Daemonbone Mail
Ancient-looking, yellowed bone, slashed with streak of dry black ichor, forms the core material of this loathsome armor.
"We were on the verge of breaking in the face of the daemonic assault, a handful of the loathsome monsters steadily depleting two full companies of the Legion, when the man in daemonbone mail showed himself. The tide turned almost instantly; when he came charging to the front of the battle, the men rallied around him simply from the sight of his courage, and the daemons recoiled in terror as he struck at them. Thanks to him, we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, and several of the men swore to follow him when he left to hunt down the one that had fled without escaping back into the portal to their realms."
-Sgt Cassfeld
Full Item Description
Daemonbone mail is, as the name suggests, crafted from the bones of creatures from the bleak pits of the infernal realms; the bones, even when fresh, is ancient-looking, yellowed and perpetually crumbling at the edges. Black, foul-smelling ichor stains each yellowed link, reeking fiercely even when dry with the sulfurous smell of the infernal. When the links rub together, they emit a whispering, mournful sound, as if somehow the spirit of the daemon is trapped within them.
History
None know who crafted the first suit of daemonbone mail; some say it was a powerful sorcerer who sought to show his mastery over the denizens of the lower realms. Others feel it was a righteous crusader, showing his scorn for his foes. Regardless, the suits of mail have been crafted time and again from the bones of unwilling daemons, and there are those who covet the fearsome reputation bestowed by ownership of such armor, even if they cannot make one themselves.
Magic/Cursed Properties
While not exactly magical, certain properties pertain to the mail by virtue of its origins.
-Wearers of the mail have some protection from fire, the links absorbing it without burning; this does not prevent the flames from licking through the gaps of the links, or searing exposed body parts.
-The horrid smell of the mail is extremely unsettling to animals, and merely approaching within a few hundred years upwind of one will send it into a panic.
-Daemonbone, for all that it looks crumbling and ruined, is phenomenally strong, easily matching a comparative suit of fine steel.
Other properties exist as well, distinct from those imbued in the mail's substance.
-Daemons will tend to react in utter terror of anyone wearing a suit of this; the connotation of owning it is that the wearer crafted it himself from a slain daemon, and could do so again if he so chose.
-Mortals who know of the armor's origins will also tend to regard the wearer as a force to be reckoned with, even if such is a falsehood. Daemons are fearsome enough combatants that being able to defeat one and make armor of it is a feat worthy of respect.
-A sense of the miasma of fear, hatred, and despair that pervades the infernal realms will cling to the wearer even after the mail is removed, making him seem more threatening and powerful. Over time, this may begin to actually twist the wearer's personality.
Plot Hooks
-An audacious thief has stolen a suit of the mail from the man who personally slew a daemon to harvest the bones; the former owner is now in a furious rage, and ready to rampage therough the lower city to find his armor again. Can the PCs find it and return it before a bloodbath ensues?
-In an ancient crypt, the PCs find a foul-smelling suit of yellowed bone; on returning to civilization with it, thinking it a curio, rumors begin to spread that they slew a daemon to harvest the monster's bones. How do the PCs handle the misperception and sudden fame?
-A particularly arrogant daemon has come to the mortal realm, hunting down the person who slew his brother; he mistakes someone who has inherited a suit of the mail for the killer, and is coming for the unfortunate, who knows nothing of combat. The PCs may be hired as guards, or to deflect the daemon toward the real killer.
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? Responses (12)
I saw a 'Mail of the Dead' in the random submissions, and figured I could do better for a hellspawned armor than that. Largely a spur of the moment creation.
Edit: Also added a few plot hooks.
Useful to wear if going to a hellish realm. What happens if someone is buried wearing it? Does the ghost have ghostly armour?
Depends on your setting. The armor itself wouldn't have any such effect, I'd say, unless it'd been enchanted that way or had enough importance to the deceased for their ghost to have an echo of it. This isn't really a magical armor; the properties are all side effects of the bone, the daemon realm, or the knowledge of how much power it takes to defeat a proper daemon and rip the creature's bones out.
Nice, and I would think that the demons would be right, anyone who can kill a demon and make armor out of his corpse should rightly be feared. I would also expect that so long as the armor is worn, the wearer would be unable to enter holy places, or be healed by clerical magic. There would be downsides to wearing a processed demon shell as armor.
Well, you could, but I wanted this to basically be a thing where the major value of it was psychological. If it were me, it'd be no more likely to stop you from walking into a holy place or being touched by divine magic than wearing any other bones as armor.
And yes, being the original creator and wearer of such a suit of armor is a sign of impressive might; unfortunately, they can also be inherited and stolen the same as any other armor, so the owner might not live up to the reputation. I imagine a few suits might be laying around Kuramen from back during the mythic age, but you don't get heroes and villains of that caliber anymore. Now it's pretty much normal folk in a dangerous world, without much of anyone who could take on a daemon. Personally, at least. But that's what thaumatechnological weaponry is for. I expect even a daemon might be a bit nonplussed if some madman with a Dirge Mace or a C-47 came at it.
The thing to remember, not just with thaumatech, is that any innately magical being is going to have some sort of natural anti-magic defenses, to say nothing of knowing counter-magic of their own. Rare is the daemon that doesn't know at least a bit of the magical arts, and most would tend to be able to take a full wizard in a fight. There's a good reason daemon summoning is frowned upon. Thaumatech weaponry would take a bit for them to get used to, but I wouldn't say it'd make fighting daemons a field day.
This is true - but then in the heroic age you'd have a party of Heroes facing the daemon down. In the steampunk age, you've got guard regiments all armed with the most potent thaumatechnological weapons they can muster to deal with even one of the creatures. There will be significant casualties, but if you can field enough soldiers with even a bit of firepower, they'll wear it down until it retreats or is slain. Thaumatechnologically equipped soldiers, thaumaturges each fielding their specialties, and even a daemon is likely to notice when a cannon shell etched with puissant runes slams into it from a steam-tank.
So yes, it wouldn't make it a field day; one man would likely be akin to a flea with a nastily sharp bite, but more like it's an organized army of fleas all leaping and biting together. Enough to certainly give the creature pause.
Bone armor in general seems to get glossed over when adventurers wear it. I would think that even though it's a show of power to some people, wearing such armor would simply frighten the general populace. "Look at that one; see those bones he wears? Only daemon-sworn wear armor like that." Heaven knows the common people like to tell stories, and how hard is it to move from daemon-slayer to daemon-collaborator?
Depends on the world, more than anything else. The armor already carries the psychic miasma of the daemon realms, so daemon-slayers would tend to be ill-trusted anyhow; powerful enough to kill a daemon, but shrouded in this psychic veil of hate and despair. Would you trust someone like that, really? Adventurers already tend to be the kind of filthy, greedy tomb robbers who'll do just about anything, and you don't need whispers of daemonic collaboration to make someone who wears their bones reviled and distrusted.
Still, nice come uppance on the Daemons. Nearly allways Mortals are exploited by Outsiders, this is a nice turn of the table on the Daemons.
One thing I appreciated from the previous editions of D&D was the demon/daemon/devil division. Demons were creatures of raw emotion; passionate evil, destruction with a focus. Devils were methodical evil; lawyers and bargainers, planning to dominate the world, one soul at a time, by the plan. Daemons... Daemons were essential evil, amoral and uncaring. They always struck me as the 'evil' most likely to mirror the dark side of sapience - the most distilled and pure form of evil. A devil can be outwitted, a demon stymied by presenting it something it can't destroy. A daemon can't; if you outwit it, it has another plan - even if that plan is screaming in rage and rendering you limb from limb. If you overpower it, it has allies on retainer to swoop in and rescue it. To defeat a daemon takes much more than a demon or devil requires.
And so daemonbone mail is rare, and a thing that frightens even the most jaded daemon when they meet someone wearing it; there is one of their kin, who was overcome. What kind of unimaginable cunning and power mus
This is neat, though how one would fashion mail from bone without heavy magic escapes me. Plates, sure.