Shamanism 119 of the Fault Readers Bindings

Lore: In the jagged peaks of the Dragon’s Tooth mountains, the shamans of the Gorn-Tribe do not worship gods of the sky. Their spirits are the titans that sleep beneath their feet—the spirits of granite, magma, and the unfathomable pressure of the deep places. They believe the world rests on the back of a slumbering stone giant, and earthquakes are the beast stirring in its sleep. To survive on the treacherous fault lines, their shamans learned not to fear the quakes, but to listen to them. They learned the language of tremors and the patience of stone. The Fault-Reader’s Bindings are a tool for acolytes learning this path. They are crafted from the hide of mountain goats that live their entire lives on the highest cliffs, their soles stitched with obsidian fragments gathered from the heart of dormant volcanoes. Each stitch is a prayer for stability, each fragment a connection to the mountain’s soul.

Description: A pair of durable, slate-gray foot wrappings made of thick, yet supple, goat hide. The bindings are long enough to wrap securely around the feet and ankles, providing support on uneven ground. Stitched into the sole of each wrapping with sinew thread are three small, flat, flawlessly polished discs of black obsidian that remain cool to the touch, regardless of the ambient temperature. When worn, they feel solid and heavy, making the wearer feel securely anchored to the ground beneath them.

Detailed Stats

Constitution: +1

Passives Magic

Rooted Stance: You feel an intuitive connection to the ground beneath you. You have advantage on any saving throw or ability check made to resist being forcibly moved, pushed, or knocked prone.
Stone Sense: By placing a bare hand against a stone surface (wall, floor, boulder) while wearing the bindings, you can feel for its integrity. You get a clear sense of major structural weaknesses, hollow areas, or hidden chambers directly behind the surface. This grants no knowledge of what is inside a space, only of the space itself.

Activable Magics

Rattle the Bones (2 per long rest): As an action, you can stomp your foot, focusing your will through the bindings into the ground. A small, highly localized tremor emanates from you in a 10-foot radius. The tremor is not strong enough to cause damage or knock creatures over, but it creates a deep rumbling sound and shakes the ground enough to rattle unsecured objects, kick up dust, and startle creatures. This can be used to create a diversion or as part of an Intimidation check.
Listen to the Deep Stone (1 per day): By finding a patch of bare, solid earth or rock and meditating for 1 minute, you can ask the spirit of the earth a single question that can be answered with a “yes” or “no.” You do not hear a voice. Instead, you will feel the answer through the bindings: a deep, slow, affirmative pulse through the ground means “yes,” while a dead, silent stillness means “no.” The earth spirit is ancient and aware of only broad truths; it cannot answer questions about what is in a person’s heart or the future, but it knows if a cave system is stable, if a large army has passed this way recently, or if there is a large body of water hidden below.

Specific Slot: Feet

Tags: Common, Feet, Shamanism, Earth, Divination, Utility, Roleplay, Control, Defense, Investigation, Mountain, Ritual, Sensory, Stability, Tribal

On the world of Saṃsāra, the Fault-Reader’s Bindings are not a common commodity found in every market. Their worth is deeply tied to their specific function, making them either a priceless tool or a pair of ugly foot-wrappings, depending entirely on the buyer and seller.

Here are the types of places where this item might be bought and sold:

1. At the Source: A Gorn-Tribe Stronghold

The “Shop”: There is no storefront here. The transaction takes place within a fortified Gorn-Tribe encampment high in the Dragon’s Tooth mountains. The “seller” would be a tribe artisan or quartermaster, trading from a communal supply tent piled high with goat hides, obsidian blanks, and climbing gear. The air smells of woodsmoke and cold stone.
How it is Sold: This is a transaction based on necessity and respect, not commerce. The Gorn do not sell these bindings to just any tourist. A buyer would need to be an ally, someone heading into dangerous mountain territory, or be willing to trade something of genuine value to the tribe. The sale would involve a stern lecture on the importance of respecting the mountain spirit and the proper use of the bindings. Barter is heavily preferred over coin.
Cost:
- In Barter: Goods that are difficult to acquire in the mountains are most valued: several bags of salt, high-quality steel tools (like pickaxes or knives), rolls of warm wool cloth, or rare medicinal herbs from the lowlands.
- In Coin: If they accept coin, it is with reluctance. The price would reflect its commonness to them, perhaps 8 to 12 Silver Pieces.

2. The Foothills Trading Post

The Shop: Located in a muddy, wind-swept town at the foot of the mountains, this would be a shop like “Grizelda’s Climbing Supplies & Ore” or “The Last Drop Prospecting Co-op.” It’s a practical place run by a grizzled ex-mountaineer who trades with the Gorn. The bindings would be hanging on a peg next to coils of rope and crampons.
How it is Sold: The shopkeeper knows the practical value of the bindings, but less of their spiritual significance. They would sell them by saying, “Aye, the Gorn wear these. Say they keep you on your feet in a rockslide and help you tell a solid tunnel from a deathtrap.” The sale is straightforward, with some room for haggling, especially if the buyer has interesting rumors or maps of the mountains above.
Cost: 4 to 6 Gold Pieces. The price is significantly marked up to reflect the difficulty and danger of acquiring them from the tribe and bringing them down the mountain.

3. A City’s Stonemason’s or Miner’s Guild

The Shop: In a large, established city, these bindings would not be in a general market. They would be a specialty item available through a guild hall’s quartermaster or a supplier that specifically services miners, quarrymen, or city engineers. The spiritual aspect is completely disregarded and seen as primitive nonsense.
How it is Sold: The bindings are sold as a professional safety tool. Their value is framed in terms of utility: “This tool provides unparalleled stability on loose scree and its vibro-sensitive nodules can detect faults in a tunnel wall before collapse, potentially saving lives and equipment.” The sale would be a formal transaction, possibly with a guild discount.
Cost: 20 Gold Pieces. The price is high and firm, reflecting its status as a specialized piece of industrial equipment that increases productivity and safety. It’s considered a business investment.

4. An Occultist’s Den

The Shop: A dusty, cluttered shop in a city’s arcane quarter, tucked between an alchemist and a fortune teller. The air smells of strange incense and old parchment. The shopkeeper is a collector of tribal relics and esoteric artifacts who is more interested in the item’s shamanistic properties than its practical use.
How it is Sold: Here, the item’s mundane benefits are downplayed. The seller would speak in hushed tones about its ability to “commune with the deep earth,” “hear the voice of the mountain,” and “channel the raw power of an earthquake.” They would sell it to a fellow shaman, a student of geomancy, or a collector of rare magical curiosities.
Cost: 15 to 25 Gold Pieces, and highly negotiable. The price is based on mystique and perceived spiritual power. The seller might be more interested in trading for another rare item—a ghost-willow wand, a vial of siren tears—than in simple coin.

This item’s power is subtle and tied to the environment. Its use in offense and defense is less about direct confrontation and more about manipulating the battlefield, asserting presence, and using the environment as both a shield and a weapon.

Roleplaying for Defense

Defensive use of the Bindings is about creating stability in chaos, using the environment for protection, and foreseeing terrestrial threats. The user becomes an anchor for their group.

Environment: In Crumbling Ruins or Natural Caves

Scenario: Your party is navigating a dangerously unstable cave system. The floor is covered in loose scree and the ceiling groans ominously.

The Roleplay: As you walk, you are the picture of calm. Your Rooted Stance makes you sure-footed where others slip. When a small tremor hits, your companion stumbles toward a chasm, but you plant your feet and grab their arm. You roleplay this stability: “The mountain shakes, but I am its bone. I will not move.” You are the party’s anchor. Before crossing a wide stone bridge, you use Stone Sense, kneeling to press your hand to the ground. You close your eyes and announce, “This path is a liar. The stone is thin here, like a skin over a wound. We cross on the left, single file. The earth says so.” You are defending the party from a threat they couldn’t even see.

Environment: An Ambush on a High Mountain Pass

Scenario: Bandits trigger a rockslide to trap you on a narrow cliffside path.

The Roleplay: Boulders begin to fall. While others panic, your Rooted Stance gives you the footing to act. You become the immovable object. As your friends scramble for cover, you stand firm, holding a rope or shielding a smaller companion from the pelting scree, weathering the storm. When the slide is over, the bandits descend. You are cornered. You stomp your foot and activate Rattle the Bones. The already unstable cliff groans and shudders. More pebbles rain down. You shout, “The mountain is angry! Flee before it claims us all!” You are not fighting the bandits; you are using the threat of the environment as a potent defense, turning their trap against them and potentially scaring them into retreat without a single sword stroke.

Roleplaying for Offense

Offensive use of the Bindings is about psychological warfare, destabilizing your opponents, and tactically exploiting the environment. You use the earth itself to apply pressure.

Environment: Infiltrating a Stone Fortress or Dungeon

Scenario: You need to get past a pair of guards in a stone hallway, or create a breach in a weak wall.

The Roleplay: You use Stone Sense not for safety, but for destruction. You press your hand against the castle wall, listening. You tell your party’s muscle, “Forget the gate. Here. This mortar is old, the stones are tired. A strong blow here will bring it down.” You have turned your defensive awareness into an offensive plan, finding the fortress’s weak point. Later, to get past guards, you hide in an alcove and use Rattle the Bones. The tremor is minor, but in the echoing stone halls, it sounds like the groan of a collapsing ceiling. The guards are distracted, looking up nervously, giving you the perfect moment to slip past or ambush them. You are attacking their focus and nerve.

Environment: A Tense Standoff or Interrogation

Scenario: You are confronting a stubborn informant in the stone-paved cellar of a tavern. He refuses to talk.

The Roleplay: You stand perfectly still, your posture solid and unshakeable thanks to Rooted Stance. You project an aura of immense, patient power. The informant scoffs at you. You calmly look him in the eye and say, “The deepest stones have the greatest patience. But even they will crack under pressure.” You stomp your foot. You activate Rattle the Bones. The bottles on the shelves tremble, the floor vibrates, and a deep, unsettling groan seems to rise from the very foundations of the building. You haven’t touched him, but you have demonstrated an inexplicable power. You follow up with a quiet, firm Intimidation check: “This building… this city… it all rests on the earth. And the earth listens to me. Now, tell me what I want to know.” Your offense is purely psychological, using a minor tremor to imply the threat of a catastrophic earthquake.

Perception of Activation:

Sight

User’s Perspective: When you stomp to activate Rattle the Bones, the world seems to lurch for a split second, as if you have personally arrested its rotation. The polished obsidian discs on your bindings flash with a dull, internal light, like a camera shutter opening on a subterranean world. You see the ground itself ripple outwards from your foot in a barely perceptible shockwave.
- Positives: You get a clear, physical confirmation of your power, seeing the world itself bend to your will.
- Negatives: The momentary visual jolt can be disorienting and may cause a fleeting sense of vertigo.
Observer’s Perspective: You see the user stomp with what looks like impossible force. The ground visibly shakes in a 10-foot radius as dust and small pebbles jump into the air. For a split second, faint, golden cracks of energy might appear on the ground around the point of impact before vanishing.
- Positives: It’s an undeniable, impressive, and often intimidating display of raw power.
- Negatives: The event is sudden and alarming. The visible cracking of the earth can be frightening to allies and foes alike, potentially causing panic.

Sound

User’s Perspective: The initial sound of your foot hitting the ground is a sharp CRACK, but it is immediately swallowed by a deep, resonant GROAN that you feel in your bones more than you hear with your ears. It is the sound of tectonic plates shifting, of rock grinding against rock miles below the surface, a sound of immense pressure and weight.
- Positives: The deep, internal sound is a visceral connection to the earth’s power, feeling both grounding and exhilarating.
- Negatives: The profound internal sound can momentarily drown out all external noises, leaving you deaf to a shouted warning for a critical second.
Observer’s Perspective: The stomp produces a shockingly loud CRACK, sharper and louder than a normal impact. This is immediately followed by a low-frequency RUMBLE that emanates from the ground itself, not from the user. It sounds like distant thunder or a small, localized earthquake.
- Positives: The sound is deeply intimidating and commands the attention of everyone nearby.
- Negatives: It is completely unsubtle, destroying any chance of a stealthy approach. The unsettling nature of the sound can make animals and nervous individuals difficult to control.

Smell

User’s Perspective: You are hit with the sudden, clean scent of a freshly opened cave—the smell of deep, damp earth, cold stone, and the faint metallic tang of mineral deposits (petrichor).
- Positives: The earthy scent is grounding and serves as a powerful sensory confirmation of your connection to your power’s source.
- Negatives: The abruptness of the potent smell can be a minor sensory shock, momentarily distracting.
Observer’s Perspective: You smell the immediate scent of kicked-up dust. If you are close to the user, you may also detect a strange, sharp smell of ozone, like the air after a lightning strike.
- Positives: Adds another intimidating layer to the display.
- Negatives: The scent of dust can be irritating, and the acrid smell of ozone is often unpleasant.

Touch

User’s Perspective: As you stomp, you feel a powerful vibration rush up your leg, but it is energizing, not painful. For an instant, your body feels impossibly heavy and anchored to the planet’s core. The obsidian discs against your skin become intensely, unnaturally cold. During the Listen to the Deep Stone ritual, this sensation is sustained, allowing you to feel the slow, rhythmic pulse of the earth.
- Positives: It is a physical, exhilarating feeling of absolute stability and immense, controlled power.
- Negatives: The sheer intensity of the vibration and feeling of weight can be overwhelming if you are not braced for it.
Observer’s Perspective: You feel the ground shake beneath your feet—a distinct, powerful tremor. If you are touching the user, their body feels impossibly solid and rigid for a moment, like living stone.
- Positives: It is tangible proof that the user is wielding a real and powerful force.
- Negatives: The tremor is disorienting and can easily cause an unprepared person to lose their footing or balance.

Taste

User’s Perspective: A faint, gritty taste of minerals and dust coats the back of your tongue, as if you’ve taken a breath inside a cavern deep underground.
- Positives: It is another minor sensory cue that reinforces the nature of the magic being used.
- Negatives: The taste is unpleasant and can linger for a few minutes.
Observer’s Perspective: You perceive nothing.
- Positives/Negatives: N/A.

Extra-Sensory Perceptions

Geotic Awareness (User’s Perspective): For a brief moment, your consciousness plunges downwards. You don’t just feel the surface, you feel the bedrock beneath it, the layers of soil and stone, the hidden flows of groundwater, and the vast, slow, sleeping presence of the earth itself.
- Positives: This provides an incredible, momentary sense of place and a profound connection to the world.
- Negatives: The sheer scale of the perception—feeling the immense weight of the rock above a cavern or the endless depth below you—can be mentally crushing, triggering vertigo, claustrophobia, or agoraphobia.
Sympathetic Vibration (Observer’s Perspective): You feel the tremor not just in your feet, but as a deep, resonant frequency in your own bones. It’s a vibration that bypasses the ears and shakes your very skeleton, creating a primal feeling of instability and dread, as if the one solid thing in the universe is no longer reliable.
- Positives: None for a target; it is purely a tool of intimidation. For an ally, it is an awesome and fearsome display of power.
- Negatives: It is a deeply unsettling physical sensation that triggers an instinctual fight-or-flight response.
Aura of Stability (User’s & Observer’s Perspective):
- Perception (User): An immense sense of calm, patience, and inevitability washes over you. You feel the “long patience” of stone, and the petty urgencies of the moment seem to fade.
- Perception (Observer): The user suddenly projects an aura of immense gravity and unshakable will. They seem heavier, more solid, and utterly immovable, both physically and metaphorically.
- Positives: The user feels serene and focused. To observers, the user appears incredibly formidable, resolute, and in control.
- Negatives: The user’s sudden, stony calm can be perceived as coldness, arrogance, or a frightening lack of emotion.

Recipe: The Mountain’s Footfalls

This document describes the creation of foot bindings that echo the power of the original Fault-Reader’s Bindings. The process is a demanding ritual that tests the crafter’s patience, endurance, and connection to the spirits of stone and stability.

Materials Needed

Hide of the Unfallen: The uncured hide of a mature mountain goat or ram, an animal that lived its life on treacherous cliffs and never fell.
The Unbroken Stone: A single, fist-sized piece of volcanic obsidian, free of cracks or imperfections.
Thread of Sinew: Sinew harvested from a large beast of burden, such as an ox or mule, representing strength and endurance.
Mountain’s Bones: A handful of granite or bedrock, gathered from a mountaintop or the bottom of a deep cave where the pressure of the earth is most palpable.
The Dawn’s Silence: A non-physical but essential component—the crafter must capture the absolute stillness of a mountain peak in the moment just before sunrise.

Tools Required

Leatherworker’s Kit: A sturdy awl, sharp hide-cutting knife, and large-eyed bone needles.
Lapidary Tools: A set of stone-cutting and polishing tools to shape the obsidian.
Stone Mallet or Grinder: A heavy, durable tool for pulverizing the granite bedrock into a fine powder.

Skill Requirements

Proficiency: The crafter must be proficient with Leatherworker’s Tools.
Knowledge: The crafter must have proficiency in the Survival or Nature skill, to properly handle the materials and understand their spiritual significance.
Endurance: The crafter must have a Constitution score of 13 or higher, as the process of imbuing the item requires channeling grounding, physically taxing energy.
Prerequisite: The crafter must have survived a major rockslide or earthquake, or have spent at least 24 hours meditating barefoot on solid, unforgiving rock. They must understand the earth’s power before they can ask to borrow it.

Crafting Steps

This ritualistic process takes a minimum of three days and cannot be rushed. It must be performed in a place of solitude, preferably in the mountains or deep underground.

Day 1: The Grinding and Curing

Pulverize the Mountain’s Bones: The process begins at dusk. The crafter must use the stone mallet to grind the granite into a fine, gray powder. This is a slow, meditative act of physical labor, taking several hours. With each strike, the crafter must focus on the concept of immense pressure and unyielding strength.
Cure the Hide: The goat hide is scraped and prepared. The powdered granite is then worked deep into the flesh side of the hide with fat or oil, a process that stains the leather a slate-gray and imbues it with the essence of the stone. The hide is then stretched and left to cure for a full day and night.

Day 2: The Shaping and Stitching

Shape the Unbroken Stone: The crafter takes the single piece of obsidian and carefully cuts it into six small, flat discs. It is vital that all six discs come from the same parent stone to maintain their connection. As they are polished, the crafter must remain silent, focusing on the idea of stability.
Cut the Bindings: The cured hide is cut into two long strips, forming the bindings themselves.
Stitch the Connection: Using the ox sinew, the crafter stitches three obsidian discs to the sole of each binding. Each stitch must be pulled tight with a grunt of physical effort, the crafter channeling their own stamina and stability into the item.

Day 3: The Awakening

Ascend and Wait: Before dawn on the third day, the crafter must take the finished bindings to a high, lonely peak or a place of great natural silence. They cannot wear the bindings yet.
Capture the Dawn’s Silence: As the sky begins to lighten but before the sun has breached the horizon, the crafter must put on the bindings. For one full minute, as the world transitions from night to day, they must stand perfectly still and silent, feeling the cold of the obsidian and the weight of the stone-infused leather. They must become a statue, embodying the mountain upon which they stand.
The First Stomp: When the first direct ray of sunlight touches the crafter, they must lift one foot and bring it down in a single, powerful stomp. A deep, silent resonance will shudder through them—a sign that the mountain has acknowledged the bindings and awakened their power.

The item is now complete, its magic bound not by incantations, but by labor, patience, and a shared moment of silent stillness with the earth.

Stone-Hand and Mountain’s Anger

It is told from the old telling, from the time before that time, that the Gorn-Tribe did not always have the Fault-Reader’s Bindings. In that sun, they were afraid of the shaking earth, for the Great Sleeper Below would often turn, and their houses of stone would fall like teeth from a skull.

In the village lived two brothers. One was named Stone-Hand, for his patience was like rock and his hands were slow and sure. The other brother, Fire-Heart was his name, his heart was hot and his actions were quick like a striking snake. Fire-Heart looked at the mountain and saw treasure. He saw the sun-stones that glittered in the deep places. Stone-Hand looked at the mountain and saw a spirit, a great sleeping thing that must not be woken with disrespect.

One day, Fire-Heart took his iron-tools, his loud-strikers. He said, “I go into the mountain’s throat to find sun-stones. I will be a rich man.”

Stone-Hand put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. The hand was heavy. He said, “Do not strike the deep rock with your loud iron. The Sleeper does not like this song. Its breath will become a bad wind.”

Fire-Heart laughed. His laugh was like rocks falling. “You are a fool, brother. You see spirits. I see wealth. A sleeping thing cannot stop a man whose heart is fire.” And he went.

For many days, the sound of his loud-strikers came from the mountain’s throat. It was a bad sound. Clang. Clang. Clang. The old women of the tribe said, “This is a death-drum.” The ground began to feel a tremble, a soft shaking, like a dog twitching in a dream. This was the first warning.

Fire-Heart did not listen. He came back to the village, his pouches full of sun-stones. His eyes were wide with the fever of finding. He said, “See! The mountain gives me its treasure!”

Stone-Hand looked not at the sun-stones, but at his brother’s feet, which were unsteady on the steady ground. “You have taken the mountain’s gold,” Stone-Hand said. “Now the mountain will ask for a payment in bone.”

The shaking grew worse. The cooking pots rattled in the long-house. The people were afraid. They told Fire-Heart to stop his loud-striking. But his heart was hot with finding, and he went back for more.

Stone-Hand knew a Great Shaking was coming. He could not stop his brother, for his brother’s heart was a deaf stone. So he sought not to stop the shaking, but to stand inside it. He went to the high cliffs. He took the hide of an old goat, a goat who had died of old age and had never fallen. Its feet knew the secrets of stone. He took sinew from an ox, for its strength was great. He went to a place where the mountain had bled fire long ago and took the cold black glass, the obsidian.

He did not work with a hot heart. He worked with long-patience. He scraped the hide. He cut it into long strips for wrapping the feet. He stitched the black glass to the bottom-parts with the strong sinew. With every stitch, he did not pray for power. He prayed for stability. He asked the spirit of the mountain, “Let me not be a leaf in your angry wind. Let me be a root.”

On the day he finished, Fire-Heart went for his last journey into the mountain’s throat. He was singing a song of his own greatness. Then the Great Shaking began.

The world screamed. The teeth of the dragon mountain chattered. The great rocks fell. The sky was full of dust. In the deep place, Fire-Heart’s sun-stones became his tomb-stones. The mountain’s throat swallowed him whole. In the village, the people cried out. The long-house groaned, its roof-poles about to fall and crush all within.

But Stone-Hand, he wore his new feet-bindings. He ran to the door-hole of the long-house as the ground became an angry sea. But he was a rock in that sea. He did not fall. He stood in the door-hole, and his arms became pillars. He held the great roof-pole on his shoulders. The world shook and roared around him, but he was a small piece of the mountain itself, and he did not move. He held the roof until the shaking was done. The people inside, the children and the elders, were saved. They came out and saw him, standing in the ruin, breathing the dust, his feet firm on the broken ground.

They saw he had not fought the mountain’s anger. He had understood it, and had endured. His bindings were not a weapon, but a promise of stability. From that sun forward, the Gorn-Tribe learned to make the bindings, to remember that the greatest strength is not in the striking hand, but in the steady foot.

Moral of the story: A fast hand finds treasure, but a firm foot keeps the house.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Gorn-Tribe Fetish Wraps

A ritual artifact from a reclusive mountain tribe that worships the chthonic entities slumbering beneath the earth. These hide-and-obsidian foot bindings are said to grant the wearer the stability of stone, but also attune their minds to the unsettling, slow thoughts of the deep earth.

Game Mechanics: An Investigator wearing these bindings gains a bonus die (+10%) on any Athletics roll to keep their footing on unstable ground or to resist being knocked down by a concussive force. They also do not suffer penalty dice for environmental instability (e.g., during an earthquake, on the deck of a storm-tossed ship).

Commune with the Deep: Once per game session, the wearer may perform a 10-minute ritual by pressing their feet to exposed bedrock or foundational stone. This allows them to ask a single yes-or-no question about the immediate physical environment (e.g., “Is there a hidden chamber below me?” “Is this structure stable?”). The answer comes as a somatic tremor only the user can feel. However, this brief contact with a vast, alien consciousness is mentally taxing. The Investigator must make a Sanity roll (0/1D2 loss).

Rattle the Foundation: By stomping a foot and making a successful Hard POW roll, the user can cause a startling, localized tremor. This has no physical effect on the structure, but all creatures within 15 feet must make a DEX roll or be startled, suffering a penalty die on their next action. Using this ability is stressful and costs 1 Sanity point.

Blades in the Dark

Fault Line Wraps

Ancient leather foot-bindings stitched with obsidian discs from the heart of a dead volcano. When worn by one who can Attune to them, they can borrow the stubbornness of the earth, shaking the foundations of a room or standing firm in the midst of chaos.

Game Mechanics: This is a set of [Occult] gear.

When you wear these wraps, you gain Armor against harm from collapsing structures, explosions, or being thrown.

You can push yourself to activate one of the following abilities:

Deep Rumble: When you create a diversion or use intimidation, you can stomp your foot and cause the ground to tremble. Your action has great effect.
Stone’s Counsel: When you need to understand a location, you may spend a few moments in quiet contemplation with your feet pressed to its foundation. Make an Attune roll to ask a single question about the structure’s weaknesses, hidden passages, or general stability. The GM will answer you honestly. The quality of your roll determines the detail and clarity of the answer.
Unmovable: When you resist a consequence that would move you from your position or knock you down, you cannot be moved. You stand your ground.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Bindings of the Deep Stone Wondrous item, uncommon (requires attunement)

These slate-gray foot wrappings of thick hide are stitched with three discs of polished obsidian on each sole. While wearing these bindings, you have advantage on saving throws against being knocked prone.

The bindings have 3 charges and regain all expended charges daily at dawn.

Stone Sense (Passive): While wearing the bindings, you can spend 1 minute with your hand pressed against a stone surface to get a clear sense of its structural integrity, including major weaknesses or hollow spaces within 5 feet of the point of contact.
Rattle the Bones (1 Charge): As an action, you can stomp your foot, creating a seismic tremor in a 15-foot radius centered on you. The ground in the area becomes difficult terrain until the start of your next turn. Each creature in the area other than you must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Listen to the Earth (1 Charge): As a ritual that takes 1 minute to cast, you can ask a single question about the immediate natural environment (within 1 mile). The question must be answerable with a yes or no. The answer comes as a faint tremor only you can feel, guided by the ancient consciousness of the earth.

Knave (2nd Edition)

Obsidian Footfalls Takes up 1 inventory slot. Heavy hide foot wraps with obsidian discs stitched into the soles.

Passive: You cannot be knocked down or moved by non-magical means as long as you are standing on solid ground.
Daily: You can use the bindings’ magic three times per day. Choose one:
- Tremor: Stomp your foot. All creatures within 15 feet must make a successful Constitution defense roll or fall prone.
- Ask the Stone: Press your feet to the ground for one minute and ask a yes/no question about the immediate area’s physical stability or hidden tunnels. The GM will give you a truthful answer.

Fate Core / Fate Condensed

The Earth-Anchor Bindings

An Extra representing a set of shamanic foot-wrappings that grant the wearer a profound connection to the ground, allowing them to become an unmovable pillar in the midst of chaos.

Aspect: As Patient and Stubborn as Stone (This can be invoked for a bonus when you physically hold your ground, endure a hardship, or try to intimidate someone with your unshakeable presence. It can be compelled to make you act slowly, deliberately, or refuse to budge when you probably should.)

Game Mechanics:

Permission: While wearing the bindings, you can use the Physique skill to defend against attempts to knock you down or move you, even if the attack would normally target another skill.
Create an Advantage – Sense the Flaw: When you have a moment to examine a stone structure or terrain, you can Create an Advantage using the Investigate skill to discover aspects related to its stability, such as Crumbling Foundation or Hollow Below.
Overcome – Minor Tremor: By spending a Fate Point, you can stomp your foot to create a tremor. This allows you to use Physique to Overcome an obstacle by creating a distraction or minor environmental hazard (like shaking items off a shelf), affecting everyone in your current zone.

Numenera & Cypher System

Geomantic Stabilizers

These heavy hide foot-wrappings are laced with a network of fibrous metallic threads and stitched with obsidian discs that are actually sophisticated gravity regulators. They interface with the wearer’s nervous system, creating a low-level gravitic field that anchors them to any solid surface.

Type: Artifact Level: 4 Form: A pair of slate-gray foot bindings. Effect: While worn, the user is practically immune to being knocked prone or moved by force as long as they are on a solid surface; all tasks to do so are hindered by two steps. The user can also activate one of two functions:

Seismic Sense: The user can get a clear, intuitive understanding of the structural integrity of any stone or synthetic structure they are standing on. This includes detecting hidden hollows, weak points, or imminent collapses.
Localized Tremor: Once per day, the user can cause the ground in an immediate area around them to shake violently for a few seconds. This is a level 4 effect that can knock down loose items or be used for intimidation. Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (Check for depletion each time the Localized Tremor is used).

Pathfinder (Second Edition)

Fault-Reader’s Bindings Item 3 [Uncommon] [Invested] [Magical] [Occult] Price 60 gp Usage worn shoes; Bulk L

These durable, slate-gray foot wrappings are made of thick hide, with three discs of polished obsidian stitched into each sole. The bindings feel heavy, anchoring you to the ground beneath your feet.

While wearing the bindings, you gain a +1 item bonus to your Fortitude DC against being Shoved or Tripped.

Activate [reaction] (manipulate) Trigger You are targeted by an effect that would knock you prone; Effect You stomp your foot, setting yourself firmly. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to your saving throw or DC against the triggering effect.

Activate [two-actions] (manipulate, occult) Frequency once per hour; Effect You stomp, sending a minor tremor through the ground in a 10-foot emanation. The ground in the area becomes difficult terrain for 1 minute. You can choose to ignore this difficult terrain.

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE)

Gorn-Tribe Stability Wraps

These heavy foot-wrappings are a shamanic tool of the mountain-dwelling Gorn-Tribe, granting the wearer the stability of the mountain itself.

Weight: 2; Cost: $450

Game Mechanics:

Unmovable: The wearer adds +2 to their Strength roll to resist being pushed or any other effect that would physically move them from their space. They add +1 to their Soak rolls against damage from falling or building collapses.
Earth Sense: The wearer gains a +1 bonus to Notice rolls to detect unstable ground, hidden pits, or structural weaknesses in stone.
Tremor (Power): The wraps have 2 Power Points that can only be used to activate the Tremor power (from the SWADE Fantasy Companion or as a generic earth-shaking effect). The trapping is the wearer stomping their foot. This does not require the user to have an Arcane Background, but they must make an Occult roll to activate it. The points recharge daily.

Shadowrun (Sixth World)

Bedrock Grounders

These heavy, augmented foot-wrappings are a bizarre fusion of primal shamanic design and modern tech. Originally a fetish from a Sioux earth-focused tradition, they have been retrofitted with micro-gyroscopes and gravitic anchors that activate in response to the wearer’s magical aura. They provide an unnerving degree of stability in the most chaotic situations.

Type: Magical/Cybernetic Footwear Device Rating: 3 Availability: 12R Cost: 28,000¥

Game Mechanics: These bindings must be attuned to the user, a process that requires a simple surgical procedure to implant a neural interface (included in the cost).

Passive Stability: While worn and powered, the wearer ignores all negative environmental modifiers for poor footing or unstable ground. In addition, add 3 dice to any test to resist being knocked down (Knockdown).
Mag-Anchor Stomp: The wearer can take a Minor Action to activate the gravitic anchors. Until their next turn, any attempt to physically move them from their location automatically fails unless the opponent spends 2 Edge.
Resonant Tremor: Once per combat, the wearer can take a Major Action to stomp their foot, overloading the gravitic anchors. This creates a tremor in a 4-meter radius. All other characters in the radius suffer the Stumbled status effect (Their next Action must be to stand up, or they take a -2 penalty to their dice pool).

Starfinder

Titan-Step Treads

Level 4; Price 2,100; Bulk 1 Hands —; Type Magic Item; Slot Feet

These bulky, slate-gray boots are crafted from a composite hide reinforced with obsidian discs that function as gravitic regulators. Originally designed for prospectors on high-gravity worlds, these boots have become popular with explorers and mercenaries who value stability above all else.

Game Mechanics: While wearing these boots, you gain a +2 item bonus to Acrobatics checks to keep your balance and a +4 item bonus to your KAC against combat maneuvers to knock you prone or move you (such as a bull rush).

The boots have a battery with a capacity of 20 charges, which recharges daily.

Activate—Gravitic Anchor (1 charge): As a reaction when you would be knocked prone or moved against your will, you can activate the anchors. The effect attempting to move you automatically fails.

Activate—Seismic Stomp (4 charges): As a standard action, you can stomp your foot, creating a tremor in a 10-foot-radius centered on you. The area becomes difficult terrain for 1 minute. You are not affected by this difficult terrain.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

TL-15 Gravitic Anchoring Boots

A piece of extremely advanced personal equipment, likely of military or high-end industrial origin. These boots contain a sophisticated inertial dampening system and a short-lived, high-intensity grav-plate in each sole, allowing the user to become virtually immovable for short periods.

Skill: Vacc Suit or Athletics Cost: Cr 500,000 TL: 15

Game Mechanics: These boots are powered by a standard power pack, which lasts for 48 hours of normal use.

Passive Stability: The wearer gains DM+2 on any check made to resist being knocked over or moved by force (e.g., explosions, high winds, heavy seas).
Active Anchoring: The user may activate the primary grav-plates as a Significant Action. For the next minute, any attempt to physically move the character from their position is made at Formidable (12+) difficulty. Each activation drains 10% of the power pack’s energy. Activating this in zero-G will immediately pull the user to the nearest solid surface, where they will be anchored. This can be used to stop uncontrolled movement.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

Dwarf-Made Earth-Treads

Crafted in a long-dead Karak, these heavy leather-and-iron-soled wraps are etched with Dwarfen runes of stability, stone, and rootedness. They feel unnaturally heavy, and a wearer feels as though the ground itself is gripping them back, refusing to let them fall.

Encumbrance: 1

Game Mechanics: These magical boots grant the wearer the Unshakeable Talent. If the character already possesses this Talent, they instead gain a +10 bonus to all tests to resist being moved.

Furthermore, when the wearer is on stone or packed earth, they gain the following ability:

Rune of Grungni’s Footing Activate: Use your Move. Duration: Until the start of your next turn. Effect: You plant your feet firmly. Until your next turn, you cannot be knocked Prone, and any enemy attempting a Charge or Push action against you will not gain any advantage or bonus for doing so. Any attempt to move you from your space for the duration automatically fails. Using this ability in the presence of those suspicious of magic may require a Challenging (+0) Stealth Test to avoid notice.

Shamanism 119 of the Fault Readers Bindings

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