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Verdant Heartwood Aegis Grip 206

—

by

Dale
in

Lore: The convergence of the primal greatbow and the biomechanical gauntlet represents a legendary synthesis of ancient wild power, ancestral earth mysticism, and industrialized ingenuity. Forged at the intersection of three chaotic ley lines within an elemental grove and tempered within subterranean steam-forges, this singular artifact was cultivated through an exhaustive ritual. An elder artisan of the Kava Ceremony bound the sentient heartwood stave, living moss, and ancestral kava root fragments directly into the runic frame and coral-threaded circuitry. Infused with pure mana crystals and the essence of the primal hunt, the item awakened as a unified biomechanical weapon-brace. It stands as an apex manifestation of the balance between natural growth, spiritual resonance, and masterwork mechanical craftsmanship, serving as both an unyielding shield and a deadly instrument of vengeance.

Description: The artifact is a single, integrated physical weapon-brace composed of petrified dark-green ironwood, living moss, and steam-forged runic plating that clasps securely along the forearm and hand. Intricate circuits etched into the metallic chassis pulse with continuous golden and verdant light, harmonizing with the avatar’s attunement. The outer limb of the forearm assembly extends into a living, curved bow riser carved with the snarling visage of the Dreamweaver, while the palm and knuckle plates feature polished, rune-inscribed kava root nodules. A taut bowstring of solidified, whispering wind stretches along the wooden arc, manifesting venomous, glowing thorns of psychoactive pollen whenever drawn. The entire structure radiates a rhythmic vibration, emitting the scent of fresh forest rain, rich soil, spicy kava root, and ionized steam.

Stats

  • Item Tier: Tier 5
  • Item Hit Points: 50 plus maximum avatar hit points
  • Armor Check: +3
  • Attack Bonus: +3 to attack rolls
  • Base Damage: 1d10 piercing and poison
  • Damage Reduction: Reduces incoming physical and magical damage by 15%
  • Strength Enhancement: +25 to strength-based actions
  • Bionic Synergy: +2 Bionic Efficiency, +10% Bionic Stability
  • Range: Extended (150/300)
  • Resiliency: 10
  • Weight: 5.5 lbs

Skills Gained While Openly Worn

  • +5 Trained Skill Level in Nature
  • +5 Trained Skill Level in Survival
  • +5 Trained Skill Level in Bionic Craftsmanship
  • +5 Temporary Skill Points in Primal Ritualism

Tags

  • Tier 5, Legendary, Living-Weapon, Ranged, Magical Armor, Biomech-Integration, Magitech, Sylvan, Nature’s Wrath, Ancestral, Kava Ceremony, Telluric, Venomous, Crowd-Control, Fortifying, Symbiotic, Single-Slot, Weapon-Brace, Ancient, Unyielding, Eco-Pact, Resonant-Weave, Bio-Circuitry, Mind’s-Eye-Attuned, Wind-Bound, Dreamweaver-Totem, Root-Anchor, Disruption-Matrix, Heavy-Magitech

Passive Magic

  • Biomech Synthesis: Harmonizes the wearer’s limbs with natural telluric currents, granting a +15% boost to dexterity-based actions on natural terrain, reducing operational joint fatigue by 20%, and providing a +4 bonus to repair and maintenance checks.
  • Voice of the Primeval Wild: Allows continuous verbal and mental communion with beasts, plants, and natural spirits. Grants advantage on all intimidation checks against aberrations, constructs, and undead.
  • Unshakeable Telluric Anchor: Grants permanent advantage on all checks and saving throws to resist being shoved, tripped, grappled, knocked prone, or moved against the avatar’s will.
  • Primal Neurotoxin: Projectiles fired from the integrated bow assembly secrete psychoactive venom. Targets struck must succeed on a saving throw or suffer severe disorientation: humanoid targets become lethargic and dazed, beasts enter a state of blind territorial rage attacking the nearest entity, and constructs suffer corrosion that temporarily reduces their total AC by 2.

Active Magic

  • Guardian’s Silver-Fire Invocation: Activated by striking the chassis with an open palm while reciting an ancestral chant (1 action, 2 times per day). For 10 minutes, the bonus to strength-based actions increases to +40, and all ranged or melee strikes made with the artifact deal an additional 5 points of unresistable silver fire spell power damage.
  • Whispering Serenity Aura: Activated by touching the kava root nodules while channeling the Mind’s Eye (1 minute, 3 times per day). Emits a 20-foot aura of ancestral tranquility for 1 hour, granting the avatar and up to 5 allies a +10 bonus to charisma-based interactions and advantage on saves against fear and psychological intimidation.
  • Thorn of Maddening Pollen: Activated as an attack action (3 times per day). Fires an explosive thorn dealing 10d6 poison damage to the primary target and bursting into a 15-foot radius cloud of psychoactive spore-dust. All creatures caught in the blast must make a saving throw or suffer profound confusion for 1 minute, hallucinating phantom predators and aggressive foliage.
  • Song of Discordant Fury: Activated by strumming the solidified wind string with the runic hand guard (1 action, 1 time per day). Emits a wave of discordant natural frequencies across a 60-foot radius. Enemies failing a saving throw turn upon their own allies, viewing them as hostile territorial rivals and attacking them for 1 minute.
  • Root and Resolve Stance: Activated by speaking the item’s command word while braced (1 action, 1 time per week). For 5 minutes, the avatar becomes completely immovable by external forces, immune to fatigue, and channels all absorbed damage directly into the earth, immediately healing the avatar for 50% of the damage mitigated.
  • Dream of the Unending Hunt: Activated by launching an incorporeal thorn skyward while naming a known target (1 action, 1 time per week). For 24 hours, all predatory beasts and monstrosities within a 10-mile radius are compelled to track and relentlessly attack the marked prey.

Specific Slot

  • Worn Item (Hand Slot – Single Physical Object)

Item Integrity and Repair Mechanics

  • Total Item Hit Points to Overcome: The targeted artifact has a total pool of Item Hit Points calculated as the avatar’s maximum hit points plus 50 points (derived from a base resilience of 10 multiplied by its Tier 5 rating).
  • Magic Disabling Threshold: When directly targeted by attacks, the magic of the item is broken and completely disabled once incoming damage reduces its Item Hit Points to half or less (50% of total Item Hit Points). At this threshold, all active and passive magical abilities cease to function until fully restored.
  • Complete Destruction: If incoming damage reduces the Item Hit Points to zero, the item is completely destroyed and breaks down into its original component parts.
  • Targeted AC Calculation: For an attacker attempting to strike the item directly, the difficulty threshold is the targeted avatar’s AC plus the avatar’s tier level, plus the roll of their tier die, plus the inherent +3 AC bonus of the item itself. A successful direct hit automatically unattunes the item, requiring a 10-minute ritual attunement after combat once repaired.
  • Crafting Repair Process: The artifact cannot passively regenerate Item Hit Points over time and must be physically repaired through skilled craftsmanship. Restoring lost Item Hit Points requires access to a specialized forge equipped with magitech calibration tools and a living or enchanted anvil. The repairer must hold a minimum trained skill level of 10 across both Bionic Craftsmanship and Primal Ritualism to manipulate the fused elemental circuits and living ironwood grain without causing further collapse.
  • Material and Time Requirements: Repairing the item consumes specific replacement reagents corresponding to its composite origins, including refined mana crystals, silver-infused coral thread, and consecrated kava root powder or sap. Each repair cycle represents dedicated downtime work, rolling crafting checks to restore the missing Item Hit Points up to its maximum value before the item can be safely re-attuned and reactivated.

Acquisition Methods, Specialized Establishments, and Economic Valuation

  • Direct Crafting and Divine Questing: Obtaining an artifact of this magnitude typically requires undertaking the perilous ritual of merging two fully realized high-tier relics—a Tier 3 living bow and a Tier 2 biomechanical frame—under the guidance of a master artificer and a spiritual elder. Alternatively, it may be recovered as a legendary relic from deep within primordial wilderness ruins where ancient ley lines clash, retrieved from the shattered core of an apex elemental leviathan, or bestowed by royal decree as a Title of Power upon an avatar of recognized legendary renown.
  • High-Tier Sylvan Sanctuaries and Deep-Grove Recluses: In secluded ancient forests or atop untamed mountain groves, venerable nature enclaves and treant guardians preserve such relics away from civilization. These locations do not operate on standard coinage and refuse precious metals entirely. Acquisition requires completing monumental ecological tasks, such as purifying a blighted continental water vein or driving an invasive industrial syndicate from a sacred border. Should a trade be negotiated, it demands bartering equivalent primordial treasures, such as the living heartwood of a willingly fallen elder treant or pure planar essences.
  • Subterranean Technomancy Syndicates and Cave Megacity Forges: Located in massive cavern metropolises powered by steam and arcane batteries, master technomancers and Isekai-descended engineering guilds trade in peerless biomechanical magitech. In these sprawling industrial forges, transactions require rigorous resonance testing through the Mind’s Eye to ensure the buyer’s magical and physical matrix can endure the item without suffering crippling sensory feedback. Guild masters here price the artifact around 15 to 25 Rhodium (equivalent to 150 to 250 Platinum, or 1,500 to 2,500 Gold). If selling to these guilds, an avatar must contend with standard merchant haggling, where an official appraiser reduces the payout by approximately 50% (10% per tier level of a Tier 5 seller), paying out around 8 to 12 Rhodium directly into a verified World Bank account.
  • Floating Megacity High-Arcane Enclaves: Situated within soaring cloud metropolises supported by permanent levitation disks, exclusive high-magic arcana halls deal strictly with monarchs, guild leaders, and high-tier heroes. These establishments require verified credentials, formal invitations, or significant regional renown just to enter the showroom. Sales are conducted through private brokered negotiations managed by grand viziers and high enchanters. The purchasing cost in these skyward capitols ranges from 30 to 45 Rhodium (300 to 450 Platinum), payable in physical precious coin or through immediate World Bank ledger transfers, with the buyer assuming all standard 1% transaction fees and municipal luxury trade taxes.
  • Covert Black Markets and Outlaw Warlord Strongholds: Hidden within deep sea coves, unpatrolled pirate ports, or lawless border fortresses outside the reach of the Royal Court, illicit syndicates trade in unvetted and unlogged legendary weaponry. Transactions here completely bypass official tax assessors, property registries, and the World Bank to prevent official tracking. The asking price is steep and non-negotiable, typically requiring 35 to 50 Rhodium in raw, unminted precious metal bullion or physical platinum coins paid on the spot. Selling the item to a black-market broker yields roughly 15 to 20 Rhodium in hard currency, with the broker guaranteeing complete secrecy regarding the source and prior ownership of the artifact.

Tactical Environmental Roleplay: Defensive and Offensive Applications

  • Primordial Jungles and Deep Forest Sanctuaries (Defensive Application): When surrounded by hostile fauna or pursuing predators in dense brush, the wielder plants their stance directly into the forest floor to invoke Root and Resolve. The living moss and petrified bark along the chassis send shimmering green root-lines into the loam, locking the avatar in place against devastating physical charges while absorbing crushing blows and redirecting the trauma into the earth to heal injuries. The user utilizes Voice of the Primeval Wild to command the surrounding root systems and brambles to rapidly interweave across narrow game trails, constructing an impassable thicket wall that obstructs enemy line of sight and prevents flanking maneuvers.
  • Primordial Jungles and Deep Forest Sanctuaries (Offensive Application): Navigating the upper canopy, the avatar draws the whispering wind string to fire a specialized projectile armed with Thorn of Maddening Pollen into the center of an enemy encampment. The bursting spore cloud fills the clearing, driving sentries into frantic hallucinations where they mistake ambient shadows for encroaching beasts and turn violently on one another. To eliminate a heavily armored quarry, the wielder launches an incorporeal thorn skyward with Dream of the Unending Hunt, marking the target with a primal scent that coordinates every apex predator and dire pack across a ten-mile expanse to relentlessly assault the marked foe.
  • Steampunk Metropolises and Cavern Megacities (Defensive Application): Trapped inside narrow industrial corridors amidst towering steam conduits, the wielder activates Whispering Serenity by resting their fingers against the polished kava root plates. The sudden release of an earthy, kava-infused aura instantly cuts through the pungent fumes of ozone, coal smoke, and hot oil, soothing territorial tension during hostile negotiations and shielding party members against psychological intimidation. When security automatons advance down tight maintenance tunnels, the avatar uses the Unshakeable Telluric Anchor to physically brace against heavy iron archways, withstanding high-pressure steam venting and kinetic concussions without being pushed back or tripped.
  • Steampunk Metropolises and Cavern Megacities (Offensive Application): Engaging rogue machinery or heavily reinforced mechanical tanks, the wielder activates Guardian’s Silver-Fire Invocation and unleashes a series of wind-formed thorns into vulnerable mechanical joints and gear assemblies. The unresistable silver fire spell power bypasses exterior plating, incinerating the interior magical circuits and bursting main transmission lines. If cornered in an open public plaza by hostile syndicates, the avatar strums the bowstring to unleash the Song of Discordant Fury, broadcasting subsonic sonic waves through the metallic infrastructure that disorient the enemy vanguard and cause enforcers to mistake their comrades for rival saboteurs.
  • Airship Decks and High-Altitude Cloud Cities (Defensive Application): During aerial engagements high above the cloud base where gale-force turbulence threatens to sweep combatants over the railing, the avatar drops low and engages the Unshakeable Telluric Anchor. The biomechanical brace distributes the avatar’s center of gravity across the deck, ensuring absolute stability against hostile wind gusts and grappling attempts from boarding parties. The wielder acts as an immovable bulwark on the deck, allowing airborne allies to tether themselves to the reinforced chassis while maintaining continuous defensive fire against incoming raiders.
  • Airship Decks and High-Altitude Cloud Cities (Offensive Application): In open-sky skirmishes against approaching skiffs or hostile flying beasts, the wielder draws upon the extended range of the bow assembly to pick off pilots and airborne mounts from hundreds of yards away. Projectiles infused with Primal Neurotoxin force incoming winged creatures into uncontrollable dives as their neuromuscular functions seize up from venom-induced lethargy. For high-priority enemy captains commanding opposing vessels, the wielder activates Guardian’s Silver-Fire Invocation to hurl solid iron mooring pins with supercharged kinetic force, tearing through the opposing vessel’s arcane battery housing and disabling their levitation systems.
  • Subterranean Crypts, Cave Networks, and Ancient Ruins (Defensive Application): Exploring claustrophobic underground vaults filled with ancient traps and undead horrors, the wielder channels Whispering Serenity to establish a 20-foot perimeter of calming light, dispelling supernatural dread and providing mental resilience against maddening runic inscriptions. When subterranean tremors or cave-ins threaten to collapse the chamber, the avatar stands firm beneath falling masonry, using the high damage mitigation of the biomechanical plating and the unyielding anchor stance to shield companions from collapsing stone slabs.
  • Subterranean Crypts, Cave Networks, and Ancient Ruins (Offensive Application): Confronting massive undead constructs or entrenched burrowing monstrosities, the wielder launches a direct barrage of venomous thorns into sealed stone barriers or armored carapaces. The corrosive primal venom rapidly eats away at ancient masonry and calcified chitin, permanently degrading the target’s total Armor Check. Combining rapid draw cycles with the silver fire spell power, the wielder punches through heavy defensive barricades, illuminating the pitch-black tunnels with bursts of radiant green-gold flame that detonate necrotic energy stores from within.

Perception of Activation:

User’s Perspective

  • Visual Perception: The moment activation is initiated, the dark green ironwood grain surges with vibrant life, visibly writhing as if awakening from a deep slumber. The carved face of the Dreamweaver on the riser distorts into a silent, furious grimace, while the living moss embedded in the plating flares with an intense emerald luminescence. The etched metallic circuits and runic kava fragments ignite with sharp, brilliant golden fire, interweaving into a swirling green-gold aura that cascades across the entire forearm and hand. Upon drawing the string, the solidified wind condenses with a visible green haze of swirling pollen, coalescing into a venom-dripping thorn that leaves an ionized contrail in the air.
  • Auditory Perception: A sudden, layered cacophony erupts directly in the user’s mind and ears. The deep, rumbling resonance of grinding tectonic earth blends seamlessly with the high-pitched whine of overcharged bionic servos and hissing steam conduits. Beneath these mechanical and geological sounds, an ancient chorus of ancestral chants and primal predatory growls rises in volume, accompanied by the furious buzzing of a million agitated hornets radiating from the taut bowstring.
  • Tactile Perception: A profound dual sensation courses through the user’s limb. The grip radiates a deep, cool, grounding heaviness that feels like plunging bare hands into deep, primordial soil, while simultaneously surging with an electric, pulsing warmth from the kava fragments that seamlessly binds the artificial chassis to the avatar’s nervous system. As the bow is drawn, the wood pulses rhythmically like a hammering biological heart, and the air around the skin crackles with the static charge of an imminent lightning strike.
  • Olfactory and Gustatory Perception: The avatar’s senses are flooded with the rich, heavy scent of damp loamy soil and decaying forest floor after a torrential downpour, immediately followed by the sharp, herbal, peppery aroma of crushed kava root and the clean, stinging bite of ozone and vaporized oil. On the tongue, a bitter, earthy taste of crushed bark and herbal sap gives way to the metallic tang of clean copper and hot steel.
  • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
    • Geomantic Telluric Network: The user’s Mind’s Eye expands outward into the bedrock, granting an omnidirectional awareness of the physical ground for hundreds of feet. Subterranean channels, hidden root systems, stone density variations, and approaching footfalls register as direct physical sensations along the avatar’s spine.
    • Ancestral Tactical Duality: The consciousness is flooded with two distinct lines of ancient instincts. The patient, unyielding endurance of primordial sylvan guardians merges with the cold, precise analytical calculations of master Isekai artisans, highlighting structural weak points in enemy armor while reinforcing defensive posture.
    • Unified Resonance Gestalt: The distinct boundaries between the avatar’s living tissue, bionic enhancements, and the enchanted weapon dissolve entirely, producing an intense sensation of mechanical and biological wholeness where the weapon functions as an instinctual extension of the avatar’s thought.

Observer’s Perspective

  • Visual Perception: Observers witness the avatar’s weapon-brace ignite in a blinding eruption of braided green and gold energy. Ghostly, translucent green root-tendrils appear to burst from the wielder’s feet and plunge deep into the stone or soil, while the wielder’s eyes momentarily flash with a piercing, emerald-gold light. The solid wind bowstring hums with visible distortion waves, forming a venomous, semi-translucent green spike that drips radiant, sizzling residue onto the ground.
  • Auditory Perception: Those nearby hear a heavy, bass-heavy drone that vibrates the sternum, resembling the sound of a massive industrial engine echoing inside an ancient cavern. Accompanying this hum is the distinct, unsettling hiss of striking serpents and a chorus of distant, layered whispers echoing in the air without a discernible physical source.
  • Tactile and Olfactory Perception: The air in a thirty-foot radius becomes suddenly dense, hot, and humid, prickling the skin of bystanders with intense static electricity. The overwhelming scent of forest moss, pungent kava, and ionized steam rolls outward, forcing observers to taste the metallic ozone in the air.
  • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
    • Overwhelming Telluric Arcana: Any creature or spellcaster utilizing the Mind’s Eye perceives a massive, towering magical beacon erupting around the user, radiating a dense aura of earth, wind, and ancestral spirit magic that completely obscures standard magical signatures.
    • Predatory Suppression Aura: Nearby beings experience an instinctual surge of primal terror, feeling the overwhelming sensation of being watched by an apex predator, causing natural beasts to recoil and mortal combatants to suffer a sudden spike of adrenaline and dread.

Positives

  • The user gains absolute certainty in combat actions, bolstered by total structural grounding, heightened situational awareness through telluric sensing, and automatic guidance on strikes and defenses.
  • The dramatic release of energy and terrifying predatory aura serves as a powerful deterrent, shattering enemy morale, interrupting hostile focus, and creating an unmistakable focal anchor for allies to rally behind.

Negatives

  • The sheer volume of sensory input—combining physical scents, sounds, mental voices, and geomantic data—can be disorienting during the first few seconds of activation, demanding mental discipline to prevent sensory overload.
  • The activation creates an unmistakable physical and magical beacon, utterly eliminating any possibility of stealth, concealment, or surprise across the entire surrounding area.

Primal Biomech Convergence: Forge-Rite of the Living Aegis-Grip

Items Merged

Additional Materials Needed

  • One (1) Tier 5 Flawless Mana Crystal (size and weight of a covered wagon wheel, used as the primary arcane battery and power conduit)
  • Three (3) Vials of Concentrated Ancient Treant Sap (harvested via a fluid collector from a consenting elder sylvan guardian)
  • Five (5) Spools of Silver-Infused Sunken Coral Thread (conductive, magically treated marine filaments to braid arcane circuits into organic grain)
  • Two (2) Ounces of Consecrated Ancestral Kava Root Powder (ground at dawn during a formal Kava Ceremony)
  • One (1) Pint of Apex Leviathan Blood (acts as an aggressive primal catalyst to bind predatory essences)
  • Four (4) Steam-Forged Mithral Brackets (runic anchor points to mechanically seat the bow riser onto the gauntlet frame)

Tools Required

  • Enchanted Living Anvil (a massive, moss-covered basalt boulder rooted into a natural ley line junction)
  • Magitech Calibration Rig (a precision framework of arcane lenses, tuning forks, and brass pressure calipers)
  • Masterwork Runic Chisel and Forging Hammer Set (tempered to conduct both magical heat and telluric resonance)
  • Obsidian Kava Infusion Basin (a ceremonial carved stone vessel for chemical and spiritual baptism)
  • High-Pressure Arcane Steam Forge (powered by balanced elemental fire and water conduits)

Skill Requirements

  • Master Bionic Craftsmanship (Trained Skill Level 10 or higher)
  • Master Primal Ritualism / Sylvan Artifice (Trained Skill Level 10 or higher)
  • Advanced Ley Line Attunement (Trained Skill Level 8 or higher)
  • Elemental Steam Engineering (Trained Skill Level 7 or higher)

Crafting Steps

  • Deconstructive Alignment and Preparation: The Heartwoods Lament 118 is placed upon the Enchanted Living Anvil, where its sentient wood spirit is soothed using rhythmic ancestral chants and anointing washes of Ancient Treant Sap. Simultaneously, the Verdant Biomech Grips 88 are secured in the Magitech Calibration Rig to carefully isolate the bionic circuitry, kava root fragment housings, and steam valves without disrupting their mechanical integrity.
  • Carving the Circuit Channels: Using the Runic Chisel Set, precision conduits are carved directly into the exterior ironwood grain of the bow’s riser and limbs. These grooves are mirrored exactly to align with the gauntlet’s underlying chassis. A central housing cavity is carved into the dorsal arm plate to receive the Tier 5 Flawless Mana Crystal, which is seated and locked with the Mithral Brackets.
  • Integrating the Biomechanical Matrix: The gauntlet frame and the bow riser are physically joined. The Silver-Infused Sunken Coral Thread is hand-stitched through the carved wood and metallic conduits, weaving the bionic servos, steam pressure lines, and mana crystal into a continuous, unbroken circuit loop. The Magitech Calibration Rig is engaged to ensure the flow of arcane energy passes smoothly between the metallic pistons and the living wooden frame.
  • Grafting the Living Grain: The entire joined assembly is moved to the High-Pressure Arcane Steam Forge. Controlled blasts of elemental steam and vaporized Treant Sap are applied while the artisan hammers the contact seams with the Masterwork Forging Hammer. The living bark, moss layers, and metallic plates fuse on a cellular level, causing the wooden bow riser to permanently grow out from the forearm armor plate as a single physical entity.
  • The Apex Awakening and Kava Baptism: The merged weapon-brace is submerged into the Obsidian Kava Infusion Basin. The Pint of Apex Leviathan Blood and the Consecrated Kava Root Powder are poured over the artifact. The crafter channels their own life force and spiritual focus for twelve continuous hours, reciting the dual lineages of the sylvan guardians and machine artisans. A brilliant green-gold flash erupts as the bowstring of solidified wind anchors directly to the gauntlet’s knuckles, permanently binding the two items into the singular Verdant Heartwood Aegis-Grip 206.

Two-Fold Fist and Loud Branch That Spits Hornets

Hear now of the time before the nine thousand countings of the suns, when the dirt of the great round rock was yet screaming with the hot soup of earth and the sky-wind had only just learned to have thoughts inside its head. In those days of the grand shaking, there walked a spirit-stranger whose head was full of the grey smoke of another sky. This stranger had fallen through the torn blankets of the void, waking with no skin upon his memories, knowing only that his right hand was made of cold iron that whistled with hot wet air, while his heart was heavy like wet loam.

The tongue of the old scribes names this one the Walker of Two Loudnesses. In the land where the tall green sticks grow so old that they refuse to fall over even when dead, the Walker found the Green Mother’s children. These were the Bark-Men whose chests were filled with moss and whose words sounded like big stones rolling down a dry mountain. The Bark-Men held in their hands a great curved stick that wept poison and had no string save for a piece of screaming storm-wind caught by its tail. When this stick was pulled, it did not spit stones or reeds, but grew angry yellow-green teeth that buzzed like biting flies.

“This is the Lamentation of the Deep Wood,” said the Bark-Men, speaking through the belly of the soil. “It hates the straight stones of builders and it eats the blood of those who measure the world with sticks.”

The Walker of Two Loudnesses took the curved stick into his flesh hand, but his other hand was the Fist of Steam and Springs, an engine given to him by the iron-diggers of the hollow mountains. The iron fist was wrapped in the bitter root of the Kava drink, which tells the ghosts of the grandfathers to sit down and be peaceful. Yet when the Walker walked the roads of the world, his two hands made war against his one belly. The left hand of iron wished to crush the hills into flat squares to make wheels turn in straight paths. The right hand of green wood wished to plant thorns inside the eyes of every creature that built a roof against the rain.

Because of this great war inside his ribs, the Walker could neither sleep nor eat the salt of the land. His blood became thin like swamp water, and when he walked, the grass under his left foot died of hot grease, while the grass under his right foot grew into tangled briars that choked his own ankles.

He went then to the Great Cauldron where the fire-water boils beneath the stone shell of the world. There sat the Old Maker Whose Face Is Many Cracks. The Old Maker drank the bitter cup of crushed roots and spoke with a mouth that held no teeth.

“You are a foolish vessel with two bottoms,” said the Old Maker. “You carry the roaring forge in your left pouch and the howling wilderness in your right pouch. If you do not make them into one single kettle, the soup of your life will spill into the dirt and the big moon-mother will erase your name from the great register of souls.”

The Walker laid his iron fist and the screaming branch upon the black stone that does not melt. The Old Maker took a hammer that was not made of metal, but of a heavy thunderbolt wrapped in wet hide. For forty days and forty nights of the old reckoning, when the sky-fire Helios was dark and the great air-planet in the heavens showed its red face, the hammer fell. Clang-thud, clang-thud, sang the hammer, singing the song of the wheel that desires the vine, and the song of the vine that eats the gear.

They took the silver hair of the sea-weeds that grow in the dark wet bottoms where no light goes, and they sewed the iron skin to the living bark. They poured the hot blood of the great lizard that swims beneath the islands over the joint, and they blew the white steam of the boiling earth through the hollow channels of the wood. The screaming face carved upon the wood bit down upon the brass tubes of the hand, and the brass tubes spit their oily grease into the sap-veins of the wood.

When the smoke cleared away like bad dreams at the sunrise, there was no longer a bow and there was no longer a glove. There was only the great green-gold claw that had a curved wing of ironwood growing straight from the bone of the arm. The bowstring of wind was tied to the iron knuckles, and the roots of the bitter kava bush had grown through the cogs and the wheels, so that when the gears turned, they ground the sweet medicine of peace into the iron joints.

The Walker put his arm into the thing. There was a noise like a mountain falling into a lake of hot lard. His spirit was pulled through the eye of a needle. He saw the first beast that ever crawled from the slime of the moon, and he saw the giant iron birds that fly through the sky without feathers. The two spirits inside the wood and the brass ceased their biting. They became one single hunger.

Then came the Great Destroyer of the Middle Age, a beast whose back was covered in six hundred shields of blue copper, who came to drink the sweet water of the Andean kingdom and turn the cities into dry ash. The king’s soldiers had thrown their spears until their shoulders were broken, but the copper beast only laughed with a sound like grinding millstones.

The Walker of Two Loudnesses stood upon the high ridge. He did not run, nor did he make a line with his feet. He dropped his heavy hand to the dirt, and the green roots of the weapon went five hundred paces into the black rock, so that even if the moon fell from the sky, the Walker would not tip over. He drew back the string of hard wind with his iron fingers.

The weapon did not make the noise of a bow. It made the noise of a steam boiler bursting inside a thicket of wild rose bushes. A thorn of bright green lightning, fat as a pine tree and dripping with the yellow bile of mad hornets, flew across the valley. It struck the copper beast in its soft center. The silver fire that cannot be quenched ran through the copper plates like water running through an old basket. The beast did not die of a wound; the wild medicine of the wood entered its belly, and from its copper ribs there sprouted seven thousand flowering vines and iron-eating mosses. In the space of three breaths, the great destroyer was no more a beast of war, but a green hill covered in sweet-smelling flowers where the wild goats came to dance.

The Walker looked upon his hand and knew that he was no longer a stranger to the mud of Saṃsāra. He walked into the deep woods where the sky is green, and the hunters of the island countries say that when the storm-wind blows from the east and the ground shakes with the heat of the fire-soup below, one can still hear the iron gears turning inside the heartwood, singing the song of the branch that learned to be an engine.

The Moral of the Story: The iron that refuses the vine will rust into red dust, and the wood that fears the forge will be broken by the storm; but the hand that binds the root to the machine shall stand like an unmoving stone when the whole world is shaken.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

Aegis-Grip of the Verdant Primeval Mythos Artifact / Hyperborean Hybrid Relic

Description A massive weapon-brace carved from gnarled, petrified ironwood fused with non-terrestrial brass mechanisms and pulsating bio-circuitry. A bow limb extends along the forearm, strung with an ethereal strand of solidified vortex-wind, while the dorsal gauntlet plate holds dark, runic root nodules. It smells of primordial peat, ozone, and bitter herbal root.

Game Mechanics

  • Armor: Provides 4 points of non-Euclidean magical armor to the wearer.
  • Attack Profile:
    • Melee (Fighting: Brawl): Skill base or user rating; Damage: 1D8 + Damage Bonus (Magical).
    • Ranged (Firearms: Bow): Base skill; Base Range: 50 yards; Damage: 2D6+4 (ignores mundane physical armor, deals Piercing/Poison).
  • Unyielding Root: The wearer gains one bonus die on any Physical or POW roll to resist being moved, thrown, grappled, or knocked prone.
  • Primal Neurotoxin: Any living creature struck by a ranged thorn must succeed on an Extreme CON roll or suffer debilitating paralysis and hallucination, inflicting a penalty die on all actions for 1D6 rounds. Constructs or mechanical entities suffer accelerated corrosion, reducing their armor value by 2 points.

Active Spells & Powers

  • Silver-Fire Strike (Cost: 2 Magic Points): The user triggers the integrated steam conduits. For the next round, any successful attack inflicts an additional +1D8 points of unresistable magical fire damage.
  • Thorn of Maddening Pollen (Cost: 5 Magic Points, 1D4 Sanity): The user launches an explosive spore-thorn at a target within range. All targets within a 5-yard radius must succeed on a Hard POW roll or suffer the effects of temporary insanity for 1D4 rounds, violently attacking the nearest entity.
  • Ancestral Serenity Aura (Cost: 4 Magic Points, 1 Sanity): Creates a 10-yard radius zone of profound spiritual calm lasting 1 hour. All allies within range gain one bonus die to resist Fear, Panic, or Sanity loss from unnatural phenomena.
  • Attunement Sanity Cost: Binding the artifact to one’s nervous system permanently costs 1D6 Sanity points due to the alien sensations of planetary telluric currents and machine-ancestor voices entering the psyche.

Blades in the Dark

The Sylvan Spark-Brace Unique Artifact, Load 2 (Equipped to One Arm/Hand)

Description A fused apparatus of living ironwood, electroplasmic conduits, and steam-tempered plating. It features an integrated bow limb that launches solid-wind projectiles infused with distilled botanical toxins, balanced by ancestral kava nodules that calm the spirit.

Game Mechanics

  • Passive Traits:
    • Bio-Circuit Linkage: You gain +1d to all Wreck, Skirmish, and Hunt action rolls when utilizing the brace.
    • Anchored Mass: You receive +1d to your Resistance rolls against physical harm or forced movement.

Special Abilities

  • Silver-Fire Discharge: Spend 1 Stress to push an attack action made with the brace. The attack gains Great Effect and the harm inflicted is considered potent mystical energy, bypassing supernatural armor and spectral immunities.
  • Song of Discord (Area Disruption): Spend 2 Stress to strum the solidified wind string. A discordant acoustic wave forces an entire cohort or group of adversaries into immediate, violent territorial infighting for the duration of the scene unless they are directly engaged.
  • Maddening Spore Burst: Spend 1 Stress when making a ranged strike to release a burst of psychoactive spores. Instead of dealing physical harm, place the temporary situational aspect Beset by Phantom Terrors (2 free invokes) across a small group of targets.
  • Root and Resolve: Once per score, you may spend 2 Stress to anchor yourself completely to the terrain for one scene. You cannot be moved by physical force, and you reduce the severity of all incoming physical harm by one level (e.g., Level 3 harm becomes Level 2).

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Verdant Heartwood Aegis-Grip Wondrous Item (Weapon/Armor Hybrid), Legendary (Requires Attunement)

Description This masterwork forearm brace fuses petrified sylvan heartwood with steam-forged runic plating and conductive coral wiring. A bow stave emerges along the outer arm, while the gauntlet incorporates rune-inscribed kava root nodules. It functions simultaneously as an armored guard and a powerful ranged weapon.

Properties

  • Armor Check Bonus: You gain a +3 bonus to AC while wearing this item.
  • Living Greatbow: Functions as a magical ranged weapon (Range 150/600 ft., +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls). It creates its own ammunition when drawn, dealing 1d10 piercing damage plus 1d8 poison damage on a hit.
  • Strength & Stability: Your Strength score becomes 23 while wearing this item (if your Strength is already 23 or higher, it increases by +2, to a maximum of 26). You have advantage on saving throws and ability checks against being shoved, knocked prone, grappled, or moved against your will.
  • Primal Neurotoxin: A creature hit by an attack from this weapon must succeed on a DC 19 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute. While poisoned, humanoid targets are stunned until the end of their next turn, beasts become confused (as per the Confusion spell), and constructs suffer a -2 penalty to their AC for the duration.

Active Features

  • Guardian’s Silver-Fire Invocation (2/Day): As a bonus action, you empower the brace for 10 minutes. Your weapon attacks deal an additional 1d8 force damage that ignores damage resistances and immunities.
  • Thorn of Maddening Pollen (3/Day): As an action, you launch an explosive thorn at a point up to 150 feet away. Each creature within a 15-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must make a DC 19 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a target takes 8d6 poison damage and is affected by the Confusion spell for 1 minute; on a successful save, it takes half damage and is not confused.
  • Whispering Serenity (3/Day): As an action, you project an aura of ancestral calm in a 30-foot radius for 1 hour. You and friendly creatures within the aura gain advantage on Charisma ability checks and saving throws against being frightened.
  • Root and Resolve (1/Week): As an action, you plant your stance for 1 minute. You become immune to forced movement, gain resistance to all damage, and regain hit points at the start of each of your turns equal to your proficiency bonus.

Knave (2nd Edition)

The Ironwood Spore-Grip Item Type: Weapon / Armor Hybrid (Takes 2 Item Slots, Occupies One Hand/Arm)

Description A single, massive piece of living ironwood bound to steam-fitted brass joints and pulsing runic conduits. It acts as an indestructible arm shield while mounting a bow that generates its own ammunition of toxic thorns.

Game Mechanics

  • Armor Value: Provides +3 Armor points (occupying equipment slots as a bulky weapon/shield hybrid).
  • Weapon Damage:
    • Melee Strike: 1d8 physical damage.
    • Ranged Thorn Shot: 1d10 piercing/poison damage. Does not consume standard ammunition slots.
  • Defense & Ability Bonuses: The wearer gains a +4 bonus to Strength Defense checks and is completely immune to being knocked down, pushed back, or disarmed.
  • Primal Venom: Targets hit by ranged thorn attacks must make a Constitution check (DC 15) or lose their next movement and attack action due to violent hallucinations and muscle spasms.

Spells & Charges The item holds 6 magical charges, regaining 1d6 expended charges each morning at dawn:

  • Silver-Fire Surge (1 Charge): The user spends a charge on a successful hit to channel elemental steam and arcane flame, adding a flat +6 unresistable damage to the attack.
  • Maddening Pollen Cloud (2 Charges): Fires a projectile that bursts into a 15-foot-wide cloud. All enemies within the area must pass a Wisdom check (DC 15) or immediately spend their next 2 rounds attacking the nearest entity, prioritizing their allies.
  • Song of Discord (2 Charges): The user strums the wind string. All hostile creatures within earshot must immediately make a Morale check at a -2 penalty; failing creatures drop their weapons and flee or attack one another in panic.
  • Telluric Anchor (3 Charges): For 10 minutes, the wearer roots into the ground, gaining total immunity to physical displacement and recovering 1 Hit Point at the end of each round they take damage.

Fate Core

The Primeval Aegis-Grip Artifact Aspect / Extra (Single Arm/Hand Hybrid Focus)

Permissions & Character Concept To wield this artifact, a character must possess an aspect reflecting an alignment with primordial forces, ancient ancestry, or advanced biomechanical artifice (such as Avatar of the Living Machine or Warden of the Iron Grove).

Aspects

  • Core Aspect: Living Synthesis of Primal Wood and Steam-Forged Iron
  • Invoking: Invoke for a +2 bonus or a reroll on actions involving raw physical power, grounding against massive kinetic force, enduring hostile environments, firing precision ranged attacks, or commanding beasts and plant life.
  • Compelling: The GM may compel this aspect to introduce complications resulting from the conflicting ancestral voices (machine precision vs. primal fury), intense sensory overload from telluric currents, or collateral ecological/mechanical disruption.

Stunts

  • Colossal Telluric Might: Gain a +2 bonus to Physique when making an Overcome roll or Defend roll relying on raw, rooted physical force or immovable stability.
  • Silver-Fire Strike: Once per scene, spend a Fate Point to infuse an attack with unresistable energy. This attack inflicts Weapon: 4 stress and gains the Armor-Piercing quality, bypassing physical or supernatural armor entirely.
  • Thorn of Maddening Pollen: Twice per session, spend a Fate Point when making a Shoot attack to fire an explosive spore-thorn. Instead of dealing normal stress, attach the situation aspect Beset by Primal Madness with two free invokes to the target and all other characters in their zone.
  • Ancestral Serenity Aura: Once per session, project a calming spiritual field across your zone. Create the situation aspect Sanctuary of Ancestral Peace with one free invoke for your party to use on peaceful negotiation, empathy, or resisting fear effects.
  • Root and Resolve: Spend a Fate Point to declare yourself an Immovable Anchor for the remainder of the scene. As long as you stand on solid ground, no force can move you, and once per exchange when you take physical stress, reduce that stress by 2.

Numenera & Cypher System

Aegis-Grip of the Verdant Colossus Level 9 Artifact (Hand/Forearm Magitech Hybrid)

Form A massive forearm brace and gauntlet sculpted from petrified green ironwood and living moss, reinforced with steam-forged bronze fittings and silver-threaded coral circuitry. The chassis extends into an arc bow stave strung with solidified wind, while the knuckles feature glowing, rune-carved root fragments.

Passive Effects

  • Armor & Attributes: While worn, increases your Might Pool by +4 and provides +3 to Armor against all physical and energy damage.
  • Living Greatbow: Functions as a heavy ranged weapon that manifests its own solid-wind projectiles. Attacks deal 9 points of damage (piercing and poison) at long range.
  • Inherent Stability: You are trained in all tasks to resist being pushed, tripped, grappled, or moved against your will.

Active Abilities

  • Silver-Fire Empowerment (4 Might points): As part of an attack action, infuse your strike with raw elemental steam and telluric flame. The attack deals an additional 4 points of ambient damage that completely ignores Armor. Depletion: 1 in 1d20.
  • Thorn of Maddening Pollen (5 Intellect points): Launch a projectile that detonates in an immediate area at long range. All creatures caught in the blast suffer 6 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) and must succeed on an Intellect defense roll (difficulty 7) or lose their next turn, attacking the nearest creature in a state of primal confusion. Depletion: 1 in 1d20.
  • Ancestral Serenity (3 Intellect points): Project a soothing spiritual wave around you. For one hour, the difficulty of all peaceful social interaction and persuasion tasks for you and any allies within immediate range is decreased by two steps. Depletion: 1 in 1d20.
  • Root and Resolve (6 Might points): You anchor your physiology into the surrounding earth for ten minutes. You become completely immovable, immune to forced displacement, and regenerate 2 points to your Might Pool at the start of each round you take damage. Depletion: 1 in 1d10.

Pathfinder (2nd Edition)

Verdant Heartwood Aegis-Grip Item 20, Unique, Artifact, Composite, Invested, Magical, Plant, Primal, Transmutation

Price: Priceless Usage: Worn forearm/hand brace (counts as 1 invested item and a 2-handed weapon when firing); Bulk: 2 Base Weapon: +3 Major Striking Greater Flaming Greater Shock Composite Longbow (Range Increment 100 ft., Reload 0)

Description An ancient weapon-brace combining petrified ironwood, living moss, and steam-forged plating with runic circuitry. The unit serves as heavy forearm armor while housing an integrated living bow that forms solid-wind arrows.

Passive Properties

  • Armor Check Bonus: Grants a +3 item bonus to AC and a +3 item bonus to Athletics and Survival checks.
  • Telluric Stability: You gain a +4 circumstance bonus to your Fortitude and Reflex DCs against Shove, Trip, Reposition, and Grapple attempts, and you ignore non-magical difficult terrain.
  • Primal Neurotoxin: The weapon creates its own ammunition. Any creature struck by a thorn must succeed on a DC 44 Fortitude save or become Poisoned 2 and Slowed 1 for 1 minute. Constructs that fail this save have their AC reduced by 2 for 1 minute due to corrosion.

Active Abilities

  • Activate: Single Action (command, envison); Frequency: Twice per day; Effect (Silver-Fire Invocation): For 1 minute, strikes with the Aegis-Grip deal an additional 2d6 force damage that bypasses all physical and energy resistances.
  • Activate: Two Actions (envision, primal); Frequency: Three times per day; Effect (Thorn of Maddening Pollen): Fire an arrow that explodes in a 20-foot burst within the first range increment. Creatures in the area take 14d6 poison damage (DC 44 basic Fortitude save). Any creature failing its save is Confused for 1 minute.
  • Activate: Single Action (auditory, primal); Frequency: Once per day; Effect (Song of Discordant Fury): Unleash a wave of primal rage in a 60-foot emanation. Each enemy in the area must succeed on a DC 44 Will save or use its next actions to attack the creature nearest to it, prioritizing its former allies.
  • Activate: Reaction (envision); Trigger: You are targeted by an effect that would force you to move or you take damage; Frequency: Once per day; Effect (Root and Resolve): You negate forced movement and gain Resistance 15 to all damage until the end of your next turn. At the start of your turn, you recover Hit Points equal to half the total damage absorbed.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

The Ironwood Aegis-Brace Legendary Artifact (Magical Magitech Gear)

Description A single, integrated forearm assembly of petrified ironwood, bionic pistons, and steam-pressurized brass joints. It functions simultaneously as an arm shield and a heavy bow that launches bolts of solid wind and psychoactive venom.

Game Mechanics

  • Armor & Toughness: Grants +3 Armor to the arm/torso and +2 Toughness to the user.
  • Strength & Combat: Increases the wearer’s Strength die by two steps (e.g., d8 to d12). Unarmed melee attacks deal Str+d8 magical damage with AP 2.
  • Integrated Weapon: Ranged attacks use the Athletics (Throwing) or Shooting skill (Range 15/30/60, Damage 2d8+2, AP 4, Heavy Weapon). Requires no physical arrows.
  • Unyielding Root: The wearer is completely immune to the Stunned condition from physical impacts and gains a +4 bonus on rolls to resist being pushed, tripped, or knocked prone.

Powers & Special Abilities

  • Arcane Battery Matrix: Functions as an internal arcane device with 30 Power Points that recharges at a rate of 5 points per hour.
  • Silver-Fire Burst (3 Power Points): As a free action on a successful hit, channel elemental steam and silver fire to add +1d6 unresistable damage and the Heavy Weapon property to the attack.
  • Maddening Spore Burst (4 Power Points): The weapon casts the Confusion power with an area effect (Medium Blast Template). Targets failing their Spirit check suffer visual and auditory hallucinations of predatory plants, attacking the closest figure next to them.
  • Ancestral Calm (3 Power Points): Casts the Empathy or Relief power in a 5-inch radius, eliminating fatigue levels and granting a +2 bonus to all Spirit checks against fear for one hour.
  • Root and Resolve (5 Power Points): The wearer activates an immovable defensive stance for 5 rounds. The user cannot be moved by any physical force, increases their Toughness by an additional +4, and converts 50% of all incoming damage taken into immediate natural healing.

Shadowrun (6th Edition)

Gaea-Tek “Aegis-Grip” Primeval Weapon-Brace Type: Bioware/Weapon Focus Hybrid (Full Forearm/Hand Graft) Rating: 6 | Availability: 20R | Essence: 1.2

Description An exotic, illegal piece of awakened bioware and magitech artifice. It appears as an external arm graft formed from living petrified ironwood, living moss, and steam-tempered titanium reinforcement. Running along the outer arm is an integrated recurve bow limb strung with a solidified mana-filament, while the knuckle plates house runic, petrified kava root nodules. It pulses with telluric earth magic, spiritual energy, and high-pressure steam conduits.

Game Mechanics

  • Attributes & Armor: Grants a +3 passive bonus to the user’s Strength and Body attributes and provides +4 to Defensive Rating.
  • Integrated Living Bow: Functions as an exotic ranged weapon (ACC 8, DAM 8P, AP -3, MODE SS, AMMO 1(m)). It forms its own solidified wind arrows on demand, requiring no physical quiver.
  • Weapon/Power Focus: Awakened characters (Adepts or Magicians) may bond the item at Force 6. Adepts gain access to the Killing Hands and Mystic Armor powers at Rating 6, and add +6 dice to all Attack Tests made using the weapon-brace.
  • Primal Neurotoxin: Targets struck by a ranged thorn must make a Body + Willpower test against a threshold of 5. On a failure, biological targets gain the Dazed or Stunned status for 3 combat rounds, while drones and mechanical vehicles suffer 3 points of permanent Armor degradation due to acidic organic corrosion.

Active Abilities

  • Silver-Fire Strike (Minor Action): By spending 1 Edge on a successful strike, the user channels elemental steam and silver fire, adding +3 DV to the attack that completely bypasses mundane armor and magical barriers.
  • Maddening Spore Burst (Major Action): Launches an explosive spore thorn at an area. All living entities within a 10-meter radius must succeed on a Willpower + Logic test (threshold 4) or become affected by violent hallucinations, immediately attacking the nearest ally or threat in a panicked frenzy.
  • Unyielding Roots (Minor Action): Spend 1 Edge to lock the user’s kinetic mass into the terrain. For the remainder of the combat round, the user cannot be knocked down, moved, or displaced by any physical, vehicular, or explosive force.
  • Ancestral Calm (Major Action): Spend 2 Edge to project a soothing aura. All friendly team members within 20 meters remove one level of Stun damage and gain +2 dice to resist Fear, Social Intimidation, and mental manipulation for the duration of the scene.

Starfinder (2nd Edition)

Verdant Colossus Aegis-Grip Item 20, Unique, Artifact, Hybrid, Invested, Magical, Tech, Transmutation Price: Priceless | Usage: Worn on 1 hand/arm (acts as a 2-handed weapon when firing) | Bulk: 2

Description A legendary synthesis of ancient xenodruidic biotechnology and advanced steam-arcane power. Constructed from living alien ironwood, moss, and conductive silver-threaded coral circuits, it features a heavy arm shield integrated with an arc-bow that manifests hard-light atmospheric thorns charged with neurotoxic venom.

Game Mechanics

  • Armor & Kinetic Defense: Grants a +3 item bonus to Armor Class (EAC and KAC) and a +4 circumstance bonus to KAC against bull rush, reposition, and trip combat maneuvers.
  • Integrated Magitech Bow: Functions as an advanced hybrid ranged weapon (Range Increment: 120 ft., Damage: 8d10 Piercing/Poison, Critical: Confused). Requires no physical ammunition.
  • Primal Neurotoxin: Any living creature struck by a projectile must succeed on a DC 44 Fortitude saving throw or suffer the Poisoned and Slowed conditions for 1 minute. Mechanical and technological constructs that fail this save take 4d10 additional acid damage that ignores hardness.
  • Unyielding Anchor: The wearer ignores natural and difficult terrain and is completely immune to forced movement, push effects, and being knocked prone.

Active Powers

  • Silver-Fire Protocol (1 Action, 2/Day): For 1 minute, all melee and ranged attacks made with the Aegis-Grip deal an additional 4d6 force damage that bypasses all forms of energy resistance and force fields.
  • Thorn of Maddening Pollen (2 Actions, 3/Day): Fires a projectile that bursts into a 20-foot radius cloud of psychoactive spores. Creatures in the area take 16d6 poison damage (DC 44 basic Reflex save) and are afflicted with the Confused condition for 1 minute on a failed Will saving throw.
  • Whispering Serenity Matrix (1 Action, 3/Day): Activates a 30-foot aura of ancestral calm for 1 hour. All allies within range gain a +4 status bonus on saving throws against fear, despair, and mind-affecting effects, as well as a +2 bonus on all Diplomacy checks.
  • Root and Resolve (Reaction, 1/Day): Triggered when taking damage; you lock yourself to the ground, gaining Resistance 20 to all damage until the start of your next turn and immediately recovering Hit Points equal to 50% of the damage mitigated.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Ancillary Biosynthetic Aegis-Grip (ABAG-20) Tech Level: 18 (Ancient Relic / Magitech Artifact) | Mass: 3 kg | Cost: Cr 15,000,000 (Black Market Only)

Description A single, self-repairing forearm exoskeleton forged from a hyper-dense, living vegetal-mineral alloy and fitted with micro-steam actuators and gravitic containment filaments. The outer housing mounts a directional kinetic-needle projector strung with solidified atmospheric pressure lines.

Game Mechanics

  • Armor Rating: Grants personal Armor +6 to the wearer against all ballistic, energy, and melee attacks.
  • Combat Reinforcement: The micro-servos and bio-mechanical feedback grant DM+3 on all Athletics (Strength or Dexterity) checks and increase unarmed melee damage to 4D+3.
  • Integrated Projector: Operates as an integrated heavy ranged weapon (Damage: 5D Piercing/Poison, Range: 200m, Magazine: Internal Solid-State Energy Matrix, Traits: Accurate, Zero-G, AP 6). Synthesizes its own projectiles internally.
  • Gravitic Anchor Matrix: When standing on a solid surface or deck plating, the user can engage grav-stabilizers. The user automatically succeeds on any check to resist being moved, shoved, or thrown by physical impacts or explosive concussions dealing less than 15D damage.

Special Functions

  • Overcharged Plasma Steam Pulse (1/Combat): Channels pressurized internal elemental steam into a strike, dealing an extra 3D unresistable energy damage and instantly breaching sealed airlocks or light bulkhead doors.
  • Psychoactive Spore Canister (3/Day): Releases a compressed cloud of neuroactive botanical spores across a 10-meter radius. All living personnel without sealed environment suits must pass a Difficult (10+) END check or succumb to acute paranoia and vertigo, suffering DM-3 to all actions and attacking random nearby individuals for 1D6 combat rounds.
  • Ancestral Pheromonal Field (1/Day): The unit vents a calming, non-lethal aerosol. All sentient entities within 15 meters must succeed on a Formidable (12+) SOC or END check or become docile, imposing DM+3 on all subsequent Persuade and Diplomatic checks made by the user for one hour.
  • Emergency Stasis Siphon: If the user drops below 0 in any physical characteristic (STR, DEX, or END), the unit automatically locks down life signs and injects a cellular stabilizer, preventing death and restoring 1 lost characteristic point per hour.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

The Ironwood Aegis of the Ancient Oak Type: Magical Armour / Ranged Weapon Artefact | Encumbrance: 3 Qualities: Accurate, Fine (+2), Magical, Practical, Indestructible, Armour 3 (Arms/Torso)

Description A formidable relic originating from the deep groves of the Old World, fusing heartwood torn from an elder Treeman with enchanted dwarf-steam cogs and runic kava talismans. The brace protects the entire arm while functioning as an integrated greatbow strung with a howling strand of captured storm wind.

Game Mechanics

  • Characteristics: Grants a permanent +20 bonus to Strength (S) and Toughness (T), and grants the Strong Back and Iron Will Talents.
  • Armour & Defense: Provides 3 Armour Points (AP) to the Arms and Torso locations. This armour is immune to the Corrosive and Damaging qualities.
  • Integrated Bow Weapon: Operates as a magical Greatbow (Range: 100 yards, Damage: +SB + 8, Qualities: Armour Piercing, Magical, Precise). It conjures its own wind-thorns and never requires mundane arrows.
  • Roots of the World: The wielder gains the Fearless and Stubborn Creature Traits, and automatically passes any Test to resist being moved, thrown, grappled, or knocked down by any creature smaller than Monstrous size.

Artefact Powers

  • Silver-Fire Strike (Once per Encounter): The user invokes the elemental steam vents as a Free Action. The next attack deals an additional +SB damage that ignores all Armour Points and Toughness Bonuses.
  • Thorn of Discordant Madness (3/Day): The user fires an explosive spore arrow. All enemies within a 6-yard radius must succeed on a Hard (-20) Willpower Test or gain 3 Broken Conditions as their minds are filled with hallucinations of grasping vines and primal monsters, forcing them to attack the nearest living being.
  • Tranquility of the Grove (Once per Day): The wielder presents the kava root talismans as an Action. All friendly characters within 12 yards immediately remove all Fatigued and Broken Conditions and gain a +20 bonus on all Cool and Psychology Tests for 1 hour.
  • Root and Resolve (Once per Session): As an Action, the wielder drives the bow limb into the ground. For 3 rounds, the character cannot move, but reduces all incoming Damage from attacks by half and regains 1d10 + Toughness Bonus Wounds at the start of each of their turns.