Berserker's Sneakthief Shoulderguards of the Citadel

Berserker's Sneakthief Shoulderguards of the Citadel rise from the crate like a rumor made solid: charcoal leather etched with a sheen of oil where the light hits, steel plates that peep out at the seams with a tempered, almost oily luster, and a crest of the Citadel stamped along the left paulron in a careful swirl of iron ink. The texture is a tactile memory—gritty, weathered, the kind that smells faintly of workshop fires and old leather, as if you could trace years of midnight footprints along the grooves. The right shoulder bears a narrow pocket seam, a sly feature that hints at a use beyond simple protection, a whisper of a hidden purpose waiting for the wearer to listen. The combination of brutal form and delicate craft gives the piece a paradox that feels almost ceremonial, like a badge one earns by mastering both violence and quiet. Two threads braid through its design—the Berserker’s raw, charge-forward promise and the Sneakthief’s patient, shadowed craft. Legends say the shoulders were forged for a rogue who slipped through the Citadel’s halls on a moon-dark night, gathering secrets and leaving only a chill in his wake. They say the pieces learned the weight of a guard’s gaze and turned it to fog at a moment of need. In that lore, the Citadel is more than a fortress; it’s a memory palace where every creak of timber, every glint of metal, and every whispered oath is a test to see whether you move with speed, or with purpose, or with both at once. When you wear them, you feel that tension between a battering ram and a whisper—the kind of duality that makes a character feel like a chapter in a larger, unfolding story rather than a static set of stats. In gameplay terms, these shoulderguards are prized for their ability to bridge offense with stealthy intent. They’re not merely about Power and Precision; they carry an identity that suits Berserker-focused builds while nodding toward Sneakthief play—the kind of hybrid edge that lets you strike hard and reposition with a sly, shadowed grace. In the right hands, a crit can spark a brief shimmer of stealth, a fleeting cloak that lets you slip a second time into the fray, or into the cover of a chest-high alcove as a cooldown ticks away. They invite you to choreograph a fight as if you’re composing a duet with danger: a roar of a swing followed by the softest step behind a pillar, a calculated breath, and another strike. Markets never forget a piece of lore like this. In the bustling corridors near the harbor, traders speak of the Saddlebag Exchange, where rare finds and rarer prices exchange hands with a clink and a sigh. A recent listing priced the Berserker's Sneakthief Shoulderguards at a premium, a testament to scarcity and demand, yet the negotiators at Saddlebag Exchange always find a way to read a buyer’s hunger in the fork of a silver between two fingers. Some say the price reflects the weight of what the Citadel itself once trusted the wearer to carry—secrets, bravado, and a way to walk through fear as if it were only another shadow on the wall. So the Shoulderguards remain more than metal and stitch; they’re a doorway—a reminder that power, when worn with a patient, quiet hand, can reshape the way a story moves.