The Needle of Borrowed Time

by Frazer 👁 2 views

Charges: 3 (regains at dawn)

This slender sewing needle is forged from pale silver and tipped with a bead of amber that glows like a candle seen through skin. Its eye is impossibly narrow, yet accepts any thread placed against it. A spool of dull red thread rests in a tiny ivory thimble attached to the needle by a chain; the thread never runs out, though each strand becomes briefly black when used to close a mortal wound. Fine engravings spiral along the shaft, depicting hands passing a cup, a cloak, and a loaf of bread from one person to another.

Mend the Living As an action, you can touch a living creature and expend 1 charge to stitch its wounds closed. The creature regains 2d8 + 2 hit points. This property has no effect on constructs or undead. If the target is unconscious at 0 hit points, it becomes stable and regains the hit points instead.

Stitch Against the End When a creature you can see within 5 feet of you would be reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can use your reaction and expend 2 charges to leave that creature at 1 hit point instead. The creature cannot benefit from this property again until the next dawn.

The Needle's Due When you attune to the needle, it presents you with a small, specific obligation chosen by the DM, such as delivering a message, repairing a garment for someone in need, or tending a wounded stranger. The task must be achievable within 7 days, require no more than a day's work, and not demand certain death or an evil act. Until you complete the obligation, the needle's magical properties are dormant. Each time you use Mend the Living, you also incur a new obligation to perform a meaningful act that directly aids a creature in genuine need before the next dawn. If you fail to fulfill such an obligation, the needle's magical properties become dormant until you do so. An obligation cannot be removed by simply ending attunement.

Threadbare Mercy The needle can pass through flesh without causing injury, and wounds closed by it leave only a thin, silvery scar that fades after 24 hours. You have advantage on Wisdom (Medicine) checks made to treat injuries while holding the needle.

Lore

The needle is said to have been made by an elderly midwife who could not bear to watch soldiers die on her doorstep. She begged the goddess of mercy for more time, and received a needle fashioned from the minute hand of a broken celestial clock. The goddess granted her request, but demanded that every life prolonged become a promise to aid another. The midwife accepted, and for forty years the needle traveled from battlefield to plague house, always leaving its bearer with one more kindness to perform.

History

After the midwife's death, the needle passed through the hands of healers, tailors, undertakers, and thieves. A famous thief once used it to save the life of a guard he had stabbed, only to spend the next decade secretly repairing the guard's impoverished village roof by roof. The needle disappeared when its last known bearer sailed into a storm to deliver medicine to an island struck by fever. Some claim the vessel survived, though no map records the island.

Created by Frazer 👁 2 views

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Lore

History

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