Arms & Artifacts
Every hero fights with what they carry: two hand slots and three accessory slots, filled from what the world gives up. An item's stats add straight onto the wearer's own, and speed does double duty: it feeds both battle turns and how far the party marches in a day.
How the slots work
| Type | Hands | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Blade | 1 | Sword, axe, or mace; pairs well with a shield |
| Dagger | 1 | Light steel; rogues make pairs of them sing |
| Greatblade | 2 | Heavy iron; warriors break the rules with these |
| Bow | 2 | Shooters' reach on the tactical field |
| Crossbow | 2 | Heavier bolts than a bow, slower to wind; a rogue winds one in each hand |
| Flask | 1 | The caster's arm — glassware; see Craft, below |
| Shield | 1 | Guard for the off hand (or the main) |
| Grimoire | 1 | Alchemists only. Their off-hand, as a shield is a warrior's: craft and a little cover |
| Thrown | 1 | Rogues only. Corked glassware — see below |
| Accessory | 0 | Rings, charms, and lenses; three may be worn |
Craft: the other damage
Steel and bowstring are one kind of damage. A working is another, and they no longer share a number. Craft (⚗) is what your arts land for: a Transmute Blast, a vitriol flask, a quickening balm — each is worth its caster's craft on top of whatever it did before.
Adepts have the most of it and gain more every level; keepers have some; a rogue has a little; a warrior has none and never learns any.
A flask is not a weapon. Every flask in the world costs its bearer melee and reach and pays them back in craft — the better the flask, the harder the bargain. A grimoire carries craft too, and asks nothing back: it is the alchemist's off-hand, giving a little cover on top. That makes the choice real: a bow for a hero who shoots, a flask for one who works arts. Put a flask on a soldier who has studied none and you have simply made them worse.
Two tricks of the trade change everything about who wants what:
- Warriors are strong enough to wield a two-handed weapon in each hand. Two greatblades on one veteran is the heaviest hitting in the game.
- Rogues shoot bows half again as hard (+50% of the bow's ranged power), and a matched pair of daggers turns them into a whirlwind: +3 melee and +1 speed on top of the steel itself. A rogue also winds a crossbow one-handed — the only calling that can — and so can carry one in each hand. A crossbow gets no archery bonus; the edge is the second one.
- Alchemists carry a one-handed flask and a grimoire in the other, the way a warrior carries a blade and shield — the flask for craft, the grimoire for a little more craft and some cover. Two flasks work too, for a glass cannon who wants every point of craft and no guard at all.
Thrown glassware
A line nobody else can carry. Corked phials of a thief's own chemistry: one hand each, so a dagger still fits beside one, and a reach of 2 — further than a swing, nothing like a bow. You stand just outside a blade's arc and work from there.
What makes them worth the hand: cover counts for nothing against them. A thicket turns steel, but a phial bursts, and whatever your mark is crouched behind catches it with them. Against an enemy dug into forest or swamp, a rogue with glass is the answer.
| Artifact | Stats | Where it turns up |
|---|---|---|
| Tanglelime Bulb | 🏹+3 | The ring and the wilds |
| Weeping Phial | 🏹+4 👟+1 | The blight's edge |
| Bottled Midnight | 🏹+6 👟+1 | The deep blight |
Where artifacts come from
- The fallen. The victor of any battle strips the dead of their gear. What your enemies carry, you can inherit.
- Hoards. Marauder-held buildings, and every hold the blight has swallowed, have a 40% chance of yielding an artifact when taken. A hero with Plunder raises that to 60%.
- Dungeon chests. Storming a garrisoned building on the tactical field ends at the bottom floor with a prize: coin and stores, an artifact, or on rare occasion a caged hero.
Geography is rarity. Treasure runs on the same menace scale as garrison muscle: the guild ring and outer wilds yield tier-1 arms, the blight's edge tier 2, and the deep blight alone gives up the tier-3 relics. Richer finds always mean harder fights.
Logistics matter. New finds ride in the finding party's satchel and can be equipped by that party anywhere. The guild vault opens only inside your own cities: walk the satchel in and Store all in vault (or hold one item's chip to stow just it), or send a rogue to courier it home so another hero can draw from it. Unequipping in the field keeps the piece on the party's backs.
The catalog
Every Lord sets out armed for their class: the Guildsteel Blade (⚔+2), the Ashwood Bow (🏹+2), or the Hermetic Flask (⚗+3).
Tier 1 · the ring and the wilds
| Artifact | Type | Stats | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vitriol Edge | Blade | ⚔+3 | The best plain sword of the early war |
| Aurum Saber | Blade | ⚔+2 🛡+1 | Steel that pays its own guard |
| Cinnabar Cleaver | Blade | ⚔+4 👟−1 | Heavy chopping at a marching cost |
| Quicksilver Dirk | Dagger | ⚔+2 👟+1 | Half of a rogue's dream pair |
| Salt-Crystal Shiv | Dagger | ⚔+2 | The other half |
| Tin Islands Dirk | Dagger | ⚔+1 👟+2 | Speed in steel form |
| Leaden Maul | Greatblade | ⚔+5 🛡+1 👟−1 | A wall that swings |
| Aether Longbow | Bow | 🏹+4 | A rogue shoots this at +6 |
| Reedshaft Bow | Bow | 🏹+3 👟+1 | Shoot and keep moving |
| Windlass Crossbow | Crossbow | 🏹+4 👟−1 | A rogue's, in each hand: 🏹+8 |
| Ratchet Arbalest | Crossbow | 🏹+6 👟−2 | Heavy bolts for a patient shot |
| Philosopher's Alembic | Flask | ⚗+4 🛡+1 ⚔−1 🏹−1 | The working alchemist's arm |
| Calcinator's Retort | Flask | ⚗+3 👟+1 ⚔−1 🏹−1 | Light in the hand, quick on the march |
| Cinderleaf Grimoire | Grimoire | ⚗+2 🛡+1 | An adept's off-hand: more craft, a little cover |
| Vellum of Quintessence | Grimoire | ⚗+1 🛡+2 | When the cover matters more than the craft |
| Salt Aegis | Shield | 🛡+3 | The shield wall made portable |
| Verdant Buckler | Shield | 🛡+2 | Cheap cover for a second line |
| Mirror of Mercury | Shield | 🛡+2 👟+1 | Guard without the slowing |
| Amulet of Nigredo | Accessory | 🛡+2 | Armor with no hands spent |
| Winged Philter | Accessory | 👟+2 | Faster marches for the slowest boot |
| Bezoar Charm | Accessory | 🛡+1 👟+1 | A little of both |
| Sharpstone Whetring | Accessory | ⚔+2 | An edge for any melee hand |
| Hawk's-Eye Lens | Accessory | 🏹+2 | A shooter's third eye |
| Tincture Bandolier | Accessory | 🏹+1 👟+1 | For skirmishers on the move |
| Firelime Knuckles | Accessory | ⚔+1 👟+1 | A brawler's quickness |
Tier 2 · the blight's edge
| Artifact | Type | Stats | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aqua Regia Edge | Blade | ⚔+4 🛡+1 | The royal solvent, given a hilt |
| Nigredo Fang | Dagger | ⚔+3 | The pair-piece worth marching for |
| Greatsword of Sulfur | Greatblade | ⚔+6 | One in each warrior hand: ⚔+12 |
| Entropy Reaper | Greatblade | ⚔+7 🛡−1 | All edge, no apology |
| Alkahest Bow | Bow | 🏹+5 👟+1 | +7 and change in a rogue's hands |
| Stormstring Bow | Bow | 🏹+6 | A rogue shoots this at +9 |
| Steelspan Arbalest | Crossbow | 🏹+7 👟−1 | A rogue's pair reaches 🏹+14 |
| Cucurbit of the Great Work | Flask | ⚗+7 ⚔−1 🏹−2 | Blast fuel for the ambitious |
| Pelican of the White Work | Flask | ⚗+5 🛡+2 ⚔−1 🏹−2 | The healer-scholar's defense |
| Codex of the Azoth | Grimoire | ⚗+3 🛡+2 | The adept's off-hand, deepened |
| Leaden Bulwark | Shield | 🛡+4 👟−1 | Bring it to a siege, not a chase |
| Ring of the Magnum Opus | Accessory | ⚔+1 🛡+1 | Quiet, dependable work |
| Crucible Girdle | Accessory | 🛡+3 | Armor for the hands-free |
Tier 3 · relics of the deep blight
Found only near the world's heart, where the garrisons are cruelest.
| Artifact | Type | Stats | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Decayer's Edge | Greatblade | ⚔+10 🛡+1 | The rot's own harvest blade |
| Bow of the Black Work | Bow | 🏹+8 👟+1 | A rogue shoots this at +12 |
| Siege Arbalest of the Black Work | Crossbow | 🏹+10 👟−2 | A rogue's pair loosing 🏹+20 |
| Matrass of the Seventh Stage | Flask | ⚗+10 🛡+2 ⚔−1 🏹−2 | The Work's last rung |
| Testament of the Magnum Opus | Grimoire | ⚗+4 🛡+3 | The deepest off-hand an adept can read |
| Aegis of the Prima Materia | Shield | 🛡+6 | Nothing gets through first matter |
| Philosopher's Stone Shard | Accessory | ⚔+2 🏹+2 🛡+2 | Everything, a little |
| Twin Fangs of Azoth | Dagger | ⚔+5 👟+2 | One is a weapon; two are a storm |
| Sword of Sol and Luna | Blade | ⚔+6 🛡+2 | A greatblade's bite in one hand |
| Crown of the Red King | Accessory | ⚔+3 🛡+3 | Majesty, worn into the melee |
A trapper's tools
These turn up only for a party that keeps a Beastmaster — to anyone else they are so much knotted cord and bone, and the loot table holds them back. Each raises the chance a snared beast is taken alive rather than killed, and they stack: a Beastmaster wearing all three accessory slots is a very hard animal to escape.
| Artifact | Type | Stats | Where it turns up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knotted Snare-Cord | Accessory | 🪢+10 capture | The ring and the wilds |
| Whistle of the Vats | Accessory | 🪢+15 capture 👟+1 | The ring and the wilds |
| Beast-Whisper Torc | Accessory | 🪢+22 capture 🛡+1 | The blight's edge |
| Muzzle of Quiet Hours | Accessory | 🪢+30 capture 🛡+2 | The deep blight |
Consumables
Draughts and charters are spent in the using, never worn. They ride in the satchel and stack: three of the same bottle are one line and a count, not three slots. Pour them from the Skills sheet, which offers each to whoever in the column most needs it.
| Consumable | What it does |
|---|---|
| Draught of Red Lead | Restores 40% of the drinker's health |
| Greater Draught of Red Lead | 80% of it |
| Draught of Quicksilver | Restores 50% of the drinker's Essence |
| Greater Draught of Quicksilver | Refills the pool entirely |
| Charter of the Furrow | Sows one field. Any hero can present it — a farm hand's charge in a satchel |
Since arts now cost Essence and Essence only comes back on your own ground, quicksilver is what keeps a hero working while the campaign is far from home. A rogue with Steal can lift one straight off a foe.
The Philosopher's Stone
| Artifact | Type | Stats | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Philosopher's Stone | Accessory | ⚔+3 🏹+3 ⚗+3 🛡+3 · Essence never runs out | The Great Work itself, in the hand |
The one artifact the whole Work is named for. Its bearer's Essence is bottomless — but the working is not free: it comes out of them instead, a third of what it would have cost in Essence, paid in blood. The toll alone can never be the blow that kills them, so an alchemist holding the Stone can cast all day; they simply bleed for it.
It is on no loot table. Only the deepest vault can hold it — the bottom floor of a tier-3 hold in the deep blight — and even there it comes up about one time in twenty-five. Whole campaigns finish without one. If you find it, it goes on your Lord.
Kitting a hero
- A warrior Lord wants two greatblades and armor accessories: the Entropy Reaper pair (⚔+14) with a Crucible Girdle covers the lost guard.
- A rogue wants the best bow in the world plus paired daggers held in reserve, with speed accessories to strike first and slip away.
- An alchemist who has studied their arts wants the deepest flask they can carry with a grimoire in the other hand, and the Winged Philter to keep the melee away. One who has studied none is better off with a bow until they have.
- Remember the party marches at its slowest member's speed: one 👟−1 item on the wrong unit slows the whole column.