TheHoverpope/Hiveskin

Hiveskin

Artifact: 5
Repair: 2
Soak: 5B/7L/7A, Mobility: -0, Fatigue: -0, Attunement 3.
Developed by a dragon king biotechnologist of exceptional talent, the Hiveskin is a particularly strange piece of equipment. Designed to be a powerful armor that would fit the frame of any dragon king breed, the hide is a swarm of small automata, mostly about the size of a fist, with one single head-sized member. Each is a pill bug, the largest being one of the rare wyld-swollen insects that live in the oceanic deeps of the west. Grown in vats in an anklok laboratory in the south-west of creation, the creatures were from birth ingesting and inhaling a mixture of white jade and metabolites that slowly converted each of their internal systems into a mesh of jade, essence and amethyst. The creatures now rest, inert and rolled into balls, whenever not in use.
When a user places a hearthstone of at least level 2 in the largest insect and places it on his head, it desegments itself slightly, increasing in size to envelop the head of its bearer as a smooth, ridged helmet, the mandibles facing down as if they were the bearer's own. The rest of the creatures swarm over the user, the jade in their carapaces flattening, interlocking and fusing to make an armor like a full body, sleek and tight fitting lamellar or scale mail. Once in this form, the creatures are fused into an armor and no longer count as automata for purposes of repair rating - they have the indestructibility of any simple artifact armor. The armor offers several benefits. The soak it grants is in the lower tier for artifact armors, but it doesn't interfere with the movement of the wearer. However, because of the hearthstone that powers them and their automata nature, the commitment for the creatures is fairly low.
The most important ability that the armor grants is based on the nature of the insects as burrowing creatures and the white jade that suffuses them. It allows the user to attune himself to the element of earth, allowing him to pass through stone, sand, earth or anything else of the element in any direction at his full movement speed, as well as to breath earth as though it were air. The bearer is still stopped by magical stone such as jade or the walls of a manse.
The device also allows the bearer to see through anything he can pass through - stone and earth parting to his sight as if they were mist. This power is of course just as useful above ground as it is below.