User:
JinxedBear
DCI:
Character:
Jorlan Duskryn
Name:
Chitin of the Half-Bound
Rarity:
uncommon
Location:
Table:
Result:
Included in Count?:
true
Source:
Notes:
Eldritch Claw Tattoo, Wondrous Item (tattoo), uncommon (requires attunement)
Appearance
Dark, chitin-like lines radiate from the upper spine across the shoulders and down along the back, branching outward in fractured patterns.
The tattoo does not appear inked — it looks grown.
Beneath the skin, the surface resembles cracked, blackened chitin, threaded with faint, ember-like veins that glow dimly within the fractures. The pattern is uneven and incomplete, as if something beneath it once tried to emerge but was forcibly halted.
When activated, the lines pulse with deep violet-black energy, and the fractures spread outward across the body — crawling over the shoulders, arms, and torso like living cracks.
From these fractures, thin, shadowy strands — like strands of silk woven from darkness — lash outward, briefly forming fragmented, chitinous extensions before snapping back into the body.
The pattern subtly tightens and shifts when the wearer is tense — almost as if restraining something beneath the surface.
The tattoo’s texture and tone occasionally shift in subtle ways when exposed to strong emotion or shifting light, though this has no effect on its function.
Tattoo Attunement
To attune to this item, you hold the needle to your skin where you want the tattoo to appear, pressing the needle there throughout the attunement process.
When the attunement is complete, the needle turns into the ink that becomes the tattoo, which appears on the skin.
If your attunement to the tattoo ends, the tattoo vanishes, and the needle reappears in your space.
Magical Strikes
While the tattoo is on your skin, your unarmed strikes are considered magical for the purpose of overcoming immunity and resistance to nonmagical attacks, and you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls with unarmed strikes.
Eldritch Maul
As a bonus action, you can empower the tattoo for 1 minute.
For the duration, each of your melee attacks with a weapon or an unarmed strike can reach a target up to 15 feet away, as shadowed, silk-like extensions erupt from the chitinous fractures, striking distant targets in your stead.
These extensions momentarily solidify into jagged, incomplete limb-like forms, resembling fragments of something that never fully manifested.
In addition, your melee attacks deal an extra 1d6 force damage on a hit.
Once used, this bonus action can't be used again until the next dawn.
Minor Property: Painful
You feel a persistent, underlying pain while bearing this tattoo.
The sensation manifests as a dull, burning pressure beneath the skin, centered around the chitin-like fractures. The discomfort intensifies with stress, movement, or emotional strain.
When the tattoo is activated, the pain sharpens — the fractures feel as though they are pulling apart from within, forcing unseen energy outward through the body.
This pain does not impose mechanical penalties, but it is constant and cannot be ignored.