Crafting Motif 31: Skinchanger Style

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By Uraccanach the Witchman

Would you live among the wild of the northern woods, and perhaps be wild yourself? Would you worship Hircine in his aspects of Alrabeg the Hunter, or Storihbeg the Skinchanger? Would you seek for the Beast Within, so it may be released to seek its blood prey? Then let your arms and armor bespeak these things of you, for at times your speech may be naught more than a growl. Hearken, Manbeast:

AXES

Woodsman you may have been, but though you bear an axe, you are woodsman no more. For you shall turn your axe from hewing wood to spilling blood. Broad shall be the fore-blade, and narrow the hind, but the hind-blade shall sport three claws, that you may scrape the mark of the beast into the flesh of your prey.

BELTS

You shall make your belt from the hide of your prey, tan it and tool it and bedeck it with teeth, so all shall know that you fear no bite. And your belt shall be broad, and from it shall depend tassets of thick hide, the better to protect your midsection when the prey turns at bay.

BOOTS

Your boots shall be of tanned hide, thick and well-oiled, for you will hunt your prey up streams and through swamps. Take care the soles are thick and be-ridged, for you must be sure of foot when the surface is uncertain. Even the best hunters fall to their prey when they slip and stumble.

BOWS

Your bow shall be of heartwood and antler, for to shoot true in the forest, the archer's tools must be of the forest. The limbs of your bow shall be clawed, like the limbs of your prey, for like calls to like. And your quiver shall show the face of a beast.

CHEST PIECES

Your cuirass shall be many-layered and tough, and the breastplate shall be a beastplate, with the glaring eyes and wrinkled nose of a predator hard on the trail of its prey. And this is not strange, for beneath your cuirass beats the heart of a hunter, pumping the blood of a beast.

DAGGERS

You shall bear a dirk like a long, curved claw, a steel talon with which to gut your prey and skin its hide. It shall be deadly, yet simple and unadorned, for does the bear paint its claws, or the falcon gild its talons? They do not. So say I, and who shall contradict me?

GLOVES

Your gauntlets shall be a mighty protection for your forearms, for the biting beasts will try to grip your forelimbs with their fangs and wrestle you to their level, and you must deny them this. Stud your gauntlet backs with metal spikes to give them fangs of their own, but leave the fingers free, nimble to grasp for arrows or dirk.

HELMETS

When the beasts look upon you, they will see another beast looking back, for your helm shall be a wolf's-head of steel. And this is as Storihbeg would have it, for the Manbeast within shall manifest without, and the hunter shall be exalted.

LEG GREAVES

To protect your legs your greaves shall be of the densest hide, and they shall be studded with metal rivets, that they may turn the fangs of serpents and blunt the tusks of boars. For while you are Beast you are also Man, and must stay upright except when in form most feral.

MACES

Your mace shall be heavy and spiked, like the fist of a kwama warrior, but you shall strike twice as hard with it, for you are at once both Beast and Man, and none who are of single nature shall stand before you.

SHIELDS

The beast-face on your chest and your helm shall be repeated on your shield, of great size and feral aspect, so as to strike fear into your enemies from a distance. Then you may smite them from afar, or close and savage them by hand, as best suits your way of doing honor to Hircine.

SHOULDER ARMOR

Your pauldrons shall be as you will, whether metal, leather, or fur, so long as they are strong and solid to turn both blows and fangs. For your shoulder is anchor to the arm that brings your weapon down upon your prey.

STAVES

Every spell you cast from your staff shall do honor unto Lord Hircine, in both his Princely form and in his aspect as Alrabeg. For your staff shall be crowned with antlers like unto the Lord of the Hunt, and your spells shall emit therefrom. This is the way, and no other!

SWORDS

Your sword shall be long and curved, a great talon to extend the reach of your mighty arm, and it shall have an edge that shall slash like the tusks of a great boar. But it shall end in a point, for when your prey has finished fighting for its life, you shall take that life quickly and cleanly with a thrust to the heart. See to it.