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Santeria 652 of the Two Handed Iron Cleaver

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by

Dale
in

Lore

  • In the decades following the early awakenings upon the world of Saṃsāra, reincarnated souls carrying memories of Earth and the syncretic traditions of Cuban Santería gathered within the volcanic island settlements of the Island Nation of Archaic.
  • Among these spiritual lineages was the fervent devotion to Ogún, the orisha of iron, blacksmithing, physical labor, dense forests, and relentless cutting power who forges the road through impossible wilderness with his heavy blades.
  • On Earth, devotees offered forged iron implements, rum, tobacco smoke, and palm oil to Ogún’s shrine, honoring the divine strength required to master metal and wield heavy tools with both hands to clear roads and protect communities.
  • When these souls encountered Saṃsāra’s rich veins of high-density bog iron and the ambient energy weave, blacksmiths recognized that raw iron could serve as a powerful physical conduit for spiritual force when properly balanced for a two-handed grip.
  • Blacksmith-priests forged broad clearing cleavers, balancing the heavy iron tang and long two-handed ash shaft with raw Tier 1 magic crystals and braided cords of green and black fiber to bridge physical labor and spiritual warding.
  • The designation 652 represents the consecration catalog maintained by the forge-houses of Archaic, calibrated specifically so a Tier 1 avatar’s physical frame can wield a weighty two-handed weapon with balanced leverage without overtaxing their nascent muscles.
  • It is widely favored by heavy frontier guards, caravan trail-blazers, and woodland skirmishers who rely on decisive, sweeping two-handed strikes to cut through dense brush, monstrous hides, and charging adversaries.

Description

  • The weapon is a heavy, single-edged two-handed billhook cleaver measuring four feet in total length, featuring a thick twenty-inch blade forged from unpolished, hammer-marked black bog iron.
  • The heavy blade flares outward near the squared-off chopping tip, with the flat of the steel etched with seven deep, straight grooves running parallel to the spine to channel thought energy and physical kinetic shock.
  • The blade is mounted to a twenty-eight-inch haft carved from dense mountain ash wood, wrapped in alternating bands of forest-green and charcoal-black braided cords that provide a secure, non-slip purchase for a wide two-handed grip.
  • Anchored between the blade tang and the wooden haft sits a heavy iron crossguard set with a coin-sized, coin-weighted Tier 1 magic crystal wrapped in thin green copper wire.
  • Suspended from an iron ring at the base of the pommel are three miniature iron nails and an empty clapperless iron bell that clinks softly against the butt-cap when resting, yet stays rigidly silent when swung.
  • The entire implement smells richly of cooling forge coals, heavy black grease, bitter sugarcane rum, green pine resin, and dried tobacco leaf, feeling substantial and cold in the hands until gripped firmly with both palms.

Detailed Stats

  • Item Tier: Tier 1 (Common)
  • Item Classification: Worn or Carried Magical Gear (Must be wielded with both hands to gain its full combat benefits and active features)
  • Specific Gear Slot: Two-Handed Weapon Slot (Main Hand and Off-Hand combined, occupying both weapon slots simultaneously)
  • Armor Check (AC) Modifier: +1 to total Armor Check (well within the allowable maximum threshold of 3 per item tier, reflecting the wide crossguard and thick iron spine used to deflect incoming blows while held in a two-handed guard stance)
  • Item Resilience: 10
  • Item Health Points: Avatar maximum Health Points plus 10 (calculated as base avatar max HP plus resilience of 10 multiplied by item tier 1)
  • Structural Integrity: The cleaver becomes broken and loses all magical capabilities if reduced to half its total health points or below; it is utterly destroyed into cracked slag, splintered ash wood, and loose crystal dust if reduced to 0 health points.
  • Item Weight: 6 pounds (requires a two-handed grip to swing effectively in combat; counts toward standard carried gear limits, losing all weight if placed inside an extradimensional container)
  • Attunement Requirement: Simple attunement (requires sixty seconds of deliberate two-handed grip practice and meditative breathing while pressing the thumbs to the iron crossguard; immediately unattunes if stowed within an extradimensional container)
  • Suggested Market Value: Varies depending on local iron ore supply, forge access, and forest density; baseline recommendation is 20 silver to 30 silver coins in mining settlements, rising to 4 gold coins in maritime port capitals where seasoned iron tools are at a premium.

Passive Magic

  • Grip of the Iron Forge:
    • While the cleaver is wielded openly with both hands and attuned, the avatar’s physical leverage and balance are reinforced by the weapon’s grounding weight.
    • The avatar gains advantage on all physical checks or saving rolls made to resist being disarmed, tripped, or forcibly shoved backward while maintaining a two-handed combat stance.
    • The wide iron spine and heavy crossguard actively deflect glancing weapon blows, granting a flat +1 Armor Check bonus against melee weapon strikes.
  • Path-Cleaver’s Edge:
    • The seven channeled grooves along the blade channel kinetic force through wood, vines, and dense foliage without dulling the cutting bevel.
    • When swung with both hands to clear mundane brush, wooden barricades, heavy vines, or fallen timber, the blade slices through the material with double efficiency, completely ignoring the structural hardness of nonmagical wood and vegetation.
  • Unyielding Iron Stride:
    • Holding the heavy haft with both hands creates a kinetic anchor to the earth, stabilizing the avatar’s center of gravity.
    • The avatar cannot be moved against their will by physical winds, water currents, or concussive pressure waves up to moderate intensity, provided both feet remain planted on solid ground.

Activable Magic

  • The Two-Handed Forest Cleave (Ogún’s Sweep):
    • Action Cost: One standard combat action.
    • Verbal / Casting Requirement: Silent casting; requires the avatar to take a wide two-handed stance and swing the blade in a broad horizontal semi-circle.
    • Effect: The Tier 1 magic crystal flares with deep forest-green and amber light, sending a wave of pressurized kinetic force three feet beyond the blade’s iron edge.
    • The strike targets up to two adjacent hostile creatures standing within a ten-foot frontal arc; both targets suffer the weapon’s standard two-handed slashing damage, and must succeed on a physical resistance check or be knocked backward five feet and knocked prone.
    • Cooldown: Can be used up to three times per in-game day. If forced beyond this limit, the physical recoil causes the avatar’s forearms to cramp, imposing a -2 penalty on attack rolls for thirty minutes.
  • Anvil Guard of the Blacksmith:
    • Action Cost: One prepared reaction (must be prepared as an action on the character’s turn, resetting at the start of the next turn).
    • Verbal / Casting Requirement: Normal somatic chant; requires the avatar to raise the heavy blade horizontally with both hands locked on the grip while shouting an invocation to Ogún under six seconds.
    • Effect: The iron blade and crossguard resonate with a heavy chime, creating an invisible spiritual barrier resembling an iron anvil around the avatar’s torso.
    • The next incoming melee or physical projectile attack that would strike the avatar is absorbed by the barrier, reducing incoming physical damage by 5 points.
    • The attacking weapon rebounds with a sharp metallic clatter, forcing the attacker to make an immediate grip check or drop their weapon.
    • Cooldown: Usable twice per in-game day.
  • Hewing the Unbroken Road:
    • Action Cost: One standard action.
    • Verbal / Casting Requirement: Ritual chant; requires the avatar to hold the haft with both hands pointed forward and recite a ten-second litany of the open road while tapping the pommel ring against the ground once.
    • Effect: The blade becomes supernaturally dense and heavy for one minute (10 combat rounds).
    • During this period, all two-handed melee strikes against stationary nonmagical objects (such as stone doors, iron gates, portcullises, or wagon wheels) deal maximum structural damage, bypassing ordinary material resistances.
    • Cooldown: Usable once per long rest. Avatars gain nothing from a short rest, requiring the completion of a full twenty-two-hour day cycle before the crystal battery recharges its forge resonance.

Specific Gear Slot

  • Two-Handed Weapon Slot (Main Hand and Off-Hand)

Tags

  • two-handed, weapon, cleaver, billhook, ogun, iron, forge, chop, slash, common, tier-1, warding, path-clearing, ash, leverage, unyielding, anvil, vanguard, woodcraft, breach, shockwave, green-black, bog-iron, momentum

Commerce and Acquisition of the Two-Handed Iron Cleaver in Saṃsāra

  • Volcanic Forge-Foundries and Frontier Armories:
    • Physical Location and Structure: Heavy black-iron forges and weaponsmithing complexes are clustered primarily near the basalt flows, iron quarries, and geothermal vents of industrial settlements across the Island Nation of Archaic, as well as the fortified frontier towns of Aurignacian. Operated by tight-knit smithing families who attune specialized hammers and forge tongs daily, these open-air stone complexes feature glowing coke braziers, hydraulic trip-hammers driven by steam pipes, large cooling vats of bitter wash and brine, and weapon racks lined with long-hafted chopping implements and pollaxes.
    • Buying Procedure and Pricing: Purchasing Santeria 652 of the Two-Handed Iron Cleaver in an industrial armory follows realm trade norms where the regional availability of raw bog iron and ash lumber dictates the floor price. The standard recommended retail baseline price for this Tier 1 heavy cleaver is 25 silver coins (or 2 gold coins and 5 silver coins).
    • An unaffiliated traveler or uncredentialed sellsword pays the full asking price of 25 silver coins.
    • A buyer holding recognized standing within the Blacksmiths’ Guild, Pioneers’ Faction, or Frontier Garrison who displays their badge openly receives an institutional discount of 10% per character tier level; a Tier 1 member purchases the cleaver for 22 silver and 5 copper coins (a 10% discount), while a Tier 2 member pays 20 silver coins (a 20% discount).
    • Transactions are settled directly through the World Bank system via the Mind’s Eye, accompanied by the municipal 3% commercial sales tax levied at registered foundry sales offices.
    • Selling Procedure and Trade Log: Avatars seeking to offload the weapon to a master smith must lay it across an anvil for inspection, allowing the artisan to test the balance of the ash haft, verify the uncracked bevel of the bog iron, and test the resonance of the Tier 1 green copper-wrapped crystal.
    • Smithing merchants offer a buyout payout based on 10% of the baseline retail value multiplied by the seller’s tier level; a Tier 1 avatar receives 2 silver and 5 copper coins (10% of 25 silver), whereas a Tier 2 avatar receives 5 silver coins (20% of 25 silver).
    • The sum is credited to the seller’s World Bank ledger, and the forge keeper records the serial identifier 652 in the forge’s transaction ledger alongside a sketch of the blade’s etched grooves for provincial weapon registration.
  • Pioneer Exchanges and Woodland Trail Outposts:
    • Physical Location and Structure: Situated at the frontier gates of vast, untamed inland forests, logging camps, and tangled valley trade paths, these heavy timber-and-iron trading posts supply explorers, land surveyors, and overland woodcutters. These shops stock durable survival gear, crosscut saws, heavy clearing implements, and protective talismans capable of hacking paths through dense thorn-jungles and fending off wild beasts.
    • Buying Procedure and Pricing: Near the edge of the wilderness where a reliable two-handed clearing tool can mean the difference between cutting a path or becoming stranded, local demand sets the baseline retail cost at 28 silver coins.
    • Unaffiliated mercenaries, independent prospectors, and roaming adventurers pay the full 28 silver coins or may face an inflated markup up to 32 silver coins if seasonal monster incursions create shortages of heavy cutting tools.
    • Enrolled members of the Foresters’ Guild, Trail-Blazers’ Union, or Surveyors’ League who display their credential badge receive the standard 10% discount per character tier, dropping a 28 silver asking price down to 25 silver and 2 copper coins for a Tier 1 buyer, or 22 silver and 4 copper coins for a Tier 2 buyer.
    • Transactions are finalized through the World Bank account network, subject to the local regional border checkpoint fee.
    • Selling Procedure and Trade Log: Frontier post-masters actively buy heavy, two-handed clearing weapons to re-equip passing logging crews and trail-clearing parties.
    • An avatar selling the cleaver negotiates against the local 28 silver baseline; a Tier 1 character receives 2 silver and 8 copper coins, while a Tier 2 character receives 5 silver and 6 copper coins credited to their ledger.
    • If the post is running low on forged cutting tools, the outpost master may offer an immediate barter exchange for travel rations, sharpening stones, or fluid-collector vials.
  • Capital Military Arsenals and Caravan Mercenary Halls:
    • Physical Location and Structure: Positioned within the inner baileys of walled provincial capitals, adjacent to royal barracks and permanent teleportation gates, these fortified supply halls outfit caravan guards, heavy palace gatekeepers, and guild shock-infantry. They feature stone-flagged armory vaults lined with halberds, billhooks, greatswords, and siege equipment maintained under strict military discipline.
    • Buying Procedure and Pricing: In metropolitan centers distant from iron mines, shipping tariffs and royal inspection surcharges push the retail asking price of this two-handed cleaver up to 40 to 45 silver coins (4 to 4.5 gold coins).
    • Contracted caravan guards, active city watchmen, or registered members of the Mercenary League who display active duty tokens receive the standard 10% tier discount, bringing a 40 silver asking price to 36 silver for a Tier 1 soldier, or 32 silver for a Tier 2 soldier.
    • Each weapon sold through an official state arsenal is marked with an inscribed municipal property stamp, protecting the bearer from questioning or equipment impoundment by inquisitive town marshals.
    • Selling Procedure and Trade Log: Armory quartermasters buy verified two-handed weapons to maintain emergency civic reserve stores.
    • An avatar selling the cleaver bargains against the 40 silver urban baseline; a Tier 1 seller earns 4 silver coins, a Tier 2 avatar receives 8 silver coins, and a Tier 3 avatar gains 12 silver coins directly into their World Bank ledger.
    • Quartermasters favor this weapon for garrison stockpiles because the heavy bog iron does not degrade quickly in damp barracks storehouses.
  • Smuggler Vaults and Shadow Foundry Yards:
    • Physical Location and Structure: Tucked away inside hidden subterranean mining shafts, disused steam engine vaults beneath industrial river basins, or pirate coves along jagged coastlines, these clandestine black-market operations cater to outlaws, marauders, and unlicensed mercenaries operating outside the laws of the island nations.
    • Buying Procedure and Pricing: Black-market brokers trade in untraceable, unmarked weaponry stripped from fallen patrols or scavenged from forbidden ruin sites.
    • The asking price in these hidden vaults is heavily inflated, ranging between 45 and 65 silver coins (4.5 to 6.5 gold coins), with zero tolerance for haggling.
    • Trade guild badges and military credentials carry no weight in these dens; showing a formal uniform or badge will likely result in an immediate weapon-draw or a doubled asking price.
    • Payment must be rendered in physical metal currency—such as solid silver bars, electrum plates, or loose gold sovereigns—as underground operators refuse all electronic World Bank transactions to prevent scrutiny from royal tax collectors.
    • Selling Procedure and Trade Log: Characters seeking to sell a cleaver obtained through illicit raids, mutinies, or contested kills without official salvage warrants rely on black-market fences to avoid criminal inquiries.
    • The baseline fence payout remains 10% of the item’s baseline value per tier level of the seller, delivered strictly in hard coin.
    • If a raiding syndicate is actively preparing to breach a fortified manor gate or chop through the reinforced wooden bulkheads of a stranded cargo vessel, a fence may offer up to double the standard payout—paying 5 silver coins to a Tier 1 seller or 10 silver coins to a Tier 2 seller in physical silver coin, leaving no paper trail or recorded tax footprint.

Tactical Roleplay of the Two-Handed Iron Cleaver Across the Environments of Saṃsāra

  • Dense Thorn-Jungles and Tangled Canopy Valleys:
    • Environmental Context: The equatorial rainforests of Saṃsāra are choked with iron-hard creepers, thick bramble canopies, toxic spore-pods, and hidden root hollows. Traditional thrusting blades catch on the brush, and close-quarters movement is heavily restricted by natural barriers.
    • Defensive Roleplay:
      • While moving through a dense patch of strangler vines, the avatar grips the twenty-eight-inch ash haft with both hands, keeping the broad iron blade angled defensively across the chest.
      • When a venomous jungle stalker drops from the canopy in an ambush leap, the avatar utilizes the wide crossguard and the passive Grip of the Iron Forge to catch the beast’s claws mid-air, absorbing the kinetic shock without being knocked flat into the thorns.
      • If a charging boar-beast attempts to barrel through the undergrowth to knock the avatar into a venomous pit, the avatar prepares Anvil Guard of the Blacksmith; locking both palms to the cord-wrapped grip, the avatar shouts a short invocation to Ogún, conjuring a ringing spiritual anvil barrier that halts the beast’s momentum and turns aside its tusks with a heavy metallic clatter.
    • Offensive Roleplay:
      • As hostile forest marauders take cover behind dense thickets of petrified timber, the avatar leverages the passive Path-Cleaver’s Edge, swinging the heavy black-iron billhook with full two-handed momentum to effortlessly slice through forearm-thick roots and fallen trunks.
      • Stepping into a wide, grounded stance, the avatar unleashes The Two-Handed Forest Cleave (Ogún’s Sweep); the green copper-wrapped crystal flares with emerald energy, projecting a crescent wave of kinetic pressure through the blade that cuts down two ambushers simultaneously, cleaving their wooden shields and pitching them backward into the brush.
  • Subterranean Foundry Tunnels and Steam Gantry Catwalks:
    • Environmental Context: Industrial factory shafts and dwarven steam forges feature narrow grated catwalks suspended over molten slag flumes, scalding steam valves, clanging piston arms, and low iron ceilings where tripping or giving ground means a fatal plunge.
    • Defensive Roleplay:
      • While crossing an eight-foot-wide iron gantry over a bubbling cauldron of molten slag, an enemy shock trooper armed with a heavy battering pavise charges forward to ram the avatar off the ledge.
      • The avatar plants both boots firmly onto the steel grating, invoking the passive Unyielding Iron Stride; holding the heavy ash haft with both hands creates an anchored center of gravity that resists the concussive force, completely neutralizing the shove.
      • When an enemy axeman swings a heavy overhead strike, the avatar catches the blow directly along the etched grooves of the unpolished blade, deflecting the iron edge safely away from the narrow walkway without slipping.
    • Offensive Roleplay:
      • Facing a pair of armored forge sentries blocking an iron bulkhead, the avatar steps into a forward lunge and executes The Two-Handed Forest Cleave.
      • The horizontal sweep forces both sentries backward into the iron railings, staggering them and cracking their breastplates under the pressurized shockwave.
      • To finish the breach, the avatar invokes Hewing the Unbroken Road, tapping the pommel ring against the iron floor before bringing the supernaturally dense blade down on the reinforced bulkhead hinges, shattering the iron latching mechanisms in a single two-handed blow.
  • Windswept Volcanic Basalt Crags and Ash Canyons:
    • Environmental Context: The jagged slopes of active island peaks present jagged volcanic basalt trails, steep scree falls, sulfurous fume fissures, and sudden gale-force updrafts driven by atmospheric convection. Footing is treacherous, and cover is limited to sharp volcanic glass formations.
    • Defensive Roleplay:
      • Ascending a narrow basalt shelf while buffeted by sudden mountain thermal winds, the avatar carries the cleaver in a low, ready two-handed posture.
      • As a sudden blast of pressurized volcanic air sweeps across the ridge, the avatar relies on Unyielding Iron Stride to lock their balance to the rock, remaining upright while loose cinders and stone chips are scattered into the chasm below.
      • When a winged cliff-drake dives from above to snatch the avatar off the ledge, the avatar drops into a crouch and raises the wide iron spine, deflecting the talons off the iron crossguard with a heavy, grounding parry.
    • Offensive Roleplay:
      • When two rocky elementals emerge from the scree to block the ascent, the avatar takes a broad two-handed grip and swings through their stony forms using The Two-Handed Forest Cleave.
      • The kinetic wave fractures the outer crust of both targets, sweeping their feet out from under them and sending them tumbling down the steep ash embankment.
      • The avatar advances along the cleared ledge, using the billhook’s hooked tip to lever away obstructive basalt slabs and maintain an unhindered uphill climb.
  • Fortified Town Gates and Barricaded Streets:
    • Environmental Context: During urban insurrections or city-gate sieges within provincial capitals, combat centers around fortified wooden barricades, overturned freight wagons, reinforced portcullises, and narrow chokepoints guarded by heavy pike lines.
    • Defensive Roleplay:
      • While holding a narrow breached gate against advancing mercenaries, the avatar assumes a central vanguard position with the cleaver held in a high two-handed guard.
      • As incoming crossbow quarrels and thrown javelins rain down from an overlooking balcony, the avatar activates Anvil Guard of the Blacksmith; the glowing spiritual anvil manifests across the chest, deflecting the heavy bolts into the cobbles and stripping the kinetic force from the projectiles.
      • When enemy halberdiers attempt to hook the avatar’s legs or twist the weapon away with hook-spikes, the passive Grip of the Iron Forge prevents the avatar from being disarmed or toppled, keeping the line unbroken.
    • Offensive Roleplay:
      • To break through an enemy barricade constructed of iron-studded timber wagons, the avatar activates Hewing the Unbroken Road, chanting the litany of the open road for ten seconds while resting both palms on the wrapped haft.
      • Swung with the full torque of both arms and hips, the blade ignores the hardness of the reinforced oak, splitting the axle beams, severing the heavy chain lashings, and smashing the wagon barricade into splintered firewood.
      • With the barrier cleaved open, the avatar surges forward through the gap, using sweeping two-handed arcs to push back defending spear lines and establish an open road for allied forces.

Perception of Activation:

  • User’s Perspective:
    • Sight:
      • The Tier 1 crystal at the crossguard ignites with a vibrant emerald-green and molten amber glow, sending thin veins of light racing down the seven etched grooves along the black-iron blade.
      • A shimmering, heat-mirage envelope coats the cutting bevel, making the iron edge look supernaturally dense and vibrating with kinetic potential.
      • A translucent, spectral silhouette of a heavy blacksmith’s anvil momentarily flickers into view across the user’s torso when a defensive stance is locked.
    • Sound:
      • A deep, resonant chime rings out—not from the iron bells, which remain rigidly quiet, but like a sledgehammer striking a solid iron anvil in an enclosed cavern.
      • A heavy, rhythmic hum vibrates through the dense ash haft, humming in sync with the user’s heartbeat.
      • When swung, the air shears with a low, roaring boom similar to a furnace draft catching suddenly.
    • Touch:
      • A grounded, heavy pull courses through both wrists and forearms, rooting the user’s boots into the stone or soil with immovable stability.
      • The braided green and black cords feel coarse, warm, and dry against the palms, providing a non-slip grip that absorbs all jarring recoil.
      • A surge of empowering heat travels through the hands, as if dipping bare palms into warm forge water without scalding.
    • Smell:
      • A rich, intoxicating odor of glowing hearth coals, pungent black axle grease, and sharp sulfurous furnace exhaust fills the lungs.
      • Underneath the industrial forge reek sits a fragrant blend of cured tobacco leaf, green pine needles, and sweet, fermented sugarcane rum.
    • Taste:
      • A sharp, metallic copper and iron tang pools beneath the tongue.
      • A faint, bitter taste of charred wood, molasses, and dry pipe smoke lingers at the back of the palate.
    • Extra-Sensory Perception:
      • Earth-Anchor Awareness: The user’s Mind’s Eye perceives the density, fault lines, and hardness of all surrounding matter—stone floors, timber walls, and charging bone—as fragile obstacles waiting to be severed.
      • Blacksmith’s Resolve: A feeling of calm, immovable stubbornness settles over the mind, stripping away panic, hesitation, and fear of incoming physical impacts.
      • Path-Clearing Clairvoyance: The ideal sweeping trajectory to cleave multiple targets or demolish structural chokepoints illuminates intuitively in the avatar’s tactical vision.
  • Observer’s Perspective:
    • Sight:
      • The dark, pitted cleaver flares with bright forest-green illumination, illuminating the seven blade channels with amber sparks.
      • When the weapon strikes or parries, a momentary green arc of pressurized force extends several feet beyond the tip, kicking up embers and wood splinters.
      • The wielder appears visually heavier and more solid, as though planted into the bedrock itself.
    • Sound:
      • The loud, ringing clatter of iron on iron echoes through the area, deafening nearby listeners as incoming weapons rebound off the spiritual guard.
      • The air snaps with a concussive crack when the heavy blade executes a sweeping arc.
    • Touch:
      • Anyone standing within arm’s reach feels a distinct vibration through the floor, accompanied by a wave of radiant heat rolling outward like an opened furnace hatch.
    • Smell:
      • Observers are hit by a sudden, intense draft smelling of smoking forge bellows, spilled rum, and green wood cinders.
    • Taste:
      • The surrounding air tastes dry and heavy with soot, leaving an astringent metallic aftertaste in the mouths of close-range combatants.
    • Extra-Sensory Perception:
      • Practitioners of the arcane and spirit-seers feel the presence of a tireless divine laborer, sensing a heavy, downward gravitational pressure that demands respect for raw physical toil and crafted iron.
  • Positives:
    • Massive Frontal Crowd Control:
      • Sweeping attacks generate wide kinetic arcs that damage and knock back multiple adjacent opponents, creating immediate breathing room.
    • Overwhelming Defensive Stability:
      • The spiritual anvil barrier absorbs heavy incoming physical damage and forces enemy weapons to rebound violently, potentially disarming the attacker.
    • Complete Structural Demolition:
      • Reinforced doors, barricades, wagons, and gates lose their structural resistance against the blade, allowing instant breaches.
    • Disarm and Shove Immunity:
      • The two-handed grounded grip renders the wielder immune to being toppled, tripped, or disarmed by physical forces.
  • Negatives:
    • Severe Muscular Fatigue:
      • Overdrawing the weapon’s active magic causes severe forearm cramps and tendon strain, reducing attack accuracy and grip strength for thirty minutes.
    • Total Loss of Subtle Approach:
      • The ringing anvil resonance, blazing green light, and unmistakable forge reek instantly reveal the user’s position, eliminating all stealth.
    • Reduced Agility and Maneuverability:
      • Anchoring oneself to the ground prevents swift, nimble dodges or acrobatic repositioning, forcing the avatar to stand and absorb punishment directly.
    • High Spatial Requirement:
      • Sweeping a four-foot two-handed blade requires clear horizontal swinging room; in extremely confined crawlspaces or tight crevices, full momentum cannot be unleashed without jamming the blade into the walls.

Crafting Recipe: Santeria Cleaver of the Iron Path-Maker

  • Materials Needed:
    • 8 pounds of unrefined, high-density bog iron ore or forged black-iron billet.
    • 1 cured straight branch or stave of dense mountain ash wood (roughly thirty inches in length and two inches in diameter).
    • 1 Tier 1 magic crystal (coin-sized and coin-weighted, harvested from a subterranean earth or iron elemental, or purchased from a mineral exchange).
    • 12 feet of braided cords, divided equally into forest-green and charcoal-black dyed plant or leather fibers.
    • 1 spool of ductile green-patinated copper wire.
    • 3 forged iron nails and 1 small clapperless iron bell casting.
    • 1 iron split-ring (roughly two inches in diameter for pommel mounting).
    • 1 dram of amber tree sap resin, gathered via a fluid collector to serve as an alchemical binding agent.
    • 3 drams of raw, high-proof sugarcane rum and 1 dried tobacco leaf (used as sacrificial reagents to awaken the smithing conduits).
  • Tools Required:
    • 1 Fluid Collector (for measuring and depositing heated tree sap resin).
    • 1 Blacksmith’s forge and charcoal coke brazier.
    • 1 Heavy forging hammer and hand anvil.
    • 1 Hot cut chisel and fuller set (for grooving the blade channels).
    • 1 Wood rasp, drawknife, and woodcarver’s gouge set (for shaping the mountain ash haft and boring the tang channel).
    • 1 Jeweler’s wire pliers and cold snips.
    • 1 Quenching trough containing water infused with pine needles, ash soot, and bitter brine.
  • Skill Requirements:
    • Blacksmithing / Metalworking: Minimum skill rank of 5.
    • Alchemical Crafting / Reagent Prep: Minimum skill rank of 3.
    • Mind’s Eye Focusing / Channeling: Minimum skill rank of 2 (required to trace the kinetic conduits from the crystal through the iron grooves without earthing the charge).
  • Crafting Steps:
    • Forging the Black-Iron Blade:
      • Heat the bog iron billet in the forge until it reaches a bright cherry-red glow.
      • Fuller and draw out the billet into a twenty-inch, single-edged billhook cleaver blade, widening the forward edge toward a squared chopping tip while leaving a thick, heavy spine.
      • Forge a sturdy six-inch tang at the base of the blade to seat deep into the wooden haft.
      • Using the hot cut chisel and fuller, hot-carve seven straight, parallel grooves along the flats of the blade running from the ricasso toward the tip.
      • Forge a thick, flat iron crossguard featuring a central recess tailored to seat the Tier 1 crystal.
    • Shaping and Mounting the Ash Haft:
      • Use the drawknife and rasp to contour the twenty-eight-inch mountain ash stave into an oval grip suited for a two-handed purchase.
      • Burn and chisel a six-inch channel into the forward end of the ash haft to receive the blade tang.
      • Fit the crossguard over the tang, drive the tang into the heated ash haft, and pin the junction with two heavy cross-rivets of cold-peened iron.
      • Drill a horizontal hole through the pommel end of the haft, fit the iron split-ring securely, and suspend the three iron nails and the clapperless iron bell from the ring.
    • Wrapping the Two-Handed Grip:
      • Anchor the forest-green and charcoal-black braided cords just beneath the crossguard.
      • Wrap the entire length of the twenty-eight-inch grip in alternating, overlapping bands, pulling the cords under extreme tension to produce a coarse, non-slip purchase.
      • Tie off the cords at the pommel collar, singeing the fiber ends and tacking them flush with iron brads.
    • Setting the Crystal and Wire Conduits:
      • Seat the Tier 1 magic crystal into the fitted recess of the iron crossguard.
      • Secure the crystal tightly using the green copper wire, wrapping it in a cross-hatched lattice that bridges the crossguard and runs directly into the beginnings of the seven carved blade grooves.
      • Warm 1 dram of harvested tree sap over the forge coals and use the fluid collector to flow the liquid resin around the crystal’s base, anchoring it against kinetic recoil.
    • Quenching, Consecration, and Conduction:
      • Reheat the blade edge to an even dull orange, taking care not to heat the crossguard crystal directly.
      • Quench the cutting bevel in the pine-and-brine trough, hardening the edge while keeping the spine ductile.
      • While the steel is warm, pour the 3 drams of raw sugarcane rum across the hot blade and crumble the dried tobacco leaf over the smoking crossguard.
      • Take a two-handed grip upon the wrapped haft, hold the weapon steady above the anvil, and project thought energy through the Mind’s Eye into the crossguard crystal.
      • Maintain steady mental resonance for five minutes while the rum evaporates, locking the bond when the seven etched grooves flare with deep emerald light and the blade rings with an unyielding anvil hum.

Heavy Iron Hatchet of Black Road and Seven Scratches of Big Blacksmith

In the turning of the red dust, before the high mountains had grown their grey coats of cold frost, the world was very dark with great weeds. The trees had no soft leaves, but had teeth of black flint that tore the bellies of the goats when they walked to the water-hole. In that ditch dwelt a hewer of wild timber whose name upon the wet slate was written as The Man Who Swallows Charcoal When The Sun Dies. He had no red copper cloak, nor had he five pots of fat butter to give to the temple priests. He had only two hands that were hard like the knees of a camel and a small earthen hearth wherein he kept three burning coals wrapped in sheep-dung.

The ancient uncles whose teeth have fallen into their broth say that a great king sat upon a high chair made of pig-bone. This king was called The King Whose Belly Was Full Of Salt Meat. The king looked upon the black forest that grew between his garden and the place where the red sun goes to sleep. He wished to send twelve carts laden with dried river fish to the town of the white clay, but the black vines were as thick as the thigh of an ox, and when a slave touched them with a sickle of bronze, the bronze broke like a dry carrot.

“Bring to me the charcoal-eater,” said the king, speaking through a beard that smelled of sour sheep fat and burnt onions. “Tell him that if he makes not a clean ditch through the biting brambles before the yellow star sits upon the mountain horn, I will cause him to be sewn into the wet hide of an elk and thrown into the pit where the tanners keep their lime.”

The hewer went to the edge of the thorny wood. He had an axe of soft bronze, but when he struck the second bush of thorn, the blade curled like the horn of a ram, and the thorns flew out and tore his two eyes so that he wept red tears into the moss.

He sat upon a flat rock of black ironstone. He took three dry leaves of the smoking weed and burned them upon a flat pebble, and he took a wooden bowl of the sour beer of the wild cane and poured it into a crack in the rock.

There came out from the crack not a woman, nor an ox, but an old smith whose body was made of black coal. His two arms were thick like the trunks of elder trees, and his ears were filled with the black grease of the wagon-axle. In his right hand he carried an iron bar that had four corners, and in his left hand he held a hammer of green river stone.

“Why do you strike the biting wood with a spoon of bronze, you eater of dirt?” said the black smith, speaking with a noise like a cart laden with river gravel overturning upon a stone quay. “The trees of the old water will not yield their necks to the yellow metal of the women. If you wish to make a road, you must hold the heavy tooth of the deep earth with your two hands of skin.”

The smith spat into the red coals of his belly, and from the fire he brought forth a broad iron blade that had been hammered four hundred times upon a stone anvil. It was as long as the arm of a plowman, and upon its flat skin he had carved seven deep paths with the tooth of an elk. He took a branch of the mountain ash that had grown beside a grave, burned out its pith with a hot rod, and drove the tail of the iron blade through its middle. He bound the wood with cords of green flax and black sheep-hair, and he hung three nails of raw iron from the butt, together with a small kettle that had no tongue to rattle.

“Take this cleaver of the black ditch,” rasped the smith, whose breath was like the chimney of a furnace when the wet coal is thrown upon the embers. “Do not hold it with one hand of meat as a boy holds a fishing-rod. Place the left hand upon the black wool, and place the right hand upon the green flax. Plant your two knees into the dirt until your toes take hold of the stones beneath the soil. When the iron bites, do not pull back, for the blade knows only the forward path.”

The wood-hewer took the ash haft with his two hands. Immediately, the small green pebble that was tied with copper thread began to shine with the light of green grass that grows under deep water. A great heaviness entered into his elbows. His feet sank three thumbs deep into the red clay, and he felt as though a great root of black iron had grown from his hip-bone into the deep gravel of the world.

He struck the first tree of black thorn. The heavy iron blade did not bounce back, nor did it spark like bronze upon flint. It passed through the wood as an iron needle passes through a wet fig. The seven deep scratches upon the iron began to whistle with the voice of a winter tempest.

For three nights and three days the man did not sleep, nor did he eat bread. He swung the iron cleaver with both arms, striking from the left shoulder to the right hip, and striking from the right shoulder to the left hip. The black thorns fell like cut grass. Great serpents whose hides were like flint came out of the briars to sting his heels, but when they struck his feet, their teeth broke against his ankles as though his flesh were an anvil of seasoned basalt. The great roots that lived under the dirt rose up to trip his stride, yet they could not turn his feet aside; his two boots walked through the tangled earth as a heavy wagon drawn by four bulls walks through the puddle of the village street.

On the dawn of the fourth turning, the hewer came out upon the white clay of the northern plain. Behind him lay a ditch four paces wide, straight like the stroke of a carpenter’s reed, where neither briar nor thorn remained, but only clean dirt that smelled of pine smoke and the sweat of iron.

The King Whose Belly Was Full Of Salt Meat came upon his horse of war, attended by twenty spearmen wearing helmets of hammered tin. When the king saw the clean road, his liver grew black with grease.

“This is not the work of a scraper of skins,” said the king to his captains. “This dog has found the spade of the earth-devils. Take from him the long axe of iron, and throw him into the dry well where the scorpions lay their eggs, so that my own sons may carry the iron tooth and break the stone gates of the southern lords.”

The four captains of tin ran upon the hewer with heavy spears of ash-wood. But the hewer did not turn his heel to run like a hare into the scrub. He placed his left palm upon the black cord, and he placed his right palm upon the green cord. He raised the wide iron blade horizontally before his breastbone, and he shouted the name of the hammer-man into the wind.

There came from the iron blade a great sound like the clanging of an iron church bell when the house of the headman takes fire. An invisible shield that had the shape of a smith’s iron anvil appeared in the air between the hewer and the four captains. The bronze points of their spears struck the empty air and broke into twenty splinters of bright yellow metal. The four men were thrown backward into the dirt, and their horses ran away into the salt-marsh, kicking their bellies with fear.

The king drew his great sword of blue metal that had three serpents carved upon its pommel. He urged his beast forward, crying that he would split the hewer’s head from his two shoulders.

The hewer took a wide stride upon his two bare heels. He swung the iron cleaver with the full weight of his back and his ribs. The green stone upon the crossguard shone with a green fire like a grasshopper’s eye, and a roaring wind came out of the seven channels. The blade did not touch the king’s neck; yet the wave of green pressure that ran before the iron struck the horse across the breastbone, snapping its ribs like dry reeds, and cast the king ten paces into the briars.

The king lay in the mud, his mouth filled with black moss and his royal mantle torn by the wild thistles. He wept with a voice like a wet swine that has fallen into a ditch. “Take all my jars of dried fish,” he cried. “Take my twelve daughters with copper bangles! Only do not bring that tooth of black stone against my throat!”

The hewer did not cut the king’s throat, for the axe had been forged to make a road, not to carve the fat meat of swine. He walked past the fallen soldiers and took his path into the deep wilderness of the southern mountains, where the briars were as tall as watchtowers.

For fifty winters the hewer walked through the dark continents of the world. Wherever he swung the two-handed iron, the mountains parted and the swamps dried up before his stride. The wild woodsmen who had never seen the sky came out to follow his heels, bringing him bowls of cane rum and baskets of green tobacco leaves. When the great beasts with horn-plates upon their snouts came to contest the crossing, he would make the horizontal sweep of the two hands, and their skulls would break upon the stones.

Yet when the winter came that his beard touched his belt-buckle, the hewer sat down upon the highest peak of the iron mountain. He laid the heavy haft across his two knees. His hands had become so hard that the black iron had taken the shape of his two thumbs, and the green cord was stained with the salt of sixty years of toil.

There came to him the old smith of coal, rising from the smoke of the mountain chasm. “You have cut the road from the salt marsh to the high ice,” said the smith. “Give back the tooth of the deep dirt, so it may be laid upon the anvil to cool until the time when the stars fall into the sea.”

The hewer looked down upon the valleys where ten thousand clean roads ran between the fields of barley and the stone houses of the common folk. He laid the ash haft upon the flat rock. The smith of coal blew his breath upon the iron blade; the ash haft turned into grey ash, the cord of green flax turned into green moss, and the heavy black iron sank down through the granite into the deep marrow of the world.

And the travelers who walked upon those roads found only the three iron nails and the little clapperless bell lying upon a bed of pine needles. They took them and tied them to the shaft of a heavy woodman’s billhook, and the scribes of that shore carved these words upon the tanned belly of a black bull, which have been copied with much labor and many blunders by those who have never handled the heavy hammer of the forge.

Moral of the Story

The path that is barred by stone and thorn cannot be opened by the boasting of kings or the yellow metal of the soft hand; it yields only to the two hands of honest labor that are willing to take the weight of the iron and strike without turning aside.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons

Cleaver of the Unyielding Road Weapon (Glaive or Halberd), Common (Requires Attunement)

  • Item Profile:
    • Damage: 1d10 slashing
    • Properties: Heavy, Reach, Two-Handed
    • Weight: 6 lbs.
    • Description: A four-foot billhook cleaver of unpolished black bog iron with seven etched kinetic grooves along the blade. The twenty-eight-inch mountain ash haft is wrapped in green and black cordage, mounting an iron crossguard set with a green-wrapped crystal. A pommel ring suspends three iron nails and an empty clapperless iron bell. It smells of forge coke, axle grease, pine resin, and sugarcane rum.
  • Traits and Passive Properties:
    • Guard of the Forge: While attuned and wielding this weapon with both hands, you gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class against melee weapon attacks. In addition, you have advantage on ability checks and saving throws made to resist being disarmed, shoved, or knocked prone.
    • Path-Cleaver: When using this weapon to attack nonmagical plant matter, timber barricades, or overgrown brush, your attacks deal double damage and ignore nonmagical damage threshold or structural hardness.
    • Rooted Stance: While wielding this weapon with both hands and standing on solid ground, you cannot be moved against your will by nonmagical winds, water currents, or shockwaves.
  • Active Features:
    • Ogún’s Sweep (3/Day): As an action, you swing the cleaver in a wide horizontal arc. Choose up to two hostile creatures within 10 feet of you that are adjacent to each other. Make a single melee weapon attack roll and compare the result against each target’s AC. On a hit, a target takes 1d10 + your Strength modifier slashing damage, and it must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be pushed 5 feet away from you and knocked prone.
    • Anvil Guard (2/Day): When a creature hits you with a melee or ranged weapon attack while you are wielding this weapon with both hands, you can use your reaction to interpose the heavy iron spine. You reduce the damage taken by 5 points. If this reduces the incoming damage to 0, the attacking creature must make a DC 13 Strength saving throw or drop the attacking weapon at its feet.
    • Hewing the Road (1/Day): As a bonus action, you strike the pommel ring against the ground and invoke the road-maker’s litany. For 1 minute, your two-handed attacks with this weapon deal maximum structural damage against nonmagical objects, structures, and constructs. Once used, this property cannot be used again until you finish a long rest.

Call of Cthulhu

The Black Iron Billhook (The Hewing Blade of Ogún) Minor Mythos/Folk Magic Artifact

  • Item Profile:
    • Skill: Fighting (Axe) or Fighting (Brawl) [Requires Two Hands]
    • Damage: 1D8+2 + Damage Bonus
    • Base Range: Touch (Engaged)
    • Hands: 2
    • Malfunction: 98
    • Arcane Reservoir: Holds 6 Magic Points. The artifact naturally regenerates 1 Magic Point at dawn when rested against cold stone or bare earth.
    • Sanity Cost: Channeling the spirit of the primordial forge requires the user to spend 1 Sanity Point as the deafening din of the cosmic anvil echoes in their ears.
  • Mechanics and Powers:
    • Grounded Wielder: While gripping the haft with both hands, the investigator gains a Bonus Die on STR or CON checks made to avoid being knocked off their feet, thrown, or tackled.
    • Path-Cutter: Halves the time required to chop through reinforced wooden barricades, dense jungle briars, or locked oak doors, requiring no skill checks for mundane timber clearing.
    • Ogún’s Cleave:
      • Cost: 2 Magic Points and 1 Sanity Point.
      • Action: 1 combat round.
      • Mechanic: The investigator sweeps the blade in a wide two-handed crescent. The user attacks up to two adjacent targets in front of them with a single Fighting roll. Each hit target suffers full 1D8+2 + DB damage and must make an Extreme STR check or be hurled back 2 yards and knocked prone.
    • Anvil Guard:
      • Cost: 2 Magic Points.
      • Trigger: Declared when successfully struck by an enemy’s melee weapon or thrown projectile.
      • Mechanic: The investigator interposes the iron flat. An unseen anvil barrier manifests, absorbing up to 5 points of physical damage. The attacker must make a Hard STR check or their weapon is deflected from their grip and lands 1D3 yards away.
    • Breaker of Gates:
      • Cost: 3 Magic Points.
      • Duration: 10 minutes.
      • Mechanic: The iron blade becomes supernaturally dense. All strikes against stationary structures, locks, or inanimate barriers automatically deal maximum structural damage.

Blades in the Dark

The Forge-Hewn Cleaver (The Road-Breaker) Heavy Weapon / Arcane Implement, 2 Load

  • Item Profile:
    • Visual: A massive, hammer-marked black bog-iron billhook mounted on a two-handed ash shaft wrapped in green and black cords, set with a green-wrapped electroplasmic crystal and a ring of silent iron nails.
    • Nature: A consecrated implement bound to the tireless labor spirits of the deep forge and boundary-breaking deities.
  • Passive Effects:
    • Iron Foothold: When you stand your ground against a physical charge, sweeping attack, or explosive concussion while holding the cleaver with both hands, you operate with +1 Potency to Resist physical harm.
    • Heavy Breach: When using the cleaver to chop through reinforced doors, timber barricades, or barricaded fences, your Wreck rolls operate with +1 Effect level.
  • Active Arcane Abilities:
    • Ogún’s Crescent Sweep:
      • Cost: 1 Stress.
      • Action: Skirmish.
      • Outcome: You sweep the blade through a group of foes. On a 6, you inflict standard harm across multiple targets within arm’s reach and violently knock them back, creating immediate breathing room. On a 4/5, you hit both targets and clear the space, but suffer a complication (you overextend your stance or your weapon embeds momentarily into the scenery).
    • Anvil Stance:
      • Cost: 1 Stress.
      • Action: Resistance (Prowess) or Reaction.
      • Outcome: When you suffer physical harm from a melee strike or heavy projectile, you spend 1 Stress to raise the wide iron spine. You reduce the incoming harm by one level (or negate Level 1 Harm entirely), and if the attacker struck in melee, their weapon is violently deflected from their hands.
    • Demolish the Barrier:
      • Cost: 2 Stress.
      • Action: Wreck.
      • Outcome: Chanting the road-maker’s litany, you strike a stationary structural barrier. The weapon bypasses the barrier’s armor and structural tier entirely, shattering stone lintels, iron chains, or heavy timber in a single devastating strike.

Knave

The Bog-Iron Cleaver Weapon (2 Slots, Hands: 2)

  • Item Profile:
    • Inventory: Takes up 2 gear slots. Must be wielded with both hands to attack or benefit from its magic.
    • Damage: d10 slashing.
    • Durability: 3 Quality. Loses 1 Quality if used improperly to lever massive boulders or if targeted by direct sundering magic.
    • Appearance: A heavy four-foot ash-hafted billhook of pitted black bog iron etched with seven straight conduits, wrapped in green and black cordage, and capped with an iron crossguard holding an emerald crystal and silent pommel bell. It smells of forge soot, grease, rum, and pine pitch.
  • Item Rules:
    • Vanguard Stance: While wielded with two hands, the bearer gains a +1 bonus to Armor defense against melee attacks, and gains Advantage on all Strength checks made to resist being disarmed, shoved, or knocked off balance.
    • Brush Hewing: Automatically destroys nonmagical wooden obstacles, tangled thickets, and mundane doors in half the normal exploration turns without dulling the weapon.
    • Cleaving Sweep (3/Day):
      • As an action, the wielder swings the blade in a wide, sweeping arc against up to two adjacent human-sized targets.
      • The bearer makes a single attack roll against the highest Armor of the two.
      • If successful, both targets take d10 damage and must make a Strength check (DC 13) or be thrown backward 5 feet and knocked prone.
    • Anvil Deflection (2/Day):
      • When hit by a melee weapon attack, the wielder can spend a reaction to catch the blow along the broad iron spine.
      • The bearer reduces the damage taken by 5 points.
      • If this reduces the damage to 0, the attacker must pass a Strength save or drop their weapon.
    • Road-Maker’s Breach (1/Day):
      • The bearer recites the ancient litany and strikes the ground with the pommel.
      • For 1 exploration turn (10 minutes), all two-handed strikes against inanimate structures (doors, portcullises, chests, masonry) deal maximum damage (10 damage per strike) and ignore mundane material hardness.

Fate

The Cleaver of the First Road Extra (Aspect and Stunts)

  • Item Profile:
    • Aspect: Forged Bog-Iron Billhook of Ogún
    • Description: A heavy, four-foot two-handed billhook cleaver of pitted black iron etched with seven kinetic grooves, mounted to a twenty-eight-inch mountain ash haft bound in green and black cords. It features a green copper-wrapped crystal at the crossguard and three dangling iron nails beside a silent bell. It smells of forge charcoal, rum, cured tobacco, and pine sap.
  • Stunts and Mechanical Rules:
    • Iron Anchor of the Smith: While wielding the cleaver with both hands, you gain a +2 bonus to Physique when defending against being knocked down, forcibly moved, or disarmed, and your grounded two-handed guard grants a +1 bonus to Fight when defending against melee weapon attacks.
    • Ogún’s Sweeping Crescent: Once per scene, when you succeed on a Fight attack against an opponent while wielding the cleaver with both hands, you may spend 1 Fate Point to apply the same shift value to a second adjacent opponent within your zone, forcing both targets back and creating the situational aspect Scattered and Prone with one free invoke.
    • Resonant Anvil Guard: Twice per session, when you take physical stress from a melee or projectile strike, you may immediately spend 1 Fate Point to invoke the weapon’s spiritual anvil guard, reducing the incoming hit’s shift value by 2. If this reduces the incoming shifts to 0 or less, the attacker gains the temporary aspect Disarmed Weapon at their feet.
    • Hewing the Road: Once per session, you can spend an action tapping the pommel ring to activate the cleaver’s structural density. For the remainder of the scene, you gain a +2 bonus to Physique or Fight when overcoming obstacles composed of mundane barriers, reinforced doors, portcullises, or heavy timber fortifications, immediately clearing a path.

Numenera & Cypher System

Kinetic Bog-Iron Cleaver Artifact (Level 3)

  • Item Profile:
    • Level: 3
    • Form: A heavy two-handed billhook blade forged from ultra-dense black metallic slag, seated in a reinforced synthetic-ash shaft with green and black fiber bindings. An emerald crystal accumulator is secured to the crossguard above a trio of resonant iron pins.
    • Weapon Classification: Heavy weapon (requires two hands, deals 6 points of damage).
    • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (checked upon triggering the sweeping shockwave, anvil guard, or structural breach powers).
  • Passive Effects:
    • Grounded Vanguard: While gripping the haft with both hands, all Might defense tasks made to resist being shoved, knocked prone, or disarmed are eased by one step.
    • Deflective Spine: Wielding the heavy blade in a two-handed guard eases Speed defense tasks against physical melee attacks by one step.
    • Organic Path-Breaker: When used to cut through non-mechanical brush, overgrown synth-vines, or wooden barriers, tasks to demolish or clear the terrain are eased by two steps.
  • Active Powers:
    • Ogún’s Crescent Arc (Action): The wielder swings the cleaver in a broad horizontal sweep, releasing a pressurized kinetic arc from the seven blade channels. The user makes an attack roll against up to two adjacent targets within immediate range. Each hit target suffers standard heavy weapon damage (6 points) and must succeed on a Might defense roll or be knocked back an immediate distance and fall prone. The user makes a depletion roll (1 in 1d20).
    • Anvil Retaliation (Reaction): When struck by a physical melee or projectile attack, the user interposes the flat of the blade to manifest a resonant barrier. The user reduces incoming physical damage by 5 points. If this reduces the damage to 0, the attacking opponent must succeed on a Might defense task or drop their weapon. The user makes a depletion roll (1 in 1d20).
    • Structural Cleave (Action): The user activates the emerald crystal to hyper-densify the blade for ten minutes. During this period, all attacks against stationary non-living structures, barriers, and vault doors ignore mundane hardness and deal +4 additional damage.

Pathfinder

Cleaver of the Unyielding Road Item 2 Evocation, Magical

  • Item Profile:
    • Price: 35 gp
    • Usage: Held in 2 hands
    • Base Weapon: Halberd or Guisarme
    • Bulk: 2
    • Description: A four-foot billhook cleaver of unpolished black bog iron with seven channels etched along the blade flats. The twenty-eight-inch mountain ash haft is wrapped in green and black cordage, securing an iron crossguard with a green copper-wrapped focus crystal and a pommel ring with three iron nails. It smells of forge coals, tobacco leaf, pine pitch, and sugarcane rum.
  • Passive Effects:
    • Vanguard Guard: While wielding this weapon in two hands, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to AC against melee weapon strikes.
    • Rooted Lever: You gain a +2 item bonus to your Fortitude DC or Reflex DC against checks to Disarm, Shove, or Trip you while standing on solid ground.
    • Forest Cleaver: Attacks made with this weapon against nonmagical plants, fallen timber, or wooden doors ignore the object’s Hardness up to 5.
  • Active Abilities:
    • Ogún’s Sweep (Two Actions):
      • Frequency: Three times per day.
      • Traits: Evocation, Force, Manipulate.
      • Effect: You take a wide stance and swing the heavy cleaver in a wide arc. Make a single melee Strike with the cleaver and compare the attack roll result to the AC of up to two adjacent creatures within your reach. Each creature hit takes normal weapon damage and must succeed on a DC 16 Fortitude save or be pushed 5 feet away from you and fall prone.
    • Anvil Guard (Reaction):
      • Frequency: Twice per day.
      • Trigger: You are hit by a melee weapon Strike while wielding the cleaver in two hands.
      • Traits: Abjuration, Manipulate.
      • Effect: You snap the wide iron spine up to catch the blow. You gain resistance 5 against the triggering attack’s physical damage. If this reduces the damage taken to 0, the triggering attacker must succeed on a DC 16 Reflex save or drop the weapon they used to make the Strike.
    • Hewing the Road (Single Action):
      • Frequency: Once per day.
      • Duration: 1 minute.
      • Traits: Concentrate, Transmutation.
      • Effect: You strike the pommel against the earth. For the duration, your Strikes with this weapon against inanimate objects, structures, and constructs deal maximum damage and double the weapon’s damage dice against wooden barriers.

Savage Worlds

The Blacksmith’s Road-Cleaver Minor Arcane Relic

  • Item Profile:
    • Trappings: Pitted black bog-iron billhook, mountain ash haft wrapped in green and black cords, emerald crystal bound in green wire, iron pommel ring with three nails and a silent bell. Scent of forge smoke, rum, pine resin, and tobacco.
    • Minimum Strength: d8
    • Damage: Str+d8, AP 1
    • Weight: 6 lbs.
  • Passive Abilities:
    • Two-Handed Guard: Requires two hands to wield. While held in two hands, the user gains a +1 bonus to Parry against melee attacks, and gains a +2 bonus on rolls to resist Disarm, Push, or Trip attempts.
    • Path Hewing: The weapon ignores the Toughness of nonmagical wood, dense thickets, and mundane timber doors, chopping through them with double efficiency.
    • Iron Anchor: The wielder cannot be involuntarily moved by nonmagical wind or water currents while both feet are set upon the ground.
  • Active Powers:
    • Ogún’s Sweeping Cleave:
      • Cost: Action.
      • Frequency: 3 times per day.
      • Trapping: A concussive emerald wave surging from the seven blade channels.
      • Effect: The wielder makes a single Fighting roll and applies the total to up to two adjacent targets within Reach. Both targets hit take standard weapon damage, and must make an immediate Strength roll (at -2 if the wielder hit with a Raise) or be pushed back 1 inch (2 yards) and knocked Prone.
    • Anvil Guard:
      • Cost: Free action (Reaction).
      • Frequency: 2 times per day.
      • Trapping: A loud anvil chime and a translucent iron shield silhouette.
      • Effect: When hit by a melee or projectile attack, the user can activate the guard to subtract 5 points of damage from the incoming blow. If the damage is reduced to 0, the attacker must make a Strength roll or drop their weapon.
    • Road-Breaker’s Stride:
      • Cost: Action.
      • Frequency: Once per day.
      • Trapping: Tapping the pommel ring against the ground while invoking the road-maker.
      • Effect: The blade super-densifies for 5 rounds. Attacks made against stationary nonmagical objects (such as walls, gates, wagons, and doors) automatically inflict maximum damage and bypass all nonmagical Armor and material Hardness.

Shadowrun

The Ogún Path-Breaker Enchanted Weapon Focus / Elemental Earth Focus (Force 2)

  • Item Profile:
    • Type: Weapon Focus (Two-Handed Polearm / Heavy Cleaver)
    • Force: 2
    • Damage: (STR + 3)P, AP -2, Reach 1
    • Form: A four-foot billhook cleaver hammered from dense bog iron with seven etched conduits running parallel to the spine, mounted to a twenty-eight-inch mountain ash haft wrapped in green and black cords. It is fitted with an iron crossguard seating an emerald focus crystal and a pommel ring dangling three iron nails and an empty clapperless iron bell.
    • Scent Profile: Forge coke, heavy engine grease, pine resin, cured tobacco leaf, and high-proof cane rum.
    • Astral Signature: Solid, grounding vibrations resonant with raw iron, physical labor, metallurgical spirits, and the unyielding clearing rites of Cuban Santería.
  • Passive Traits:
    • Forge Anchor: When bonded and wielded with both hands, the bearer gains a +1 dice pool modifier on all Defense Tests against physical melee attacks and +2 dice pool to resist Knockdown, Disarm, or forced displacement.
    • Brush-Clearing Edge: The blade easily shears through dense vegetation, timber doors, and structural framing, doubling structural damage against non-living organic matter and ignoring 2 points of Object Barrier Rating.
  • Active Features:
    • Ogún’s Crescent Arc:
      • Action: Complex Action
      • Cost: 2 Drain (Stun)
      • Mechanics: The wielder executes a sweeping horizontal arc against up to two adjacent targets within Reach 1. Make a single Close Combat + Agility Test opposed separately by each defender’s Defense Test. Each target successfully struck suffers standard weapon damage, and if net hits are scored, must make an immediate Body + Strength Test (Threshold 3) or be knocked Prone.
    • Anvil Guard:
      • Action: Minor Action (Reaction when struck by a melee attack or physical projectile)
      • Cost: 2 Drain (Stun)
      • Mechanics: The runner raises the blade horizontally with both hands, evoking an ethereal anvil barrier. The wielder gains +4 Armor Value against the triggering physical attack. If the incoming net damage is reduced to 0, the attacking weapon bounces back violently; the attacker must succeed on a Strength + Agility Test (Threshold 2) or drop the weapon.
    • Breaching the Barrier:
      • Action: Simple Action
      • Cost: 1 Drain (Stun)
      • Duration: Force combat turns (2 turns)
      • Mechanics: The blade’s physical density surges. When attacking stationary doors, bulkheads, gates, or barricades, the weapon ignores up to 4 points of the target’s Barrier Armor and automatically inflicts maximum baseline weapon damage.

Starfinder

Heavy Bog-Iron Breach-Cleaver Magic/Tech Hybrid Weapon, Level 2

  • Item Profile:
    • Item Level: 2
    • Price: 850 credits
    • Damage: 1d8 S & P
    • Critical: Knockdown
    • Bulk: 2
    • Hands: 2
    • Special: Analog, Block, Reach
    • Capacity: 20 charges (Usage: 1 to 5 charges per activation)
    • Description: A four-foot industrial-grade billhook forged from carbon-dense bog iron with seven micro-conduits running along the spine, fitted to an ash-wood core with braided polymer green/black grip wrapping. An emerald photonics crystal sits encased in the iron guard, with a pommel ring mounting three iron damping pins and a silent bell. Scent of forge soot, petroleum grease, pine resin, and molasses alcohol.
  • Passive Abilities:
    • Vanguard Lever: While wielded in two hands, the user gains a +1 shield bonus to Kinetic Armor Class (KAC) against physical melee attacks. In addition, the wielder gains a +2 insight bonus to KAC against bull rush, trip, and disarm combat maneuvers.
    • Arboreal Shearing: Strikes against wooden barricades, vegetative hazards, or dense alien foliage ignore up to 5 points of the object’s Hardness.
  • Active Systems:
    • Ogún’s Kinetic Sweep:
      • Activation: Standard Action
      • Battery Cost: 4 charges
      • Mechanics: The user swings the cleaver in a wide horizontal arc. Make a single melee attack roll and compare the result against the KAC of up to two adjacent enemies within Reach. Each hit target takes normal damage and must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + 1/2 user level + key ability modifier) or be pushed 5 feet away and knocked prone.
    • Anvil Retaliation:
      • Activation: Reaction (when hit by a physical melee attack)
      • Battery Cost: 3 charges
      • Mechanics: The crossguard crystal flares, generating a hard-light anvil barrier. The wielder gains DR 5/— against the triggering strike. If this absorbs all damage from the attack, the attacker must succeed on a Reflex save or immediately drop their melee weapon.
    • Structural Cleave:
      • Activation: Swift Action
      • Battery Cost: 5 charges
      • Duration: 1 minute
      • Mechanics: The blade aligns its vibrational matrix with structural fault lines. For the duration, attacks against stationary inanimate objects (such as bulkhead doors, reinforced crates, airlock latches, or stone walls) deal double damage and ignore non-energy hardness.

Traveller

Bog-Iron Resonant Cleaver TL 12 Grav/Acoustic Heavy Cutting Implement

  • Item Profile:
    • Tech Level: TL 12 (Special / Frontier Relic)
    • Mass: 3 kg (Two-Handed Weapon)
    • Damage: 3D+3 Slashing
    • Skill: Melee (Blade) [Requires Two Hands]
    • Description: A heavy four-foot chopping billhook forged from dense meteoric bog iron, etched with seven acoustic resonance conduits, fixed to an ash shaft bound with vibration-dampening cords. An emerald grav-crystal is locked into the crossguard above three dangling iron balance weights and an unvoiced bell.
    • Chemical Signature: Trace scents of forge carbon, lubricating grease, pine resin, and fermented cane spirit.
  • Passive Traits:
    • Two-Handed Anchor: While held in both hands, the wielder gains DM+1 to Melee parries against incoming blade attacks, and receives DM+2 on STR checks to resist being tackled, tripped, or disarmed.
    • Timber Breaker: Slices through dense alien jungle foliage, timber gates, and unarmored bulkheads without dulling the edge, halving the time required to clear ground barriers.
  • Active Features:
    • Ogún’s Sweeping Crescent:
      • Time: Significant Action
      • Mechanics: The traveler executes a wide horizontal cleave against up to two adjacent targets in close quarters. Make a single Melee (Blade) check. If successful, both targets suffer 3D damage and must make an Average (8+) Athletics (STR) check or be knocked back 2 meters and fall prone.
    • Anvil Field Parry:
      • Time: Reaction
      • Mechanics: When struck by a physical melee attack, the wielder triggers the crossguard grav-crystal. The field absorbs 5 points of incoming damage. If this reduces the strike to 0 damage, the attacker must make an Average (8+) Melee check or be disarmed.
    • Breach Overdrive:
      • Time: Minor Action
      • Duration: 3 combat rounds
      • Mechanics: The blade activates high-density grav-resonance. Strikes made against stationary physical barriers (bulkhead doors, reinforced hatches, timber walls) ignore up to 4 points of Armor and deal the maximum possible damage roll.

Warhammer

The Hewing Cleaver of the First Anvil Two-Handed Arcane Billhook / Minor Relic

  • Item Profile:
    • Item Type: Two-Handed Melee Weapon
    • Availability: Rare
    • Encumbrance: 3
    • Reach: Long
    • Damage: +SB + 5
    • Qualities: Hack, Impact, Reliable
    • Description: A four-foot billhook of heavy, unpolished black bog iron with seven etched conduits across the blade. The twenty-eight-inch mountain ash shaft is wrapped in braided green and black cordage, mounting an iron guard set with an emerald focus stone and an iron split-ring holding three iron nails and an empty clapperless bell. It smells of forge charcoal, axle grease, pine pitch, and raw cane rum.
  • Passive Traits:
    • Vanguard Guard: Requires two hands to wield. While held in two hands, the wielder gains a +10% bonus on Melee (Two-Handed) Tests when performing an Opposed Test to Parry melee attacks, and gains a +20% bonus to resist Disarm or Trip attempts.
    • Pioneer’s Edge: The weapon ignores the Toughness bonus of nonmagical wood and dense plant matter, chopping through barricades and wooden doors in half the normal time.
    • Earth Root: While standing on solid ground with both hands on the haft, the bearer cannot be moved involuntarily by winds, tides, or mundane shoves.
  • Active Abilities:
    • Ogún’s Sweeping Arc:
      • Action: Full Action
      • Test: Challenging (+0%) Melee (Two-Handed) Test
      • Mechanics: The bearer swings the cleaver in a wide, punishing arc against up to two adjacent enemies within Long Reach. If the test succeeds, both targets suffer normal weapon damage (+SB + 5) and must pass a Challenging (+0%) Athletics Test or be thrown back 2 yards and gain the Prone condition.
    • Anvil Guard of the Smith:
      • Action: Reaction
      • Mechanics: When struck by a melee or physical missile attack, the wielder raises the iron spine to summon a spectral anvil ward. Reduce incoming Damage by 5 (before applying Toughness or Armor). If this reduces the incoming Damage to 0, the attacking opponent must succeed on an Average (+20%) Strength Test or drop their weapon.
    • Hewing the Road:
      • Action: Half Action
      • Duration: 1 minute (6 rounds)
      • Mechanics: Tapping the pommel ring against the ground super-densifies the blade. All attacks directed against stationary non-living structures (such as gates, portcullises, barricades, and masonry) bypass mundane Armor points entirely and inflict maximum Damage (+SB + 10).