, you might feel the muscles in their forearm contract with the fluid precision of a master watchmaker, a movement too controlled to be entirely human.
  • Smell: None.
  • Taste: None.

By Extra-Sensory Perception

  • Magical/Aural: A magic-user would not see a powerful, explosive aura. Instead, they would perceive an incredibly fine and complex web of silver energy enveloping the wearer’s hands. The magical signature is one of immense discipline and intricacy, registering as Divination or Transmutation magic that is sharp, fast, and fleeting.
  • Intuitive/Subconscious: A perceptive observer might not know what they saw, but they would feel a sudden, instinctual need to watch the wearer’s hands. It’s the subconscious recognition of a predator unsheathing its claws or a surgeon picking up a scalpel—a feeling that a moment of critical, precise action is about to occur.

Positives

  • The activation is discreet and almost impossible to notice, allowing the user to perform magical or superhuman actions without drawing attention.
  • To an ally who knows what to look for, the wearer’s sudden shift into a state of intense focus is a reassuring sign that a difficult task is being handled by an expert.

Negatives

  • The subtlety can be a drawback, as allies may not realize a special ability has been used or that the user requires protection.
  • The wearer’s movements can appear unnervingly fluid and robotic, which can be unsettling to companions.
  • An intelligent enemy who does notice the subtle shimmer will immediately identify the wearer as a highly specialized threat (a saboteur, assassin, or master thief) and will likely target them with overwhelming force to remove the specialized skill from the board.

Artisan’s Method: The Wraps of Pinpoint Touch

Materials Needed

  • Core Fiber: Three pristine skeins of Phase Spider Silk. (Note: This silk is only partially anchored to the material plane. It must be harvested and handled exclusively with non-iron tools, as ferrous metals will cause it to unravel and dissipate into the ether.)
  • Alchemical Solution: A single dose of the “Alchemical Quiet” formula. This requires:
    • The powdered dust of a flawless crystal, harvested from a geode found within a place of absolute, preternatural silence.
    • The filtered tears of a blind oracle, willingly given.
    • A single, purified droplet of quicksilver.
  • Binding Thread: One spool of thread spun from the hair of a Gynosphinx. (This material is sought after for its durability and its innate connection to knowledge and perception.)
  • Personal Attunement: A sliver of a fingernail from the crafter, to be ground into a fine powder.

Tools Required

  • A Glass or Ceramic Alembic & Mortar: Metal tools cannot be used in the creation of the Alchemical Quiet solution, as they will neutralize the ingredients.
  • A Loom with Silver or Ivory Fittings: Necessary for weaving the metaphysically sensitive Phase Spider silk without disrupting its properties.
  • Masterwork Weaver’s Tools: A set of needles, shuttles, and scissors made from bone, ivory, or hardened glass for the delicate final stitching.
  • An Alchemist’s Scale: For measuring the components of the solution with absolute precision.

Skill Requirements

  • Mastery in Weaving or Tailoring: To handle the ethereal Phase Spider silk and the difficult Sphinx-hair thread without snapping or unraveling them.
  • Expertise in Alchemy: To successfully create the “Alchemical Quiet” solution. An imprecise mixture will simply be an inert, useless slurry.
  • Proficiency in Arcana: To understand the supernatural properties of the materials and to maintain the delicate magical resonance required during the weaving process.
  • Unwavering Concentration: This is a meta-skill. The final weaving stage requires 12 hours of continuous, uninterrupted focus. If the crafter’s concentration is broken by a significant distraction (a loud noise, combat, being shaken), the resonance in the silk is shattered, and the materials are ruined.

Crafting Steps

  1. Formulating the Alchemical Quiet: In the glass mortar, carefully grind the silence-crystal and the sliver of your own fingernail into the finest possible powder. Transfer this to the glass alembic. Gently add the oracle’s tears and stir with a glass rod. Finally, introduce the single droplet of quicksilver. The solution should shimmer with a faint, silvery light. It is now ready.
  2. Treating the Silk: Carefully submerge the three skeins of Phase Spider silk into the Alchemical Quiet solution. The silk must remain submerged for one full day and night, kept in a quiet, dark place. During this time, it will absorb the solution, becoming permanently anchored to the material plane while retaining its supernatural sensitivity.
  3. The Great Weave: This is the ultimate test of focus. The treated silk must be carefully threaded onto the special loom. You must then begin the weaving process, shaping the fingerless wraps. This requires 12 hours of continuous, unbroken work. You are not just weaving a fabric; you are weaving a metaphysical concept of “touch” into a physical object. Any interruption will sever this connection and ruin the project.
  4. The Final Stitching: Once the main bodies of the wraps are woven, they must be finished. Using the Masterwork Weaver’s Tools, you will carefully hem the edges and reinforce the thumb-holes using the Sphinx-hair thread. This final act of precision binds the magic and completes the physical construction of the wraps.
  5. The Attunement: The wraps are complete but dormant. To awaken them, you must wear them and perform a single, deliberate act of impossible precision. This could be flawlessly reassembling the delicate pieces of a shattered porcelain doll, carving a detailed likeness onto a single grain of rice, or successfully picking a masterwork lock by feel alone. Upon the successful completion of this act, you will feel a faint “click” in your mind, and a torrent of pure, tactile information will flood your senses for the first time. The wraps are now awake.

Thinker’s Hands and Spider of Dreams

Hear now the story of Kaelen, who was called the Thinker. A cleverness he had, for his thoughts were like sharp needles that could stitch any puzzle into a whole cloth. He knew the secrets of the stars and the ways of herbs. But his hands… his hands were fools. They were clumsy things of meat and bone. He could design a perfect clockwork bird in his mind, but his fingers would break the tiny gears. And so it was, that his great mind was trapped inside a clumsy body.

In that age, there was a cruel ruler, the Lord of Thorns, who was jealous of all beauty he could not own. In his high-walled garden, he grew a thing of terrible art—the Orchid of Final Whisper. Its color was the color of a fading bruise, and its beauty caused a heart-hurt, for you knew it was a beauty that promised only an ending. Its pollen, carried on the wind, could cause a wasting sickness, a forever-sleep from which there was no waking. The Lord of Thorns would use this pollen to make sick the children of his rivals, and then sell a false antidote for a great price.

The only true cure, the secret he kept, was that the stem of the orchid itself, if ground into a paste while the flower was in bloom, could undo the pollen’s work. But this was an impossible task. To touch a single petal, even for a moment, was to die instantly, your body becoming a statue of your last breath. And so, the flower was both the poison and the only cure, a perfect trap made by a cruel man.

The daughter of a good king fell sick with the pollen-sickness, and the Lord of Thorns made his demand for tribute. The king instead summoned the Thinker. Kaelen looked at the problem. His mind saw the path at once. “The cure is the stem,” he said. “One must pluck it from the blossom like a loose thread. A simple task.”

The king grew a heavy liver. “Simple? Many have tried. The swiftest rogue, the mightiest warrior. All are now statues in that terrible garden.”

Kaelen the Thinker nodded. “Yes. Their hands were swift, but their hands could not see. My mind can see the path, but my clumsy hands will surely fall from the cliff. I must find new hands. Hands that can feel a thought.”

So the Thinker went on a quest, not for a sword, but for a touch. He read the old scrolls, the ones written in the tongue of worms and roots. He learned of the weaver of the between-place, a creature of great power called the Dream-Spider. The scrolls said the spider’s web was not for catching flies, but for catching thoughts, and that its legs were half in this world of substance, and half in the next world of dreams. Thirteen legs of shadow, thirteen legs of light. Twenty-six legs in all. Its silk, the scrolls said, was a thread of pure feeling.

Kaelen sought this creature. He found its lair not in a dark cave, but in a place that looked like a simple clearing, yet when he tried to cross it, he became lost. The spider did not bite with fangs; it bit with doubt. It wove webs of sorrow that made him remember every failure. It wove mazes of logic that had no end. For many days, the Thinker was trapped in this mind-web. But he was the Thinker. He did not fight the webs with a knife. He fought them with understanding. He sat, and he thought, and he saw the shape of the spider’s own mind in its traps. He understood that to the spider, a thought and a thing were the same. He counted the legs he could see, and the legs he could feel in his mind, and he spoke the number, “Twenty-six.”

The illusions vanished. The spider appeared before him, and it saw that the Thinker understood. As a reward for his cleverness, it gave him a gift: a skein of its dark, shimmering silk.

The Thinker returned to his workshop and, with hands that trembled, performed the delicate alchemy the scrolls described. He treated the silk with the essence of silence, and wove it into wraps for his hands.

He went to the garden of the Lord of Thorns. The court was gathered. The Lord of Thorns laughed a laugh like breaking glass. “The man whose hands are fools has come to die! Your cloth gloves will not save you from my masterpiece!”

Kaelen walked to the orchid. He was afraid. But he put on the wraps. And a great change occurred. The world became silent. He no longer felt the hard floor or the breeze on his skin. There was only his hands, and the flower. He reached out. As his wrapped fingers neared the blossom, he did not feel “soft” or “delicate.” He felt… a map. He perceived the very shape of the life-force within the plant. He could feel the channels of poison in the petals, the clean life in the stem. His fingers knew the answer before his mind did. They moved with a grace that was not his own, sliding between the petals, touching only the stem. He plucked it free.

The court gasped. The Lord of Thorns’ face was a mask of disbelief. Kaelen turned, crushed the stem in his hand, and prepared the true antidote. His hands, for the first time, had become as clever as his mind.

The Moral of the Story: A sharp sword can cut a tangled knot, but it cannot untie it. To solve a problem of great poison, you must first be able to touch its nature without fear, and the steadiest hand is the one that is guided by the sharpest mind.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Wraps of Deft Application

  • Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)
  • These dark, fingerless wraps are woven from a strange, fibrous silk that is as flexible as cloth but as durable as cured leather. They feel cool and smooth to the touch.
  • While wearing these wraps, you gain a +1 bonus to your Dexterity score, to a maximum of 20. Additionally, you gain proficiency with two of the following artisan’s tools of your choice: Alchemist’s supplies, poisoner’s kit, thieves’ tools, or weaver’s tools.
  • The wraps have 3 charges and regain 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn. You can expend its charges for the following effects:
  • Diagnostic Touch (1 Charge): As an action, you touch one object or creature. For the next minute, you have advantage on any Wisdom (Medicine) or Intelligence (Investigation) checks you make related to that target.
  • Flawless Application (1 Charge): When you use your action to apply a poison, oil, or similar substance to a weapon or object, you can expend a charge to use your bonus action instead.

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

Surgeon’s Mnemonic Wraps

  • Strange Item
  • A pair of dark, fingerless wraps made of an unknown, non-reactive organic fiber. They were reportedly recovered from the estate of a brilliant but reclusive physician who was rumored to have performed medical miracles. The wraps seem to enhance the user’s sense of touch and fine motor control to an unnatural degree.
  • Enhanced Dexterity: The wearer gains one Bonus Die on any DEX x 5 roll requiring fine manual dexterity (e.g., performing surgery, disarming a delicate mechanism, or handling volatile chemicals).
  • Impervious: The wearer’s hands are immune to any poison, disease, or chemical that is contracted or causes damage via touch.
  • Diagnostic Insight: Once per day, the wearer may touch an object or body and make an Idea roll. If successful, the GM provides one critical, non-obvious piece of information about its physical state (e.g., “The cause of death was not the wound, but a microscopic poison injected into the wound,” or “The machine’s point of failure will be the third gear from the left.”).
  • Sanity Cost: The first time the Diagnostic Insight is used, the influx of pure sensory data is overwhelming and costs the Investigator 0/1 SAN. Fully understanding the alien, non-Euclidean weave of the fibers requires a successful Cthulhu Mythos roll and costs 1/1d4 SAN.

Blades in the Dark

The Ghost-Weaver’s Wraps

  • Special Gear | Worn | Arcane
  • Woven from the silk of phase spiders that nest in the Deathlands, these dark wraps are attuned to the ghost field. They allow a user to feel the echoes and stresses in objects, granting them an unnerving degree of precision. They are highly sought after by Whispers and Leeches.
  • Fine Work: When you wear these wraps to perform a delicate task (such as Tinkering with a complex device, using surgery to treat a wound, or Finessing a high-security lock), you may take +1d to your action roll.
  • Subtle Touch: Once per score, you may declare that you apply a poison, oil, or other substance to an object or person you touch. The action is so subtle and swift that it does not require a roll and goes unnoticed unless someone is specifically watching for it.
  • Diagnostic Feel: When you examine an object, body, or structure, you may suffer 1 Stress to ask the GM a single, direct question about its physical condition (e.g., “Where is it most fragile?”, “What tool was used to make this wound?”, “How can I disable this?”). The GM must answer truthfully.

Knave (2nd Edition)

Phase-Silk Hand Wraps

  • Worn Gear
  • These dark, fingerless wraps are woven from the silk of phase spiders. They are cool to the touch and seem to subtly shimmer, as if not entirely in this reality. They allow for an impossible level of dexterity.
  • Slots: Occupies 1 inventory slot.
  • Properties:
    • Your hands are completely immune to damage and effects from contact poisons and acids.
    • You cannot fail a task due to having “shaky hands” or lack of precision. When using tools that require fine motor control (e.g., lockpicks, surgeon’s tools), you can never break your tools from a clumsy error.
    • Once per day, you may touch a single, non-magical mechanism (a lock, a trap, a clockwork machine) and immediately understand its function and how to operate or disable it.
  • Drawback – Ethereal Frailty: The wraps are tied to the Ethereal plane. If you ever take damage from a magical force effect (such as from a magic missile or similar spell), the wraps’ connection to this reality is severed, and they dissipate into nothingness.

Fate Core System

Wraps of the Patient Hand

  • In Fate, a significant item like this becomes a part of the character, granting them a powerful Aspect they can use to influence the story, as well as unique stunts.
  • New Character Aspect: Hands That See the Unseen
  • This Aspect represents the wraps’ supernatural ability to grant the wearer a level of tactile perception beyond the norm. It is a tool of immense precision but can also cause a fixation on minute details.
  • Invoking this Aspect: A player can spend a Fate Point to invoke this for a +2 bonus or a reroll on any Crafts, Burglary, or Notice roll that involves intricate details, delicate manipulation, or perceiving things by touch.
  • Compelling this Aspect: A GM can offer a Fate Point to compel this. For example: “Your Hands That See the Unseen are so fascinated by the complex magical ward on the door that you fail to notice the guard patrol rounding the corner. It seems you’ve become Dangerously Preoccupied.”
  • Stunts Granted:
    • Alchemical Immunity: Because I wear the Wraps of the Patient Hand, my hands are immune to contact poisons and acids. I can automatically Overcome obstacles that involve handling such hazardous materials without needing to roll.
    • Diagnostic Touch: Because I wear the Wraps of the Patient Hand, twice per session, I can pay a Fate Point to instantly discover a crucial physical detail about an object or person I am touching. I can apply a relevant situation Aspect with one free invocation, such as Hidden Structural Flaw on a wall, Faltering Mechanism on a trap, or Tell-Tale Tremor on a nervous person.

Numenera & Cypher System

Tactile Harmonizer Wraps

  • This artifact from a prior world appears as a pair of dark, fibrous, fingerless gloves that seem to subtly shift and re-weave themselves. When worn, they bond with the user’s nervous system, filtering sensory input and providing unparalleled fine-motor control.
  • Level: 7
  • Form: A pair of semi-living, self-repairing synth-fiber wraps.
  • Effect: Passively, the wearer’s hands are immune to damage or negative effects from contact with caustic chemicals, toxins, or extreme temperatures.
  • Enabler: The wearer’s hands are unnaturally steady. Any task requiring fine manual dexterity (such as surgery, disabling a device, or delicate repair) is eased.
  • Action: The wearer can attune the wraps to a specific, delicate task they are about to perform. For the next minute, any roll for that specific action is eased by two steps (for example, a difficulty 6 task becomes difficulty 4). After this effect ends, the user must make a depletion roll.
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (Check only when the primary Action is used.)

Pathfinder (2nd Edition)

Artisan’s Deft Wraps

  • Item 7
  • Traits: Magical, Invested, Divination, Worn
  • Price: 340 gp
  • Usage: Worn, gloves
  • These dark, fingerless wraps are woven from a material that is as soft as silk but as durable as cured hide. They feel cool to the touch and seem to guide the wearer’s hands with an unseen intelligence.
  • Passive: While you have these wraps invested, your hands are protected from injury, and you are not required to have a free hand to wield or Activate items that are etched onto the wraps. You gain a +1 item bonus to Crafting, Medicine, and Thievery checks.
  • Activate [One-Action] command, interact; Frequency once per 10 minutes; Effect You touch a creature, object, or hazard. You learn one of its lowest weaknesses, or you learn its highest resistance or immunity. If the target is a hazard, you learn its description, its disable requirements, and its routine. This functions as the Learn a Spell cantrip, but for a physical object.
  • Activate [Reaction] command; Frequency once per day; Trigger You successfully Strike a creature with an unarmed attack, or successfully Grapple or Shove them; Effect You apply a single dose of a poison or oil from a container you are holding to the creature you triggered this action against.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

The Surgeon’s Wraps

  • Magical Gear
  • A pair of dark, fingerless wraps made from the silk of an impossibly large and clever spider. They are cool to the touch and seem to cling to the wearer’s hands, moving like a second skin. They are legendary among alchemists, spies, and, as the name implies, back-alley surgeons.
  • Protection: The wearer’s hands are immune to contact poisons, acids, and diseases.
  • Skill Bonus: The wraps provide a +2 bonus to all Healing, Repair, and Thievery rolls.
  • Edge Granted: The wearer is considered to have the Healer Edge. If they already possess the Healer Edge, their “Golden Hour” bonus with the Healing skill increases from +2 to +4.
  • Special Ability – Diagnostic Touch: Once per encounter, as a limited free action, the user can touch an opponent and make a Notice roll. On a success, they spot a weakness in the target’s armor or defenses, granting them a +2 bonus to their next attack roll against that foe. With a raise, the bonus increases to +4 as they spot a critical flaw.

Shadowrun, 6th Edition

Deft-Touch Weavegloves

  • Advanced Gear
  • A high-fashion, high-function pair of fingerless gloves crafted from a proprietary blend of ballistic fiber and magically-treated arachnid silk. Micro-actuators and sensor arrays line the interior, providing unparalleled tactile feedback and stability to the user’s hands. They are a favored tool of elite surgeons, demolitionists, and high-stakes cat burglars.
  • Rating: 4
  • Availability: 12R
  • Cost: 25,000 nuyen
  • Effects:
    • The wearer gains a dice pool bonus of +2 on all tests using the Biotech, Engineering, and Thievery skills.
    • The gloves’ outer layer is non-reactive, rendering the wearer’s hands immune to contact toxins and acids with a Rating equal to or less than the gloves’ Rating (4).
    • Subtle Action: Once per run, the user may perform an incredibly subtle action requiring manual dexterity (such as planting a tag, applying a contact-vector toxin, or lifting a keycard) as part of another seemingly innocuous movement. This action does not require a test and is automatically successful unless directly opposed by an observer with active magical or cybernetic sensory enhancements.

Starfinder

Micro-Tactile Wraps

  • Hybrid Item, Level 7
  • Price: 6,800 credits
  • Slot: Hands
  • Bulk: L
  • These dark, fingerless wraps are woven with biotech filaments that form a direct neural link with the wearer’s peripheral nervous system. This enhances their sense of touch to a microscopic level, allowing them to feel stress fractures in metal or the subtle signs of disease in living tissue.
  • Bonuses: The wraps grant a +2 item bonus to Engineering, Medicine, and Sleight of Hand checks.
  • Protection: Your hands are immune to the effects of items or substances that would inflict the poisoned or corroded condition upon contact.
  • Special Ability: As a move action, you can prime the wraps’ diagnostic sensors, which lasts for 1 minute or until used. The next time you make a successful unarmed strike against a creature or touch an object, you learn one useful, non-obvious physical property about it. This could be a creature’s lowest saving throw bonus, an object’s Hardness and HP, or a trap’s trigger mechanism.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Diagnostic Manipulator Gloves

  • Advanced Equipment, Tech Level 14
  • A pair of thin, fingerless gloves lined with a network of sophisticated micro-sensors and manipulators. Originally designed for performing microsurgery in zero-gravity environments, they have found uses in fields requiring extreme precision, from bomb disposal to archaeological restoration.
  • Cost: Cr 75,000
  • Skill Bonus: The gloves are a self-contained toolkit. The wearer gains one Boon die on all Mechanic, Medic, and Deception (when used for sleight of hand) checks.
  • Protection: The outer layer is a non-reactive polymer, protecting the user’s hands from vacuum exposure, corrosive agents, and contact toxins.
  • Diagnostic Pulse: Once per session, the user may activate the gloves’ diagnostic pulse on an object or creature they are touching. This provides one critical piece of information to the user, such as “the power conduit is failing,” “the subject suffers from a specific respiratory virus,” or “this lock mechanism has a rusted tumbler.” This grants a Boon die to any subsequent actions taken based on that specific information.
  • Power: The gloves are powered by one standard power pack, which is consumed after 48 hours of use.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

Spider-Silk Surgeon’s Wraps

  • Magical Clothing
  • It is whispered that these dark, fingerless wraps were woven by an outcast Elven artisan from the silk of shadow-spiders, treated with alchemy to grant the wearer an impossible sense of touch. They are unnervingly smooth and cool, and seem to cling to the hands of their own accord. They are a priceless treasure for any physician, alchemist, or master thief.
  • Qualities: Magical, Elven-Craft
  • Passive Effects:
    • The wearer’s hands are immune to all non-magical contact Poisons and the effects of Corrosive substances.
    • The wearer gains a +20 bonus to all Heal, Sleight of Hand, and Trade (Apothecary) Tests that involve manual dexterity.
  • Active Ability – Flawless Touch: Once per session, the wearer may declare they are using the wraps’ full power for a single, delicate manual task (such as picking a very complex lock, performing life-or-death surgery, or disarming a trap). They may automatically treat the result of their Skill Test as if they had rolled a 01 (an Astounding Success), regardless of what they actually roll. The mental strain of this perfect act inflicts one Fatigued Condition on the user.