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Mana 654 of the Ironwood Cleaving Wedge Adze

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by

Dale
in

Lore

  • Crafted by master canoe-wrights, pioneer trail-blazers, and frontline sappers across the archipelagos of Saṃsāra, this heavy utility cleaver was designed to fell dense mangrove ironwood, split fibrous megaflora, and hew through chitinous monstrosities.
  • Frontier woodcutters found that the petrified roots of ancestral barrier islands resisted ordinary forged steel; true forestry and timber-shaping required a sustained kinetic spiritual current to shear along natural grain lines without binding the blade.
  • Fitted with a coin-sized Tier 1 magic crystal harvested from calcified volcanic reef-crabs, the adze-wedge focuses the wielder’s physical swing into a localized kinetic wedge, preventing kickback shock and delivering clean, devastating splitting force on impact.

Description

  • The tool features a broad, forward-weighted head forged from blackened carbon-bronze with a micro-honed concave chopping bit on one side and a thick splitting poll-wedge on the reverse, mounted securely onto a cured hickory-and-whalebone haft.
  • Embedded directly into the thick brass-reinforced cheek of the axe head is a coin-sized Tier 1 magic crystal that pulses with a steady, fiery amber luminescence whenever heavy physical blows are struck.
  • Inlaid with fine spiraled silver conduit wire along the cross-hatched grip to channel kinetic momentum, the implement comes equipped with a stiff oiled-leather belt holster fitted with quick-release brass clasps.

Detailed Stats

  • Item Tier: Tier 1 (Common)
  • Gear Slot: Hand Slot (Held in 1 hand for logging or combat; counts as 1 gear slot when stowed in a belt rig)
  • Item Hit Points: 30 (20 base avatar health equivalent + 10 resilience)
  • Armor Check (AC) Modifier: +1 AC
  • Resilience: 10
  • Weight: 2.5 pounds
  • Attunement: Handheld attunement (instantaneous when wielded) or 1 minute for belt-holster attunement
  • Maximum Stored Mana Boost: 2 points of mana

Passive Magic

  • Grain Diagnostic: While wielding the cleaving adze, the avatar’s Mind’s Eye perceives the natural grain paths, internal knots, structural fault lines, and anatomical cleave vectors in timber, stone, bone, or armored carapace within touch or 10 feet of clear vision.
  • Ambient Reservoir: The embedded coin-sized crystal draws upon circulating bio-rhythms, physical exertion, and kinetic wood-chopping momentum, regenerating 1 Mana Boost point at the start of each gameplay session, up to its maximum capacity of 2 points.
  • Kinetic Anti-Recoil: The wielder holding the tool gains perfect impact absorption, completely eliminating hand-numbing vibration, wrist strain, or binding shock when chopping through dense hardwoods, thick roots, or reinforced shields.

Activable Magic

  • Silver Fire Cleave: As a free action immediately after declaring a successful melee attack, logging strike, or chopping breach against a target while wielding the adze, the avatar can expend 1 stored Mana Boost point to unleash “silver fire spell power,” dealing 1d4 additional unresistible silver fire damage without action penalties.
  • Hewing Lifeline: When a crushing log fall, catastrophic physical cleave, or lethal impact reduces the avatar’s health points to zero while carrying or holding the adze, the avatar may expend 1 point of stored mana as an immediate reaction to instantly brace the physical frame and arrest fatal shock, surviving with exactly 1 health point remaining.
  • Structural Felling Strike: By expending an action and focusing through the Mind’s Eye, the avatar strikes a stationary obstacle, wooden barricade, locked door, or dense tree trunk, releasing a concentrated kinetic burst that deals maximum double-cleaving damage against inanimate structural materials and instantly shatters non-magical wooden barriers.

Tags

  • Tier 1, Common, Chopping, Woodcraft, Cleaving, Forestry, Hand Slot, Mana Boost, Silver Fire, Adze, Kinetic Focus, Lumberjack, Timber, Splitting, Hatchet, Wedge, Carpenter, Forestry, Hewing, Sapper, Demolition, Axe

Acquisition, Trade, and Valuation of the Ironwood Cleaving Wedge-Adze

  • Timberwright Guildhalls, Logging Yards, and Canoe-Building Wharves: Located in harbor timber basins, riverside sawmills, and coastal canoe yards throughout island settlements, these centers are operated by master shipwrights, wood-carvers, and logging foremen. The adze-wedges are displayed in cedar tool racks and locked wall-mounts alongside timber framing chisels, draw-knives, and felling axes. Purchasing an Ironwood Cleaving Wedge-Adze from a licensed logging or shipwright guild costs between 12 and 16 Silver coins. Avatars presenting verified credentials (such as membership in the Woodcrafters’ Guild, Shipwright Union, or Foresters’ Compact) receive a standard 10% trade discount, reducing the purchase price to 10 to 14 Silver. Selling a used or salvaged adze back to a timber master yields 9 to 11 Silver credited to the avatar’s World Bank ledger after the yard master verifies the sharp concavity of the chopping bit and the secure mount of the amber mana crystal.
  • Frontier Pioneer Depots, Sapper Encampments, and Expeditionary Outposts: Found in deep jungle borderlands, fortified timber-trail gates, and military pioneer bastions, these supply depots serve trail-blazers, combat engineers, and shock sappers needing rugged breaching gear. The tools are sold as heavy field-clearing implements bound in waxed canvas tool rolls. Buying an adze-wedge from a pioneer or sapper depot costs between 14 and 18 Silver (or equivalent Electrum chits), with active expedition pioneers or combat sappers receiving an institutional discount bringing the cost to 12 to 15 Silver. Liquidating a recovered unit through a borderland quartermaster provides 10 to 12 Silver deposited into the seller’s World Bank account upon inspection of the whalebone-reinforced haft and brass cheek casing.
  • Smuggler Coves, Black-Market Scrappers, and Illicit Wreckers: Tucked away in hidden mangrove lagoons, pirate shipwright caves, and pirate salvage dens operating beyond municipal law, these illicit fences trade in untraceable pioneer breaching tools, modified shipboard boarding axes, and unregistered salvage cleavers. Transactions operate entirely outside the World Bank network, conducted exclusively in physical hard currency, primarily Gold coins and raw specie. Avatars buying this tool from an illicit wrecker pay a black-market rate of 2 to 3 Gold coins (equivalent to 20 to 30 Silver) with no faction discounts honored. Avatars selling an adze-wedge to an underground salvage dealer receive an immediate physical payout of 1 to 2 Gold coins with zero questions regarding previous ownership or logging origin.

Tactical Roleplay and Environmental Deployment of the Ironwood Cleaving Wedge-Adze

  • Dense Mangrove Swamps, Ironwood Glades, and Choking Jungles (Offense):
    • When tracking ambushers or tracking territorial beasts through dense vegetation, the avatar uses Grain Diagnostic to identify the structural weak points and natural cleavage planes in massive ironwood boles and tangled root barriers.
    • Swinging the forward-weighted head, the woodcutter hacks through thick, petrified mangrove roots in a single clean chop to cut off an enemy’s retreat.
    • Upon engaging a monstrous plant-horror or scaled marsh predator, the avatar lands a solid blow with the concave bit and immediately spends 1 mana to unleash Silver Fire Cleave, driving unresistible radiant damage through thick bark or natural armor.
  • Dense Mangrove Swamps, Ironwood Glades, and Choking Jungles (Defense):
    • The Kinetic Anti-Recoil passive completely absorbs the jarring shock of heavy chopping, preventing wrist fatigue or disarming recoil when striking stone-hard timber.
    • When a colossal ironwood tree collapses or a crushing swipe from an apex predator threatens to crush the avatar, the player spends 1 mana point to trigger Hewing Lifeline, instantly bracing their stance and surviving the lethal impact with 1 health point.
    • In tight thickets, the avatar uses the broad poll-wedge to parry sweeping thorn-lashers and deflect crushing blows, keeping their guard steady.
  • Shipboard Boarding Actions, Sinking Galleys, and Coastal Wharves (Offense):
    • During chaotic naval boarding actions, the avatar rushes the enemy vessel’s forecastle and targets the mast rigging, tiller ropes, or gun-deck braces.
    • Using Structural Felling Strike, the avatar chops through the boarding gangplank or hostile capstan with double-cleaving damage, collapsing enemy defensive positions.
    • When dueling corsairs, the avatar slips past shield rims with an adze hook, expending silver fire spell power to incinerate internal armor linings on a confirmed hit.
  • Shipboard Boarding Actions, Sinking Galleys, and Coastal Wharves (Defense):
    • If the vessel is struck by a heavy ballista bolt or collapsing yardarm that would instantly crush the avatar to zero health points, the player activates their lifeline reaction to remain standing with 1 health point.
    • The avatar hooks the concave blade onto splintering ship railings to arrest fatal falls into the churning reef below.
    • Wielding the adze with two hands, the avatar uses the carbon-bronze head to catch and turn away heavy cutlass strikes in close quarter-deck scuffles.
  • Subterranean Mines, Fortified Bunkers, and Siege Trenches (Offense):
    • Serving as a frontline combat engineer, the avatar visually analyzes the load-bearing grain vectors of enemy tunnel supports and wooden gate barricades.
    • With a focused chop, the avatar triggers Structural Felling Strike against a reinforced palisade, instantly shattering the wooden beams and clearing a path for the vanguard.
    • Facing armored sentries or tunnel-dwelling burrowers, the avatar strikes with the heavy splitting poll, discharging silver fire to bypass heavy steel cuirasses and stone chitin entirely.
  • Subterranean Mines, Fortified Bunkers, and Siege Trenches (Defense):
    • When an underground cave-in, bunker explosion, or falling boulder inflicts fatal crushing trauma, the avatar expends 1 mana point to survive at 1 health point.
    • The avatar rapidly chops away falling timber wedges to construct improvised bracing shelters for pinned allies.
    • The sturdy carbon-bronze cheek provides a solid deflection shield against flying stone shrapnel and heavy crossbow bolts in cramped tunnels.
  • City Barricades, Burning Tenements, and Riotous Streets (Offense):
    • In urban skirmishes or town uprisings, the avatar leverages the tool’s compact haft to chop through barricaded doors, wooden security portcullises, and shuttered windows.
    • In close-quarters melee within narrow alleys, the avatar drives the concave bit into an attacker’s wooden buckler or spear shaft, cleaving the weapon in two before following up with an unblockable silver fire strike.
    • The avatar uses the poll-wedge as an impromptu door-breaching ram to bypass fortified urban checkpoints.
  • City Barricades, Burning Tenements, and Riotous Streets (Defense):
    • When trapped in a collapsing, burning warehouse or caught beneath falling roof joists, the avatar uses Hewing Lifeline to withstand the fatal crush and remain conscious at 1 health point.
    • The avatar immediately fells smoldering support pillars to create escape channels and clear firebreaks for fleeing civilians.
    • In chaotic riots, the forward-weighted balance allows the avatar to swiftly ward off multiple blunt-weapon attacks and push back aggressive crowds without losing footing.

Perception of Activation:

  • Sight:
    • User’s Perspective: The coin-sized amber crystal set into the axe cheek flares with a fierce, molten-gold radiance, sending bright ember-like trails along the spiraled silver conduits down the haft and outlining the natural cleavage grains in wood, bone, and stone with glowing orange lines.
    • Observer’s Perspective: Bystanders witness the blackened carbon-bronze head ignite with a warm, fiery corona that leaves radiant amber light-streaks trailing behind every chop and swing.
    • Positives: Clearly highlights structural fault lines and weak points in barriers or enemy armor even in total darkness.
    • Negatives: The brilliant flare easily gives away the wielder’s position in dim forests or dark siege trenches.
  • Hearing:
    • User’s Perspective: A deep, resonant sub-bass thrum reverberates through the cured hickory haft, followed by a crisp, thunderous thwack-crack as the blade shears cleanly through dense fibers without binding.
    • Observer’s Perspective: Observers hear an acoustic crack resembling a dry lightning strike or a massive timber snapping under heavy tension.
    • Positives: Provides immediate, loud auditory feedback confirming a successful structural breach or clean split.
    • Negatives: The booming impact noise echoes across great distances, alerting hostile patrols and predators.
  • Touch:
    • User’s Perspective: A pleasant, grounding warmth floods the user’s palms, accompanied by a micro-vibrational hum that completely neutralizes kickback, making the heaviest ironwood feel like soft balsa.
    • Observer’s Perspective: The woodcutter swings and strikes colossal targets with fluid, unbroken momentum, showing zero wrist-jarring recoil or blade-binding shudder.
    • Positives: Prevents blisters, joint fatigue, and disarming shock during prolonged logging or intense demolition work.
    • Negatives: Numbed impact sensations can lead to overconfidence, masking weapon-haft wear or gradual tool micro-fractures.
  • Smell:
    • User’s Perspective: A rich, sharp scent of vaporized pine sap, charred cedar, and toasted hickory smoke rushes into the user’s nostrils.
    • Observer’s Perspective: Those nearby catch a distinct whiff of fresh wood-shavings mingled with the dry, smoldering heat of an open bonfire.
    • Positives: Masks foul bog fumes, decaying swamp miasma, and subterranean mold during heavy field operations.
    • Negatives: Leaves a persistent campfire-like scent that lingers on clothes and gear, making scent tracking easy for beasts.
  • Taste:
    • User’s Perspective: A warm, dry taste of toasted wood-ash and roasted chicory coats the tongue and palate.
    • Observer’s Perspective: Close companions notice a dry, resinous warmth lingering in the surrounding air.
    • Positives: Helps stimulate focused breathing and suppresses nausea from toxic swamp spores or rot.
    • Negatives: Leaves the throat feeling dry and parched, increasing the need for water after sustained activations.
  • Extra-Sensory Perceptions (Mind’s Eye & Magic Flow):
    • User’s Perspective: The Mind’s Eye reveals the inner tension lattice of objects, showing directional arrows of natural stress, knot density, and optimal felling vectors across any physical barrier.
    • Observer’s Perspective: Arcane sensitives perceive a localized shockwave of golden, kinetic force coiling tightly around the adze bit before discharging directly into the target’s core.
    • Structural Resonance Sense: The user intuitively gauges the load-bearing integrity, weight balance, and imminent collapse thresholds of nearby structures with a single tap of the poll-wedge.
    • Positives: Guarantees instantaneous, decisive demolition and maximizes leverage against reinforced defenses without wasted strikes.
    • Negatives: Processing the sudden collapse geometry of massive collapsing trees or masonry can cause a fleeting moment of spatial disorientation.

Crafting Recipe: Ironwood Cleaving Wedge-Adze (Tier 1 Re-creation)

Materials Needed

  • 1 Coin-sized Tier 1 Magic Crystal (Harvested from a calcified volcanic reef-crab or dense kinetic/earth catalyst grade)
  • 1 Billet of blackened carbon-bronze (approx. 2 pounds, forged for dual-headed wedge-poll and concave chopping bit)
  • 1 Cured straight segment of dense hickory and fossilized whalebone (approx. 18 inches in length for the haft)
  • 1 Cast brass reinforcement plate with integrated crystal bezel (for the axe head cheek)
  • 4 Feet of fine spun silver wire (for kinetic conduit inlay along the cross-hatched haft)
  • 1 Fluid Collector vial of volcanic reef-crab hemolymph (biological kinetic mana conduit)
  • 1 Fluid Collector vial of distilled pine-amber resin lacquer (bonding, weatherproofing, and sealing agent)
  • 1 Ounce of calcified coral grit and powdered quartz (for conduit seat lining and shock dampening)

Tools Required

  • 1 Fluid Collector (precision syringe for reagent measurement and conduit filling)
  • 1 Blacksmith’s forge, anvil, and shaping tongs
  • 1 Set of metal rasps, concave sharpening stones, and diamond-grit honing files
  • 1 Wood-carving drawknife, spoke-shave, and cross-hatching checkering tool
  • 1 Micro-engraving stylus (for scoring haft conduit channels)
  • 1 Small spirit-lamp and wire-burnishing iron

Skill Requirements

  • Crafting (Blacksmithing / Weaponsmithing): Level 5 minimum
  • Crafting (Woodworking / Toolmaking): Level 5 minimum
  • Arcane Crafting / Biomechanical Binding: Level 5 minimum
  • Minimum Crafter Tier: Tier 1

Crafting Steps

  • Axe Head Forging and Profiling: Heat the carbon-bronze billet in the forge and hammer it into a dual-purpose head featuring a wide concave chopping bit on the forward edge and a thick, blunt splitting poll-wedge on the rear. Grind and hone the concave bit to a razor-sharp micro-edge using graduated sharpening stones.
  • Haft Shaping and Splice-Fitting: Shape the cured hickory blank with a drawknife and spoke-shave to fit an ergonomic one-handed grip. Splice and pin the fossilized whalebone reinforcement along the dorsal strike-spine, then cut fine cross-hatching checkering into the lower grip area for positive traction.
  • Cheek Bezel Fitting and Conduit Scoring: Mill a flush recess into the cheek of the bronze head and securely mount the cast brass reinforcement plate. Using the micro-engraving stylus, score twin spiraling conduit grooves down the length of the wooden haft, originating from the brass cheek plate and terminating at the butt of the handle.
  • Silver Wire Inlay and Conduit Linkage: Lay the fine spun silver wire into the scored haft channels, burnishing it flush into the wood grain. Solder the upper wire leads directly to the brass crystal housing on the axe cheek to form a continuous kinetic circuit.
  • Catalyst Seating and Fluid Infusion: Coat the central bezel seat with a compound of pine-amber resin and calcified coral grit. Firmly press the Tier 1 Magic Crystal into the housing. Using the Fluid Collector, inject a precise bead of volcanic reef-crab hemolymph into the conduit ports beneath the crystal seat to complete the kinetic mana bridge.
  • Head Mounting and Harmonic Resonance Test: Heat the eye of the carbon-bronze head and seat the haft firmly, securing it with an oiled hardwood wedge and brass cross-pin. Hold the assembled wedge-adze, focus through the Mind’s Eye, and strike a dense hardwood log with a firm chop. The crystal must flare with a warm amber corona accompanied by a deep acoustic thrum and zero handle-shock recoil, confirming the tool is properly balanced, attuned, and ready for use.

Splitting-Iron and Great Mangrove of Deep Salt-Creek

In the ancient counting of tides before the thirty stone sea-gates were set upon the outer reef of the high chieftain-island, there dwelt one cutter of swamp-trees and shaper of voyage-canoes named Ta-Moko. The body-frame of Ta-Moko was not adorned with high feathers of gold, nor did he sing the loud songs of the spear-nobles, yet his hands knew the true grain-lines that run inside all heavy woods and hard stones. In that cycle of years, a great dark-water sickness fell upon the middle islands, and the high chiefs commanded that a great fleet of hundred-man ocean-canoes be built to carry the clan-seed across the roaring surf to the outer high rocks. But the only wood strong enough to turn back the teeth of the reef-dragons was the petrified Black Ironwood that grew in the deep center of the drowned ghost-marsh.

Many strong axe-bearers of the warrior-bands went into the drowned swamp with heavy forged iron-blades and wide war-axes. Yet when they struck the ironwood trunks, the hard bark did bite back with great anger, breaking the bronze edges into small tooth-pebbles and shaking the elbow-joints of the strong men until their fingers turned black and their bones dropped their grips. From the high canopy of the great mother-ironwood tree, a terrible crawling mountain-crustacean—the Ancient Shell-Terror with ten crushing claws and a stone carapace thick like an island wall—dropped upon the logging party. With two mighty pinches, the great beast smashed the copper war-canoes into splintered drift-twigs and drove the screaming axe-men into the mud.

The chiefs in the council-hall beat their chests with dry stones, lamenting: “The great wood cannot be cleaved! The shell-beast eats our builders, and the clan-seed will drown when the Great Salt Flood rises over the reef!”

Then Ta-Moko went to his low hearth of mangrove-ash and took up a broad billet of blackened carbon-bronze. Upon his heavy anvil-stone, Ta-Moko hammered the front face into a deep, curved chopping bit that turned inward like the beak of a sea-falcon, and upon the rear poll he raised a wide, thick splitting wedge. He cut a straight haft from the seasoned heartwood of island hickory, joining to its spine a smoothed bone-plate taken from the jaw of a leviathan whale. Across the cheek of the heavy bronze head, Ta-Moko seated a brass ring containing one coin-sized glowing amber spirit-stone pried from the calcified crest of a volcanic reef-crab. He wound twin threads of pure silver wire down the cross-hatched wood, sealing the stone with distilled amber gum and the red vitality-juice of the shore-crab.

The translation script of the cracked sea-slate says: And when the wedge-adze was held in the fist, the vibration of striking did not shake the marrow, and the eye of Ta-Moko saw through the skin of the tree as though it were thin pond-ice.

Ta-Moko walked alone into the black ghost-marsh until he stood before the colossal Mother-Ironwood, whose roots were knotted like thirty coiled serpents around the mud-shoals. Looking upon the ancient bark through the amber light of the Mind’s Eye, Ta-Moko saw the hidden stress-faults and the secret paths where the fibers had grown in tension since the world was mud. Ta-Moko raised the wedge-adze and struck the mighty trunk. With each swing, the adze did not bounce nor stick; the amber stone flared like a rising sun, and the concave blade sliced through petrified grain with clean thunderous thwacks, casting off chips of ironwood like dry sea-kelp.

Suddenly, the Ten-Clawed Shell-Terror descended from the twisted high branches, dropping like a falling boulder upon the timber-cutter. A massive, jagged crusher-pincer struck Ta-Moko full upon the ribs with the force of a sinking galleon, crushing the breath-box of the woodcutter and driving his life-health down to the absolute zero-point of the spirit-scale. The watching scout-birds upon the branches shrieked into the mist, crying: “The tree-shaper is broken! His breath has fallen upon the swamp-water, and the shadow has taken his eye!”

Yet the ancient damaged glyph on the baked stone reads: Ta-Moko held tight to the amber-eyed haft. By releasing the single stored point of silver mana held within the brass cheek as an immediate life-reaction, the shattering fatal shock was arrested within his breast. The torn flesh-fibers bound themselves shut in an instant flash of golden conduit-light, and Ta-Moko stood firm upon the ironwood roots with one single pulse of vitality beating in his chest.

Spinning the forward-weighted tool in his unyielding hands, Ta-Moko used the grain-diagnostic sight to view the mineralized carapace of the charging beast. Seeing the central structural fault-line running down the creature’s ventral plate, Ta-Moko stepped beneath the snapping claw and drove the concave chopping bit deep into the armor-seam. Upon the moment of biting impact, Ta-Moko unleashed the unresistible silver fire spell power stored within his soul.

The white spirit-fire erupted through the internal organs of the Shell-Terror, ignoring the stone-hard carapace and thick chitin plates as if they were brittle sea-grass. The unblockable flame seared the beast from within, splitting the monster’s shell cleanly in two halves that fell lifeless into the swamp-ooze. Ta-Moko turned back to the Mother-Ironwood, brought the great trunk down with three decisive felling strikes, and hauled the buoyant, impenetrable logs to the beach. From that timber, the hundred-man canoes were fashioned, carrying the entire clan beyond the reach of the Great Salt Flood without the loss of a single soul.

Moral of the Story: When confronting obstacles of unyielding stone or petrified strength, brute force only shatters the hand that wields it; true mastery lies in discerning the natural fault-lines of the world and applying steady, unwavering purpose to split even the greatest mountains with a single stroke.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons

Ironwood Cleaving Wedge-Adze Weapon (Handaxe), Common (Requires Attunement)

  • Item Type: Simple Melee Weapon (Handaxe, 1d6 Slashing, Light, Thrown [20/60 ft.])
  • Armor Class Bonus: While wielding or holding this weapon, you gain a +1 bonus to your Armor Class.
  • Grain Diagnostic: You gain advantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Nature or Investigation) checks made to identify structural weak points in wooden fortifications, doors, barricades, or natural vegetation.
  • Kinetic Anti-Recoil: You ignore disadvantage or ability check penalties caused by weapon recoil, heavy vibration, or striking hardened materials, and your chopping attacks against non-magical plant matter deal double damage.
  • Silver Fire Cleave (1 Charge): The wedge-adze holds 1 charge, which replenishes daily at dawn. Immediately after hitting a creature with a melee attack using the adze, you can expend 1 charge to deal an additional 1d4 radiant damage that cannot be resisted.
  • Hewing Lifeline: If damage reduces you to 0 hit points while carrying or wielding this weapon, you can use your reaction and expend 1 charge to drop to 1 hit point instead.
  • Structural Felling Strike: As an action, you make a melee weapon attack against an inanimate wooden object or structural obstacle (such as a door or barricade); the hit is automatically a critical hit and deals double damage to the object.

Call of Cthulhu

The Kinetic Breaching Wedge-Adze Occult Apparatus / Heavy Woodcraft Implement

  • Item Classification: Melee Weapon / Utility Tool (1 Hand)
  • Skill Synergy: Fighting (Axe) or Mechanical Repair
  • Base Damage: 1D6+1+Damage Bonus (DB)
  • Structural Demolition: Grants a +20% bonus (or one Bonus Die) to Mechanical Repair, Strength, or Fighting (Axe) rolls made to breach heavy wooden doors, clear fallen timber barricades, or fell structural supports.
  • Silver Fire Cleave: By spending 1 Magic Point when landing a successful melee strike with the chopping bit, the investigator inflicts an additional 1D4 direct kinetic damage that ignores physical armor or unnatural thick hides.
  • Hewing Lifeline: If the investigator suffers catastrophic crushing, blunt-force, or structural trauma that would reduce Hit Points to 0 (death state), they may immediately spend 5 Magic Points and succeed on a CON or Extreme POW roll to absorb the shock, surviving with exactly 1 Hit Point.

Blades in the Dark

Ironwood Cleaving Adze-Wedge Special Item (1 Load, Heavy Breaching & Woodcraft Tool)

  • Item Nature: Carbon-bronze and whalebone-reinforced breaching adze embedded with an electroplasmic amber catalyst.
  • Quality & Tier: Tier I quality equipment.
  • Structural Breacher: Gain +1d to Wreck or Finesse rolls when chopping through heavy barricades, wooden hulls, palisades, or structural timber supports.
  • Kinetic Cleave: You may take 1 Stress to channel concentrated kinetic force on a melee strike against heavily armored foes or reinforced barriers, improving your Effect (e.g., from Standard to Great).
  • Hewing Lifeline: When you suffer fatal harm from a crushing blow, structural collapse, or heavy cleaving attack while holding the adze, you may immediately resist death by taking 2 Stress, reducing the fatal consequence to level 3 harm and remaining conscious.

Knave

Ironwood Cleaving Wedge-Adze Weapon / Tool (1 Item Slot)

  • Slot Cost: 1 item slot (held in one hand or stowed on a belt loop).
  • Armor Bonus: +1 Armor Defense while held or worn.
  • Quality: 3/3 Durability.
  • Damage: 1d6 Slashing (Handaxe equivalent).
  • Barrier Demolition: Attacks against non-magical wooden doors, barriers, and dense vegetation automatically deal maximum damage and do not consume item Quality.
  • Silver Fire (1 Use/Day): Once per day, immediately after a successful melee attack made with the adze, discharge the amber crystal to deal an additional 1d4 direct, unblockable damage.
  • Death Ward (1 Use/Day): If damage from a physical attack or crushing impact would reduce you to 0 HP while holding or carrying this tool, make a Strength check (DC 15). On a success, you remain at 1 HP instead, and the wedge-adze loses 1 point of Quality.

Fate

Ironwood Cleaving Wedge-Adze of the Deep Creek Extra (Aspect & Stunt Focus)

  • Item Aspect: Heavy Carbon-Bronze Cleaver with Kinetic Amber Core
  • Stunt (Grain Diagnostic): Gain a +2 bonus to Overcome or Create an Advantage using Physique or Notice when targeting structural fault lines in wooden barriers, barricades, palisades, or heavily armored carapaces.
  • Stunt (Silver Fire Cleave): Once per scene, when you succeed on an Attack roll with the wedge-adze against an opponent or heavy fortification, you may spend 1 Fate Point to deal +2 shifts of unblockable damage with the aspect Silver Fire Cleave.
  • Stunt (Hewing Lifeline): Once per session, when you would suffer a fatal Consequence or be taken out by crushing damage, falling timbers, or a heavy cleaving blow while wielding the adze, you may invoke the tool’s stored kinetic reserve to fill your lowest available Consequence slot instead and remain active with 1 point of stress buffer.

Numenera & Cypher System

Ironwood Cleaving Wedge-Adze Array Artifact (Level 2)

  • Form: Forward-weighted carbon-bronze handaxe with a concave chopping bit, splitting poll-wedge, whalebone-reinforced haft, and an embedded amber synth-crystal.
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d10 (checked upon activating an offensive discharge, structural breach, or survival burst).
  • Passive Effect: The wielder eases all tasks related to heavy woodchopping, barrier demolition, and resisting recoil or vibration shock by one step (reducing the difficulty by 1).
  • Active Effect (Silver Conduction): As part of a melee attack made with the chopping bit, the user unleashes unresistible kinetic mana through the strike, dealing +2 points of direct energy damage that completely ignores armor.
  • Active Effect (Hewing Lifeline): As an immediate action when a crushing blow, falling structural hazard, or physical cleave would reduce the character’s Might Pool to zero and cause incapacitation or death, the user rolls for Depletion. On a success, the character prevents incapacitation and remains conscious with 1 point remaining in their Might Pool.
  • Active Effect (Structural Breaching): With an action, the user strikes a stationary wooden door, barricade, or timber support, dealing maximum structural damage and immediately bypassing non-magical structural barriers.

Pathfinder

Ironwood Cleaving Wedge-Adze Item 1 (Earth, Evocation, Kinetic, Magical)

  • Price: 15 gp
  • Usage: held in 1 hand
  • Bulk: 1
  • Base Weapon: Hatchet (1d6 Slashing; Agile, Sweep, Thrown 10 ft.)
  • Grain Diagnostic: While holding or wielding the wedge-adze, you gain a +1 item bonus to Perception and Nature checks to identify structural weak points in wooden fortifications, doors, and plant-based hazards.
  • Silver Fire Cleave (Free Action): Trigger: You successfully hit a creature with a melee Strike using the wedge-adze. Frequency: Once per day. Effect: You channel stored spiritual energy through the concave bit, dealing an additional 1d4 spirit damage that bypasses all physical and energy resistances.
  • Hewing Lifeline (Reaction): Trigger: You are reduced to 0 Hit Points by bludgeoning, slashing, or crushing damage while holding or carrying the wedge-adze. Frequency: Once per day. Effect: The kinetic matrix locks your frame against fatal trauma; you do not gain the dying condition and instead remain conscious at 1 Hit Point.
  • Structural Felling Strike (Two-Actions): Frequency: Once per day. Effect: Make a Strike against an unattended wooden object, door, or barricade. If the Strike hits, it deals maximum damage and ignores the object’s Hardness up to Hardness 5.

Savage Worlds

Ironwood Cleaving Wedge-Adze Minor Arcane Device (Personal Gear)

  • Item Type: Handaxe / Breaching Tool (1 Hand / Gear Slot)
  • Damage: Str+d6 (AP 1 vs. wooden/plant barriers)
  • Weight: 2.5 lbs
  • Min Str: d6
  • Woodcraft Mastery: The bearer gains a +1 bonus to Athletics checks made to chop through obstacles, fell timber, or breach wooden structures, and is immune to weapon-recoil or vibration fatigue.
  • Silver Fire Cleave: When scoring a successful hit with the adze (Str+d6), the user may expend 1 Power Point (or spend 1 Benny) to add +1d4 unsoakable AP 2 damage to the total damage roll.
  • Hewing Lifeline: If the bearer suffers enough wounds from an attack, falling timber, or crushing blow to become Incapacitated while holding or carrying the wedge-adze, they may make an immediate free Vigor roll at +2. If successful, they avoid death and unconsciousness, stabilizing with 1 remaining vitality buffer.

Shadowrun

Ironwood Cleaving Telesma-Adze Kinetic Weapon Focus / Heavy Breaching Tool

  • Item Rating: Rating 1 (Weapon Focus / Specialized Breaching Gear)
  • Availability: 4 (Legal)
  • Cost: 1,500 nuyen
  • Damage: (STR + 2)P
  • Attack Rating: 9 / 2 / — / — / —
  • Physical Profile: Blackened carbon-bronze head mounted on a hickory-and-whalebone haft with a cross-hatched grip, featuring a concave chopping edge, a rear splitting wedge, and an embedded glowing amber telesma crystal.
  • Grain Diagnostic Affinity: The wielder gains a +1 dice pool modifier to Engineering, Demolitions, or Perception tests made to assess the structural integrity or weak points of doors, wooden barricades, palisades, and organic vehicle hulls.
  • Kinetic Anti-Recoil: The user ignores negative dice pool modifiers caused by recoil, surface vibration, or tool binding when chopping through dense materials or reinforced barriers.
  • Silver Fire Cleave: When scoring a successful melee hit (Close Combat skill) with the adze, the user may spend 1 Edge to channel unresistible kinetic mana, inflicting an additional 2P unresisted Elemental (Force/Spiritual) damage.
  • Hewing Lifeline: If incoming physical, crushing, or structural damage would fill the character’s Physical Condition Monitor into overflow and cause death, the user may spend 1 point of Edge as an immediate interrupt action to absorb the fatal shockwave, remaining conscious with 1 box of Physical Condition intact.

Starfinder

Ironwood Cleaving Wedge-Adze Hybrid Weapon, Level 1

  • Item Level: 1
  • Price: 420 credits
  • Damage: 1d6 S
  • Critical: Knockdown
  • Bulk: 1
  • Special: Analog, Block, Powered (Capacity 10, Usage 1/strike or activation)
  • Hands: Held in 1 hand
  • Grain Diagnostic: While wielding the wedge-adze, the user gains a +1 insight bonus to Engineering and Perception checks to detect structural weaknesses in bulkheads, barricades, and heavy biological hazards, as well as a +1 insight bonus to EAC against blunt and crushing melee attacks.
  • Silver Fire Cleave (1 Charge): As part of a melee attack on a confirmed hit, the user can expend 1 charge to deal an additional 1d4 unresistible force damage.
  • Hewing Lifeline (5 Charges): When lethal crushing, bludgeoning, or kinetic damage would reduce the user to 0 Hit Points and induce the dying state, the user may expend 5 charges as an immediate reaction to stabilize their structural frame, remaining conscious at 1 Hit Point instead.
  • Structural Felling Strike (2 Charges): As a standard action, the user expends 2 charges to strike a stationary door, barrier, or inanimate object, dealing double base damage and ignoring the object’s Hardness up to Hardness 5.

Traveller

Kinetic Cleaving Wedge-Adze Primitive / Tech Level 4 Breaching Implement

  • Tech Level: TL 4 (Specialized / Biological Kinetic Artisan Manufacture)
  • Mass: 1.2 kg
  • Skill Synergy: Melee (Blade or Bludgeon) or Athletics (Strength)
  • Damage: 2D6 (Slashing/Crushing)
  • Cost: Cr 1,200
  • Structural Analysis Matrix: Grants a +1 DM to all Engineer, Explosives, or Recon checks made to locate structural stress points in wooden bulkheads, timber fortifications, and natural obstacles.
  • Kinetic Dampening: The user ignores negative DMs resulting from weapon kickback, surface vibration, or manual fatigue during prolonged breaching or logging operations.
  • Resonant Cleave Strike: Once per combat encounter, following a successful melee attack made with the adze, the user can trigger the crystal’s discharge to add 1D6 additional armor-ignoring kinetic damage to the total damage roll.
  • Kinetic Resonance Ward: If the user suffers catastrophic physical or crushing trauma that would reduce their combined Physical Characteristics (STR, DEX, END) to 0 (death state), the amber core discharges its stored resonance, stabilizing the user at exactly 1 point of Endurance remaining and rendering the device inert until serviced.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound

The Ironwood Cleaving Wedge-Adze of Ghur Minor Wondrous Item / Heavy Utility Weapon

  • Availability: Rare (Utilized by Ironweld Sappers, Freeguild Trail-Blazers, and Kurnothi Wood-Wrights)
  • Item Slot: Held (1 Hand / Belt Rig)
  • Damage: 1 + S (Slashing/Crushing)
  • Traits: Crushing, Rend (vs. wooden and organic structures)
  • Armour Check: +1 to Armour against Bludgeoning and Crushing damage while wielding or holding the weapon.
  • Structural Mastery: The wielder gains +1d6 to all Mind (Nature) and Body (Might) tests made to identify structural faults, chop through reinforced barricades, or clear dense timber terrain.
  • Silver Spark Cleave: Once per encounter, when the bearer scores a successful melee attack with the adze, they may spend 1 Mettle to deal 1 additional Damage that completely ignores non-magical Armour.
  • Hewing Resilience: If a crushing impact, falling timber, or lethal blow would inflict the Mortally Wounded condition on the wielder, they may immediately expend 1 Mettle to brace their frame against the impact, remaining conscious with 1 Toughness remaining instead.