Boots of the Mountain
Also known as: Mountain Boots
Hewn from the hide of a Talamhari stone-wyrm and stitched with veins of living granite thread, these broad, iron-buckled boots carry the deep pulse of the Iron Mountains in every sole. To wear them is to feel the mountain's will beneath your feet, each step lands with uncanny certainty, as though the rock itself reaches up to steady the wearer.
Artifact Details
- Type
- Clothing
- Rarity
- Rare
- Origin
- The Boots of the Mountain were crafted deep within the Forgehalls of Keth Durazan by the master cobbler-runewright Borgha Stonevein, a Dwarf of the Iron Mountains renowned for weaving living stone into leather and hide. Borgha fashioned them at the commission of the Talamhari Earth-wardens, who sought a gift worthy of a Dwarven champion tasked with patrolling the sheer ridgelines where the Iron Mountains border Talamhari sacred ground.
Overview
Boots of the Mountain is a rare clothing in Landorya. Its known origin is The Boots of the Mountain were crafted deep within the Forgehalls of Keth Durazan by the master cobbler-runewright Borgha Stonevein, a Dwarf of the Iron Mountains renowned for weaving living stone into leather and hide. Borgha fashioned them at the commission of the Talamhari Earth-wardens, who sought a gift worthy of a Dwarven champion tasked with patrolling the sheer ridgelines where the Iron Mountains border Talamhari sacred ground.. Its most cited abilities include The wearer cannot slip, stumble, or be knocked prone on natural stone or mountainous terrain, no matter the incline or ice., Climbing speed is doubled; sheer cliff faces and overhanging rock yield as easily as a gentle slope., and The boots grant tremorsense through stone, the wearer feels vibrations up to 30 feet through rock, alerting them to creatures, rockslides, or hollow chambers.. Accounts also warn of a drawback: The boots slowly attune the wearer to stone over prolonged use, after a month of continuous wearing, the wearer begins to feel acute discomfort and existential…
History
For two generations the boots were worn by the Dwarven ridge-warden Durrek Ashmantle, who used them to repel three Orc raiding columns attempting to funnel through the Greyspine Pass, a feat still sung in the ale-halls of Keth Durazan as the Vigil of Ashmantle. After Durrek's death at the Siege of the Ember Shelf, the boots were carried as a relic-prize by an Orc warlord of the Bloodridge Clan, only to be stolen within a season by a Halfling rogue-merchant named Pell Whistlefoot, who sold them quietly at the markets of the Shimmering Isles. They passed through the hands of a Desert Scholar cartographer who used them to map the sun-scarred summits of the Sphinx Peaks, and vanished when his expedition was ambushed by territorial Sphinxes near the Ridge of Unasked Questions. Most Dwarven lore-keepers believe them still lost somewhere in those sunbaked heights, wedged in a cairn the Sphinxes have never deigned to open.
Powers & Abilities
- ✦ The wearer cannot slip, stumble, or be knocked prone on natural stone or mountainous terrain, no matter the incline or ice.
- ✦ Climbing speed is doubled; sheer cliff faces and overhanging rock yield as easily as a gentle slope.
- ✦ The boots grant tremorsense through stone, the wearer feels vibrations up to 30 feet through rock, alerting them to creatures, rockslides, or hollow chambers.
- ✦ Weight distribution is supernaturally perfect: the wearer leaves no tracks on stone and triggers no pressure-based traps set into rock floors.
- ✦ Once per day, the wearer may call upon the mountain's endurance, shrugging off exhaustion from physical exertion for up to one hour.
Curse or Drawback
The boots slowly attune the wearer to stone over prolonged use, after a month of continuous wearing, the wearer begins to feel acute discomfort and existential unease on soil, sand, or wood, suffering mounting restlessness and poor sleep whenever they are far from rock. After three months, they find it nearly impossible to willingly remove the boots without a Talamhari earth-blessing to break the bond.