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Reiki 619 of the Gilded Balm

—

by

Dale
in

Lore

  • In the bustling coastal ports of the island country of Phoenicia, local guild practitioners discovered that wounded merchants and desperate travelers would readily pay inflated fees if their physical pain vanished instantly.
  • A charlatan physician, carrying vague memories of touch-healing practices from a past mortal life, sought a way to simulate miraculous restorative powers without expending the costly crystalline components required for true high-tier healing.
  • By treating predatory marsh-leech hide with euphoric botanical oils, the artisan crafted palm wraps capable of transmitting a soothing bio-current that fools an organism’s nervous system into believing physical damage has vanished.
  • The wraps were designed to alter the visible projections perceived by the Mind’s Eye, projecting temporary baseline health numbers while subtly masking deep internal hemorrhaging until the practitioner has collected their payment and left the district.
  • When local municipal judges and military patrols attempted to audit the physician’s clinic, the crafter utilized the inverted frequencies of the wraps to project false physiological readings during physical examinations, completely deflecting official scrutiny.
  • Copies of these bindings proliferated throughout secondary black markets across the seventy-three island nations, favored by con artists, covert interrogators, and front-line negotiators seeking leverage through deceptive bedside care.

Description

  • The item consists of a pair of fingerless handwraps tailored from the supple, pale belly-skin of a subterranean bog-leech, reinforced along the knuckles with finely braided copper wiring.
  • The outer surface is adorned with ornate, gilded floral scrollwork designed to look like holy iconography from the ancient temples of the First People, masking the underlying parasitic nature of the hide.
  • Embedded directly against the inner palm padding are microscopic capillary reservoirs filled with a faint, iridescent nectar derived from predatory dream-lotus blossoms.
  • When slipped over the appendages, the leather secretes a micro-film that numbs the user’s skin slightly, warming to a soothing, fever-like heat whenever a living subject is touched.
  • Under true sight or close magical examination, the energy channeled through the wraps does not radiate with clean, restorative white frequencies, but rather an oily, flickering amber haze that mimics standard healing weaves.

Detailed Stats

  • Item Tier: Tier 1 (Common)
  • Armor Check: +1 AC
  • Item Resilience: 10
  • Item Health Points: Avatar Maximum Health Points plus 10 (Item HP = Avatar Max HP + 10)
  • Weight: 1 pound
  • Activation Type: Handheld or Slotted (Requires 1 minute of simple attunement to synchronize with an avatar’s gear limits)
  • Conduit Type: Somatic focus utilizing palm pressure points, guided by concealed capillary channels
  • Material Composition: Cured bog-leech dermal hide, conductive copper filament, distilled dream-lotus resin, gold-leaf gilding

Passive Magic

  • Masked Trauma Reading: When the avatar touches a subject with an open palm, the wraps actively distort the target’s physical status as perceived through an observer’s Mind’s Eye, displaying the patient’s hit point pool as completely full and disguising any active bleeding or wounded conditions behind an illusory aura of total vitality.
  • Grasp of Feigned Sincerity: The wearer projects an ambient micro-vibration of tranquility into the nervous system of anyone whose hand they grasp; this grants the avatar an advantage (rolling 2d20 and keeping the better die) on opposed social rolls when attempting to lie, conceal ulterior motives, or present fraudulent medical credentials.
  • Phantom Resiliency: While the wraps remain attuned, the avatar gains 5 temporary bonus hit points that reset each morning at Helios sunrise; this barrier manifests to outside sensory scrutiny as authentic physical fortitude rather than an unstable arcane facade.

Activable Magic

  • Placebo Surge: As an action costing one of the character’s available combat actions, the avatar presses both glowing palms against a wounded ally or client while projecting a radiant amber aura. The recipient’s pain is instantly suppressed, granting the target temporary hit points equal to 1d4 plus the avatar’s Tier 1 die (1d4), and removing the shaken and frightened conditions for ten minutes. Once these ten minutes elapse, the temporary points vanish entirely, and the recipient must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution check or suffer the fatigued condition as their true underlying physical damage reasserts itself.
  • Euphoric Anaesthesia: As an action, the avatar makes an unarmed melee touch against a humanoid foe or suspicious official, expending one charge to flood the target’s bio-meridians with false sensory relief. The target must succeed on an opposed DC 11 save or become charmed for one minute, viewing the avatar as an indispensable physician and refusing to initiate hostile attacks against them until damaged. This ability has 3 charges and recovers 1 charge after a full twenty-two-hour day has elapsed.
  • Feigned Demise: As a reaction triggered when the avatar takes damage from a physical attack, the wearer channels an inverted surge of negative ki through the wrist circuits. The avatar immediately drops to the floor, instantly manifesting the physiological traits of the unconscious condition, stopping their pulse, and projecting a false Mind’s Eye readout indicating their health pool has dropped to zero. The avatar remains fully conscious and alert, gaining advantage on their next attack roll or movement action taken to flee while their attacker is distracted by the illusion of their death.

Specific Slot

  • Hand Slot (Left and Right Hands/Wrists)

Tags

  • Hands, Wrists, Healing, Reiki, Deceit, Placebo, Leech Hide, Tier 1, Common, Buff, Illusion, Biofield, Reaction, False Vitals, Charlatan Tool, Pain Suppression, Dream Lotus, Copper Filament, Masked Aura, Touch Attack, Social Manipulation, Feigned Death, Phoenician Market, Subterfuge

Acquisition, Valuation, and Commerce of Reiki 619 of the Gilded Balm

  • Proprietary Cosmetic Spas and High-Society Parlors Located along the paved avenues of wealthy coastal capitals, merchant-quarter plazas, and grand metropolitan skyscraper districts, these upscale salons cater to affluent guild dignitaries, landed nobility, and vain courtiers. The establishment is operated by fashionable practitioners who market the wraps as exclusive instruments of total physical rejuvenation, sensory easing, and cosmetic vitality. The handwraps are displayed upon cushioned silk pillows beneath polished glass vitrines, presented alongside scented oils, fine brushes, and dream-lotus distillates. Patrons purchasing the wraps in these elite venues are charged heavily for the aesthetic prestige, paying between 150 and 220 silver coins (or 15 to 22 gold coins). If an avatar attempts to sell the item here, the salon master will demand verifiable lineage certificates or artisan tags to ensure the gilding is untarnished; on approval, the payment is processed directly into the character’s World Bank account with the standard 1% transaction fee, reduced by the merchant’s opening margin.
  • Municipal Quack Clinics and Dockside Infirmaries Operating out of crowded wharf districts, immigrant quarter tenements, and transit hub alleyways where laborers and sailors seek rapid relief from severe work injuries, these clinics are run by unlicensed healers, opportunistic barbers, and back-alley bonesetters. The shop interior is cluttered with jars of pickled leeches, counterfeit elixirs, splints, and stained linen wraps hanging from ceiling beams. To acquire the item here, a buyer must haggle directly with a fast-talking street surgeon who praises the wraps as a miracle conduit that cures all suffering without surgery. The price in these rough clinics is highly volatile, fluctuating between 70 and 110 silver coins, though an avatar affiliated with a municipal workers’ union or local medical guild can claim a 10% discount based on their character tier. When selling the wraps to these clinics, the owner will eagerly purchase them to bolster their own fraudulent practice, offering approximately 10% below standard value, which is logged into municipal tax ledgers and sent to the character’s bank ledger.
  • Covert Thieves’ Den Exchanges and Smuggler Basements Hidden behind false walls in port taverns, subterranean canal hubs, or abandoned cistern networks beneath regional garrisons, these illicit dens cater to cutpurses, confidence tricksters, and intelligence brokers. The broker operating the den sits behind an iron-grated counter, handling contraband that bypasses the oversight of royal tax collectors, warlord tolls, and World Bank scrutiny. In these shadows, the wraps are traded specifically for their capacity to falsify vital readings, escape custody via feigned death, or trick wealthy targets during staged medical emergencies. Purchasing the item in this venue requires 8 to 15 physical gold coins, strictly excluding bank transfers or paper promissory notes. Selling the wraps to a black-market fence yields immediate physical precious metal without questions regarding its origin; if the buyer has an urgent contract requiring a tool of biological deception, they will pay between 50 silver and 2 gold pieces, occasionally rising to twice standard valuation if supply in the port is scarce.
  • Traveling Caravan Tents and Rural Crossroads Wagons Situated along patrolled regional roadways, seasonal fairgrounds outside small un-taxed country towns, or frontier trailheads between island provinces, these nomadic merchants operate from colorful covered wagons and canvas pavilions. The peddler is often an itinerant “Second-Timer” or smooth-talking tradesman who gathers strange curiosities from across the continent to sell to isolated villagers and passing mercenary squads. The item is displayed among common hunting knives, brass trinkets, and dried herbs, framed as an ancestral healing artifact recovered from ancient ruins. Because these peddlers operate far from major World Bank branches, they readily accept physical barter, non-metal local tokens, or minted coin, listing the wraps for 85 to 130 silver pieces (or roughly 17 to 26 electrum). When selling to a caravan, the peddler will aggressively test the wraps on an animal or servant to detect defects, haggling down the payout by pointing out scratches on the copper filigree, before paying in mixed regional coinage.

Environmental Roleplay: Deceptive Offense and Defense

  • Aristocratic Palaces, Royal Courts, and Diplomatic Embassies Within the marble halls, vaulted throne rooms, and gilded corridors of island monarchs, weapons of war are confiscated at the threshold, leaving political intrigue to unfold under rigid etiquette. Defensively, when a rival diplomat or suspicious royal interrogator questions the avatar’s credentials, motives, or allegiance, the avatar casually clasps the interlocutor’s hands in a gesture of warm, formal greeting. By releasing the micro-vibrations of tranquility embedded in the bog-leech hide, the avatar subdues the noble’s biological fight-or-flight mechanisms, establishing the appearance of total sincerity and allowing falsehoods regarding national treaties or family lineages to pass without triggering insight checks or suspicion. Offensively, if a monarch or high-ranking grand vizier suffers from a chronic respiratory affliction or magical ache, the avatar steps forward as a renowned foreign specialist. Laying palms upon the dignitary’s chest, the avatar channels the Placebo Surge, momentarily flooding the ruler’s nervous system with dream-lotus euphoria and falsely repairing the health pool as perceived by observers using the Mind’s Eye. The avatar demands an immediate purse of royal coin, exclusive diplomatic concessions, or access to restricted state libraries before the ten-minute illusion collapses and the target’s untreated internal trauma violently resurfaces after the party has already departed the palace grounds.
  • High-Risk Transit Hubs, Coastal Wharfs, and Crowded City Gates At the guarded entry gates of bustling port cities and state borders where guards assess tariffs and scrutinize travelers, physical violence carries severe legal penalties. Defensively, if the party is detained by aggressive regional sentries or appointed tax assessors demanding to inspect suspicious cargo, the avatar stages a critical medical emergency. As an intimidating guard captain draws a weapon to strike, the avatar triggers the Feigned Demise reaction upon impact; dropping instantly limp onto the cobblestones, the avatar mimics a lifeless corpse with zero detectable pulse and a flatlined Mind’s Eye display. Confused and panicked over the prospect of murdering an unarmed traveler under public scrutiny, the guards drop their defensive posture, providing the avatar’s companions the distraction needed to slip through the port turnstile or strike from surprise. Offensively, when dealing with stubborn toll collectors, dockmaster inspectors, or nosy bailiffs who refuse passage without exorbitant bribes, the avatar reaches out under the guise of an apologetic handshake. Channeling Euphoric Anaesthesia through the hidden capillary reservoirs, the avatar floods the official’s meridians with sudden sedative bliss, charming the target into believing the avatar is an old family friend. The charmed administrator willingly waives the seaport passage fees, stamps fraudulent cargo manifests, and waves the entire adventuring entourage through the gates without opening a single crate.
  • Primordial Jungles, Toxic Swamps, and Monster-Infested Ruins In the untamed, primordial wilderness far beyond civilized garrisons, predatory beasts and feral fauna stalk the party through thick fog, canopy roots, and stagnant mire waters. Defensively, when the adventuring party is ambushed by a pack of territorial monstrosities and a frontline ally sustains deep lacerations from venomous claws, the avatar rushes to the vanguard. Slapping the gilded palms over the bleeding wounds, the avatar uses the wraps to mask the scent and visual reality of physical weakness; by projecting the Masked Trauma Reading, the injured ally registers to the beasts’ predatory instincts and any magical tracking as a fully healthy, undamaged apex threat. The predatory animals, deceived by the absence of bleeding signals and the false aura of vitality, hesitate to press the attack, allowing the vanguard to stabilize their tactical formation. Offensively, when a massive solitary brute closes the distance, the avatar feigns vulnerability, dropping to one knee as if paralyzed by marsh sickness or despair. When the beast lunges to deliver a killing blow, the avatar sidesteps the bite and drives an open palm directly into the nerve cluster near the beast’s jaw or throat. Discharging the inverted frequencies of the dead language and dream-lotus extract directly into the beast’s sensory nodes, the avatar induces systemic disorientation, causing the creature to collapse into a docile, stuporous trance long enough for the party to bind its limbs or harvest its magical crystalline cells without retaliation.
  • Dense Urban Slums, Dark Alleyways, and Underground Black-Market Dens Deep within the shadowed tavern cellars, narrow dead-end alleys, and subterranean guild warrens where local cutpurses, loan sharks, and criminal enforcers operate, deception is the premier currency of survival. Defensively, when cornered by armed street thugs demanding coin purses, the avatar acts as a frail, terrified commoner. If struck by an initial blow, the avatar activates Feigned Demise, collapsing into the filth while suppressing all breath and life signs. As the assailants bend over to loot the “corpse,” the avatar springs from the ground with sudden violent advantage, driving an unarmored palm into an enforcer’s solar plexus before the gang realizes the kill was staged. Offensively, when conducting illicit business with dangerous underworld brokers, the avatar uses the wraps to turn negotiations into a trap. While finalizing an exchange of contraband, the avatar offers a firm, open-palmed grasp to seal the bargain. Secretly venting the dream-lotus nectar into the broker’s exposed wrist, the avatar induces Euphoric Anaesthesia, leaving the broker happily disoriented, utterly trusting, and unable to raise an alarm while the party pockets the merchandise, cleans out the broker’s hidden wall safe, and strolls casually into the crowded avenue before the narcotic haze dissipates.

Perception of Activation:

  • Visual Perception (The Sense of Sight) Under the user’s perspective, the instant the somatic intent is channeled through the wrists, the delicate copper filigree woven along the margins flares with a warm, deceptive golden luminescence. A swirling haze of golden-amber light cascades outward from the palm centers, pooling around the practitioner’s fingertips like warm honey. When glancing at a target, the visual interface of the Mind’s Eye flickers: underlying red lacerations, fractured bone alignments, and internal organ hemorrhages are overlaid with a smooth, synthetic golden sheen that paints over actual tissue destruction, displaying an artificial bar of total vitality. Under the observer’s perspective, onlookers perceive a radiant, seemingly divine glow that appears identical to high-tier restorative miracles performed by sanctioned temple priests. The light gleams brightly off the gilded leather, casting flickering, halo-like patterns across the patient’s skin that completely conceal the dirty reality of open puncture wounds. The positive aspect of this visual trickery is the total concealment of biological trauma from hostile onlookers, predatory monsters tracking blood, or skeptical guards who might otherwise register the party as critically compromised. The negative aspect is the risk of personal misjudgment; in the heat of chaotic skirmishes, the illusory visual display can trick the user’s own allies into believing a dying comrade has been fully restored, leading them to misallocate vital healing consumables or send a critically wounded avatar back into lethal danger.
  • Auditory Perception (The Sense of Hearing) Under the user’s perspective, activating the wraps causes an internal resonance to fill the inner ear, sounding like the soft, rhythmic clinking of fine gold coins falling into an iron strongbox, accompanied by a faint, seductive whisper that murmurs comforting lies directly into the practitioner’s skull. The user’s physical vocalizations take on a slightly hollow, melodic pitch, as if speaking inside an empty, acoustically pristine bathhouse. Under the observer’s perspective, those standing nearby hear an exceptionally melodious, resonant chime that mimics sacred choral frequencies or silver bells. The sound is soothing, instantly relaxing the shoulders of listeners and drowning out the harsh, ragged gasps of the wounded patient with an acoustic blanket of perceived serenity. The positive aspect is the immediate pacification of environmental panic; the melodious chime dampens auditory agitation, breaking stress reactions and keeping skittish mounts or nervous bystanders quiet. The negative aspect is the artificial, echoing timbre of the sound; individuals trained in formal musical theory or seasoned military veterans with high perception can recognize the hollow, tinny undertone of the resonance, potentially identifying the sound as an acoustic facade rather than true divine resonance.
  • Tactile Perception (The Sense of Touch) Under the user’s perspective, the internal bog-leech lining of the wraps contracts snugly around the wrists with a cool, clammy grip that feels distinctly parasitic, before sending a wave of artificial, feverish warmth surging down the palms and knuckles. The skin of the user’s palms becomes hyper-smooth and slightly oily to the touch as microscopic traces of dream-lotus distillate seep into the dermal interface. Under the observer’s perspective, when the practitioner presses an open palm against a wounded creature, the patient feels an overwhelming, almost intoxicating rush of pure comfort. A profound, narcotic numbness spreads outward from the point of contact, instantly deadening pain receptors, halting trembling, and providing the physical sensation of floating in warm mineral water. Severe lacerations and blunt trauma stop throbbing entirely, replaced by a false sensation of knit flesh. The positive aspect is the instantaneous elimination of debilitating physical agony and systemic shock, allowing a paralyzed, panicking subject to immediately stand and function without being hindered by pain penalties. The negative aspect is the masking of critical structural failure; because the patient cannot feel torn ligaments, fractured ribs, or severed vessels, they may exert full athletic pressure on shattered limbs, causing severe compounded orthopedic trauma while under the influence of the numbing bliss.
  • Olfactory Perception (The Sense of Smell) Under the user’s perspective, the moment the amber energy surges, the avatar’s nostrils are filled with a cloying, heavy scent of candied almonds, wild mountain honey, and the faint, sweet decay characteristic of night-blooming dream-lotuses. Beneath this overt perfume lies an elusive, iron-tinged marsh odor from the dried leech hide, which only the wearer can distinguish. Under the observer’s perspective, the surrounding air within a ten-foot radius is cleared of the smell of stagnant blood, scorched flesh, or sewer stench, replaced entirely by an opulent, high-society fragrance reminiscent of expensive bath oils, warm beeswax, and rare desert resins. The positive aspect is the complete neutralization of battlefield gore odors, preventing wounded companions from suffering nausea while effectively masking the scent of fresh blood from carrion beasts and predatory tracking hounds. The negative aspect is the sheer conspicuousness of the aroma; in grimy dockside alleys, filthy dungeons, or deep subterranean caves, the sudden diffusion of luxurious, perfumed resin smells intensely out of place, instantly alerting intelligent sentries that someone is actively using cloaked magical agents.
  • Gustatory Perception (The Sense of Taste) Under the user’s perspective, the channeling process triggers an involuntary secretion along the salivary glands, leaving the tongue coated with a distinct taste of saccharine sweetness and warm, spiced wine, undercut by a lingering chalky bitterness along the back of the throat from the vaporized botanical resin. Under the observer’s perspective, if the patient receives direct respiratory assistance or oral stabilization from the practitioner, they experience a sudden, sweet burst of sugary nectar and mint across the palate, instantly replacing the metallic taste of their own swallowed blood or the bile of gastric injury. The positive aspect is the psychological comfort offered by the clean, sweet taste, which suppresses vomiting reflexes, calms frantic breathing, and convinces the recipient that they have ingested an elite alchemical elixir. The negative aspect is the intense, parching dehydration that strikes the user after repeated channelings; the chemical residue leaves the avatar’s mouth dry, sticky, and craving fresh water, imposing minor distractions during negotiations if liquids are unavailable.
  • Extra-Sensory Perception: Mind’s Eye Statistical Distortion Under the user’s perspective, the avatar perceives the fabric of the Mind’s Eye being actively twisted around the subject. Instead of the raw, brutal numerical truth—such as an avatar clinging to survival at two hit points with active hemorrhaging—the interface projects an illuminated golden overlay that broadcasts a completely healthy stat block to anyone scanning the scene. The practitioner sees both the true, critical numbers underneath and the fraudulent, gilded exterior numbers projected outward. Under the observer’s perspective, any bystander, guard captain, or rival party member inspecting the patient with their own passive Mind’s Eye sees a perfectly stable subject exhibiting maximum health values and zero detrimental debuffs. The positive aspect is the absolute deception of outside analytical magic; interrogators, hostile warlords, and assessing officials cannot determine the true biological weakness of the party, preventing enemies from exploiting injured targets. The negative aspect is the cognitive strain of double-vision; the user must mentally juggle both the fabricated stat metrics and the real, rapidly declining physiological truth, risking tragic miscalculations if they lose track of the actual hit point deficit.
  • Extra-Sensory Perception: Euphoric Biofield Encroachment Under the user’s perspective, the practitioner feels the subtle energetic web (the ki or vital aura) of the target softening and yielding like warm wax. The wraps siphon a minuscule drop of the patient’s remaining biological mana into the copper filaments, utilizing the subject’s own life force to power the sensory illusion that pacifies their mind. The user perceives the target’s mental defenses dropping, opening a temporary window of total emotional compliance. Under the observer’s perspective, sensitive beings, empaths, or arcane trackers sense a sudden wave of unconditional trust and warmth emanating between the doctor and the patient, feeling as though a sacred pact of mutual brotherhood has been forged on the spot. The positive aspect is the profound social leverage generated; targets affected by this biofield shift are completely disarmed of suspicion, making them compliant to suggestions, negotiations, and fraudulent contracts. The negative aspect is the lingering parasitic taint; prolonged or repeated use against the same subject leaves subtle arcane residue in their aura, which can be identified by high-tier inquisitors or specialized investigators as evidence of predatory mind-tampering.
  • Extra-Sensory Perception: False Soul Radiance Under the user’s perspective, when channeling the wraps to trigger feigned demise or total stasis, the practitioner feels the outward projection of their own soul matrix collapse inward into a tight, dormant knot. To the ambient weave, the avatar registers as a completely vacant, lifeless shell whose possessing character has vacated the host. Under the observer’s perspective, observers wielding soul sight or true sight perceive the avatar’s spiritual signature abruptly extinguish like a blown candle, leaving behind only the cold, empty residual shell of an unpossessed corpse. The positive aspect is the ultimate evasion of lethal focus; enemies, executioners, and bounty hunters immediately discontinue attacks, believing the target’s physical vessel has already perished and dropped its equipment. The negative aspect is the acute existential vertigo experienced by the reincarnated character; pulling the soul into a dormant state induces momentary spiritual nausea and disorientation, leaving the user shaken and disoriented for several seconds after the illusion of death is terminated.

Crafting Recipe: Fabrication of the Gilded Balm

Materials Needed

  • 1 strip of cured subterranean bog-leech hide, measuring two feet in length and three inches in width, carefully harvested using clean epidermal incisions to preserve the natural elastic suction membranes.
  • 1 Coin-sized Tier 1 Magic Crystal, serving as the arcane capacitor to store, regulate, and discharge the bio-electric placebo frequencies.
  • 10 feet of conductive copper filament, drawn to hair-thin gauge to weave the micro-capillary circuits across the palm backing.
  • 1 fluid ounce of concentrated dream-lotus nectar, extracted via a fluid collector from nocturnal marsh blooms to provide the botanical numbing and euphoric agent.
  • 1 sheet of beaten leaf gold, pure and unblemished, utilized for the surface decorative scrollwork that masks the parasitic nature of the hide.
  • 1 fluid ounce of clear elderwood amber resin, melted down to serve as an adhesive, insulating lacquer over the metallic filaments.
  • 1 small square of fine white linen, boiled in salt water and dried, used to construct the concealed interior capillary reservoirs.

Tools Required

  • 1 Fluid Collector, fitted with a micro-gauge cannula for the sterile extraction and injection of the volatile dream-lotus distillate.
  • 1 Precision Jeweler’s Tweezers and Wire-Draw Plate, required to manipulate, braid, and embed the hair-thin copper filaments into the leather grain.
  • 1 Alchemical Crucible and Spirit Lamp, used to melt the elderwood amber resin and blend it with the botanical euphoriant at precise, low temperatures.
  • 1 Bone-Tipped Burnisher and Leafing Knife, necessary for applying, smoothing, and adhering the gold leaf over the exterior floral channels.
  • 1 Fine Leather Punch and Needles, used to assemble the internal linen fluid reservoirs and stitch the structural margins of the wraps.

Skill Requirements

  • Leatherworking: Level 5 or higher, essential for curing and shaping the elastic leech hide without rupturing its delicate microscopic pores.
  • Goldsmithing and Wirework: Level 5 or higher, required to inlay the conductive copper wiring and apply fragile gold leaf without breaking the circuit flow.
  • Arcane Crafting: Level 6 or higher (representing a baseline of level 5 plus 1 for the intended Tier 1 item), necessary to grind, attune, and seal the Tier 1 magic crystal catalyst into the circuit without catastrophic shatter.
  • Herbal Alchemy: Level 5 or higher, required to distill the dream-lotus sap without triggering premature narcotic vaporization or toxic spoilage.

Crafting Steps

  • Prepare and Stabilize the Leech Skin
    • Lay the raw subterranean bog-leech hide flat upon a marble cutting block, utilizing a sharp bone knife to slice the skin into two identical fingerless wrap blanks.
    • Submerge the cut leather into a cold salt-and-alum brine for six hours to arrest biological decay while preserving the native elastic flexibility of the ventral suction cups.
    • Stretch the damp leather over carved wooden hand forms, allowing it to dry slowly in a shaded, well-ventilated workshop away from direct Helios rays to prevent shrinkage or brittle cracking.
  • Formulate the Euphoric Reservoir Base
    • Mount the fluid collector to draw precisely one ounce of purified dream-lotus nectar from its dark glass storage vial.
    • Heat the alchemical crucible over a low spirit flame, bringing the amber resin to a gentle liquefaction without allowing it to smoke.
    • Slowly inject the dream-lotus nectar into the warm resin using the fluid collector’s needle, stirring counter-clockwise with a glass rod until the mixture forms a clear, fragrant, amber-tinted lacquer.
    • Cut the fine linen into two pairs of coin-sized circular patches, soaking them in the warm compound until the fabric is completely saturated with the numbing compound, then set them aside to cool into flexible pads.
  • Lay the Copper Meridians and Internal Reservoirs
    • Using the fine punch, create two small recessed pockets along the palm side of each wrap blank, positioning them directly over the major median nerve pathways of the wearer’s hand.
    • Seat the saturated linen pads inside the carved pockets, anchoring them firmly against the inner face of the wraps.
    • Take the hair-thin copper filaments and thread them through the leather using jeweler’s tweezers, routing the wire in a serpentine grid that connects the linen reservoirs to the outer knuckle bands.
    • Paint a thin, insulating glaze of clear amber resin over the exposed internal wiring, ensuring that electrical bio-feedback does not shock the practitioner when the wraps are worn.
  • Surface Gilding and Aesthetic Disguise
    • Score shallow, elegant floral scrollwork patterns across the outer dorsal face of both wraps, cutting carefully to avoid severing the underlying copper grid.
    • Apply a tacky sizing compound along the engraved floral grooves using a fine marten-hair brush.
    • Lay down strips of beaten leaf gold over the channels using the leafing knife, gently pressing the precious metal into the grooves with the bone-tipped burnisher.
    • Polish the raised gold filigree until it gleams brightly, completely obscuring the coarse, dark dermal grain of the underlying bog-leech hide beneath an ornate facade of holy iconography.
  • Catalyst Integration and Arcane Sealing
    • Take the coin-sized Tier 1 magic crystal and gently grind it into fine, uniform crystalline gravel using an agate mortar, making sure not a single grain escapes.
    • Mix the powdered crystal into the remaining dream-lotus amber lacquer, painting the charged suspension directly into the terminal junction where the copper filaments converge at the inner wrist.
    • Place both hands over the curing terminals, closing your eyes to focus mental discipline through the Mind’s Eye.
    • Channel a measured thread of thought-power into the circuits, mentally visualizing a soothing, fraudulent pulse of golden life-force to link the crystal particles to the copper grid.
    • Roll a d20 to determine the structural outcome of the catalyst infusion: a roll of 2 through 20 permanently sets the enchantment into the wraps, whereas a roll of 1 indicates an explosive arcane short that vaporizes the lotus resin, shatters the components, and ruins the raw materials.
    • Complete the assembly by sewing soft lining strips along the outer margins, fitting adjustable hide laces through reinforced eyelets, and testing the wraps to confirm the fit is snug, secure, and fully leaves the fingers unencumbered.

Golden Palm and Fat Fish of Great Salt Wall

Listen to the scratching of the iron nail that was beaten into the dried cow-brick in the year when the big sky-gourd VaporSphere was yellow like an old melon. In that turning of the wheel, the water of the ocean was running very hard toward the sunset ditch, and the salt was thick upon the wooden piers of the town called Three Stinking Wells. There was a man walking who did not have the face of his father. His name upon the town tax-stick was written as Six-Baskets-of-Turnips, but the women who wash shirts in the gutter called him The Brother Who Has No Blood, because when he cut his thumb upon an oyster-shell, there came out only yellow oil that smelled like the fat of roasted geese.

He had fallen down through the cloud-floor in the season of the Great Buzzing, when the big green grasshoppers eat the sandals off the feet of the soldiers. His head was full of the grey smoke that makes a man forget the name of his first village, which the wise men of the temple call the Big Sleep of the New Body. In his belt he had three copper pins, a dried tongue from a blue bull-frog, and two bands of skin that he had pulled out of the belly of the Great Mud-Leech that lives under the wharf where the fish-boats pay their two pennies to the Queen’s nephew.

The Queen’s nephew in that town was a very heavy man whose belly was like a sack of wet flour that has fallen into the canal. His name was Master Ten-Oxen, and he had three iron keys hanging upon his fat ribs to show that he was the owner of the ditch, the owner of the salt, and the owner of the wooden bridge where the donkeys cross. Master Ten-Oxen had a great pain in his right kidney-stone, which was as big as an egg of the red marsh-crane. Every time the sun-ball Helios went to the highest pole at the eleventh bell, the fat man would lie upon his pig-skin carpet and howl like a dog that has been hit with a wagon-pole. The doctors of the Royal Court had brought him seven jars of black vinegar and four baskets of powdered lizard-skulls, but the egg in his ribs did not melt, and he had already hanged two barbers upon the salt-gate because their knives were cold.

Six-Baskets-of-Turnips saw that the fat man had forty jars of silver grain stored in the cellar under the pig-skins. He went behind the lime-kiln where the beggars throw the rotten cabbage-stalks. He took the skin of the Great Mud-Leech, which was pale like the bottom of a dead flounder, and he laid it upon a flat cedar plank. He did not have the ink of the squids that the scribes use for writing down the law of the four courts. He took the sweet sap of the Yellow Sleeping-Flower that grows where the night-wagons dump the night-dirt, and he mixed it with the dust of copper filings that he had stolen from the smith who makes pots for the military cook-house.

With a bent nail, he made the pictures of flowers and golden fruit upon the outside of the leech-skin, so that it looked like the holy apron of the Sun-Wife who lives in the temple of the big island. He tied the two pieces of skin upon his own wrists with the strings of an old fishing-net. The moment the copper touched the skin of his wrists, his hands became warm like two roasted dumplings that have just come out of the baker’s clay oven. When he looked at his own fingers with the Eye of the Mind that sees through the skull, the nails did not look like horn, but shone with the grease of yellow butter that has been boiled seven times.

He went to the wooden gate of the palace where Master Ten-Oxen was howling upon the pig-skins. The guard who stood at the ditch had a long iron stick with a pig-hook on the end, and he asked: “Why do you bring your two empty feet to the door of the Master, having no fowl and no jar of fat to give to the office?”

Six-Baskets-of-Turnips held out his two hands so the sun Helios could shine upon the golden flowers that he had scratched with the bent nail. He did not speak with the words of the market, which are thick like bean-porridge. He made his voice go sweet and thin, like the oil that runs out of an almond when you squeeze it between two flat slates: “I have brought the Golden Warmth from the country across the salt-ditch where nobody dies of the kidney-egg. If the Master gives me three bags of the round white bits and an official paper that says I do not have to pay the ditch-penny for twenty years, I will put the egg to sleep with the palm of my thumb.”

The guard was a very foolish boy whose ears had been pulled by the Sergeant until they were long like the ears of an ash-donkey. He smelled the sweet oil of the Yellow Sleeping-Flower and thought it was the perfume of the Queen’s daughters. He opened the iron lattice and led the man into the room where Master Ten-Oxen was biting the fringe of his carpet.

The Master was kicking his legs in the air, and his face was like an eggplant that has stayed three weeks in the bottom of a damp barrel. “If you cut my belly with an iron razor,” screamed Master Ten-Oxen, “I will have your skin pulled off over your shoulders and made into a bucket to water the royal mules!”

Six-Baskets-of-Turnips did not pull an iron razor from his sleeve. He knelt down in the grease of the floor and laid his right palm over the place where the kidney-egg was turning like an iron millstone. He pressed his knuckles down so that the hair-thin copper threads were squeezed against the fat meat of the Master’s hip. He said no holy names that the priests know; he made a humming in his front teeth, like the small yellow fly that sits upon the edge of a beer-pot when the sun is warm: Zzz-nu-ma-ri-yo.

At that breath, the sweet oil inside the leech-skin woke up and went into the skin of Master Ten-Oxen through the four thousand little mouths that the leech uses to drink black water in the ditch. The fat man stopped kicking his feet. The purple color went out of his nose, and his belly became soft like a wet sponge. In the Eye of the Mind, the big black egg inside his flesh did not break and did not go away, but a yellow cloud came over it, like when an old woman covers a broken soup-pot with a piece of bright yellow silk so the guests will not see the crack.

Master Ten-Oxen gave a great sigh that smelled of onions and old lard. He sat up upon his elbows and laughed until his fat knees shook together like two bowls of curds. “The stone is dead!” shouted the Master. “The stone has run away into the mud! My liver is as sweet as a young pig in the clover!”

He called his cellar-boy and told him to fetch three bags of the silver tokens that had the picture of the Queen’s boat upon them, and he wrote upon a piece of goat-skin with the red ink that Six-Baskets-of-Turnips was a holy man of the high stars who should never be hit with the tax-stick, nor asked for the port-penny, nor put into the salt-cellar for walking in the dark after the eighth bell.

Six-Baskets-of-Turnips took the three bags and tied them inside his trousers. He did not stay to eat the fried bull-heads that the cook had made for the celebration. He walked through the market with his hands tucked into his armpits, looking at the ground like an honest water-carrier who is afraid of stepping upon a snail.

Before the sun Helios had moved three hand-breadths toward the salt-wharf, the Yellow Sleeping-Oil began to dry up inside the skin of Master Ten-Oxen. The little mouths of the leech-skin let go of the fat, and the copper threads became cold like the iron of an anchor in the winter sea. The egg of stone inside the Master’s ribs woke up with seven times more teeth than it had before the noon-bell.

Master Ten-Oxen fell off the pig-skins and bit the leg off his wooden stool. He howled so loud that the gulls flew off the masts in the harbor and the beer went sour in thirty-two vats across the brewer’s alley. “Catch the turnip-faced man!” screamed the Master through his broken teeth. “He has left an iron wasp inside my liver! Take his ears and give his feet to the crabs in the south basin!”

The soldiers ran through the three gates with their pig-hooks, and the Sergeant blew the horn that means a man has stolen from the royal treasury. They caught Six-Baskets-of-Turnips just as he was putting his one foot upon the ferry-barge that goes toward the continent where people do not have kings. The Sergeant hit him in the middle of his ribs with the butt-end of a pine-pole.

The man who had the leech-wraps did not cry out, and he did not strike with his bone pin. He fell flat into the grey mud where the fish-heads are thrown. The moment his cheek touched the mud, he pulled the left band of the leech-skin very tight against his thumb-root. His breath stopped going in and out of his mouth. His skin turned the color of an old ash-heap that has been washed with rain for three days, and his eyes went wide and dry like the eyes of a salted mackerel in a barrel.

The soldiers came with their hooked sticks and turned him over in the ditch. The Sergeant took a long needle of iron and stuck it into the man’s thigh, but no red water came out, only two drops of yellow slime that smelled like swamp-weeds. A priest who was passing with an oil-basket looked through the Eye of his Mind and said: “This man’s bowl of life is turned upside down. The purple fire is gone back to the mother Lilith, and his carcass is no better than a dead dog that has been in the canal since the month of Selnus. If we carry a dead dog into the house of Master Ten-Oxen, the Master will have our noses split with the copper shears.”

The soldiers took the three bags of silver tokens from his trousers and divided them into four parts behind the fish-sheds, so the Sergeant got two parts and the boys got one part each. They kicked the man’s carcass into the low water where the tide goes out toward the west, and they went back to tell the Master that the thief had died of the belly-twist before they could cut his skin into strips.

When the star Helios was completely swallowed up by the water and the sky became dark like the bottom of a lime-pit, the man in the low water opened his two eyes. The salt water had washed the mud off his cheeks, but the leech-wraps were still fast upon his wrist-bones. He crawled out of the weeds like an old otter that has been shot with an arrow and has forgotten how to bleed.

He did not go back to the town of Three Stinking Wells to look for his silver bags, for he knew that the soldiers had already spent the Queen’s tokens upon the sour beer of the dock-huts. He took a dried fish-skin from the mud, wrapped it around the golden flowers of his leather bands so they would not shine in the dark, and walked along the empty beach toward the place where the big volcanoes make the night red like a furnace.

Moral of the Story: A sweet hand that only puts the pain to sleep will earn you three bags of silver before the noon-bell, but if you do not run faster than the man with the hook, you will have to play dead in the ditch with the rotten fish while the soldiers spend your money.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Quack’s Gilded Wraps

  • Classification: Minor Enchanted Artifact / Charlatan’s Focus
  • Form: Two bands of pale marsh-leech hide stitched with fine copper filaments, gilded with ornate scrollwork, and infused with dried dream-lotus resin.
  • Sanity Cost: 0 Sanity to wear; 1 Sanity point each time the wearer consciously uses the item to deceive a dying subject or simulate false vital signs.
  • False Vitality Projection: When the user spends 3 Magic Points and touches a wounded target while making a successful Fast Talk or Medicine roll, the patient feels an immediate sensation of total recovery. The patient gains 1D6 temporary “phantom” Hit Points and ignores all penalty dice from being at or below half Hit Points or suffering a Major Wound for 10 minutes. When the duration expires, the temporary points vanish; if the patient took additional physical damage while under the effect, they must immediately pass an Extreme CON roll or fall unconscious from accumulated, unaddressed trauma.
  • Feigned Mortality: As a reaction when suffering damage from an attack, the user can expend 4 Magic Points and make an opposed Sleight of Hand or Stealth roll against an attacker’s Spot Hidden. If successful, the user’s pulse halts, breathing ceases, and body temperature drops instantly. To all mundane medical examinations and First Aid attempts, the investigator registers as deceased. The user remains fully conscious and may end this metabolic suspension at will.
  • Seductive Touch: While wearing the wraps, the user receives one bonus die on Charm and Fast Talk rolls made during direct physical contact, such as a handshake or bedside examination.
  • Backfire Hazard: On a fumble (96–100, or 100 if skill is below 50) when attempting any channeling roll, the internal copper filament short-circuits. The volatile dream-lotus nectar leaks directly into the user’s bloodstream, inflicting 1D3 points of involuntary CON damage and leaving the user in a state of euphoric stupor (imposing one penalty die on all actions) for 1 hour.

Blades in the Dark

The Charlatan’s Gilded Bands

  • Item Classification: Arcane Curiosity / Covert Implement (Load: 1, worn on hands and wrists)
  • Visual Profile: Supple, pale leech hide traced with delicate floral gold leaf and braided copper filaments, smelling subtly of cloying lotus syrup.
  • Quality Level: Tier I Quality
  • System Rules:
    • Placebo Treatment: When you lay hands on an injured crew member or asset to feign high-tier medical aid, spend 1 Stress and roll your Sway or Tinker action (position: Risky, effect: Standard). On a standard success, you suppress the consequences of a Level 1 or Level 2 Harm until the end of the current score, making the subject appear fully healthy and function without dice penalties. However, once the score concludes and the crew returns to downtime, the untreated wound reasserts itself at +1 Harm level unless properly treated by a Physicker.
    • Soporific Touch: When you touch a target while parleying, spend 2 Stress to invoke the hidden dream-lotus extract. Your Sway roll gains +1 Effect; on a success, the target becomes blissfully docile and pliable, completely believing your professional credentials or accepting your terms without suspicion.
    • Play Possum: When you take physical Harm from an attack, you may take 1 Stress to treat the blow as instantly fatal. Your character collapses limp, masking all breath, vitals, and spiritual sheen. Observers and spirit-wardens assume you are dead, dropping guard and ignoring your body until you decide to spring an ambush or escape.
    • Complications and Backfire: If you roll a 1–3 or 4/5 while using the bands to deceive, the gold filigree flakes or the sickly odor of the leech skin breaks through, ticking a clock titled ‘Exposed as a Fraud’ or drawing immediate scrutiny from Inspectors or Bluecoats.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Gilded Wraps of the False Balm

  • Wondrous Item, uncommon (requires attunement)
  • Armor Class Modifier: While wearing these wraps, you gain a +1 bonus to AC if you are wearing light armor or no armor.
  • Deceptive Vitals: While attuned, you have advantage on Charisma (Deception) checks made to convince others of your medical expertise, disguise injuries, or forge official credentials. Additionally, when an outside creature inspects you or a creature you are touching with magical detection or insight, you can choose to make the subject appear fully healthy, uninjured, and devoid of negative status conditions.
  • Charges and Reservoir: The wraps have 3 charges and regain 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.
    • Sham Vigor: As an action, you can expend 1 charge to touch a creature. The target gains 1d4 + 2 temporary hit points and has the frightened and poisoned conditions suppressed for 10 minutes. When these temporary hit points expire or are depleted, the target must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or gain 1 level of exhaustion as their suppressed injuries reassert themselves.
    • Euphoric Caress: As an action, you can expend 1 charge and touch a humanoid. The target must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you for 1 minute. While charmed in this way, the creature regards you as an indispensable healer and refuses to take hostile actions against you. The effect ends early if you or your companions harm the target.
    • Play Dead: When you take damage from a melee attack, you can use your reaction to expend 1 charge and drop prone. You immediately appear dead: your pulse stops, your breathing ceases, and magical attempts to read your life force reveal you as an inanimate corpse. You remain conscious and aware of your surroundings, and you can end this effect at any time as a bonus action. Your next attack roll made from this state before the end of your next turn has advantage.

Knave (2nd Edition)

The Gilded Leech Bands

  • Item Slots: 1 item slot (worn on wrists and palms)
  • Armor Value: +1 Armor
  • Quality: 10 / 10 Quality points (breaks into torn leather and frayed copper threads at 0 Quality; loses 1 Quality on a critical hit sustained by the wearer).
  • Hands Required: 2 free hands to channel energy through the copper filigree.
  • Item Abilities:
    • Sham Dressing: As an action, the wearer places both gilded palms on a wounded companion and mentally opens the lotus reservoirs. The patient gains 1d6 temporary Hit Points, ignoring all negative modifiers from current wounds for 1 exploration turn (10 minutes). When the turn ends, these temporary points vanish completely, and the patient must pass a Constitution save or collapse from exhaustion, gaining 1 Fatigue slot.
    • False Demise: When hit by an attack, the wearer may declare a defensive ruse instead of parrying. The wearer falls to the floor limp, instantly passing as a fresh corpse. Any NPC examining the body must make an Intelligence or Wisdom check with a Difficulty of 15 to detect that the character is alive. The wearer can stand up and act normally on any subsequent round, gaining advantage on an immediate surprise attack against nearby foes.
    • Narcotic Grasp: During negotiations or parley, the wearer can clasp hands with an NPC to deliver a dose of vaporized dream-lotus nectar through the copper mesh. The target must make a Constitution save against Difficulty 15. On a failed save, the NPC becomes overly trusting, agreeable, and dull-witted for 10 minutes, automatically accepting reasonable lies and forged papers without demanding a roll.
    • Exhaustion Hazard: Each time the bands are activated to produce temporary Hit Points or trigger a narcotic grasp beyond the first use in a single day, the wearer must pass a Constitution check or gain 1 point of Fatigue.

Fate (Fate Condensed / Fate Core)

Wraps of the Gilded Facade

  • Aspects:
    • High Concept: Charlatan’s Gilded Palm Wraps of False Vitality
    • Trouble: Unstable Chemical Placebo and Parasitic Feedback
    • Invocation: Deceptive Bedside Manner and Masked Pain
  • Stunts:
    • Placebo Mend: Once per scene, when administering medical aid or physical reassurance to an ally, spend a Fate Point to immediately clear a 2-point physical stress box or temporarily downgrade a Mild Physical Consequence. This effect is an illusion of vitality; at the end of the scene, the target marks a 1-point physical stress box as the suppressed trauma breaks through the narcotic veil.
    • Feign Death: When an opponent successfully lands an attack that inflicts physical stress or a consequence, you may concede immediate physical defeat as a reaction, falling limp and gaining the situational aspect Convincingly Deceased with one free invoke. Opponents treat you as an inanimate corpse until you choose to reveal yourself by taking an active turn or making an ambush attack from surprise.
    • Handshake of the Grifter: You gain a +2 bonus to Deceive rolls made when making physical contact with a target, such as a handshake, a comforting shoulder touch, or an in-person medical diagnosis.
  • Mechanical Complication: If an adversary invokes your Trouble Aspect during negotiations or social encounters, the cloying scent of dream-lotus nectar and marsh-leech musk bleeds through the gold filigree, saddling your avatar with the Obvious Snake-Oil Peddler situational aspect.

Numenera & Cypher System

Gilded Leech-Mesh Bracers

  • Form: Supple pale cuffs fashioned from the belly skin of a predatory marsh organism, threaded with conductive copper tracery and decorated with beaten gold floral foil.
  • Level: 3 (Artifact)
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d10 (roll after each activation of Placebo Surge or Feigned Demise)
  • Armor Value: +1 to Armor (enhances passive physical defense against bludgeoning and slashing attacks to the forearms and wrists)
  • Effect:
    • Primary Function (Placebo Surge): The user places an open palm upon an adjacent living biological creature and spends 2 points from their Intellect Pool. The target immediately ignores the negative penalties of the Impaired or Debilitated state on the damage track for ten minutes, functioning as if completely uninjured. Once ten minutes have elapsed, the false vitality collapses: the subject takes 3 points of ambient Might damage that bypasses armor as untreated biological shock reasserts itself.
    • Secondary Function (Feigned Demise): As an immediate reaction when struck by a physical attack, the user expends 2 points from their Speed Pool. The artifact triggers an inverted bio-electrical shock that halts cardiac and respiratory rhythm. The user falls to the ground, appearing completely lifeless. Observers cannot detect signs of life without a successful Level 5 Intellect check. The user may remain in this suspended state for up to one hour and may terminate the effect at will to gain an asset on their next attack roll against an unsuspecting target.
    • Passive Social Asset: The calming micro-currents running through the copper mesh provide an asset (decreasing task difficulty by one step) on all Intellect tasks involving deception, disguise, forging medical credentials, or fast-talking authorities.

Pathfinder (Second Edition)

Gilded Balm Handwraps

  • Item Level: 2 (Uncommon, Illusion, Mental, Misfortune)
  • Usage: Worn (Gloves / Bracers); Bulk: Light
  • Price: 35 gp
  • Description: Crafted from pale bog-leech hide and lined with micro-capillary channels containing dream-lotus nectar, these ornate bracers gleam with delicate floral gold leaf. While designed to resemble sacred clerical vestments, their magic transmits sensory fabrications and biochemical numbness rather than genuine cellular repair.
  • Armor Check Penalty: -; Dexterity Cap: -; Item Bonus: The wearer gains a +1 item bonus to Deception checks made to Lie or Feign Injury.
  • Activate: 2 Actions (Manipulate); Frequency: Three times per day.
    • Effect (False Vitality): You touch an adjacent living creature and channel a pulse of amber light. The target gains 2d4 temporary Hit Points that last for 10 minutes. While these temporary Hit Points remain, the target is immune to the Frightened and Sickened conditions. When the temporary Hit Points expire or are stripped away by damage, the target must attempt a DC 16 Fortitude saving throw. On a failure, the target becomes Fatigued as their true biological trauma resurfaces.
  • Activate: Reaction (Manipulate); Trigger: You take physical damage from an enemy’s melee strike.
    • Effect (Play Possum): You collapse to the floor and enter a state of suspended animation, gaining the Flat-Footed and Prone conditions. To all mundane medicine checks and standard sensory perception, you appear dead with no heartbeat or breath. A creature must spend an action and succeed at a DC 18 Perception check against your Deception DC to realize you are alive. Your next melee strike made against an adjacent creature within 1 round of ending this effect treats the target as Off-Guard.
  • Activate: 1 Action (Enchantment, Mental); Frequency: Once per day.
    • Effect (Euphoric Clasp): You touch a humanoid target during conversation. The target must succeed at a DC 16 Will saving throw or become Charmed by you for 1 minute, viewing you as an indispensable medical professional or trusted friend. Any hostile action taken by you or your allies breaks this effect immediately.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

Bands of the Gilded Charlatan

  • Item Class: Minor Arcane Relic (Worn on Wrists/Hands)
  • Min Str: d4; Weight: 1 lb; Cost: 450 dollars or trade equivalent
  • Armor Bonus: Grants the wearer +1 Armor to the arms and wrists against kinetic and melee strikes.
  • Relic Trait (Somatic Deception): The wearer gains a +1 bonus to all Taunt and Persuasion rolls where physical contact or personal bedside demeanor is involved.
  • Integrated Powers: The bands operate with an internal pool of 6 Power Points, recovering 1 point per hour of non-use. They grant the user access to the following abilities using an effective Arcane Skill of d6:
    • Sham Vigor (Relief / Boost Trait): The wearer touches a wounded comrade and spends 2 Power Points. On a success, the patient ignores up to 2 points of Wound penalties for the next 10 minutes, appearing robust and completely unhindered. When the duration concludes, the patient must make an immediate Vigor roll. On a failure, the patient gains one level of Fatigue that lasts until they complete eight hours of uninterrupted rest.
    • Feigned Death (Slumber / Invisibility Variant): When the wearer suffers a Wound or Shaken result from an attack, they may spend 2 Power Points as a free reaction to collapse into a deathlike trance. The user appears stone dead; enemies ignore the wearer in favor of active combatants unless they pass a Notice roll at -2. The wearer may end this feigned state at the beginning of any turn, drawing an Adventure Card or gaining The Drop against adjacent foes on their next action.
    • Euphoric Touch (Puppet / Charm): By clasping hands with an NPC during social interaction, the user spends 3 Power Points. The target must make a Spirit roll (at -2 if the user scored a raise on their Arcane Skill roll). On a failure, the target becomes blissfully agreeable, accepting forged papers, overlooking missing tolls, or providing safe passage without raising an alarm for 5 minutes.
    • Narcotic Leakage Drawback: Rolling a Critical Failure while activating any power causes the micro-reservoir to burst inward. The user suffers an immediate level of Fatigue and must pass a Vigor check or fall unconscious for 1d4 rounds due to dream-lotus toxicity.

Shadowrun (Sixth World Edition)

Gilded Lotus Qi-Focus Bindings

  • Item Classification: Sustained Manipulation Qi Focus / Telesma (Rating 2)
  • Essence Cost: 0 (Unaugmented Telesma); Requires Bond via Karma
  • Karma to Bond: 4 Karma
  • Concealability: +3 (Easily passes visual inspection as high-fashion gilded athletic cuffs or luxury prosthetic wrist trim)
  • Defensive Rating Bonus: +1 to Defense Rating against physical melee attacks when worn openly on forearms and wrists.
  • Awakened Properties:
    • Placebo Vitality Surge: When treating an injured subject, the bonded user spends 1 Minor Action to channel restorative frequencies while making a Con + Charisma or Biotech + Logic test. The patient ignores up to 2 boxes of physical wound modifiers for a duration of (Rating × 5) minutes, and the subject’s condition monitor projects an illusory full vitality reading to medical scanners and Astral perception. When the duration expires, the suppressed physical damage reasserts itself, and the patient must resist 2 boxes of unsoakable Stun damage using Body alone as untreated physiological strain rebounds.
    • Soporific Palm Grip: During direct physical contact (such as a handshake or examination), the user can expend 1 Edge to flood the target’s neural pathways with dream-lotus resonance. The target must make an immediate Willpower + Intuition test against the user’s Magic + Charisma. On a failure, the target gains the Dazed status for 3 combat rounds and views the user with uncritical trust, accepting falsified credsticks or forged identification without verification.
    • Simulated Flatline: When the user takes physical damage from an attack, they may spend an Immediate Action to collapse limp. The user’s biometric readings, neural impulses, and pulse instantly flatline, and their astral signature mimics a lifeless corpse. An observer must score 4 or more hits on a Perception + Intuition test to detect signs of life. The user may end this effect at will on their turn to gain the Surprise advantage against adjacent foes.
    • Glitch Hazard: On a glitch during any activation test, the internal reservoirs leak into the user’s dermal tissue, inflicting 2 boxes of unsoakable Stun Drain and imposing the Glitched condition on all social interaction tests for 30 minutes.

Starfinder (Second Edition)

Gilded Balm Placebo Gauntlets

  • Item Level: 2 (Uncommon, Tech-Magical Wondrous Item, Illusion, Mental)
  • Price: 950 Credits
  • Usage: Worn (Hands / Forearms); Bulk: L
  • Hands: 1 or 2 (Open palm contact required for active channeling)
  • Capacity: 20 charges (Standard Battery or Arcane Battery); Usage: 2 charges per activation
  • Physical Profile: Supple, pale amphibious leather traced with braided copper circuitry, gilded with decorative floral foil, and embedded with micro-reservoirs of concentrated botanical euphoriant.
  • System Mechanics:
    • Sham Vitality Pulse (2 Actions): You expend 2 charges, lay hands upon a wounded biological ally, and channel an amber biofield surge. The target gains 2d4 temporary Hit Points that persist for 10 minutes, during which the frightened and sickened conditions are suppressed. While active, medical scanners and the target’s personal biometric comm unit register the subject as fully healed. When the temporary Hit Points are exhausted or the duration expires, the target must attempt a DC 16 Fortitude saving throw or become Fatigued as their actual wounds reassert themselves.
    • Deceptive Palm (1 Action): When grasping an adjacent humanoid target during social negotiations, you expend 2 charges to discharge a micro-aerosol of dream-lotus nectar. The target must succeed at a DC 16 Will saving throw or become Charmed by you for 1 minute. The target treats you as a trusted professional physician, providing passage through security doors or accepting fraudulent cargo manifests without inspection. Any hostile action taken by your allies immediately ends the effect.
    • Feigned Flatline (Reaction): Trigger: You take physical damage from an enemy’s melee strike. You spend 2 charges and fall Prone. Your life signs register as non-existent to visual inspection, auditory scans, and vital telemetry. A creature must spend a Seek action and succeed on a DC 18 Perception check to notice you are breathing. Your next melee strike made from this state against an adjacent foe treats the target as Off-Guard.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Sub-Dermal Placebo Induction Cuffs

  • Tech Level: TL 13 (Biotechnical Implement / Psionic Implement)
  • Weight: 0.5 kg (Negligible Encumbrance)
  • Armor Value: Armor +1 (Protects arm and wrist hit locations against physical melee and kinetic impacts)
  • Power: Micro-chemical fuel cell (10 charges; recharges via biological glucose absorption over 6 hours of non-use).
  • Skill Prerequisites: Deception 1 or Psionics (Telepathy) 1 to actively modulate the deceptive bio-currents; untrained operators require a successful Medic 8+ check to trigger standard pain suppression.
  • Operational Mechanics:
    • Simulated Trauma Stabilization: The user places both palms upon a casualty and spends 1 charge while attempting an Average (8+) Deception or Medic check. On a success, the casualty’s current physical damage penalties are suspended for 1D6 × 10 minutes, restoring an apparent 2D points to their physical characteristics for the duration. Handheld med-scanners and diagnostic software display the patient as fully stable. When the duration concludes, the patient must pass an Average (8+) Endurance check or suffer 1D6 direct Endurance damage as systemic biological collapse occurs.
    • Neuro-Sedative Contact: When touching an unarmored person during parley, the user expends 2 charges to deliver a transdermal dose of dream-lotus neuro-toxin through the copper filigree. The target must make an opposed Endurance check against the user’s Deception. If the target fails, they enter a state of euphoric compliance for 10 minutes, suffering DM-2 on all Insight or Investigate tasks and allowing fraudulent identification or unauthorized passage without challenge.
    • Metabolic Shutdown: When sustaining physical damage in combat, the wearer can spend 1 charge as an immediate reaction to induce total somatic collapse. Heartbeat, breathing, and bio-electrical emissions drop below detectable sensor thresholds. Observers must achieve an Exceptional (12+) Medic or Science (life sciences) check to detect that the user is alive. The wearer can abort the shutdown at any moment, gaining DM+2 on their next initiative roll or surprise attack.

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay (Wrath & Glory)

Wraps of the Gilded Charlatan

  • Item Tier: Tier 1 (Rare Archeotech / Heretical Curio)
  • Keywords: SCUM, UNDERWORLD, HERETICAL, ARCHEOTECH
  • Armor Rating: +1 AR (Arm hit locations only)
  • Encumbrance: 1 (Worn)
  • Weapon Profile (Euphoric Touch):
    • Damage: 3 + 1ED | AP: 0 | Range: Melee | Traits: Subtle, Toxic (1), Stun (2)
  • System Rules:
    • False Flesh-Mending: As a Combat Action, the wearer can place both gilded palms upon an injured ally and spend 1 Wrath or 1 Glory to channel a surge of deceptive vitality. The patient immediately removes up to 1d3+1 Shock, and their Wounds are treated as fully healed for the duration of the combat scene, completely ignoring wound penalties. To external medicae tools and auspex scanners, the patient registers as completely healthy. At the end of the scene, the narcotic effect dissipates, and the patient must pass a Toughness Test against DN 3 or immediately suffer 1d3 Mortal Wounds as their untreated internal damage breaks out.
    • Gilded Seduction: While worn openly, the user gains +1 bonus die on all Deception and Persuasion tests made when making direct physical contact with an NPC. If the target is an Imperial official, planetary enforcer, or dockmaster, the user can spend 1 Ruin or Glory to automatically bypass minor checkpoint security inspections without an alert being raised.
    • Feigned Death: When the wearer takes damage from a melee or ranged attack, they may spend an immediate reaction to drop to the deck. The user’s bio-readings flatline completely, masking their pulse and vital signs. Enemies treat the character as slain, shifting target priority to active combatants. An observer must spend an action and pass an Awarness (Int) Test against DN 4 to realize the user is faking their demise. The user gains +2 bonus dice on their next attack roll launched from this state against an unaware target.
    • Heretical Exposure Risk: If a Wrath Die rolls a 1 during any social or medical interaction while using the wraps, the cloying perfume of the dream-lotus compound becomes overwhelming, raising immediate suspicion. Planetary enforcers, medicae personnel, or agents of the Inquisition immediately realize the artifact employs proscribed narcotic technologies, triggering an immediate hostile response.