Tribal 113 of the Gatherers Compass

Lore: When the first souls found themselves scattered across the verdant, and exceedingly dangerous, islands of Saṃsāra, survival was a matter of immediate trial and error. Many communities materialized in lush jungles and dense forests, surrounded by flora that was at once a potential feast and a potential poison. Starvation was as great an enemy as any monster. From this necessity, the first Gatherer’s Compasses were created.

The original artisans were not great mages or warriors, but mothers, fathers, and elders responsible for feeding their new communities. They turned to the traditions they remembered, weaving pouches from the very vines that sustained and threatened them. They performed small rituals, calling upon the spirits of resourceful and clever foraging animals—the monkey, the field mouse, the berry-picking bird—to guide their hands and imbue their creations with a sliver of their totemic wisdom. The resulting pouches did not point north, but rather towards sustenance. They became essential tools for any new arrival or traveler, a common but vital piece of equipment that taught one of the first and most important lessons of Saṃsāra: the world will provide for those who know how to listen to it.

Description: This item is a small, soft-bodied pouch, roughly the size of a large clenched fist, designed to be looped onto a belt. It is woven from at least three different types of vine: a thick, dark vine provides the pouch’s sturdy, structural rings, while a thinner, more pliable green-brown fiber is used for the main body. A third, silvery-white vine is used for decoration, creating intricate patterns across the pouch’s surface. Woven directly into these patterns are subtle totemic figures of small foraging animals and useful plants. One might see the shape of a coiled lizard, a climbing monkey, or the leaf of a particular berry bush. The pouch is secured not by a buckle, but by a simple loop and toggle system. The toggle is a single, petrified ironwood nut, polished smooth by use. The inside of the pouch is surprisingly cool and dry, and the entire item carries the rich, pleasant scent of damp earth, crushed leaves, and moss.

Detailed Stats

• Bonus: If the wearer has trained the Foraging skill, this pouch grants a +1 bonus to any attempts to find edible plants, potable water, or useful herbs.
• Bonus: If the wearer has trained the Nature Knowledge skill, this pouch grants a +1 bonus when attempting to identify unknown plants, fungi, or animals.

Passive Magics

• Nature’s Whisper: The pouch is attuned to the life-force of the surrounding plant life. To the wearer, common edible or medicinally useful plants within a short distance appear subtly different from the surrounding flora. Their colors seem a fraction more saturated, their leaves might have a faint, almost imperceptible shimmering outline, or they might catch the eye in a way that others do not. This makes spotting useful plants in a dense forest significantly easier.
• Poison’s Warning: The pouch acts as a vigilant guardian against natural toxins. If the wearer physically touches a plant, fungus, or natural substance that is poisonous or harmful upon contact or ingestion, the pouch instills a distinct and immediate cooling sensation upon the wearer’s skin where it touches them. This feeling is sharp and uncomfortable, like pressing a cold stone against the skin on a winter’s day, serving as an unmistakable warning.

Activable Magics

• Chant for Bounty: The wearer may hold the pouch and hum a simple, rhythmic, three-note chant. The pouch will vibrate gently in response. For the next hour, the Nature’s Whisper passive is enhanced. The wearer gains a persistent, general sense of direction—not a precise map, but a gentle mental “pull”—towards the largest or closest patch of a specific type of common, mundane plant they are concentrating on (for example, “sweet berries,” “edible roots,” “healing herbs”).
• Offering to the Earth: Once per day, the wearer can take a single, prime specimen of something they have foraged—a perfect berry, an unblemished mushroom, a fragrant flower—and place it inside the empty pouch as a ritual offering. The item will be magically consumed over the course of a minute, turning to fine, clean soil. In return for this offering, the pouch becomes a vessel of purification. The next handful of foraged food items (up to a pound of material) placed within it will be cleansed of mundane dirt, grime, parasites, and minor, non-magical toxins, rendering them safe for consumption.

Specific Slot: Belt Pouch

Tags: Common, Belt Pouch, Tier 1, Woven, Nature, Utility, Foraging, Survival, Herbal, Totemic, Ritual, Detection, Purification, Sustenance, Guidance

The Tribal 113 of the Gatherer’s Compass is a fundamental tool for survival, and as such, it is most commonly found in places where the border between civilization and wilderness is thin. Its sale is less about profit and more about enabling life in the untamed parts of Saṃsāra.

The Frontier Outfitter’s Post

Located at the edge of established cities or as the last bastion of commerce in a frontier town, these outfitters are the final stop for explorers, prospectors, and pioneers heading into the unknown. The shops are sturdy, practical structures of timber and stone, smelling of leather, oiled canvas, and metal. They sell durable gear: ropes, climbing claws, waterproof cloaks, and basic steam-powered excavation tools. The Gatherer’s Compasses would be kept in a large, open-topped barrel or a woven basket by the main counter, alongside other essential survival items like flint-and-steel kits and alchemical water purifiers.

The transaction here is typically straightforward and professional. The shopkeeper is often a retired ranger or a seasoned explorer who understands the life-or-death importance of their wares. They will not embellish the item’s lore but will give practical, honest advice on its use and care. Haggling is infrequent; the price is considered fair for a reliable, life-saving tool. They are selling dependability, not fantasy.

Cost: The price is firm, reflecting the shop’s convenient location and the quality of its goods. A Gatherer’s Compass would typically cost 9 Silver. A small discount might be offered if it is purchased as part of a larger “pioneer’s kit.”

The Village Herbalist’s Hut

Deep within rural communities that border dense forests or swamps, one can find the home of a local herbalist or hedge-mage. This is often not a formal shop but a living space crowded with the tools of their trade: bundles of herbs drying from the rafters, shelves cluttered with murky jars, and the constant, bubbling sound of a simmering cauldron. The air is thick with the aroma of a hundred different plants. The herbalist likely makes these pouches themselves or trades for them with local weavers.

Acquiring a pouch here is a personal interaction. The herbalist will want to know the buyer and their intentions, viewing the pouches as extensions of the natural world that deserve respect. They may prefer barter over currency, valuing rare ingredients or services far more than coin. A buyer might be asked to trade for the pouch with a bundle of rare Glow-Moss from a deep cave, a promise to hunt a particularly aggressive beast that has been troubling the village, or even just a service like repairing their roof.

Cost: If coin is accepted, the price would be modest, around 5 Silver or 1 Electrum. However, the true value lies in barter. A single, rare alchemical root brought from a distant island could be considered a worthy trade.

The “First Landing” Barter Market

In the newest settlements, where souls have only recently arrived and the forest has yet to be pushed back, formal commerce does not exist. Here, in a clearing between temporary shelters, a “First Landing” market operates. It is a chaotic but vital system of exchange based on immediate need. An experienced survivor who has mastered the local flora and the craft of weaving a Gatherer’s Compass would be a central figure, a source of communal knowledge.

Transactions are based entirely on mutual support. The weaver does not sell the pouches for profit but creates them to ensure the survival and growth of the community. Coin is almost useless here. An avatar would acquire a pouch by contributing to the weaver’s efforts. They might be tasked with gathering the specific types of vines needed for the weaving, standing watch over the settlement for a night, or hunting to provide food for the weaver’s family.

Cost: There is no monetary cost. The price is paid in labor, resources, and a pledge to the community. A common arrangement would be, “Bring me the materials, and I will make you the pouch. In return, you will use it to help feed us all, and you will teach the next new arrival what you have learned.”

The Ranger’s Guildhall Quartermaster

Within the formidable walls of a Ranger’s Guild or an Explorer’s Society in a major city, these pouches are considered standard-issue equipment. The Guildhall is a functional, often fortified building with training areas, cartography workshops, and a quartermaster’s store that is inaccessible to the public. The store is organized and efficient, stocked with all the gear a member needs for an expedition into the wilds.

The Gatherer’s Compass is not for sale here at all. It is issued to new apprentices and members upon completion of their initial training. It represents the Guild’s investment in the survival of its members. The pouch might even be marked with the Guild’s sigil, woven into the pattern. To be caught selling Guild property would result in immediate expulsion and disgrace.

Cost: The cost is not measured in coin but in service and loyalty. To acquire a pouch, one must first join the guild, swear its oaths, and prove themselves worthy of the equipment and the title of Ranger or Explorer. It is earned, not bought.

The Tribal 113 of the Gatherer’s Compass is an item of survival and sustenance, not of war. It has no direct offensive capabilities and provides no physical shield. Its use in defense or offense is therefore a matter of ingenuity, environmental manipulation, and understanding that a forest can be both a larder and an arsenal. An avatar must think like a naturalist, not a warrior, to turn this tool to such purposes.

Defensive Roleplaying Applications

Defense with the Gatherer’s Compass is about using the natural world as a shield, a barrier, or a means of escape. It is the art of turning the environment against a pursuer.

Scenario: A Chase Through a Venomous Jungle An avatar is being relentlessly pursued by a pack of fast, but not particularly intelligent, predatory beasts. Outrunning them on open ground is impossible. The avatar ducks into the dense, ancient jungle, holding the Gatherer’s Compass in hand.

Here, the defense is not to find food, but to find the opposite. The avatar uses the Poison’s Warning passive in an active, desperate way. As they run, they drag their hand across the foliage. The pouch remains neutral against most plants, but when their hand brushes against a vine covered in nearly invisible, toxic thorns, the pouch sends a sharp, cold shock up their arm. They have found their weapon. Instead of avoiding the patch, they deliberately steer their path along its edge, leading the pursuing pack directly into the thicket of venomous thorns. The beasts, lacking such a warning system, crash headlong into the toxic barrier, becoming injured, disoriented, and crippled by fast-acting poison, allowing the avatar to escape while the pack writhes in agony.

Scenario: Evading Trackers in a Treacherous Swamp The avatar is being hunted by skilled trackers—bandits or slavers who know how to follow footprints and broken twigs. Hiding is not an option; they must create distance and break the trail in a way that cannot be easily followed.

The avatar enters a vast, misty swamp. They activate Chant for Bounty, but they do not concentrate on finding food. Instead, they focus their intent on a specific environmental hazard: “quicksand” or “deep, unstable bog.” The pouch, in its attunement to the earth, provides a gentle but persistent pull in the direction of the greatest concentration of these hazards. The avatar follows this guidance, not to fall in, but to skirt the edges. They are able to navigate a safe but winding path through the most treacherous part of the swamp, a path their pursuers cannot see. The trackers, following the trail, would find it suddenly leading into a vast, impassable mire. They would be forced to go around, losing hours of time and ultimately the trail itself. The defense is misdirection, turning the land into a maze for the enemy and a map for the user.

Offensive Roleplaying Applications

Offense with the Gatherer’s Compass is subtle and preparatory. It is about weaponizing the environment and using the avatar’s knowledge of nature to lay clever, deadly traps.

Scenario: Preparing an Ambush at a Forest Choke-point An avatar needs to ambush a heavily armed patrol moving along a forest path. A direct assault would be suicidal. The battlefield must be prepared.

Days before the patrol arrives, the avatar scouts the area. They use Chant for Bounty, concentrating on finding a specific type of hazardous plant they know from their studies, for instance, “Flash-Pan Pollen Pods”—large, dry seed pods that release a highly flammable, irritating powder when disturbed. The pouch guides them to a dense thicket of these plants overlooking a narrow ravine the patrol must pass through. The avatar spends hours carefully rigging tripwires connected to the pods. When the patrol enters the ravine, a single tug on a vine brings dozens of pods tumbling down, blanketing the soldiers in the flammable, choking dust. A single spark, from a fire arrow or a piece of flint, would turn the entire ravine into an inferno. The pouch did not spring the trap, but its offensive use was in finding the natural ammunition to create it.

Scenario: The Poisoner’s Harvest An avatar needs to neutralize a bandit leader in his own camp, surrounded by his guards. A frontal attack is impossible, but the leader is arrogant and eats from the same pot as his followers.

The avatar uses Nature’s Whisper to forage for ingredients for a stew they will offer to share. The passive ability helps them easily find nutritious roots and savory herbs. But their true goal is different. They also search for a specific fungus known as a “Slow Death Cap.” This fungus is notoriously difficult to distinguish from an identical-looking, delicious edible variety. The key difference is that the poisonous variant is not toxic to the touch. The avatar uses the Poison’s Warning passive as a tool of elimination. They handle several mushrooms; the pouch grows cold against some, but remains neutral against the Slow Death Cap. They have now positively identified a safe-to-handle but deadly poison. Later, in the camp, they use Offering to the Earth in plain sight, “purifying” the genuinely edible ingredients, creating a false sense of security. They then prepare the stew, mixing the deadly, confirmed poison in with the rest. The offense is a quiet act of sabotage, using the item’s detection abilities to procure the perfect, undetectable weapon.

Perception of Activation:

User’s Perspective

When an avatar activates the Tribal 113 of the Gatherer’s Compass, they do not feel a jarring surge of power, but rather a gentle and pervasive merging with the natural world around them.

• Sight: The world’s colors shift in vibrancy. Greens and browns become deeply saturated and rich, while artificial colors seem to fade slightly. The user can perceive the intricate network of veins on a single leaf from yards away, and the patterns in tree bark become as clear as a map. The silvery-white vines on the pouch itself begin to glow with a soft, pulsing, pale-green light, like bioluminescence in a deep forest.
• Sound: The world is filled with a low, harmonious hum, like the buzzing of a thousand beehives in a summer meadow. This sound pushes sharp, unnatural noises to the background. The user can hear the whisper of wind through leaves even when the air is still, the trickle of water flowing deep underground, and the slow, groaning creak of growing wood.
• Smell: An intense and overwhelming aroma of pure life fills the user’s senses. It is the smell of rich, black soil after a heavy rain, the cloying sweetness of night-blooming jasmine, and the sharp, invigorating scent of freshly crushed mint and pine needles all at once.
• Touch: The pouch grows cool and feels slightly damp against the skin, as if it were a living bundle of moss. A gentle, rhythmic vibration, like a slow heartbeat, emanates from it. The air on the user’s skin feels clean and soft.
• Taste: A clean, verdant flavor floods the mouth, reminiscent of sweet grass, crisp spring water, and a hint of honey.
• Extra-Sensory Perception (The Green Web): Through their Mind’s Eye, the user perceives the life force of the local flora. It is not a series of individual auras, but a vast, interconnected network of pale green light, like a second root system existing in a different dimension, connecting every plant, tree, and blade of grass. The user feels their own life force become a temporary, welcome part of this network.
• Extra-Sensory Perception (Totemic Sense): When activating the pouch’s abilities, the user might feel fleeting sensory shifts related to the pouch’s totems. They might feel a phantom sense of a prehensile tail when considering a climb, or find their eyes drawn to the slightest movement of a berry in the wind as a bird would.

Positives: The experience is profoundly calming and centering. The user feels a sense of belonging, of being part of the natural world rather than just an observer. This connection provides unparalleled clarity for navigating and surviving in the wild.

Negatives: The user can become disconnected from the manufactured world; the orderly lines of a building or the hiss of a steam engine can feel abrasive and hostile. The sheer amount of sensory information from the flora can be distracting, causing the user to miss the approach of a predator while marveling at the beauty of a flower.

Observer’s Perspective

To an onlooker, the activation of the Gatherer’s Compass is a subtle and beautiful display of nature magic.

• Sight: The most obvious visual effect is the soft, gentle glow that emanates from the silvery-white vines woven into the pouch. The light is a pale, phosphorescent green that pulses slowly. Small, living plants in the immediate vicinity might react subtly, with leaves turning slightly towards the user or buds seeming to swell.
• Sound: A person standing very close to the user may hear a faint, low humming sound, like the distant buzzing of insects on a warm day. If the user performs a chant, their voice, even if quiet, carries with a clear and soothingly natural cadence.
• Smell: A pleasant and distinct fragrance of damp earth and blooming flowers emanates from the user, a scent that is noticeable even in environments where it should not exist, such as a stone-paved city square or a barren desert.
• Touch: An observer would feel nothing unusual unless they were to touch the pouch itself, which would feel surprisingly cool and damp to their hand.
• Taste: There is no perception of taste for an observer.
• Extra-Sensory Perception (The Mind’s Eye): A magically-attuned observer would see the user’s aura soften and shift to a vibrant, leafy green. They would perceive faint, root-like tendrils of this green energy extending from the pouch and the user’s feet, connecting with the life force of the surrounding plants. The user appears less like a distinct entity and more like a temporary hub in the local web of natural magical energy.

Positives: The activation is gentle, quiet, and non-threatening. Its effects are often perceived as pleasant and calming by those nearby. It is a clear sign of benevolent or “white” nature magic.

Negatives: The user appears deeply entranced and focused on their surroundings, making them seem oblivious to conversation or immediate threats. To individuals from highly industrial or urban cultures, or those suspicious of primal magic, this deep connection to the wild might be viewed as primitive, uncivilized, or dangerously untamed.

Formula for the Earth-Bound Forager’s Pouch

This document details the traditional method for crafting a magically attuned pouch designed to aid its bearer in finding sustenance within the wildlands of Saṃsāra. The process is as much a ritual as it is a craft, requiring a deep respect for the natural world and the spirits within it.

Materials Needed

• Structural Vine: One length of mature, dark Iron-Braid Vine, known for its incredible tensile strength and rigidity. It must be harvested from a tree that has survived a major storm.
• Body Fiber: A large bundle of supple, green-brown Moss-Weft Fibers. These must be gathered from the shaded, northern side of a riverbank, where they remain cool and damp.
• Spirit Vine: A single, long strand of silvery Ghost-Thorn Vine. This vine only grows in areas with high ambient magic and must be harvested without being touched by bare skin, as it readily absorbs oils and personal energies.
• Toggle Nut: One uncracked Stonebark Nut, petrified by age and magical exposure. It must be found, not taken, lying freely on the forest floor.
• Totemic Essence: Three small pinches of different totemic dusts. For example, dust from a shed lizard skin for cunning, ground feather-down from a berry-eating bird for keen sight, and crushed, dried mushroom spores for earthy wisdom.
• Attunement Water: A single bowl of pure, clean rainwater collected directly from the leaves of a Sun-Leaf plant during the dawn chorus.

Tools Required

• Artisan’s Weaving Frame: A sturdy wooden frame with adjustable pegs, used to hold the structural vines taut during the weaving process.
• Vine-Dressing Kit: A set of specialized tools including bone needles for guiding fibers, a smooth, curved wooden fid for separating tight weaves, and shears sharp enough to cut Iron-Braid Vine cleanly.
• Polishing Stones: A series of flat, water-worn river stones with varying grits, used to shape and polish the Stonebark Nut toggle.
• Ritual Bowl: A simple, unadorned clay bowl, fired without glaze, used exclusively for holding attunement waters and other ritual components.

Skill Requirements

• Artisan (Weaving): A high level of skill is needed to work with the different textures and tensile strengths of the three vine types, especially for the intricate totemic patterns.
• Nature Knowledge: The crafter must be able to identify and properly harvest the required magical flora without damaging the local ecosystem or angering nature spirits.
• Foraging: The process requires that the artisan personally forages for all plant-based materials. Using materials gathered by another will result in a non-magical, mundane pouch.
• Attunement (Nature): The ability to feel and subtly guide the flow of natural, living energies is paramount for the final awakening of the item.

Crafting Steps

1. The Foraging Ritual: The crafting begins not in the workshop, but in the wild. The artisan must spend a full day foraging for the required materials. Each item must be gathered with respect. When cutting a vine, an offering of clean water must be left in its place. When taking the Stonebark Nut, a silent word of thanks must be given to the forest. This initial step aligns the crafter’s intent with the purpose of the pouch.
2. Preparing the Fibers: The harvested vines must be prepared. The Iron-Braid Vine is soaked in warm water to make it pliable, while the Moss-Weft Fibers are gently combed with the fid to remove any impurities. The Ghost-Thorn Vine is kept separate and handled only with leather tongs or thick gloves.
3. Weaving the Foundation: The artisan sets the Iron-Braid Vine onto the weaving frame, creating the two sturdy rings that will form the pouch’s opening and base. This is a slow, methodical process. With each pass of the shuttle, the crafter must focus on the concept of “structure,” “safety,” and “a vessel to hold bounty.”
4. Weaving the Body: Using the bone needles, the artisan begins weaving the soft Moss-Weft Fibers between the two foundation rings. This weave is tight and dense. During this stage, the artisan hums a low, continuous note—a sound that mimics the buzz of life in a forest. This imbues the body of the pouch with a resonance for living things.
5. The Totemic Weave: This is the most critical and magical step. The artisan takes up the Ghost-Thorn Vine. As they weave the pattern of the first totem animal (e.g., the lizard), they mix the corresponding totemic dust (shed lizard skin) into the fibers. They must focus their thoughts entirely on the essence of that creature—its patience, its ability to blend in, its quick movements. This is repeated for each totemic figure, weaving the animal’s spirit directly into the fabric of the pouch.
6. Shaping the Closure: The artisan takes the Stonebark Nut and the polishing stones. They carefully shape the nut into a smooth, ergonomic toggle, then polish it to a dull sheen. This is a meditative act, focusing on the concepts of “security” and “a lock that opens to the worthy.” The toggle is then attached to the pouch with a loop made from leftover Moss-Weft Fiber.
7. The Awakening at Dawn: The final step must be performed in the open air as the sun first rises. The completed pouch is placed in the unglazed Ritual Bowl. The artisan pours the Sun-Leaf water over the pouch, washing it in the day’s first light. As the water is absorbed, the artisan makes a final, spoken promise to the pouch and the spirits it now houses, pledging that it will only be used to sustain life. A final, gentle pulse of green light from the Ghost-Thorn vine signals that the spirits have accepted the offering, and the pouch is now magically awake.

How the Sister of Two Stones Fed Her People

It is said that in the beginning of the new time, a village of people appeared in a great green forest. Their memories were thin, and their bellies were empty. The forest was very beautiful. The trees were tall with many leaves. There were bright berries, red and purple. There were white mushrooms, clean like clouds. The land was a green, but the green was a lie.

The people were hungry, so they ate. A man ate a handful of the red berries, for they were fat and sweet on the tongue. But then his stomach became a fire, and he cried out and fell down. A woman ate the clean, white mushrooms. But then she fell into a deep sleep, and her breath went away from her body. The forest was a smiling poison. It gave gifts that were death.

In the village was a woman, and her name in the old words was the Sister of Two Stones. She had a brother, who was the Brother of One Stone. He was young and very hungry. He saw a flower, blue like the sky, and he ate its petals. And he fell down, and the Sister of Two Stones was now the Sister of One Stone, for her brother was gone and her heart was the only stone left.

Her grief was a heavy thing. She said to her people, “The forest is a liar. It speaks with a sweet mouth but has a sharp tooth. I will go now and learn the earth’s true name.”

The Sister of Two Stones walked into the forest. She did not take a spear. She did not take a basket to fill. She took only her grief and her thirst. For three days, she did not eat. She only watched. She watched the quick tree-monkeys. They were clever. They swung on the vines and ate the small yellow fruits, but if their hand touched a red berry, they would screech and pull away. The Sister of Two Stones watched.

She watched the striped lizards that sunned on the rocks. They were wise in the ways of the ground. They ate the fat green beetles but would run from the shiny blue ones. They would lick the dew from the great fern leaves, but would turn away from the dew on the little white flowers. The Sister of Two Stones watched.

She understood. The animals knew the earth’s true name. They knew the lie of the smiling poison. She decided she must make a thing that held their wisdom. She must weave a new ear, to listen to the ground.

She gathered the things the animals trusted. She took the strong vine the monkeys climbed upon. She took the soft green moss the wise lizards used for their beds. She found the pale, silvery vine that only grew where the clean water ran, the vine that glowed in the night. She sat and began to weave. Her fingers remembered a pattern from her lost yesterday. She wove a small pouch, a bag to hold things. But it was empty. It had no wisdom.

She thought of the clever monkey. She went to the trees where they played and found a single hair one had left on the bark. She thought of the wise lizard and found a small piece of its shed skin, thin like paper. She thought of the bird that ate only the good berries and found one of its feathers. She took these small pieces, these memories of the animals, and with a bone needle she wove them into the pouch itself. The shapes of the animals appeared on the outside of her weaving. For a lock, she used a hard nut that a monkey had dropped. Her work was done.

She was weak with hunger. Before her was a bush with the red berries, the berries that were fire in the stomach. She reached out her hand and touched one. At her hip, the pouch she had made grew suddenly cold. Cold like a stone from the bottom of a river. It was a warning. It was the screech of the monkey in her hand.

She pulled her hand back. She walked on. She found the tree with the small yellow fruits. She reached out and touched one. The pouch grew warm against her. Warm like a sunning rock. It was a welcome. It was the happy chatter of the monkey. She ate the yellow fruit, and it was good, and her strength returned.

The Sister of Two Stones walked back to her village. She did not carry a basket full of fruit. She carried the pouch. She did not give her people food. She taught them. She taught them to weave the pouches, and how to put the memories of the wise animals inside. She taught them to listen not with their ears, but with their hands. She taught them to feel the cold warning of the smiling poison and the warm welcome of the true food.

And so the people learned to eat, and they did not die. And the Sister of Two Stones was hungry no more.

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The Moral of the Story: A fool trusts his mouth first and his eyes second. A wise person trusts the beasts, and the earth, and listens for their wisdom with a quiet hand.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Hedge-Witch’s Pouch

A small, unassuming pouch woven from unknown plant fibers. It feels perpetually cool and damp, and smells of rich, peaty earth. It is a tool of folk magic, believed to be a relic from pre-Christian nature cults. It offers a connection to the raw, non-human intelligence of the natural world, an intelligence far older and more alien than humanity.

Game Mechanics:

Owning and using the pouch does not typically require a Sanity roll, as its magic is tied to the terrestrial world. However, the insights it provides can lead to unsettling revelations about the true nature of life on Earth.

• Poison Ward: The bearer of the pouch has an uncanny ability to avoid natural toxins. If the Investigator touches a plant, fungus, or animal that is naturally poisonous, the pouch will instantly become unnervingly cold. This requires no roll. This offers no protection against synthetic poisons or the supernatural venoms of Mythos creatures.
• Forager’s Intuition: When making a Natural World or Survival roll to find edible food, clean water, or herbal remedies, the Investigator gains one Bonus Die. Using this ability makes the Investigator feel a strange sense of being watched by the trees and earth, a feeling that they are a guest in a place with ancient, unspoken rules.
• Commune with the Green: The Investigator can take 10 minutes to perform a small, quiet ritual, asking the local “spirit of place” for guidance. This requires a successful POW x 5 roll.
  • On a Success: The Investigator is guided to the nearest significant source of a specific natural feature they seek (e.g., “a hidden spring,” “a cave,” “moon-petal flowers”).
  • On a Failure: The spirit of the place is offended. For the next 24 hours, the natural world works against the Investigator: branches seem to grab at their clothes, roots trip them, and animals become inexplicably hostile. This imposes one Penalty Die on all Stealth and Athletics checks while in a natural environment. This can also cost 0/1d2 SAN as the Investigator realizes the entire forest is actively hostile towards them.

Blades in the Dark

Deathland Harvester’s Bag

A tough, woven bag made from ghost-vines that grow only in the deathlands. It is prized by apothecaries, Leeches, and whispers who are brave enough to forage for rare ingredients outside the lightning barriers of Duskvol. The bag is attuned to the faint life that persists in that blighted landscape and can filter out its corrupting influence.

A strange, herbalist’s tool for foraging in hazardous environments. Protective, Alchemical.

Game Mechanics:

• Toxin Filter: The bag automatically purges mundane poisons, blight, and spoilage from any plant or fungus matter placed inside it for at least one minute. When the bearer touches a substance that is supernaturally corrupt or infused with ghostly energies, the GM will inform them that the bag’s woven patterns seem to writhe in protest.
• Find the Bounty: When you undertake a downtime activity to acquire a specific herbal or alchemical ingredient, you may take 2 Stress to have the bag guide your search. You automatically find a source for the desired asset without having to roll.
• Fortuitous Harvest: When you are on a score and must make an action roll to forage for something useful (Survey to find a path, Prowl to get past a hazard, Attune to find a magical component), you can push yourself and channel the bag’s power. You gain +1d to your roll, but you must resist a Consequence of the same level, representing the physical toll of the bag siphoning your own life energy to power its search.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Pouch of the Old Growth Wondrous item, common

This small belt pouch is woven from three different kinds of magical vine. It feels cool to the touch and smells pleasantly of moss and damp earth.

Game Mechanics:

This pouch is a boon to any adventurer who spends time in the wilderness.

• Poison Sense. While this pouch is on your person, it becomes noticeably cold to the touch if you are physically touching a plant or fungus that is poisonous.
• Purify Sustenance. The pouch can hold up to one day’s worth of foraged food (no more than 5 pounds). As an action, you can speak the pouch’s command word to instantly cleanse its contents, functioning as the purify food and drink spell. Once you use this property, you can’t use it again until the next dawn.
• Nature’s Guidance. As an action, you can whisper the name of a common, non-magical plant to the pouch. For the next hour, if you are within one mile of the named plant, the pouch will tug gently in the direction of the nearest patch. This property cannot be used again until the next dawn.

Knave

Witch-Weave Pouch

Description: A small belt pouch woven from three kinds of tough, strange vines. It smells of fresh rain. Takes up 1 inventory slot.

Game Mechanics:

A practical tool for any adventurer living off the land, with three distinct functions.

• Toxin Test: When you touch a plant, fungus, or natural substance, the pouch will grow cold if it is poisonous to you.
• Purify Haul: Once per day, you can fill the pouch with foraged food. After ten minutes, the entire contents are rendered free of mundane poison, rot, and dirt.
• Seek Plant: Once per day, you can hold the pouch, speak the name of a common plant, and the pouch’s toggle will briefly swing and point in the direction of the nearest significant source of that plant.

Fate Core System

The Earth-Sense Pouch

In Fate, this item is best represented as an Extra, likely an Aspect that grants the character special permissions and a unique Stunt.

Item Aspect: Whispers of the Green Path

• Invoke: The player can invoke this Aspect by spending a Fate Point for a +2 or a reroll on any roll related to surviving in the wild, finding food, identifying plants, or navigating natural terrain.
• Compel: The GM can compel this Aspect by offering a Fate Point. A compel might involve the pouch’s connection to nature causing a problem, such as the character being overwhelmed by the “pain” of a blighted forest, making them unable to focus on a social interaction, or feeling an irrational compulsion to protect a grove from loggers when they should be focused on the mission.

Stunt Granted by the Pouch:

• Nature’s Ward: Because I carry the Earth-Sense Pouch, I have special permission to automatically know if any natural plant or fungus I touch is poisonous. Furthermore, once per session, I can use the pouch to cleanse a meal’s worth of food, automatically removing a relevant situational Aspect like Tainted Rations or Potentially Poisonous Stew.

Numenera & Cypher System

Bio-Symbiotic Foraging Nodule

This device is not woven but appears to be a semi-organic, leathery pod that bonds temporarily with the user’s nervous system when worn on a belt. It is a piece of biotechnology from a prior world, designed to aid xenobotanists or terraforming pioneers. It is classified as an Artifact.

Level: 4 Form: A soft, leathery pouch-like nodule that attaches to a belt. Effect: The nodule interfaces with the user’s senses and the local biosphere to identify and process organic matter.

• Passive: The user is trained in all tasks involving the identification of flora and fungi. This eases the difficulty of such tasks by one step.
• Active (Toxin Analysis): Action. The user touches a plant, fungus, or other organic substance. The nodule provides a simple psychic flash indicating whether the substance is harmful, harmless, or beneficial to the user’s specific biology.
• Active (Sustenance Synthesis): Action to initiate. The user places a handful of raw, mundane biological matter (leaves, grass, bark) into the nodule. Over the next minute, the device breaks down the matter and synthesizes a day’s worth of a bland but highly nutritious paste. Depletion: 1 in 1d20.

Pathfinder (2nd Edition)

Forager’s Bountiful Bag Item 2 Uncommon, Conjuration, Magical, Primal Price 35 GP Usage worn, belt pouch; Bulk L

This soft pouch is woven from three types of vine that seem to gently writhe when near lush vegetation. Druidic circles and rangers prize these items as essential tools for survival in unknown territories.

Game Mechanics:

• Passive: The Forager’s Bountiful Bag guides your hands and eyes. You gain a +1 item bonus to Survival checks to Subsist.
• Activate [one-action] (manipulate) Effect You touch a plant or fungus with the hand on the same side as the bag. If the plant or fungus is poisonous, the bag tugs sharply on your belt, alerting you to the danger.
• Activate [one-action] command, envision; Frequency once per day; Effect You place up to 1 Bulk of foraged, non-magical food within the bag and speak a command word. The food is cleansed as if by a 1st-level purify food and drink spell.
• Activate [10 minutes] envision, concentrate; Frequency once per day; Effect You concentrate on a specific type of common plant you are searching for. For the next hour, you gain a constant, intuitive sense of the direction to the nearest significant patch of that plant within one mile. This provides a +2 circumstance bonus to any Survival checks made to find it.

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE)

The Survivalist’s Totem Pouch

A simple-looking woven pouch that is essential gear for scouts, explorers, and anyone living on the frontier. It is said to contain the combined knowledge of ancient foraging spirits.

Game Mechanics:

• Nature’s Acumen: The bearer of this pouch gains a +1 bonus to all Survival rolls made to forage, find water, or identify natural substances.
• Poison Sense: The bearer automatically knows if any plant or fungus they touch is naturally poisonous. This provides no information about alchemical poisons, creature venoms, or diseases.
• Cleanse the Harvest: Once per day, the pouch can be used to cast Purify (as per the Power from the core rules) on up to 10 pounds of food and a gallon of water placed within it. This requires no Power Points, takes one minute, and automatically succeeds.
• The Guided Hand: When the bearer is specifically searching for a known mundane plant, they may spend a Benny to automatically find a usable amount after a short search (typically 1d6x10 minutes), provided the plant exists in the current environment.

Shadowrun, Sixth World

Green-Watcher Sustenance Pouch

This item appears to be a simple, hand-woven pouch made in a traditional tribal style. To the magically active, however, it reveals itself as a Health-category magical focus, attuned to the mana of living plants. It’s a rare sight in the urban sprawl, highly valued by eco-shamans, survivalists, and runners whose work takes them beyond the concrete jungle into the wilds of the Sixth World.

Focus Type: Sustenance Focus, Rating 2 Activation: Simple Action to activate or deactivate the focus. Availability: 8R Cost: 8,000 nuyen

Game Mechanics:

• Natural Toxin Sense: While the focus is active, the bearer immediately knows if they are touching a plant or fungus with a natural toxin. The pouch will feel unnaturally cold. This provides an automatic success on tests to identify natural poisons by touch but does not work on synthetic or magical toxins.
• Wilderness Survival Bonus: When this focus is active, the user adds its Rating (2 dice) to their dice pool for any Outdoors skill test related to foraging for food, finding clean water, or identifying safe shelter in a natural environment.
• Ritual of Cleansing: Once per day, the bearer can perform a 1-minute ritual to purify up to 1 kilogram of foraged food and water. This ritual removes any natural toxins and diseases with a level equal to or less than the focus’s Rating x 2 (Level 4).
• Environmental Strain: The focus is symbiotic with natural mana. Using any of its abilities in an area with a background count from pollution or urban decay requires the user to resist 1 Stun damage (Willpower + Firewall) as the focus painfully strains to function.

Starfinder

Xenobotanist’s Bio-Pouch

Level 2; Price 950 credits Slot worn (belt); Bulk L

This appears to be a simple, organic-looking pouch woven from alien fibers. In reality, it is a sophisticated piece of biotechnology incorporating micro-scanners and a miniature purification system. It is standard-issue for members of the Xenowardens and prized by independent explorers.

Game Mechanics:

• Bio-Scanner: As a move action, you can touch the pouch to a plant, fungus, or similar organic material. A small patch on the pouch’s fiber will glow green if the substance is safe for your species to consume, red if it is toxic, and yellow if it is inert or inedible. This grants a +2 insight bonus to Survival checks to live off the land.
• Nutrient Filter: Once per day as a standard action, you can place up to 1 Bulk of food or a pint of water into the pouch and speak a command word. The pouch rapidly filters the contents, neutralizing any mundane poison or disease (as if by the remove condition, lesser spell, but only for the poison or disease descriptor).
• Pathfinder’s Scent: 3 times per day, you can use the pouch to enhance your senses. As a swift action, you gain scent (as the universal creature rule) with a range of 30 feet, but only for the purposes of detecting and identifying plants. This lasts for 1 minute.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Type-S ‘Forager’ Survival Pouch

Tech Level: 10 Mass: 0.5 kg Cost: Cr 2,500

A common piece of equipment for planetary surveyors, explorers, and colonists. The Type-S Pouch looks like a simple woven bag but is integrated with a suite of micro-sensors, a chemical analysis unit, and a small-scale atmospheric water condenser. It is powered by a standard power pack, which lasts for approximately one month of typical use.

Game Mechanics:

• Chemical Analyser: A character can place a small sample of any organic substance inside the pouch. After one round, a small indicator light will glow green (safe for human consumption), yellow (unknown/caution), or red (toxic). Using this provides DM+2 on any Survival check to forage or live off the land.
• Water Condenser: In any atmosphere that is not a vacuum or completely arid, the pouch can be activated to slowly draw moisture from the air. Over 8 hours, it can condense and filter up to one liter of potable water.
• Nutrient Synthesis: The pouch contains a small nutrient synthesizer. It can convert 1 kg of raw cellulose (such as leaves or grass) into a single block of tasteless but life-sustaining ration paste. This process takes 1 hour and uses 10% of the power pack’s energy.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

The Root-Wife’s Scrip

Encumbrance: 1 Qualities: Magical, Reliable

A humble-looking woven satchel made of willow withes and bound with leather. It is often carried by hedge witches, rural herbalists (the so-called “root-wives”), and occasionally by Wood Elf scouts. It smells perpetually of damp soil and mushrooms. While not powerful, it is a source of great comfort to those who live off the land, though a Witch Hunter might see it as evidence of trafficking with spirits.

Game Mechanics:

• A Nose for Trouble: The owner of this scrip automatically knows if a plant or fungus they are holding is naturally poisonous (but not if it is tainted by Chaos, Skaven poisons, or other unnatural means). The scrip will feel unnaturally cold in such instances.
• The Earth’s Bounty: When making an Outdoor Survival Test to forage for food, the character may add a +20 bonus to their roll.
• Simple Purification: Once per day, the character may place a meal’s worth of foraged food inside the scrip. After one minute, the food is purified of any mundane toxins, rot, or dirt. This has no effect on disease or warpstone contamination.
• A Quiet Word to the Woods: When a character is truly lost and desperate for sustenance, they may hold the scrip and whisper a plea to the land. The GM should provide a small, tangible benefit, such as revealing a hidden game trail, having a squirrel drop a nut at their feet, or allowing them to notice a patch of edible berries they would have otherwise missed. This small miracle may please the spirits of the place, or it may draw their unwanted attention.