Healer's Harness

Description

This delicate suit of mage armour is well suited to protecting a magician healer who must operate on or near the front lines. Dedicated healers study physik as well as magic and so have their mage armour made with many pockets and ties for their equipment, giving the armour its name. The application oftempest jade can sometimes give the armour a shimmering surface and many dying soldiers have been overjoyed it see that oil-green colouring appear above them, giving it the name Saviour's Sheen. The harness also sees some popularity among the mountebanks of the League, giving a better chance of healing themselves if their audience turns nasty. They follow a similar design to battlefield healer's harnesses, but the pockets are more likely to be filled with cards and other people's purses.

The rune Cavul is often embossed on these suits of mage armour to help the wearer maintain concentration despite the pain of their wounds.

Rules

• Form: Armour. Takes the form of a suit of mage armour. You must be wearing this armour to use its magical properties.
• Requirement: You must have both the magician and battle mage skills to bond to this item.
• Effect: Damage taken by you or your target does not interrupt spells you are casting (for spells such as heal, create bond or night pouch).
• Materials: Crafting a healer's harness requires seven ingots of tempest jade, five measures of dragonbone and four ingots of green iron. It takes one month to make one of these items.

The rain lashed furiously on the hillside and the valley beneath, and the sky was grey as granite and just as hard. One by one, the six Sentinels of Coppermount Spire regained their senses, trapped to varying extents in the hungry mud of the landslide that had knocked them from their lonely road.

Castor was the first to recover his senses. Quickly the healer drew his wand, fine oak and dragonbone, and shocked himself with healing energies to stave off the worst of the harm the world seemed to wish him. He shivered, but how much worse it must have been for those who didn't boast gills and scales and a certain natural immunity to the cold and wet. He'd have to move fast, especially since they were already in gryphon territory and the damned things could smell weakness from miles away.

Looking around, the rest would all need help. Katerina and Gnaeus were the least trapped, which meant that they would be the quickest to help. He dreaded to think what injuries hid beneath the surface of the mud, but he'd sort them out when they were free.

He dug Gnaeus out quickly, and delivered a similar jolt of healing energy which made the young Merrow wince. The two of them started to dig Katerina out, Gnaeus digging his shield into the mud to provide a little shelter and stop the flow of rainwater over their best warrior's prone form.

Castor had almost freed her when someone stabbed him in the back with a handful of knives, hard enough to knock him off his feet. The gryphon landed right next to him a few seconds later, but Castor's head was still reeling. He heard a scream, not of pain but of threat, or the best Gnaeus could manage. The beast's attention was divided, and it screeched back a threat at the boy. Castor swallowed and rolled to one side to get to his feet.

Then it pounced right over Castor's head and flattened Gnaeus in an instant.

There was no time to think. Gryphons pinned their prey and bit at the throat. He knew Gnaeus would be dead in seconds.

It was so un-Urizen, it was so un-Merrow that he would spend the rest of his life wondering what tug of instinct had driven him to Zorech at that moment. Castor started casting the healing spell the boy would desperately need. He lowered his head and ran toward him. And then, with a shouted challenge, he shoulder-barged a gryphon out of his way.

He discharged the spell into Gnaeus' wounded chest as he passed over him, and the boy yelped in surprise. So did the gryphon, which fell to its side in the mud. The world spun as he landed atop it on his side. He felt ribs sticking through fur; it was hungry and desperate. Probably the runt of its litter, outcast from its pride. On a good day, they would kill a gryphon like this in seconds-

The thought was interrupted as it almost bit his arm off at the shoulder. Castor screamed. It shook him off as it stood again, and backed off to deliver another terrifying screech. He pushed himself to a kneel with his good arm and began to cast the spell that would give his other arm back.

It darted in towards him and raked him with a sharp talon. He stumbled, but the draining feeling of magic discharge didn't come. The threads of iridescent gloaming that ran through his armour pulsed briefly, and the breastplate seemed to tighten a little around his chest. It glanced down, looking puzzled at the display. He took the chance to kick it in the head and it backed off a few paces.

Castor winced and finished the spell this time. There was a flash of searing fire as the flesh of his shoulder grew in, and then he noticed Katerina, free and fighting the thing with just her spear while Gnaeus recovered his shield. He had the Captain's forethought to thank for saving him precious mana with the Healer's Harness. Castor readied his next spell, and then wondered, in a detached way, how exactly he intended to deliver it.

The fight wasn't over by a long way...