A Tae Nijong is nothing more complex than a severed hand - usually from a Troll or other strong humanoid - attached to a long rope or chain with a handle on the other end. The rope is usually about 10 to 20 feet long, though some can reach up to 50 feet. Due to the nature of the item, each specific case varies in appearance, some using Troll claws and strong twine, others with Ogre hands and thick chain, and a few - the most expensive - with Dragon claws and magically extending ropes.

The inventor of the Tae Nijong, a clever but somewhat neurotic young Jutan enchanter by the name of Taiwoo Kin, first conceived the idea after an unsettling nightmare, in which he was chased across a massive bridge over nothingness by a million severed hands. Remembering how the hands scuttled disconcertingly up the vertical supports of the bridge, Kin borrowed a scrap monkey paw from the local butcher and set to work making it move.

The tale of Kin’s tribulations is recounted in full in the infamous The Tale of Taewoo Kin, but the eventual outcome of his experimentation was a magically animated hand, bewitched to go where its owner commands and fasten itself tightly, enabling the user to climb tricky obstacles or obtain normally unreachable objects.

Magical Properties:

The Tae Nijong is bewitched so that the hand portion of it is capable of basic thought and magically enabled sight (so actual visual receptors are not necessary). When one wishes to climb an obstacle, one simply notifies the hand of the exact location one wants it to secure itself to, and give it a toss in the general direction of the intended target.

The hand will then do its best to reach the intended destination, crawling along walls or up cliff edges, and will secure itself by grasping onto the target and testing its hold. If the hold is too weak, the hand will make a cursory attempt to find another one in the vicinity and, failing that, return to its owner if possible for another toss.

The Tae Nijong can also be used in combat to attach onto enemies from a distance, or just to give them a good beating and scratching without risk of personal harm. There are forms of Tae Nijong that are made specifically for combat, but these are often simply metal claws without magical powers, as they are cheaper, easier to wield and less fragile.

Some adventurers are a little nervous about traveling around with a magically animated claw in their packs, and so decide to keep the Tae Nijong tightly bound with leather straps or similar restraints. However, this often leads to a mistrust and belligerence from the severed hand, not a helpful trait in an item meant to protect its owners from falling to their deaths.

Other adventurers are rather nervous about trusting their fates to a disembodied hand in the first place. Such types need not acquire one.

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