Simple cloth armour with a not so simple secret.
This tight-fitting, sleeveless, collarless shirt seems like musty cloth armour upon initial inspection. If it is examined closely or cut open, it will reveal that the padding between the layers of cloth is actually a rare moss.
To activate the moss, they simply would need to apply a little water and maybe some dirt, and then the moss will function. Active moss has only a faint, slightly spicy scent, like a flower.
Magical Properties:
Once active, the rare moss (Bendeg's foil) takes on a ruddy hue, but doesn't stain or show through the cloth. The moss acts as a powerful antiseptic and coagulant, meaning that cutting or peircing wounds will hardly bleed at all and would only become infected under extreme circumstances, like lycanthropy. The moss will knit itself back together, but the holes in the cloth remain untill patched.
The moss must have food to stay alive, however, and if the players neglect it's need of earth and water, it will start to draw sustainance from the wearer of the armor. Once is starts living off a host, the scent changes to a more peppery one and makes the wearer not want to remove it. They would rather keep it on, sleeping and bathing in it as well, which isn't overly hard givin that the armour is cloth. After a long period of time, usually about a month, if the armour is not fed it's soil and water, it will have consumed so much of it's host that they will die.
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Very nice. A chia pet that eats its host if you don't feed it. Sweeeeet! Fire would be a very bad thing, same with prolonged direct sunlight without lots of water. Even though it is inbetween layers, the moss may not like the excessive heat. Would consume a lot of water.
Awkward too perhaps. Having to drench your armor and then wear it wet. Might be fun to give it a little bonus when totally saturated. Lead to town battles and the player jumping into a horse trough to get it wet for the fight, or always jumping into streams when they present themselves. Could add a lot of color to a game. I like it!
'Why are you always so wet?'
'It's my armor.'
'What?!'
'The armor. It's a plant and it helps me with arrows.'
'WHAT?!'
'Nevermind.'
I think I am going to use it for a new barbarian in my game.... hmmmm, he may be the wrong race though......
Better ask first, but I like the idea: Jump into the horse trough before starting to fight ;+))
Sweet. This would be a great item to find on the dead body of someone in a the far-reaches of a swamp somewhere.
'Wow, Bob, that's a neat coat you got yourself there! But um... Do you really need to swim in that toxic swamp water keep it primed?'
A good old Agar item. Nice and orignal work.
I'm having a hard time picturing the armor and how it actually would function, especially with the damage reduction from piercing and slashing wounds. However, I think the idea is very creative and original, and I could see a druid wearing Derrin's Vest and nurturing the moss. Probably even having conversations with it...
Neat item. Useful but with some drawbacks. If you didn't know about its needs, it might be very bad.
I like Nap's Druid talking to the vest and caring for it.
How often would it need to have water and dirt added?
Perhaps the moss is attached to the interior of the armor, which is otherwise cloth. It has an odd affinity for blood and that is how it manages to stop up wounds. If the moss was fully encased in cloth I can't see it havng much effect. Also, adding water to moss makes it heavy. Very heavy.
This is an neat and odd one! How does it live when not stuffed into armour?