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Time 491 of the Shackle of a Thousand Scars

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by

Dale
in

Lore Deep within the fog-shrouded jungles of the Uncharted Isles, certain primitive tribes practice a brutal form of chronomancy. They believe that true strength is not found in the future, but in the crystallized agony of the past. Their rage-mages, through bloody ritual and sacrifice, bind spirits of pain into shackles carved from the petrified heartwood of Ironwood trees. Each shackle is “fed” with the memories of wounds, insults, and moments of mortal terror from its intended wearer. The magic within does not grant visions of what is to come, but instead forces the wearer to perpetually re-live their own history of suffering. By doing so, they can draw upon an endless well of fury, turning old pain into new, raw power. These shackles are common artifacts among these tribes, but are objects of fear and morbid curiosity to the wider world.

Description This is not a finely crafted item, but a brutalist testament to pain. It is a heavy, thick manacle carved from a single piece of dark, petrified wood that has the weight and texture of cold iron. The surface is not smooth but is covered in countless crude, jagged carvings and notches, each one representing a past injury. Embedded crudely into the shackle, where a locking mechanism would normally be, is a dull, uncut chunk of bloodstone, its deep green surface flecked with angry red spots that seem to shift and swirl. The item exudes a palpable aura of misery and contained violence. There are no delicate circuits; the magic seems to be held within the scarred wood itself, raw and untamed.

Detailed Stats

  • Quality: Common
  • Tier: 1
  • Defense Value: 1 (It is thick and can ward off a blow by pure chance)
  • Durability: 90/90
  • Attribute Modifier: +1 Strength, -1 to tasks requiring fine motor control or calm concentration.
  • Skill Modifier: Provides a +5 bonus to rolls made to intimidate or resist effects of pain and fear.

Passives Magic

  • Phantom Pain: The wearer constantly feels the faint, ghostly echoes of every scar on their body and every wound they have ever suffered. This endless background radiation of discomfort keeps them perpetually on edge, making them irritable and prone to sudden flashes of anger. It also hardens them, making them difficult to demoralize.
  • Wounded Haste: As the wearer suffers more damage, their perception of time begins to accelerate, creating a frantic sense of urgency. For every 25% of their total health they have lost, they feel a growing, instinctual need to act. This translates into a minor, stacking bonus to their initiative and movement speed, but also imparts a stacking penalty to all defensive actions as caution is thrown to the wind.

Activable Magics

  • Relive the Scar: By touching one of the notches on the shackle and focusing their anger, the user can force a temporal flash of a specific, grievous wound they have previously suffered. For an instant, they re-experience the full, undiluted agony of being stabbed, mauled, or broken. The resulting surge of pure, undiluted rage empowers their next melee attack, granting it a significant bonus to damage. However, the psychosomatic shock of the experience inflicts a small amount of damage directly to the user, bypassing any defenses.
  • The Red Minute: Once per day, the user can fully unleash the shackle’s contained history of pain. For the user, time dilates to a crawl, while for an outside observer, they become a nearly instantaneous blur of violence. The user experiences what feels like a full minute of bloodlust in the span of about six seconds. During this time, they can take several extra actions, limited only to basic movement and melee attacks, lashing out at anything nearby with no sense of friend or foe. When the effect ends, the temporal backlash hits them at once. They are left completely exhausted, unable to take complex actions, and vulnerable for a short period as their personal timeline violently snaps back into place.

Specific Slot

  • Wrist Slot (Single)

Tags: Time Magic, Common, Tier 1, Feral Rage, Cursed, Organic, Ritual, Pain-Fueled, Berserker, Self-Harm, Tribal, Exhaustion, Mind-Affecting, Retrocognition, Bloodstone, Reckless

In the world of Saṃsāra, an artifact as raw and dangerous as the Time 491 of the Shackle of a Thousand Scars would not be found in any reputable establishment. Its market exists on the fringes, in places that deal in forbidden power, primal curiosities, and desperate measures. The nature of the transaction and its cost are heavily dependent on the vendor’s knowledge of its cursed, pain-fueled magic.

1. The Back-Alley Occultist

Location and Description: This is not a storefront. In the labyrinthine depths of a city’s underbelly, down a smog-choked alley and behind a ward-covered door, is the sanctum of an occultist. The air inside is thick with the cloying smell of strange incense, drying herbs, and something metallic, like old blood. Shelves are crammed with skulls, bottled specimens, and artifacts bound in chains or cloth. The vendor is a specialist in curses, hexes, and pacts, and they understand the Shackle not as a simple magic item, but as a vessel of contained agony.

Transaction Method: The transaction is a hushed, secretive affair. The occultist would present the Shackle on a dark velvet cloth, explaining its function with morbid fascination. They would detail not only its power but the full extent of its curse—the constant phantom pain, the inevitable exhaustion, the loss of self. Selling this item is a test of the buyer’s will and desperation. The price is based not on the item’s intrinsic value, but on what the occultist gauges the buyer is willing to pay for such dangerous power.

Cost: The occultist likely acquired the item for a pittance from some terrified adventurer. They would set a starting price of 5 Gold. They might be haggled down to 4 Gold, but no lower, as they are selling a very specific key to a very dark door. To sell such an item to the occultist, one would be lucky to receive 1 Gold in return.

2. The Explorer’s Emporium

Location and Description: In a bustling port city that serves as the primary departure point for expeditions into the Uncharted Isles, one might find a shop like this. It is packed to the rafters with practical survival gear—machetes, waterproof canvas, anti-venoms, and navigational tools. However, one corner of the shop is dedicated to “Jungle Curios,” a collection of tribal masks, ceremonial spears, and bizarre taxidermy brought back by returning explorers. The Shackle would be found here, likely in a dusty crate alongside other strange, wooden artifacts.

Transaction Method: The shopkeeper is a merchant of mundane goods, not a mage. They would know the item is magical, but only from second-hand stories. They might describe it as, “A genuine Berserker’s Manacle! They say the jungle tribes wear ’em. Makes a man strong as a gorillon, but gives him a nasty temper. Not responsible for any rampages, mind you.” The sale is treated as a novelty, a dangerous souvenir. The full temporal nature of the magic and the depth of the curse would be unknown to the vendor.

Cost: Because the vendor is unaware of its true function as a time-magic artifact, they price it as a simple, low-tier cursed item. It would be marked at a non-negotiable price of 3 Gold and 2 Electrum (equal to 35 Silver).

3. The Gladiatorial Armorer

Location and Description: Near the fighting pits or gladiatorial arenas found in many major cities, there are unofficial armorers who cater to the fighters. Their workshop is a cacophony of steam-hammers and grinding wheels, smelling of hot metal, sweat, and cheap ale. They specialize in illicit, unregulated, and often dangerous equipment. Their clientele doesn’t care if an item is cursed, only if it provides an edge in a life-or-death struggle.

Transaction Method: The transaction is blunt and without ceremony. The armorer would toss the Shackle onto the anvil with a heavy thud. “This thing’s nasty,” they’d grunt. “It’ll let you hit hard enough to dent a steam-golem, but it’ll make you crazy as a rabid dog and leave you spent. Your funeral. You want it?” There is no haggling. The customers are buying pure, desperate function.

Cost: This is where the Shackle’s raw power is most valued. The curse is seen as a manageable side effect for a professional fighter. The armorer would demand a steep price of 7 Gold, knowing that for a desperate gladiator, that’s a small price to pay for surviving another match.

4. The Tribal Barter Site

Location and Description: This is not a shop, but a designated clearing at the edge of a hostile jungle, where a specific tribe has agreed to meet with outsiders for trade. The atmosphere is tense and full of mistrust. Communication is done through gestures or a handful of shared words. The “vendors” are the tribespeople themselves, their bodies covered in scars and ritualistic paint.

Transaction Method: Coin is worthless here. The transaction is pure barter. The tribe sees the Shackle as a common tool, something every warrior is expected to craft or earn. They are willing to trade them for items of utility that they cannot produce themselves. An avatar would need to offer goods that are valuable to the tribe.

Cost (in Trade Goods): The tribe would readily trade one Shackle for a bundle of goods such as a high-quality steel machete, a whetstone, several pouches of salt, and a bolt of durable, waterproof cloth. In a city, these goods would have a combined market value of roughly 1 Gold and 5 Silver. This is the cheapest way to acquire a Shackle, but it requires a dangerous journey and a successful negotiation with a potentially hostile culture.

The Time 491 of the Shackle of a Thousand Scars is not a tool of precision or elegant defense. Its use in combat is a grim, visceral affair, focusing on overwhelming force and psychological terror. The roleplay of this item changes dramatically with the environment, but it is always centered on the avatar losing control to their own past pain.

Environment 1: A Disciplined Urban Confrontation

In the organized environment of a city street against trained guards, the Shackle is a tool of chaos, designed to shatter order through sheer, unexpected brutality.

Offensive Roleplay: The avatar is cornered by a shield wall of city guards, their movements disciplined and coordinated. The constant, gnawing sensation from the Phantom Pain passive has the avatar on a knife’s edge. A guard captain shouts a final warning to surrender. That sharp, authoritarian tone is the trigger. The avatar’s eyes lose focus for a second as they clutch the shackle, activating Relive the Scar. They are no longer in the street, but are re-experiencing the blinding agony of a shattered leg from a past battle. A guttural roar tears from their throat, a sound of pure agony and rage. They surge forward, and their first attack is not a calculated strike but a maddened, heaving blow. It smashes into a guard’s shield with enough force to not just block it, but to splinter the wood, break the guard’s arm, and send him stumbling back into his comrades, completely disrupting their disciplined formation. The goal is to use such overwhelming, shocking violence that it breaks the enemy’s morale and cohesion.

Defensive Roleplay: The avatar’s defense is not about parrying, but about psychological warfare and terrifying endurance. A guard finds an opening and lands a solid blow with a baton across the avatar’s side. The guards expect a cry of pain, a flinch, a retreat. Instead, the avatar barely seems to register the hit. They might turn their head slowly, a trickle of blood running from their mouth, and offer a wide, unhinged grin. The pain from the new wound is simply more fuel, feeding into the constant background noise from the shackle. This unnerving lack of reaction is the defense; it causes the professional guards to hesitate, their training having not prepared them for a foe who seems to enjoy the pain. As they take more damage, the Wounded Haste passive kicks in, making the avatar’s movements more frantic and erratic, turning them from a stationary target into a lurching, unpredictable whirlwind of fury that is difficult to pin down.

Environment 2: A Primordial Cave Lair

Against a singular, powerful beast like a Cave Tyrant in its own lair, the Shackle allows the avatar to match the monster’s primal ferocity. The fight becomes a race to the bottom.

Offensive Roleplay: This is the Shackle’s natural element. The avatar gives in to their feral instincts. The fight is a brutal exchange of blows. When the Cave Tyrant’s claw tears a deep gash in their shoulder, the flash of agony is immediately channeled by the shackle. The avatar screams, not just in pain, but in triumph. They activate Relive the Scar, pulling on the memory of a near-fatal wound from their past. The fresh pain and the old pain combine into a blinding furnace of rage. Their next swing with a heavy axe is no longer just aimed; it is thrown with every ounce of their being, landing with enough force to crack the beast’s thick hide and stagger it. The offense is a self-destructive cycle: take damage, channel the pain, deal even more damage back.

Defensive Roleplay: Here, defense is the act of refusing to die. The Cave Tyrant lands a devastating blow that should be lethal, crushing the avatar against the cave wall. Their body is broken, their vision is fading. But the shackle offers a final, desperate option. As their consciousness slips, their hand instinctively tightens on the petrified wood, unleashing The Red Minute. For the beast, its downed prey suddenly explodes in a six-second blur of impossible violence. The avatar, running on nothing but magical rage and remembered pain, launches a flurry of attacks, hacking at legs, eyes, and any weak point they can reach. They are not defending against the beast; they are attempting to tear it apart before their own body realizes it’s already dead. It is the ultimate defense through mutually assured destruction. When the effect ends, they collapse, the fight decided one way or another.

Environment 3: An Elite’s Guarded Manor

When a stealthy infiltration of a noble’s well-appointed estate goes wrong, the Shackle becomes a tool of terror and environmental destruction, turning a quiet mission into a rampage.

Offensive Roleplay: The alarm has been raised. Elite bodyguards, trained for clean, efficient combat, converge on the avatar in a pristine art gallery. The avatar, channeling the shackle’s power, makes no attempt to match their precision. Their rage is a force of nature unleashed indoors. They use Relive the Scar and swing a warhammer, not just at a guard, but through them, obliterating a priceless marble statue behind them. They are not just fighting the guards; they are fighting the environment itself. They rip tapestries from walls, splinter gilded furniture, and use the wreckage as improvised weapons. The offense is designed to sow chaos and terror, turning the guards’ familiar, orderly environment against them.

Defensive Roleplay: Defense in this scenario is about creating an overwhelming distraction to escape or reach a new objective. The guards have the avatar pinned down behind a large, overturned table. As they close in, the avatar, bloodied and moving with the frantic energy of Wounded Haste, activates The Red Minute. But their goal isn’t to kill all the guards. In a six-second blur, they attack the room’s structural supports, smash through a wall into an adjacent room, and topple a massive, burning fireplace into the center of the gallery. The guards are no longer focused on subduing the avatar; they are now forced to deal with a spreading fire and a potential structural collapse. The avatar has defended themself not by blocking attacks, but by creating a catastrophe so large that their own presence is no longer the guards’ primary concern.

Perception of Activation:

Sensory Perceptions

Sight

  • User’s Perspective: The world flashes crimson. For a split second, the user’s vision is violently overlaid with a first-person memory of a past trauma—the fangs of a beast lunging for their face, the sight of their own mangled limb, the dizzying view of a long fall. The bloodstone on the shackle pulses with a sickening, internal red light, like a clot of blood being illuminated from within.
  • Observer’s Perspective: The user’s eyes briefly roll back or glaze over with a pained, unfocused expression. The veins on their neck and arms bulge, and the bloodstone on the heavy shackle visibly throbs with a dull, pulsing crimson glow. The physical transformation is instantaneous and unsettling.

Sound

  • User’s Perspective: A deafening roar of blood pounds in their ears, drowning out all external noise. Beneath it, a distorted audio memory plays back—their own past scream of pain, the wet crunch of their own bone breaking, or the guttural roar of the monster that wounded them.
  • Observer’s Perspective: A low, involuntary groan of agony is forced from the user’s lips, often escalating into a guttural, rage-filled cry. The shackle itself may emit a low, grating sound, like rock grinding against bone.

Smell

  • User’s Perspective: A phantom olfactory memory hits them with the force of a physical blow. It is the smell of their own blood, hot and coppery, mixed with the stench of the creature or environment that caused the original wound—the foul, carrion breath of a beast, the damp mildew of a dungeon, or the acrid smoke of a fire.
  • Observer’s Perspective: There is no direct olfactory perception for an observer, though they may smell the sharp scent of the user’s sudden, profuse sweat.

Touch

  • User’s Perspective: This is the most acute and horrifying sensation. The user feels the searing, undeniable phantom pain of the original injury as if it were happening again in that very instant. It is a fire that consumes their senses. In stark contrast, the shackle itself becomes intensely, unnaturally cold against their skin, a chilling anchor of cold iron in a firestorm of remembered agony.
  • Observer’s Perspective: There is no tactile perception for a direct observer.

Taste

  • User’s Perspective: A foul, bitter taste of bile or old blood floods the back of their throat, a purely psychosomatic reaction to the violent sensory memory.
  • Observer’s Perspective: There is no taste perception for an observer.

Extra-Sensory Perceptions

Chronomancy (Retrocognitive Sense)

  • User’s Perspective: The user feels their personal timeline violently snag and tear. They are not remembering; they are being physically anchored to a fixed point of agony in their past. It is a sensation of being hooked and pulled backward through time, forced to re-inhabit a moment of pure trauma before being violently flung back into the present, dragging the raw energy of that moment with them.
  • Observer’s Perspective: A magically sensitive observer would not perceive a clean ripple in time, but a messy, violent “scarring” of the user’s personal timeline. It feels jagged, hateful, and fundamentally wrong—a brief, chaotic knot of causality that radiates palpable misery.

Aura / Empathic Sense

  • User’s Perspective: The user experiences a tidal wave of undiluted negative emotion—the shock, terror, and agony of the original wound. This wave is so powerful that it instantly scours away all other feelings, alchemizing the raw pain into a singular, focused point of white-hot rage.
  • Observer’s Perspective: An empath would be struck by a psychic shockwave of pure, undiluted pain radiating from the user, immediately followed by a volcanic eruption of fury. Anyone capable of seeing auras would witness the user’s aura instantly collapse from a normal spectrum of colors into a churning, muddy, blood-red vortex shot through with pulsing black veins of hate.

Perspectives and Ramifications

User’s Perspective The activation is an explicit act of self-torture. It is a conscious choice to inflict the worst moment of their past upon their present self in exchange for a fleeting rush of incredible power. The experience is nauseating and agonizing, a spiritual self-harm that is also dangerously intoxicating. It is the ultimate conversion of victimhood into violence.

Observer’s Perspective The process is deeply disturbing to witness. The user appears to suffer a brief, violent seizure or a fit of pained madness. They physically manifest agony and then, in the blink of an eye, transform that pain into terrifying, unrestrained physical power. It does not look like the casting of a spell; it looks like a curse being willingly invoked.

Positives

  • It provides an immediate, on-demand, and significant boost to physical strength and destructive capability.
  • It allows the user to weaponize their own history of pain and trauma, turning past weakness into present strength.
  • In a desperate, life-or-death situation, it can provide the raw power needed to overcome an otherwise insurmountable foe.

Negatives

  • The activation causes direct, if minor, psychosomatic damage and is intensely painful.
  • Constantly reliving one’s worst traumas is mentally and spiritually corrosive, risking a personality defined entirely by rage and bitterness.
  • The subsequent loss of control makes the user a significant danger to allies, innocents, and their surroundings.
  • The cycle of pain-for-power can be highly addictive, encouraging the user to seek out more trauma to fuel their artifact.

The Agony-Binding Rite

This is not a schematic for construction, but a guide to a dark and ancient ritual for imbuing a physical object with the echoes of suffering. The process is physically taxing and spiritually corrosive. It does not create an item of power in the traditional sense; it forges a conduit for the creator’s own pain, turning their history of agony into a weapon.

Materials Needed

  • 1x Heartwood of a Blighted Ironwood Tree: The wood must be sourced from a tree that has shown clear signs of disease, parasite infestation, or has been struck by lightning. Healthy wood will not suffice; the vessel itself must have a history of suffering.
  • 1x Uncut Bloodstone: The stone should be sourced from a region known for conflict or from the lair of a notoriously violent beast. It is said the most potent stones are those found “unwashed” from their place of discovery.
  • 1x Relic of Past Suffering: This must be a physical object that is a testament to a past tragedy. Examples include a shard of bone from a forgotten battlefield, a tooth from a beast that killed a loved one, or a stone from the foundation of a home lost to disaster.
  • Tallow of a Predatory Beast: Fat rendered from a creature known for its ferocity, such as a cave bear or a jungle stalker.
  • Ash from a Mourning-Fire: The cold ashes from a fire that was used for a funeral rite or to burn a blighted crop.
  • The Creator’s Own Blood: A significant quantity is required, drawn during the ritual itself.

Tools Required

  • Ritual Carving Knife: A blade of sharpened obsidian, flint, or the thigh bone of a large predator. A metal knife is considered too “civilized” and will disrupt the primal energies of the rite.
  • Stone Mortar and Pestle: For grinding the relic and ashes.
  • Earthenware or Clay Bowl: Must be unadorned and unglazed. Used for the bloodletting.
  • A Consecrated Ritual Site: The rite cannot be performed in a workshop. It requires a place of natural power that has been marked by fire, such as a fire-scorched boulder in a lonely waste or a blackened circle of earth in a deep forest.

Skill Requirements

  • Survival (Adept): Essential for foraging the correct, spiritually-attuned materials from the wild. Misidentifying the wood or the relic can cause the ritual to fail violently.
  • Ritualism (Adept): The creator must have a deep understanding of primal magic, sympathetic connections, and the methods for binding emotional energy into a physical object.
  • Endurance (Adept): The process is a grueling ordeal involving pain, focus, and blood loss. A weak constitution will cause the creator to fail or perish before the rite is complete.
  • Alchemy (Novice): Only a rudimentary knowledge of mixing physical components into a paste is necessary.

Crafting Steps

Step 1: Preparing the Site The ritual must begin on a moonless night. The creator must find their consecrated site and create a circle around it using the ash from the mourning-fire. All materials and tools must be placed within this circle. The creator cannot leave the circle until the rite is complete or abandoned.

Step 2: Carving the Form and Memories Using the ritual carving knife, the creator begins to slowly and arduously carve the shackle’s form from the Ironwood heartwood. This is not mere woodworking. With every major gouge and notch carved into the surface, the creator must enter a meditative state and focus on a specific, painful memory from their own life—a physical wound, a bitter betrayal, a moment of profound terror. They are not simply carving wood; they are carving a physical representation of their own history of suffering into the object.

Step 3: Pulverizing the Past Place the Relic of Past Suffering into the stone mortar. Using the pestle, grind the relic into a fine, grey powder. This act is symbolic, representing the destruction of a past tragedy to create a new strength. The powder is then mixed with the beast tallow to form a thick, gritty, grey paste.

Step 4: Setting the Heart of Pain Carve a shallow cavity into the shackle. The uncut bloodstone is then forced into this cavity. It should not be a clean fit. Use the grey paste of relic-dust and tallow to seal the stone in place, filling all the gaps. The paste should ooze from the edges, giving the setting a crude and ugly appearance.

Step 5: The Anointing of Self This is the most crucial and dangerous step. The creator takes the ritual carving knife—the same knife used to carve their memories into the wood—and makes a deep cut on their own body, letting their blood flow freely into the clay bowl. Once a sufficient amount is collected, they must anoint the entire shackle with their fresh, warm blood. Every notch, every crack, and the bloodstone itself must be coated while the creator channels all their raw, unfocused emotion—their rage, their fear, their misery—into the object.

Step 6: The Final Binding Place the blood-soaked shackle in the center of the consecrated, fire-scorched site. The creator must then begin a low, monotonous chant, a litany of their own pains and grievances. They must continue this chant without pause, pouring their life force and emotional energy into the shackle as the blood begins to dry and soak deep into the petrified wood. The ritual is complete only when the sun rises. If successful, the blood will have vanished, having turned the dark wood nearly black. The shackle will feel unnaturally cold and heavy, radiating a palpable aura of misery and contained rage, ready to be worn.

Lament of Gnarra and First Cold Shackle

It is told that in the age before the sky-ships and the steam-cities, there was a Time of Gnashing Teeth. In the deep jungle, the clans of the First People lived with the land. One was the Broken Tusk Clan, and upon them fell a great shadow. A beast, which had no true name but was called the Gloom-Fang, came from the dark places. It was a creature of wrong angles and silent steps. Its bite was poison to the soul, and the strongest warriors who went to hunt it were found later, not eaten, but empty, their faces frozen in a final terror. The strength of the clan was like water against this shadow-monster.

In this clan was a woman named Gnarra. She was not a warrior. As a child, the Gloom-Fang, in a raid, had tasted her leg, and she was left with a walk that was broken, a limp that was a mark of shame. She was Gnarra the Lame, a mender of nets and a watcher of children, and her heart was a heavy stone of sorrow, for she could not help her people. She watched the warriors fall, and she watched the children weep, and a new thing grew in her heart, harder than sorrow. It was rage.

The Elders forbade anyone from entering the Sunken Grove, a place where the trees were twisted and the air was old. They said the first spirits slept there and it was taboo. But Gnarra, whose shame was greater than her fear, went into the Grove. She walked for a day and a night, her broken leg screaming with pain. And in the center of the Grove, she found a great, weeping stone covered in carvings. They were not the carvings of her clan. They were older. The pictures were of suffering, and of power born from it.

And Gnarra, she read the pictures with her heart. The pictures spoke of giving pain to wood. They spoke of giving blood to stone. They spoke of making a cage for one’s own sorrow, and wearing it as a shield.

So Gnarra did as the stone-pictures showed. She found an Ironwood tree that had been crushed by a landslide, its heartwood hard and filled with the memory of the stone’s violence. She found the place where a great cave lion had died fighting a serpent, and from the ground she took a stone green and red with the blood of that battle. This was the bloodstone. For her final piece, she went to the place where she had been wounded as a child, and digging in the earth, she found a single, yellowed tooth from the Gloom-Fang that had broken off in her leg bone so long ago.

On a night of no moon, in the center of the Sunken Grove, she performed the rite. With a sharp piece of obsidian, she carved the hard wood into a manacle. For every deep cut she made in the wood, she thought of a time she had been shamed, of a warrior who had died, of the pain in her own leg. She carved her misery into the wood. She ground the beast-tooth to dust and mixed it with fat to make a paste, and with this she set the bloodstone into the wood. Then she took the obsidian knife and cut her own arm, letting her blood pour into a bowl of clay. She bathed the shackle in her own life and pain. And she began to chant, not a song of magic, but a long, low litany of all her rage and all her sorrow. She chanted until the sun rose, and when the light touched the shackle, the blood was gone, soaked into the wood, and the shackle was cold. So cold.

She put the shackle on her wrist. The pain from her lame leg vanished, replaced by a cold fire that burned in her soul. She was no longer Gnarra the Lame. She was something new.

She hunted the Gloom-Fang. She followed its trail of fear to a dark cave. The beast came for her, a shadow with too many claws. It showed her visions in her mind, visions of her own death, of her clan weeping. But she had already put all her sorrow into the shackle. She had no more fear to give it. The beast struck her, its claws tearing her flesh. And she laughed. The new pain was a welcome friend. She touched the shackle and brought forth the memory of the beast’s tooth in her leg, and the rage gave her the strength of ten warriors. She struck back.

The fight was ugly. It was a thing of spit and blood and broken things. The beast, seeing its fear-magic was a useless thing, bit deep into her shoulder. It was a death-wound. But as her life flowed out, Gnarra invoked the final secret of the shackle. For the beast, time became thick like mud. For Gnarra, it became a thin, screaming wind. She lived a lifetime of rage in the beat of a single heart. She fell upon the Gloom-Fang not as a woman, but as a storm of hate, a flurry of fists and teeth and broken wood.

She returned to her clan in the light of the next day. She carried the head of the Gloom-Fang. But the people did not cheer as she had dreamed. They stared in fear. For her eyes held no light, only the cold fire of the shackle. Her limp was gone, but so was her smile. She was their savior, but she was also a monster.

Gnarra taught the warriors the Agony-Binding Rite, so that they would never be weak again. And the cold shackles became the way of the Broken Tusk Clan, a mark of their great strength, and a cage for every warrior’s soul.

The moral of the story is this: One can build a mighty weapon from their own sorrow, but the hand that wields it will never again remember the feeling of warmth.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Bracers of Unremembered Agony Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)

This is a single, heavy bracer carved from what appears to be petrified darkwood, though it has the weight of iron. Jagged notches and scars mar its surface, and a dull, uncut bloodstone is crudely set into the band.

Curse. This item is cursed. Attuning to it binds it to you, and it cannot be removed against your will except by a remove curse spell or similar magic. While attuned to the bracer, you are perpetually on edge and your hands tremble with restrained energy. You have disadvantage on all Charisma (Persuasion) checks and Dexterity checks that require fine motor skills.

Wounded Haste. While you are below half of your maximum hit points, your movement speed increases by 10 feet as adrenaline and phantom pain drive you into a frantic state.

Fuelled by Pain. As a bonus action on your turn, you can choose to draw upon a deep well of remembered agony. You take 1d6 psychic damage (this damage cannot be reduced in any way), and the first time you hit with a melee weapon attack before the end of your turn, the attack deals an extra 2d10 necrotic damage.

Unleashed Agony. Once per day, you can use an action to fully unleash the bracer’s power. For 1 minute, you gain the benefits of the haste spell, without requiring concentration. When this effect ends, you immediately suffer three levels of exhaustion as the temporal and physical backlash wracks your body.

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Manacle of the Wendigo This artifact is a heavy, dark, wooden shackle, covered in countless gouges and crude carvings. It feels unnaturally cold and heavy. A large, unpolished bloodstone is embedded in it. Investigators who study it may make an Occult or Cthulhu Mythos roll to recognize it as an item designed to channel pain and rage through temporal distortion, a practice of certain cannibalistic cults. Wearing it is an invitation to madness.

Game Mechanics: Permanently wearing the manacle costs the Investigator 1/1d6 SAN.

  • Passive Effect: The wearer is haunted by constant phantom pains. They suffer one penalty die on all Charm and Persuade rolls. However, their body is hardened to suffering; they may ignore the skill penalties (but not the risk of unconsciousness) from one Major Wound.
  • Active Effect: The Frenzy: By embracing the agony, the wearer can force their body into a state of preternatural rage. This requires a successful Hard POW roll.
    • Cost: Entering the Frenzy costs the Investigator 1d6 Sanity points.
    • Effect: The Frenzy lasts for 1d4+1 rounds. While frenzied, the Investigator is immune to the effects of all their current injuries. They gain one bonus die to all Fighting (Brawl) checks, and their unarmed attacks with their hands and teeth deal 1d10 damage.
    • Downside: While frenzied, the Investigator must attack the nearest living creature each round, whether friend or foe. They cannot perform any action other than moving and attacking. When the Frenzy ends, the Investigator is automatically subject to a bout of temporary insanity and takes 1d4 points of physical damage from sheer exhaustion.

Blades in the Dark

Shackle of the Drowned Barrow God Ritual Artifact, Special Item

An ancient, waterlogged shackle of petrified wood, dragged up from the bottom of the Duskwall canals. It’s an artifact of a forgotten god of rage and pain. It feels cold and hateful, and whispers promises of power to those who are desperate enough to listen.

Game Mechanics: This item takes up one load slot. When you wear it, you are always on edge, haunted by phantom pains and whispers of rage.

  • Fictional Positioning: You are intimidating and your tolerance for pain is legendary. You can ignore the penalties from your first level 1 Harm. However, you cannot provide or receive assistance on any teamwork actions. Your rage makes you a poor collaborator.
  • The God’s Bargain: When you are in a desperate situation, you may activate the Shackle’s power. This functions as a Devil’s Bargain offered by the GM, but you can propose it yourself.
    • Effect: For your next action, you may roll your single highest Action rating, regardless of what the action is (for example, you may Wreck something using your Attune rating). Your action has Potency against supernatural and mortal foes alike.
    • The Cost: After your action is resolved, the bargain comes due. You must immediately take level 2 Harm (“Ravaged” or “Broken”) as the vengeful power tears through your body. Furthermore, you lose control for a few moments, and the GM will describe one violent, destructive action you take against your surroundings or the nearest person, friend or foe.

Knave (2nd Edition)

Pain-Eater’s Manacle Item, 1 Inventory Slot, Cursed

A heavy, dark wooden manacle covered in scars and notches, with a chunk of raw bloodstone embedded in it. It feels cold and hateful. Once worn, it cannot be removed except by a powerful magical healing ritual that leaves the wearer bedridden for a week.

  • Constant Effect: You are perpetually irritable and prone to rage. You have disadvantage on all reaction rolls when dealing with anyone who is not openly hostile.
  • Pain for Power: Before you make a melee attack, you may choose to take 1d6 damage (ignoring armor). If you do, you gain Advantage on that attack roll and, if you hit, you deal an additional 1d8 damage.
  • Unleashed Agony: Once per day, you may unleash the manacle’s full power. For the next three rounds, you may make a second melee attack on your turn. During this time, you are in a berserk rage and must use your movement and attacks to engage the nearest living creature, regardless of allegiance. After the third round, the power fades and you are left defenseless; you cannot move or take any actions on your next turn as your body recovers from the shock.

Fate Core System

The Scar That Never Heals

This cursed item is best represented as a core Trouble Aspect for a character, which then grants access to a specific, powerful Stunt.

  • Trouble Aspect: Haunted by the Scar That Never Heals You wear a dark, wooden shackle that binds you to the memory of your own pain. You are perpetually irritable, quick to anger, and prone to solving problems with violence.
    • Compel: The GM can offer you a Fate Point to compel this Aspect, forcing you to fly into a rage at an inopportune moment, violently misinterpret a neutral social situation, or become so consumed by phantom pains that you cannot concentrate on a delicate task.
    • Invoke: You can spend a Fate Point to invoke your familiarity with pain, allowing you to ignore the narrative effects of physical torture or shrug off a minor injury that would cause others to hesitate.
  • Stunt: Fuelled by Agony Because I am Haunted by the Scar That Never Heals, I can choose to take a mild or moderate Consequence just before I make a Fight roll. If I take a mild Consequence, I gain a +2 bonus to that roll. If I take a moderate Consequence, I gain a +4 bonus instead. The Consequence I take must be narratively linked to the psychosomatic trauma of activating the shackle (e.g., Mind-Wrecking Flashbacks, Torn Muscles from Pure Rage).

Numenera & Cypher System

Agony-Inducer Manacle

  • Level: 6
  • Form: A heavy manacle made of a dark, organic-looking synth material covered in jagged notches. An uncut, dull red crystal is embedded where a lock would be. It appears to be a form of malfunctioning biotech, possibly a penal or medical device.
  • Effect: The device interfaces directly with the wearer’s pain receptors and memory centers. The wearer is in a state of constant, low-level agitation, causing all tasks related to peaceful social interaction to be hindered. However, the wearer’s system is so flooded with false pain signals that they can ignore the penalties from being Impaired (the first step on the damage track).
    • Active Power (Pain Spike): As part of making a melee attack, the wearer can allow the device to send a jolt of psychic trauma through their system. The wearer immediately takes 3 points of Intellect damage (ignoring Armor). In return, that single melee attack is Eased by two steps and inflicts an additional 4 points of damage.
    • Active Power (Overload): The wearer can unleash the device’s full power. For one minute, they enter a berserk state and can take two actions each round, so long as both actions are melee attacks.
  • Depletion: — (The backlash is the depletion). After the overload state ends, the wearer is overwhelmed by psychosomatic shock and immediately descends to the Debilitated step on the damage track.

Pathfinder (2nd Edition)

Manacle of the Grieving Wound – Item 7 Cursed, Invested, Magical, Necromancy, Uncommon

  • Price 360 gp
  • Usage worn bracer; Bulk L

This heavy shackle is carved from petrified wood and covered in scars. A bloodstone is crudely embedded in its surface. The magic of this item feeds on the wearer’s pain, transforming it into violent power.

Curse: Upon investing this item, you are subject to its curse. The manacle cannot be removed until the curse is broken. You are perpetually agitated and angered. You take a –2 status penalty to all Diplomacy checks, but you are immune to fear effects.

  • Activate [one-action] Agonizing Strike; Frequency once per minute
  • Requirements You have taken damage from a source other than this item within the last minute.
  • Effect You focus on your pain, taking 1d6 persistent psychic damage. Make a melee Strike. If it hits, you gain a status bonus to the damage roll equal to twice the number of weapon damage dice of the weapon you are using. The persistent psychic damage ends automatically after the Strike is resolved, whether it hits or misses.
  • Activate [two-actions] Unleash a Lifetime of Pain; Frequency once per day
  • Effect You flood your body with remembered agony. You are quickened for 1 minute and can use the extra action only to make a Strike. For the duration, you are also Confused. When this effect ends, you are Fatigued for the next hour.

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE)

The Blood-Debt Shackle This grim artifact is a heavy wooden manacle, cold to the touch and covered in crude notches. It is a cursed item, rumored to have been created by ancient berserkers who believed pain was the purest source of power.

  • Curse: The wearer is quick to anger and prone to violence. They suffer a –2 penalty to Persuasion rolls.
  • Pain Tolerance: The wearer’s mind is so clouded by phantom pains that fresh injury barely registers. The wearer ignores the –1 penalty for being Shaken.
  • Wounded Fury: When the wearer has one or more Wounds, their rage intensifies. They add +2 to all melee damage rolls.
  • Agony for Power: As a free action on their turn, the user can choose to take a level of Fatigue (or a Wound if already Exhausted). If they do, their melee attacks are made with a +2 bonus and deal +4 damage until their next turn. This Fatigue is removed after one hour.

Shadowrun, Sixth World

Pain-Spirit Manacle This artifact is a Focus, a heavy shackle carved from blackened, petrified wood with a raw bloodstone crudely embedded in it. It is not a product of modern enchanting, but a ritual fetish created by toxic shamans or blood mages. It houses a Pain Spirit, which feeds on the user’s suffering to grant them power.

  • Focus Type: Power Focus
  • Force: 3
  • Availability: 16R
  • Cost: 65,000 nuyen
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Binding and Attunement: Binding this focus requires the user to undergo a ritual that inflicts 1 box of unresisted Physical damage.
    • Toxic Drawback: This is a Toxic Focus. While it is active, the spirit’s influence makes the user aggressive and unstable. The user suffers a -2 dice pool penalty to all social tests.
    • Fuel for the Spirit: The focus attunes to the wearer’s suffering. The user may ignore the dice pool penalties from one box of Physical damage and one box of Stun damage they have taken.
    • Unleashed Host: Once per combat, the wearer can allow the Pain Spirit to partially possess them. For a duration of the Focus’s Force (3) in combat rounds, the user gains the Berserk status, adding their Magic attribute to their melee damage value and ignoring all injury modifiers. At the end of the duration, the user immediately takes Force (3) unresisted Stun damage as the spirit retreats, leaving them in psychic shock.

Starfinder

Vesk Agony-Gland Bracer

  • Level 8; Price 9,500 credits
  • Hands 1; Bulk 1
  • Type Biotech; Armor Slot wrist

This bulky, intimidating bracer is made of dark grey Veskian synth-steel. Embedded within it is a pulsing, semi-organic gland sac filled with red fluid, taken from a creature native to the Vesk homeworld. The biotech device interfaces with the wearer’s nervous system, allowing them to turn pain into a combat stimulant.

  • Game Mechanics:
    • This is a biotech item that must be surgically installed (a 1-hour procedure).
    • Pain Conditioning: The constant stream of low-level pain signals grants the user a +2 item bonus to saving throws against pain effects and fear effects.
    • Adrenal Surge: While you have fewer than half your maximum Hit Points, you enter a combat rage. You gain a +4 morale bonus to melee damage rolls, but also take a –2 penalty to your Armor Class.
    • Agony Spike: Once per day as a standard action, you can flood your system with a potent chemical cocktail from the gland. You immediately lose Hit Points equal to your character level (this damage bypasses shields and cannot be reduced). In return, you gain the benefits of the haste spell for 1 minute. When the haste effect ends, you are exhausted until you have rested for 8 hours.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Droyne Berserker-Caste Manacle This is a piece of alien technology of unknown origin, though its design philosophy bears some resemblance to ancient Droyne artifacts. It is a heavy, dark grey manacle made of an unknown, non-metallic material. It has no obvious power source or controls. When worn, it bonds with the wearer’s biology. Removing it requires a risky surgical procedure (MEDIC, Formidable (12), 1d6 hours, failure inflicts 1d6 damage).

  • Tech Level: 16 (Alien)
  • Weight: 1 kg
  • Power: Parasitic (draws on wearer’s bio-energy)
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Constant Aggression: The manacle injects a constant stream of neuro-stimulants into the wearer. The wearer is immune to fear and ignores the DM-1 penalty for being injured. However, the wearer is perpetually aggressive and suffers DM-2 on all non-intimidating social skill checks.
    • Rage Induction: Once per day, the user can consciously trigger the device’s surge function. For 1d6 rounds, they enter a berserk rage.
      • Effect: While enraged, the wearer gains DM+2 on all Melee attack rolls and may add +4 to their damage rolls.
      • Downside: During the rage, the user must attack the nearest creature each round. If there are no hostile creatures, they will attack the nearest ally or even inanimate objects. When the rage ends, the user must make an Endurance check (difficulty 10+). Failure results in them falling unconscious for 1d6 hours; success leaves them able to act but they suffer DM-2 to all actions for the next hour.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

The Khornate Manacle of Scorned Flesh This brutal shackle of dark, veinous wood and rusted iron is an artifact dedicated to the Chaos God Khorne. It is always cold to the touch and seems to drink the light from a room. A jagged, unworked piece of bloodstone is set where a lock should be. It whispers promises of victory and bloodshed to any who would wear it.

  • Magical Item: This is a Chaos Artifact.
  • Curse and Corruption: A character who willingly puts on this manacle immediately gains 1 Corruption point. Each time the Unleashed Slaughter ability is used, they must make a Challenging (+0) Cool test or gain another Corruption point.
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Whispers of Rage: The wearer is immune to the Psychology special rule, as their mind is filled only with rage. However, they can never voluntarily retreat from combat.
    • Sanguine Offering: As an action, the wearer may inflict a Bleeding condition upon themselves. If they do, for the next round, their melee attacks gain the Impact and Vicious qualities.
    • Unleashed Slaughter: Once per day, the wearer may use an action to give themselves wholly to the Blood God. They immediately gain the Frenzy (+10) creature trait for a number of rounds equal to their Toughness Bonus. When the frenzy ends, they gain three Fatigued conditions.