Cushioning Bladder

Ultimate Equipment Guide II

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

Through his long, ill-fated years as an adventurer, Madrion learned that falling damage does more than give one broken bones and a bad back. Decades later, he still looks pained when he recounts the time he and his companions were hired by a group of monks to retrieve an ancient crystal statuette from the depths of the monks‘ old mountaintop monastery that had become overrun with Ghouls. After a terrifying descent into the monastery’s catacombs, in which one of his companions lost his life, Madrion and his comrades succeeded in locating the statuette. They finally won their way free of the monastery, and were fleeing from the pursuing claws of the hungry Ghouls, when Madrion slipped on a treacherous trail and fell some 30 feet to the ground below. The crystal statuette, lying loose inside a small box, was shattered by the fall. Madrion’s companions abandoned him after that, and he set his thoughts to a way to prevent such a disaster from occurring again.

The cushioning bladder is the fruit of his efforts. Constructed of specially treated sheep and goat bladders, the cushioning bladder feels to the touch like the finest in kid leather. However, the treatment Madrion gives the bladders makes them almost elastic. When coated with a layer of rubber obtained from Rolo at Treasures from Afar, the cushioning bladder becomes, essentially, an airtight balloon. When deflated, it is about the size of a dinner plate, but can be inflated (by breathing into a nozzle at one end) into a misshapen sphere nearly three feet across. When placed into a chest or other rigid container and inflated, the cushioning bladder holds all loose objects in the chest in place, preventing them from rattling back and forth and damaging themselves, even under extreme shock.

Used correctly, a cushioning bladder completely eliminates the damage done to objects from a fall of up to 20 feet, and halves any damage taken after 20 feet. This benefit applies only to objects stored in a container featuring a cushioning bladder.

Cushioning Bladder: 15 gp; 1 lb.