The Redwood Effigy

A man-shaped redwood root wrapped in stained cloth, the effigy is bound to its maker's own flesh and soul, fashioned by their hand alone — and no one ever makes more than one. While carried, it can be made to take a wound meant for the bearer, the injury recorded upon its wooden body in place of living flesh.

Fed the blood of another, the stored suffering can be turned outward and inflicted upon an enemy, and deeper rites let the bearer sense, speak, and work magic through the effigy as through a second self. But the bond cuts both ways. The more harm passes through it, the more the maker's blood runs like sap and their heart slows toward wood, until destroying the effigy means suffering everything it ever held, all at once.

Tags · magical

When you suffer physical harm while carrying the effigy, spend Conduit so the effigy suffers the harm in your place. Record the injury, HP, and debilities on the effigy; if it is destroyed, you suffer all stored harm at once. After enough marks, Suffering Unleashed lets you feed the effigy another’s blood and send one stored harm into that target with +CON. Later mysteries can deepen the conduit, let the effigy clear marks on a 12+, or let you sense, speak, and work magic through it, while consequences make the bond harder to control and harder to survive.