Carrion Reinforced Scale Coat of the Afflicted

Carrion Reinforced Scale Coat of the Afflicted spreads across the table, a chest piece of swollen plates and weathered scales catching the lamplight with a dull iron gleam. The leather backing is peat-dark brown, stitched with copper thread that glints where the scales shift under your fingers. The collar rises like a ribbed edge, and along the shoulders the plates layer in tight crescent arcs, as if armor learned to creep along the body rather than shout its presence. On the breast you can just make out the sigil—a pair of lanterns flaking with ash, cradling a small skeletal silhouette—the mark of the Afflicted clade and the care with which its bearer was kept in plague-black times. The whole thing carries a faint resin-tang scent, a reminder of the oils used to seal carrion against rot, a scent that whispers of losses endured and the small bargains made to survive. This coat is not merely armor; it is a chapter from a longer grim story. The reinforcements are not only added strength but an echo of the pedlars who traded in fear. Forgers from the ruined temple-quarter would temper the scales with a resin borrowed from the ash-tree, then stamp it with wards meant to resist the creeping plague of the Afflicted. When worn, the piece hums with a quiet persistence, a sense that the wearer bears more than weight—a responsibility to stand between the living and the rot they chase away. In battle, it catches glints of sun and murmurs of shadow, offering sturdy protection while letting the wearer move with a surprising ease for something so plated. Its weight sits like a measured pause between clash and step, allowing an agile escort of daggers and dawn strikes to slip in beneath its guard. In gameplay terms, its value comes not just from raw defense but from the way it sustains a front-line stance while weaving in synergy with condition-focused play. The Carrion Reinforced Scale Coat of the Afflicted benefits those who toggle between offense and endurance, offering durability against decay-inducing conditions and a latent life-leech that matters when you steel yourself for longer skirmishes. It invites necromancer and guardian builds alike to think about how to chain protection with damage over time, how to turn an enemy’s corruption into your own resilience, and how the lore of the afflicted becomes a running thread through every map you traverse. Markets always tell a truth you won’t hear in a workshop, and the Saddlebag Exchange is a case in point. When a buyer haggles the price of this coat, the vendor's chalked tag—torn yet legible—makes a little show of its age: roughly six gold, with bargaining room for someone who speaks the language of rations and remnant silver. The exchange hums with the same quiet intensity as the coat itself, a reminder that these relics travel far beyond their smithies, through caravans and stories, and into the hands of those who need them most. And so it travels, from forge to field, a relic weighing more than metal, a story stitched into every seam the moment the Afflicted’s shadow curls around your shoulders.