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Santeria 803 of the Siphon Thorn Scourge

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by

Dale
in

Lore

  • In the shadowed mangrove fringes and salt-bleached burial groves of Saṃsāra, reincarnated souls carrying lineage memories of Afro-Cuban Santería sought communion with Babalú-Ayé, the revered Orisha of sickness, pestilence, physical suffering, and miraculous physical restoration.
  • Rather than meeting illness as an indiscriminate end, traditional practitioners recognized that physical sickness represents a tangible transfer of vital energy—an infection that consumes the weak can be ritually harvested, transmuted, and fed back into the afflicted body to sustain life.
  • When early avatars encountered mutated swamp leeches, necrotic mires, and virulent wasting curses that mundane herbs could not purge, elder healers fashioned ritual flails strung with thorny briars, dried sackcloth ribbons, and porous river stones to draw out virulent humors and rebalance vital bodily energies.
  • The number 803 designates a consecrated lineage pattern cataloged by the Lazarus hospices and mortuary shrines of Archaic, calibrated specifically so a Tier 1 avatar can siphon small fragments of vital essence without succumbing to the spiritual rot of untamed pestilence.
  • Today, it is carried by penitent physicians, witch doctors, blood-tithe collectors, and dread mercenaries across Saṃsāra who walk the precarious boundary between inflicting disease and feeding upon the living warmth of their adversaries.

Description

  • The item is a three-tailed ritual scourge measuring twenty-two inches in total length, centered upon a seven-inch grip fashioned from bleached alligator jawbone wrapped in coarse, untreated jute sackcloth.
  • The pommel is weighted with a hollowed, sun-dried calabash gourd adorned with fourteen cowrie shells stitched in staggered chevron rows using dried sinew.
  • Three flexible thongs of cured rawhide extend from a tarnished copper ferrule at the head of the bone handle, each lash braided through dried swamp-thorn vines and tipped with a porous, sharp-edged nodule of blackened bog iron.
  • A coin-sized, coin-weighted Tier 1 dull hematite crystal is embedded directly into the throat of the bone grip, secured by crisscrossing bands of purple and earthy brown linen cordage.
  • Bundles of dried medicinal bitter-melon leaves, crushed dry tobacco, and parched corn kernels rattle softly within the hollow gourd pommel whenever the weapon moves.
  • The weapon smells heavily of damp earth, dried tobacco leaves, pungent palm oil, stale herbal poultices, and a cold, sharp metallic copper scent resembling fresh blood drawn upon cold stone.

Detailed Stats

  • Item Tier: Tier 1 (Common)
  • Item Classification: Worn or Carried Weapon / Ritual Implement (Must be wielded in one hand to strike and channel siphon rituals)
  • Specific Gear Slot: Main-Hand Slot or Off-Hand Slot (One-Handed Exotic Flail/Whip Implement)
  • Armor Check (AC) Modifier: +0 base AC (+1 circumstance bonus to AC for 1 round immediately following any strike that siphons life)
  • Item Resilience: 10
  • Item Health Points: Avatar maximum Health Points plus 10 (base avatar max HP plus resilience of 10 multiplied by item tier 1)
  • Structural Integrity: The rawhide thongs fray and the hematite crystal dims to dusty grey if reduced to half its total health points or below; the scourge falls to shredded sinew, cracked bone, and powdered stone if reduced to 0 health points.
  • Item Weight: 2 pounds (lightweight, supple balance; counts against carried gear limits, losing all weight if placed inside an extradimensional container)
  • Attunement Requirement: Simple attunement (requires sixty seconds of deliberate focus while anointing the hematite crystal with three drops of the user’s blood and a pinch of dry earth; unattunes immediately if stored inside an extradimensional space)
  • Suggested Market Value: 25 silver coins in metropolitan apothecary quarters; fluctuating upward to 40 silver coins (4 gold coins) in quarantine outposts, penal colonies, and diseased frontier settlements.

Passive Magic

  • Leach-Vein Resonance:
    • Whenever the scourge lands a successful physical strike against a living, blood-bearing creature, the hematite crystal drinks in a minute portion of the target’s expelled vitality.
    • The user instantly recovers 1 Health Point per successful hit (up to a maximum replenishment pool of 5 Health Points per encounter).
  • Scent of the Wounded Flesh:
    • While the weapon is drawn or worn openly at the belt, the avatar passively detects any bleeding or critically injured living creature within a 120-foot radius.
    • The cowrie-studded gourd vibrates with a dull, throbbing hum that quickens as the distance to wounded prey diminishes.
  • Pallid Ward of the Penitent:
    • Feeding on residual physical vigor reinforces the wielder’s resilience against wasting hazards; the user gains advantage on all saving throws or resistance checks made against natural poisons, virulent infections, and necrotic decay.

Activable Magic

  • Siphon-Thorn Lash (Babalú’s Thirst):
    • Action Cost: One standard action.
    • Verbal / Casting Requirement: The wielder draws the thorned tails through an open palm, speaking a harsh whisper of affliction to Babalú-Ayé before striking.
    • Effect: The hematite crystal blazes with a bruised purple aura as the three thorned lashes lash out with supernatural reach up to 10 feet.
    • On a hit, the strike deals 1d6 piercing/slashing damage plus the user’s physical modifier. The target must succeed on a physical resilience check or suffer 1d4 additional necrotic drain damage; the avatar immediately gains an equal number of temporary Health Points (up to 4) that last for 10 minutes.
    • Cooldown: Usable three times per in-game day. Overdrawing this siphon induces sudden fever chills, inflicting a -2 penalty on physical strength and constitution checks for thirty minutes.
  • Transfusion of the Bitter Gourd:
    • Action Cost: One standard action.
    • Verbal / Casting Requirement: The avatar strikes the hollow calabash pommel with a clenched fist, inverting the life-stealing flow into an ally.
    • Effect: The avatar expends 4 of their own current Health Points to channel restored vitality through the cowrie bells into an adjacent touched ally.
    • The recipient recovers 6 Health Points and instantly shakes off the effects of nonmagical nausea, fever, or exhaustion.
    • Cooldown: Usable twice per in-game day.
  • Harvest of the Pestilence Cloud:
    • Action Cost: One standard action.
    • Verbal / Casting Requirement: The wielder spins the scourge overhead in a rapid, hissing circle for six seconds, chanting the litany of the seven sores.
    • Effect: A five-foot-radius mist of grey and bruised-violet vapor erupts around the user for one round.
    • Up to three living creatures caught within the cloud suffer 2 points of unavoidable necrotic drain damage. The avatar absorbs the stolen vitality, recovering Health Points equal to the total damage dealt (up to 6 Health Points).
    • Cooldown: Usable once per long rest (requires a full twenty-two-hour day cycle for the hematite node to discharge its necrotic saturation into the earth).

Specific Gear Slot

  • Main-Hand Slot or Off-Hand Slot

Tags

  • scourge, life-drain, babalu-aye, hematite, necromancy, flail, cowrie, pestilence, tier-1, common, siphon, healing, raw-hide, alligator-bone, sackcloth, calabash, thorn, briar, blood-tithe, vital-essence, mortuary, contagion, restoration, hospice

Commerce and Acquisition of the Siphon-Thorn Scourge in Saṃsāra

  • Lazarus Shrines and Mortuary Hospices:
    • Physical Location and Structure: Situated on the windward outskirts of major settlements, adjacent to communal burial grounds, leper sanitariums, and isolation wards across the island nations, these somber institutions are run by the Order of St. Lazarus and penitent healers of Babalú-Ayé. The structures feature whitewashed clay walls, open courtyards lined with smoking braziers of bitter-wood and sulfur, racks of dried medicinal herbs, and flagstone altars where afflictions are ritually extracted from the dying.
    • Buying Procedure and Pricing: At an authorized mortuary hospice, the scourge is dispensed primarily as an instrument of emergency vitality exchange, bloodletting therapy, and palliative triage. The standard recommended retail baseline price for this Tier 1 ritual implement is 25 silver coins (2 gold coins and 5 silver coins).
    • Independent sellswords, itinerant herbalists, and uninitiated travelers pay the standard 25 silver asking price without surcharges, provided they agree to sign the hospice’s quarantine pledge.
    • Initiates of the Lazarus Order, licensed chirurgeons, or registered members of the Hospitallers’ Guild who present their consecrated bronze token or clinical badge receive the standard institutional discount of 10% per tier level; a Tier 1 initiate purchases the scourge for 22 silver and 5 copper coins (a 10% discount), while a Tier 2 practitioner pays 20 silver coins (a 20% discount).
    • Transactions are settled directly through the Mind’s Eye World Bank network, with a 3% civic medical tithe added to fund sanitarium supplies.
    • Selling Procedure and Trade Log: Avatars seeking to sell an attuned scourge must allow the attending mortician to inspect the rawhide thongs and submerge the bone handle in a basin of bitter-melon wash to ensure the hematite crystal is not corrupted by uncontrolled necrotic rot.
    • The hospice offers the standard buyout of 10% of the baseline retail value multiplied by the seller’s tier level; a Tier 1 avatar receives 2 silver and 5 copper coins, while a Tier 2 avatar receives 5 silver coins credited to their World Bank ledger.
    • The hospice archivist records the designation 803 in the mortuary register alongside the seller’s name to track potential vectors of spiritual contagion.
  • Penal Colony Outposts and Quarantine Checkpoints:
    • Physical Location and Structure: Positioned along the fortified perimeters of plague-blighted border marshlands, leper gulags, and offshore penal quarries, these heavily guarded barracks-depots manage populations exposed to wasting diseases and violent mutinies. Built of salt-encrusted logs and reinforced with iron palisades, their armories stock containment manacles, long-handled catchpoles, cauterizing irons, and vital-leeching implements used to subdue rabid inmates without expending scarce healing draughts.
    • Buying Procedure and Pricing: In pestilence zones where conventional healing salves are exhausted and siphon weapons represent an essential means of survival, the local market baseline cost rises to 40 silver coins (4 gold coins).
    • Unaffiliated mercenaries, bounty hunters, and passing scavengers pay the full 40 silver coins, occasionally facing an inflated emergency markup up to 48 silver coins during active epidemic outbreaks.
    • Enrolled frontier wardens, quarantine marshals, or licensed penal overseers displaying active duty tokens receive the standard 10% tier discount, bringing a 40 silver asking price down to 36 silver coins for a Tier 1 guard, or 32 silver coins for a Tier 2 guard.
    • Purchases are processed through the World Bank terminal, accompanied by a mandatory border decontamination tax.
    • Selling Procedure and Trade Log: Overseers and supply quartermasters eagerly buy back working scourges to equip patrol guards assigned to suppress diseased rioters.
    • Sellers negotiate against the regional 40 silver baseline; a Tier 1 avatar receives 4 silver coins, while a Tier 2 avatar receives 8 silver coins credited to their ledger.
    • In instances where medical tinctures are completely depleted, outpost masters may offer an immediate barter exchange for military rations, sulfur bundles, or fluid-collector canisters.
  • Metropolitan Chirurgeon Guildhalls and Anatomic Cabinets:
    • Physical Location and Structure: Tucked away in the academy districts and dissection alleys of provincial capital cities, these high-end facilities cater to academic physicians, forensic thaumaturges, and private body-snatchers. Behind heavy oak doors line mahogany shelves filled with anatomical wax models, glass specimen jars containing preserved parasitic organs, brass lancet sets, and specialized items capable of manipulating living humors.
    • Buying Procedure and Pricing: In metropolitan centers where noble houses quietly seek forbidden remedies to delay wasting ailments or harvest vitality from underlings, the scourge commands an upscale curio price of 35 to 45 silver coins.
    • Unaffiliated patrons, rogue collectors, and visiting duelists pay the full asking price of 45 silver coins.
    • Certified guild apothecaries, licensed medical professors, and credentialed scholars of the Anatomic Society who present their engraved ivory seals receive the 10% discount per tier level, paying 40 silver and 5 copper coins at Tier 1 or 36 silver coins at Tier 2.
    • The guild provides an authenticated provenance scroll certifying the origin of the alligator bone and the purity of the hematite node.
    • Selling Procedure and Trade Log: Master anatomists acquire these scourges to harvest their siphon conduits for clinical research or to integrate into surgical machinery.
    • The guild buyout follows the standard 10% baseline formula (yielding 4 silver and 5 copper coins to a Tier 1 seller or 9 silver coins to a Tier 2 seller).
    • The guild registrar enters the transaction into the civic registry of bio-thaumaturgic implements, inspecting the cowrie shells for structural integrity.
  • Flesh-Bazaars and Smuggler Warrens:
    • Physical Location and Structure: Hidden within damp sewer aqueducts beneath slaughterhouse districts, abandoned bone-charcoal kilns, or derelict canal hulks, these illicit black markets cater to necromancers, outlaw blood-tithe collectors, and unprincipled pit-fighters. The air is thick with the scent of stagnant bilge, burning tallow, and copper-laced smoke.
    • Buying Procedure and Pricing: Black-market fences deal in untraced, blood-stained implements stripped from deceased quarantine victims or stolen from hospice vaults.
    • The price in these subterranean stalls is highly volatile, fluctuating between 45 and 60 silver coins (4.5 to 6 gold coins), driven by high demand among outlaws seeking weapons that sustain life during extended sieges without alerting city healers.
    • Official guild insignia and hospice tokens carry no standing here; flashing a formal badge will likely cause merchants to shutter their stalls or demand double payment.
    • Payment must be delivered in unminted physical currency—such as crude silver slugs, shaved bullion coins, or raw copper ingots—as black-market brokers strictly refuse digital World Bank transfers to prevent surveillance by the Inquisition.
    • Selling Procedure and Trade Log: Characters looking to sell a scourge taken from fallen inquisitors, contraband raids, or illicit quarantine breaches rely on these shadowy fences to bypass legal scrutiny.
    • Fences pay the standard 10% item baseline per seller tier level in hard, unrecorded coin.
    • If a raiding syndicate is actively preparing to delve into a miasmic swamp ruin or stage a prison break from a diseased quarry, a fence may offer an inflated cash payout—paying 6 to 10 silver coins directly into the seller’s palm with no questions asked and no recorded ledger footprint.

Tactical Roleplay of the Siphon-Thorn Scourge Across the Environments of Saṃsāra

  • Miasmic Mangrove Swamps and Brackish Bayous:
    • Environmental Context: Low-lying marsh deltas filled with knee-deep black mud, rotting cypress knees, swarms of biting midges, and pockets of natural marsh gas where open flames risk explosion and conventional medicine quickly spoils.
    • Defensive Roleplay:
      • While wading through waist-deep, stagnant canal waters, the avatar relies on Pallid Ward of the Penitent to shrug off the necrotic swamp-rot and virulent leech-fever that infect unwarded party members.
      • When a wounded frontline ally collapses against a submerged root system, burning with marsh malaria and rapidly bleeding out, the avatar strikes the hollow calabash pommel with a clenched fist. Activating Transfusion of the Bitter Gourd, the wielder sacrifices their own vitality to flush 6 Health Points into the companion, instantly neutralizing the debilitating fever and allowing them to stand.
      • When a giant marsh croc lunges from the murky shallows to snap at the avatar’s torso, Leach-Vein Resonance from a prior skirmish supplies an instinctive +1 circumstance bonus to AC, allowing the wielder to pivot aside just as the beast’s jaws snap shut on empty air.
    • Offensive Roleplay:
      • Hunting a band of swamp marauders hiding in an unmapped reed grove, the avatar holds the weapon level, letting Scent of the Wounded Flesh guide the march. The cowrie pommel vibrates with a dull, throbbing tempo, homing directly in on a scout who suffered an open cut earlier that morning.
      • Surrounding the sentry, the avatar snaps the weapon forward with Siphon-Thorn Lash (Babalú’s Thirst), extending the rawhide lashes ten feet to hook into the raider’s neck. The hematite flares with bruised purple fire as the target’s warmth is drawn out, dealing necrotic drain while granting the avatar temporary health to weather the approaching battle.
  • Dank Sewer Aqueducts and Subterranean Cisterns:
    • Environmental Context: Narrow, brick-lined urban undercrofts choked with toxic alchemical runoff, slippery catwalks, colonies of mutated carrion rats, and zero natural illumination where echoing footsteps alert patrols blocks away.
    • Defensive Roleplay:
      • In close-quarters tunnel fighting where drawing a heavy polearm is impossible, the compact twenty-two-inch scourge functions effortlessly in a one-handed grip, letting the wielder maintain a torch or buckler in the off-hand.
      • After suffering a series of shallow cuts from poisoned daggers wielded by subterranean cultists, the avatar strikes back; each connecting crack of the rawhide lash triggers Leach-Vein Resonance, pulling 1 Health Point back per strike to slowly knit flesh and cancel out the poison’s attrition.
      • When cornered in a dead-end sluice by a pack of diseased ghoul-hounds, the avatar keeps their back to the stone and lets Pallid Ward of the Penitent turn aside the paralytic saliva dripping from the beasts’ fangs.
    • Offensive Roleplay:
      • Swarmed in a tight five-foot junction by three sewer cutthroats, the avatar spins the scourge overhead in a hissing overhead circle and invokes Harvest of the Pestilence Cloud.
      • A violent fog of bruised-violet vapor erupts across the tight corridor, sapping 2 necrotic drain damage from all three assailants simultaneously. The avatar drinks in the full 6 points of drained vitality, refilling their depleted health pool while forcing the choking survivors into a disorganized retreat.
  • Sun-Scorched Quarantine Stockades and Penal Colonies:
    • Environmental Context: Blistering limestone quarries and timber palisades crowded with diseased inmates, desperate prison rioters, armed overseers, and scarce water reserves where bleeding draws feral predators from the surrounding scrub.
    • Defensive Roleplay:
      • Caught in a prison-yard mutiny where desperate convicts attempt to overwhelm the guards with sharpened bone shivs, the avatar adopts a measured fighting retreat. The rattle of the corn kernels and bitter-melon seeds within the calabash pommel acts as a rhythmic focus, steadying the avatar’s breathing amid the chaos.
      • When struck by a wild stone sling, the avatar immediately retaliates against the closest rioter; the minor kinetic drain of the scourge provides the temporary AC boost needed to parry the next inmate’s charging tackle.
    • Offensive Roleplay:
      • Tracking a violent inmate ringleader who slipped past the outer stockade wall into the scrub brush, the avatar utilizes Scent of the Wounded Flesh to follow the fugitive’s razor-wire cuts across the dry ground, ignoring false tracks and dust squalls.
      • Upon cornering the ringleader, the wielder lashes out with Siphon-Thorn Lash, snaring the quarry’s ankle with the thorny rawhide tails. The necrotic shock weakens the fugitive’s leg muscles, causing them to collapse into the dust while the avatar gains a reserve of temporary health points before dragging the captive back to the stockade.
  • Ruin-Strewn Necropolises and Desecrated Burial Grounds:
    • Environmental Context: Crumbling mausoleums, overgrown bone-yards, cracked sarcophagi, and cold stone vaults haunted by lingering death-curses, animated skeletal horrors, and rival grave-robbers.
    • Defensive Roleplay:
      • Passing through tomb vaults filled with airborne tomb-rot spores and necrotic miasma, Pallid Ward of the Penitent keeps the avatar’s lungs clear while unwarded tomb-raiders succumb to violent coughing fits and physical wasting.
      • When an allied vanguard is brought to the brink of death by an ancient crypt trap’s necrotic needle, the avatar kneels over them, striking the cowrie-studded gourd to channel Transfusion of the Bitter Gourd, transferring essential life-force to seal the punctured chest wound and dispel the lingering death-chill.
    • Offensive Roleplay:
      • Confronted by grave-robbers seeking to plunder the central sepulcher, the avatar steps into the doorway to bottleneck the chamber.
      • Knowing that undead lack vital blood to harvest, the avatar targets the living mercenary captains leading the expedition, utilizing Siphon-Thorn Lash to feast upon their living warmth and create a barrier of temporary hit points.
      • Once surrounded by the captain’s bodyguards, the avatar executes Harvest of the Pestilence Cloud, filling the narrow stone archway with bruised-violet mist that chokes the breath from the living intruders and turns their own vitality into fuel to sustain the avatar’s defense.

Perception of Activation:

  • User’s Perspective:
    • Sight:
      • The dull hematite crystal set into the alligator jawbone blazes with a deep, bruised violet luminance that pulses like an exposed, beating heart.
      • Tendrils of faint, purplish-black vapor trace along the three rawhide thongs, curling around the thorny briars and causing the blackened iron weights to glow with internal amethyst fissures.
      • Superficial cuts and bruises upon the wielder’s arm visibly seal, leaving behind pale, faint lines as stolen vigor knits torn flesh.
    • Sound:
      • The dried corn kernels and bitter-melon seeds inside the calabash gourd rattle with an unsettling, hollow clatter that sounds like dry bones shifting in an earthen tomb.
      • Each strike of the lash produces a sharp, crackling hiss reminiscent of searing fat on hot coals, accompanied by a low, rhythmic whisper speaking the litany of seven afflictions.
      • A thudding, double-beat pulse echoes in the wielder’s eardrums, perfectly matching the heartbeat of whoever was struck.
    • Touch:
      • An initial surge of freezing, numbing frost stabs into the gripping fingers, immediately followed by an intense, tingling rush of stolen warmth flowing up the forearm.
      • The bleached alligator bone handle grows slick with a cold sweat of condensed humidity and palm oil, while the jute sackcloth wrap bites coarsely into the palm.
      • An invigorating, feverish electric prickle runs across the user’s spine, temporarily washing away physical exhaustion and dulling muscle aches.
    • Smell:
      • A pungent, suffocating cloud of smoldering tobacco leaves, bitter crushed melon pulp, dry burial soil, and hot palm oil coats the sinuses.
      • Beneath the herbal incense cuts a sharp, coppery scent of fresh blood evaporating off hot stone.
    • Taste:
      • The palate fills with the dry, acrid bitterness of raw tobacco and powdered alum, accompanied by a metallic copper tang along the edges of the tongue.
      • The throat feels momentarily parched and tight, as if inhaling the dry dust of an arid quarantine courtyard.
    • Extra-Sensory Perception:
      • Vital Hemodynamic Resonance: The Mind’s Eye perceives the pulsing life-threads of all nearby living beings as glowing, thrumming crimson cords running beneath the skin; wounded creatures appear flared in jagged, bleeding scarlet fractures.
      • Hospice Catharsis: A stern, cold sense of somber justice and clinical detachment settles over the psyche, quieting panic and fear with the grim realization that all flesh must eventually yield its vigor.
      • Siphon Intuition: The avatar instinctively gauges the exact quantity of vitality drained with each strike, feeling the stolen lifeforce integrate into their own body like molten glass setting into a mold.
  • Observer’s Perspective:
    • Sight:
      • The scourge leaves behind visible streaks of bruised purple and charcoal-grey light as it cuts through the air, trailing wisps of ash-colored mist.
      • Where the iron nodules bite into a target, a visible siphon arc of crimson and violet light leaps backward along the rawhide thongs directly into the wielder’s bone handle.
      • The wielder’s pale complexion momentarily flushes with unnatural, feverish color, while the target pales, their skin taking on an ashen, sickly cast.
    • Sound:
      • Witnesses hear the bone-dry clatter of the gourds rattling without anyone shaking them, layered with a low, collective moan like the sound of an overcrowded quarantine ward at dusk.
      • The lashes break the air with an unnatural, whip-crack shriek that makes the skin prickle.
    • Touch:
      • The ambient air within arm’s reach drops noticeably in temperature, accompanied by a heavy, humid pressure that feels like walking into an unventilated fever ward.
    • Smell:
      • Observers are hit by the sudden stench of swamp water, dried medicinal poultices, and stale tobacco smoke, entirely masking ambient fresh air.
    • Taste:
      • Anyone standing close to the strike develops an iron-like coppery taste in their mouth, followed by a slight dryness in the throat.
    • Extra-Sensory Perception:
      • Empaths, spirits, and sensitive avatars feel an involuntary phantom ache in their limbs and a cold pang in their chest, sensing that vital breath is being forcefully pulled from one vessel to feed another.
  • Positives:
    • Autonomous Health Siphoning:
      • Restores living hit points directly to the avatar with every successful blow landed against a blood-bearing creature, providing self-sustaining resilience in prolonged battles.
    • Rapid Triage and De-Debuffing:
      • Through the bitter gourd inversion, the avatar can purge nausea, fever, and exhaustion from wounded companions while infusing them with emergency restorative health.
    • Bloodhound Tracking Intuition:
      • Passively pinpoints bleeding, wounded, or dying targets through walls, darkness, and cover within a 120-foot radius.
    • Natural Plague Immunity:
      • Channels the patron aegis of Babalú-Ayé to ward the wielder against virulent environmental miasmas, natural diseases, and necrotic rotting curses.
  • Negatives:
    • Fever Chills from Over-Harvesting:
      • Drawing upon the active siphoning conduits beyond daily limits wracks the user’s nervous system with sudden, violent tremors, imparting a lingering physical penalty to strength and stamina.
    • Severe Sensory Compromise:
      • The bruised-violet luminescence, weeping vapor trails, whistling lashes, and heavy odor of tobacco and bile destroy any attempt at stealth or concealment.
    • Ineffective Against Lifeless Targets:
      • The life-draining conduits cannot harvest health from inanimate constructs, skeletons, ethereal wraiths, or non-living stone, turning the weapon into a mundane flail against unliving foes.
    • Self-Harm on Transfusion:
      • Transferring restorative vitality to an ally requires the user to voluntarily sacrifice their own existing health pool, posing extreme risk if performed while critically injured.

Crafting Recipe: Santeria Scourge of the Ashen Siphon

  • Materials Needed:
    • 1 cured, bleached lower jawbone of an adult marsh alligator (roughly seven to eight inches in length, sound and free of rot).
    • 1 small, dried calabash gourd (roughly three inches in diameter, hollowed and cleaned).
    • 1 Tier 1 magic crystal (coin-sized and coin-weighted dull hematite or bloodstone nodule, harvested from a bog-iron deposit or acquired through a mortuary exchange).
    • 6 feet of heavy rawhide stripping, split into three equal cords.
    • 9 feet of dried, flexible swamp-thorn briar runners (spines clipped to half-length to prevent self-fouling).
    • 3 small nodules of porous, blackened bog iron (roughly one ounce each, drilled through the center).
    • 14 intact cowrie shells (backs ground flat with micro-drilled stitching holes).
    • 1 tarnished copper ferrule collar (one-and-a-half-inch diameter).
    • 4 feet of coarse, unbleached jute sackcloth ribbon.
    • 6 feet of waxed linen thread (dyed purple and earthy brown).
    • 1 dram of amber tree sap resin, collected with a fluid collector to serve as an alchemical setting agent.
    • 1 handful of dried bitter-melon leaves, crushed dry tobacco leaf, and 7 parched yellow corn kernels (sacrificial offerings to fill the pommel and bridge the vitality-siphon conduit).
    • 3 drops of the artisan’s fresh blood (sacrificial medium to bind the hematite to living humors).
  • Tools Required:
    • 1 Fluid Collector (for gathering, heating, and dispensing amber tree sap resin).
    • 1 Bone-carver’s rasp, needle files, and fine hand-drill auger.
    • 1 Leatherworking awl, bodkin needle, and rawhide skiving knife.
    • 1 Jeweler’s wire pliers and copper peening punch.
    • 1 Small iron melting ladle and alcohol brazier.
    • 1 Clay washing basin filled with bitter brine, crushed sulfur, and steeped tobacco water.
  • Skill Requirements:
    • Leatherworking / Bonecrafting: Minimum skill rank of 5.
    • Alchemical Preparation / Mortuary Craft: Minimum skill rank of 3.
    • Mind’s Eye Focusing / Channeling: Minimum skill rank of 2 (required to trace the necrotic siphoning conduits from the iron nodules through the hematite crystal without inducing back-siphon rot in the crafter).
  • Crafting Steps:
    • Preparing the Bone Haft and Crystal Seat:
      • Clean and scrub the alligator jawbone using the sulfur-and-tobacco brine to strip lingering fats and oils.
      • Use the bone rasp to smooth the rear curvature into an ergonomic one-handed grip.
      • Using the hand-drill and needle files, carve a circular hollow at the forward throat of the jawbone tailored to seat the Tier 1 hematite crystal.
      • Drill a central lengthwise channel through the crown of the bone into the crystal recess to accept the copper ferrule tang.
    • Assembling and Filling the Calabash Pommel:
      • Cut a one-inch hole into the crown of the dried calabash gourd to receive the butt of the alligator jawbone.
      • Insert the crushed bitter-melon leaves, dried tobacco, and seven parched corn kernels into the hollow interior of the gourd.
      • Fit the calabash over the butt of the bone handle, seating it firmly with warmed tree sap resin dispensed from the fluid collector.
      • Using the bodkin needle and waxed linen thread, sew the fourteen cowrie shells around the exterior surface of the gourd in two staggered, interlocking chevron rows, pulling each stitch tight against the dried rind.
    • Mounting the Hematite and Wrapping the Grip:
      • Place the Tier 1 hematite crystal into the carved throat of the jawbone.
      • Deposit three drops of your own blood across the surface of the stone, allowing it to soak into the mineral pores.
      • Heat 1 dram of amber tree sap resin over the alcohol brazier and use the fluid collector to pour the resin around the edges of the stone, anchoring it flush within the bone socket.
      • Bind the crystal and bone throat with crisscrossing wraps of purple and earthy brown linen thread.
      • Wrap the entire length of the alligator bone handle in coarse jute sackcloth ribbon, anchoring the wrap at the pommel collar with iron brads to provide a textured, sweat-resistant purchase.
    • Braiding the Thorn-Lashes:
      • Secure the tarnished copper ferrule collar onto the top neck of the bone haft, pinning it with a peened copper rivet.
      • Anchor the three rawhide cords inside the ferrule using the awl and copper wedges.
      • Braid each rawhide thong together with three feet of dried swamp-thorn briar, interlacing the vine so the thorn tips protrude outward along the length of the lash.
      • Affix one drilled blackened bog-iron nodule to the terminal end of each rawhide lash, crimping the rawhide through the hole with a heavy knot and securing it with waxed thread.
    • Consecration, Attunement, and Vitality Circuiting:
      • Submerge the three thorned lashes into the clay basin of sulfur-and-tobacco brine for twelve minutes, allowing the rawhide and briar to absorb the astringent solution.
      • Remove the scourge and take a firm one-handed grip upon the jute-wrapped bone handle.
      • Shake the weapon rhythmically so the dried seeds inside the pommel rattle in cadence with your resting heartbeat.
      • Project thought energy through the Mind’s Eye into the hematite crystal, visualizing the flow of vitality entering through the iron weights, traveling along the rawhide thongs, and concentrating in the stone.
      • Maintain steady mental channeling for seven minutes; the bond is successfully forged when the hematite pulses with a bruised-violet light, the lashes emit a faint vapor of smoldering tobacco, and a sharp metallic chill washes across the palms.

Three-Tailed Whip of Rawhide, Dog-Bone Handle, and Seven Pains of Lame Beggar

In the cold turning of the salt winds, before the high hills had put off their coats of grey briars, there was a great camp of sick people beside the lake of black mud. The water of that ditch was thick like sheep-grease, and those who slept beside the water had spots upon their skins that were like dried figs. In that village dwelt an old keeper of dogs whose name upon the broken tiles was written as The Cripple Who Carries A Basket Of Bones. He had no coat of red wool, nor had he a bronze dish to catch the dripping of the roast pig. He had only two knees that were crooked like the dried branches of the plum tree, and two lean dogs whose ribs were like the willow-hoops of a fish-basket.

The ancient uncles who sit upon the lime-stone say that a great captain ruled the high gate of the stone town. This man was named The Lord Who Wears Three Plates Of Tin. He had forty horses whose hoofs were hard like river-flint, and fifty archers whose bows were strung with the gut of bulls. When the sickness came out of the black mud, taking the children by their necks and turning the breath of the plowmen into a yellow smoke, the captain shut the high gate with three oak timbers.

“Let no man whose skin is spotted come near the clean ditches of my house,” spoke the captain through a helmet of hammered tin that had no eyes. “If a dog of the mud limps toward the well, cast down upon him great stones from the parapet, and let the wild ravens pick the fat from his shoulders.”

The sick people wept into their sheep-dung. Their breath was hot like the bottom of an oven, and their wives lay upon the reeds, turning their faces to the clay wall.

The keeper of dogs walked to the boundary where the sharp briars grew between the ditch and the mountain of the dead. He had no medicine of white grease, nor had he five copper pieces to give to the priests who sell the smoke of dried herbs. He sat upon a flat stone of bog-iron. He took three dry leaves of the wild tobacco, three grains of parched yellow corn, and half a bowl of bitter palm grease, and he poured them into a hole in the red sand.

There came out of the briars an old man who walked with two sticks of rough wood. His body was covered with rags of coarse sackcloth that had seven rents in the hem, and upon his legs were running sores that were licked by three spotted dogs. Around his neck he carried a garland of dried melon-rind, and his beard smelled of sulfur, bitter roots, and the smoke of wet pine needles.

“Why do you sit upon the dirt and water the dry thistles with the water of your eyes, you scraper of dead hides?” asked the old man, speaking with a voice like dry beans shaken in an empty gourd. “The captain of tin will not give you the fat of his kitchen, and the earth will not take back the rot of your children until the account has been balanced upon the skin.”

The old man threw down his two walking-sticks into the scrub. From under his sackcloth mantle he drew forth a scourge that had three tails. The grip was the jawbone of a great river-lizard, scraped white with river sand and bound with the rough cloth of grain-bags. At the throat of the bone sat a heavy stone of dark blood-ore that had no shine, and from the crown hung three cords of bull-hide braided with the sharp thorns of the marsh-brier. At the tail of each cord hung a nodule of black iron taken from the deep mud, and at the pommel was tied a dry hollow pumpkin filled with corn-grains and fourteen little sea-shells with open mouths.

“Take this three-headed serpent of the ditch,” rasped the lame elder, whose breath was like the cellar where the tanners keep their hides. “Do not swing it as a herdsman strikes a lazy heifer. Hold the alligator-bone with one hand of dry skin. When the fever eats the heart of your people, do not cry to the sky; go to those who have too much fat upon their ribs, and let the three black stones taste the red grease of their veins. What the thorn takes from the proud, the hollow bone gives to the humble.”

The keeper of dogs took the scourge by its sackcloth grip. Immediately, his crooked knee became straight like an ash spear. A cold wind passed through the marrow of his elbows, and the little sea-shells upon the dry pumpkin began to hum with a voice like forty hornets imprisoned within a dead bullock.

He walked to the stone gate of the town. Behind him came his two spotted dogs, their ears lifted to hear the rattling of the dry melon-seeds.

The four sentries who stood upon the timber platform saw the lame dog-man walking through the dust. “Turn your heels to the mud, you beggar of the ditch,” cried the first sentry, lifting a spear of ash. “The lord of the three tin plates has forbidden the spotted cattle to touch the clean timber of the threshold.”

The sentry thrust his spear down from the parapet. But the dog-man did not turn his back to flee like a rabbit into the gorse. He raised the alligator jawbone before his forehead, and he struck the air three times with the thorned tails.

The three nodules of bog-iron whistled with a sound like a wet sling-stone. The dark stone at the throat of the bone blazed with a bruised light like the skin of a rotten plum. The point of the sentry’s spear did not pierce the sackcloth mantle; the three lashes wrapped about the ash pole, and the black iron teeth bit through the wood, snapping the shaft like a dry carrot.

The dog-man leaped upon the timber platform. He swung the three tails across the shoulders of the two sentries. The thorns tore through their boiled hides. Yet from their wounds there sprang no red fountains to wet the planks; the red warmth of their blood ran upward along the rawhide cords like oil climbing a flax-wick.

The two sentries fell upon the oak deck, their faces turning grey like the belly of a dead toad, their knees shaking with a sudden winter frost. But the keeper of dogs grew tall; his ribs swelled with the breath of the two soldiers, and the purple stone upon the jawbone pulsed like an open heart that has been washed in warm milk.

He went into the great house where The Lord Who Wears Three Plates Of Tin sat eating a shoulder of roasted calf and drinking the thick wine of the sweet cane. Around the lord sat his forty captains, their belts stiff with grease, their faces red with the heat of the hearth.

“Bring the chains of raw iron,” shouted the lord, throwing down the calf-bone into the embers. “Beat this spotted dog until his teeth fall into the dust, and cast his carcase into the ditch where the dead swine are burned.”

The captains drew their straight daggers of soft bronze and ran upon the dog-man. But the keeper of dogs took the scourge in his right hand, and with his left fist he struck the hollow calabash pommel.

A great mist, having the color of bruised plums and the smell of smoldering tobacco and dried sheep-gall, poured from the fourteen cowrie shells. It covered the long table, the trenchers of fat meat, and the forty captains of tin.

The men could not draw their breath. A great shivering fell upon their limbs; the meat in their mouths turned into cold clay, and their daggers fell from their fingers upon the stone flags. Each breath they drew through the purple smoke gave up a thumb-width of their strength, which flowed through the air like ribbons of crimson thread, entering into the dark blood-stone and the alligator bone.

The lord of the town fell from his seat upon his belly. His tin plates clattered upon the flagstones like pots falling from a wagon. He wept with a voice like a sick child that has lost its nurse in the dark.

“Take my forty horses,” cried the lord, his fat chin trembling in the grease. “Take the three chests of uncoined electrum that sleep beneath my hearth-stone! Only do not let those three black thorns touch the skin of my throat, for my marrow is cold like ditch-ice.”

The keeper of dogs did not cut the throat of the lord, for the whip was forged to balance the life of the ditch, not to make a slaughter-house of the house of wood. He took the three chests of uncoined electrum, and he took forty sacks of dried barley from the granary.

He returned to the camp of the sick people beside the black water. He gathered the children whose skin was spotted and whose breath was like burning straw. He did not give them the uncoined electrum, for a dying child cannot chew silver; he knelt in the mud and struck the calabash pommel with his knuckles.

From the mouths of the fourteen cowrie shells came a warm dew that smelled of crushed melon-pulp, dried herbs, and the sweet breath of kine that have fed on clover. He laid the alligator-bone against the foreheads of the forty sick children. The grey spots upon their skin fell away like dried scabs; their eyes became bright like the eyes of young eagles, and they rose up from the sheep-dung, shouting that the black cloud had fled from their bellies.

For seventy turnings of the harvest, the keeper of dogs carried the three-tailed scourge between the cities of the fat and the camps of the lean. Wherever the great lords shut their gates against the sick, he went with his spotted hounds, taking three drops of vitality from those who had an abundance of butter, and pouring three drops of healing into the mouths of those who had only the dust of the road.

Yet when the winter came that his hair was like the white foam of the waterfall, the old man walked to the high boundary where the earth opens into the black deep. He laid the alligator-bone upon a flat slab of limestone.

There rose from the ditch the lame elder of the sackcloth, accompanied by his three hounds. “You have milked the goats of the high house and given the broth to the lambs of the bramble,” said the elder. “The scourge has finished its weaving. Give back the bone of the river-beast, so it may sleep in the mud until the proud forget once more that their meat is made of common clay.”

The old man laid his dry palm upon the stone. The elder blew his breath of sulfur; the rawhide cords turned into three green marsh-snakes that slid into the water; the dried gourd burst into seventy yellow seeds that sank into the peat; and the alligator jawbone turned into white lime that was scattered by the east wind.

And the herdsmen who followed their goats across that high shelf found only the three drilled stones of black bog-iron lying upon a bed of dead briars. They gathered them and strung them upon a whip of bull-hide, and the scribes of that kingdom carved these signs upon the skin of an unblemished heifer, which have been read with much pain and many foolish errors by those who have never known the hunger of the ditch.

Moral of the Story

Those who dwell in high stone houses and shut their doors against the afflicted forget that their strength is only borrowed from the dirt; the scourge of life will inevitably harvest the excess of the proud to replenish the withered veins of the humble, for no wall of tin can keep the balance of the earth from taking back its due.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons

Scourge of the Ashen Siphon Weapon (Flail or Whip), Common (Requires Attunement)

  • Item Profile:
    • Damage: 1d6 piercing or slashing
    • Properties: Finesse, Reach
    • Weight: 2 lbs.
    • Description: A twenty-two-inch three-tailed ritual scourge centered on a bleached alligator jawbone handle wrapped in coarse sackcloth. The pommel holds a dried calabash gourd studded with fourteen cowrie shells and filled with dried bitter-melon leaves, corn, and tobacco. Three rawhide thongs braided with swamp briars terminate in porous, blackened bog-iron nodules. A dull hematite crystal sits embedded at the throat of the bone grip.
  • Traits and Passive Properties:
    • Leach-Vein Resonance: When you hit a living creature that possesses blood with this weapon, you regain 1 hit point, up to a maximum of 5 hit points regained per combat encounter.
    • Scent of Wounded Flesh: While carrying this weapon, you passively sense the direction and distance of any living creature within 120 feet that has fewer than half its maximum hit points or is currently bleeding.
    • Pallid Ward of the Penitent: You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, contracting natural diseases, or suffering necrotic rot.
    • Reactive Vitality: For 1 round immediately following any attack in which you successfully drain hit points with this weapon, you gain a +1 bonus to your Armor Class.
  • Active Features:
    • Siphon-Thorn Lash (3/Day): As an action, you make a melee weapon attack with a reach of 10 feet. On a hit, the target takes 1d6 + your Strength or Dexterity modifier piercing damage, plus 1d4 necrotic damage. You gain temporary hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt (up to 4), which last for 10 minutes.
    • Transfusion of the Bitter Gourd (2/Day): As an action, you strike the gourd pommel and touch an ally. You sacrifice 4 of your current hit points, and the touched ally regains 6 hit points. The target is also instantly cured of nonmagical nausea, fever, or one level of exhaustion.
    • Harvest of the Pestilence Cloud (1/Day): As an action, you spin the scourge overhead. A 5-foot-radius cloud of bruised-violet mist erupts around you until the start of your next turn. Up to three living creatures of your choice within the cloud take 2 necrotic damage each, and you regain hit points equal to the total necrotic damage dealt (up to 6 hit points). Once used, this property cannot be used again until you finish a long rest.

Call of Cthulhu

The Bone Scourge of Babalú-Ayé Minor Mythos/Folk Magic Artifact

  • Item Profile:
    • Skill: Fighting (Flail) or Fighting (Whip)
    • Damage: 1D6 + 1/2 Damage Bonus
    • Base Range: Touch (up to 2 yards)
    • Hands: 1
    • Malfunction: 97
    • Arcane Reservoir: Holds 6 Magic Points. Regenerates 1 Magic Point at sunset if exposed to damp loam or unpurified soil.
    • Sanity Cost: 0 for passive awareness; 1 Sanity Point when actively drawing life force from another living being.
  • Mechanics and Powers:
    • Leach-Vein Resonance: Whenever a successful attack with this scourge draws blood from a living entity, the user regains 1 Hit Point (up to a maximum recovery of 3 Hit Points per day).
    • Scent of Blood: The investigator gains a Bonus Die on Track or Spot Hidden checks to detect or follow any wounded, bleeding target within 40 yards.
    • Pallid Ward: The bearer receives a Bonus Die on CON checks to resist natural pathogens, swamp infections, and necrotic decay.
    • Siphon-Thorn Lash:
      • Cost: 2 Magic Points and 1 Sanity Point.
      • Action: 1 combat round.
      • Mechanic: The investigator lashes out at a target up to 3 yards away. On a successful Fighting roll, the weapon inflicts standard damage (1D6 + half DB) plus 1D3 points of direct CON/vitality drain. The user gains the drained points as temporary Hit Points that absorb incoming damage for up to 1 hour.
    • Transfusion of the Bitter Gourd:
      • Cost: 2 Magic Points and 4 of the user’s current Hit Points.
      • Mechanic: By touching the pommel to an afflicted ally, the user transfers vital essence. The recipient recovers 6 Hit Points and is immediately cleared of natural fever, shock, or biological nausea.
    • Harvest of the Pestilence Cloud:
      • Cost: 3 Magic Points and 1 Sanity Point.
      • Mechanic: The user whirls the scourge, producing a 2-yard cloud of bruised-violet vapor. Up to three living creatures within range must make a Hard CON check or suffer 2 points of necrotic damage. The user regains Hit Points equal to the total damage inflicted (up to 6 Hit Points).

Blades in the Dark

The Siphon-Thorn Flail Arcane Weapon / Implement, 1 Load

  • Item Profile:
    • Visual: An alligator-jawbone handle wrapped in coarse sackcloth, a cowrie-ringed gourd pommel filled with rattling seeds, a hematite focus crystal, and three rawhide lashes braided with swamp briars and bog-iron nodules.
    • Nature: A consecrated implement bound to the spirits of sickness, physical decay, and restorative life-tithes.
  • Passive Effects:
    • Vital Siphon: When you use this weapon to inflict physical harm on a living opponent in a Skirmish, you clear 1 Stress (up to a maximum of 2 Stress cleared per score).
    • Mortuary Ward: You operate with +1 Potency when Resisting consequences caused by biological poisons, virulent diseases, or necrotic corruption.
    • Wound-Tracer: When tracking bleeding or injured targets across a district, your Hunt rolls operate with +1 Effect level.
  • Active Arcane Abilities:
    • Babalú’s Thirst:
      • Cost: 1 Stress.
      • Action: Skirmish.
      • Outcome: You lash out at reach. On a 6, you inflict standard harm and gain increased resilience, granting +1 Armor box against the next physical harm suffered this score. On a 4/5, you drain the target’s vigor, but suffer minor recoil or overextend your guard.
    • Gourd Transfusion:
      • Cost: Suffer Level 1 Harm (“Vital Drain”).
      • Action: Consort or Attune.
      • Outcome: You touch the cowrie pommel to a comrade. You immediately reduce one instance of their current physical harm by one level (or completely remove a Level 1 Harm such as “Exhausted” or “Feverish”).
    • Miasma Harvest:
      • Cost: 2 Stress.
      • Action: Attune or Skirmish.
      • Outcome: You whip the air into an ashen, violet haze. All nearby living opponents within immediate reach suffer Level 1 Harm (“Wasted”), and you instantly heal one segment on your healing clock.

Knave

The Siphon-Thorn Scourge Weapon (1 Slot, Hands: 1)

  • Item Profile:
    • Inventory: Takes up 1 gear slot. Wielded in one hand.
    • Damage: d6 slashing/piercing (Reach).
    • Durability: 3 Quality. Loses 1 Quality if struck with direct sunder magic or if used to strike stone/metal armor repeatedly.
    • Appearance: A bleached alligator-jawbone handle wrapped in jute sackcloth, bearing a purple-bound hematite node and a seed-filled calabash pommel with fourteen cowrie shells. Three rawhide tails are braided with swamp briars and weighted with porous bog iron. Smells of dry tobacco, marsh mud, and dried blood.
  • Item Rules:
    • Leach-Vein: When you hit a living creature that bleeds, you regain 1 Hit Point (up to 4 HP recovered per combat encounter).
    • Scent of Blood: The bearer automatically detects bleeding creatures within 120 feet, gaining Advantage on Wisdom checks to track wounded targets.
    • Ward of the Penitent: The wielder has Advantage on Constitution saves against natural sickness, poisons, and rotting plagues.
    • Siphon-Thorn Lash (3/Day):
      • As an action, attack an enemy within 10 feet.
      • On a hit, the weapon deals d6 physical damage plus 1d4 necrotic drain damage.
      • The wielder gains temporary Hit Points equal to the necrotic drain damage (up to 4), which last for 10 minutes.
    • Transfusion of the Bitter Gourd (2/Day):
      • The bearer strikes the pommel and touches an ally.
      • The bearer loses 4 current Hit Points; the touched ally regains 6 Hit Points and is immediately cured of nonmagical fever, exhaustion, or nausea.
    • Harvest of the Pestilence Cloud (1/Day):
      • As an action, the bearer whirls the scourge in a hissing overhead circle.
      • Up to three living creatures within 5 feet take 2 unavoidable necrotic damage.
      • The bearer absorbs the stolen life force, regaining Hit Points equal to the damage dealt (up to 6 HP).

Fate

The Scourge of the Ashen Tithe Extra (Aspect and Stunts)

  • Item Profile:
    • Aspect: Consecrated Flail of Babalú’s Siphon
    • Description: A three-tailed ritual scourge crafted from an alligator-jawbone handle wrapped in coarse sackcloth, fitted with a fourteen-cowrie dried gourd pommel filled with rattling seeds, and anchored by a dull hematite node. Three briar-braided rawhide thongs terminate in porous nodules of blackened bog iron, trailing the bitter scent of cured tobacco, sulfur, and copper.
  • Stunts and Mechanical Rules:
    • Leach-Vein Resilience: When you succeed with style on a Fight attack against a living, flesh-and-blood target while wielding the scourge, you may choose to reduce your shifts of harm dealt by 1 to immediately clear your lowest-valued physical stress box.
    • Scent of the Wounded: You gain a +2 bonus on Notice or Investigate checks to track, detect, or anticipate the movements of any living target within your zone or an adjacent zone that is already suffering from a physical consequence.
    • Babalú’s Reclaiming Strike: Once per scene, when you make a physical attack with the scourge, you may spend 1 Fate Point to invoke the aspect Siphoned Vitality with one free invoke upon a successful hit, representing stolen vigor bolstering your guard or speed.
    • Bitter Transfusion: Once per session, you may spend an action and voluntarily check a 2-point physical stress box to allow an ally in your zone to clear their 2-point physical stress box, or downgrade a mild physical consequence related to sickness, shock, or exhaustion.
    • Pestilence Fog Harvest: Once per scenario, you may spend 1 Fate Point and an action to spin the weapon in an overhead arc. You place the zone aspect Bruised-Violet Miasma on your current zone with two free invokes. Anyone attempting to defend against your physical attacks in that zone suffers an automatic 1-shift penalty from choking necrotic vapor as you feed on their stamina.

Numenera & Cypher System

Bio-Siphon Scourge Artifact (Level 3)

  • Item Profile:
    • Level: 3
    • Form: A one-handed biological whip-flail featuring an osseous reptilian grip wrapped in plant fiber, an acoustic gourd resonator packed with bio-seeds, and three synthetic-dermis thongs woven with thorn tendrils and weighted with porous mineral nodes.
    • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (checked upon activating extended drain, transference, or miasma purge).
  • Passive Effects:
    • Dermis Harvest: Whenever you hit a living creature in melee with this weapon, you inflict standard weapon damage (Level 3 light/medium weapon, dealing 3 points of damage). If the strike deals damage to the target’s Might Pool, you instantly recover 1 point to your own Might Pool (up to a maximum recovery of 3 points per combat encounter).
    • Pathological Hardening: The artifact’s bio-resonance eases all Might defense tasks against natural diseases, atmospheric toxins, and necrotic bio-hazards by one step.
    • Trajectory of Scent: Tasks to track, smell, or locate wounded biological entities within short range are eased by one step.
  • Active Powers:
    • Siphon-Thorn Strike (Action): You expend 2 points from your Might or Speed Pool to strike a target up to immediate range (10 feet). On a successful hit, the attack deals an additional 2 points of ambient damage directly to the target’s Might Pool that ignores armor. You gain 2 points of temporary Health (or add 2 points to your Might Pool). Check for Depletion (1 in 1d20).
    • Cellular Transfusion (Action): You expend 3 points from your own Might Pool to touch an ally within immediate reach. The recipient recovers 5 points divided as they choose between their Might or Speed Pools and removes the impaired condition caused by mundane poisons or systemic exhaustion. Check for Depletion (1 in 1d20).
    • Miasma Cloud Extraction (Action): You whirl the scourge overhead, unleashing a 10-foot-radius mist of violet particulates. Up to three living creatures within immediate range suffer 2 points of damage directly to their Might Pools. You absorb this energy, recovering points equal to the total drained damage (up to 6 points) into your Stat Pools. Check for Depletion (1 in 1d20).

Pathfinder

Scourge of the Ashen Siphon Item 2 Magical, Necromancy, Negative

  • Item Profile:
    • Price: 35 gp
    • Usage: Held in 1 hand (Flail or Whip group)
    • Bulk: 1
    • Damage: 1d6 slashing or piercing
    • Hands: 1
    • Category: Martial
    • Traits: Finesse, Reach, Trip
    • Description: A twenty-two-inch scourge built from a bleached alligator-jawbone haft wrapped in jute cloth, a seed-filled calabash pommel stitched with fourteen cowries, and a dull hematite node. Three rawhide thongs braided with thorned briars terminate in porous bog-iron nodules. Smells of bitter-melon, pipe tobacco, and dried blood.
  • Passive Effects:
    • Leach-Vein Resonance: When you land a successful Strike with this weapon against a living creature that bleeds, you regain 1 Hit Point (up to a maximum replenishment of 5 HP per combat encounter).
    • Scent of the Wounded: You gain a +1 item bonus to Perception and Survival checks to seek, track, or sense the location of living creatures within 120 feet that are below half their maximum Hit Points or are currently taking persistent bleed damage.
    • Ward of the Penitent: You gain a +1 item bonus to Fortitude saving throws against poisons, diseases, and necrotic effects.
    • Siphon Slipstream: Immediately after you successfully drain Hit Points from a creature using this weapon, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to AC against that creature’s attacks until the start of your next turn.
  • Active Abilities:
    • Siphon-Thorn Lash (Single Action):
      • Frequency: Three times per day.
      • Traits: Concentrate, Necromancy, Negative.
      • Effect: You make a melee Strike with this weapon against a target within 10 feet. On a hit, the Strike deals normal weapon damage plus 1d4 void (necrotic) damage. You gain temporary Hit Points equal to the void damage dealt (maximum 4), lasting for 10 minutes.
    • Transfusion of the Bitter Gourd (Two Actions):
      • Frequency: Twice per day.
      • Traits: Healing, Manipulate, Necromancy.
      • Effect: You strike the calabash pommel against your own chest, taking 4 points of damage, and touch an adjacent living ally. The ally regains 6 Hit Points and immediately reduces their drained, sickened, or fatigued condition value by 1.
    • Harvest of the Pestilence Cloud (Two Actions):
      • Frequency: Once per day.
      • Traits: Area, Necromancy, Negative.
      • Effect: You spin the scourge in a hissing overhead loop. A 5-foot emanation of bruised-violet mist erupts from the hematite node. Up to three living creatures of your choice in the area take 2 void damage (basic Fortitude save against your class DC or spell DC). You regain Hit Points equal to the total void damage dealt (maximum 6 HP).

Savage Worlds

The Siphon-Thorn Scourge Minor Arcane Relic

  • Item Profile:
    • Damage: Str+d4 (Slashing/Piercing)
    • Weight: 2 lbs.
    • Min Str: d4
    • Traits: Reach 1, Parry -1 (Flail ignores Shield cover bonuses)
    • Trappings: Bleached alligator-jawbone grip wrapped in sackcloth, hematite core, rattling cowrie gourd pommel, and three briar-braided rawhide lashes tipped with porous bog iron. Exudes scents of dried tobacco, sulfur, and damp marsh muck.
  • Passive Abilities:
    • Leach-Vein Harvest: Whenever the bearer incapacitates or causes a Wound/Shaken result to a living biological creature with this scourge, the user may immediately remove their own Shaken condition or recover one natural Vigor exhaustion level.
    • Blood-Tracer: The user gains a +2 bonus on Notice or Survival checks made to track or detect any wounded or bleeding quarry within 24 inches (48 yards).
    • Penitent’s Resilience: The wielder receives a +2 bonus on Vigor rolls to resist diseases, poisons, and environmental rot or necrosis.
  • Active Powers:
    • Siphon Strike:
      • Cost: Action.
      • Frequency: 3 times per day.
      • Trapping: Bruised purple arcs of energy coursing along the rawhide lashes.
      • Effect: The character makes a Fighting attack. On a Success, the weapon deals standard damage plus an extra +2 necrotic damage. The wielder gains the boost Trait effect (granting +1 die step to Vigor) for the next 3 rounds.
    • Transfusion of the Bitter Gourd:
      • Cost: Action.
      • Frequency: 2 times per day.
      • Trapping: Striking the calabash pommel with a clenched fist and touching an ally.
      • Effect: The wielder voluntarily suffers one level of Fatigue to immediately grant an adjacent ally a free natural Healing roll with a +2 bonus to recover from an existing Wound, or instantly remove an ally’s Shaken condition and cure natural illness or nausea.
    • Pestilence Cloud Harvest:
      • Cost: Action.
      • Frequency: Once per day.
      • Trapping: Whirling the scourge overhead in a hissing orbit that billows violet mist.
      • Effect: Places a Small Blast Template centered on the wielder. All living creatures inside must make an immediate Vigor roll or suffer 2 points of direct nonlethal damage. The wielder recovers one Wound or removes all Fatigue accumulated from non-magical exertion.

Shadowrun

The Babalú Siphon-Scourge Enchanted Weapon Focus (Force 2 / Necrotic-Restorative Affinity)

  • Item Profile:
    • Type: Weapon Focus (Exotic Melee Weapon: Flail/Whip)
    • Force: 2
    • Reach: 1
    • Damage: (STR + 2)P
    • AP: -1
    • Availability: 6R
    • Weight: 1.0 kg
    • Form: A twenty-two-inch scourge built with a bleached alligator-jawbone handle wrapped in coarse sackcloth, a seed-filled calabash pommel stitched with fourteen cowrie shells, and a Force 2 hematite crystal in the throat. Three rawhide lashes braided with swamp briars terminate in porous bog-iron weights.
    • Astral Signature: Heavy, undulating bruised-violet and earthen-brown aura displaying dual resonance: necrotic extraction intertwined with Santería healing conduits.
  • Passive Traits:
    • Leach-Vein Harvest: When bonded and used to land a successful physical melee Strike against a living, biological entity, the wielder converts kinetic drain into bio-restoration, instantly recovering 1 box of Physical or Stun damage (up to a maximum of 3 boxes cleared per combat encounter).
    • Hemodynamic Scent: The runner receives a +2 dice pool modifier on Perception Tests to detect, track, or locate biological targets within 40 meters that are bleeding or possessing unfilled Physical Damage boxes.
    • Ward of the Penitent: The wielder gains a +2 dice pool modifier on Toxic Resistance Tests against non-magical pathogens, biological warfare agents, and necrotic toxins.
    • Siphon Slipstream: Immediately after a strike that siphons vitality, the wielder gains a +1 dice pool modifier to Defense Tests against the damaged target until the end of the combat turn.
  • Active Features:
    • Babalú’s Siphon-Lash:
      • Action: Complex Action
      • Cost: 1 Drain (Stun)
      • Mechanics: The adept or magician channels energy through the hematite node. The scourge strikes with Reach 2; on a successful hit, the attack deals standard damage plus an unresisted +2S bio-drain. The wielder gains 2 temporary Physical boxes (acting as temporary hit points) that absorb incoming physical damage for up to 10 minutes.
    • Transfusion of the Bitter Gourd:
      • Action: Complex Action
      • Cost: 2 Drain (Physical)
      • Mechanics: The wielder strikes the calabash pommel and touches a conscious ally. The wielder transfers life force, suffering 2 boxes of unresisted Physical damage, while the touched ally clears 4 boxes of damage (Physical or Stun) and immediately recovers from nausea or flash-blindness penalties.
    • Harvest of the Pestilence Cloud:
      • Action: Complex Action
      • Cost: 3 Drain (Physical)
      • Duration: Instantaneous
      • Mechanics: The wielder sweeps the scourge overhead. A 3-meter-radius cloud of violet-grey vapor erupts. Up to three living biological opponents within the cloud must resist 3P damage (Damage Resistance Test vs. Body + Willpower). The wielder heals boxes of damage equal to the total net damage taken by the targets (up to 4 boxes).

Starfinder

Bio-Siphon Scourge Hybrid Tech/Magic Weapon, Level 2

  • Item Profile:
    • Item Level: 2
    • Price: 750 credits
    • Bulk: L
    • Damage: 1d6 P
    • Critical: Siphon 1d4 (wielder regains Stamina equal to the critical damage dealt)
    • Weapon Category: Advanced Melee (One-Handed)
    • Special: Analog, Reach, Trip
    • Capacity: 20 charges (Usage: 1 to 4 charges per activation)
    • Description: A one-handed bio-scourge with an alligator-jawbone grip wrapped in sackcloth, an integrated hematite bio-circuit, and a dried calabash pommel mounted with cowrie shells and dried seeds. Three rawhide micro-cables are braided with barbed briars and weighted with porous bog-iron studs.
    • Chemical Signature: Particulate traces of tobacco resin, crushed melon enzymes, and mineral iron.
  • Passive Abilities:
    • Bio-Energy Harvester: Once per combat encounter, when the wielder drops an enemy’s Hit Points or Stamina using this weapon, they automatically regain 2 Stamina Points.
    • Vital Sensor Array: Grants a +2 insight bonus on Survival and Perception checks made to track or target living creatures within 120 feet that are below their maximum Hit Point value.
    • Penitent Bio-Inoculation: Grants a +2 insight bonus on saving throws against biological diseases, afflictions, and environmental toxins.
  • Active Systems:
    • Siphon-Thorn Strike:
      • Activation: Standard Action
      • Battery Cost: 2 charges
      • Mechanics: The scourge channels a bruised-violet energy surge through the hematite node. The attack gains the Reach property (10 ft.). On a successful hit, it inflicts normal damage plus 1d4 negative energy damage. The wielder gains temporary Hit Points equal to the negative energy damage dealt (up to 4), which last for 10 minutes.
    • Calabash Transfusion:
      • Activation: Standard Action
      • Battery Cost: 2 charges
      • Mechanics: The wielder expends 4 Hit Points to channel vital restorative humors into an adjacent biological ally. The recipient recovers 6 Hit Points and instantly removes the sickened, nauseated, or fatigued condition.
    • Pestilence Cloud Discharge:
      • Activation: Full Action
      • Battery Cost: 4 charges
      • Mechanics: The user spins the scourge, projecting a 10-foot-radius mist of violet-black vapor. Up to three living targets within the area must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 10 + half item level + Key Ability Modifier) or take 2d4 negative energy damage. The wielder regains Stamina equal to half the total damage dealt (up to 6 SP).

Traveller

Bio-Dynamic Siphon Scourge TL 11 Exotic Psionic/Bio-Electric Implement

  • Item Profile:
    • Tech Level: TL 11 (Special / Frontier Relic)
    • Mass: 1.0 kg (Held in 1 Hand)
    • Skill: Melee (Unarmed or Blade)
    • Damage: 2D-1 (Slashing/Bludgeoning)
    • Description: A ritual flail constructed from a composite reptilian jawbone handle, an organic seed-pod acoustic resonator wrapped in fourteen micro-valve shells, a synthetic hematite capacitor node, and three braided bio-fiber lashes armed with barbs and heavy bog-iron contact weights.
    • Sensor Profile: Micro-gravimetric fluid sensor and bio-chemical sniffer emitting faint traces of dried foliage, tobacco, and blood.
  • Passive Traits:
    • Kinetic Bio-Feedback: When a melee strike causes an opponent’s END or STR characteristic to decrease, the wielder recovers 1 point of lost physical characteristic damage (up to 3 points restored per encounter).
    • Hemodynamic Scanner: The implement’s biological resonance detects open wounds, granting DM+2 on Recon or Survival checks to locate or track living, bleeding targets within 40 meters.
    • Bio-Barrier Induction: The carrier gains DM+2 on END checks to resist natural pathogens, toxic airborne spoilage, and biological radiation.
  • Active Features:
    • Siphon-Thorn Overdrive:
      • Time: Significant Action
      • Mechanics: The wielder charges the hematite capacitor. The scourge strikes at an extended reach of up to 3 meters. On a successful hit, the attack deals an additional 1D damage directly to the target’s END characteristic, bypassing standard armor plating. The wielder gains a temporary protective field equivalent to Armor 2 for the next 3 combat rounds.
    • Somatic Transfusion:
      • Time: Significant Action
      • Mechanics: The wielder strikes the seed-pod pommel and touches an ally. The user sacrifices 2 points from their own END characteristic; the recipient instantly recovers 4 points of physical characteristic damage (split as desired between STR, DEX, or END) and recovers from physical fatigue or stun.
    • Aerosol Miasma Vent:
      • Time: Significant Action
      • Duration: 1 combat round
      • Mechanics: The wielder spins the implement, releasing a 2-meter aerosol fog of violet bio-particulates. Up to three living targets in the zone must succeed on an END check (8+) or suffer 1D damage. The wielder absorbs the bio-electric discharge, healing 2 points of physical characteristic damage.

Warhammer

The Scourge of the Ashen Tithe Arcane Weapon / Penitent Relic

  • Item Profile:
    • Item Type: One-Handed Exotic Melee Weapon (Flail Group)
    • Availability: Rare
    • Encumbrance: 1
    • Reach: Long
    • Damage: +SB + 3
    • Qualities: Distract, Entangle, Flexible, Impact
    • Description: A twenty-two-inch scourge crafted with an alligator-jawbone handle bound in rough sackcloth, a dried calabash pommel studded with fourteen cowrie shells that rattle with bitter-melon seeds, and an embedded hematite crystal. Three rawhide thongs braided with swamp thorns terminate in blackened bog-iron weights, giving off the sharp stench of cured tobacco, river silt, and dried blood.
  • Passive Traits:
    • Leach-Vein Harvest: When the bearer scores a successful hit against a living target that suffers at least 1 Wound, the wielder immediately heals 1 lost Wound (up to a maximum of 4 Wounds recovered per combat encounter).
    • Scent of Blood: The bearer gains a +10% bonus on Perception and Track Tests when following the trail of any bleeding or injured quarry within 40 yards.
    • Penitent’s Aegis: The wielder gains a +10% bonus on Toughness Tests to resist natural contagions, diseases, miasmas, and rotting curses.
    • Slipstream Parry: Successfully draining vitality grants a +10% bonus to Melee (Parry) or Dodge Tests against the injured target until the start of the wielder’s next turn.
  • Active Abilities:
    • Babalú’s Reclaiming Lash:
      • Action: Half Action
      • Test: Challenging (+0%) Weapon Skill Test
      • Mechanics: The wielder makes a melee attack with Long reach. On a hit, the weapon inflicts standard damage plus +1d10 necrotic damage that ignores mundane Armor Points. The wielder gains temporary Toughness (+10%) for 1d10 rounds.
    • Transfusion of the Bitter Gourd:
      • Action: Full Action
      • Mechanics: The wielder strikes the calabash pommel with their fist, taking 3 Wounds of unavoidable damage, and touches an ally. The touched ally recovers 1d10+2 Wounds and immediately removes any existing Poisoned, Stunned, or Fatigued conditions.
    • Harvest of the Pestilence Cloud:
      • Action: Full Action
      • Duration: Instantaneous
      • Mechanics: The wielder whirls the scourge in a hissing overhead circle. A cloud of bruised-violet vapor billows in a 2-yard radius. Up to three living enemies within range must pass a Challenging (+0%) Toughness Test or suffer 1d10 damage (ignoring Armor). The wielder regains Wounds equal to half the total damage inflicted (up to a maximum of 6 Wounds).