Skinseal

Ultimate Equipment Guide II

Author Greg Lynch, J. C. Alvarez
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2005

Sold in small glass jars, skinseal is a translucent, gummy liquid with a faint grey colour. When applied to the skin, it forms into a clear covering with all the elasticity and flexibility of skin. Skinseal is spread so thinly on the skin that it is absolutely invisible once it is applied. Skinseal provides no bonuses whatsoever to armour class or saving throws, nor does it impart any sort of resistance or damage reduction to the user. In fact, skinseal serves only one purpose, though it does that very well. The coating skinseal forms on the skin is absolutely impermeable by any kind of disease or poison. Obviously, skinseal is only effective against contact poisons, as all other kinds (ingested, inhaled, injury) bypass the skin in some way.

Skinseal was initially created by a man named Ferthis Trakan, a friend of Tathiela’s mother and an acclaimed physician who spent much of his life working with the sick, attempting to find new methods of treating some of the world’s most deadly diseases. Far less well known than his efforts to help the sick were his efforts to understand the full extent of the effects disease had on the human body, a goal that led him to perform hundreds, even thousands, of autopsies. Rightly concerned about placing his hands into the body of a person who had perished from some ghastly plague, Ferthis created skinseal to protect himself.

Though skinseal was created by someone whose Profession was to save lives, it has recently become popular amongst people whose business is to take lives. Though Tathiela is not yet aware of this, a number of female assassins have begun to purchase skinseal for use in their trade. They apply the skinseal to their lips, then apply a coating of contact poison over the skinseal, protecting themselves but delivering a potent dose of poison to anyone on whom they bestow a kiss.

A jar of skinseal is enough to completely cover one hand of a Medium-sized creature. Skinseal lasts only one hour before the thin coating it creates peels away from the skin, and this short duration is the only thing that keeps hundreds of adventurers from literally coating themselves with skinseal from head to toe.

Skinseal (one jar): 40gp; 1 lb.