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Terran Vest 91

—

by

Dale
in

From: Lineage 13 of the Veridian

This remarkable jerkin is crafted from cured, supple ironwood leather, but its true nature lies in what grows upon it. It is interwoven with a hardy, symbiotic species of emerald-green moss native to Liatris’s home grove. This living moss acts as a personal ecosystem, filtering pollutants from the air and drawing faint nourishment from the ambient humidity and sunlight. By carrying a piece of her natural environment with her, the vest actively works to stave off the effects of Urban Withering, granting her greater resilience and endurance while away from the wild.

Expounded Lore

This vest is more than a piece of armor; it is a living heirloom, a fragment of a Veridian’s ancestral home made manifest. The specific symbiotic moss woven into its fibers is known as “Grove-Heart Moss,” a species that evolved in perfect harmony with the Veridian lineage of Liatris’s home. It does not merely grow on the ironwood leather; its filaments have merged with the leather on a cellular level, creating a single, hybrid organism. The crafting process is a sacred trust, where the leather is treated with herbal distillations for a year, allowing the moss to take root and form a neural-like network within it.

The number “91” is not a model number but a lineage marker, signifying that this particular vest was crafted by a Veridian ancestor during their 91st cycle of rebirth. It was created to survive a bygone era of industrial blight, a time of alchemical smog and poisoned earth. The moss actively metabolizes toxins, drawing in pollutants from the air and water, breaking them down into harmless base elements, and releasing purified air and a nutrient-rich moisture that the Veridian wearer can absorb through their skin. It is, in effect, a portable and wearable ecosystem, constantly working to maintain the sacred balance of its wearer’s body against an imbalanced world.

Item Values

  • Tier 1 Stats: +1 Constitution
  • Skills Gained: Proficiency in Survival. You have Advantage on saving throws made to resist exhaustion from forced marches or environmental exposure.
  • Passive Magics:
    • Symbiotic Filtration: You have Advantage on saving throws against diseases and ingested poisons. The moss on the vest actively works to neutralize toxins that enter your system.
    • Ecological Anchor: The effects of the Urban Withering lineage flaw are suppressed. Instead of gaining exhaustion weekly, you need only make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw at the end of each full month spent away from nature. On a failure, you gain one level of exhaustion. This DC increases by 2 for each consecutive month spent away.
    • Earthen Sustenance: The living moss draws faint nourishment from ambient light and humidity, providing it to you. You require only half the normal amount of food and water each day to remain healthy.
  • Activatable Magics:
    • Verdant Renewal (1/Day): As a bonus action, you can draw upon the stored life energy within the vest to heal yourself. You can expend one of your Hit Dice and roll it as you normally would, but you do not need to be taking a short rest. You regain hit points equal to the roll + your Constitution modifier.
    • Purifying Burst (2/Day): As a reaction to you or an adjacent ally being subjected to an effect involving poisonous gas or toxic air, you can force the moss to rapidly hyper-filter its surroundings. This creates a 5-foot radius bubble of pure, clean air for a brief moment, granting Advantage on the saving throw against that specific airborne effect for you and any creatures within the bubble.
  • Specific Slot: Chest Slot
  • Tags: Living Item, Veridian, Symbiotic, Protective, Purifying, Heirloom, Resilience, Ecological, Biotic, Restorative, Toxin-Proof, Ancestral, Masterwork, Adaptive

The Terran Vest 91 is far more than an item of clothing; it is a living, ancestral heirloom, a literal piece of a Veridian’s soul and home. It would not be sold willingly. Its appearance on any market is a sign of great tragedy—that its owner has died and their most sacred possession has been looted. The venues where it could be bought and sold are therefore extremely specialized and reflect vastly different valuations of life and history.

1. The Specialist Repatriation Broker

  • Type of Shop: This is not a shop with a sign, but a discreet, word-of-mouth service run by a broker who specializes in recovering culturally significant artifacts. This individual, perhaps a long-lived Elf or a well-connected historian, operates under a professional title like “The Steward’s Compact.” They work for a clientele that values provenance and heritage above all else. They would acquire the vest through informants who track the movements of grave-robbers and unscrupulous adventurers.
  • How It Is Bought & Sold: This item would never see a public listing. The broker, understanding its sacred nature, would consider its sale a solemn duty of repatriation. They would first attempt to contact any surviving Veridian, offering them the chance to reclaim their lost heritage. The transaction would be a private, respectful meeting. If no Veridian could be found, they might offer it to a museum-like institution or a highly ethical collector who would vow to preserve it.
  • Cost: The price is one of reverence and obligation.
    • To a Veridian: The cost would likely not be monetary. It would be a promise of a future great service, the sharing of a rare secret, or a geas to help the broker in a future endeavor of equal significance.
    • To a Collector: If sold for coin, the price would be astronomical, reflecting its absolute irreplaceability. Price: 12,000+ Gold Sovereigns, along with a magically binding contract to never damage, dissect, or resell the item.

2. The Pragmatic Guild Outfitter

  • Type of Shop: A high-end, exclusive outfitter that caters to the practical needs of powerful organizations like an Explorer’s League or Miner’s Guild. This establishment, known as “The Procurer’s Office,” values function over history. They would acquire the vest from an adventurer who looted it, seeing it only as a remarkable piece of biological armor.
  • How It Is Bought & Sold: The vest would be stripped of its story and listed under a purely functional title like “Symbiotic Toxin-Filter Jerkin.” Its properties—poison resistance, reduced need for rations, resilience to harsh environments—would be clinically tested and detailed. It would be sold or issued to a high-ranking guild member undertaking an exceptionally hazardous mission, such as exploring a poison-gas-filled ruin or a magically blighted swamp.
  • Cost: The price is based entirely on its utility, calculated against the cost of lives, healing potions, and antitoxins it would save.
    • Price: 5,000 – 7,000 Gold Sovereigns. Alternatively, the Guild might retain ownership, loaning it out to members in exchange for a larger share of the mission’s profits or as a reward for distinguished service.

3. The Vivisectionist’s Black Market

  • Type of Shop: The darkest possible destination for the vest. This is a secret market where amoral alchemists, flesh-crafters, and forbidden scholars trade in unique living organisms. It has no name and its location constantly changes, accessible only to those with the right connections and a complete lack of scruples.
  • How It Is Bought & Sold: Here, the vest is viewed not as armor, but as a biological specimen. It would be advertised as a “Self-sustaining, toxin-metabolizing life-form, suitable for dissection and reverse-engineering.” It would be sold at a gruesome, private auction to bidders who want to peel the living moss from the leather, culture its tissues, and unlock the secrets of its regenerative and purifying properties for their own twisted experiments. The transaction is cold, clinical, and utterly profane.
  • Cost: The price is set by the bidders’ obsession and depravity.
    • Price: An auction starting at 6,000 Gold Sovereigns, but likely escalating much higher. The currency here is often not just coin, but includes rare monster parts, living subjects for other experiments, or forbidden alchemical texts. The purchase of the vest in this market is effectively a death sentence for the living organism that it is.

Of course. The Terran Vest 91 is an item of resilience and symbiosis. Its use in combat is almost entirely about outlasting, protecting, and turning an opponent’s own toxic strategies against them.

1. In a Toxic Environment (Alchemist’s Lab, Poisoned Swamp, etc.)

This is the environment where the vest’s true power is most apparent.

Roleplaying Defense:

  • Against an Area-of-Effect Hazard: An enemy shatters a flask, flooding the room with a cloud of debilitating poison gas, or the party must cross a bog that exhales toxic fumes.
    • Roleplay: “As the acrid green fog fills my lungs, a choking instinct grips me, but it’s immediately replaced by a cool, clean sensation. I can feel the moss on my vest tingle, almost vibrating with activity. It’s like having a personal filter for the world; the air right next to my skin is pure and sweet. I can see the poison cloud, I can feel its sting on my exposed eyes, but the threat of suffocation is gone. I stand steady while others fall back.”
  • Against a Direct Poisoning: You are struck by a blade coated in a fast-acting venom or drink from a tainted water source.
    • Roleplay: “I feel the poison’s fire race up my arm from the cut. It’s a familiar, terrifying feeling. But then, a second sensation begins—a cool, steady pulse from my chest. I place a hand over the vest and can almost feel the moss working in harmony with my own body, its ancient life force identifying the foreign toxin and beginning to break it down. The feverish heat in my veins subsides to a dull ache. I grit my teeth and fight on, knowing my second skin is fighting with me.”

Roleplaying Offense:

  • Turning the Tables on a Foe: A villain triggers a trap, expecting to seal you in a room filled with poison gas while they escape.
    • Roleplay: “The villain laughs as the portcullis falls, leaving us to die. ‘Breathe deep!’ he mocks from the other side. My companions rush to the door, pounding on it, but I simply walk toward the gas vents. He can’t see me clearly through the swirling fumes. I am completely unharmed, a silent shape moving within the poison. I can examine the room for another exit, disable the trap mechanism, or simply stand there and wait, turning his deathtrap into my own private, temporary fortress. The look on his face when I emerge from the dissipating gas completely unharmed will be its own reward.”
  • Pressing the Advantage: You are fighting an enemy, like a Medusa or Basilisk, that relies on a petrifying or poisonous gaze/breath weapon in their lair.
    • Roleplay: “While my allies avert their eyes and fight with caution, I can meet the creature’s gaze directly. The vest can’t stop me from turning to stone, but its constant filtering gives me a powerful advantage against its lesser toxic breath. It expects me to flinch and look away, giving it an opening. I will not. By walking forward, weathering the worst of its poisonous aura, I can force it into melee, taking away its primary tactical advantage and creating an opening for my friends.”

2. In a Plague-Ridden City or Infested Sewer

This environment tests the vest’s ability to protect against biological threats and the psychological drain of urban decay.

Roleplaying Defense:

  • Navigating a Quarantine: You must move through a district teeming with a highly contagious disease to reach an objective.
    • Roleplay: “I move through the street, a ghost among the suffering. The vest is a constant, reassuring weight on my shoulders. It’s not a ward of blazing magic, but a quiet, living shield. It anchors me to the purity of my grove, creating a bulwark against the sickness that hangs heavy in the air. This allows me to minister to the sick, to search for clues, or to pass through the quarantine zone without the constant fear of infection that plagues others.”
  • Sustained Urban Operations: The party has been in the sprawling, unnatural city for weeks, and the Veridian’s natural connection to the world is fraying.
    • Roleplay: “My friend, the dwarf, complains of the city’s grime, but I feel a deeper exhaustion—the Urban Withering. It’s a soul-deep weariness. But when I pull the Terran Vest tighter, I can feel the moss breathing with me. It’s a small patch of green sanity in a world of stone and steel. It doesn’t erase the longing for home, but it holds the exhaustion at bay, allowing me to function and continue our mission when I might otherwise have faltered.”

Roleplaying Offense:

  • Facing Bioweaponry: The local thieves’ guild uses rabid, diseased dogs or giant rats as guards, relying on the fear of their infectious bites to deter intruders.
    • Roleplay: “The snarling dogs leap from the shadows, their jaws dripping with diseased saliva. My allies form a defensive circle, rightly fearing their bite. I, however, can be the spear tip. ‘Hold them off me!’ I shout, as I charge through the pack. A bite that would be a death sentence for another is a mere flesh wound to me, as I can feel the vest’s symbiotic power fighting the infection before it can take hold. By ignoring their primary weapon, I can get to their master while he still believes he is safe behind his wall of pestilence.”

3. In a Barren Wasteland or High-Altitude Peak

This environment highlights the vest’s properties of sustenance and personal restoration.

Roleplaying Defense:

  • Enduring Privation: The party’s food and water supplies are running dangerously low during a long, arduous journey.
    • Roleplay: “Everyone is rationing, each sip of water a painful decision. I quietly pass my own canteen to our fighter, who needs it most. When he looks at me with concern, I just tap my chest. The vest is taking care of me. It pulls moisture from the dry morning air and seems to draw energy from the sun itself. I am not thriving, but I am sustained. My endurance becomes a resource for the entire party.”
  • Recovering from Injury: You’ve taken a serious blow in combat and there is no time for a proper rest.
    • Roleplay: “We have to keep moving. I stumble, pressing a hand to the bleeding wound in my side. I can’t stop. I close my eyes for a second, focusing inward, and activate Verdant Renewal. It’s not a flash of light. It’s a deep, earthy warmth that spreads from the vest into my body. It feels like the slow, inexorable strength of a root pushing through stone. The bleeding stops, the pain recedes to a dull throb. I can keep going.”

Roleplaying Offense:

  • A Battle of Attrition: You are chasing an enemy through a desolate landscape, and they are trying to win by leading you on a death march, expecting you to collapse from exhaustion.
    • Roleplay: “Our quarry thinks he is clever, leading us into the salt flats. He believes the sun and thirst will be his allies. But day after day, while he grows weary, I remain steady. My need for water is less, my resilience against the sun is greater. I am the engine that keeps the pursuit going. We will run him to ground because he has led us into a place where my ability to endure becomes my greatest offensive weapon. He will break long before my vest does.”

Perception of Activation:

User’s Perspective (The Wearer)

By the Five Senses

  • Sight: A soft, verdant glow emanates from your chest, visible even through your outer clothing like a personal, internal lantern. If you look down, you can see faint, root-like patterns of green light tracing across your own skin beneath where the vest sits.
  • Hearing: The world outside goes quiet, replaced by a deep, resonant thrumming that you feel more in your bones than hear with your ears. It is the sound of life on a massive scale—like hearing the sap move in an entire forest at once.
  • Touch: A profound, spreading warmth originates from your torso, flowing outwards to your limbs. It is not the heat of a fire, but the vital warmth of life itself, like basking in the first sun after a long winter. The vest itself seems to pulse slowly against your skin, as if it is breathing with you.
  • Smell: An intense, overwhelming scent of rich, damp earth, crushed moss, and fresh rain fills your senses, completely overpowering any other smells in the environment. It is the scent of home.
  • Taste: A clean, mineral-rich flavor, like drinking from a deep, cold, natural spring, washes over your palate.

By Extra-Sensory Perception

  • Somatic/Kinesthetic: This is the most powerful sensation. It is the feeling of mending. Aches fade, exhaustion recedes, and you can physically feel the life energy knitting tissues back together. You feel profoundly stable and rooted to the ground, as if you could withstand a hurricane.
  • Spiritual/Metaphysical: You feel an immediate and powerful connection to your home grove, a tangible tether of belonging that stretches across any distance. It’s a forceful reminder of your true nature, a spiritual anchor that grounds you and pushes back against any feelings of unnaturalness or corruption from your surroundings.

Positives

  • An immediate surge of vitality, resilience, and physical fortitude. Pain is dulled and replaced by a feeling of healing.
  • Fear of physical harm diminishes, replaced by a deep-seated confidence in your ability to endure.
  • It provides an immense sense of spiritual security and rootedness, fighting off feelings of despair or alienation.

Negatives

  • The powerful sensory experience (the deep hum, the overwhelming scent of earth) can be distracting, making it difficult to perceive subtle external sounds or smells.
  • The profound feeling of being rooted and stable can make you feel slow and deliberate, potentially hindering your ability to perform rapid, acrobatic movements.

Observer’s Perspective

By the Five Senses

  • Sight: A soft but undeniable emerald-green light begins to glow from the wearer’s chest, bright enough to be visible through a tunic or cloak. If the vest itself is visible, the moss woven into it flares with vibrant life, and faint, glowing green lines can be seen pulsing through the leather like bioluminescent veins.
  • Hearing: If you are very close and the area is quiet, you may hear a very low-frequency thrumming sound, like a deep bass note being held indefinitely.
  • Touch: If you touch the wearer, a noticeable and pleasant warmth radiates from their torso. If the Purifying Burst ability is used, you feel a brief, forceful pulse of clean air push outwards from the wearer.
  • Smell: The air in a 10-foot radius around the wearer is suddenly and powerfully filled with the scent of a deep, wet forest floor and fresh rain. The smell is often shockingly out of place in a city or dungeon.
  • Taste: None.

By Extra-Sensory Perception

  • Magical/Aural: Anyone with the ability to perceive magic would see a powerful, rolling aura of restorative life-energy swell around the wearer. The magic feels ancient, primal, and deeply tied to the natural world—less like a cast spell and more like a fundamental process of nature being accelerated.
  • Environmental: In the immediate vicinity of the activation, non-sentient life may react. Wilted plants might momentarily perk up, small animals may pause their activities, and the very air feels cleaner and more vital for a few moments.

Positives

  • To an ally, the effect is an unambiguous and reassuring sign of healing and protection. The light and scent are non-threatening and often calming.
  • The cleansing effect of the activation can be a welcome reprieve in a foul-smelling or toxic environment.

Negatives

  • The sudden, powerful display of primal magic is an unmistakable sign of the wearer’s abilities, immediately marking them as a potent nature-wielder to any enemy.
  • In a superstitious or zealously religious area, such a raw and untamed display of natural power could be mistaken for witchcraft or chaotic magic, drawing unwanted attention.
  • An intelligent foe will immediately recognize the wearer as having powerful defensive capabilities, making them a priority target to be eliminated with focused, overwhelming force.

Artisan’s Formula: The Symbiotic Aegis

Materials Needed

  • Core Armor Component: The cured and treated hide of a mature Ridgeback Behemoth. (Note: The hide is notoriously resistant to conventional tanning. It must be cured using a specific alchemical process to retain its flexible, life-receptive properties.)
  • Living Symbiote: A large, healthy culture of Sun-Glade Moss. (This vibrant, emerald moss is known for its purifying qualities and its ability to draw sustenance from ambient light. The culture must be kept alive and moist throughout the entire crafting process.)
  • Stitching & Reinforcement: One spool of finely spun Adamantine Thread. (Necessary to pierce the incredibly durable hide and provide a framework that will not corrode or decay over time.)
  • Symbiotic Catalyst: The Heartwood of an ancient Ironwood tree. (This must be a piece of the core wood, willingly given by the tree’s resident dryad or nature spirit, as wood taken by force will be inert.)
  • Alchemical Solution: Three vials of Life-Infused Primer. (A complex alchemical concoction requiring powdered river pearls, morning dew, and a few drops of the intended wearer’s own blood for final attunement.)

Tools Required

  • Masterwork Leatherworker’s Kit: Standard tools will break against the Ridgeback hide. Hardened steel awls, cutters, and hammers are required.
  • An Alchemical Workstation: A full set of glassware, including an alembic and retort, is needed to safely mix and heat the potent Life-Infused Primer.
  • A Consecrated Greenhouse or Magical Terrarium: A controlled environment with regulated light and humidity is essential for cultivating the Sun-Glade Moss and overseeing its integration with the hide.
  • Ritual Carving Tools: A set of delicate but sharp obsidian or ivory knives used to carve fine, shallow channels into the surface of the hide for the moss to take root.

Skill Requirements

  • Mastery in Leatherworking: Required to cut, shape, and stitch the notoriously difficult Ridgeback hide without ruining it.
  • Expertise in Alchemy: To successfully create the Life-Infused Primer and the separate curing solution for the hide, balancing their volatile components.
  • Proficiency in Herbalism or Nature: To properly handle, cultivate, and encourage the growth of the living Sun-Glade Moss.
  • A Palpable Bond with Nature: The process requires a deep, spiritual connection. A crafter who views nature merely as a resource to be exploited will find the moss withers and the primer turns inert. This is a roleplaying requirement left to the GM’s discretion.

Crafting Steps

  1. Formulating the Primer: The first step is alchemical. The powdered river pearls are carefully dissolved into the morning dew over a low, magical heat. Once the solution is shimmering with a faint iridescence, it is removed from the heat and allowed to cool. Finally, a few drops of your own blood are stirred in, causing the solution to flash once with a soft green light, attuning it to your life force.
  2. Curing the Hide: The Ridgeback hide is submerged in a separate, non-magical curing bath for three days to make it pliable. Once removed, it must be painstakingly carved with a network of shallow, swirling channels using the ritual knives. This pattern will guide the growth of the moss.
  3. Seeding the Symbiote: The carved hide is laid flat within the controlled environment of the greenhouse. The living Sun-Glade Moss culture is carefully crumbled and pressed into the prepared channels. The entire hide is then sprayed with a light misting of the Life-Infused Primer to initiate the bonding process.
  4. The Month-Long Integration: This phase requires patience. For thirty days, the hide must be tended to. It must be kept at a consistent humidity and temperature and fed a few drops of the Life-Infused Primer each morning. You will slowly see the moss spread from the channels, its tiny filaments merging with the leather itself until the entire surface is a network of vibrant green and tough hide.
  5. Final Assembly & Awakening: Once the integration is complete, the living leather is now ready. Using the Masterwork Leatherworker’s Kit and Adamantine Thread, the hide is cut and stitched into the final vest shape. The carved Ironwood Heartwood is stitched over the sternum to act as a focal point. The crafting is complete, but the Aegis is dormant. To awaken it, you must wear it for 24 consecutive hours, allowing your own heartbeat and life energy to fully merge with the now-symbiotic organism. You will know it is awake when you feel the first, gentle pulse of warmth from the Heartwood.

Ninety-First Man and Skin of Home

This is the story of the Ninety-First Man. It is not his first story, for his breath-ghost was old and had seen many seasons. But this is the story of his great making, in the Age of Smoke.

In that time, the world of men grew loud and began to build forests of stone. These cities were a great wound upon the earth. A Veridian could go into them, to trade or to learn, but he could not stay. If a Veridian Person put his foot on the carved stone of the city for too many suns, his spirit would forget the good soil. A sickness would take him. A sickness called the Grey Fading. His skin would become like dust, and his breath would become shallow, and a great tiredness would take him to the final slumber. For the Veridian must have his roots, and the stone has no roots. And it was so.

The Ninety-First Man was a great tender of his grove. He had a student, a young one called Little Sapling, who was bright with questions. Little Sapling wished to go to the great City of Choking Soot to learn the ways of men, so he might teach the Veridian how to speak with them. The Ninety-First Man had a heavy liver about this, but he let the young one go.

For a year, there was no word. Then a trader brought a message, a single, dry leaf with words scratched upon it. It said: Master, the stone is eating my life.

The Ninety-First Man knew the Grey Fading had taken his student. He must go to the city. But he knew his own breath-ghost, though old, would also be eaten by the stone. He could not carry the forest on his back. So he thought, if I cannot carry the forest, I will wear a piece of it. I will make a second skin, a skin of home.

First, he needed a hide that held life strongly. He went into the deep woods and hunted the Beast-That-Stands-Up-Again, whose hide would heal from a wound even after it was taken. Its skin was a promise against ending. He cured it not with salt, which is of the barren places, but with the sap of the Elder Tree, which is of life.

Second, he needed a heart for his new skin. He went to the Place of Slumber, the sacred hollow where his eighty-ten bodies before had been laid to rest and returned to the soil. There, over the old bones, grew a moss. It was an emerald green, bright like a new leaf, and it was fat with the memory of his own past life. This was the Grove’s Heart, his own life returned as a green blanket.

Third, he needed a spirit to bind the heart to the skin. He went to the Great Mother Tree, the oldest in the grove. He did not take from her. He made a promise. He promised that a piece of her would see the world of men and not forget its home, and would one day return. The tree, hearing the truth in his inner-fire, dropped a single piece of its oldest, hardest heart-wood at its roots.

He took these three things. He stitched the moss to the hide with thread made from roots. He set the heart-wood over the place where a man’s own heart beats. He worked for a moon, and did not sleep. When it was done, he had made a jerkin, a vest. It was a heavy thing, full of dirt and life and memory.

He wore the Skin of Home and went to the City of Choking Soot. The air tasted of hot metal, but the vest gave him the taste of clean water. The hard stone echoed with angry shouts, but the vest gave him the feeling of soft moss under his feet. The Grey Fading saw him, but it could not touch him, for he wore his home.

He found Little Sapling in a high tower, far from the earth. The young one was pale, a leaf in winter. His breath was a small, sad thing. He was near the final slumber. The Ninety-First Man took off the vest and put its great weight on the shoulders of his student.

And a great thing happened. A color of green, like new life, came back into the skin of Little Sapling. He took a great breath, and it did not taste of soot, but of the deep forest. The vest was breathing for him. He stood up, his tiredness lessened. The stone was no longer eating his life, for he was wrapped in the life of the Grove. He was rooted once more. And it was so.

The Moral of the Story: A great wall of stone cannot protect you from all sickness. Sometimes, to keep from fading, you must wear the soil of your home like a second skin.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Aegis of the Grove Heart Armor (studded leather), rare (requires attunement)

This remarkable suit of +1 studded leather appears to be interwoven with a living, emerald-green moss that covers the cured hide in swirling, organic patterns. The moss feels supple and warm to the touch, and the armor emits a faint, clean scent of rich soil and rainwater.

While wearing this armor, you gain the following benefits:

  • You have a +1 bonus to Armor Class.
  • You have advantage on saving throws against poison and disease.
  • You only need to consume half the normal amount of food and water each day to avoid exhaustion.
  • The armor has 3 charges and regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn. You can expend its charges for the following effects:
    • Verdant Renewal (1 Charge): As a bonus action, you can draw upon the life energy of the armor to heal yourself. You can expend one of your Hit Dice to regain a number of hit points equal to the roll + your Constitution modifier.
    • Purifying Burst (1 Charge): As a reaction when you or a creature within 5 feet of you is forced to make a saving throw against an airborne poison or gas, you can cause the moss to flare with life, granting advantage on that saving throw.

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Gaea-Weave Jerkin Strange Artifact

A thick, leather-like jerkin made from the hide of an unknown creature, interwoven with a species of alien, emerald-green moss that appears to be alive. It feels unnervingly warm and seems to slowly pulse with a life of its own. It offers incredible resilience to its wearer, but at the cost of forming a symbiotic bond with a life form whose existence defies terrestrial biology.

  • Physical Resilience: The wearer gains one Bonus Die on all CON rolls made to resist the effects of disease, poison, and environmental hazards (such as extreme heat or cold).
  • Symbiotic Sustenance: The wearer only needs to consume approximately one-quarter of the normal amount of food and water, as the moss seems to provide nourishment through an unknown process.
  • Verdant Restoration: Once per day, the wearer can draw upon the life force of the jerkin to restore 1d4 Hit Points. This process is deeply unsettling, and using this ability requires a Sanity roll, with a loss of 0/1d2 SAN as the user feels the alien organism mend their flesh from the inside out.
  • Attunement: To wear the jerkin effectively, an Investigator must wear it for 24 hours and succeed on a Hard POW roll. Failure indicates a hostile rejection by the symbiont, inflicting a Bout of Madness (see Call of Cthulhu Rulebook) as the user’s mind is temporarily overwhelmed by the moss’s alien consciousness.
  • Sanity Loss: 0/1d4 Sanity points to first wear the jerkin; 1/1d6 Sanity points to fully comprehend that it is a single, living entity that has merged with the hide.

Blades in the Dark

The Sump-Moss Vest Special Armor | Heavy | Arcane

A relic from a forgotten time, this thick, dark leather vest is covered in a hardy, glowing green moss that thrives in the toxic environment of Duskvol. It is said the moss is a descendant of strange flora that grew in the deeps, and it actively filters the poisons and filth of the city, granting incredible resilience to its wearer.

  • Heavy Armor: When you wear this vest, you can mark armor boxes to reduce or avoid consequences. You start with 2 boxes.
  • Living Filter: When you would suffer a consequence as a result of poison, disease, or a toxic environment, you may mark one of your armor boxes to ignore the consequence entirely.
  • Symbiotic Vigor: Once per score, you may take a moment to draw on the vest’s strange life force. Clear one level of Harm. Describe how the moss grows over the wound, cleansing it before receding.
  • Unburdened by Nature: Unlike typical heavy armor, the Sump-Moss Vest is flexible and quiet. It does not inflict a penalty die on Prowl or Finesse rolls.

Knave (2nd Edition)

Symbiotic Moss-Hide Superior Hide Armor

A suit of tough, dark leather armor interwoven with thick, living moss. It feels warm and pulses with a slow, steady rhythm. The moss seems to actively clean itself and provides a surprising degree of protection from more than just blades.

  • Defense: 13
  • Slots: Occupies 2 inventory slots.
  • Properties:
    • You have Advantage on saving throws made against poison and disease.
    • You do not need to eat or drink while wearing this armor.
    • Once per day, you may touch the armor and regain 1d8 of your lost Hit Points.
  • Drawback – Sunlight Dependent: If the armor is not exposed to at least one hour of direct sunlight each day, the moss withers and its special properties (Advantage on saves, sustenance, and healing) cease to function. The armor’s Defense remains 13. The properties are restored after the armor spends a full day in sunlight.

Fate Core System

The Earth-Skin Jerkin

In Fate, a powerful item like this is best represented as an inseparable part of the character, granting them a new Aspect and unique stunts that flow from it.

New Character Aspect: Clad in the Living Heart of My Grove This Aspect represents the character’s constant, symbiotic connection to their armor. It is a source of immense resilience but also a tangible, living link to a specific place.

  • Invoking this Aspect: A player can spend a Fate Point to invoke this for a +2 bonus or a reroll on any Physique roll to overcome physical hardship (exhaustion, poison, disease, harsh environments) or to Defend against a physical attack by relying on the vest’s sheer vitality.
  • Compelling this Aspect: A GM can offer a Fate Point to compel this. For example: “The vest is a piece of a pristine, natural grove. The overwhelming corruption of this unholy temple causes it to physically recoil, placing the Aspect Nauseated by Unnatural Corruption on you.”

Stunts Granted:

  • Symbiotic Resilience: Because I am protected by The Earth-Skin Jerkin, when I would take a Mild or Moderate physical Consequence, I can spend a Fate Point to instead declare that the vest absorbed the blow, and I take no Consequence at all.
  • Verdant Renewal: Because The Earth-Skin Jerkin is alive, once per session, I can take a moment to focus inward and let it mend my wounds. I can remove any single Mild physical Consequence I have.

Numenera & Cypher System

Symbiotic Dermal Weave

This artifact appears to be a supple, dark vest made of an organic, leather-like material. It is covered in a self-regenerating, emerald-green moss that actively purifies air and water on contact. It is a sophisticated piece of autorepair and life-support bio-tech.

  • Level: 7
  • Form: A sleeveless jerkin of semi-living, fibrous tissue interwoven with a purifying moss.
  • Effect: Provides +2 Armor to the wearer. Passively, the wearer gains an asset (a +1 bonus) on all tasks to resist poison, disease, or the effects of toxic environments.
    • Enabler: The wearer can survive on only one-tenth the normal amount of food and water, as the moss provides nutrients from ambient humidity and light.
    • Action: The wearer can activate the weave’s accelerated regenerative properties. They immediately regain a number of points equal to their Tier to one Pool of their choice. This action can only be taken once every 28 hours.
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (Check each time the healing Action is used.)

Pathfinder (2nd Edition)

Grove-Tender’s Embrace Item 9 Traits: Magical, Invested, Abjuration, Healing, Rare Price: 650 gp Usage: Worn, armor

This suit of +1 resilient leather armor is covered in a thick, vibrant moss that feels warm and alive. The moss occasionally shifts its patterns and seems to draw in dust and impurities from the air, leaving it clean.

When you Invest this item, you gain resistance 5 to poison. Additionally, you are automatically adapted to severe cold and severe heat.

Activate [Reaction] command; Frequency twice per day; Trigger You or an adjacent ally attempts a saving throw against a poison or disease effect; Effect The moss flares with a purifying light. The triggering creature gains a +2 circumstance bonus to their saving throw.

Activate [One-Action] command, interact; Frequency once per day; Effect You draw upon the vest’s life energy to create a magical shield of vitality. You gain 3d8+12 temporary Hit Points. These temporary Hit Points last for 1 minute.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

The Living Hide Vest Magical Armor

This thick vest is made from the hide of some great beast, but it has been overgrown with a vibrant green moss that pulses with a slow, steady life. It is surprisingly light and moves with the wearer, offering protection not just from blows, but from the world itself.

  • Armor: Provides a +3 Armor bonus.
  • Toughness: Adds +4 to the wearer’s Toughness (+3 from Armor, +1 from its inherent vitality).
  • Resilience: The wearer gains a +2 bonus on Vigor rolls made to resist Poison, Disease, and Environmental Hazards.
  • Hardy: The wearer is considered to have the Hardy ability; a second Shaken result does not cause a Wound. This ability does not stack if the character already has Hardy.
  • Symbiotic Life: Once per day, the wearer may use an action to allow the vest to mend their wounds. This functions as a successful Healing roll with a d8 die, and it may be used to heal a Wound suffered within the last hour.
  • Living Thing (Minor Hindrance): The vest is alive and requires care. It must be soaked in at least a gallon of fresh, clean water for one hour each day. If this requirement is not met, its magical properties (the +1 to Toughness, +2 to Vigor rolls, Hardy, and Healing abilities) cease to function, though it still provides its base +3 Armor.

Shadowrun, 6th Edition

Gaea-Knit Jerkin Magical Armor

This appears to be a high-fashion armored vest or duster from a boutique eco-designer like Zoé, but matrix scans reveal no technology. It is, in fact, a sophisticated piece of bio-magical craft, weaving living, magically-active flora into a matrix of cured and hardened hide. It offers excellent protection by having the living moss and vines actively absorb and redirect kinetic energy.

  • Armor Rating: 10
  • Availability: 14R
  • Cost: 32,000 nuyen
  • Passive Effects:
    • Symbiotic Filter: The wearer gains a dice pool bonus of +3 on any test to resist the effects of toxins, pathogens, and diseases.
    • Bio-Feedback: Once per Combat Turn, after taking Physical damage (and after the resistance test), the wearer may convert up to 3 boxes of Physical damage into Stun damage. Using this ability causes a momentary psychic shock, inflicting a -1 dice pool penalty on the wearer’s next Action Phase.
  • Living System: The jerkin provides basic nutrients and hydration to the wearer. The cost of a character’s Lifestyle is considered one level lower while the jerkin is worn regularly (e.g., a Medium Lifestyle is paid for at Low Lifestyle costs).

Starfinder

Living World Aegis Light Armor, Hybrid Item Level: 9 Price: 13,500 credits EAC Bonus: +11 KAC Bonus: +12 Max Dex Bonus: +4 Armor Check Penalty: -1 Bulk: 1

This suit of armor appears to be a supple, dark green vest with a living, silvery moss growing in intricate, glowing patterns across its surface. It is a fusion of advanced life support technology and genetically engineered xenoflora, designed for explorers operating in the most hazardous biomes in the galaxy.

  • Slots: 1 Upgrade Slots: 1
  • Special Properties:
    • You gain a +2 item bonus on saving throws against poison and disease.
    • Symbiotic Regeneration: Once per day, as a move action, you can activate the armor’s regenerative capabilities to regain a number of Stamina Points equal to your character level.
    • Environmental Filter: As a reaction when you would be exposed to a dangerous gas, toxic atmosphere, or water with a poison or disease effect, you can become immune to that specific hazard for 10 minutes. This ability can be used once every 24 hours.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Ancients Bio-Regenerative Vest Artifact Body Armor, Tech Level 15

An incredibly rare and poorly understood artifact of Ancients biotechnology. The vest is a semi-living organism that bonds with a wearer, appearing as a dark, pliable material that slowly grows a fine, emerald-green moss when exposed to light and moisture. It functions as an advanced combat suit and personal life support system.

  • Protection: 9 (vs all but laser) / 6 (vs laser)
  • Skills: The vest’s integrated medical and survival systems grant the wearer one Boon die on all Survival and Medic checks. It also grants one Boon die on Endurance checks to resist disease, poison, or environmental hazards.
  • Sustenance System: The vest metabolizes ambient moisture and light to create basic nutrients. The wearer only needs to make a check for thirst or starvation once every 72 hours, instead of daily.
  • Regenerative Catalyst: Once per day, the wearer may use an action to activate the vest’s primary function. The wearer may immediately recover from the Injured and/or Fatigued status, as the vest floods their system with powerful restorative agents.
  • Exotic Maintenance: The vest must be submerged in at least 2 liters of pure, uncontaminated water for one hour each day. Failure to do so causes the living components to go dormant, reducing the armor’s Protection to 5 and deactivating all of its other special abilities until it is properly maintained.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

Jerkin of the Ever-Spring Magical Leather Jerkin

A magnificent piece of Elven craft from Athel Loren, this leather jerkin has been enchanted with the tireless life force of the forest itself. A fine, emerald-green moss grows in the leather’s grain, which, if damaged, will slowly regrow over several days. The jerkin smells perpetually of damp earth and spring rain.

  • AP: 2
  • Locations: Body
  • Qualities: Magical, Elven-Craft, Lightweight, Durable
  • Passive Properties:
    • Unending Vitality: The wearer gains a +20 bonus on all Endurance Tests made to resist Disease, Poison, and the effects of any Blighted or Corrupted environment.
    • Earthen Soul: When in an area with a Minor or Major Corruption rating, the wearer is considered to have the Strong-minded Talent at a value of 2 (or +2 to its value if they already have it) for the purpose of resisting mutations.
  • Active Ability – Blessing of Isha: Once per day, the wearer may use a Main Action to touch the jerkin and pray for vitality. They immediately heal a number of Wounds equal to 1d10 + their Willpower Bonus. This healing is pure and cannot be twisted or corrupted by the influence of Chaos.