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Malagan 932 of the Master Joiner

—

by

Dale
in

Lore

  • Hewn from the dense heartwood of coastal ironwood along the outer reef lines of the island nation of Lapita, this artifact was shaped during an ancestral mortuary ceremony honoring a legendary communal carpenter.
  • The intricate carving was created to serve as a sacred temporary vessel for the artisan’s spirit, preserving decades of woodworking knowledge, timber-grain intuition, and structural instincts before the soul’s crossing into the sea of purgatory.
  • Rather than seeking absolute quiet, the lingering spirit thrives on the cadence of the workshop, finding purpose in the aroma of shaved cedar, the measured strike of the mallet, and the shaping of resilient wooden architecture.
  • Craftsmen, shipwrights, and fortress builders across the archipelago seek this relic to inherit ancestral guidance when framing hulls, erecting palisades, and restoring damaged wooden works.

Description

  • The artifact is a rigid, elongated wooden mask carved with stepped lattice fretwork, geometric mortise patterns, and side crests styled after burrowing wood-beetles and crested hornbills.
  • Mineral pigments of yellow ochre, charred soot, and crushed white limestone define straight, measured layout lines across the brow and cheeks, acting as visual guides for balance and symmetry.
  • Circular inlays of polished nautilus shell surround the narrow eye slits, focusing the wearer’s line of sight directly along structural stress lines and natural grain patterns.
  • The base of the chin is planed into a flat, true edge to function as a tactile squaring tool, while the reverse side is fitted with four braided vegetable-fiber cords treated with boiled tree gum to hold the carving firmly against the wearer’s face during heavy labor.

Detailed Stats

  • Item Tier: Tier 1 (Common)
  • Gear Slot: Headwear Slot
  • Armor Check: +1 AC
  • Item Resilience: 10
  • Item Hit Points: Avatar Maximum Hit Points + 10
  • Attunement Requirement: 1 minute (Simple Attunement)
  • Weight: 2 lbs
  • Base Value: Subject to regional merchant access and market availability

Passive Magic

  • Grain Intuition: While the mask is openly worn, the avatar gains a +2 temporary bonus to skill checks involving carpentry, woodcarving, ship repairs, and assessing the load-bearing integrity of wooden structures.
  • Splinter Guard: The ancestral essence deflects sharp wooden fragments, granting the wearer natural resistance against minor piercing and slashing damage caused by flying wood splinters, thorns, and shattered timber debris.
  • True Level Perception: The nautilus shell inlays provide the wearer with an innate visual sense of true horizontal and vertical plumb, eliminating the need for mundane leveling tools when evaluating structures within 30 feet.

Activable Magic

  • Seamless Joinery: As an action, the wearer places both hands upon two touching, unfastened pieces of lumber and speaks the carver’s invocation. The wood fibers instantly weave together, creating an airtight, watertight joint with the structural strength of seasoned heartwood. This ability can be used three times per day.
  • Timber Fortification: As an action, the avatar touches a wooden door, barricade, or defensive palisade section. For the next 10 minutes, the targeted structure gains +5 temporary Hit Points and gains resistance to non-magical bludgeoning damage. This ability can be used once per day.
  • Carpenter’s Haste: As an action, the wearer channels the kinetic rhythm of the ancestral artisan, doubling their manual sawing, hewing, and planing speed for 1 hour without suffering physical fatigue. This ability can be used once per day.

Tags

  • Headwear, Mask, Wood, Carving, Malagan, Tier 1, Common, Crafting, Carpentry, Artisan, Lapita, Attuned, Utility, Timber, Ancestral, Woodworking, Construction, Fortification, Joinery, Plumb, Lattice, Truss, Ironwood, Mangrove, Durability, Toolwork

Commercial Venues, Market Transactions, and Valuation of the Malagan 932

Coastal Dockside Workshops and Shipwright Enclaves

  • In the maritime settlements and fishing ports across the island nation of Lapita, independent master carpenters and boatbuilders operate modest shoreline workshops adjacent to active dry docks.
  • Purchasing the mask directly from a local carver involves paying in silver coins, electrum, or standardized local trade tokens, typically costing between 25 and 45 Silver pieces (or 3 to 5 Electrum) depending on regional timber availability and active harbor repair demands.
  • Buyers who openly display a membership badge from the Carpenters Union, Shipwrights Guild, or related artisan faction receive a 10% discount per character tier off the asking price (a 30 Silver item costs 27 Silver for a Tier 1 buyer).
  • When an avatar sells the mask to a dockside artisan, the merchant haggles the payout down by 10% times the seller’s tier level against the agreed valuation, officially recording the transaction in local logs and depositing the funds into the character’s World Bank ledger.

City Guildhalls and Artisan Craft Dispensaries

  • Within walled cities containing populations exceeding five thousand residents, officially sanctioned artisan guildhalls operate dedicated tool and curio shops managed by appointed guild officials.
  • In these structured institutions, the mask is retailed as an authentic master-level joinery focus at standard city catalog rates, ranging between 35 and 65 Silver (or roughly 4 to 6 Gold in equivalent local non-metal tender).
  • Registered guild members in good standing receive the standard 10% discount per tier level upon presenting their credentials.
  • Avatars selling to a guildhall dispensary must submit the item for official valuation; the guild merchant discounts the baseline payout by 10% per seller tier level, logs the seller’s details, and transfers the precious metal credit directly into the seller’s World Bank account.

Harbor Back-Alley Fences and Salvage Rings

  • Unregulated black-market dealers operating out of waterfront slums, warehouse alleys, and secluded tavern cellars trade in salvaged trade goods, unrecorded ancestral artifacts, and illicitly acquired tools.
  • Buying from a black-market fence requires full payment in physical gold or precious metal coins, as bank transfers and guild credits are rejected. Because these dealers operate outside guild oversight, the mask is sold at full price or a premium markup, costing between 5 and 8 Gold pieces (50 to 80 Silver) with no guild or faction discounts applied.
  • When selling the mask to a black-market contact, the trade is completed entirely in untraceable physical coin with no records maintained. If the buyer has an immediate need from private contractors or illicit ship repairers, they may offer up to twice the standard merchant payout (4 to 6 Gold in physical coin) to secure the artifact quietly.

Inland Frontier Depots and Logging Outposts

  • As trade goods are transported from coastal regions deep into interior territories, traversing state boundaries and central hub cities, price tags increase due to the 5% state border tariffs and municipal transit fees.
  • In distant inland lumber settlements, mining encampments, and frontier forts where oceanic timber and Lapitan ceremonial carvings are scarce, the artifact is treated as a rare imported luxury tool.
  • Inland frontier merchants list the item between 1 and 3 Gold coins (10 to 30 Silver in local precious metal value), while isolated depot masters will only purchase the carving if the seller accepts a deep valuation discount suited to regional frontier trade constraints.

Environmental Tactics and Roleplay Applications of the Joiner’s Visage

Coastal Harbors, Dry Docks, and Wooden Ships

  • During naval skirmishes or rough sea voyages, the avatar uses the mask defensively to rapidly inspect taking-on-water hull breaches, fractured masts, and splintered decking under cannon or ballista fire. By applying seamless joinery directly to crushed ship timbers, the wearer instantly seals catastrophic leaks and knits broken railings back together mid-combat, maintaining vessel buoyancy and keeping the crew stable.
  • In boarding actions, the avatar offensive-roleplays by using true-level perception to identify key stress points along the enemy vessel’s bowsprit, capstan, or steering assembly. Striking these exact structural nodes with a carpentry axe or adze, the wearer causes catastrophic structural failure across enemy rigging, snapping ropes and dropping heavy yardarms onto opposing crew formations.

Industrial Steam Mills, Lumber Yards, and Rail Depots

  • Defensively within high-pressure factory floors, sawmills, or rail loading stations, the avatar uses the mask’s architectural insight to navigate dangerous overhead conveyor systems, crane scaffolds, and high-velocity machinery. The wearer shields allies by hiding behind heavy support framework, while the splinter-guard property absorbs high-speed sawdust, flying wood splinters, and fragments from bursting wooden steam casings without injury.
  • Offensively in factory combat, the wearer triggers carpenter’s haste to quickly dismantle load-bearing timber supports, wood-chute pins, or log-stack retainers. By severing key wedged joints in rapid succession, the avatar unleashes rolling avalanches of heavy timber and collapses elevated catwalks directly on advancing enemy shock troops.

Wild Forests, Swamps, and Overgrown Jungles

  • In deep wilderness environments, the wearer acts defensively by building instant field fortifications and fortified perimeter shelters. Touching fallen trunks, branches, and exposed roots, the avatar fuses raw timber into interlocking, outward-facing spiked barriers that keep charging predators at bay, utilizing the flat chin edge to ensure stakes are angled at the ideal defensive pitch.
  • When ambushed by hostile woodland beasts or lurking raiders, the avatar offensive-roleplays by using the spirit’s keen eye to locate hollow boughs, rotted tree forks, and deadfall hanging overhead. A single precise strike from a handaxe to a rotted trunk base brings tons of dead wood crashing down upon lurking adversaries, utilizing the canopy itself as a heavy impact weapon.

Underground Mines, Subterranean Tunnels, and Caverns

  • Deep inside subterranean shafts and mining networks, the avatar roleplays defense by assessing the weight distribution of wooden support shoring and header beams. By invoking timber fortification on stressed tunnel braces, the wearer prevents lethal cave-ins caused by earth tremors, subterranean burrowers, or magical explosive blasts, ensuring the party’s escape path stays intact.
  • Offensively against subterranean adversaries, the avatar identifies poorly constructed support beams and structural joints along the enemy’s approach. By quickly unseating key wedge blocks or cutting critical header beams, the avatar triggers controlled ceiling collapses and rock deadfalls across tight corridors, crushing advancing vanguards and dividing enemy forces.

Urban Settlements, Fortresses, and Town Palasades

  • Within city barricades, fortress gates, and siege lines, the avatar serves defensively as a frontline combat engineer. When outer gates, breach covers, or sally doors take battering-ram damage, the wearer applies seamless joinery and timber fortification under arrow fire to instantly weld broken oak planks into solid ironwood-grade defensive barriers.
  • Offensively during room-to-room breaches or urban assaults, the wearer breaks down defensive positions by targeting the structural tenons of wooden stairwells, floor supports, and door frames. Collapsing upper walkways beneath enemy defenders or ripping apart wooden barriers allows the avatar to clear firing positions and push through contested doorways using improvised, reinforced timber shields.

Perception of Activation:

User’s Perspective

  • Sight: A luminous, three-dimensional array of amber schematics, mortise-and-tenon projections, and geometric load lines casts across the wearer’s vision, highlighting structural stress points and timber grain direction in sharp detail.
  • Sound: Ambient acoustic chatter fades, replaced by the steady, resonant thud of an ancestral mallet driving wooden dowels and the faint, rhythmic whir of a carpenter’s drawknife slicing through green ironwood.
  • Touch: The inner wood grain warms to body temperature while the four-point vegetable strapping tightens with firm, even pressure against the cheekbones, creating a locked, immovable embrace.
  • Taste: The palate experiences a clean, astringent taste of dry mangrove tannins mixed with powdered limestone wash.
  • Smell: A sharp, refreshing aroma of shaved cedar, hot tree gum resin, and freshly planed heartwood clears the sinuses instantly.
  • Extra-Sensory Perceptions: The wearer feels an immediate mental synchronization with the ancestral joiner, experiencing a continuous intuitive awareness of true horizontal level, gravitational shear vectors, and structural weakness in surrounding objects.
  • Positives: The avatar gains absolute certainty in manual construction tasks, immediate spatial geometry recognition, and complete resistance to disorientation caused by tilting decks, unstable floors, or shaking scaffolding.
  • Negatives: The heavy visual overlay of glowing schematics produces mild tunnel vision, slightly reducing the user’s peripheral focus on swift, non-mechanical organic movements.

Observer’s Perspective

  • Sight: The fretwork lattice and hornbill crests illuminate with an internal amber-violet radiance, projecting intricate geometric drafting lines and floating architectural glyphs onto nearby surfaces.
  • Sound: Bystanders hear a low, harmonic drone vibrating through the carving, accompanied by the subtle sound of rustling wood shavings and tapping chisels in the air.
  • Touch: Observers standing within arm’s reach feel a sudden dry warmth and an atmospheric shift, as though stepping from an open breeze into a solidly walled timber workshop.
  • Taste: Those nearby detect a faint, dry aftertaste of seasoned sawdust and mineral chalk in the air.
  • Smell: A distinct, pleasant scent of boiled tree gum, fragrant wood resin, and ground yellow ochre fills the immediate area.
  • Extra-Sensory Perceptions: Mystically attuned onlookers sense a rigid field of structural order enforcing itself over the surrounding physical space, as if the nearby framework has suddenly been locked into permanent alignment.
  • Positives: Allies gain an immediate visual marker of reinforced cover and a morale-boosting sense of tactical fortification in chaotic environments.
  • Negatives: The brilliant glowing blueprint projection and audible resonance make stealth impossible, immediately drawing enemy attention to the wearer’s position.

Master Joiner Mask Recipe

Materials Needed

  • One solid block of coastal ironwood heartwood harvested from the outer reef margins of Lapita.
  • One Tier 1 magic crystal (coin-sized and weighted) to serve as the core arcane battery and catalyst.
  • Four ounces of refined tree gum and biological mangrove sap extracted using a fluid collector from a living ancient tree.
  • Two polished nautilus shell rings ground flat to frame the ocular apertures.
  • Natural mineral pigments consisting of yellow ochre, charred soot, and crushed white limestone.
  • Three yards of four-ply braided vegetable-fiber cordage treated with boiled tree gum.
  • One common mundane carpenter’s hand tool or scrap piece of wooden buckler to be consumed as a sacrificial component for magical transference.

Tools Required

  • Heavy woodcarving adze, narrow mortise chisels, pull-saws, and fine gouges.
  • A standard fluid collector for reagent harvesting and gum application.
  • Stone grinding slab and pestle for pulverizing mineral pigments.
  • Sharkskin abrasive sheets and fine polishing stones.
  • An arcane shaping focus to channel cognitive intent through the conduit during binding.

Skill Requirements

  • Woodcrafting (Carpentry) Skill Level 5 or higher.
  • Alchemical Crafting Skill Level 2 or higher (for resin binding and pigment emulsion).
  • Minimum Tier 1 Character status.

Crafting Steps

  • Harvesting and Extraction: Use a fluid collector to tap biological sap and tree gum from a living coastal mangrove, sealing the extract with pure grain alcohol to prevent premature hardening.
  • Rough Hewing and Trueing: Hew the coastal ironwood block into an elongated facial blank using a heavy adze, planing the bottom edge to a flat, level plane to serve as a true-level reference edge.
  • Intricate Lattice Carving: With fine gouges and pull-saws, pierce through the wood to carve the geometric mortise lattice fretwork along the cheeks and sculpt the twin hornbill and wood-beetle crests along the top rim.
  • Sacrificial Component Transference: Chisel an internal cavity into the upper brow of the mask. Place the Tier 1 magic crystal along with the sacrificial wooden gear inside the cavity, channeling focused cognitive intent through an arcane focus to dissolve the physical scrap item and transfer its structural defense into the wood fibers.
  • Shell Inlay Setting: Coat the eye sockets with refined tree gum adhesive, setting the polished nautilus shell rings flush into the wood to form the ocular alignment guides.
  • Pigment Grinding and Patterning: Pulverize yellow ochre, limestone chalk, and charcoal soot with a mortar and pestle, blending them into a smooth emulsion using the harvested sap. Paint the measured imperial grid markers, angle lines, and mortise motifs across the forehead and cheeks.
  • Finishing and Strapping: Sand the lower plane and outer facets with sharkskin abrasives to a glass-smooth finish, coat the exterior in clear boiled resin, and anchor the four-point braided vegetable-fiber strapping through reinforced temple flanges.
  • Arcane Awakening: Hold the completed carving and conduct an uninterrupted ten-minute ritual attunement, channeling mana directly into the embedded Tier 1 magic crystal to bind the ancestral spirit of the master joiner to the mask.

932 Joins and Unbroken Scribe of Shore

In the count of centuries when the great waters were yet ignorant of their proper limits and the shores of the sunrise had no straight foundations, there was an overseer of wooden works whose lineage tablet bore the numeral nine hundred thirty-two. The ancient palm-leaf records, which suffered much gnawing from sand-crabs and were rendered into the southern tongue by priests who knew only the measurement of grain, state that the men of that province built canoes that broke into pieces whenever two waves touched them at once.

The master joiner sat upon a heap of red wood chips beside the boiling surf. He was heavy of heart because the headman’s great hall had collapsed three times, falling upon the roasted pigs and crushing the clay beer vessels. Taking an adze formed of dark volcano stone, he struck a block of coastal ironwood that had drifted nine seasons through the salt froth without taking rot. As the black stone bit into the red grain, the breath of his grand-uncle—who had drowned forty years prior when a poorly pinned rudder snapped in a squall—came drifting out of the warm resin. The departed uncle made a noise like two dry beams groaning under a high tide. He said that the hall of the dead was a miserable place where the doorposts leaned to the left and every bench wobbled upon the dust, so that the ancestors could not set down their bowls without spilling their broth.

The artisan took no rest and did not wash his hands. He took the sticky gum from the living mangrove trunks with a hollow bone, mixing it with the burnt fat of his lamp and the yellow powder scraped from the mountain that breathed smoke. He carved upon the face of the block the open lattices of building trusses, and he pierced the ears with the likenesses of beetles that eat into the core of fallen trunks. In the cavities of the eyes, he laid circular rings of the spiral nautilus shell, ground upon wet grit until they admitted no crooked beams of light. Across the cheeks he laid twenty-four measured notches, each of the thickness of a thumb, so that no man could look upon the wood without remembering the length of a tenon.

When the resin was hardened by the noon heat, the artisan bound the four cords of vegetable weed tightly to his temples. The scroll records that instantly his eyes threw forth long needles of yellow fire, and upon the air appeared the shapes of buildings that had not yet been cut from the trees. He walked into the settlement where forty fishermen were shouting at a great keel made of two crooked cedar logs that would not meet.

The master did not speak words of courtesy to the elders. He laid his palms across the seam where the logs were open to the salt water, and he uttered the carver’s name three times. A sound like fifty thousand beetles chewing through dry bamboo came out of the wood. The red fibers of the two logs reached out across the empty space and knotted together like the fingers of two wrestling men. The joint became so smooth that not even a single louse could find a crack to hide within, and when the strongest men of the tribe struck the seam with their heavy stone hammers, the stone broke into four pieces while the timber remained whole.

The chronicle of the south tells that for nine moons the carver walked from village to village, wearing the wooden face without taking food or drink other than the bitter sap of the trees. Wherever a wall leaned toward the ditch, he pressed his chin against the posts, and the house stood upright as if planted by the gods. When the wild war-canoes of the outer sea came to burn the town, the master touched the wooden palisade, causing the stakes to grow into one solid wall of living ironwood that threw the flaming spears back into the sea. The invading warriors fled in great terror, crying out that the town was defended by an ancestor who had swallowed a mountain of stone.

When the ten thousandth joint had been made true and the seven harbors were protected by straight gates, the artisan sat down upon his workshop bench and unloosed the bark cords. His fingers were stiff as dried fish and his eyes could no longer see the soft shapes of clouds, but every door in the province swung without a creak. He wrapped the mask in oiled bark and laid it beneath the floorboards, waiting until another builder should make a crooked wall and call upon the square-eyed ancestor to bind the wood together once more.

Moral of the Story: A structure joined with patience and true measure will endure the fury of the greatest storm, but he who leaves his joints loose and relies on speed will find his ceiling becoming his gravestone.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Melanesian Joiner’s Relic

  • Description: An early-colonial Malagan ceremonial mask acquired from the New Ireland archipelago, carved from coastal ironwood with geometric mortise latticework, yellow ochre layout notches, and polished nautilus shell eye inlays. It gives off a heavy, pervasive scent of boiled tree gum and cedar shavings.
  • Item Type: Minor Oceanic Occult Artifact / Talisman
  • Sanity Cost: 1/1d3 Sanity points upon donning the artifact or opening its geomantic sight.
  • Passive Effects:
    • Structural Intuition: While wearing the mask, the investigator gains a +20% bonus to Art/Craft (Carpentry, Woodworking, Shipbuilding) and Mechanical Repair checks involving wooden mechanisms, scaffolding, shoring, or structures.
    • Splinter Deflection: The wearer gains 1 point of physical Armor against non-magical piercing and slashing damage originating from wooden hazards, collapsing timbers, flying splinters, or primitive wooden barricades.
  • Active Effects:
    • Geodetic Assessment: The user may spend 2 Magic Points to enter a state of deep concentration for 1 minute. The user immediately detects hidden structural weaknesses, secret doors framed in wood, stress fractures, dry rot, and weight-bearing breaking points within any wooden building or ship compartment up to 30 feet away.
    • Spiritual Splicing: The user may spend 4 Magic Points and 1 Sanity point to touch two separate pieces of unfastened wood. The timber fibers instantly meld and fuse with the tensile strength of iron-reinforced joinery, allowing emergency barricading or instant structural stabilization without nails, glue, or tools.
  • Drawback: The geometric grid vision induces severe eye strain and spatial rigidity. While equipped, the wearer suffers a Penalty Die on all Dodge rolls and Sleight of Hand checks against fast-moving organic threats.

Blades in the Dark

The Joiner’s Dagger-Isle Visage

  • Item Classification: Arcane / Tool (1 Load)
  • Description: A heavy, lattice-carved mask made of ironwood, stained with yellow ochre and soot, housing the meticulous ghost of an archipelago master carpenter.
  • Quality / Tier: Tier I Fine Quality Arcane Tool / Armor
  • Mechanics:
    • Potency in Woodcraft: You gain Potency (+1 Effect level) on all Tinker, Finesse, and Wreck action rolls made to build, reinforce, pick apart, or collapse wooden architecture, scaffolding, barricades, ship hulls, and carriage frames.
    • Structural Fortification: When you take physical Harm from collapsing debris, flying wooden shrapnel, or structural falls, you may spend 1 Armor charge from this item to reduce the Harm by 1 level.
    • Ghost Joinery (Arcane Trigger): Spend 1 Stress to channel the mask’s bound artisan soul. Choose one:
      • Instantly weld two touching wooden surfaces into a seamless, unbreakable joint without tools or noise, creating an impromptu reinforced door lock or sturdy climbing anchor.
      • Temporarily grant a wooden barrier, barricade, or door the Sturdy quality (+1 Tier defense against physical breach attempts) for the duration of the score.
  • Complication / Attention: The etched yellow ochre lines and shell inlays glow with an amber luminescence during active joinery. Using the ghost-joinery mechanic in view of city guards, inspectresses, or rival crews leaves unmistakable spectral residue that cannot be washed away.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Malagan Mask of the Master Joiner

  • Wondrous Item: Headwear, common (requires attunement)
  • Armor Class: While wearing this mask, you gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class if you are wearing light armor or no armor.
  • Properties:
    • Master’s Measure: You have advantage on ability checks using Carpenter’s Tools, Woodcarver’s Tools, and Vehicles (Water). You always know true level and vertical plumb within 30 feet without measuring implements.
    • Deflecting Grain: You have resistance to piercing damage dealt by non-magical wooden objects, tree branches, thorns, and splintering structural debris.
    • Instant Tenon (3 Charges/Day): As an action, you expend 1 charge and touch two touching pieces of non-magical timber. The wood fibers weave seamlessly together, fusing the pieces as if joined by a permanent master mortise-and-tenon joint. The mask regains all expended charges daily at dawn.
    • Reinforce Threshold (1/Day): As an action, you touch a wooden door, chest, or 10-foot section of palisade. For the next 10 minutes, the object’s damage threshold increases by 5, its maximum hit points increase by 10, and the DC to break or force it open increases by 5.

Knave (2nd Edition)

The Master Joiner’s Mask

  • Item Slot: 1 Item Slot (Worn on Head / Face)
  • Durability: 10 / 10
  • Armor Value: +1 Defense (Headwear)
  • Item Properties:
    • Artisan’s Eye: When inspecting dungeon architecture, shoring beams, pit traps, or wooden doors, gain advantage on Intelligence and Wisdom checks made to identify structural instability, trigger mechanisms, or secret seams.
    • Timber Shielding: Ignore all minor damage (1-2 points) caused by flying splinters, collapsing wooden scaffolding, and wooden punji stakes.
    • Runic Joinery (3 Uses per Day): Spend an action chanting while pressing two pieces of raw or planed wood together to meld them permanently into a single solid piece, creating instant barricades, field ladders, or watertight hull repairs.
    • Tool Fragility: If the mask suffers 5 or more Durability damage from blunt impact, its alignment grids crack, disabling all magical properties until repaired by a skilled carpenter using refined resin and yellow ochre powder.

Fate Core / Fate Condensed

Mask of the Ancestral Joiner

  • Item Type: Unique Crafting Extra (Aspect and Stunts)
  • Permissive Aspect: Vessel of the Master Joiner
  • Description: A heavily carved ceremonial ironwood mask bearing geometric mortise lattices, yellow ochre layout notches, and nautilus shell eye inlays housing an ancestral artisan spirit.
  • System Mechanics and Stunts:
    • Master of the Grain: Gain a +2 bonus to Create an Advantage or Overcome actions using Crafts when designing, repairing, fortifying, or dismantling wooden architecture, barricades, scaffolding, or sea vessels.
    • Seamless Splice: Once per scene, spend a Fate Point to instantly fuse two unfastened touching pieces of timber into a single seamless, solid joint without tools, fasteners, or sound.
    • Fortified Timber Threshold: When creating an obstacle or defensive barrier from wood, you may attach an extra free invoke to the resulting aspect (such as Reinforced Oak Barricade or Iron-Hard Palisade).
    • Splinter Deflection: Gain Armor:1 against physical attacks and environmental hazards resulting from shattering wood, wooden debris, or structural collapses.
    • Compel / Trouble: Rigid Architectural Obsession. The spirit’s demand for true level and perfect symmetry can compel the wearer to hesitate or pause in chaotic environments to inspect or fix unsound structures.

Numenera & Cypher System

Biomorphic Joiner Visage

  • Level: 3 (1d6)
  • Form: An intricate mask fashioned from dense biological ironwood, inlaid with iridescent spiral nautilus rings and sealed with crystalline amber sap.
  • Gear Classification: Worn Artifact (Headgear)
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (check per day of active structural manipulation)
  • Armor: +1 to Armor against physical attacks and environmental hazards from wooden projectiles, splinters, or falling debris.
  • Passive Mechanics:
    • Structural Analysis: The wearer eases all tasks related to crafting, repairing, understanding, or disabling wooden structures and mechanical wood assemblies by one step.
    • Level Compass: The wearer always perceives true horizontal and vertical alignment within immediate range, easing navigation and balance tasks on narrow timber or rigging by one step.
  • Active Abilities:
    • Molecular Wood Fusion (Action, 1 Intellect Point): The wearer touches two contacting pieces of non-synth wood, causing the cellular fibers to fuse instantly into a seamless, permanent joint with level 4 material strength.
    • Structural Fortification (Action, 2 Might Points): The wearer reinforces a wooden barrier, door, or shoring beam within immediate reach. The structure gains +1 to its effective level (up to level 5) against physical damage and breach attempts for 1 hour.

Pathfinder (2nd Edition)

Malagan Mask of the Master Joiner

  • Item Classification: Item 1; Common, Divination, Transmutation, Invested, Magical
  • Price: 18 gp (Subject to local timber market availability)
  • Usage: Worn Headwear; Bulk: L
  • Armor Bonus: +1 item bonus to Armor Class (AC) if the wearer is unarmored or wearing light armor.
  • Saving Throw Modifiers: The wearer gains a +1 item bonus to Reflex and Fortitude saving throws against hazards, falling objects, and traps composed primarily of timber or collapsing architecture.
  • Passive Enhancement:
    • Master Joiner: The wearer gains a +1 item bonus to Crafting checks made to repair, build, or analyze wooden items, fortifications, and waterborne vehicles.
  • Active Abilities:
    • Activate — Seamless Joinery:
      • Frequency: 3 times per day
      • Cost: 1 Action (Manipulate)
      • Effect: The wearer touches two adjacent, unfastened wooden objects. The wood fibers knit together seamlessly, creating a permanent structural bond as strong as seasoned heartwood.
    • Activate — Reinforce Palisade:
      • Frequency: Once per day
      • Cost: 2 Actions (Interact, Concentrate)
      • Effect: The wearer touches a wooden door, barricade, or 10-foot section of wooden wall. The target gains 10 temporary Hit Points and gains Hardness 5 against non-magical physical damage for 10 minutes.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition – SWADE)

Mask of the Master Joiner

  • Item Type: Arcane Relic / Minor Enchanted Headgear
  • Requirements: Minimum Strength d4
  • Weight: 2 lbs
  • Armor Value: +1 Armor to the Head area.
  • Passive Properties:
    • Artisan’s Eye: The wearer gains a +2 bonus on all Repair and Notice rolls made to construct, evaluate, reinforce, or sabotage wooden structures, vessels, doors, and siege defenses.
    • Deflecting Grain: The wearer gains +2 Toughness against non-magical piercing and slashing attacks caused by flying wooden splinters, wooden traps, and collapsing timber debris.
  • Active Powers:
    • Timber Weave (Power Points: 3): As an action, the wearer channels the mask’s spirit to cast Barrier (wood trappings only) or fuse two touching wooden planks into an unbreakable join. The item recharges 1 Power Point per hour.
    • Fortify Threshold (Power Points: 2): As an action, touching a wooden barrier or door increases its Hardness by +2 and grants the object the ability to ignore 2 points of incoming physical damage for 10 minutes.
  • Drawback:
    • Amber Radiance: During any active power use or structure evaluation, the grid markings glow brightly, imposing a -2 penalty on Stealth checks in dark environments.

Shadowrun (Sixth World)

Lapita Joiner’s Qi Focus

  • Item Type: Qi Focus / Enchanted Artisan Mask (Force 1)
  • Slot: Headwear / Face Mask
  • Armor Value: +1 Defense Rating
  • Karma Cost: 2 Karma (to bond)
  • Availability: 4 (Market and artisan availability dependent)
  • Passive Mechanics:
    • Engineering Intuition: While worn, the character gains a +1 dice pool modifier to Engineering and Electronics tests made to analyze, repair, build, or undermine wooden structural components, temporary fortifications, and architectural supports.
    • Splinter Dispersion: The character gains a +1 dice pool modifier to damage resistance tests against fragmentation or physical impact hazards caused by splintered wood and collapsing structural framework.
  • Active Mechanics:
    • Resonant Structural Scan: As a Minor Action, the user aligns their focus with the mask, detecting load-bearing stress points, hidden cavities, and structural weaknesses within wooden frames up to 10 meters away without electronic diagnostic equipment for 10 minutes.
    • Spiritual Splice: As a Major Action, the user spends 1 Edge to channel the spirit into two adjacent pieces of timber. The wood grain instantly weaves together, creating a seamless, reinforced bond capable of sealing doors or reinforcing physical barriers with +2 Defense Rating for the scene.
  • Drawback:
    • Astral Beacon: The item maintains an active Force 1 astral signature and produces an amber visual glow along its geometric lines when active, preventing the user from benefiting from visual concealment in darkness.

Starfinder (Second Edition)

Joiner’s Mortise Visage

  • Item Level: 1
  • Price: 45 credits (Market variable by system and trade route)
  • Bulk: L (Light)
  • Item Type: Worn Magic Item (Headwear)
  • Usage: Worn, 1 minute investiture
  • Armor Bonus: +1 item bonus to Armor Class (AC) if the wearer is unarmored or wearing light armor.
  • Passive Mechanics:
    • Structural Engineering: The wearer gains a +1 item bonus to Crafting skill checks made to repair, assemble, evaluate, or disassemble wooden structures, furniture, shoring, and decorative organic bulkheads.
    • Splinter Deflection: The wearer gains resistance 2 against non-magical piercing and slashing damage from splintered wooden debris, collapsing timber framing, and biological thorn hazards.
  • Active Mechanics:
    • Activate — Seamless Joinery:
      • Cost: 1 Action (Manipulate)
      • Frequency: 3 times per day
      • Effect: The wearer touches two contacting pieces of untreated timber or organic composite material, causing the fibers to fuse into a seamless, permanent joint with structural integrity equal to reinforced ironwood.
    • Activate — Palisade Reinforcement:
      • Cost: 2 Actions (Interact, Concentrate)
      • Frequency: Once per day
      • Effect: The wearer touches a wooden barricade or door section, granting the structure 10 temporary Hit Points and Hardness 5 against kinetic bludgeoning damage for 10 minutes.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Archipelago Joiner Alignment Mask

  • Tech Level (TL): 2 (Primitive Artisanal Craft, Resonant Psi-Focus)
  • Weight: 1 kg
  • Armor: Armor +1 (Head location only)
  • Cost: Cr 180 (Subject to world law level and availability of Oceanic relics)
  • Passive Mechanics:
    • Architectural Precision: The wearer receives DM+1 on all Profession (Carpentry, Construction) and Mechanic checks involving the structural evaluation, framing, assembly, or demolition of wooden buildings, furniture, and sea vessels.
    • Debris Protection: The wearer gains +1 protection against personal damage caused by collapsing timber framing, wood shrapnel, and environmental splinter hazards.
  • Active Mechanics:
    • True-Plumb Calibration (Resonant Sight): Once per day, the user may activate the nautilus shell apertures to gain a precise visual evaluation of load distribution, structural integrity, and hidden seams in timber structures within Short range (5 meters) for 1D x 10 minutes.
    • Instant Fiber Weld (Psionic / Resonant Trigger): Once per day, the user channels focused mental energy through the mask’s wood grain into two contacting pieces of timber, fusing the fibers into a permanent, seamless joint with standard structural strength without using mechanical fasteners.
  • Drawback:
    • Rigid Fixation: The overwhelming sensory demand for geometric balance imposes a DM-1 penalty on Recon checks when scanning for organic, non-geometric movement in the brush.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

Malagan Visage of the Master Joiner

  • Classification: Minor Enchanted Talisman / Artisan Curio (Headwear)
  • Encumbrance: 0 (Worn on Face/Head)
  • Armor Points: 1 AP (Head)
  • Availability: Rare (Exotic import from remote island cultures)
  • Passive Mechanics:
    • Master of the Grain: The wearer gains a +10 bonus to Trade (Carpentry, Shipwright, Woodcarver) Tests and Perception Tests made to evaluate the structural strength or hidden weaknesses of wooden structures, palisades, and ship hulls.
    • Deflecting Fiber: The wearer gains a +10 bonus to Toughness Tests made to resist damage or wounds caused by shattering wooden barricades, punji stakes, and splintering structural beams.
  • Active Mechanics:
    • The Ancestor’s Joinery: Three times per day, the wearer may spend a standard action touching two adjoining timber components while reciting an ancient craftsman’s invocation. The wood grain seamlessly knits together, creating an unbreakable structural seam that instantly repairs damaged doors or reinforces makeshift barricades.
    • Reinforce the Line: Once per day, the wearer touches a 2-yard section of wooden palisade, wall, or door. The barrier gains +2 AP against siege attacks and bludgeoning damage for 1 hour.
  • Drawback:
    • Luminescent Markings: The yellow ochre grid markings glow with amber light whenever structural magic is channeled, imposing a -20 penalty on all Stealth (Urban or Rural) Tests in darkened environments.