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Crystal Pruning Shears of the Arcane Gardener 189

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by

Dale
in

From: Sequothera Capensis 742

These specialized shears are fashioned from high-quality steel with handles wrapped in acid-resistant leather to protect against the creature’s natural mucilage.

The creature uses this tool to carefully prune away dead bark, manage its black fern canopy, or harvest magical crystalline shards from its own outer cambium layer for use as crafting catalysts.

Like all tools in Saṃsāra, these shears require the possessor to be attuned to them while held in order to function as intended.

Lore of the Crystal-Pruning Shears of the Arcane Gardener 189

The Crystal-Pruning Shears 189 are a testament to the symbiotic industrialism found within the conservatory districts of Saṃsāra’s floating metropolises. During the “b” (Before People) era, the cultivation of the Black Fern was a delicate art practiced by sentient botanical gestalts who realized that their own bodies served as the most fertile soil for arcane growth. The “189” series was commissioned by the High Conservatory to address a specific biological need: the management of the crystalline “outer cambium” that develops on creatures exposed to high-density mana-vapors.

While the steel is of the highest industrial grade, the true genius lies in the acid-resistant leather wrapping. This was specifically treated to withstand the caustic, mucilage-heavy secretions of the Gardener-caste creatures, ensuring that the tool would not corrode during centuries of service. In the lore of the deep tillage, these shears are seen as an instrument of “Merciful Severance,” allowing a creature to shed the burden of its own overgrown magic in exchange for potent alchemical catalysts.

Item Specifications and Values

  • Specific Tier One Stats
    • Tier Level: 1
    • Weight: 1.5 lbs
    • Base Item Damage: 1d6 Slashing (Precision)
    • Tier Accuracy: +1 to hit against stationary or organic targets
    • Durability: Acid-Immune (Handles), Reinforced Pivot
  • Skills Gained When Openly Worn
    • Cambium Harvest: The avatar gains a +2 training bonus to checks made to extract minerals or magical reagents from biological sources.
    • Fern-Tending: Increased proficiency in the maintenance and propagation of shadow-loving flora (Black Ferns).
  • Multiple Passives Magic
    • Catalyst Resonance: When held, the shears pulse with a faint light when within 5 feet of high-purity mana-crystals.
    • Mucilage Repulsion: The acid-resistant leather creates a minor static field that prevents liquid contaminants from reaching the user’s hand slot.
    • Clean Cut: Organic materials harvested with this tool retain their “Potency” tag for 24 hours longer than usual.
    • Weightless Attunement: Once attuned, the shears feel no heavier than a feather, preventing wrist fatigue during long harvesting cycles.
  • Multiple Activatable Magics
    • Arcane Pruning: As an action, the user can “snip” at a magical effect of Tier 1 or lower. On a successful check, the effect is suppressed for 1d4 rounds.
    • Crystal Extraction: Once per long rest, the user can use the shears to instantly harvest one “Crystalline Shard” from their own outer layer (or a willing creature) without dealing damage.
    • Black Fern Canopy Flare: As a bonus action, the user can snap the shears to release a cloud of spores from their canopy, granting “Obscured” status for one round.
  • Specific Slot
    • Hand Slot (One-Handed)
  • Tags
    • Precision, Alchemical, Industrial, Botanical, Acid-Resistant, Tier-1, Harvesting, Symbiotic, Arcane, Steel, Lightweight, Bio-Organic, Catalyst-Ready, Conservatory-Grade, Crystal-Honing, Mucilage-Shielded, Mana-Sensitive, Fern-Management, Precision-Cutter, Relic-189, Shard-Harvester, Sustainable-Growth

Procurement and Commerce of the Crystal-Pruning Shears 189

Obtaining the Shears

In the world of Saṃsāra, these specialized pruning tools are typically acquired through the following methods:

  • Conservatory Assignments: High-ranking botanical gestalts or members of the Gardener-caste are often issued these shears upon reaching a specific tier of biological maturity.
  • Botanical Salvage: These shears can be recovered from the skeletal remains of ancient “Arcane Gardeners” found in the overgrown conservatory districts of floating metropolises.
  • Mana-Crystal Harvesting Rewards: Successful harvesters who deliver high-purity crystalline shards to alchemical guilds may be gifted a 189-series tool to increase their future yield.
  • Alchemical Crafting: Skilled smiths with knowledge of acid-resistant leatherwork can forge these shears using high-quality steel and specialized reagents.

Marketplaces and Costs in Saṃsāra

The Crystal-Pruning Shears 189 are sought after by both industrial botanists and alchemical scavengers, with prices fluctuating based on the presence of high-density mana-vapors in the region.

  • Metropolis Alchemical Boutiques
    • Description: These high-end shops are located in the clean-air zones of floating cities and cater to professional alchemists and estate gardeners.
    • Buying and Selling: These merchants pay premium rates for “clean” shears (those without mucilage staining) and often sell them to wealthy patrons as prestige gardening tools.
    • Cost: A pristine pair of 189 shears typically sells for 450 to 700 Gold Credits.
  • Conservatory District Supply Hubs
    • Description: Rugged, utilitarian shops located near the edge of black fern canopies that serve the needs of active field harvesters.
    • Buying and Selling: These hubs focus on functionality; they frequently buy “battle-worn” shears for refurbishment and sell them to new laborers entering the harvest.
    • Cost: Used or refurbished shears can be purchased here for 250 to 400 Gold Credits.
  • Fringe Scavenger Outposts
    • Description: Small, makeshift stalls in the lower-low places or ruins where scavengers trade salvaged industrial parts for necessities.
    • Buying and Selling: Trade is heavily reliant on the exchange of harvested crystalline shards or black fern bark rather than traditional currency.
    • Cost: The value is approximately 150 Gold Credits plus 5 High-Purity Crystalline Shards or an equivalent weight in dead bark catalysts.

Tactical Roleplay of the Crystal-Pruning Shears 189

In the complex ecosystems of Saṃsāra, the Crystal-Pruning Shears 189 are far more than a simple gardening implement; they are a tool of surgical precision used by the Arcane Gardener to navigate threats while maintaining biological and magical balance.

Offensive Roleplay and Tactics

  • Surgical Extraction: In combat against crystalline or mineral-based entities, the avatar roleplays “Arcane Pruning” by targeting the specific mana-joints or geometric weaknesses of the foe. Instead of a clumsy swing, the user roleplays a precise “snip” that severs the magical flow, temporarily numbing the enemy’s limb or suppressing their innate abilities.
  • Harvesting Under Pressure: During an offensive push into a hostile black fern canopy, the user can roleplay a high-stakes harvest. By utilizing the “Crystal Extraction” ability, they can “cut” away a piece of their own crystalline armor to throw as a distraction or to use as a sudden, explosive alchemical catalyst against an oncoming group of enemies.
  • Precision Sabotage: When infiltrating an industrial metropolis, the shears are used to silently prune away the “dead bark” of magical security lattices. Roleplay focuses on the tool’s “Clean Cut” passive, ensuring that the sabotage is so precise it does not immediately trigger alarms, allowing for a stealthy offensive entry.

Defensive Roleplay and Applications

  • Spores of the Canopy: When cornered in a dark cave system or a narrow alleyway, the avatar roleplays the activation of the “Black Fern Canopy Flare.” By snapping the shears together, they trigger a defensive spore release from their own fern layer, creating a thick, obscuring cloud that allows for a tactical retreat or a hidden counter-attack.
  • Caustic Shielding: The “Mucilage Repulsion” property of the leather handles is central to defensive roleplay. If a foe uses chemical or acidic attacks, the avatar roleplays using the shears to deflect the spray, knowing the leather creates a static field that keeps the user’s hand slot safe from corrosive “mucilage” or environmental toxins.
  • Magical De-escalation: Defensively, the shears act as a “grounding wire” for rogue magic. An avatar can roleplay catching a low-tier spell in the blades of the shears and “pruning” it out of existence. This is not a block of force, but a delicate removal of the spell’s structural integrity.
  • Endurance Gardening: In long-duration conflicts, the “Weightless Attunement” allows the avatar to stay in a defensive stance for hours without the onset of wrist fatigue. Roleplay emphasizes the gardener’s steady, unshakeable hands, even as the battle rages around the conservatory, maintaining a calm presence amidst the chaos.

Perception of Activation:

  • User’s Perspective
    • The avatar feels a cooling sensation spread through their hand as the acid-resistant leather handle subtly contracts to match their grip.
    • A high-pitched, harmonic ringing, similar to a struck tuning fork, vibrates through the avatar’s palm when the blades meet.
    • The user experiences a sharpening of visual focus, where the “cambium” or outer skin of biological entities appears to glow with a faint, translucent outline.
    • There is a distinct scent of ozone and crushed fern fronds that fills the avatar’s olfactory senses the moment the steel blades are unlocked.
    • Extra-sensory (Crystalline Resonance): The avatar “hears” the internal structural integrity of nearby crystals as musical notes; a flawed crystal sounds discordant, while a pure one sounds like a perfect chord.
    • Extra-sensory (Floral Empathy): The user feels a phantom “itch” or pressure on their own skin that corresponds exactly to where a nearby plant or the user’s own black fern canopy needs pruning.
  • Observer’s Perspective
    • Observers see the steel blades take on a mirror-like sheen that reflects light in prismatic, rainbow patterns.
    • The central pivot of the shears glows with a soft, amber light, pulsing in time with the user’s heartbeat.
    • Faint, shimmering particles—resembling crystalline dust—drift upward from the blades when they are opened.
    • A localized dampening of sound occurs around the gardener, as if the shears are “cutting” away the noise of the environment.
  • Positives
    • The “Clean Cut” passive ensures that the avatar can harvest reagents without the mess or degradation associated with standard tools.
    • “Weightless Attunement” removes all physical strain, allowing the avatar to perform delicate work with perfect steadiness regardless of their fatigue level.
    • The acid-resistant handles provide absolute safety when working with the caustic biological secretions of Saṃsāra’s flora.
  • Negatives
    • The “Catalyst Resonance” makes the avatar sensitive to high-mana environments; being near a large crystal cluster can cause a sensory-overload “headache”.
    • The distinct amber glow of the pivot makes it difficult to use the shears for stealthy activities in dark conservatory zones.
    • Because the tool is attuned to the “mucilage” of a specific creature type, using them without proper leather protection or attunement can result in a minor psychic “rebound”.

Recipe: Crystal-Pruning Shears of the Arcane Gardener 189

Materials Needed

  • High-Quality Industrial Steel: Two 10-inch billets of tempered steel, refined in a carbon-rich forge to ensure a surgical edge.
  • Acid-Resistant Leather: Hide from a deep-strata beast, treated with alkaline mineral salts to withstand caustic mucilage.
  • Amber Mana-Lens: A small, circular polished gem to act as the central pivot and arcane capacitor.
  • Crystalline Shard Catalyst: A single high-purity shard used to “teach” the steel the resonance of the cambium layer.
  • Silver Circuitry Wire: Fine-spun silver for etching the internal magic paths within the steel blades.

Tools Required

  • Precision Arcane Grinder: A magical sharpening wheel used to hone the blades to a “Clean Cut” molecular edge.
  • Alchemical Curing Vat: Used for the long-term soaking of the leather wraps to ensure acid immunity.
  • Jeweler’s Fine-Point Chisel: For the delicate engraving of the “189” batch number and the internal resonance runes.
  • Magmatic Soldering Iron: Used to fuse the silver wire and the amber lens into the pivot housing.
  • Vacuum-Seal Chamber: To bond the leather wraps to the steel handles without air pockets that could harbor corrosive mucilage.

Skill Requirements

  • Tier 1 Metallurgy: Specialized knowledge in tempering steel for precision organic cutting rather than blunt force.
  • Botanical Alchemy: An understanding of the corrosive properties of Gardener-caste mucilage and the resonance of Black Ferns.
  • Runesmithing (Miniature): Proficiency in etching functional magic circuits onto small-scale hand tools.
  • Leatherworking (Chemical Focus): Mastery of the preservation and acid-proofing of biological hides.

Crafting Steps

  • Forging the Blades: Hammer the industrial steel into two matching bypass blades, ensuring the “snip” alignment is perfect to prevent crushing the delicate cambium.
  • The Acid-Proofing: Submerge the leather strips in the alkaline curing vat for three sun-cycles, then dry them in a mana-neutral environment to ensure total resistance to natural mucilage.
  • Etching the Resonance: Use the fine-point chisel to engrave the silver-lined circuits into the inner faces of the blades, centering the patterns on the pivot point.
  • Setting the Heart: Insert the Amber Mana-Lens into the central pivot housing and solder the silver wire connections, ensuring the lens pulses when it detects the crystalline shard catalyst.
  • Honing the Edge: Grind the blades on the precision wheel until they can sever a single strand of Black Fern canopy hair without vibration.
  • The Symbiotic Wrap: Apply the treated leather to the handles within the vacuum chamber, using a specialized adhesive that bonds the leather to the steel permanently.
  • Final Attunement Test: Hold the shears near a crystalline source; the pivot must glow amber and the weight must drop to near-zero to signify a successful Batch 189 completion.

Small Mouth of 189 Which Bites Hard Light

In the times when the world was a young child and the sky-mountains were not yet tired of floating, there lived the Great Green Parent of the High Conservatory. This Parent was a creature of many leaves and much thinking. But the magic of the world was too thick, like a soup that has been cooked for too many days. Because the magic was so thick, the Great Green Parent began to grow the “Disease of the Shiny Skin.”

This skin was not soft like the moss of the dark cave places. It was the hard-light-stone, which the modern peoples call the crystal. The crystals grew out of the Parent’s arms and his head-branches. At first, the Parent said, “I am very beautiful, for I shine like the sun-we-cannot-see.” But the crystals did not stop their growing. They became heavy. They became a burden of many weights. The crystals began to choke the Black Fern Canopy which lived upon the Parent’s shoulders. The Black Ferns cried out with a silent voice of drying-up, for the crystals were stealing all the mana-soup from the air.

The Great Green Parent began to leak the “Un-Soft Water,” which is the spit-of-the-tree that burns the metal (mucilage). He was very sad. He could not move his wooden legs because the hard-light-stone had locked his joints. He was a prisoner of his own shining.

Then came the Maker of Small Things, a being from the Batch-numbered era. The Maker saw the Great Green Parent and said, “You are too full of yourself. You must lose your beauty to find your life.”

The Maker went to the high-clanging-place where the industrial fires never go to sleep. He took the Steel of High Quality—the metal that remembers being a mountain—and he hammered it until it had two long tongues. But he knew that the Parent’s spit-that-burns would eat the metal tongues before the work was finished. So, the Maker went down into the Lower-Low places, the dark cave systems where the Acid-Beasts walk. He wrestled a beast and took its skin. He treated this skin with the white-powder-salts until it was a “Skin-of-Water-Resistance.”

He wrapped the metal tongues in this skin so the holding-meat of the Gardener would be safe. He took a small piece of the Parent’s own hard-light-stone and put it in the middle of the tongues, making a “Small Amber Eye.” This was the One-Hundred-and-Eighty-Ninth time he had tried to make this mouth. The first one-hundred-and-eighty-eight mouths had broken or been eaten by the spit-that-burns.

The Maker brought the tool, the One-Eight-Nine, to the Great Green Parent. He told the Parent, “You must do the attuning. You must tell the metal that you are its friend.”

The Parent took the tool in his holding-meat. Suddenly, the heavy steel became light, like a thought of a bird. The Small Amber Eye began to glow with a happy light. The Parent reached up to his own arm and did the first “Snip.”

Click-shimmer.

The hard-light-stone fell away. It did not shatter; it was a perfect “Merciful Severance.” The Parent felt the weight leave his body. He pruned the dead bark. He managed his Black Fern Canopy so it could breathe the mana-soup again. He harvested the crystalline shards and gave them to the people to make the fire-sticks and the light-boxes.

He was no longer a prisoner of his own skin. He was the Arcane Gardener. And since that time, the 189-series has been the friend of all who grow too much light and forget how to be soft.

The Moral of the Story: If you do not cut away the shining stones of your own pride, the weight of your beauty will eventually lock your legs and turn your spit to acid; only the one who knows when to snip can walk forever in the garden.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

Unique Name: The Arcane Harvester’s Shears (Batch 189)

  • Item Type: Artifact / Improvised Weapon
  • Damage: 1D4+DB (Small Piercing/Slashing)
  • Build: 1
  • Special Rules:
    • Attunement: Upon gripping the leather handles, the user must succeed at a POW roll. Success bonds the tool, making it feel weightless. This negates the penalty for using an improvised weapon when fighting plant-based or crystalline Mythos entities.
    • Arcane Pruning: By spending 5 Magic Points, the user can attempt to sever an active magical bond, ward, or minor gate. This requires a Hard Occult or Hard Science (Botany) roll, conceptually “snipping” the arcane geometry.
    • Mucilage Repulsion: The user’s hands and forearms are granted complete immunity to acid, caustic slime, or corrosive damage while the shears are actively wielded.
    • Black Fern Flare: At the cost of 1D3 Sanity Points, the user can squeeze the shears to manifest a cloud of ancient, choking spores from the Dreamlands, granting a penalty die to all visual Spot Hidden or Firearms rolls made into or out of the user’s immediate vicinity for 1D4 rounds.
  • Syntax: Skill: Fighting (Brawl) or Science (Botany).

Blades in the Dark

Unique Name: The 189-Series Spark-Shears

  • Item Type: Fine Implement / Specialized Tool
  • Load: 0 (When attuned/wielded) / 1 (When stowed)
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Precision Catalyst: These shears provide +1 Effect when performing actions to harvest alchemical components, safely dismantle electroplasmic traps, or sever ghost-echoes from a location.
    • Caustic Shielding: You gain +1d to Resistance rolls against acid, toxic alchemical splashes, or hazardous environmental sludges while holding this tool.
    • Black Fern Canopy (Action): You may expend a Special Armor use or take 2 Stress to snap the shears, instantly generating a thick cloud of obscuring spores. This provides immediate cover, allowing you or your crew to safely disengage or reposition without facing a consequence.
  • Syntax: Quality: Fine (+1 Tier for determining effectiveness against magical or biological hazards).

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Unique Name: Crystal-Pruning Shears of the Arcane Gardener (Model 189)

  • Item Rarity: Uncommon
  • Item Type: Wondrous Item / Simple Weapon (Sickle equivalent)
  • Damage: 1d4 Slashing
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Attunement: Requires attunement. While attuned, the shears weigh nothing, and you gain proficiency with the Herbalism Kit. If you are already proficient, your proficiency bonus is doubled for checks made to harvest plant or mineral reagents.
    • Acidic Ward: While holding the shears in your hand, you have resistance to acid damage, and the shears cannot be corroded or destroyed by acidic effects.
    • Arcane Pruning: As an action, you can use the shears to cast Dispel Magic (3rd level). However, this can only target magical effects that are tied to plants, constructs, or spells that create a physical or crystalline barrier (such as Entangle or Wall of Ice). Once used, this property cannot be used again until the next dawn.
    • Canopy Spores: As a bonus action, you can click the blades together to cast Fog Cloud (1st level) centered on yourself, without requiring concentration. The cloud is comprised of dark fern spores. Once used, this property cannot be used again until the next dawn.
  • Syntax: Properties: Finesse, Light.

Knave (2nd Edition)

Unique Name: 189 Conservatory Shears

  • Item Slots: 1 Slot
  • Damage: d6 (One-Handed)
  • Quality: 5 (High-Quality Steel)
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Arcane Prune: Stunts performed with these shears to sever magic tethers, destroy magical crystals, or safely harvest dangerous flora roll with Advantage.
    • Mucilage Shield: The shears are completely immune to acid. The wielder automatically passes any saving throw to avoid acid damage directly targeting their hands or arms.
    • Spore Flare: Once per day, as an action, you can rapidly snap the shears to release a thick cloud of dark spores. This fills a 20-foot area with heavy obscurement, blocking line of sight for 1d4 rounds before dissipating.
  • Syntax: Hands: 1. Tags: Botanical, Anti-Magic, Tool.

Fate (Core and Condensed)

Unique Name: The Arcane Gardener’s 189 Shears

  • Type: Extra (Requires 1 Refresh)
  • Aspect: Precision Conservatory Crystal-Shears
  • Skill Bonus: While attuned and held, you gain a +2 bonus to Lore or Crafts rolls made to harvest, identify, or safely process magical flora and crystalline reagents.
  • Stunt (Arcane Pruning): You can use Melee or Lore to Overcome obstacles created by ambient magic, magical wards, or summoned biological/crystalline barriers, effectively “snipping” the threads of magic that hold them together.
  • Stunt (Mucilage Repulsion): Because the handles are wrapped in treated hide, you gain a +2 to Physique defense rolls against acidic, caustic, or toxic environmental hazards.
  • Stunt (Black Fern Canopy): Once per scene, you can Create an Advantage using Stealth by snapping the shears to release a burst of spores, immediately placing the Thick Spore Cloud aspect on your zone with one free invoke.

Numenera & Cypher System

Unique Name: Conservatory Pruner Type-189

  • Level: 4
  • Form: A pair of precision-engineered steel shears wrapped in a treated, acid-resistant organic hide.
  • Effect: Designed for the delicate interaction between biology and energy.
    • Passive (Harvesting Resonance): Tasks related to carefully extracting cyphers, oddities, or organic numenera from biological or crystalline sources are eased by two steps.
    • Passive (Acidic Ward): The user gains Armor 2 specifically against acid or caustic damage while the pruner is held.
    • Active (Energy Severance): The user can spend 2 Intellect points to make a melee attack against a level 4 or lower force field, energy barrier, or organic construct, “pruning” its matrix and disabling it for one minute.
    • Active (Spore Burst): By spending 1 Speed point, the user activates the internal mechanism to release a cloud of dark particulates. This provides an asset to stealth tasks or defense tasks for all allies within immediate range for one round.
  • Depletion: — (Artifact)

Pathfinder (2nd Edition)

Unique Name: Arcane Gardener’s Shears 189

  • Item Level: 4
  • Price: 90 gp
  • Traits: Magical, Transmutation, Finesse, Agile
  • Usage: held in 1 hand; Bulk: L
  • Base Damage: 1d6 Slashing.
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Cambium Harvest (Passive): While holding the shears, you gain a +1 item bonus to Crafting, Nature, and Survival checks made to Harvest or Gather herbs, alchemical catalysts, and magical crystals.
    • Mucilage Shield (Passive): The hand holding the weapon is protected, granting you Acid Resistance 5.
    • Arcane Pruning (Two Actions): You attempt to sever a magical effect. Make a counteract check using your melee attack modifier against a spell or magical effect within your reach. This is especially effective against effects with the Plant, Earth, or Force traits, granting a +2 circumstance bonus to the check.
    • Fern Canopy Flare (One Action): (Frequency: Once per day) You snap the blades together, releasing a cloud of spores. You cast Obscuring Mist centered on yourself.
  • Syntax: Melee Weapon (Martial).

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

Unique Name: Series 189 Crystal Shears

  • Type: Melee Weapon / Specialized Tool
  • Damage: Str+d4
  • Weight: 1.5 lbs (Ignored when attuned)
  • Minimum Strength: d4
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Precision Cut: This weapon possesses Armor Piercing (AP) 2, which increases to AP 4 when attacking crystalline entities, constructs, or plant-based creatures.
    • Conservatory Tool: Grants a +2 bonus to Science or Survival checks when foraging, identifying, or safely extracting volatile alchemical materials or flora.
    • Caustic Shielding: The wielder gains +4 Armor against localized acid or chemical attacks that would affect the hands or arms, and the item itself cannot be destroyed by such effects.
    • Spore Flare: As a limited free action, the wielder can trigger a release of spores. Place a Medium Blast Template centered on the user. The area counts as Dark Illumination (-4 penalty to visual checks) until the end of the wielder’s next turn. This can be done once per encounter.
  • Syntax: Notes: Finesse, Parry +1.

Shadowrun (6th World Edition)

Unique Name: Arcane-Agriculture Focus Shears (Model 189)

  • Type: Weapon Focus (Blades / Reach 0)
  • Availability: 8(R)
  • Cost: 15,000¥ (Requires Karma to bond)
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Precision Focus: Once bonded, the shears act as a Rating 2 Weapon Focus. The weight of the item is perfectly balanced to the user, negating any negative modifiers from prolonged physical labor.
    • Arcane Pruning: When used to attack magical barriers, wards, or spirits with the Plant or Earth/Mineral traditions, the weapon ignores 2 points of Hardened Armor. Alternatively, the user can substitute their Close Combat (Blades) skill for the Counterspelling skill when attempting to physically break a localized spell structure.
    • Mucilage Repulsion: The treated leather wraps provide the user with +4 to defensive rolls against Acid elemental attacks, and the weapon itself cannot be degraded by corrosive substances.
    • Canopy Spore Burst: By spending a Minor Action and 1 Edge, the user can trigger the biological components of the shears to release a thick spore cloud, replicating the effects of a Thermal Smoke Grenade centered on the user’s location.
  • Syntax: DV: 3P, AR: 10/6/-/-/-

Starfinder (2nd Edition / Playtest)

Unique Name: Biospheric Conservatory Shears, Series 189

  • Item Level: 4
  • Price: 2,100 Credits
  • Bulk: L (when attuned)
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Biological Resonance: When held, the user gains a +1 item bonus to Life Science and Mysticism checks made to identify, safely handle, or harvest flora and magical crystals.
    • Acidic Ward: The specialized hide wrapping grants the wielder Acid Resistance 5 while the shears are wielded in at least one hand.
    • Arcane Severance (Two Actions): You make a melee Strike against a magical barrier, force field, or summoned construct. If the attack hits, it deals normal damage and attempts to counteract the magical effect (using your attack roll modifier as the counteract check).
    • Spore Flare (One Action): Once per day, you can snap the shears together to release a cloud of dark, localized spores, replicating the effects of an Obscuring Mist spell in a 10-foot radius burst.
  • Syntax: Damage: 1d6 S, Critical: Bleed, Traits: Agile, Finesse, Operative, Magical.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Unique Name: TL-14 Xenobotanical Pruner (Batch 189)

  • TL: 14
  • Weight: 0.5 kg
  • Cost: Cr 3,500
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Ergonomic Attunement: Built with advanced TL-14 gravitic memory alloys, the shears bond to the user’s grip. The user gains DM+1 to Science (Biology) and Survival checks when foraging, taking samples from dangerous xeno-flora, or extracting delicate crystalline structures.
    • Corrosive Shielding: The synthetic-hide handles are utterly immune to acid. If the wielder is subjected to an acid-based hazard or attack, they gain DM+2 to their Dexterity check to mitigate the damage.
    • Molecular Snip: The blades are sharpened at the molecular level, allowing them to ignore up to 4 points of Armor when used against organic material or soft crystals.
    • Chemical Obscurement: The tool houses a compressed chemical gland. Once per standard day, it can release a dense cloud of dark particulates equal to a standard smoke grenade, blocking visual and infrared sensors in a 3-meter radius.
  • Syntax: Category: Melee (Blade), Damage: 2D, Traits: Finesse, AP 4 (Organics/Crystals only).

Warhammer (WFRP 4th Edition)

Unique Name: The Jade College Conservatory Shears (No. 189)

  • Weapon Group: Melee (Basic) or Fencing
  • Price: 12 Gold Crowns
  • Encumbrance: 1 (0 when wielded)
  • Availability: Exotic (Requires connections to the Jade or Gold Orders)
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Arcane Harvester: When held, the user gains a +10 bonus to all Lore (Botany), Lore (Magic), and Trade (Apothecary) Tests made to identify or gather magical ingredients and herbs.
    • Mucilage Repulsion: The wielder gains 2 points of Ward (Acid/Corrosive) to all hit locations covering the arms, representing the magical deflection of caustic materials.
    • Arcane Pruning: When you successfully strike an opponent who is currently sustaining a Spell, or a creature bound by magic (like a Daemon or animated construct), you may choose to inflict half damage. If you do, the target must immediately pass a Challenging (+0) Willpower Test or the sustained spell is cancelled / the creature takes a condition of your choice as the magic binding them falters.
    • Black Fern Canopy: As an Action, you may clash the blades together to release magical spores. You immediately gain the Concealment Condition, and anyone attempting to attack you in close combat suffers a -10 penalty to their Weapon Skill for 1d10 Rounds.
  • Syntax: Damage: +SB+3, Reach: Short, Qualities: Fast, Precise.