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Satsnakheli 814 of the Blood Vine Pruning Sickle

—

by

Dale
in

Lore

  • In the shadowed alpine valleys and secluded stone hamlets of Saṃsāra, highland practitioners of Satsnakheli understand that the vitality of the vineyard demands a reciprocal blood-tithe; when ancient grapevines struggle against bitter mountain frosts, blight, or predatory blights, the life force of living intruders is harvested to sustain the roots.
  • Folklore tells of the Mzistvali—the elder vine-witches of the Caucasus foothills—who forged curved iron blades quenched not in river water, but in the fermented lees of wild mountain grapes mixed with goat’s milk and salt, whispering incantations to channel the voracious drinking nature of deep roots directly into iron edges.
  • The number 814 identifies a recognized pattern of ritual harvest implement cataloged among regional agrarian enclaves, originally crafted to prune blighted shoots while allowing an avatar to leech the vitality of hostile trespassers, feeding that stolen life into either their own weary flesh or their depleted companion beasts.
  • Rather than wanton murder, traditional highland ethos treats this siphon as a restorative pruning: shearing away excess vigor from the aggressive and feeding it back to what is withered, starved, or parched.
  • Today, wandering ward-keepers, vineyard sentries, and hedge herbalists wield these sickles to defend sacred wine-cellars and mountain groves, cutting down those who bring rot to the community and drinking their stamina to sustain their vigil.

Description

  • The item is a curved ritual pruning sickle measuring eleven inches in total length, featuring a crescent blade hand-hammered from bog iron that displays dark, mottled temper lines resembling dried wine stains.
  • The inner cutting edge is fine and razor-honed, while the dull outer spine is etched with five archaic Georgian vine-scroll spirals that terminate near a notched thumb-rest.
  • The hilt is carved from seasoned cornelian cherry wood, wrapped in dark oxblood-dyed sheep’s wool cord sealed with bees-pitch, providing a firm, non-slip grip even when wet.
  • A Tier 1 magic crystal—a smooth, flat oval cabochon of dark almandine garnet displaying deep claret and black internal bands—is set into an open bronze ferrule ring nestled between the base of the blade and the wooden handle.
  • A braided leather loop at the pommel holds a single hand-forged bronze pruning hook charm and a dried grapevine tendril, which gently curls and stiffens whenever living creatures bleed nearby.
  • The sickle consistently gives off the heavy, dry aroma of fermented pomace, bitter pomegranate rind, turned garden loam, and copper.

Detailed Stats

  • Item Tier: Tier 1 (Common)
  • Item Classification: Worn / Carried Ritual Implement / Light Melee Weapon (Finesse, Light; 1d4 slashing or piercing damage)
  • Specific Gear Slot: Main-Hand Slot, Off-Hand Slot, or Belt Slot (Stowed in a hardened leather sheath at the hip or small of the back)
  • Armor Check (AC) Modifier: +0 base AC (+1 circumstance bonus to AC when parrying armed melee attacks from targets suffering from bleeding or fatigue).
  • 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 garnet node turns cloudy and the bog iron dulls to brittle lead-grey if reduced to half its total health points or below; the blade snaps at the ferrule and the stone shatters if reduced to 0 health points.
  • Item Weight: 1.2 pounds (lightweight, balanced tool construction; counts against carried gear capacity, losing all weight if placed inside an extradimensional container).
  • Attunement Requirement: Simple attunement (requires pricking the wielder’s thumb against the crescent tip, letting three drops of blood soak into the wool wrap of the hilt, and speaking an ancient highland prayer of harvest; unattunes immediately if stored inside an extradimensional container).
  • Suggested Market Value: 25 silver coins (2 gold and 5 silver coins) in agricultural valleys and vineyard outposts; rising to 35 to 45 silver coins in besieged border keeps, blighted settlements, and outlaw frontiers.

Passive Magic

  • Leach of the Thirsty Vine:
    • Whenever the sickle strikes a living biological creature with blood or sap and deals damage, a faint crimson capillary thread connects the blade to the target for a split second. The wielder immediately regains 1 hit point (or 1 vitality point), while the target experiences an unnatural, dragging lethargy, reducing their land movement speed by 5 feet until the end of their next turn.
  • Scent of the Bleeding Shoot:
    • The garnet cabochon pulses with a dark crimson glow whenever any living creature with an open, bleeding wound comes within 60 feet, instinctively guiding the wielder’s senses toward the injured target’s direction.
  • Rooted Vitality:
    • While gripping the wool-wrapped hilt, the wielder gains a +1 bonus on saving throws against exhaustion, natural disease, and magical drains on strength or vitality, as the sickle continuously regulates the wielder’s internal humors against decay.

Activable Magic

  • Pruning the Vigor (Sap-Drinker Strike):
    • Action Cost: One standard action (or one melee attack).
    • Verbal / Casting Requirement: The wielder whispers a traditional highland pruning chant while dragging the inner edge across a foe’s flesh.
    • Effect: On a successful melee hit, the sickle inflicts normal weapon damage and forces the target to make a DC 12 Constitution (or Fortitude) saving throw. On a failure, the target suffers an additional 1d6 necrotic/vitality damage as a portion of their life force is ripped away in a ribbon of red mist. The wielder absorbs this mist, gaining temporary hit points equal to the vitality damage dealt (lasting for 1 hour).
    • Cooldown: Usable three times per in-game day.
  • Tithe to the Withered (Transfusion of the Must):
    • Action Cost: One standard action.
    • Verbal / Casting Requirement: The wielder touches the garnet ferrule to an ally, plant, or familiar while tapping the blade against their own forearm.
    • Effect: The wielder can sacrifice up to 5 of their own current hit points (or expend stored vitality from a previous drain) and transfer it directly into an adjacent wounded ally or withered agricultural crop. The recipient heals an equal amount of hit points, and any mundane non-magical poison or venom afflicting the recipient is purged as the fresh vitality flushes their veins.
    • Cooldown: Usable three times per in-game day.
  • Winter-Blight Severance (Soul-Frost Ward):
    • Action Cost: One standard action.
    • Verbal / Casting Requirement: The wielder sweeps the crescent blade through the air in a counter-clockwise circle, invoking the cold edge that severs life from rot.
    • Effect: A 10-foot radius aura of chilling, life-suppressing mist expands from the blade for 1 minute. Hostile creatures within the area cannot regain hit points through nonmagical means, and whenever an enemy inside the mist takes slashing or piercing damage, the wielder immediately siphons 1 hit point from the spilled blood.
    • Cooldown: Usable once per day (resets at dusk after the sun sets behind the mountains).

Specific Gear Slot

  • Main-Hand Slot, Off-Hand Slot, or Belt Slot

Tags

  • satsnakheli, georgia, sickle, life-drain, pruning, blood-vine, garnet, cornelian-cherry, vitality-siphon, harvest, common, tier-1, necromancy, vineyard, bog-iron, sap-drinker, oxblood-wool, mzistvali, pomace-scent, almandine, transfusion, vitality-leech, frost-ward, tendril-charm, ritual-crescent

Commerce and Acquisition of the Blood-Vine Pruning Sickle in Saṃsāra

  • Highland Vine-Warden Pantries and Village Cooperatives:
    • Physical Location and Structure: Tucked away in cool, subterranean fermentation cellars, stone press-houses, and cooperative supply barns along the terraced mountain ridges of Saṃsāra. The air is thick with the scent of aged oak casks, sharp vinegar, dried herbs, and sulfur candles used to sterilize vats.
    • Buying Procedure and Pricing: Here, the sickle is regarded as an essential agrarian defense tool, used to sever diseased vine-branches and deter livestock predators or trespassers. The standard baseline retail price is 25 silver coins (2 gold coins and 5 silver coins).
    • Independent farmers, traveling hedgewitches, and itinerant cellar-hands pay the full 25 silver asking price.
    • Recognized members of the Viticulture Guild, village Mzistvali apprentices, or agrarian avatars receive a standard institutional discount of 10% per tier level; a Tier 1 buyer pays 22 silver and 5 copper coins, while a Tier 2 buyer pays 20 silver coins.
    • Transactions are logged via local cellar accounts or registered directly through the Mind’s Eye World Bank transceiver.
    • Selling Procedure and Trade Log: Elders inspect blades brought in by wandering avatars, testing the edge against a dried vine and holding the garnet to the light to ensure it has not fractured from excessive blood-letting.
    • Sellers receive the standard buyout of 10% of the baseline retail price multiplied by the seller’s tier level; a Tier 1 avatar earns 2 silver and 5 copper coins, whereas a Tier 2 avatar receives 5 silver coins.
    • The tool’s lineage number 814 is entered into the communal orchard ledger to monitor regional ritual gear.
  • Frontier Chirurgeon Tents and Outpost Apothecaries:
    • Physical Location and Structure: Located within timber palisades, mountain mining forts, and garrison forward camps where deep wounds, gangrene, and frostbite are common. These cramped tents reek of carbolic wash, dried blood, boiled tallow, and bitter willow-bark tinctures.
    • Buying Procedure and Pricing: Highly sought after by frontier doctors, field surgeons, and camp medics for its ability to surgically siphon necrotic flesh and transfer fresh vitality into dying patients. Because of high survival demand, the retail price rises to 35 silver coins (3 gold coins and 5 silver coins).
    • Unaffiliated mercenaries, bounty hunters, and prospectors pay the full 35 silver coins.
    • Contracted military leeches, licensed orderlies, or guild chirurgeons presenting a charter receive the 10% tier discount, reducing the price to 31 silver and 5 copper coins for a Tier 1 avatar, or 28 silver coins for a Tier 2 avatar.
    • Selling Procedure and Trade Log: Field doctors purchase intact sickles to replace blades broken during emergency field amputations.
    • Buyouts calculate from the 35 silver baseline; a Tier 1 seller receives 3 silver and 5 copper coins, while a Tier 2 seller earns 7 silver coins.
    • Quartermasters often offer immediate trade in dried bandages, clean spirits, or cautery irons if coin is short.
  • Metropolitan Occult Curios and Relic Salons:
    • Physical Location and Structure: Nestled in the winding, gas-lit alleys of major inland cities and academic quarters, hidden behind heavy velvet curtains and mahogany cabinets displaying taxidermy, astrological charts, and ceremonial blades.
    • Buying Procedure and Pricing: Marketed as exotic examples of antique folk-necromancy and traditional Caucasian ritual instruments, commanding an elevated urban curiosity price of 45 silver coins (4 gold coins and 5 silver coins).
    • Wealthy collectors, eccentric dilettantes, and private duelists pay the full 45 silver coins.
    • Registered scholars of the Arcane Academy, chartered alchemists, or licensed museum conservators receive the 10% tier discount, paying 40 silver and 5 copper coins at Tier 1 or 36 silver coins at Tier 2.
    • Each sickle is accompanied by an ink-rubbing of its five spine spirals and a signed affidavit of provenance.
    • Selling Procedure and Trade Log: Curio dealers carefully test the garnet cabochon for responsiveness to fresh blood before confirming a purchase.
    • Buyouts follow the standard 10% formula (yielding 4 silver and 5 copper coins to a Tier 1 avatar or 9 silver coins to a Tier 2 avatar).
    • The transaction is documented in the municipal antiquities register.
  • Borderland Black Markets and Outlaw Caravan Bazaars:
    • Physical Location and Structure: Operated out of abandoned roadside ruins, dry ravine caverns, or shaded caravan corrals along unpatrolled trade boundaries. The air smells of cheap pipe smoke, roasted mutton, unwashed pack mules, and damp canvas.
    • Buying Procedure and Pricing: Prized by bandits, cutpurses, and blood-cult renegades as a concealable, vicious off-hand weapon that keeps the wielder alive in prolonged gutter brawls.
    • Prices fluctuate wildly between 40 and 55 silver coins, driven by the desperation of outlaws operating outside safe havens.
    • Official titles and academic credentials hold zero value in these dens; pricing is governed strictly by intimidation, scarcity, and cold coin.
    • Transactions are carried out exclusively in unminted silver hacksilver, cut rings, or foreign coin to avoid World Bank oversight.
    • Selling Procedure and Trade Log: Wayfarers looking to dump hot or bloodied weapons can sell directly to fences with no questions asked.
    • Dealers pay the flat 10% baseline per seller tier level in raw coin or trade goods, though a persuasive avatar dealing with an injured outlaw boss can sometimes barter a blade for emergency provisions, horses, or contraband maps.

Tactical Roleplay of the Blood-Vine Pruning Sickle Across the Environments of Saṃsāra

  • Mountain Vineyards and Terraced Hillsides:
    • Environmental Context: Steep slate slopes, dense rows of knotted grapevines, narrow stone retaining walls, sudden alpine mists, and encroaching mountain predators or thieves.
    • Defensive Roleplay:
      • While patrolling the terraces under a heavy mountain fog, the sentry uses Scent of the Bleeding Shoot. The almandine garnet pulses with a steady, rhythmic crimson glow, warning the wielder of an injured mountain wolf stalking through the lower vine rows sixty feet down-slope before it leaps from the shadows.
      • In a defensive retreat across a narrow terrace wall, the wielder holds the crescent iron defensively. With Rooted Vitality, the sickle shields the avatar from the bone-chilling mountain drafts and high-altitude exhaustion, keeping their footing steady while pursuers tire on the steep switchbacks.
    • Offensive Roleplay:
      • Ambushes among the trellises favor quick, silent strikes. Slipping behind a poacher attempting to strip the winter stock, the sentry executes Pruning the Vigor (Sap-Drinker Strike). As the honed bog-iron edge hooks around the target’s shoulder, a ribbon of siphoned red mist drains their stamina, leaving the trespasser too weak to run or swing an axe while bolstering the sentry with temporary hit points.
      • Backed against a vineyard wall by multiple raiders, the wielder activates Winter-Blight Severance. A chilling, life-suppressing mist blankets the terrace row, shutting down the enemies’ ability to recover their breath or bind wounds, while every defensive parry and counter-slice feeds fresh vital force back into the sickle’s wielder.
  • Subterranean Karst Caverns, Mines, and Deep Sump Tunnels:
    • Environmental Context: Claustrophobic rock tunnels, stagnant underground pools, damp shale ledges, poisonous spores, and deep-dwelling troglodytes or ravenous burrowers.
    • Defensive Roleplay:
      • Trapped in a flooded drift with an ally suffering from venomous cavern leeches, the avatar invokes Tithe to the Withered (Transfusion of the Must). Touching the warm garnet ferrule to the sick companion while scoring their own forearm, the avatar transfers 5 hit points of vitality, instantly flushing the toxic cave bile from the ally’s veins and stabilizing their breathing.
      • When ambushed in the dark by chitinous crawler-beasts, Leach of the Thirsty Vine ensures that every close-quarters defensive parry or slash siphons a sliver of life back into the wielder’s body, while the unnatural lethargy slows the beasts’ scuttling legs by 5 feet, preventing the party from being surrounded.
    • Offensive Roleplay:
      • Navigating pitch-black tunnels where torches are doused, the wielder relies on the garnet’s blood-sense to track wounded cave vermin that fled into narrow crawlspaces, pinpointing their hiding spots by the glowing crimson stone.
      • Facing a sturdy cavern brute blocking a tunnel exit, the wielder charges and hooks the sickle behind the creature’s knee with Pruning the Vigor. The sudden necrotic drain bypasses thick hide, sapping the brute’s strength and bringing it crashing down onto the stone floor to clear the escape route.
  • Arid Deserts, Salt Flats, and Sun-Scorched Canyons:
    • Environmental Context: Blistering daytime heat, parched canyon mazes, desiccating salt winds, predatory raiders, and extreme dehydration risks.
    • Defensive Roleplay:
      • Under the relentless heat of the salt pans, Rooted Vitality acts as a supernatural regulator, warding off heat exhaustion and muscle cramps that would otherwise collapse an ordinary traveler.
      • When a pack animal or mount collapses from extreme heat and puncture wounds from desert briars, the avatar uses Tithe to the Withered to channel stored vitality into the dying beast, reviving its strength enough to carry the caravan to the next rocky outcrop.
    • Offensive Roleplay:
      • In close-quarters skirmishes inside a narrow box canyon, the avatar triggers Winter-Blight Severance. The freezing, life-draining fog clashes against the desert heat, creating an unnerving micro-climate that disorients desert nomads unaccustomed to winter cold, while suppressing their natural grit and leeching vitality into the wielder with every cut.
      • Engaging evasive desert skirmishers, the wielder lands a quick hook with Leach of the Thirsty Vine. The lingering lethargy robs the agile scout of their mobility on the shifting sand, pinning them down for a decisive finishing blow.
  • Flooded Swamps, Peat Bogs, and Mangrove Bayous:
    • Environmental Context: Stagnant black water, treacherous sinking bogs, rot-grubs, toxic marsh gas, and ambush predators lurking beneath floating weed-mats.
    • Defensive Roleplay:
      • Wading through foul, insect-choked marshland, Rooted Vitality grants constant passive resilience against swamp fevers, gangrene, and rotting spores, keeping the wielder’s blood pure despite knee-deep muck.
      • When an ally is poisoned by a swamp viper or stinging bog-wasp, the avatar immediately expends a charge of Tithe to the Withered, burning out the poison with a surge of transfused, clean vitality before the venom reaches the heart.
    • Offensive Roleplay:
      • Submerged predators lurking under the black water are easily uncovered when injured; Scent of the Bleeding Shoot guides the wielder’s hand straight to the submerged threat through ripples of glowing red resonance in the garnet stone.
      • Cornered on an unstable peat hummock by swamp predators, the wielder lashes out with Pruning the Vigor. Siphoning the beast’s raw life force provides a buffer of temporary hit points, turning an exhausting battle of attrition in the mud into a self-sustaining feast of vitality.

Perception of Activation:

  • User’s Perspective:
    • Sight:
      • The dark almandine garnet set into the bronze ferrule flashes with an inner, smoldering carmine radiance, casting a deep claret glow along the blade.
      • The mottled temper marks on the bog iron seem to shift and flow like dark wine dregs across the metal, while the five engraved vine spirals on the spine ignite with thin threads of luminous crimson light.
      • The razor edge appears surrounded by a translucent, shimmering red haze that curls like tender grapevine shoots into the surrounding air.
    • Sound:
      • A low, predatory hum resonates through the blade, reminiscent of wind whistling through bare mountain briars in late autumn.
      • As life force is siphoned, the wielder hears an unnatural, muffled rhythm in their ears—the frantic, slowing heartbeat of the target mirrored against their own steady pulse.
      • The dangling bronze hook and dried grapevine tendril rattle with a sharp, insect-like click whenever living blood is near.
    • Touch:
      • The oxblood wool wrap around the cornelian cherry handle suddenly tightens against the palm, turning warm and supple as though absorbing body heat.
      • Upon drawing life from a foe, a jolt of liquid warmth rushes up the wielder’s arm into the chest, carrying a prickling sensation like hot wine entering cold veins.
      • When channeling the drain, the blade experiences a sudden magnetic resistance, feeling as though it is slicing through thick, fibrous roots rather than empty air.
    • Smell:
      • A pungent, intoxicating vapor of fermenting wild grape pomace and bitter pomegranate rind fills the lungs, mixed with the warm, metallic stench of fresh copper and damp vineyard soil.
    • Taste:
      • The mouth fills with a dry, tannic astringency, like biting into unripe grape skins or chewing dried pomegranate peel, followed by a faint, warm copper aftertaste.
    • Extra-Sensory Perception:
      • Vitality Mapping: The wielder instinctively perceives the life force of nearby creatures as pulsing capillary networks of crimson and amber light through the skin, instantly identifying where a target is bruised, bleeding, or depleted.
      • Pruning Instinct: The avatar experiences a cold, clinical awareness of weakness, feeling precisely where an adversary’s physical stamina can be severed with the least resistance.
      • Earth-Root Grounding: A profound sense of enduring agrarian antiquity anchors the wielder’s mind, buffering against fear, panic, and bodily exhaustion.
  • Observer’s Perspective:
    • Sight:
      • The garnet cabochon erupts into a pulsing ruby beacon that illuminates the wielder’s hand and forearm in bloody red light.
      • Wisps of crimson mist curl off the honed crescent edge, and upon impact, visible ribbons of pale red vapor are pulled directly out of the victim’s wound into the sickle’s spine.
      • The target’s skin visibly pales and tightens near the strike, taking on a withered, dry appearance like frost-nipped foliage.
    • Sound:
      • Observers hear a faint, sickening hiss as the blade cuts, like cold water splashed over hot stones, accompanied by a dry, rustling rattle from the dangling tendril charm.
      • The struck target lets out a gasp not merely of pain, but of sudden, breath-stealing exhaustion.
    • Touch:
      • Creatures standing within five feet feel a sudden chill in the air, as if a cellar door had been thrown open in the dead of winter.
      • Victims of the strike feel an immediate, heavy numbness spreading from the wound into their limbs, making their muscles feel leaden and unresponsive.
    • Smell:
      • Bystanders detect the sharp, heavy odor of wine cellars, turned loam, and drying blood, overpowering mundane environmental scents.
    • Taste:
      • A phantom dryness coats the palates of nearby observers, leaving a chalky, metallic sensation on the back of the throat.
    • Extra-Sensory Perception:
      • Spiritually sensitive beings and nearby beasts feel an instinctive revulsion—a localized void where natural vigor is forcibly sheared and consumed, triggering an urge to retreat.
  • Positives:
    • Sustained Vitality:
      • The wielder passively recovers stamina and hit points with each strike, turning drawn-out skirmishes into self-sustaining engagements.
    • Target Debuff:
      • Each successful siphon imposes an unnatural, dragging lethargy that slows the enemy down, preventing speedy foes from kiting or disengaging.
    • Concealed Blood Tracking:
      • The garnet acts as a constant beacon for wounded prey or hidden bleeding ambushers up to sixty feet away.
    • Transfusion Utility:
      • Harvested vigor can be freely redistributed into dying allies, companion beasts, or failing crops, curing poisons and stabilizing the fallen.
  • Negatives:
    • Visible Magical Discharge:
      • The bright ruby glow of the garnet and the luminous red mist make stealth and concealment impossible in darkened corridors or at night.
    • Conspicuous Olfactory Signature:
      • The heavy smell of pomace, turned earth, and fresh blood clings to the user, easily alerting scent-tracking beasts and hunting hounds.
    • Parasitic Stigma:
      • Witnesses, common villagers, and religious authorities viewing the visible extraction of red mist often mistake the practitioner for a blood-cultist or malevolent witch, inviting fear and hostility.
    • Touch-Range Requirement:
      • The sickle’s siphoning abilities rely strictly on close-quarters melee contact, putting the wielder in immediate physical danger against heavily armed or armored adversaries.

Crafting Recipe: Satsnakheli Blood-Vine Pruning Sickle

  • Materials Needed:
    • 1 curved ingot of bog iron (approx. 1.5 lbs, rich in manganese and peat sediment).
    • 1 Tier 1 magic crystal (a smooth, flat oval cabochon of dark almandine garnet displaying claret and black internal bands).
    • 1 seasoned billet of cornelian cherry wood (Cornus mas, five inches long, free of cracks, dense and straight-grained).
    • 1 cast bronze ferrule sleeve ring (stepped interior to secure both blade tang and handle tenon, with an open side-cradle for the garnet).
    • 6 feet of hand-spun mountain sheep’s wool cord (dyed deep oxblood using wild madder root and walnut hull).
    • 1 hand-forged miniature bronze pruning hook charm (one inch long, with a punched suspension loop).
    • 1 dried, coiled tendril harvested from a mature highland wild grapevine.
    • 1 strip of cured goatskin leather lace (twelve inches long, for pommel thong and suspension).
    • 2 ounces of natural pine pitch blended with mountain beeswax (bee-pitch sealing resin).
    • 4 fluid ounces of fermented dry red wine must and sediment lees (saperavi or highland black grape).
    • 1 pint of goat’s milk mixed with coarse rock salt (for ritual quench bath).
    • 3 drops of the artisan’s or intended wielder’s own living blood.
  • Tools Required:
    • 1 Charcoal forge and small smithing anvil.
    • 1 Hand hammer and cross-peen forging hammer.
    • 1 Set of fine steel chisels and curved chasing punches (for incising the spine spirals).
    • 1 Flat metal file and whetstones (coarse river slate down to fine oilstone).
    • 1 Woodcarver’s rasp and straight whittling knife.
    • 1 Bronze melting ladle and mini-brazier.
    • 1 Stoneware quenching trough.
    • 1 Leather burnishing tool and fine hand-awl.
  • Skill Requirements:
    • Weaponsmithing / Blacksmithing: Minimum skill rank of 4.
    • Woodworking / Tool Fitting: Minimum skill rank of 2.
    • Mind’s Eye Focusing / Blood-Vine Artifice: Minimum skill rank of 2 (required to align the almandine garnet’s crystal lattice with the bog iron and awaken the Mzistvali vitality-siphon ward).
  • Crafting Steps:
    • Forging and Shaping the Bog-Iron Blade:
      • Heat the bog-iron ingot over hardwood charcoal to a muted cherry-red heat, drawing it out on the anvil into a crescent profile eleven inches in total curved length.
      • Forge the inner bevel with the cross-peen hammer to establish a thin, recurved cutting sweep while keeping the outer spine thick, heavy, and rigid.
      • Form a sturdy, narrow three-inch tang at the base of the crescent.
      • While the iron is still warm, use the fine chisels to chase five traditional Georgian vine-scroll spirals along the dull spine, terminating right before the thumb-rest notch.
    • Quenching and Tempering the Edge:
      • Reheat the forged crescent to an even dull orange.
      • Quench the blade directly into the trough filled with fermented red wine must, salted goat’s milk, and rock salt, cooling the edge rapidly while leaving the tang tough and flexible.
      • Temper the blade over dying charcoal coals until the dark, mottled temper marks resemble dry wine stains across the bog iron.
      • Hone the inner curve on river stones down to a razor-sharp harvest edge.
    • Shaping the Hilt and Fitting the Garnet Seat:
      • Carve the cornelian cherry wood into a contoured five-inch handle, rasping a slight swelling palm-swell and drilling a blind slot for the blade tang.
      • Seat the cast bronze ferrule ring over the junction between the tang and the wooden grip.
      • Whittle the upper seat of the ferrule to form an open, form-fitting bezel cradle that firmly holds the flat oval almandine garnet cabochon.
      • Coat the tang in heated pine pitch, seat it into the cornelian handle, and burnish the fit until completely rigid.
    • Grip Binding and Charm Assembly:
      • Tightly bind the cornelian cherry handle with the oxblood-dyed sheep’s wool cord, starting beneath the bronze ferrule down to the pommel.
      • Rub warm bee-pitch resin into the wool fibers using the bone burnisher, sealing the wrap against moisture and creating a tacky, slip-proof grip.
      • Drill a small lanyard hole through the base of the pommel.
      • Thread the goatskin lace through the hole, knotting it securely to suspend the miniature bronze pruning hook charm alongside the dried wild grapevine tendril.
    • Consecration, Blood-Bonding, and Mind’s Eye Awakening:
      • Anoint the face of the almandine garnet with thick wine lees from the bottom of an aged fermentation vat.
      • Prick the wielder’s thumb and allow three drops of fresh living blood to fall across the garnet and seep into the oxblood wool windings of the hilt.
      • Channel mental energy through the Mind’s Eye into the blade, reciting the Mzistvali prayer of the restorative harvest three times to forge the spiritual bridge between bog iron and living sap.
      • Continue the focus until the almandine garnet pulses with deep crimson light, the dried vine tendril at the pommel curls tautly, and the distinct aroma of fermenting grape pomace, bitter pomegranate, and copper rises from the finished sickle.

Curved Iron of Red Mountain-Wife and Seven Ravenous Thieves of Upper Gorge

In the third cycle of the stone-press, when the cold mountain-root was not yet named by the men who drive wagons, there sat in the high terrace of red marl an ancient woman of two thumbs upon her left wrist whose spoken sound in the notched hazel-staves was set down as Mother-Cutter-of-Sprouts. In the lower speech of the copper-beaters she was called She Who Measures the Marrow of Stalks, but the shepherds who dwell upon the windy shale called her only the Blind Grape-Wife of the Ravine. She held neither house of fired clay nor ox-stall with heavy roof-timbers; she possessed only one earthen basin without feet, three skeins of sheep’s wool dipped in madder-root, and a terrace of nine-and-ten twisted wild vines that clung to the split rock like the grey fingers of dead mountaineers.

Now in those years the great cold came down from the northern peaks before the barley was tied into sheaves. The frost was like white lime scattered upon the road; the springs ceased their singing and turned hard like river-flint; and the leaves of the mountain vines withered until they were like the ears of dead mice upon the stone walls. In the valley below, the grain rotted in the damp pits, and the mountain people were pressed with a terrible hunger.

From the high caves of the black shale there descended seven men of great wickedness whose hides were greased with bear-lard and whose belts were made of twisted horse-gut. The chief of these robbers was a man whose knees were crooked like an ash-bough, whose name in the foreign tongue was Seven-Ox-Eater, though the mountain children knew him only as The Gutter-Knife. He carried an iron club set with river-spikes, and his six companions had broad spears of pig-iron and sacks made of sewn wolf-hides.

“Behold,” spake the Gutter-Knife through his teeth, which were yellow like the tusks of an old boar, “the frost has bitten the fat herds of the valley, and the sheep-pens are empty as a dead skull. But the witch upon the terrace has vats beneath the grey scree where the juice of the mountain sleeps. We will go up with our seven spears; we will cut the thread of her throat, and we will drink the red must from her stone troughs until our bellies swell like sheepskin bladders.”

The seven thieves climbed up the steep path where the loose shale rolls under the foot like dry peas. The sun was sitting behind the jagged ridge like a dull copper pan, and the frost was creeping over the terrace walls like white salt.

The old woman sat upon a flat boulder of cornelian stone at the mouth of her vine-yard. She did not rise, nor did she hold an iron shield before her chest; she held across her lap an eleven-inch crescent blade of bog-iron that was dark like old wine-dregs, chased along its thick back with five running vine-spirals. Between the horn-colored cornelian handle and the curved edge sat an open hoop of bronze holding a round, flat garnet that was dark as sheep’s blood, and from the wood of the handle there hung a single dried vine-twist and a tiny bronze pruning-hook that shook with a dry, bone-like clatter without any wind.

The Gutter-Knife came to the lowest step of the terrace and struck his spear against the stone.

“Old dog-mother who eats bitter roots,” howled the robber, spitting into the dry vine-leaves, “we have come to strip your vineyard to the rock! Give into our wolf-sacks the jars of stored must and the dry cakes of pressed grapes, or my six boys will hang your carcass from the dead walnut-tree to feed the mountain kites!”

The vine-cutter did not lift her eyelids, which were wrinkled like old leather. She spoke with a voice that was not loud, but sounded like dry gravel shifting beneath the heel:

“The winter is long, and the earth is hungry. The nine-and-ten vines upon the rock have drunk the cold frost-wind until their marrow is dry as bone-dust. They have no sweet juice for the throat of the thief. That which has neither worked the soil nor carried the manure-basket has no right to drink of the mountain vessel.”

The seven men laughed with voices like the barking of wild dogs on a sheep-track. The first thief, who was tall like a dead fir-tree and had two scars across his nose, sprang upon the terrace wall with his pig-iron lance.

“If the vine has no juice,” cried he, “we will warm our throats with the blood of your ribs!”

He thrust his heavy spear at the throat of the woman; but she did not leap aside like a deer, nor did she cry out to the village below. She rose with the swiftness of an adder that strikes from the warm stone; her hand, wrapped in oxblood wool, swept the crescent sickle through the freezing air in a curve like the new moon.

The inner edge of the bog-iron did not smash the iron lance; it glanced along the ash-shaft and touched the skin of the robber’s wrist—no deeper than the scratch of a mountain brier when the goat-boy climbs the crags.

Suddenly, the almandine garnet in the bronze collar ignited with a terrible, smoldering crimson glare, like a coal blown upon in the night. The five spirals along the iron spine hissed with red fire, and a thick, curling vapor smelling of sour grape-must and bitter pomegranate rind poured from the razor edge.

Out of the small scratch upon the robber’s wrist there burst a bright ribbon of red steam, twisting and coiling like a living vine-shoot through the air, diving straight into the dark temper-marks of the blade.

The tall thief did not shout; the spear fell from his fingers and struck the stones with a dull clatter. His knees bent beneath him as if his sinews had been severed with a butcher’s cleaver; his skin turned grey and dry like the belly of a dead toad, and he fell upon his face among the gravel, gasping for breath like a carp pulled from the river into the hot sand. He tried to rise, but his limbs were heavy as waterlogged timber; the vigor of his youth had been sheared away in a single breath.

The old woman stood over him; her withered cheeks, which had been pale and hollow from the winter hunger, took on a flush of youthful carmine, and her breath blew sweet and warm like the air of a summer wine-cellar.

“Behold,” spake the Blind Wife, “the vine does not die of the frost if it finds a wild shoot to prune.”

The six robbers stepped backward upon the shale, their teeth rattling in their jaws like stones in a copper pot. But the Gutter-Knife was full of pride and the madness of bear-grease.

“She has an imp in her iron,” roared the chief, waving his iron-spiked mace. “Surround the hag! Drive your three-pronged lances through her woolen coat all at once, and smash the red pebble against the rock!”

The six thieves leaped upon the terrace together, their iron blades gleaming in the dusk.

The old woman did not flee into her cave. She swung the crescent blade in a great circle before her breasts, murmuring the ancient harvest-prayer that the mountain mothers chant when they cut the rotten bunches from the vine-stock before the autumn pressing.

A cold, grey-red mist, smelling of frost and turned cemetery loam, rolled outward from the sickle in a ten-foot ring. Wherever the mist touched the chests of the robbers, their breath caught in their gullets as if they had swallowed crushed ice.

The second thief lunged with an iron cleaver; the vine-cutter stepped within his guard and drew the inner curve of the sickle across his thigh. Again the garnet stone pulsed with the rhythm of an anvil; a second ribbon of smoking red vitality was ripped from his veins, and the thief fell backward with a groan, his legs withered and curled up like the shoots of a burned vine.

The third thief and the fourth thief struck together, their lances piercing her woolen mantle; but wherever their iron touched her skin, no blood flowed, for the stolen life of the two fallen men had armored her veins with the resilience of ancient oak-roots. She parried the thrusts with the dull spine of the bog-iron, and with two swift, hooking strokes she clipped their wrists.

Down they went upon the terrace flagstones, their broad muscles shrinking within their grease-stained tunics, their eyes clouding with an unnatural, bone-chilling sleep, while the old woman’s back straightened and her shoulders grew broad and firm like the shoulders of an ox-driver.

When the remaining two robbers saw that their four companions lay upon the ground like empty wine-skins that have been drained through the spout, they dropped their shields and turned to flee down the rocky gorge. But the sickle’s stone pulsed with a sharp, hunting light; the wielder smelled the warm copper of their sweat across sixty paces, and leaping from terrace to terrace with the nimbleness of a mountain leopard, she cut their retreat. Two swift strokes sheared the strength from their heels, leaving them crawling upon their bellies in the gravel, weeping like small children who have lost their way in the winter forest.

Now the Gutter-Knife stood alone upon the terrace wall. His six horse-gut sacks were empty; his thirty-and-two teeth were shaking in his beard; and his club hung down like a dead bough.

“Woman of the ditch,” he whimpered, falling upon his knees upon the sharp slate, “do not take the breath from my chest! I have three jars of honey hidden in the black cave, and nine sheep-skins of clean fat. I will give them into your hand, and I will be your ox to carry the water-jugs from the river until the third winter.”

The old woman walked to the edge of her terrace. Her hair was no longer white like mountain frost, but dark like the chestnut-bark, and her eyes burned with the clear, terrible luster of the almandine stone.

“You came to take the store of the vineyard,” said she, “having never trimmed a cane, nor carried the lime-bucket, nor knelt before the roots when the dry wind blew from the salt-flats. You have lived by cutting the thread of other men’s distaffs, eating that which you did not sow. The mountain vineyard does not suffer the useless brier to choke the row; that which drinks the rain and yields only thorns must be pruned back to the barren wood.”

She reached out with the sickle; but she did not sever his throat-pipe, nor did she spill his brains upon the rock. She pressed the curved hook of the bog-iron against the nape of his neck, right where the great muscle joins the bone.

The garnet cabochon flared with such brilliance that the white peaks of the mountain shone red like the dawn. The Gutter-Knife let out a long, hollow shriek—not of iron tearing the flesh, but of his very soul being drawn through a narrow sieve.

All the broad grease of his limbs, all the furious strength of his bear-grease joints, and all the stolen vigor of his forty years of mountain murder were drawn out of his body in a thick, swirling river of carmine mist that poured into the five vine-scrolls along the blade’s spine.

His great body collapsed like an empty grain-sack dropped from the wagon. His black beard turned white like mountain lichen; his skin clung dry and yellow to his ribs; and his fingers curled into stiff claws that could not lift so much as a dead bough. He lay upon the flagstones—not dead, but withered to the very marrow of his skeleton, possessing only enough breath to blow the dry chaff from his lips.

The old woman turned from the fallen chief. She did not keep the great torrent of stolen life within her own breast, for she knew that an avatar who holds more vigor than their vine can carry will burst like an overfilled skin.

She walked through the nine-and-ten rows of her terrace garden.

Stopping before the oldest vine-stock—a crooked, black trunk that had been split by the frost of the early moon—she pressed the warm bronze ferrule and the glowing garnet against the wounded bark. She tapped her own forearm with the flat of the bog-iron, murmuring the sacred words of the Mzistvali that command the sap to return to the vine.

A gentle, rosy light flowed from the stone into the black wood. The frost-nipped bark sighed with a sound like a summer rain; the deep cracks closed like healed flesh; and out of the dead, brittle spurs there sprang fresh, green shoots that uncurled their five-lobed leaves in the middle of the freezing mountain wind. Along the green canes there swelled thirty-and-three heavy clusters of deep purple grapes, dripping with sweet must that smelled of honey, pomegranate, and the rich fat of the earth.

She went to the second vine, and to the third, until all nine-and-ten stocks were clothed in green leaves and purple fruit, defying the winter cold and filling the narrow canyon with the fragrance of a great harvest.

Then she took the four empty earthen bowls that sat by her cave-mouth, and gathering the fallen robbers into a row against the terrace wall, she gave to each of them a little cup of the warm water pressed from the new grapes, so that they did not perish of the cold, but remained alive to see the garden they had sought to destroy flourish in the snow.

“Go down into the valley,” said she to the six crawling thieves, when the morning star rose over the red crag. “Carry your chief upon a litter of dry briers. Tell the people of the river that the vine-sickle has two faces: it drinks the strength of the proud robber to preserve the root, but it pours out the sweet must for the hungry who wait upon the season.”

And the six thieves crawled down the switchbacks upon their hands and knees, carrying the dried-up body of their master upon four sticks of hazel, while the Blind Grape-Wife of the Ravine stood upon her terrace wall in the morning sun, her sickle shining upon her hip, watching the mountain wind ripple the green leaves of the winter harvest.

This history was found inscribed upon five sheets of rolled lead pulled from an earthen jar beneath the floor of the ancient press-house at the mouth of the gorge, which the scribes of the plain have translated with many crooked strokes and omissions, being ignorant of the names of the ancient vines and the mysteries of the mountain harvest.

Moral of the Story

He who lives by violently consuming that which he did not plant will find his own strength sheared away to nourish the very roots he sought to trample; for true authority lies not in the hoarding of vigor, but in pruning away the malice of the parasite so that the fruitful and the humble may endure the bitter winter.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu

The Blood-Vine Pruning Sickle

Enchanted Folk Weapon / Mzistvali Fetish

  • Item Profile:
    • Skill: Fighting (Brawl) or Fighting (Sickle / Short Blade)
    • Damage: 1D4+2 + half Damage Bonus (Impaling)
    • Base Range: Touch
    • Uses per Round: 1
    • Malfunction / Breakage: 98–00
    • Reservoir: Stores up to 6 Magic Points (MP)
    • Sanity Cost: 0 Sanity to carry; 1 Sanity point upon initiating a forced vitality drain (Sap-Drinker Strike) on a living human.
    • Form: An eleven-inch bog-iron crescent blade with five chased vine spirals along the spine, an almandine garnet set into a bronze ferrule ring, and an oxblood wool-wrapped cornelian cherry handle. Emits a strong aroma of fermented must, bitter pomegranate, and copper.
  • Passive Traits:
    • Scent of the Bleeding Shoot: The almandine garnet pulses with deep crimson light within 20 yards of any living creature with an open, bleeding wound, granting a Bonus Die to Track or Spot Hidden checks directed toward them.
    • Rooted Vitality: The wielder receives a Bonus Die on CON checks to resist physical exhaustion, hypothermia, natural poisons, or life-draining sorcery.
    • Thirsty Vine: On an ordinary successful melee hit against a living target with blood or sap, the wielder immediately recovers 1 hit point, and the victim suffers a Penalty Die on movement-related DEX checks until the end of the next combat round.
  • Active Powers:
    • Sap-Drinker Strike:
      • Cost: 2 Magic Points and 1 Sanity Point.
      • Mechanics: When landing an Extreme success or an impaling hit, the wielder siphons vitality directly through the blade. The victim must succeed on an Extreme CON check or suffer an additional 1D6 hit points of damage as vitality is extracted as a crimson mist. The wielder gains the drained damage as temporary hit points (lasting 1 hour, exceeding maximum HP by no more than 6).
    • Transfusion of the Must:
      • Cost: 1 Magic Point.
      • Mechanics: The wielder touches the garnet ferrule to a dying, poisoned, or withered target and scores their own arm, sacrificing up to 5 of their own hit points. The recipient heals hit points equal to the amount sacrificed, and any mundane poison or biological disease affecting them is immediately neutralized.
    • Soul-Frost Ward:
      • Cost: 3 Magic Points.
      • Mechanics: Swung in a circle, the blade unleashes a 3-yard radius of freezing, life-suppressing mist for 1D6 rounds. Living foes within the zone cannot regain hit points, and whenever an adversary inside the mist suffers piercing or slashing damage, the wielder siphons 1 hit point automatically.

Blades in the Dark

The Red-Lees Sickle

Arcane Implement / Weapon, 1 Load

  • Item Profile:
    • Load: 1 (worn at the belt or concealed beneath a coat)
    • Appearance: A recurved bog-iron blade exhibiting dark, wine-mottled temper lines, five chased spirals on the spine, and an inset dark almandine garnet cabochon set in bronze above an oxblood-wrapped hilt.
    • Trait / Affinity: Folk necromancy, Georgian harvest rites, visceral vitality siphoning.
  • Passive Traits:
    • Scent of the Opened Vein: You gain +1 Potency on Hunt or Survey rolls when tracking bleeding targets, wounded scoundrels, or injured beasts within close range.
    • Vitality Leech: When you inflict harm on a living adversary in close combat using the sickle, you recover 1 tick on an active healing clock, and the target suffers reduced movement/initiative (operating at -1 Effect on immediate physical reactions).
    • Iron Constitution: When rolling to resist physical fatigue, natural toxins, or rot, you operate with improved position or +1d to your resistance roll.
  • Active Arcane Abilities:
    • Pruning the Vigor:
      • Cost: 1 Stress.
      • Action: Skirmish or Attune.
      • Effect: Hook the blade into an opponent’s flesh and siphon their vital spark. On a standard success, you inflict an additional tier of harm (treating the blow as high Potency) as a ribbon of red mist flows into the blade, and you gain an edge (improved effect or reduced cost on your next physical action).
    • Transfusion of the Must:
      • Cost: 1 Stress (and accept level 1 harm: Drained).
      • Action: Tinker or Attune.
      • Effect: Touch the garnet to a wounded or poisoned crewmate. You clear a level 1 or level 2 physical harm on them, purge any mundane poison in their bloodstream, or instantly revitalize a dying plant or crop.
    • Winter-Blight Ward:
      • Cost: 2 Stress.
      • Action: Attune or Tempest.
      • Effect: Sweep the sickle in a counter-clockwise circle. A chilling, life-suppressing mist blankets your immediate area for a few moments. Opponents inside the zone cannot use natural recovery, and whenever an enemy in the zone suffers harm, you harvest a surge of energy to clear 1 Stress.

Dungeons & Dragons

Sickle of the Blood-Vine

Weapon (Sickle), Common (Requires Attunement by an Avatar)

  • Item Profile:
    • Weapon Category: Simple Melee Weapon
    • Damage: 1d4 slashing
    • Properties: Light, Finesse
    • Weight: 1.2 lb.
    • Description: A curved bog-iron blade bearing dark temper marks like wine stains and five etched vine spirals along the spine. The cornelian cherry hilt is wrapped in oxblood-dyed wool sealed with bee-pitch, featuring an almandine garnet nestled in a bronze ferrule and a dried grapevine tendril charm. Smells of crushed grapes, fermented must, and copper.
  • Passive Traits:
    • Leach of the Thirsty Vine: When you hit a living creature that has blood or sap with this magic weapon, the target’s speed is reduced by 5 feet until the end of its next turn, and you immediately regain 1 hit point.
    • Scent of the Bleeding Shoot: While holding or carrying the sickle, you sense the direction of any creature with an open wound within 60 feet, and the garnet sheds a dim crimson glow in a 5-foot radius when such a creature is near.
    • Rooted Vitality: While holding the sickle, you have advantage on saving throws against exhaustion, natural diseases, and effects that reduce your maximum hit points.
  • Active Features:
    • Pruning the Vigor (3/Day): When you hit a living creature with this weapon, you can force the target to make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the target takes an extra 1d6 necrotic damage, and you gain temporary hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt, which last for 1 hour.
    • Tithe to the Withered (3/Day): As an action, you touch the garnet ferrule to an adjacent creature or plant and sacrifice up to 5 of your current hit points. The target regains an equal number of hit points, and one mundane nonmagical disease or poison affecting it is cured.
    • Winter-Blight Severance (1/Day): As an action, you sweep the blade in a circle, generating a 10-foot radius of chilling, life-suppressing mist centered on yourself that lasts for 1 minute. Hostile creatures inside the mist cannot regain hit points, and whenever an enemy within the mist takes slashing or piercing damage, you regain 1 hit point.

Knave

Blood-Vine Sickle

Item (1 Slot, Hands: 1)

  • Item Profile:
    • Inventory: Occupies 1 item slot (weapon/hand).
    • Durability: 3 Quality.
    • Damage: 1d6 slashing (treated as a hand weapon).
    • Appearance: A crescent bog-iron blade with dark wine-stain temper lines, an inset almandine garnet set in bronze, and an oxblood wool grip smelling of fermented grapes and raw copper.
  • Item Rules:
    • Sap Drain: When you hit an unarmored or living creature, you immediately regain 1 hit point, and the target’s movement is slowed by one-third for their next turn.
    • Blood Sense: The garnet glows deep red whenever a bleeding creature is within 60 feet, preventing the wielder from being surprised by wounded foes.
    • Hardy Root: The bearer rolls with Advantage on Constitution saves to resist diseases, poisons, cold, and exhaustion while holding this sickle.
    • Prune Vigor (3/Day):
      • On a successful attack against a living foe, expend a use to deal an extra 1d6 damage.
      • You gain temporary hit points equal to the extra damage dealt (lost after a rest).
    • Transfusion (3/Day):
      • As an action, cut your own flesh to sacrifice up to 5 hit points.
      • An adjacent companion or dying creature touched with the bronze garnet ferrule regains that exact number of hit points and is cured of natural poisons or venom.
    • Winter Severance (1/Day):
      • As an action, swing the sickle overhead to call forth a 10-foot sphere of freezing mist for 10 rounds.
      • Enemies within cannot heal, and whenever an enemy takes cutting damage within the mist, you siphon 1 hit point from their spilled blood.

Fate

The Blood-Vine Pruning Sickle

Extra (Aspect and Stunts)

  • Item Profile:
    • Aspect: Ritual Harvest Sickle of the Mzistvali
    • Description: An eleven-inch recurved bog-iron sickle bearing dark, wine-mottled temper stains and five chased vine spirals along its dull spine. The cornelian cherry handle is bound in oxblood-dyed mountain wool sealed with bee-pitch, featuring an almandine garnet cabochon seated in a bronze ferrule ring and a dangling vine-tendril charm. Smells heavily of fermented pomace, bitter pomegranate, and raw copper.
  • Stunts and Mechanical Rules:
    • Thirsty Vine Cut: When you successfully attack a living opponent using Fight while wielding the sickle, you may choose to reduce the stress dealt by 1 to inflict the situational aspect Enervating Lethargy on the target with one free invoke, or clear 1 box on your lowest physical stress track.
    • Scent of the Bleeding Shoot: Gain a +2 bonus to Notice when actively tracking, detecting, or uncovering creatures with open, bleeding wounds within your zone or adjacent zones.
    • Rooted Vitality: Gain a +2 bonus to Physique when rolling to resist exhaustion, environmental frost, natural diseases, or supernatural vitality drains.
    • Pruning the Vigor: Once per scene, when you succeed with style on a Fight attack against a living foe, you may spend 1 Fate Point to force the target to absorb an additional 2-shift physical hit as a ribbon of red mist tears away, while granting you the boost Stolen Vigor with two free invokes to enhance physical actions or defense.
    • Tithe to the Withered: Once per scene, you may take 1 physical stress to touch the garnet ferrule to an adjacent ally, familiar, or plant. The recipient immediately clears a 1-point or 2-point physical stress box, or removes a minor poison/disease aspect.
    • Winter-Blight Severance: Once per session, spend 1 Fate Point and an action to sweep the blade counter-clockwise, creating the zone aspect Soul-Frost Mist with two free invokes. While within the zone, enemies cannot recover stress or invoke recovery stunts, and any successful physical strike made against an enemy inside the mist allows the wielder to clear 1 physical stress.

Numenera & Cypher System

Satsnakheli Vitality Sickle

Artifact (Level 2)

  • Item Profile:
    • Level: 2
    • Form: An eleven-inch curved bio-synthetic iron crescent edged in fine crystalline alloy, wrapped in dark crimson cord with an almandine garnet energy node seated in a bronze housing.
    • Weapon Classification: Light weapon (inflicts 2 points of damage; eases attack rolls by one step).
    • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (checked upon activating Pruning the Vigor, Tithe to the Withered, or Winter-Blight Severance).
  • Passive Effects:
    • Siphon Edge: Whenever the sickle inflicts damage on a living biological target, the wielder recovers 1 point to their Might Pool, and the target’s movement speed is hindered by one step on their next turn.
    • Hematological Sensor: The garnet cabochon pulses crimson whenever a living creature with an open wound or bleeding status comes within short range (50 feet), easing tasks to detect or track them by one step.
    • Rooted Immunity: Tasks to resist environmental cold, bodily fatigue, natural biological poisons, and cellular rot are eased by one step.
  • Active Powers:
    • Pruning the Vigor (Action):
      • The user strikes a living target while channeling the garnet node. On a successful attack, the target suffers an additional 3 points of damage as vitality is extracted as a red vapor, and the wielder gains +1 to Armor for 1 hour from the absorbed energy. Check for Depletion.
    • Tithe to the Withered (Action):
      • The wielder touches the bronze garnet ferrule to an adjacent living being and expends 2 points from their own Might Pool. The recipient recovers 3 points to a Pool of their choice, and any active mundane poison or venom effect in their system is neutralized. Check for Depletion.
    • Winter-Blight Severance (Action):
      • The wielder creates a chilling, life-suppressing field within immediate range (10 feet) that lasts for 1 minute. Foes within the field cannot regain Pool points, and each time an enemy within the field suffers cutting or piercing damage, the wielder immediately gains 1 point to their Speed Pool. Check for Depletion.

Pathfinder

Sickle of the Blood-Vine

Item 2

Magical, Necromancy, Primal

  • Item Profile:
    • Price: 35 gp
    • Usage: Held in 1 hand
    • Bulk: L
    • Base Weapon: Sickle (Damage: 1d4 Slashing; Traits: Agile, Finesse, Trip)
    • Description: A curved bog-iron crescent etched with five running vine spirals and dark temper lines resembling wine dregs. The cornelian cherry handle is bound in oxblood wool sealed in pitch, mounted with an almandine garnet set in bronze and a dried grapevine tendril. The weapon exudes the scent of fermenting grape must, pomegranate rind, and raw copper.
  • Passive Effects:
    • Leach of the Thirsty Vine: When you hit a living creature that has blood or sap using this sickle, you regain 1 Hit Point, and the target takes a –5-foot status penalty to its Speeds until the end of its next turn.
    • Scent of the Bleeding Shoot: You gain a +1 item bonus to Survival checks to Track creatures that are currently suffering from persistent bleed damage or have an open wound, and the garnet sheds dim light in a 5-foot radius when such a creature is within 60 feet.
    • Rooted Vitality: You gain a +1 item bonus to saving throws against diseases, poisons, environmental cold, and effects that would impose the fatigued condition.
  • Active Abilities:
    • Pruning the Vigor (Single Action):
      • Frequency: Three times per day.
      • Traits: Necromancy, Primal.
      • Requirements: Your previous action was a successful Strike with this sickle against a living creature.
      • Effect: You rip a ribbon of vital energy from the wound. The target must succeed on a DC 16 Fortitude save or take 1d6 void (necrotic) damage. You gain temporary Hit Points equal to the void damage dealt, lasting for 1 hour.
    • Tithe to the Withered (Single Action):
      • Frequency: Three times per day.
      • Traits: Healing, Manipulate, Primal.
      • Effect: You tap the garnet against yourself and touch an adjacent wounded creature, spending up to 5 of your current Hit Points. The target regains Hit Points equal to the amount spent, and you attempt a counteract check against one mundane poison or disease afflicting the target using your class DC or spell DC with a counteract level of 1.
    • Winter-Blight Severance (Two Actions):
      • Frequency: Once per day.
      • Traits: Aura, Cold, Necromancy, Primal.
      • Effect: You sweep the sickle in an arc, producing a 10-foot emanation of life-suppressing frost mist for 1 minute. Enemies in the aura cannot regain Hit Points from nonmagical healing or regeneration, and whenever an enemy inside the emanation takes slashing or piercing damage, you regain 1 Hit Point.

Savage Worlds

The Blood-Vine Sickle

Minor Arcane Relic

  • Item Profile:
    • Weight: 1.5 lbs.
    • Damage: Str+d4 (AP 1)
    • Min Str: d4
    • Trappings: Crescent bog-iron blade with dark wine-stain temper lines, an inset almandine garnet in a bronze collar, and an oxblood-dyed wool handle with a dried tendril charm. Smells of crushed wine pomace, bitter pomegranate, and copper.
  • Passive Abilities:
    • Thirsty Vine: When the wielder inflicts a Shaken result or Wound on a living target with blood or sap, the wielder immediately heals 1 point of damage or removes a level of Fatigue, while the target’s Pace is reduced by 2 until the end of their next turn.
    • Scent of the Bleeding Shoot: The wielder receives a +2 bonus on Notice and Survival (Tracking) rolls directed at targets that are wounded or bleeding within 12 inches (24 yards).
    • Rooted Vitality: The bearer gains a +2 bonus on Vigor rolls to resist environmental cold, natural poisons, diseases, and magical drains on physical attributes.
  • Active Powers:
    • Pruning the Vigor:
      • Cost: Action.
      • Frequency: 3 times per day.
      • Trapping: A ribbon of crimson vapor is drawn from the cut into the blade’s spine.
      • Effect: On a successful hit with the sickle, the wielder activates this ability to deal an extra +1d6 damage. If the blow causes damage, the wielder gains a temporary +1 Toughness bonus that lasts for 1 hour (does not stack with itself).
    • Tithe to the Withered:
      • Cost: Action.
      • Frequency: 3 times per day.
      • Trapping: Touching the warm garnet ferrule to a companion’s skin.
      • Effect: The wielder voluntarily suffers 1 level of Fatigue (or sacrifices 1 Wound) to instantly heal 1 Wound on an adjacent touched ally or creature, or immediately cure them of an active poison or venom condition.
    • Winter-Blight Severance:
      • Cost: Action.
      • Frequency: Once per day.
      • Trapping: Sweeping the blade overhead to vent a chilling, blood-red frost aura.
      • Effect: Creates a Medium Blast Template of life-suppressing mist centered on the wielder for 5 rounds. Enemies inside cannot make Natural Healing rolls or benefit from nonmagical medicine, and whenever an adversary inside the template suffers damage from a cutting or piercing attack, the wielder heals 1 level of Fatigue or 1 Wound.

Shadowrun

The Blood-Vine Pruning Focus

Weapon Focus / Enchanted Melee Implement (Force 2 / Health & Manipulation Affinity)

  • Item Profile:
    • Type: Weapon Focus (Blades)
    • Force: 2
    • Availability: 6R
    • Cost: 18,000¥
    • Damage: (STR + 2)P
    • Reach: 0
    • Attack Rating: 8 / — / — / — / —
    • Weight: 0.6 kg
    • Form: An eleven-inch recurved crescent blade hand-hammered from bog iron, bearing dark, wine-mottled temper marks and five chased vine spirals along the spine. The cornelian cherry handle is bound in oxblood-dyed wool sealed with bee-pitch, featuring an almandine garnet cabochon mounted in an open bronze ferrule ring and a dangling dried vine-tendril charm.
    • Astral Signature: Dark crimson and burgundy aura pulsing with the aroma of fermenting grape must, crushed pomegranate, turned garden loam, and raw copper.
  • Passive Traits:
    • Thirsty Vine Leach: Whenever the blade inflicts Physical damage on an unarmored or biological living target with blood or sap, the wielder immediately clears 1 box of Stun damage (or 1 box of Physical damage if Stun is clear). The target suffers a –2 penalty to their Movement speed until the end of their next combat turn.
    • Scent of the Bleeding Shoot: The almandine garnet glows deep crimson within 20 meters of any living target with an active bleeding injury or an open wound, granting a +2 dice pool modifier on Perception Tests to spot or track them.
    • Rooted Vitality: The wielder receives a +2 dice pool modifier on Body and Willpower Tests to resist toxins, biological pathogens, and magical exhaustion or attribute drains.
  • Active Features:
    • Pruning the Vigor (Sap-Drinker Strike):
      • Action: Complex Action (Melee Attack)
      • Cost: 1 Drain (Stun)
      • Mechanics: When landing a successful strike with the focus against a living biological target, the wielder may spend 1 Edge to rip away vital essence in a ribbon of red mist. The target must pass a Body + Willpower Test against a threshold equal to the wielder’s net hits or suffer an additional 2P unsoakable necrotic damage. The wielder gains temporary bonus boxes on their Physical Condition Monitor equal to the additional damage taken (lasting for 1 hour, maximum +3 boxes).
    • Transfusion of the Must:
      • Action: Complex Action
      • Cost: 1 Drain (Physical)
      • Mechanics: Touching the garnet ferrule to an adjacent injured team member or bio-organism, the wielder voluntarily takes 1 or 2 boxes of unsoakable Physical damage to instantly heal the target by an equal number of boxes and purge one mundane poison or biological pathogen from their system.
    • Winter-Blight Severance:
      • Action: Simple Action
      • Cost: 2 Drain (Stun)
      • Mechanics: The wielder sweeps the blade in a circle, releasing a chilling, life-suppressing mist in a 3-meter radius for 2 combat turns. Hostile targets within the mist cannot benefit from First Aid or regenerative enhancements, and each time an enemy inside the zone suffers Physical damage from a slashing or piercing strike, the wielder clears 1 box of Stun damage.

Starfinder

Satsnakheli Vitality-Drain Sickle

Hybrid Tech/Magic Weapon, Level 2

  • Item Profile:
    • Item Level: 2
    • Price: 750 credits
    • Bulk: L
    • Weapon Category: Basic Melee (One-Handed)
    • Damage: 1d4 S
    • Critical: Bleed 1d4
    • Capacity: 20 charges (Usage: 1 to 4 charges per activation)
    • Special: Analog, Operative
    • Description: An 11-inch curved bog-iron crescent blade reinforced with bio-conductive ceramic matrices, etched with five vine spirals along the spine. Mounted on a cornelian cherry grip wrapped in oxblood wool, the weapon features an almandine garnet resonator bead housed in a conductive bronze collar with a dangling vine-tendril sensor. Emits a rich scent of fermented must, bitter pomegranate, and copper.
  • Passive Abilities:
    • Vital Siphon: When the wielder scores a hit against a living biological creature that deals Stamina or Hit Point damage, the wielder recovers 1 Stamina Point, and the target’s land speed is reduced by 5 feet until the end of its next turn.
    • Hematic Tracker: The garnet node pulses crimson when any living creature with fewer than maximum Hit Points is within 60 feet, granting a +2 insight bonus on Survival checks to track them.
    • Rooted Resistance: The wielder gains a +1 enhancement bonus on Fortitude saving throws against poisons, diseases, and environmental cold hazards.
  • Active Systems:
    • Sap-Drinker Strike:
      • Activation: Standard Action (Melee Attack)
      • Battery Cost: 2 charges
      • Mechanics: On a successful hit against a living target, the blade discharges a crimson energy feed, dealing an extra 1d6 negative energy damage (Fortitude DC 13 half). The wielder gains temporary Hit Points equal to the negative energy damage dealt (lasting 1 hour).
    • Vitality Transfusion:
      • Activation: Standard Action
      • Battery Cost: 2 charges
      • Mechanics: The user touches the garnet ferrule to an adjacent ally and sacrifices up to 5 of their own current Hit Points. The ally recovers Hit Points equal to the amount sacrificed and gains an immediate saving throw with a +2 insight bonus against any active mundane poison or disease.
    • Soul-Frost Aura:
      • Activation: Move Action
      • Battery Cost: 4 charges
      • Mechanics: The wielder releases a 10-foot-radius mist of life-suppressing cold centered on themselves for 1 minute. Hostile creatures within the area cannot regain Stamina Points or Hit Points, and whenever an adversary in the radius takes slashing or piercing damage, the wielder immediately recovers 1 Stamina Point.

Traveller

Highland Bio-Siphon Sickle

TL 10 Exotic Bio-Resonance Blade

  • Item Profile:
    • Tech Level: TL 10 (Frontier / Exotic Relic)
    • Mass: 0.5 kg
    • Skill: Melee (Blade)
    • Damage: 1D+2 (Slashing)
    • Traits: AP 1, Bio-Resonant
    • Form: An eleven-inch recurved bog-iron blade with molecular-density edge treatment, dark wine-stain temper lines, and five engraved spirals along the spine. The grip is carved from dense highland hardwood, bound in crimson insulation fibers, and fitted with an almandine garnet harmonic focal crystal set in bronze.
    • Sensor Profile: Passive olfactory emission of fermenting organic compounds, crushed pomace, and copper particulate.
  • Passive Traits:
    • Biological Siphon: When the sickle inflicts damage on a living biological target that penetrates Armor, the wielder immediately clears 1 point of characteristic damage or recovers 1 point of fatigue, while the target suffers DM–1 on their next physical check.
    • Organic Trauma Sensor: The garnet crystal shifts hue to bright red when brought within 20 meters of any biological organism with open wounds or internal hemorrhaging, granting DM+2 on Recon or Survival checks to locate them.
    • Cellular Equilibrium: The wielder receives DM+2 on Endurance checks to resist hypothermia, biological toxins, fatigue, or radiation sickness.
  • Active Features:
    • Vigor Pruning Surge:
      • Time: Minor Action (during a Melee attack)
      • Mechanics: The wielder channels the resonance circuit. If the attack hits, it deals an additional +1D damage that bypasses non-sealed armor as vital energy is extracted. The wielder gains DM+1 on their next physical check within 10 minutes.
    • Transfusion Cycle:
      • Time: Significant Action
      • Mechanics: The operator touches the bronze ferrule to an adjacent wounded companion, taking 2 points of damage to their own END characteristic. The recipient immediately heals 3 points to a damaged physical characteristic and halts the effects of natural neurotoxins or blood agents.
    • Frost-Ward Suppression Field:
      • Time: Minor Action
      • Duration: 3 combat rounds
      • Mechanics: Sweeping the blade vents a cold, pressurized micro-cloud in a 3-meter radius. Biological adversaries in the cloud cannot receive natural stabilization, and any kinetic or cutting hit delivered to an enemy inside the cloud restores 1 point of END to the wielder.

Warhammer

The Blood-Vine Pruning Sickle

Magical Weapon / Folk Talisman (Highland Witchcraft)

  • Item Profile:
    • Item Type: Hand Weapon / Melee Weapon (Sickle)
    • Availability: Scarce
    • Encumbrance: 1
    • Reach: Short
    • Damage: SB + 2 (Slashing)
    • Qualities: Fast, Precise, Undamaging against plate armour unless striking exposed joints.
    • Description: An eleven-inch curved sickle forged from dark, peaty bog iron displaying wine-mottled temper lines and five chased vine spirals on the spine. The cornelian cherry handle is tightly wound in oxblood-dyed sheep’s wool sealed with pitch, fitted with a bronze ferrule ring that retains an almandine garnet cabochon and a dangling dried vine tendril. Smells sharply of wine must, bitter pomegranate, and fresh copper.
  • Passive Traits:
    • Thirsty Vine Leach: Whenever the weapon successfully scores a Wound on an unarmoured or lightly armoured living enemy with blood or sap, the wielder immediately heals 1 Wound, and the target suffers a –10% penalty to their Movement and Agility until the end of the next round.
    • Scent of the Bleeding Shoot: The almandine garnet glows crimson within 20 yards of any wounded or bleeding target, providing a +20% bonus on Perception and Tracking Tests directed at them.
    • Rooted Vitality: The bearer gains a +10% bonus to Toughness and Willpower Tests made to resist poisons, diseases, exposure to mountain cold, or magical fatigue.
  • Active Abilities:
    • Pruning the Vigor:
      • Action: Free Action on a successful Melee Strike
      • Test: Challenging (+0%) Willpower Test
      • Mechanics: The wielder rips a ribbon of life force from the target. If the test succeeds, the attack deals an additional +1d10 necrotic damage that ignores mundane Armour, and the wielder gains temporary Wounds equal to half the extra damage dealt (lasting for 1 hour, up to a maximum of +4 Wounds).
    • Tithe to the Withered:
      • Action: Half Action
      • Test: Simple (+40%) Heal or Willpower Test
      • Mechanics: The wielder touches the garnet ferrule to an ally, sacrificing up to 4 of their own current Wounds. The recipient heals an equal number of Wounds and immediately gains an additional test with a +20% modifier to overcome active non-magical poisons or blood infections.
    • Winter-Blight Severance:
      • Action: Full Action
      • Test: Difficult (–10%) Willpower Test
      • Mechanics: The wielder sweeps the blade in a circle, unleashing a 4-yard radius of bone-chilling mist for 1d10 rounds. Enemies within the mist cannot benefit from the Heal skill or magical recovery, and whenever an adversary inside the area suffers a Wound from an edged weapon, the wielder immediately regains 1 Wound.