Berserker's Soft Wood Focus of Rage

Berserker's Soft Wood Focus of Rage rests in the palm like a seed of storm, its surface the pale warmth of soft wood pressed to the skin, smooth as a whispered secret. The grain coils in tight spirals, a map of years told by growth rings, and the edges are rounded enough to kiss a thumb’s calloused pad. A slender horn of brass threads through the base, catching the light with a dull, stubborn gleam, while a line of runes—carved with the patience of a master—stitches along the sides. When you cradle it, the wood seems to hum softly, as if the tree itself breathes in time with your pulse, and a tiny ember of red-flecked glass glows faintly at its core, like a heartbeat kept under lacquered skin. Lore threads through its grain as if the focus were a captured memory. It’s said to be carved by a berserker who rode the edge of a battlefield, the wood drawn from a sacred tree that grew where the roar of war shook the earth. The keeper who fashioned it believed rage to be a living thing, a companion that could be taught to listen rather than howl. So the focus was shaped to cradle that wildness, to channel it into precise, lethal purpose rather than reckless thunder. The result is a tool that feels both ancient and intimate—a physical story of what happens when fury meets craft. In the hands of a careful wielder, the focus becomes more than a fetish of beauty. In combat the Berserker's Soft Wood Focus of Rage acts as a conduit for raw momentum. It breathes with Power and Ferocity, sharpening the user’s hits and letting critical strikes land with brighter impact. The wood’s warmth translates into a subtle increase in weapon-attuned tempo, a cadence that mirrors a heart racing toward a break point. On crits, the crimson eye within the core flares, a brief halo of energy that seems to grant the user a touch more speed, a touch more edge, a momentary wideness in the world where every blow lands just a hair harder. It’s the kind of focus that makes a berserker feel trained by the wind itself, not merely wielded by muscle. Market rumors give the story texture. In the crowded entries of Saddlebag Exchange, a few traders remember seeing a soft-wood focus like this, its price skimming through the mid-range of riches and risk. The tag on one example drifted between four and eight gold coins, depending on the day, the glimmer in the seller’s eye, and how many scarlet runes hummed beneath the seller’s breath. It’s the sort of possession that tests a fighter’s judgment: do you trust the lore and the glow, or the coin’s weight in your palm? Either way, the item remains a quiet hinge in a larger world where a single focus can tilt a battle’s axis and a life’s direction. So the Berserker's Soft Wood Focus of Rage continues its quiet work, sitting there in the dusk of a camp, or tucked into a saddlebag on a wary journey. It is a reminder that rage, when tempered by craft and kept within a careful hand, can become a companion rather than a catastrophe—a piece of wood that carries the story of a thousand storms, waiting for the moment to flare.