Thnktfthbx/ConsummateCraftsman
Ease of the Consummate Craftsman</b>
Artifact •••
Simple Designed Bracers made of Rings of Oricalcum
In ancient times, the great craftsmen of old often competed against each other to fashion more delicate and more precise works, every time striving to surpass both their own work as well as that of their peers. One story concerns the rivalry between an older more established artist and a quickly rising star, their names long lost into the darkness of time. They made a wager one day that in one week’s time they would meet again and display the most breathtaking piece of work their counterpart had ever seen. The younger one, being full of the impatience of youth, sent ethereal spies to observe his senior and report back what he was creating. The airy messengers returned and described the old man working slowly on a set of golden rings about wrist width, a sort of bracer, very simple without adornment or flair. Confused, the younger man sent his servants out again the next day as he worked feverishly on his own project, certain that either these bracers were a different endeavor entirely, or perhaps there was some deception at work. But the report was much the same. Quite confidant in his victory, the brash young man sent them out a third and final time two days later, just to make absolutely certain of his facts, beginning to believe that the elderly artist might have passed into senility to have made such a wager with such a paltry attempt at beauty. But all that could be reported was the old man, sitting and buffing his bracers with a cloth.
The day of the judging arrived, and much to the younger craftsman’s disbelief, in came his elder carrying the most ornate fountain of glass and metal, as if the entire thing had been a jet of liquid shot towards the sky and then frozen in time. The youngster stammered out something almost intelligible about bracers, to which the voice of experience replied “What, these?”, showing off his wrists, around which gleamed the brightly polished metal of the bracers, “why they’re just a tool, something I came up with to lend my art a bit more grace and speed. I might not have been able to finish this in the one night else-wise…”. The Blood drained from the youngster’s face as he pondered the skill it would take to craft such a thing in a single night, and turned away conceding defeat.
The bracers consist of several bands ½ inch wide connected by a strip an inch wide going down the back of the arm. It is made of Orichalcum, smooth and simple, with only a small socket for a hearth stone on the back of each bracer breaking the flowing lines. On a Solar exalted who attunes to it (3 motes committed for each, or 6 total), these bracers become as flexible as well-worn leather, bending as the arm moves. They give a mild martial bonus (+1 to initiative, defense, and 2 levels of bashing and 1 of lethal soak), but the true value of these bracers lay in the nimbleness they lend to the hands. Any Dex roll made while wearing these that involve just the hands and arms gain an extra die (as if the user’s Dex score were one higher), and any crafting times are cut in half.
