Appearance: A crude clay amulet in the shape of a stylized lung, stained a deep, rust red. Despite the unrefined appearance, there’s a strange vibrancy to it, seemingly pulsating faintly.
Lore: Ancient healers, seeking to understand the essence of life, sometimes struck these pacts with minor nature spirits attuned to vitality. While the specifics of each contract are unique, they all revolve around the exchange of life force for temporary power.
Detailed Numeric Stats: None! This item is focused on roleplay.
Slot: Amulet
Roleplay Emphasis: The bearer gains a heightened sense of aliveness. They appreciate the small joys of existence, the feel of the sun on their skin, the taste of food. The world becomes a more vibrant place. However, this also makes them acutely aware of the suffering of others.
Costs:
- Initial: The bearer offers a quantity of their own blood during a simple ritual. This weakens them temporarily, but forges the connection.
- Ongoing: The Contract demands the bearer actively seek to alleviate the suffering of others whenever possible. This isn’t a grand quest, but a mindset shift towards compassion.
Passive Magics:
- Breath of Life: The bearer is resistant to disease and poison, gaining advantage on saves against them.
- Empathic Connection: The character senses the basic emotional state (joy, fear, pain) of those nearby.
Active Magics:
- Vitality Surge (Limited): Once per session, the bearer may channel the amulet to heal minor wounds or exhaustion in themselves or another living being. This leaves the bearer feeling drained afterwards.
Tags: Healing, Nature, Compassion, Empathy
How to Use This Item — This is more than a healing tool. The Contract of the Vital Breath pushes the character towards being an active force of good and compassion. Consider these points:
- The Drain: The amulet can provide an emergency boost, but it’s a trade-off, highlighting that helping others sometimes comes at a cost.
- Empathy as a Tool: The enhanced senses can be helpful, letting the character tune into the needs of others (or spot deception if someone lies about their pain!)
- Narrative Growth: The Contract should force the character to grapple with how far they’ll go to ease suffering. This might lead to them seeking further knowledge or power for benevolent goals.
The Contract of the Vital Breath isn’t a direct offensive or defensive tool, but it can enhance your character’s roleplay and decision-making in various situations. Here’s how the aliveness and the magics can be used creatively in different environments:
- Defense:
- Disease and Poison Resistance: While not a direct shield, the resistance makes the character less susceptible to dangers in hazardous environments like swamps or monster lairs.
- Empathy as a Defense Mechanism: By picking up on negative emotions, the character might be able to anticipate danger or hostile intent. Imagine them feeling a surge of fear from an approaching figure just before an ambush.
- Offense (Indirect):
- Healing as an Offensive Tactic: While the “Vitality Surge” is limited, it can be a game-changer in tight situations. Imagine stabilizing a dying ally in combat, turning the tide of the battle.
- Empathy as a Tool for Negotiation: Sensing another’s emotional state can help the character tailor their approach. Understanding a creature’s fear might allow them to find a peaceful solution or identify a bluff during negotiations.
- Exploration:
- Heightened Awareness of Surroundings: The appreciation for life extends to the environment. The character might notice subtle changes in plant life or animal behavior, providing clues about dangers or hidden paths.
- Connecting with Nature Spirits: The contract strengthens the connection to nature spirits. The character might use this to seek guidance or plead for assistance in navigating dangerous terrain.
- Social Interactions:
- Compassion as a Strength: The character’s genuine empathy can build trust and rapport with others. Imagine them forming a bond with a weary traveler by simply listening and offering a kind word.
- Identifying Deception: The ability to sense emotions allows the character to spot inauthenticity. Imagine them picking up on underlying fear or anger hidden beneath a NPC’s facade.
- Remember, the Contract is about more than mechanics. It’s about a character who values life and seeks to protect it. Here are some additional tips for roleplaying:
- Describe their heightened senses: Let the player describe how the world feels more vibrant – the taste of food, the warmth of the sun.
- Play up the emotional connection: When using “Empathic Connection”, describe the emotions they sense, and how it influences their actions.
- Let the contract challenge them: Will they always prioritize others’ well-being? What if helping someone means putting themselves at significant risk?
By using the Contract creatively and embracing the roleplay potential, you can create a truly memorable character who is a beacon of life and compassion in your world.
Perception of Activation: The Contract of the Vital Breath
- Sight:
- Perceived: Colors become more saturated and vibrant. The world seems to pulse with a warm, almost golden light. Subtle details, veins in leaves or an animal’s heartbeat, stand out more sharply.
- Description: It’s as if the veil between life and the inanimate world thins, revealing a flow of energy.
- Positives: Spotting injured creatures, noticing subtle changes in the environment, tracking prey becomes easier.
- Negatives: Overwhelming color intensity in crowded or urban settings can be distracting.
- Sound:
- Perceived: The bearer hears a steady, rhythmic ‘thrum’, like a distant heartbeat that mirrors their own. Individual sounds are clearer – birdsong, the rustle of distant animals.
- Description: The world hums with the echoes of vitality.
- Positives: Easier to track by sound, detect hidden creatures, or hear a plea for help in a crowd.
- Negatives: Overly loud or dissonant noises become harsher, potentially causing discomfort.
- Touch:
- Perceived: Every texture is magnified. A gentle breeze feels stronger on the skin, and the character notices the pulse of their own blood, and potentially that of others nearby.
- Description: The world feels physically closer and more immediate.
- Positives: Greater dexterity in delicate tasks, and a stronger sense of connection to living things.
- Negatives: Physical pain (their own and others) is intensified, rough textures might feel irritating.
- Smell:
- Perceived: The underlying “scent” of life becomes clearer. This might manifest as a fresh, grassy smell, or the subtle musky scent of a nearby animal. Scents of decay or sickness are amplified.
- Description: An added layer of scent accompanies every breath.
- Positives: Tracking prey or sniffing out hidden dangers becomes easier.
- Negatives: Cities, crowds, or any place with mixed smells (good and bad) can be overwhelming.
- Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
- Life Sense: The bearer gains a general sense of how ‘alive’ something is. A plant’s vibrant aura, the fading life of a dying animal, even the thrumming energy of a bustling city.
- Emotional Resonance: Strong feelings resonate more clearly. A joyful creature radiates warmth, while pain broadcasts like a chilling wave.
- Additional Notes:
- Intensity: The intensity of these heightened senses might increase over time as the bond with the Contract deepens, offering more benefits, but also greater risks of feeling overwhelmed.
- Roleplaying Cues: GMs can use these perceptions as plot points. An influx of negative emotional resonance could suggest an unseen threat, or a creature’s subtle scent might lead them to a hidden treasure.
Forging the Breath of Life: This ritual allows a willing soul to create a pact with the spirits of vitality, drawing upon the essence of life all around them.
- Materials Needed:
- Earth and Water: A handful of fertile, living soil and a small vial of pure spring water.
- Life’s Blood: A small amount of the crafter’s own blood, willingly offered.
- A Living Offering: A freshly plucked flower, a vibrant green leaf, or a ripened fruit, representing the cycle of life.
- Clay of Creation: Enough unfired potter’s clay to shape a small, lung-shaped amulet.
- Tools Required:
- Mortar and Pestle: For grinding and mixing ingredients.
- Potter’s Tools If the crafter wishes to add decorative elements to the amulet.
- Ritual Blade: A simple, clean knife to make the blood offering.
- Skill Requirements:
- Survival or Nature Knowledge (Moderate): The crafter must understand the basic patterns of life and how to find places imbued with natural energy.
- Basic Crafting: Necessary for shaping the clay amulet.
- Crafting Steps:
- Seeking the Alive Place: Find a location thrumming with life – a vibrant forest clearing, a hidden spring, or a bountiful garden.
- Preparing the Soil: Grind the fertile soil with the pestle, slowly mixing it with the spring water until a workable clay forms.
- The Offering of Blood: With the ritual blade, make a small, clean cut and let a few drops of your blood mix with the clay. This represents the sacrifice and bond.
- Shaping the Breath: Mold the clay into the form of a stylized lung, symbolizing the essence of life. You may add runes or etchings reflecting nature or healing to personalize the amulet.
- Life’s Essence: Place the living offering (flower, fruit) atop the amulet. Speak aloud your desire to protect and value life, and your willingness to ease suffering.
- The Ritual Fire: Build a small, contained fire with clean-burning wood. Allow the amulet to bake within the embers until hardened. As the fire consumes the living offering, the Contract is forged.
- Notes:
- Guidance of Nature Spirits: If your world allows for it, the crafter may seek to attract a minor nature spirit during the ritual, possibly increasing the amulet’s power (and its potential risks).
- Success is Not Assured: The GM might introduce skill checks or rolls to determine if the amulet forms correctly. Failure could have consequences – an imperfect bond, attracting unwanted attention, etc.
- A Growing Bond: The amulet and its powers might subtly shift and grow as the bearer actively demonstrates their commitment to life and compassion.
The Clay Lung and the Silent Bargain
In the age before words, when stories were etched in bone and whispered on the wind, lived Anya, the Gatherer. One day, deep within the whispering woods, Anya stumbled upon a sight that chilled her blood. A clearing, bare of life, stood like a scar on the earth.
Fear gnawed at Anya, yet curiosity, sharp as a flint knife, compelled her closer. In the center of the dead zone, a clay amulet, crudely fashioned like a lung, pulsed with a faint, cold light. Anya, drawn by an unseen force, reached out and touched it.
A wave of nausea washed over her. Visions of vibrant life, then a sickening silence, flooded her mind. As the visions faded, Anya felt a strange shift within. The forest seemed to whisper secrets, the rustling leaves a symphony of life. Anya, once simply a gatherer, became a protector, fiercely defending the delicate balance of the woods.
Years passed. Anya, the protector, became a legend. Yet, with power, a hunger grew. She craved not just to protect life, but to control it. One night, beneath a blood-red moon, Anya knelt before the clay lung. Ignoring the gnawing unease in her gut, she pleaded for the power to revive a withered patch of land.
The amulet pulsed, and a single tendril of green shot up from the barren earth. Anya, filled with a twisted sense of triumph, demanded more. The earth convulsed, monstrous plants erupted, choking the life from the surrounding forest. Anya recoiled in horror, the whispers of the forest now a deafening scream of pain.
As dawn broke, the forest lay silent, ravaged by Anya’s ambition. The clay lung remained, cold and lifeless in her hand. Anya, once a protector, was now a destroyer, forever haunted by the consequences of her bargain.
Moral of the Tale: Beware the power that comes with tampering with the delicate balance of life. Protect what you love, but do not seek to control it, for the consequences can be a heavy burden to bear.
Suggested conversions to other systems:
Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)
Artifact: The Clay Lung of the Silent Bargain
- Origin: Truly ancient, possibly a relic of a pre-human civilization that tampered with forces beyond their understanding.
- Sanity Cost: Initial touch 0/1D4. Active use: 1/1D6, plus additional Sanity loss if destructive magic occurs.
- Effects:
- Grants the “Natural World” skill at 40% if not already possessed.
- Detects life force – injured creatures, tainted places, etc.
- Allows limited communication and potential control over plant life, at the risk of causing unnatural growth which attracts unwanted attention from elder things…
Blades in the Dark
Item: The Clay Lung
- Type: Occult artifact with whispers of forbidden nature rituals
- Tier: 2 (Powerful, but its use is a ticking clock towards disaster)
- Effects:
- +1d to Gather Information, Attune, or Survey when seeking natural knowledge or dealing with spirits of the wild.
- Limited power to reshape plant life – heal blight, force sudden growth. But it always twists strangely, leaving a mark and raising Heat.
- Crew Upgrade: “Rites of the Old Growth” – access to unsettling nature-based rituals, but risks corruption or factional conflict over the artifact.
Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)
Item: The Clay Lung
- (Wondrous Item, Rare)
- Attunement: Yes. Sanity checks might be needed, especially for destructive acts of power.
- Effects:
- Grants advantage on Nature/Survival checks, and the ability to sense the health of plants and animals within a short radius.
- Ability to cast “Speak with Plants”, and potentially “Plant Growth”, but overuse risks attracting the attention of malevolent nature spirits or twisting the magic with unsettling side effects.
Knave
Item: The Clay Lung
- Burdensome Slot: Counts as 2, unless attuned and aligned with nature-focused deity/beliefs.
- Effects:
- Attuned: +4 bonus to any roll related to understanding or manipulating natural forces (healing, foraging, etc.).
- Unattuned: +2 bonus as above, but upon a failure, suffer a temporary Burden related to the item’s corrupting influence.
- Risky Power: On a critical success, achieve miraculous feats of growth or healing, but with unintended and strange side effects.
Fate (Core or Accelerated)
Artifact Name: The Clay Lung of the Silent Bargain
- Aspects:
- Whispers of the Old Growth: Provides insight into natural forces and forgotten lore.
- The Corrupting Touch of Life Unbound: Power comes with disturbing, unpredictable consequences.
- Stunts:
- Sense the Web of Life: Overcome obstacles related to understanding natural patterns, tracking creatures, or healing damage within the environment.
- Twisting Nature’s Will: Manipulate plant life (force growth, communicate with plants). However, there’s a risk of a minor or moderate consequence reflecting the unnatural results.
- Consequences: Prolonged use of the Clay Lung should always lead to consequences reflecting its corruptive influence – obsession, physical manifestations of the item’s power, attracting the attention of monstrous, primal beings.
Numenera & Cypher System
Artifact Name: The Clay Lung
- (Level 5, or even 6 with potent side effects)
- Type: Oddity
- Depletion: 1 in d6 on intentional use
- Effects:
- Grants the “Natural Lore” ability. +1 Asset to tasks interacting with flora and fauna.
- ‘Unnatural Growth’ – The user can accelerate plant growth or twist it to their will. This ability is potent, but with each use there’s a chance of a GM intrusion where the effect goes wildly out of control.
- Numenera Flavor: The Clay Lung could be a relic of a bygone civilization who experimented with altering life, or an artifact tainted by a predatory creature of the datasphere.
Pathfinder (2nd Edition)
Artifact Name: The Clay Lung of the Silent Bargain
- Rarity: Unique
- Traits: Evocation, Nature, possibly Cursed or Chaotic
- Effects:
- Grants a +2 circumstance bonus to Survival, Nature, and Medicine checks when dealing with natural forces.
- May cast a corrupted version of the Plant Growth spell (scaled appropriately) once per day, but with a chance of warped, grotesque plant life erupting instead.
- Lore: Consider tying this artifact to primal nature spirits, the First World, or possibly forgotten druidic circles that delved too far.
Savage Worlds
Artifact Name: The Clay Lung
- Rank: Seasoned or Veteran, depending on campaign power level
- Powers:
- Nature’s Gift: Healing +2, Survival +2 when used for those purposes.
- Wild Growth (Novice): Force plants to grow or sprout thorns, etc. Backlash on a 1, especially if the growth is twisted or destructive, may attract unwanted attention.
- Setting Flavor: Adjust based on your Savage Worlds setting. The Clay Lung could be a Native American relic in Weird West, a twisted bio-weapon used by the Tomorrow Legion, or a fragment of forgotten Lost World lore.
Shadowrun (6th Edition)
Item: The Clay Lung
- Type: Awakened Focus (Bonded, at least Level 5)
- Effects:
- +2 dice to Survival and Perception tests involving natural environments or identifying natural substances.
- Grants a limited version of the “Influence” spell, but only focused on manipulating plant life.
- Overuse or particularly twisted manifestations could attract the attention of Toxic insect spirits or predatory nature spirits.
Starfinder
Item: The Clay Lung
- (Hybrid Item, Level 6 or 7)
- Effects:
- Grants advantage on Survival checks in natural environments, and +2 to Culture when identifying alien flora/fauna.
- Functions as a modified “Plant Growth” biomancy spell, potentially with dangerous mutations or side-effects. Frequent use alerts other biomancers or scholars obsessed with strange xenobiological specimens.
- Flavor: The Clay Lung could be a remnant of a vanished bio-engineering civilization, a tool used by xeno-druids, or an artifact warped by an alien environment.
Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)
Item: The Clay Lung
- Tech Level: TL 13+ (Lost Tech, or possibly bio-tech of alien origins)
- Effects:
- Serves as a +2 DM tool for any Survival, Medical, or Xenobiology skill checks related to organic life and natural environments.
- Contains a psionic imprint allowing influence over plant growth, but with a potential for mental strain or erratic results – especially if used malevolently.
- Lore: Could be a tool of the Ancients, a remnant of a bio-focused psionic race, or a relic of a terraforming project gone terribly wrong.
Warhammer (Fantasy or 40,000 – your choice!)
Item: The Clay Lung of the Silent Bargain
- (Warp-Touched Artifact)
- Effects:
- Grants +10% to any test involving wilderness survival, primitive healing techniques, or identifying tainted flora.
- Allows limited control over plant growth, but it always twists into nightmarish forms. Each use inflicts Warp Taint or risks a minor daemonic manifestation.
- Warp-tainted Lore: In Warhammer Fantasy, perhaps a relic of ancient beastmen rituals, or a Chaos-tainted artifact. In 40k, it could stem from a corrupted Agri-world or the experimentation of a twisted Chaos Biologus cult.