VAIOTE     (Simbiotic Organism)

Manufacture: Gorg/Arcanar
Composition: Organic
Cost: 7000-8000 Coin          Availability: Rare

The gorgs are masters of marketing; this is but one example. One of the latest Tamaran crazes is so-called 'adventuring'. Small groups of wealthy private citizens will band together with the best weapons and armor money can buy, and blunder out into the Tamaran wilderness looking for 'adventure'. Most are a combination of big game hunters, treasure-seekers, and good old fashioned fools, and this is their trademark drink. When adventurers need that little extra boost, they drink Quest-Ade. Sold in elaborate, stylized bottles, Quest-Ade comes in three common varieties (though variations exist). Each provides a surge of some kind, usually narcotic in nature. This makes Quest-Ade rather addictive, and gives it a wide variety of long-term side-effects.

DARKENERS     (Cepn Eyewear)

Manufacture: Cepn
Composition: Shadow Crystal, Gold, Mineral Oil
Cost: 200 Coin (Specs) 75 Coin (Oil)          Availability: Uncommon

Cepn have a hard time with bright lights, being nocturnal by nature. When forced to operate during the day, they must protect their eyes from damaging ultraviolot radiation. Most will wear stylized spectacles of polished crystal to darken the bright colors of daytime, reducing glare and making their sly expressions even more difficult to read. These darkeners are fairly expensive - most have to be custom made to fit. They are commonly kept on a slender cord and worn around the neck, for they break easily. The more expensive designs wrap around the temples, keeping the darkeners in place even when running or fighting.

A less expensive alternative exists for those who do not want to wear darkners. This is a mineral oil that can be applied to the eyes to much the same effect, creating a protective coating that lasts several hours. The oil polarizes on contact with light, and must be stored in heavily tinted vials. Used sparingly, a bottle of this liquid will last for months, each dose consisting of a mere two drops. One application lasts all day, and gives the eyes a slightly milky coloration.

MIND UPGRADE     (Machine Intelligence Upgrade)

Manufacture: Creator
Composition: Ceramics, Gold
Cost: N/A          Availability: Very Rare

Machines are exceptional thinkers, though they may not always be correct in their highly logical predictions. To increase their brain power, the Creators built small co-processors to manage specific mental tasks such as mathematics, speech synthesis, or even combat maneuvers. Two types of broad upgrades exist - logic processors or reason processors. Logic chips will increase the Machine's raw brainpower, increasing speed and accuracy. Reason chips allow the Machine to store more information and thus increase its total memory. Both chips are fairly small, roughly the size of a coin, and somewhat fragile. They must be carefully inserted into slots within the Machine's braincase. There is a remote chance (about 1 in 10) that a scavenged chip will contain an antilogic virus (a so called 'cursed' chip).

DIVINITY CIRCUIT     (Machine Holy Symbol)

Manufacture: Creator
Composition: Ceramics, Gold
Cost: N/A          Availability: Rare

Based on the City Mind's logic lattices, the scaled-down divinity circuit is a form of psychokinetic receiver employed by all U-frames, allowing them to receive their artificial god's power by remote. Through this device, the City Mind maintains a constantly-updated communication with its servants, distributing its vast interal resources throughout the planet. Though fragile, these receiving units are most often housed within the unit's durable head or torso casing, and is not considered optional (cannot be removed). Without the divinity circuit, a U-frame is reduced to insect intelligence, capable of carying out only the most basic flow chart instructions. As any given U-frame increases its command priority, either by aptitude or situation, it may by given larger degrees of energy in order to carry out its tasks.

WIND ENGINE     (Flight Module)

Manufacture: Creator
Composition: Ceramics, Metals
Cost: N/A          Availability: Very Rare

The wind engine is a type of task module that allows Machines to fly short distances. They were used heavily by Machines engaging airborn creatures such as dragons. A single wind engine could generate enough lift to allow an average fighting unit to leap distances of up to thirty feet. Two engines would allow for hover capabilities or prevent damage from a fall. Four would allow flight with decent maneuverability, with the Machine able to orient each engine independantly. The only problem with the wind engine was that it gradually overheated under constant use, and would have to be cooled to avoid stalling. Most of these turbines are rather loud, and on dry ground they will generate a blinding cloud of dust in a sphere around the Machine when they are first activated. Essentially, these are simply scaled-down versions of the fan jets used by old Creator aircraft (see 'vehicles'). They are decorated with gold and inlaid with cloudscape images of pearl and lapis-lazuli. The concept of flight was especially sacred to the Creators.

MAGNETIC PISTONS     (Silent Motion)

Manufacture: Creator
Composition: Metals, Magnetic Alloy
Cost: N/A          Availability: Very Rare

Most Machines move about as quietly as a suit of gear-drive plate armor, which is to say, not at all. However, there are some military units equipped with utterly silent joints and magnetic pistons. These use fairly simple electromagnetic repulsion fields to create a soundless, frictionless suspension. Far superior to the gel-filled hydraulics of earlier models, these pistons allowed an outfitted Machine to run in eerie silence, and absorb the shock of great leaps without so much as a hiss.

The natural 'bounce' of the magnetic field never wears out, and can be modulated by increasing or decreasing charge in the same sort of minute adjustments made by an organic brain when balancing. This tends to make outfitted units a little more stable when walking as well. Pistons require no task modules, running off the Machine's internal energy supply. They allow the equipped Machine to run faster, jump further, and move in relative silence. Even on hard surfaces, they are able to adjust the pressure of their steps to such a fine degree as to make their passage virtually undetectable. Pistons are generally found in full sets, especially when scavenged from other Machines. The units themselves are quite bulky, constructed of dark adamas, with gold or silver piping.

BRAIN CASE     (Processor Support)

Manufacture: Creator
Composition: Gold, Unknown Alloys
Cost: N/A          Availability: Very Rare

When destroyed, most Machines are permanently lost. Their memories last only as long as their power remains, and thus they cannot be raised in the conventional sense. Instead, when the contents of a Machine's mind were of vital importance to its maker, the unit would be equipped with a special task module called a brain case. This module protected the Machine's CPU from the destruction of its body, allowing it to be retrieved and inserted into a new chasis for re-activation. In a sense, this allows Machines to be raised from the dead, so long as the unit's destruction was not absolute (disintigration, for instance).

The brain case is extremely durable, and contains an internal source of power to keep the CPU active for up to three years. While hibernating, the Machine is completely unaware of the outside world, and essentially quite helpless. If mounted in a new chasis, or the old chasis is repaired by a service unit, full recovery is possible, though any other task modules from the original frame may have been lost or destroyed.

FINS     (Swimming Aids)

Manufacture: Lutrai
Composition: Sharkskin
Cost: Trade          Availability: Uncommon

Lutrai already have webbed feet for swimming, but even their considerable swimming skill can be augmented by increasing key surface areas. The lutrai took the hint from dolphins, who swim even better than the otter-folk. In truth, the dolphins gave it to the lutrai as a gift, with the possible underlying intent of motivating the lutrai to hunt more of their natual predators for the required sharkskin. The fins helped nicely in just such endeavours, allowing the smaller, more agile lutrai to outrun their own natural predators just like dolphins. Swimming with these flippers is generally accomplished through a fluid, full-body pumping motion as opposed to alternating kicks. The fins are treated with special oils to increase their flexibility and prolong their life under general wear and tear, and are usually made to fit. They are fairly uncommon, as only a scarce number of lutrai are brave enough to go out hunting sharks on the reef.

Lutraic fins double the natural swimming speed of any bipedal creature that wears them. On land, however, they cut movement in half, making it very difficult to run or tread delicately. They may also be used to make great leaps from the water, a maneuver perfected by shark hunters. Luring their prey to the surface, they leap free of the water, twist over backwards, and fling their gill forks down at the breaching animal's head. This move is especially dangerous, as a miss will often result in the thrower falling right back down into the shark's mouth.

SPIRIT MASK     (Enchanted Disguise)

Manufacture: Lutrai
Composition: Wood, feathers
Cost: Trade          Availability: Uncommon

Lutrai shamans construct elaborate totem masks for use in dance and ritual. Most of these are carved of wood and hand-painted, most often made to resemble animals such as deer, ravens, and wolves. Some spirit masks bear powerful enchantments that allow the wearer to deceive all who gaze upon him, walking among animals as if one of their own. More recently the Chainbreakers have demonstrated their endless adaptability by creating human disguises (at left). These eerie wooden masks allow the lutrai to pass through human cultures in order to free or even purchase their enslaved bretheren with pearls or raw emeralds from their homeland. The disguises are nearly flawless, though there is always a telltale trace of strange behavior or social blundering associated with the lutrai's profound inability to understand human thinking.

Anyone wearing one of these spirit masks may change into the form portrayed in the carving. Sex, age, height, and weight can all be altered, along with fur/hair/skin color, eye color, and even attire. While wearing this mask, a lutrai shaman in a loincloth could walk the streets of a human city as a foppish noble in the latest finery, even down to the smell and touch, or a lutrai druid could assume the form of any species of wolf and blend into a pack for weeks at a time while scouting.

WEB RINGS     (Elemental Foci)

Manufacture: Lutrai
Composition: Salvaged metals, gemstones
Cost: Trade          Availability: Restricted

As lutrai have webbed hands, they are unable to wear conventional rings. Instead, they wear a type of piercing called a web ring. These rings can be worn between fingers or toes instead around them, and are most frequently fashioned by the shamans or healers, to be used as magical foci. These minor foci, like the spirit feathers, help the lutrai tap the energies of the world around them, though many are worn owing to little more than the lutraic love of shiny stones. Availability is restricted, as the metal aspect of the ring must be salvaged from one of the many shipwrecks scattered throughout the coral maze. They are then carefully reworked and combined with native gemstones (lutrai seem to prefer rounded cabochon design as opposed to faceted).

Turquoise Charm: This web ring is typically enchanted to protect the wearer from hostile elements by tapping the energies of Jova, the astral sky. So long as it is worn, the wearer does not suffer the adverse effects of temerature extremes between -20 and 140 degrees. Only the most extreme of climates will inhibit the wearer of this charm, and even then at a reduced level. The wearer may also impart this effect upon one additional person as long as physical contact is maintained.

Pearl Charm: Used by lutrai healers, the pearl web ring enhances the power of curative magic. When worn by healers, it increases the potency of life-giving spells, and protects the wearer from disease and poison. The wearer's eyes will also develope a faint luminescence. Females seems more receptive to this form of magic than males.

Aquamarine Charm: This ring is used by lutraic druids and healers to tap the elemental aspects of Ios, the water plane. It allows the wearer to draw breath underwater, and affords perfect vision. This is a popular charm for shark hunters and wreck divers alike, and is one of the more common varieties.

Ruby Charm: This rare lutraic ring enables the wearer to tap the elemental aspect of Chon, the fire plane. As long as the ring is worn, no ordinary fire will burn the wearer. Furthermore, the charm renders the wearer completely invisible to fire elementals, and all other denizens of the fire plane. These are the most difficult charms to make.

Emerald Charm: Perhaps the most powerful of the lutraic rings, this focus taps the very heart of the natural world, and draws upon the great energy cloud at the heart of the earth plane, Lith. Plants flourish in the wearer's footsteps, a sort of low-yield quintessant charge that can be distributed by touch. The wearer is constantly surrounded by this aura of life, causing a curious visual distortion that brightens and blurs their colors somewhat.

FEATHER TALISMANS     (Totemic Foci)

Manufacture: N/A
Composition: Feathers, beads, bones
Cost: None          Availability: Restricted

The lutrai make use of a great variety of feathers in their tribal crafts and fetishes. They are also used as an identification marker for healers, shamans, and hunters. Most of such feathers must be earned or achieved through rites of passage that vary from tribe to tribe. Such decorations are combined with beads and shells, and most often hung around the neck or woven into hair and clothing. Many have minor powers unlocked by the lutrai spirit web though the wearer's own confidence.

Red Eagle Feather: A symbol of courage and ability, the red eagle's feather is given to those whose excellent vision, speed, and stamina make them natural hunters. The hunters are the tribe's only true line of defense against monsters or raiders, and while most are treated with admiration and respect, they are rarely envied. Once per day, the wearer of the red feather may summon a tremendous jolt of strength from the spirit web.

Dove Feather: This feather represents peace and purity of spirit. It is worn by the tribe's healers, often combined with pearls or pale bones. One feather represents an apprentice, with a new feather being added for each life saved (or each level gained). Once per day, the wearer of the dove feather can call upon the spirit web to double the effects of a healing spell.

Raven Feather: The raven represents adaptability and cunning, and its feathers are worn by the chainbreakers. These lutrai pose as slaves in order to infiltrate the confusing and often deadly world beyond their islands, rescuing their hapless brothers and sisters and returning them to Cekus. Once per day, the wearer of the raven feather may call upon the spirit web to confuse and distract, rendering the chainbreaker invisible for brief period of time.

Owl Feather: The owl is known for his wisdom, and these feathers are generally reserved for the members of the tribal council, or the shamans. It is these individuals who the entire tribe elects for guidance in times of need, and often age is a prerequisite for obtaining an owl feather. Once per day, the wearer may draw upon the wisdom of the great owl, and increase the power and accuracy of divination rituals.

CRYSTAL WAND     (Elemental Summoning)

Manufacture: Lutrai
Composition: Wood, crystal, feathers
Cost: Time          Availability: Restricted

Topped with crystalized quintessence and adorned with the white feathers of peace, this is the traditional wand of lutrai mystics and shamans. Through this focus, they bring forth elemental forces and other feats of natural sorcery, using the power of the crystal as a catalyst. Acquiring the fifth element in this form is extremely difficult, however, and must be manifested out of the shaman's own life force. Solidified, it takes on a faint glow and will on occasion emit soft, ghostly tones. When bound to a specially prepared talisman, such as the wand, its magical qualities become aparent. Properly invoked, its rituals may summon elementals or manipulate elemental forces, such as waves or storms, but each spell temporarily drains the crystal, hence causing fatigue in its wielder.

The wand is, in a sense, simply an extention of the wielder's life force, liberated from the body and made solid (such as the Aboriginal 'mabarn' crystals). The more life energy that goes into the wand's fabrication, the more powerful the wand becomes, but this in turn costs the maker more of her own vitality. In order to restore this energy, the crystal must be absorbed back into the body, which renders the wand inert. However, because each incarnation of life energy is different, the crystal's powers can only be tapped by its maker. The only exception to this biological link seems to be in the case of identical twins.

NIRN MASK     (Environmental Breather)

Manufacture: Spiral
Composition: Steel, gold, laquer
Cost: N/A          Availability: Uncommon

        In order to protect their bodies from the burning alien light of Rym's star, and the poisonous radiation of life energy, many of the Spiral minions wear ornate suits of sealed gothic armor and strange masks fixed with golden vents and valves. These are their 'breathing' masks, feeding them the ether-like gas that sustains them in the hostile, life-giving environment. There are three general designs, each corresponding to the three Orders, Vauz, Nirn, and Glut, though they all have a similar function. Without their masks, most Spiral priests and their converts quickly succumb to the searing sunlight and life energy all around them. Consequently, most of these breathers are actually fused to their upper torsos, making removal impossible. Most masks are also highly-durable, with well-armored pipes and grills. The only regions in which they may remove their masks are those that have been wiped clean of living things.

        The mask worn by the Order of Nirn is elongated and bird-like, with a single staring jewelled eye on the left side. This eye is simply decorative - the mask is completely sealed. Every few seconds, vents along the neck-guard will emit plumes of toxic emission, the burnoff of combusted life energy. This conversion powers the mask, which not only provides protection but allows them to communicate with each other across great distances, amplifies their senses, and even acts as an impaling weapon that can draw out a living creature's life force and convert it to more power within a few agonizing seconds. Destroying or even fracturing the mask will kill the being inside within moments, especially during the day, when the heat and radiation are at their peak. The small tendrils near the front are a type of biological sensor array that, if destroyed, will partially blind the creature until they regrow. The interior of the suit is well below freezing, and a rind of frost will cover parts of the mask if the wearer remains still for long. They have been given the nickname 'Ashbirds'.

VAUZ MASK     (Environmental Breather)

Manufacture: Spiral
Composition: Steel, Gold, Cloth
Cost: N/A          Availability: Uncommon

        Similar in design and function, the masks worn by priests of Vauz seal the wearer off from the outside environment. These masks tend to be more fragile, but are capable of storing greater quantities of power. This order is more powerful, magically, than the other two, their priests able to focus deadly thoughtwaves through the dozens of tiny golden pins buried in their skulls. They can cause weaker beings to die of fright, or read and even control the thoughts of their enemies. They are known by the nickname 'Silk Wraiths', due to the shroud of cloth that conceals the domed mirror-like covering beneath. The shroud ripples now and then as the creature breathes, issuing forth pale wisps of poisonous opalesecent vapor. If the mask is breached, this vapor will flood out in a huge, toxic cloud as the priest suffocates, killing living things just as quickly. Worse, this cloud is highly flammable, and can explode if exposed to open flame.

        Silk wraiths are utterly silent, speaking through telepathy, if at all. More commonly, they rely on a 'mouth', a mortal slave utterly dominated by the fell being, who speaks on its behalf. These slaves are kept alive through measures of dark alchemy, often appearing nearly-catatonic until their master bids them to speak. The mouth becomes a translator, of sorts, forced to convert the nightmarish thoughtwaves and images to something that approximates speech. Eventually, however, such close proximity to the Spiral takes its toll, and the mouth collapses into ruin and madness, to be melted down into necril or converted to a more common undead worker.

GLUT MASK     (Environmental Breather)

Manufacture: Spiral
Composition: Steel, Gold, Cloth
Cost: N/A          Availability: Rare

        The masks worn by priests of Molochon are the most heavily armored, built for combat. Filled with poisonous, oily sludge, they protect their undead wearers from light and quintessance. This sludge is a form of deadbile, the melted-down remains of life energy upon which the undead feed, and can be filled or drained via brass ports along the back of the headpiece whenever the priest within requires new sustenance. The same awful black oil insures that any spot upon which these beings are destroyed is rendered forever barren. A digestive gurgle emanates from the mask every now and then as the solution is pumped internally, along with the soft click of metallic ventricals. The fluid's acidic nature causes it to react with metals inside the mask, producing a low-level charge used to power the various pumps and valves.

        Priests of this order are the least powerful, magically, but possess greater strength and resistance as a result of their heavier armor. They are typically deployed as elite shock troops, or to defend ranks of undead spellcasters. Molochon's personal guard consists of no less than a hundred of these soulless warriors, most of them 'converted' by the undead dragon's own dark magic. Like many of the Spiral's higher agents, they speak telepathically, though their range is limited to a hundred feet or so. They are far more effective when directed by Molochon himself, and are generally the most heavily armed of the three orders.

SPIRAL AUGMENTATION     (Conversion Rewards)

Manufacture: Spiral
Composition: Rare minerals, metals
Cost: N/A          Availability: Rare

        Those converted by the Spiral or usually rendered down to minor undead drones of some kind. Those who give themselves over willingly are rewarded instead, especially if the volunteer is a powerful one. Of course, these rewards are somewhat agonizing, and not always consensual. They include a variety of replacement parts, artificial organs, and so forth, all designed to bring about conditions similar to undeath. These organs exact a terrible price upon their recipients, eating away at their spirits until they become hopelessly loyal to the Spiral and their dark god. Even surviving the process of replacement with one's sanity intact is a small miracle.

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