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Myth 47 of the Unseen Cobbler

—

by

Dale
in

Lore:

  • Originating among the insular settlements of the Aterian isle, the tale of the Unseen Cobbler asserts that a hearth spirit weaves shrouds of dust for anyone humble enough to walk entirely unnoticed.
  • Across dozens of disparate cultures, superstitious miners, thieves, and rural foragers whisper that if an individual genuinely convinced themselves they were as unimportant as loose gravel, the world’s predators would glance right past them.
  • Because magic responds directly to the certainty of thought on Saṃsāra, those who wear this item and fully internalize this superstition cause their visual outline and acoustic weight to bleed into the ambient background, turning a mere nursery tale into active arcane deflection.

Description:

  • This mantle is fashioned from ragged, soot-gray linen that hangs unevenly to the upper calf, fraying at the hem into threadbare tendrils.
  • Embedded directly into the collar is a tier 1 magic crystal about the size and weight of a coin, cloudy and pale gray, which pulses with faint ultraviolet luminescence visible only through True Sight or when examined closely by the Mind’s Eye.
  • When held or touched, the fabric feels dry, rough, and strangely cold, like limestone left in a cellar, leaving faint traces of inert gray powder on fingers that make physical contact with it.
  • A tiny tag sewn into the inner lapel bears the faded inscription: “Originally made by: Bram of the Shallow Quarry,” though whether this denotes an ancient artisan or a fabricated lineage remains impossible to prove.

Stats:

  • Tier: 1
  • Rarity: Common
  • Item Hit Points: 30 (Avatar Base plus Resilience 10 multiplied by Tier 1)
  • Resilience: 10
  • Armor Check (AC): 1 (Within the maximum limit of 3 per item tier)
  • Attunement: Requires Simple Attunement taking one full minute of uninterrupted focus while worn openly; handheld contact conveys basic identification through the Mind’s Eye but does not grant its enhancements.
  • Suggested Market Value: 120 silver coins, subject to local access, merchant haggling, and buyer beware dynamics.
  • Weight: 2 pounds.

Passives:

  • Hearth-Mantle Shroud: While this item is openly worn and attuned, the wearer’s acoustic emissions and visual contrast soften whenever they move through shadows or dim environments, granting a +1 temporary bonus to stealth and concealment-related skill checks so long as the wearer maintains conviction in their own obscurity.
  • Cobbler’s Silt Trace: The hem of the garment automatically scatters minute crystalline dust over the wearer’s footprints, filling shallow impressions and granting advantage on checks made to hide tracks across dirt, mud, or dusty stone floors.

Actives:

  • Dust-Blind Whisper: By expending one action to speak a three-word phrase from the Cobbler’s folktale in Somatic casting cadence, the wearer clouds the vision of one hostile creature within 30 feet, imposing a -2 penalty to that target’s next attack check against the wearer; this effect immediately ends if the wearer makes an attack or casts an offensive spell.
  • Cobbler’s Inertia: By expending one action to remain perfectly motionless and hold their breath for up to one continuous minute, the wearer causes their physical contours to blur and harmonize with adjacent walls or ground surfaces, causing all perception checks made to locate them by sight to suffer disadvantage until the wearer moves, takes damage, or speaks.

Slot:

  • Shoulder Slot

Tags:

  • Worn, Shoulders, Attunement, Tier 1, Common, Cloak, Linen, Stealth, Concealment, Deception, Glamour, Hearth-Folklore, Bram, Mind’s Eye Reveal, Dust, Camouflage, Inconspicuous, Shadow-Weave, Sound-Dampening, Grey-Cloth, Aterian-Lore, Track-Masking, Kinetic-Suppression, Obscurity, Minor-Abjuration

Commerce and Acquisition of Myth 47 of the Unseen Cobbler

  • In the family-operated tailoring and haberdashery shops that dominate the urban trade wards of Saṃsāra, this item is acquired through bespoke display or quiet commission. These businesses operate as small, generational storefronts run by specialized artisans who change their equipped crafting attire whenever local market competition forces a transition in trade. In such honest, storefront settings within walled cities or major regional seats, the mantle is typically displayed among mundane cloaks to deter casual scrying or unwanted official interest. An avatar purchasing the garment directly from an independent artisan will encounter a strictly enforced sellers’ market where buyer-beware doctrines prevail. A non-guild buyer is charged the full suggested market value of 120 silver coins (equivalent to 12 gold pieces). If the purchaser holds verified, active membership within the local Weavers or Leathercrafters Guild or an affiliated trade faction and visibly displays their faction badge, they qualify for the standard statutory discount of 10% multiplied by their character’s tier. For a tier 1 avatar possessing appropriate credentials, this reduces the price by 10% (12 silver coins), bringing the total cost down to 108 silver coins. The transaction is conducted under standard mercantile protocols, with payment transferred directly into the merchant’s local holding or processed through the World Bank, logging a formal ledger entry of the exchange that may later be scrutinized by city magistrates or fiscal assessors.
  • Selling the mantle to a standard civic shopkeeper requires navigating the merchant haggling framework established under regional commerce laws. An NPC merchant appraising the mantle relies upon their Mind’s Eye to evaluate the coin-sized tier 1 crystal embedded in the collar, the item’s 10 resilience, and its folklore-based enchantments. Under normal trade conventions, an NPC proprietor deducts 10% of the item’s baseline value multiplied by the selling character’s tier from their purchase payout. For a tier 1 avatar attempting to liquidate Myth 47 of the Unseen Cobbler, the shopkeeper haggles down from the 120 silver base value, offering approximately 108 silver coins (or 10 gold and 8 silver). Merchants in central metropolitan districts subject to 3% local sales taxation or state boundary import levies of 5% may adjust their cash offers lower to offset their own licensing overhead and quarterly tax burdens owed to the crown. Once the seller accepts the terms, the payment is deposited directly into the selling character’s account with the World Bank, automatically reflecting within their Mind’s Eye interface. Avatars must remain aware that municipal merchants maintain detailed purchase logs documenting the seller’s physical description and apparent true lineage, which are regularly audited by palace guards or state bailiffs tracing stolen property or banned arcane goods.
  • Within official Guildhall dispensaries and sanctioned military supply depots, the item appears primarily as specialized tactical surplus cataloged under scout recon gear. These larger, government-supervised establishments are overseen by appointed military officials or high-ranking Guild Masters who have spent decades ascending the guild hierarchy. In these facilities, access to Myth 47 of the Unseen Cobbler is heavily gatekept, often requiring the presentation of operational requisitions, verified adventurer standing, or specific renown rankings within the island nation’s hierarchy. Prices within guild dispensaries are fixed strictly against imperial valuation benchmarks at 120 silver coins for general contractors, with official guild members benefiting from the institutional 10% tier 1 reduction (108 silver coins). A guildhall will rarely buy back the mantle unless it is in pristine physical condition with its 30 item hit points fully intact; damaged or broken gear must undergo complete repair before the guild quartermaster will accept it. When bought back by a guild quartermaster, payout complies with civic valuation margins (108 silver coins credited to the world bank ledger), and the transaction is formally filed in official municipal archives, preventing anonymous turnover.
  • In clandestine black-market dens, subterranean docks, and unregulated back-alley stalls operating beyond the oversight of municipal bailiffs, Myth 47 of the Unseen Cobbler is treated as an illicit commodity favored by infiltrators, smugglers, and outlaws seeking to circumvent guard patrols. Black-market merchants operate entirely outside the jurisdiction of the World Bank and refuse digital or mind-linked bank transactions, demanding physical metal coinage—specifically minted gold coins—for all exchanges. When an avatar seeks to purchase the mantle from these covert distributors, the rule of absolute full cost applies without standard faction discounts. Depending on regional scarcity, geographic isolation, and the severity of local guard enforcement, black-market handlers routinely mark up the cost beyond the standard rate, selling the item for 120 to 240 silver coins (12 to 24 gold coins in solid metal currency). The buyer operates under complete buyer-beware vulnerability, as black-market sellers frequently employ misdirection runes or false attunement claims to disguise worn-down crystal cores or depleted item hit points.
  • Liquidating the mantle through the black market offers distinct advantages for individuals wishing to avoid imperial tax assessors or official inquiries. If an avatar brings the cloak to a shadow broker or fence, the buyer pays strictly in physical minted gold coins, ensuring that no ledger entry is created within the World Bank or visible to inspecting magistrates. If the fence has a high demand for concealment gear—such as during active martial lockouts, border mobilizations, or heightened city-gate inspections—they will offer the standard merchant baseline of 108 silver coins (paid as 10 gold and 8 silver in physical coin) or may pay up to twice the standard mercantile rate, reaching 216 to 240 silver coins (21 to 24 gold coins) to secure the artifact immediately. The transaction concludes with zero inquiries into the seller’s true name, the origin of the garment, or whether the previous owner perished in a cloud of sparks or left behind physical remains.
  • In remote rural settlements, isolated coastal fishing villages, and roadside trading posts situated along the secured roadways between coastal ports and central capitals, the mantle may occasionally surface among the wares of itinerant peddlers and covered-wagon caravans. Because settlements with fewer than five thousand residents lack dedicated guildhalls and areas with fewer than one hundred people possess no state-level trade oversight, pricing in these locales is wildly erratic and dictated purely by local accessibility. A rural peddler traveling between distant island regions where the Unseen Cobbler superstition is revered may value the mantle exceedingly high, demanding up to 150 silver coins (15 gold) from passing travelers who must pay in local non-metal tokens, barter reagents, or raw coins. Conversely, an uneducated village trader lacking the Mind’s Eye focus necessary to identify the item’s latent myth-magic properties might appraise it merely as durable, soot-stained linen, offering an unsuspecting seller as little as 30 to 50 silver coins, or selling it off cheaply to unburden wagon weight limits before paying upcoming municipal gate passage fees.

Tactical and Environmental Applications of Myth 47 of the Unseen Cobbler

  • Urban Settings and City Streets:
    • Defensive Roleplay: Moving through crowded stone thoroughfares, public squares, or market districts, the wearer pulls the mantle taut and matches their gait to the rhythm of mundane laborers. When pursued by city watches, state bailiffs, or rival guild enforcers, the avatar executes the Cobbler’s Inertia active by pressing their back flat against a masonry alcove, soot-stained brick wall, or tenement alleyway. By holding their breath and fixing their mind on the superstitious conviction that they are mere wayside gravel, their outline blurs into the surrounding stone textures, causing active guard searches to suffer disadvantage while the avatar tracks the passing patrol through peripheral vision.
    • Offensive Roleplay: In narrow avenues or shadowed docks, the avatar stalks a marked quarry from thirty feet behind, relying on the Hearth-Mantle Shroud to soften footfalls against wet cobblestones. Prior to initiating an ambush, the user utilizes a somatic action to utter the Dust-Blind Whisper under their breath, speaking the three-word folk cadence toward a targeted sentry; this instantly fogs the target’s vision with an illusory drift of gray grit, penalizing their defensive reactions and next attack check right as the avatar or an allied party member lunges from the gloom to strike before the alarm can be raised.
  • Wilderness and Dense Forest Canopies:
    • Defensive Roleplay: While traversing ancient wooded tracts, tangled undergrowth, or fungal swamps, the wearer uses the mantle’s Cobbler’s Silt Trace to cover hasty retreats from predatory beasts or territorial monsters. As the avatar maneuvers across damp humus, moss, or exposed dirt tracks, the trailing hem disperses its fine gray residue to fill foot impressions and obscure broken twigs, giving the avatar advantage on all concealment checks against trackers relying on mundane sight or physical trail reading. If caught in the open by an aggressive beast, the wearer activates Cobbler’s Inertia against the broad trunk of an ancient oak or a moss-covered boulder, blending into the mottled bark patterns until the beast loses interest.
    • Offensive Roleplay: The avatar advances upwind of an enemy encampment or beast den, keeping low beneath fern cover where the mantle suppresses foliage rustle and visual glint. Once within the thirty-foot threshold, the avatar channels the Dust-Blind Whisper to blind the lead sentry or apex monster momentarily, disrupting its line of sight and lowering its hit accuracy, thereby providing a clear opening for front-line party members to coordinate an alpha strike while the target paws fruitlessly at its clouded eyes.
  • Dark Cave Systems and Subterranean Ruins:
    • Defensive Roleplay: Inside lightless caverns, mining shafts, and subterranean ruins, where many predators navigate via darkvision or sensitive optical receptors, the mantle provides essential protection. Against foes perceiving the world in monochromatic shades of gray, the soot-like hue of the linen merges seamlessly with natural shale, slate, and basalt outcroppings. Upon encountering subterranean scouting parties, the wearer ducks into a natural crevice, utilizing the garment’s 1 Armor Check along with Cobbler’s Inertia to form an unbroken, stone-like silhouette that eludes even infrared and darkvision sweeps, preventing costly resource depletion while deep underground.
    • Offensive Roleplay: Operating in deep caverns often involves ambushing isolated foes near hazardous drop-offs or underground river crossings. The avatar edges along stalagmites or cavern walls, taking advantage of the mantle’s sound-dampening qualities to bypass echoes that would normally trigger acute hearing or blind-sight echoes. Reaching striking range, the avatar unleashes the Dust-Blind Whisper to neutralize the adversary’s counterattack capability, creating an opportunity to disarm, disable, or shove the disoriented target into a chasm without exposing the rest of the party to retaliatory strikes.
  • Maritime Decks and Coastal Reefs:
    • Defensive Roleplay: Aboard sailing vessels, inter-island trade barges, or wind-swept coastal reef outcroppings, the avatar contends with open visibility, salty spray, and wet decking. When targeted by pirate archers or hostile marine ballistas during naval engagements, the avatar hunkers down against the salt-bleached wooden hull, coiled rigging, or cargo netting. The mantle’s passive concealment blends with ocean mists and damp cordage, while the item’s intrinsic 1 AC cushions against splintering deck debris, allowing the wearer to remain unspotted by crow’s nest lookouts scanning the vessel’s perimeter.
    • Offensive Roleplay: During vessel boarding actions or raids across shallow tidal flats, the avatar exploits chaotic weather and churning surf to slip aboard foreign hulls unnoticed. Moving across damp gangplanks without leaving wet bootprints due to the silt-dissipating hem, the avatar targets the opposing vessel’s pilot or helmsman, invoking the Dust-Blind Whisper to occlude their vision. This blinding effect leaves the helmsman unable to defend the wheel or guide their crew effectively, providing the invading party an immediate tactical advantage to seize control of the vessel’s course.
  • Airborne Megacities and Sky-Dock Platforms:
    • Defensive Roleplay: Traversing the open catwalks, suspension bridges, and windy mooring towers of high-altitude settlements, an avatar is exposed to sharp panoramic views and high-altitude observers. When evading aerial patrols or griffon riders, the avatar drops beside steam vents, mooring winches, or iron girders, pulling the hood close to suppress skin glare and silhouette lines. Even against the backdrop of moving clouds or churning rotors, the garment’s myth magic deadens visual distinctness, making the avatar appear as an abandoned roll of canvas or discarded mechanical insulation rather than an active infiltrator.
    • Offensive Roleplay: In contested boarding maneuvers between zeppelins or during covert sky-dock infiltration, the avatar crawls along exterior ladders and maintenance shafts in complete silence. Drawing close to an external engineer or platform guard, the avatar initiates the Dust-Blind Whisper just as the target moves to secure an access hatch. The sensory interference disrupts the guard’s depth perception and defensive focus, enabling the avatar to quietly incapacitate the sentinel or bypass restricted sky-dock bulkheads without tripping pneumatic alarms or alerting surrounding aerial watches.

Perception of Activation:

User’s Perspective

  • Sight:
    • The user’s field of vision shifts in contrast, making peripheral surfaces appear flatter and less saturated, reducing distracting visual glare from local light sources.
    • The coin-sized tier 1 magic crystal at the collar pulses with a soft, pale violet glimmer that does not illuminate surroundings but marks the active draw of arcane focus.
    • Thin, phantom wisps of gray particulate seem to drift across the user’s hands and boots, signaling the active dispersal of the concealment mantle.
  • Sound:
    • Ambient echoes immediately drop in volume, causing loud room reverberations, shouting, and heavy footsteps to sound muffled as if passing through thick woolen drapery.
    • The user’s own respiration and heartbeat take on a subdued, low-frequency cadence, remaining audible only inside the inner ear.
  • Smell:
    • A dry, chalky aroma similar to powdered limestone, cellar dust, and ancient masonry fills the nasal cavity upon the moment of activation.
    • Sharp atmospheric scents like ozone, rotting swamp vegetation, or ocean brine are dampened by this chalky undertone.
  • Taste:
    • A lingering, mineral dryness manifests on the tongue and throat, reminiscent of breathing airborne flour or stone dust.
    • Salivation slows momentarily, leaving a chalk-like film that fades once regular breathing resumes.
  • Touch:
    • The collar and mantle drape feel unnaturally weightless against the neck and shoulders, shifting from coarse linen to the light sensation of falling cobwebs.
    • A gentle, static chill passes over the wearer’s skin, raising goosebumps along the arms as body heat is suppressed beneath the fabric.
  • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
    • Mind’s Eye Synchronization: The user’s internal Mind’s Eye interface displays a faint outline around the mantle, registering the garment’s 1 Armor Check and 30 hit points as an active buffer against incoming damage.
    • Directional Sensation: The wearer feels a subtle tugging awareness in their consciousness, alerting them to nearby visual lines of sight and indicating where shadows offer denser concealment coverage.
    • Weave Alignment: The conduit connection hums through the wearer’s thoughts, confirming that their belief in the Unseen Cobbler folklore is channeling ambient magic into active physical deflection.

Observer’s Perspective

  • Sight:
    • The edges of the wearer’s silhouette lose sharp focus, causing their body contours to bleed slightly into the background color of adjacent walls, floors, or foliage.
    • In normal daylight, observers notice that the garment lacks sheen, appearing as dull and unremarkable as roadside detritus or discarded cloth.
    • Observers possessing True Sight see a localized ultraviolet aura radiating from the collar crystal, while those viewing through Darkvision see the wearer register as an identical shade of gray to surrounding stone.
  • Sound:
    • Observers standing more than five paces away hear no footfalls, scuffing leather, or shifting gear from the wearer, even when movement crosses hard cobblestone or dry gravel.
    • Any speech from the wearer below normal conversational volume fails to travel beyond their immediate space, dropping off into indistinct background murmurs.
  • Smell:
    • Observers within arm’s reach detect a faint odor of dry stone dust, similar to passing near an abandoned quarry or mason’s workshop.
  • Taste:
    • No direct taste is perceived by distant observers, though individuals in direct physical contact with the mantle experience a momentary sensation of dry dust on the lips.
  • Touch:
    • If an observer brushes against the activated cloak, the fabric feels unexpectedly slick and difficult to grasp, offering little traction for grappling fingers.
    • Any physical impact against the cloth produces no hollow slap or cloth rustle, absorbing kinetic contact without audible vibration.
  • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
    • Mind’s Eye Misdirection: Observers scanning the area with their passive Mind’s Eye find their focus sliding off the wearer, requiring deliberate, active concentration to pull up the wearer’s basic statistics and name.
    • Tremorsense Diminution: Subterranean beasts or creatures utilizing tremorsense register the user’s weight as greatly reduced, perceiving vibrations equivalent to a small rodent or falling pebble rather than a full-sized humanoid.

Positives

  • Stealth checks and concealment attempts receive heightened consistency, as visual borders and auditory cues are actively dampened by the mantle’s myth-magic field.
  • Footprints and trail evidence are masked across soft dirt, soot, and loose stone, complicating tracking attempts by predatory beasts and humanoid pursuit teams.
  • In darkness or subterranean environments, the mantle matches grayscale vision spectra, allowing the wearer to remain unnoticed against stone masonry and cavern walls.
  • The wearer gains immediate intuitive feedback regarding their visual exposure, helping them adjust positioning before stepping into illuminated sightlines.

Negatives

  • The persistent mineral dryness in the throat can induce thirst, requiring frequent access to waterskins during prolonged periods of activation.
  • The reduction of ambient sound slightly dulls the wearer’s perception of distant acoustic threats, demanding greater visual vigilance to avoid flanking hazards.
  • While visually concealed from mundane sight, the ultraviolet glow of the collar crystal remains identifiable to creatures utilizing True Sight or specialized scrying foci.
  • The suppression of physical presence makes it difficult for allies to track the wearer’s movements during chaotic encounters unless direct line of sight is maintained.

Crafting Recipe: Myth 47 of the Unseen Cobbler

Materials Needed

  • One Tier 1 Magic Crystal, roughly the size and weight of a coin, harvested from a slain magical creature or monster.
  • Three yards of coarse, unbleached heavy flax linen, woven on a manual hand loom.
  • Four drams of subterranean shale dust or pulverized cellar limestone sifted to fine silt.
  • One fluid ounce of biological coagulant or animal-specific blood extracted via a fluid collector from a stealth-dwelling or subterranean beast, such as an ankheg or cavern badger.
  • Two skeins of spun spider-silk thread treated with charcoal ash for low-light non-reflectivity.
  • One bone or carved horn cloak clasp engraved with simple folkloric runes.

Tools Required

  • One Fluid Collector fitted with a biological extraction needle.
  • Tailor’s iron shears and bone sewing needles.
  • A stone pestle and mortar for dry mineral milling.
  • A copper mixing cauldron for binding organic fluids with mineral dust.
  • An arcane focus implement to guide the crafter’s thought flow into the weave during stitching.

Skill Requirements

  • Weaving and Tailoring: Skill Level 5 or higher to assemble the compound shoulder drape and integrate reinforced seams.
  • Magical Crafting: Skill Level 5 or higher to align the thought-conduit channels and bond the crystal to the neckline without destabilizing its resonance.
  • Alchemical Crafting: Skill Level 4 or higher to properly stabilize and emulsify the creature bodily fluids with the pulverized shale without coagulating prematurely.

Crafting Steps

  • Mineral Preparation: Grind the four drams of subterranean shale and cellar limestone in the stone mortar until the particulate reaches an impalpable powder, ensuring no coarse grains remain to prevent clumping during weave impregnation.
  • Reagent Blending: Draw the fluid collector charge of beast bodily fluids and discharge it slowly into the copper mixing cauldron over a low flame. Gradually sift the milled shale dust into the liquid, stirring steadily until a thick, gray mineral suspension is formed.
  • Fabric Treatment: Submerge the cut lengths of heavy linen into the suspension. Press the mixture deep into the natural fibers of the cloth, working the pigment and mineral grit through every thread until the material takes on a dull, light-absorbing soot-gray hue. Allow the treated linen to air-dry out of direct sunlight for one full 22-hour day cycle.
  • Crystal Seating: Bore a central recess into the horn cloak clasp and seat the coin-sized Tier 1 magic crystal firmly within the aperture. Bind the perimeter using treated spider-silk cord, anchoring the crystal so that its surface remains completely uncovered to maintain the line-of-sight exposure required for activation.
  • Garment Construction: Cut the dried linen into an asymmetrical shoulder mantle with an overlapping cowl. Hem the upper neckline using the ash-dyed spider silk, leaving the lower drape rough, fraying, and uneven to maximize particulate dispersion at the base.
  • Conduiting and Infusion: Sew the crystal-mounted clasp securely into the collar fold. Hold the focused mantle with both hands, channeling mental intent through the arcane focus implement while reciting the three-word folk cadence of the Unseen Cobbler in a steady somatic rhythm. Focus cognitive will on the belief of absolute insignificance until the crystal flares with a faint ultraviolet pulse, sealing the mantle’s 1 Armor Check and attunement structure into the finished piece.

Cobbler Whose Flesh Was Denied by Earth and Kings

In the time when great stones were yet soft like curd and the waters ran toward the north before turning backward, there walked one named Bram, who sat upon the dust inThe Tablet of the First Fire-Vessel and the Unmeasured Reaching

In the day before the day had two halves, there was the Grand Fore-Mother, whose feet were as heavy as dry salt, standing upon the dirt that had not yet learned how to be hard. She did hold in the middle of her two arms the Original Vessel of Boiling, which was made of neither mud nor beast-skin, but of the very first cold stone that fell out from the roof of the high darkness. Inside the basin slept the Red Seed of Sizzle, which was very little, like the eye of an ant, but it possessed great anger and wanted always to swallow the wind.

The Grand Fore-Mother spoke into the stone, saying words that are now broken off at the edges of the slate: Do not give the round child to the wanderer whose joints bend backward, for he carries a bag made of dry reeds, and a dry reed cannot hold the tooth of the spark. Yet there walked then the creature named En-Gar-the-Thirsty, who had three elbows upon his left side and whose tongue was always white like lime-wash. En-Gar approached the stone with heavy politeness, scraping his knees until the red water of men fell upon the gravel. He cried out: O keeper of the hollow stone, my pot is full of river-mud and cold fat, and my small ones sit in the dark blowing upon their fingers until the nails crack like brittle seeds.

Because the translation from the mountain-clay is scratched where the beetle crawled, it is not clear whether the Fore-Mother gave the vessel with two hands or if En-Gar took it with the hook of his sleeve while she closed her eye to sneeze. Nevertheless, the Vessel of the First Sizzle passed from the stone mountain into the dry reed-bag. En-Gar walked toward the low valleys, his gait like a broken wagon, singing a noise that made the birds lose their feathers. But the Red Seed inside the vessel was not sleepy; it smelled the dried pith of the basket and began to chew.

First, it ate the knot. Then it ate the strap. Then it bit the shoulder of En-Gar, who gave a shout like a horn and dropped the round stone onto the fat grass. The grass became red hair, running very fast across the ribs of the earth. The sky turned into a dark skin of smoke, and the wild cattle leaped into the deep water where their horns became soft like fat. En-Gar ran after the fire-thing with a dry branch, beating the ground, but each blow only made two more seeds of sizzle jump out of the dirt to laugh at his shins.

For forty-and-four turnings of the moon-disc, the fire ran without a leash. It drank the tall moss until the moss became white flour, and it bit the cliffs until the cliffs melted down into yellow glass. The Grand Fore-Mother came down from the dry salt upon her heavy feet, bearing a bowl of bitter milk squeezed from the clouds that were then very low and fat like sheep. She poured the white grease upon the tail of the red beast until it became small again, weeping gray dust, and she shut it back into the hollow stone. En-Gar stood with his arms scorched like burnt yams, holding only two black sticks that smelled of fat-grease.

The original stone was buried beneath seven layers of river-silt where the water is thick, and there it remains, breathing small warm bubbles through the mud when the year grows cold.

The Moral of the Story: He who borrows the mouth of the lightning to warm his cold soup must prepare to sleep with his head inside the ash-heap, for a small gift taken with an itching claw will eat the palm that carries it.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons

Mantle of the Unseen Cobbler

  • Wondrous Item, Common (Requires Attunement)
  • Item Category: Wondrous Item (Shoulders)
  • Armor Class Bonus: While wearing this mantle, you gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class.
  • Inconspicuous Tread: You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to conceal your tracks or move silently across dusty, loose, or subterranean terrain.
  • Folkloric Obscurity: As an action, you can remain completely motionless and hold your breath for up to 1 minute. While doing so, you gain advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks to hide, and creatures make Wisdom (Perception) checks to spot you with disadvantage. This effect ends immediately if you move, take an action, cast a spell, or take damage.
  • Dust-Blind Whisper: As an action, you can target one creature within 30 feet that can see or hear you. You speak a quiet verse, causing illusory stone dust to swirl across its vision. The target must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or suffer a -2 penalty to its next attack roll made before the end of its next turn. Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.

Blades in the Dark

The Shadow-Stitched Cowl

  • Item Profile: Fine Concealment Gear (1 Load, worn on shoulders)
  • Quality Tier: Tier I
  • Folkloric Dampening: When you make a Prowl roll to slip past notice, move across loud terrain without leaving trace evidence, or meld into stonework alcoves, you operate with +1 Effect factor due to the garment’s sound-dampening and contour-blurring qualities.
  • Stone-Still Shroud: You may spend 1 Stress to brace motionless against natural stone or soot-stained masonry. When you do, take +1d to Resistance rolls against being spotted, scried, or tracked while holding still.
  • Grit in the Eye: When actively engaged or cornered, you may spend 1 Stress to whisper an ancient cadence while flinging the cowl’s frayed hem. You immediately improve your Position by one step (e.g., from Desperate to Risky, or from Risky to Controlled) for an immediate escape, distraction, or strike action by blinding your opponent with sudden phantom silt.

Call of Cthulhu

Fragment of the Subterranean Shroud

  • Item Classification: Minor Arcane Artifact (Textile Mantle)
  • Appearance: A ragged, soot-stained linen shawl bearing an embedded, dull mineral crystal that glows faintly under specialized UV spectrum analysis.
  • Sanity Cost: 0 to equip; 1 Sanity point upon witnessing its active sensory-dampening effects.
  • Physical Protection: Grants 1 point of mundane armor against physical attacks (firearms, bludgeons, knives) by subtly blunting impact forces.
  • Auditory and Visual Dampening: Provides a +20% bonus to Stealth rolls when moving through ruins, stone cellars, caves, or poorly lit city alleys.
  • Silt Blinding Rite: The wearer may spend 2 Magic Points and initiate an opposed POW roll against a target within 10 yards while speaking a three-word phrase. If successful, the target is afflicted with illusory gritty blindness, suffering a penalty die to all attack rolls and Spot Hidden checks for 1D3 combat rounds. If an Extreme Success is achieved on the POW roll, the target is completely incapacitated by chalky hallucinations for 1 round.

Knave

Bram’s Ash-Mantle

  • Item Type: Armor / Concealment Tool
  • Slot Usage: Takes up 1 inventory item slot.
  • Armor Defense: +1 Armor Check (adds directly to Defense score; must be repaired if item hit points degrade).
  • Quality: 3 / 3 (loses 1 point of Quality if the wearer suffers a critical blow or if the item sustains direct structural damage).
  • Traits:
    • Footprint Suppression: Automatically fills and masks tracks left in soil, silt, mud, or ash. Tracking checks made against the wearer automatically fail unless assisted by supernatural or scent-tracking hounds.
    • Still as Cobblestone: When the wearer spends a full turn standing completely still against natural or carved stone, any Wisdom check to notice them is made with disadvantage.
    • Ash-Cloud Hex: Once per day, the wearer can recite a brief verse to impose disadvantage on an enemy’s next attack roll within 30 feet, manifesting a blinding cloud of phantom quarry dust before their eyes.

Fate

Mantle of the Folkway Shroud

  • Aspect: Shroud of the Unseen Cobbler
  • Stunt (Inconspicuous Footsteps): Because you wear the Mantle of the Folkway Shroud, you gain a +2 bonus to create an advantage using Sneak when attempting to mask your trail or blend silently into urban cobblestones, ruins, or cavernous stone.
  • Stunt (Quarry-Grit Distraction): Once per scene, by speaking an old folk cadence, you may spend a Fate Point to place the situational aspect “Eyes Clouded with Silt” with one free invoke on an opponent within your zone without needing to make an overcome roll.
  • Stunt (Folkloric Stillness): When you remain entirely motionless against masonry or rock faces, any active opposition to overcome your passive concealment suffers a +2 to the difficulty of the attempt.

Numenera & Cypher System

The Subterranean Silt-Cowl

  • Level: 1
  • Form: An asymmetrical, soot-stained mantle of coarse linen featuring a dull, coin-sized crystal clasp at the neckline.
  • Kind: Artifact (Depletion: 1 in 1d20)
  • Passive Effect: The cowl subtly absorbs visual contrast and acoustic vibrations. The wearer reduces the difficulty of all Stealth tasks by one step when navigating dim lighting, rocky environments, or masonry ruins.
  • Activated Effect (Action): The wearer holds their breath and freezes in place. For the next ten minutes, or until the wearer moves or takes another physical action, the difficulty of tasks to visually detect or scry upon the wearer is decreased by two steps (favoring concealment).
  • Activated Effect (Action): The wearer focuses their intent and speaks a three-word phrase to trigger the crystal clasp, targeting a creature within immediate range (up to 10 feet). The target’s next offensive action is hindered by two steps due to phantom quarry particulate swirling across its sight. Depletion roll applies on this activation.

Pathfinder

Cloak of the Quarry-Ghost

  • Item Type: Wondrous Item (Shoulders)
  • Aura: Faint Abjuration and Illusion; CL 1st
  • Price: 1,000 gp; Weight: 2 lbs.
  • Armor Check Penalty: 0
  • Description: Woven from unbleached linen steeped in mineral silt, this ragged mantle incorporates a cloudy crystal that pulses with faint violet hues under magical scrying. It cushions physical impact and shrouds the wearer in folkloric obscurity.
  • Item Benefits:
    • Protective Layer: The mantle provides a +1 armor bonus to AC.
    • Silt-Footed: The wearer gains a +2 competence bonus on Stealth checks made to move across subterranean terrain, stone rubble, or dry dirt without leaving discernible tracks.
    • Still as Masonry: When the wearer spends an action to remain completely stationary against a natural stone wall or brick surface, they gain a +5 competence bonus on Stealth checks to avoid visual detection until they take a move action, make an attack, or cast a spell.
    • Dust-Blind Incantation: Once per day as a standard action, the wearer may speak a somatic phrase to target one creature within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 11 Will save or become dazzled and take a -2 penalty on attack rolls for 1 round as phantom limestone dust clouds its vision.

Savage Worlds

Bram’s Ash-Woven Cloak

  • Type: Relic / Enchanted Garment (Shoulders)
  • Weight: 2 lbs.
  • Cost: Invaluable / Minor Relic
  • Armor Bonus: +1 Armor to the Torso and Legs against physical strikes.
  • Silt-Tread: The wearer gains a +1 bonus to Stealth rolls made in urban, ruinous, or subterranean stone terrain. Furthermore, Notice checks made to track the wearer by footprint impressions suffer a -2 penalty.
  • Folkloric Camouflage: By taking no movement on their turn and remaining braced against a stone wall, ruin, or natural rock outcropping, the wearer gains the benefits of the Camouflage ability, imposing a -2 penalty on all Notice checks made to spot them.
  • Quarry-Dust Hex: Once per encounter as an action, the wearer may make an arcane/smarts roll or invoke the cloak’s power against a target within 6 inches (12 yards). On a success, the target suffers the Distracted condition until the end of its next turn as illusory limestone powder fills its eyes. On a Raise, the target is both Distracted and Vulnerable.

Shadowrun

The Cobbler’s Shroud-Weave Cloak

  • Item Type: Armor Clothing / Dual-Natured Mystic Garment
  • Armor Value: +1 Defense Rating
  • Capacity: 0 (Non-technological; cannot accept standard electronic modification suites)
  • Availability: 6R (Folkloric / Awakened Talisman)
  • Cost: 3,500 Nuyen
  • Astral Profile: Dual-Natured. The garment contains an embedded Awakened crystalline focus at the collar. To mundane observers and optical sensors, it appears as an unremarkable, soot-stained mantle of heavy weave. On the Astral plane, it radiates a subtle ultraviolet resonance masking the wearer’s physical aura against background astral forms.
  • Thermal and Acoustic Baffling: While worn openly, the cloak reduces the acoustic profile of the wearer’s movement. Gain +1 die to Stealth Tests when navigating subterranean tunnels, stone alleyways, or masonry ruins. Furthermore, the shroud absorbs infrared bleed, imposing a -1 dice pool penalty on Perception Tests made to detect the wearer via thermal vision or acoustic sensors.
  • Silt-Tread Trace: The lower hem dissipates physical impressions, imposing a -2 dice pool penalty on Tracking Tests made to follow the wearer across dry soil, gravel, or dust.
  • Inertial Obscurity: As a Simple Action, the wearer can brace motionless against a stone, masonry, or ferroconcrete wall and hold their breath. Until the wearer moves or takes a non-defensive action, any visual or technological Perception Test to detect their silhouette suffers an additional -2 dice pool penalty.
  • Dust-Blind Incantation: As a Minor Action, the wearer whispers a somatic phrase targeting an opponent within 10 meters. The user makes an opposed Magic + Sorcery [Force 2] Test against the target’s Logic + Intuition. If the caster succeeds, the target suffers a -2 dice pool modifier to its next attack action due to localized sensory interference manifesting as phantom quarry grit.

Starfinder

Silt-Weave Infiltration Cowl

  • Item Level: 1
  • Category: Worn Magic Item (Shoulders)
  • Bulk: L (Light)
  • Capacity: Recharging Crystal Core (1 usage per day)
  • Price: 375 Credits
  • Passive Protection: The cowl provides a +1 enhancement bonus to Kinetic Armor Class (KAC) against physical kinetic attacks by deadening ballistic impact forces.
  • Acoustic and Visual Dampening: While attuned and worn on the shoulders, the user gains a +1 insight bonus to Stealth checks made to hide or move quietly in rocky, cavernous, or urban ruins. The micro-crystalline particles shed by the frayed hem mask standard boot prints, increasing the DC of Survival checks made to track the wearer by 2.
  • Masonry Stasis: As a move action, the wearer can stand completely still adjacent to a natural stone or worked masonry surface. The wearer gains concealment (20% miss chance to attacks targeting them) and a +4 circumstance bonus to Stealth checks to avoid active detection until they move, take an attack action, or cast an offensive spell.
  • Phantom Grit Hex: Once per day as a standard action, the wearer may speak a somatic command word directed at a living or sensory-equipped target within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 11 Reflex save or gain the dazzled condition for 1 round, taking a -1 penalty to attack rolls and sight-based Perception checks as phantom mineral dust clouds its visual sensors.

Traveller

Anomalous Silt-Dampening Mantle

  • Tech Level (TL): 4 (Manufactured via non-industrial folkloric weaving) / Functional TL 12 equivalent field-effect
  • Slot / Encumbrance: Worn Garment (1 Cargo Slot / Negligible Mass)
  • Armor Protection: Adds +1 protection to Armor value against physical, ballistic, and concussive damage.
  • Sensor Signature Suppression: The anomalous crystal weave acts as passive optical and acoustic baffling. When the wearer moves through urban rubble, caves, or rocky wilderness, observers attempting to detect the wearer suffer DM-1 on Recon or Electronics (Sensors) checks.
  • Trace Mitigation: The treated hem steadily disperses a low-density chalky particulate that neutralizes ground displacement. Any entity attempting to follow the user across dry ground or subterranean surfaces suffers DM-2 on Survival (Tracking) checks.
  • Inertial Concealment: If the wearer takes no movement during a combat round and remains pressed against hard structural stone, natural rock, or masonry, visual observation checks made to spot them from beyond Personal range suffer an additional DM-2.
  • Silt-Distraction Modulation: Once per combat encounter, the user may expend a Minor Action to target a visible opponent within Medium range (up to 12 meters) with a low-frequency psychic-resonance vocalization. The target must make an Average (8+) End or Int check (whomever is targeted). Failure applies DM-1 to the target’s next combat action due to transient optical and neural disruption.

Warhammer

Bram’s Cowl of the Quarry-Ghost

  • Item Classification: Talisman / Enchanted Armour (Shoulders)
  • Encumbrance: 0
  • Availability: Scarce
  • Armour Points: 1 AP to the Body and Legs.
  • Unseen Artisan’s Blessing: The cowl is woven from mineral-soaked cloth bound to an elemental focus. The wearer gains a +10 bonus to Stealth (Urban) and Stealth (Underground) Tests when moving through dark alleys, ancient catacombs, or quarries.
  • Vanishing Footfall: The trailing hem leaves an ash-like silt that masks tracks in mud, silt, and dust. Opponents tracking the wearer suffer a -20 penalty to Track Tests unless guided by scent-reliant creatures or supernatural scrying.
  • Still as the Hearth-Stone: If the wearer forfeits their Movement during their Turn and remains against an unworked or worked stone obstacle, any enemy making an active Perception Test to spot the wearer suffers a -20 penalty.
  • Quarry-Dust Hex: Once per encounter as an Action, the wearer may speak a folkloric rhyme targeting a single enemy within 12 yards. The target must pass a Challenging (+0) Willpower Test or gain 1 Blinded Condition that lasts until the end of the target’s following Turn as phantom quarry silt obscures its vision.