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Psionic 509 of the Throbbing Marrow

—

by

Dale
in

Lore

  • Constructed during the rapid expansion of the industrial steam works, this orthotic apparatus was engineered for laborers and conscripts whose physical vessels were plagued by deep joint decay, bone fatigue, and chronic atmospheric inflammation. Rather than banishing physical pain, early psionic biokinetics treated aches as concentrated bio-piezoelectric pressure waiting to be harnessed. Crafted from vulcanized rubber, articulated spring-brass braces, and raw banded hematite shards, the sleeve fastens tightly around a limb to compress throbbing tissues. As the wearer moves, the apparatus absorbs the dull, radiating torment of bruised marrow and converting it into a continuous psychic current. The wearer’s lingering ache becomes a tactile baseline of focus: so long as the body throbs with steady, familiar agony, the mind remains acutely alert, weaponizing biological friction into kinetic repulsion and heightened bodily awareness.

Detailed Stats

  • Item Type: Psionic Compression Brace
  • Gear Slot: Arm Slot (Left or Right)
  • Item Tier: Tier 1
  • Rarity: Common
  • Item Level: 1
  • Armor Check: +1 AC
  • Item Resilience: 10
  • Maximum Item Health Points: Avatar maximum hit points plus 10
  • Attunement: Simple attunement (1 minute of tightening the tension straps until a steady throbbing pulse is established)
  • Weight: 2 pounds
  • Physical Description: A reinforced forearm bracer and elbow wrap constructed from cross-stitched vulcanized canvas, ribbed with adjustable brass compression levers. Slender needle-plates of unpolished banded hematite press directly into the muscles of the inner forearm, while a small, thumb-sized smoky quartz lens sits over the wrist pulse, glowing with a dull, bruised-purple luminescence in sync with the wearer’s thumping aches.

Skills Gained While Openly Worn

  • +1 Endurance (Temporary skill point)
  • +1 Medicine (Temporary skill point)

Passive Magics

  • Grounded in Discomfort: The continuous, rhythmic throbbing within the arm creates a physical anchor that suppresses external cognitive intrusions. The avatar gains advantage on saving throws against being charmed, dazed, or put to sleep, as sudden spikes in mental influence are disrupted by the sharp reality of the limb’s persistent ache.
  • Barometric Prescience: The apparatus channels atmospheric pressure directly into the wearer’s joints, sharpening sensory perception through bodily twinges. The avatar gains advantage on perception checks related to detecting incoming weather shifts, barometric drops, subterranean tremors, and pressurized steam leaks within 60 feet.
  • Numbed Threshold: By habituating the nervous system to persistent low-level agony, the brace blunts the shock of sudden violent trauma. The avatar cannot be incapacitated by non-lethal subdual strikes, and pain-based status penalties do not reduce the avatar’s base movement speed.

Activable Magics

  • Marrow Pulse: As an action, the wearer deliberately compresses the brass tension levers, converting their built-up joint ache into a directed concussive wave of psionic pressure. A creature within 15 feet must make an opposed saving throw against the wearer’s d20 roll; on a failure, the target suffers a deep, throbbing ache in its limbs, imposing disadvantage on its next physical attack roll or physical skill check made before the end of its next turn.
  • Displaced Agony: As an action, the wearer presses the smoky quartz lens against an adjacent living creature, transmitting a psychic replica of their chronic inflammation directly into the target’s neural path. The target must succeed on a saving throw or suffer 1d4 psychic damage as its joints lock with phantom arthritis, reducing its movement speed by 10 feet for 1 minute.
  • Sympathetic Recoil: As a reaction when the wearer is struck by a melee weapon attack, the brace absorbs the kinetic impact by violently discharging its stored internal pressure. The incoming damage is reduced by an amount equal to the roll of the avatar’s tier die (1d4), and the striking attacker experiences a sharp, agonizing phantom throb in their striking wrist, forcing them to succeed on a saving throw or suffer disadvantage on all weapon attacks until the start of their subsequent turn.

Tags:

  • psionic, arm-slot, tier-1, common, achy, pain-conversion, biokinetics, endurance, brass, hematite, sensory-anchor, compression, inflammation, orthotic, kinetic-discharge, joint-pain, chronic-fatigue, bio-resonance, shock-absorption, physical-anchor, pressure-conversion, grit, sensory-prescience

Acquisition, Trade Outlets, and Valuation of the Psionic 509 of the Throbbing Marrow

  • Methods of Acquisition
    • Found discarded or stored within industrial boiler houses, subterranean canal stations, or mining infirmaries where laborers pushed their physical avatars past biological limits.
    • Recovered as an expedition reward from manual labor unions or mining guilds after clearing dangerous elemental blockages or repairing fractured deep-vent pipes without collapsing the structural supports.
    • Salvaged from the remains of an unpossessed laborer or soldier who perished of exhaustion or trauma along trade-line construction routes, or found beside the soul crystal of a vanquished possessed entity that utilized the brace to manage body decay.
    • Crafted by an orthotic tinkerer or bonesetter using vulcanized canvas, spring-loaded brass levers, needle-cut banded hematite shards, a Tier 1 catalyst crystal, and biological fluid reagents harvested with a fluid collector from fatigued pack beasts.
    • Acquired directly upon possessing a newly claimed adult avatar whose mundane profession involved chronic joint wear, such as an iron-quarry breaker, foundry stoker, or dockyard hauler.
  • Guild Infirmaries and Orthotic Apothecaries
    • Commercial Atmosphere: These clinical, aromatic storefronts sit adjacent to foundry gates and dockyard administration centers. The air smells heavily of camphor, boiled liniments, and heated rubber. Brass racks display hinged braces, weighted splints, bone saws, and glass display jars filled with analgesic tinctures and polished mineral plates under sharp gas lighting.
    • Purchasing Mechanics: Buyers purchase equipment across polished counter stones. Registered members of the Laborers Union, Healers Faction, or Adventurers Guild receive an official 10% price reduction on the item’s baseline valuation multiplied by their Tier rank. Accounts are settled cleanly through Mind’s Eye ledgers managed by the World Bank, which deducts its mandatory 1% transaction fee automatically.
    • Selling Mechanics: An avatar offering the brace to a guild physician must allow the artisan to test the spring-hinge tension and inspect the hematite needles for mineral oxidation. The apothecary haggles down approximately 10% of the item’s appraised value multiplied by the seller’s Tier rank. Once accepted, payment is transferred directly to the seller’s World Bank balance, and the clerk files an official transaction report recording the seller’s avatar specifications.
    • Pricing: The standard recommended baseline value is 130 silver coins (or 13 gold coins). A standard non-affiliated buyer pays the full 130 silver. An attuned Tier 1 guild member purchases the compression sleeve for 117 silver. A Tier 1 adventurer selling the apparatus to a licensed infirmary walks away with 117 silver deposited into their bank account.
  • Salvage Yards and Heavy-Machinery Pawn Shops
    • Commercial Atmosphere: Located along muddy transit roads and industrial factory alleys, these cavernous shops are crowded with bent steam pipes, salvaged cog assemblies, discarded boiler plates, and heaps of second-hand work gear hung from heavy iron chains.
    • Purchasing Mechanics: The yard proprietor sells strictly on an “as-is, buyer beware” premise, offering no guarantees regarding internal spring fatigue or lingering psychic residue from former owners. Guild price reductions do not apply unless the yard master keeps an active affiliation placard behind the counter.
    • Selling Mechanics: Pawn brokers haggle aggressively, knowing that an injured or desperate adventurer seeking to offload an orthotic brace often requires immediate coin. Transactions are paid via the World Bank ledger if the yard’s terminal crystal is active, or in mixed copper and silver currency.
    • Pricing: Depending on the severity of damp weather and local demand among mine workers, purchase costs fluctuate between 110 silver and 160 silver. Scrap dealers buying from an adventurer typically pay out between 85 silver and 110 silver into the seller’s account.
  • Clandestine Flesh-Changers and Unlicensed Bone-Carver Dens
    • Commercial Atmosphere: Operating within dark cellar tunnels beneath sewer outflows or hidden behind unlicensed back-alley tattoo parlors, these illicit workshops reek of sour alcohol, burning leather, and alchemical ozone. The artisans here specialize in jury-rigged bodily modifications and untracked prosthetic devices.
    • Purchasing Mechanics: Dealings are conducted exclusively in physical precious metal coins; World Bank transfers are flatly refused to prevent municipal tax inspectors from tracking the exchange. The braces sold here feature scraped serial notches and bypassed tension stops, ensuring total anonymity for the purchaser.
    • Selling Mechanics: Illicit bone-carvers buy functional orthotic devices immediately with loose coinage, asking zero questions regarding missing previous owners, corpse-stripping, or factory theft. If an outlaw syndicate has an injured operative needing an unregistered kinetic dampener, the fence will pay well above standard pawn rates.
    • Pricing: Buyers seeking an untracked compression brace pay between 170 silver and 250 silver in raw coin. Adventurers selling the piece to a black-market carver typically receive between 120 silver and 200 silver in loose physical currency.

Tactical and Environmental Roleplay Applications of Psionic 509 of the Throbbing Marrow

  • High-Pressure Boiler Rooms, Smelting Foundries, and Steamworks
    • Defensive Roleplay: Amid hissing steam valves, oppressive heat, and grinding iron pistons, the air is thick with concussive vibrations that can disorient an ordinary fighter. The wearer relies on Barometric Prescience to interpret the subtle, stinging twinges in their elbow joint, detecting sudden pressure drops and venting steam pipes hidden behind catwalks before scald hazards erupt. When a berserk foundry construct swings an iron cudgel at the wearer’s ribs, the avatar braces the reinforced forearm, letting Sympathetic Recoil absorb the blunt shock directly into the vulcanized canvas; the stored kinetic force discharges into the automaton’s jointed wrist with a jarring psychic recoil, rattling its gears and turning aside a crushing blow.
    • Offensive Roleplay: Operating in cramped catwalks over boiling slag pits, the wearer uses the intense background noise and metallic rattling to mask their approach. Closing the distance on an armed saboteur, the wearer triggers Marrow Pulse by cranking down the brass tension levers until their own arm throbs with familiar, blinding friction. The resulting concussive shockwave tears through the metal floor grating, sending a dull, sickening ache into the saboteur’s limbs that ruins their stance, leaving their defenses open for a decisive follow-up shove over the railing.
  • Freezing Mountain Tundras, Glacial Caverns, and Frostbitten Heights
    • Defensive Roleplay: Sub-zero gales and sleet normally stiffen joints, numb fingers, and inflict debilitating physical exhaustion. The wearer’s constant internal ache becomes an unyielding tactile furnace. While companions shiver and risk losing their grip on ice picks, the wearer’s Numbed Threshold ignores the slowing frostbite shock, using the familiar throbbing ache as an anchor to maintain forward momentum up the slick incline. When a snow predator lunges from a blizzard drift, attempting to tackle the avatar down an ice slope, the wearer absorbs the impact through the hematite needle-plates, keeping their footing where an ungrounded traveler would slide into the abyss.
    • Offensive Roleplay: Confronting frost-dwelling beasts whose thick hides resist ordinary cutting edges, the wearer bypasses exterior armor entirely. Stepping inside the creature’s reach, the avatar presses the smoky quartz lens directly into the beast’s flank and unleashes Displaced Agony. The psychic imprint of chronic, freezing bone-ache surges into the beast’s nervous system, causing its massive limbs to cramp with violent phantom arthritis. As the creature stumbles and wheezes from the sudden phantom inflammation, its movement slows to a crawl, allowing the party to encircle and dispatch it.
  • Subterranean Deep Mines, Fissures, and Collapsing Shafts
    • Defensive Roleplay: Far beneath the crust where rock strata groan under tectonic strain, cave-ins are a lethal certainty. The wearer’s joint twinges act as an organic early-warning sensor, as Barometric Prescience registers micro-fractures in the overhead rock ceiling seconds before dust begins to fall, alerting the crew to leap clear of the collapse zone. If a falling slab of slate strikes the wearer’s arm during the scramble, the brace’s compression frame distributes the crushing weight, allowing the wearer to remain conscious and functional instead of suffering an incapacitated limb.
    • Offensive Roleplay: In narrow tunnels where weapons cannot swing cleanly, the wearer utilizes the tight confines to corner subterranean burrowers or rival claim-jumpers. By deliberately grinding the arm’s tension brackets against the stone wall to build maximum internal pressure, the wearer releases a concentrated Marrow Pulse down the length of the shaft. The directed shockwave bounces along the enclosed rock faces, violently rattling the bones of approaching tunnel beasts and sending agonizing joint reverberations through their frames that cause them to drop their tools or retreat down the tunnel.
  • Crowded Back-Alley Tenements, Slums, and Damp Drainage Canals
    • Defensive Roleplay: Navigating sodden, rain-slick alleys where muggers and cutpurses strike from blind doorways, the wearer uses the steady ache in their arm to remain vigilant against mental tricks. Street illusionists or hypnotic mesmerists trying to project calming or dazing magic find their spells shattering against the wearer’s Grounded in Discomfort passive, unable to override the sharp, biological reality of the throbbing limb. When an ambusher strikes from the dark with a lead-weighted sap, Sympathetic Recoil absorbs the blow without leaving the avatar dazed, sending a stinging phantom ache up the mugger’s forearm that forces their weapon from numb fingers.
    • Offensive Roleplay: Tracking an evasive thief through rain-choked alleyways, the wearer uses the brace to shut down the target’s agility without resorting to lethal force. Closing within reach in a dead-end courtyard, the wearer lays the smoky quartz lens against the fugitive’s shoulder with Displaced Agony. A flash of bruised-purple light radiates through the target’s spine, locking their knees with the crippling stiffness of a lifetime of quarry work. As the thief collapses into the cobblestone mud, clutching their throbbing knees in phantom agony, the wearer secures the target without shedding a drop of blood.

Perception of Activation:

  • User’s Perspective
    • Somatosensory and Thermal Sensation: When the compression levers lock into place, the canvas and brass ribbing cinch tightly across the forearm with an unyielding, vice-like grip. The polished hematite needles sink firmly into the muscle belly, generating a sharp, localized prick that immediately gives way to a heavy, radiating warmth. As the psychic charge builds, the bone marrow inside the radius and ulna begins to throb in rhythm with the avatar’s heartbeat, feeling not like destructive injury, but like dense, coiled potential energy pressing outward against the periosteum.
    • Auditory Modulation: The internal acoustic hum of the wrist-mounted smoky quartz resonates through bone conduction directly into the inner ear. The user hears a low, rhythmic thumping cadence—similar to the heavy, muffled thud of an industrial steam hammer heard through stone walls—which drowns out high-pitched ringing and keeps the avatar anchored in physical reality.
    • Optical and Cognitive Clarity: The visual field remains crisp and stable, but sudden flashes of mental distraction or disorientation are abruptly snuffed out. Whenever a wave of external psychic influence or fear attempts to cloud the user’s focus, the steady, rhythmic ache in the arm flares, acting as a mental splash of ice water that keeps the user’s thoughts rigidly grounded in their immediate physical presence.
    • Bio-Mechanical Prescience: The nerve pathways of the arm become hyper-attuned to physical surroundings. Through subtle twinges and pulling sensations in the wrist tendons, the avatar intuitively perceives air density fluctuations, micro-tremors in the floorboards, and the impending release of pressurized steam vents within line of sight.
  • Observer’s Perspective
    • Visual Manifestations: Observers watching the avatar see the brass spring linkages along the forearm tense and shudder under mechanical strain. The thumb-sized smoky quartz cabochon at the wrist darkens to a deep, bruised plum before pulsing with a low, cyclic violet radiance. Thin, vaporous wisps of dusky purple energy curl out from beneath the canvas straps, venting like steam from an overtaxed boiler valve before dissolving into the air.
    • Physical Posture: The wearer’s stance visibly stiffens into an immovable, rooted posture. The braced arm holds itself with rigid economy of motion, the hand curling into a firm, deliberate fist. The avatar shows no flinching, trembling, or signs of hesitation, even when enduring concussive impacts or facing overwhelming intimidation.
    • Audible and Ambient Output: Anyone standing within a few feet of the wearer can hear the rhythmic, metallic clatter of the brass tension springs softly ticking in time with the quartz’s light pulses. The immediate air surrounding the forearm carries a distinct, dry odor of hot vulcanized rubber, pulverized slate, and ozone.
  • Multiple Extra-Sensory Perceptions
    • Soul Sight: To an observer using soul sight, the avatar’s soul matrix appears heavily weighted and anchored into the physical limbs. Dark magenta threads of bio-kinetic energy spiral from the heart along the nervous channels into the forearm, where they are trapped, compressed, and concentrated into a dense, spinning knot of kinetic potential right over the hematite setting.
    • True Sight: Viewed through true sight, the apparatus reveals an intricate network of microscopic stress-lines running through the brass struts. Ambient Weave energy is pulled into the hematite needles, where it mixes with biological friction, transmuting organic cellular stress into an invisible concussive shock-mantle that cushions the limb from external force.
    • Tremorsense: Subterranean and burrowing creatures detect the wearer not as an erratic biological entity, but as a dense, periodic vibrational spike. Each heartbeat from the avatar sends a tiny, perfectly metered acoustic shockwave through the soles of their boots and into the earth, mirroring the vibration of heavy machinery or stone-crushing rams.
  • Positives
    • Absolute Mental Grounding: The persistent, rhythmic ache creates an unyielding physical reality check, granting strong resistance against charm effects, illusions, dazing strikes, and psychological panic.
    • Predictive Environmental Awareness: Subtle twinges in the joints warn the wearer of sudden changes in atmospheric pressure, cave-ins, structural failures, and approaching tremors before they can catch the party off guard.
    • Kinetic Retaliation and Shock Blunting: Sudden blunt impacts from melee strikes are partially absorbed into the brace, blunting damage and instantly converting kinetic trauma into a punishing phantom feedback loop against the attacker.
  • Negatives
    • Lingering Physical Fatigue: The arm remains under constant orthotic compression; once the brace is removed or unlatched, the limb suffers from severe, prolonged muscular soreness, reduced grip strength, and stiffness for several hours.
    • Distracting Internal Throb: In quiet, non-hostile environments requiring subtle social grace or delicate manual dexterity, the unceasing, rhythmic pounding in the bone can be irritating and make fine lockpicking or precision needlecraft difficult.
    • Conspicuous Psychic Vapor: The rhythmic pulsing of bruised-violet luminescence and venting wisps of psionic steam make concealment nearly impossible in dark environments, drawing the attention of predators sensitive to kinetic or thermal signatures.

Recipe: Construction of the Throbbing Marrow Sleeve

Materials Needed

  • One thumb-sized smoky quartz gemstone, cut into a smooth, low-domed cabochon free of major internal fracturing to serve as the kinetic focal lens.
  • Six needle-shaped plates of unpolished, banded hematite (approximately two inches long, one-eighth inch thick) to conduct nerve-compression bio-currents.
  • One Tier 1 magic crystal catalyst, precisely the mass and diameter of a minted standard coin, harvested from an adult magical entity.
  • One yard of heavy-duty vulcanized woven canvas strap, treated with natural rubber for elastic resistance.
  • Four feet of drawn spring-temper electrical brass wire, wound into tight tension coils.
  • Two articulated brass compression lever brackets with locking ratchets and pins.
  • Three fluid ounces of resinous tree sap reagent harvested using a fluid collector from an ironwood or deep-quarry root system to bond the mineral plates.
  • Two fluid ounces of bodily fluid distillate harvested via fluid collector from an overtaxed, heavily worked pack mule or draft beast to serve as an alchemical inflammation catalyst.
  • One sacrificial mundane leather arm bracer or steel wrist guard, consumed in the alchemical hearth to donate its structural pattern to the assembly.

Tools Required

  • Standard fluid collector with calibrated vacuum needle.
  • Machinist’s miniature spring-winding mandrel and wire pliers.
  • Precision jeweler’s hammer, riveting punch, and small bench anvil.
  • Heavy-duty leather-punch and waxed-thread stitching awl.
  • Alchemical bench crucible with steam-assist heat regulation.
  • Lapidary grinding wheel and stone-polishing burrs.
  • Calibrated tension gauge for testing spring resistance.

Skill Requirements

  • Leatherworking / Canvas Armoring: Skill Level 5 or higher.
  • Metalworking / Clockwork Mechanics: Skill Level 5 or higher.
  • Alchemical Distillation: Skill Level 5 or higher.
  • Relevant Trained Crafting Skill matching the Tier of the end result: Minimum Level 1 in Psionic Apparatus Crafting.

Crafting Steps

  • Distill and stabilize the bio-kinetic bonding matrix:
    • Use the fluid collector to draw three fluid ounces of dense sap from deep-quarry ironwood roots.
    • Extract two fluid ounces of fluid distillate from a fatigued draft beast using the collector’s micro-plunger.
    • Combine both extracts in the alchemical crucible over a low steam-regulated flame.
    • Reduce the solution until it darkens to a thick, bruised-purple paste that retains elasticity when cooled.
  • Shape the canvas armature and fit the mechanical tensioners:
    • Cut the vulcanized canvas into an articulated three-strap forearm sleeve contoured to wrap from wrist to upper forearm.
    • Place the sacrificial mundane bracer into the crucible to melt down its form, capturing its protective template within the weave of the vulcanized canvas.
    • Mount the two brass compression lever brackets onto the lateral edge of the canvas sleeve using small brass rivets.
    • Wind the spring-temper brass wire around the mandrel to form two dampening coils, securing them directly between the compression levers and the outer sleeve frame to regulate strap tension.
  • Cut, seat, and embed the hematite needle-plates:
    • Grind the six banded hematite shards on the lapidary wheel into slender, tapered needles with rounded tips to ensure they press firmly against the skin without cutting flesh.
    • Coat the underside of each hematite plate with the reduced purple alchemical paste.
    • Align the six plates in two parallel rows along the interior lining of the sleeve so they will press directly against the muscle belly of the wearer’s forearm flexors and extensors.
    • Awl-stitch leather retaining bands over the plate edges to anchor them securely to the canvas substrate.
  • Mount the smoky quartz and catalyst battery:
    • Fashion a circular brass bezel cup with an under-well designed to sit directly over the wearer’s radial wrist pulse.
    • Place the coin-sized Tier 1 magic crystal into the lower well of the brass cup.
    • Seat the smoky quartz cabochon directly atop the magic crystal, sealing the seam with the remaining alchemical resin.
    • Crimp the brass bezel rim over the quartz cabochon using the jeweler’s hammer and riveting punch, ensuring a tight mechanical lock.
    • Rivet the completed quartz assembly onto the distal strap of the sleeve.
  • Tension calibration and psionic initialization:
    • Fasten the finished sleeve onto an arm-mandrel and crank the brass compression levers until the internal tension gauge registers full operating pressure.
    • Strike the brass frame with a light wooden mallet to produce a concussive shock, watching for the kinetic force to transfer through the hematite needles into the catalyst well.
    • Focus mental intention into the smoky quartz for five minutes, concentrating on the sensation of tired, throbbing bone-marrow until the quartz pulses with a slow, dull violet light.
    • Verify that the springs click rhythmically and the hematite plates maintain a steady, radiating warmth, completing the crafting process.

Squeezed Arm Iron Which Turneth Sick Bone into a Hammer

Hearken now unto the third clay platter of the Deep Ditch, whereon the grandfather of the mud-scribe pressed his thumb because the marks of the ancients were shaped like drowned beetles. In that distant turn of the wheel, before the water-clocks had brass bells, the great ball of sky-gas VaporSphere did hang so low and wet that every man’s kneecap wept water, and the grandmothers walked upon three sticks. In the iron-quarry of the king, where the black stones were dragged out of the belly-chasm to make walls against the horned bog-things, there worked an unmeasured wretch known upon the tablet as Bor-The-Limping-Elbow.

Bor was an avatar pulled from the cold foam of the Great Mother Gaia-Lilith, but his marrow-pipe was spoiled in the baking. Every dawn when the big yellow fire Helios climbed up, Bor’s left forearm did throb like a toad under a boot. It was not a sharp cut that bleedeth red broth; it was the old, thick ache that liveth in the bone when the rain is coming. When Bor swung his copper pick against the black basalt, the pick sang: “Ting!” but Bor’s elbow did roar inside his meat: “Thump-thud, thump-thud.”

The quarry-master was a man of iron-skin whose ears were cut square like dried figs. He came with a rhinoceros whip and spoke unto Bor: “Why dost thou drop thy pick when the hour is only nine strokes? Thou art a lazy pot of fat. If thy wagon of black slate be not filled before the moon cometh over the chimney, I will throw thy meat into the lime-pit to make mortar for the gate.”

Bor wept not with water of the eyes, for his eyes were dried up with rock-dust. He went into the scrap-heap where the broken steam-pots and the burst hoses were thrown into the nettles. He found there a piece of black tree-gum that had been boiled in sulfur until it was tough like the snout of a dead boar. He found two pins of yellow brass from a broken pressure-cock, and from the red sludge of the quarry ditch he dug six sharp splinters of iron-stone, which the tablet calleth blood-iron or heavy-liver-stone.

Bor spoke to his own throbbing elbow, saying: “Thou art an enemy that sleepeth in my bed. Thou makest my pick heavy and my porridge sour. If thou wilt throb like a forge-bellows, I shall clamp thee in an iron vice until thy marrow screameth louder than my master.”

He took the tough tree-gum and wrapped it five times around his aching arm. He drove the six blood-iron needles into the inside of the cloth, so that their blunt noses pushed hard against the fat sinews of his wrist. He fastened the brass springs with copper rivets, and he took an iron screw-key and turned the brass levers until the gum-cloth bit into his flesh like the teeth of an otter. At the last, he set upon his pulse-vein a smoky brown glass pebble that he found inside the stomach of a dead stone-mole.

Then the tablet maketh a crooked mark that the translator did not know, meaning: “The arm of Bor made a smell like lightning-struck lard, and his bone went ‘Dong!’”

Behold, the ache did not run out into the dirt. The tight cloth would not let the pain fly away into the air. The heavy, thumping agony that had made Bor stumble was squeezed down, down, into the marrow-hole. It could not leap out of his wrist, so it began to go round and round like a trapped rat in a butter-churn. Bor’s arm turned dark like an eggplant, but his eyes, which had been watery and grey, flared up like two burning coals of charcoal.

The tablet saith: “He did not feel good; he felt very bad, but his badness was now hard like a rock.”

The dull misery in his bone made his spirit so stubborn that he forgot how to be afraid. The fear of the overseer’s whip was small like a flea compared to the great iron thump inside his squeezed sleeve. Bor took up his twenty-pound pick with his left hand alone. He struck the black basalt cliff. When the pick hit the stone, the shock did not shatter his elbow; the brass springs upon his arm went: “Click-clack!” and the brown glass pebble spat a little purple smoke into the dust. The black basalt did split from top to bottom with a sound like thunder, falling into neat square flags as if cut with a jeweler’s wire.

At the twelfth stroke of Helios, while the sky was yellow and foul with coal-smoke, the quarry-master came down the ladder, trailing his rhinoceros whip. He was wroth because the laborers had eaten three parsnips without his leave. He saw Bor standing beside forty filled wagons of slate, holding his arm which hummed like a nest of hornets.

The master cried: “Thou hast stolen these flags from the king’s storehouse, dog!” and he swung the lead-tipped whip with all the weight of his broad ribs, aiming to take off Bor’s left ear.

The tablet recordeth the wonder: Bor did not run, nor did he fall down to kiss the master’s sandals. He merely lifted his wrapped forearm and let the lead whip wrap around the brass spring-posts.

When the lead struck the sleeve, the heavy, trapped ache inside Bor’s bone sprang out like water through a burst dam. A great purple un-light flashed out of the brown pebble over his pulse. The shock of the whip’s blow did not bruise Bor’s skin; instead, the whole sixty-pound throb of Bor’s three-year bone-sickness leaped backwards along the leather thong of the whip, right into the master’s fat fingers.

The quarry-master let out a scream like a pig in a gate. His right shoulder snapped with a loud “Crackle!” as if he had been beaten with an iron bar for forty days in the salt rain. His fingers turned white and stiff like dead twigs, and his whip fell into the mud. He rolled upon the gravel, clutching his arm and shrieking that forty thousand hornets were chewing his marrow from inside the meat.

Bor looked upon the rolling master with cold eyes that did not blink. He tightened the brass screw upon his arm by half a turn, making his own joint throb with sweet, familiar poison.

He spoke to the master, saying: “Thou hast given me work, and I have given thee stone. But if thou touchest my skin again, I shall let thee taste the winter that liveth inside my elbow, and thou shalt never hold a spoon until thy soul goeth back to the cloud.”

The master crawled up the ladder upon his knees, weeping like a maiden whose crock is broken. From that hour, no guard entered Bor’s ditch with a whip. Bor worked twenty years in the quarry; he never grew young, and his elbow never ceased to pound like a muffled bell, yet he hauled more slate than six teams of oxen. When other men fell down with the lung-rot or wept when the damp wind blew from the north, Bor only touched the brown pebble, ground his teeth against the pain, and drove his pick through the iron-stone.

When his hair was like ash and the time came for his avatar to rot, he unlatched the brass springs. The tablet saith that when the pressure was loosed, his arm gave a great puff of cold grey steam, and Bor died in that very breath with a smile upon his mouth, because the throbbing had finally stopped.

Moral of the story: He who runneth from his suffering is chased by a beast with two heads; but he who strapeth his misery tight to his wrist may use the ache of yesterday to break the iron of today.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Bracer of Concentrated Agony

  • Description: A heavy forearm sleeve of vulcanized canvas and brass tension springs, lined with blunt hematite needles that press into the radial flexors, centered on a thumb-sized smoky quartz cabochon. By compressing chronic joint aches into an internal piezoelectric rhythm, it uses persistent physical pain to ground the human psyche against madness.
  • Equipment Category: Arcane Device / Bio-Mechanical Brace
  • Sanity Loss: 1 Sanity point upon strapping and attuning the compression levers.
  • Grounded in Misery (Passive): The constant, rhythmic ache in the limb acts as an anchor against mental breakdown. The investigator gains a bonus die on Sanity rolls made to resist temporary insanity, mind control, hallucinations, or magical sleep. The investigator cannot be incapacitated by non-lethal blunt trauma or stun attacks.
  • Displaced Agony (Active): The user spends 4 Magic Points and makes an opposed POW roll against an adjacent living human or humanoid creature. On a Regular Success, a wave of phantom arthritis and joint inflammation locks the target’s limbs, imposing a penalty die on all physical skill rolls (Fighting, Dodge, Firearms) for 1D4 rounds. On an Extreme Success, the target drops to their knees in agony and cannot take aggressive actions for 1D6 rounds.
  • Sympathetic Recoil (Reaction): When struck by a hand-to-hand melee attack, the user may spend 2 Magic Points to absorb the kinetic shock. Reduce incoming physical damage by 1D4 points. The attacker must succeed on a CON roll or suffer a sudden jolt of agonizing phantom joint pain, imposing a penalty die on their next attack roll.

Blades in the Dark

The Quarry-Bred Vise

  • Description: An industrial orthotic bracer reinforced with vulcanized rubber, brass ratchets, and hematite splints. It captures deep bone fatigue and transmutes it into an explosive bio-kinetic recoil.
  • Item Load: 1 Load (Equipped on forearm / Worn openly).
  • Physical Anchor (Passive): The constant ache within the forearm keeps the scoundrel stubbornly lucid. When resisting mental consequences, psychic trauma, terror, or hypnotic effects with Resolve, you receive +1d to your resistance roll.
  • Displaced Agony (Special Action): Spend 1 Stress to touch an opponent in melee and release stored joint inflammation directly into their nervous system. Treat this as an attack roll using Skirmish or Prowl with +1 Effect; on a success, the foe suffers immediate phantom joint failure, giving them the “Crippled” or “Slowed” condition until they recover.
  • Kinetic Recoil: When you take physical Harm from a blunt or crushing blow, you may mark 1 Armor to absorb the strike into the brace. When you do, the attacker suffers a jarring kinetic shock that dislodges their weapon or knocks them off-balance, setting up an immediate tactical opening.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Bracer of the Throbbing Marrow

  • Item Type: Wondrous Item, Armwear
  • Rarity: Common
  • Attunement: Requires attunement
  • Armor Class: While wearing this bracer on your forearm, you gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class, provided you are wearing light armor or no armor.
  • Grounded in Discomfort: You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, dazed, or magically put to sleep.
  • Pain Threshold: You cannot be knocked unconscious by nonlethal damage, and your movement speed cannot be reduced by pain or exhaustion effects of level 1.
  • Displaced Agony: As an action, you touch a creature within 5 feet of you. The target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or take 1d4 psychic damage and have its speed reduced by 10 feet for 1 minute as phantom joint inflammation locks its limbs. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the speed reduction on a success. Once used, this property cannot be used again until you finish a long rest.
  • Sympathetic Recoil: When you take damage from a melee weapon attack, you can use your reaction to reduce the damage taken by 1d4. The attacker must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw; on a failed save, the attacker has disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn due to a sudden phantom ache in its striking wrist. Once used, this property cannot be used again until you finish a short or long rest.

Knave (2nd Edition)

Forearm Vise of the Quarryman

  • Description: A heavy sleeve of vulcanized fabric and spring-loaded brass struts lined with stone needles that drive chronic bone ache into a thumb-sized smoky crystal.
  • Item Slots: 1 Gear Slot (Worn on arm)
  • Durability: 3 Quality / Usage dots
  • Armor Value: +1 Armor
  • Bone-Deep Grit: The continuous, dull ache grounds your mind; you gain advantage on Wisdom saving throws against mind-affecting sorcery, fear, and hypnotic sleep.
  • Discharge Agony: Once per day, you may strike an adjacent foe with your braced arm and make an opposed Strength check. If you succeed, the target is overwhelmed with phantom arthritis, suffering disadvantage on all attack rolls and moving at half speed for 3 exploration turns.
  • Recoil Absorption: When you take damage from a melee strike, you may spend your reaction and mark 1 Quality dot on the bracer to reduce the damage by 1d4. If the attacker rolled an odd number on their attack roll, their striking hand is jarred by the recoil, forcing them to drop their handheld weapon. When Quality reaches 0, the tension springs snap and the smoky crystal shatters.

Fate Core

The Quarryman’s Throbbing Splint

  • Aspects:
    • Function Aspect: Orthotic Bio-Kinetic Compression Sleeve
    • Flaw Aspect: Racked by Nagging Joint Strain
  • Stunts:
    • Rooted in Aches: Because you wear the Quarryman’s Throbbing Splint, you gain a +2 bonus when rolling Will to defend against mental intrusions, emotional charm, hypnotic confusion, or psychic fear, as the persistent throbbing in your arm keeps your focus locked onto physical reality.
    • Sympathetic Recoil: Once per conflict, when you suffer physical stress from an incoming melee strike, you may roll Physique to defend by taking the impact directly onto the brace. If you succeed, you reduce the incoming stress by 2 shifts, and the attacker immediately gains the temporary situation aspect “Jarred Wrist” with one free invoke.
    • Transferred Arthritic Shock: You may spend 1 Fate Point to use Physique instead of Fight to make an unarmed melee attack against an adjacent target. If successful, you deal no physical injury; instead, you place the consequence or situation aspect “Crippling Phantom Arthritis” on the target, hindering their physical mobility and attack rolls.

Numenera & Cypher System

Piezoelectric Compression Bracer

  • Level: 2
  • Form: A vulcanized canvas and spring-brass forearm sleeve lined with blunt hematite needles and a thumb-sized smoky quartz lens set over the radial pulse.
  • Wearable Artifact: Depletion: 1 in 1d10 (checked upon actively projecting concussive pulses or transferring nerve pain).
  • Inherent Benefit: The continuous ache within the wearer’s forearm acts as a somatic anchor, granting an asset (+1 step in the wearer’s favor) on Intellect defense tasks made to resist mental attacks, illusions, emotional manipulation, or dazing effects.
  • Effect:
    • Displaced Inflammation: By spending 2 points from their Might or Speed Pool, the wearer touches an adjacent target. The target must succeed on a Might defense task (difficulty equal to the artifact’s level); on a failure, the target’s joints cramp with phantom inflammation, inflicting 2 points of ambient damage and hindering all physical movement actions for one minute.
    • Kinetic Shock Absorption: As a reaction when struck by a melee weapon or blunt concussive blow, the wearer absorbs 3 points of incoming damage into the spring array. The striking opponent must succeed on a Speed defense task or drop their weapon due to an agonizing phantom jolt running up their arm. Checking for depletion is required immediately following this reaction.

Pathfinder (Second Edition)

Bracer of the Throbbing Marrow

  • Item Level: Item 2
  • Traits: Uncommon, Emotion, Mental, Transmutation
  • Usage: Worn, bracers
  • Bulk: Light
  • Saving Throw and Perception Bonuses: You gain a +1 item bonus to Will saving throws against mental, charm, and sleep effects, as well as a +1 circumstance bonus to Perception checks to sense seismic tremors or changes in barometric pressure.
  • Numbed Stance (Passive): Your base movement speed cannot be reduced by non-magical pain penalties or fatigue conditions.
  • Displaced Agony (Activate):
    • Frequency: Once per day
    • Action: 2 Actions (concentrate, manipulate, mental)
    • Effect: You make an unarmed melee touch against an adjacent foe. The target must attempt a DC 16 Fortitude save. On a failure, the target takes 1d4 mental damage and suffers a -10-foot status penalty to its Speeds for 1 minute as phantom joint stiffness locks its sinews. On a critical failure, the target is also Clumsy 1 for the duration. The target can attempt a new save at the end of each of its turns to end the effect.
  • Sympathetic Recoil (Activate):
    • Frequency: Once per day
    • Action: Reaction (concentrate)
    • Trigger: You are hit by a melee weapon Strike.
    • Effect: You tense the brass springs of the bracer against the blow. You gain resistance 3 against the triggering Strike’s damage, and the attacking creature must attempt a DC 16 Reflex save or drop the weapon used for the Strike due to sudden neural shock.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

Sleeve of Coiled Inflammation

  • Classification: Arcane Device / Bio-Kinetic Armor
  • Encumbrance: 2 lbs. (Worn on Arm)
  • Toughness and Armor: Provides +1 Armor to the arm and torso against bludgeoning and crushing attacks.
  • Grounded Nerves: The persistent, dull throbbing keeps the wearer stubbornly lucid. The wearer gains a +2 bonus to Spirit rolls to recover from being Shaken and rolls to resist Fear, Taunt, or mind-altering arcane powers.
  • Displaced Agony (Action): As an action, the wearer makes a touch attack (Fighting at +2) against an adjacent opponent. If successful, the wearer makes an opposed Spirit roll against the target. If the wearer wins, the target suffers a -2 penalty to Pace and a -1 penalty to all physical trait rolls (Agility, Strength, and related skills) for 3 rounds as phantom joint stiffness wracks its frame.
  • Concussive Recoil (Reaction): Once per combat encounter, when struck by a melee attack that causes damage, the wearer may make a free Vigor roll. Success reduces the damage by 4 as kinetic energy vents through the hematite needles. The attacker must make an immediate Agility roll or have their weapon knocked from their grasp by the severe kinetic resonance.

Shadowrun (Sixth World)

Kinetic Compression Sleeve

  • Classification: Optical / Biomechanical Gear (Arm Slot)
  • Availability: 3 (Legal)
  • Cost: 3,400 nuyen
  • Capacity: [1] (Functions as an orthotic neural-damping sleeve with trode-mesh contact points)
  • Grounded in Discomfort (Passive): The constant, rhythmic ache in the limb anchors the user’s nervous system against cognitive disruption. The user gains a +2 dice pool bonus on all Willpower-based defense tests against spells, complex forms, or critter powers that inflict confusion, mental control, or sleep. In addition, the wearer ignores the first level of Wound Penalties affecting physical actions.
  • Displaced Agony (Active): As a Major Action, the user makes an unarmed Close Combat attack roll against an adjacent target. If successful, the strike deals Stun damage equal to 2S (unresisted by physical armor) and the target must make an immediate Body + Willpower test (Threshold 2). If failed, the target suffers a -2 dice pool penalty on all physical and movement actions for a number of combat rounds equal to the net hits, as phantom arthritis locks their joints.
  • Sympathetic Recoil (Reaction): When struck by an incoming physical melee attack, the user may spend an immediate Reaction and 1 point of Edge to absorb the kinetic blow. The incoming attack’s Damage Value is reduced by 2. The attacker must make an Agility + Strength test (Threshold 2) or have their striking weapon knocked from their grip by the violent bio-kinetic feedback.

Starfinder (Second Edition)

Sleeve of the Throbbing Marrow

  • Item Level: Level 2
  • Price: 440 credits
  • Usage: Worn, bracers
  • Bulk: Light
  • Attunement: Requires investment
  • Somatic Grounding: While invested and worn, you gain a +1 item bonus to Will saving throws against mental, charm, and sleep effects. In addition, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to Perception checks to detect seismic tremors, air pressure fluctuations, or structural breaches within 30 feet.
  • Numbed Threshold (Passive): Pain-based status penalties do not reduce your base movement speed, and you cannot be knocked unconscious by nonlethal bludgeoning damage.
  • Displaced Agony (Activate):
    • Frequency: Once per day
    • Action: Two Actions (concentrate, manipulate, mental)
    • Effect: You touch an adjacent target and discharge built-up inflammation. The target must attempt a DC 16 Fortitude saving throw. On a failure, the target takes 1d4 mental damage and suffers a -10-foot status penalty to its Speeds for 1 minute as phantom stiffness wracks its nervous system. The target can attempt a new save at the end of each of its turns to end the effect.
  • Sympathetic Recoil (Activate):
    • Frequency: Once per day
    • Action: Reaction (concentrate)
    • Trigger: You are hit by a melee weapon Strike.
    • Effect: You brace the spring-loaded frame into the impact, gaining physical resistance equal to 3 against the triggering Strike. The attacking entity must succeed on a DC 15 Reflex saving throw or lose its grip on the weapon used for the Strike, dropping it to the floor.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Bio-Kinetic Dampening Sleeve

  • Item Classification: Personal Psi-Augmentation Rig / Orthotic Biomech Gear
  • Tech Level: TL 12
  • Mass: 1 kg
  • Skill Requirement: Psionics 1 or Athletics (Endurance) 1 to actively channel kinetic feedback; functions as passive armor for untrained users.
  • Base Cost: Cr 13,500
  • Nerve Grounding: The continuous, rhythmic pressure in the limb prevents disorientation and psychological panic. The wearer receives DM+2 on all rolls made to resist psychological stress, hypnotic interference, or stun-based sensory overload.
  • Transferred Trauma: The wearer may spend 2 Psi points (or expend one charge of its internal power cell) to make an unarmed Melee check against an adjacent foe. If successful, the strike deals 1D6 stun damage and the target must pass an Endurance check (8+) or suffer DM-2 to all physical characteristics and movement speeds for 1D6 rounds as phantom joint stiffness seizes their muscles.
  • Kinetic Shock Attenuation: When struck by an incoming non-powered melee attack or blunt impact, the spring-loaded armature dissipates the concussive force, reducing incoming damage by 3 points. The attacker must make a Dexterity check (8+) or have the weapon wrenched from their hand by kinetic reverberation.

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay (Wrath & Glory)

Bracer of the Smoldering Marrow

  • Value: Tier 1 (Common)
  • Keywords: IMPERIUM, ADEPTUS MECHANICUS, OCCULT
  • Rarity: Uncommon
  • Slot: Arm
  • Resilience: +1 to total Resilience against physical, blunt, and melee attacks.
  • Steadfast in Torment: The constant, agonizing throb anchors the wearer’s mind against unnatural horror. The wearer adds +1 bonus die to all Resolve and Conviction tests to resist Fear, Terror, and psychic attempts to inflict paralysis or sleep. Wound penalties do not reduce the wearer’s base Speed.
  • Transfer Agony (Action): As a standard Action, the wearer makes an unarmed melee attack against an adjacent foe. If successful, the attack deals 1d3 Shock damage that ignores non-sealed Armor, and the target must pass a Toughness test (Difficulty 2). On a failure, the target suffers a -2 penalty to Speed and suffers a -1 penalty to all physical action tests for 1 combat round due to crippling phantom arthritis.
  • Kinetic Recoil (Reaction): When struck by a successful melee attack, the wearer may spend 1 Glory to compress the spring brackets, reducing the total damage taken by an amount equal to their Toughness score. The attacking combatant must pass an Agility test (Difficulty 2) or have their striking weapon knocked from their grasp, landing D3 meters away.