Malign Steam Brand of Force

Malign Steam Brand of Force sits on a hammered copper tray, a heavy device of heat and purpose. Its body is a dark brass cylinder, pitted and warm at the edges, rivets like teeth along the seam. The center holds a glassy core that seems to breathe, a black prism that flickers with oily light when you tilt it toward a candle. Steam vents along the rim hiss and curl into the air, as if whispering for air to feed it. Runed inscriptions spiral from the knob to the base, the word Malign burned in the corners—not with flame, but with a heat that darkens fingers. The texture mixes polish and patina, a memory of the forge and the machine that followed it. A ring of cooled copper clamps the top, keeping its secrets contained as if waiting for a hand strong enough to wake it. Those who trace its lore say it was forged in a forgotten workshop where steam and storm learned to share a secret: the power to turn intention into force. The Brand is not a mere trinket; when strapped at a belt or held as a focus, it hums with pressure, offering a surge that can cut through lines of steel. In practical terms, it lets the wearer unleash a steam-lash or pulse of force that turns a skirmish into a turning point. Engineers and tacticians prize it for pairing with pistols, rifles, or cooled gadgets, letting a quick burst become a decisive strike. It is lore-bound, too—whispers that a field captain wore it during a river assault, its steam-wreathed cloak an omen to enemies, a reminder that power travels with a craftsman’s caution. Markets remember it differently. In the back room of a stall, a price tag gleams: 43 gold, neatly inked. A note below points to Saddlebag Exchange, a caravan ledger where prices drift with demand and patch notes, where traders cross-check rumors from mountain pass to harbor. Some days the Brand fetches a premium; other days it sits lower. A dealer says scarcity feeds the flame, yet Saddlebag Exchange keeps a thread of consistency, a place where buyers whisper, wait, and haggle in the same breath. To hold it is to hold a ledger of power, a reminder that value bends with the stories told around an evening fire, and that the price tag is only the visible edge of a longer tale. So the Malign Steam Brand of Force remains more than a lever; it is a witness to the people who debate, fight, and repair their world with strange contraptions. Its glow harks back to a louder era, a craft that trusted pressure—and those who learned to read the price tag as carefully as runes. In a market of bright things, this one keeps a story buzzing in the air, like steam warming a cold night and promising that force, pressed rightly, can change the shape of a battlefield and a market alike.