Yokewood of the Sea of Stars ( A to Z, Y)

Yokewood is only found in four groves and it thrives nowhere else, these groves were once holy sites to the God of Slavery, three of them are part of the Imperial demesne and the fourth lies in the Dark Star Dominion.  The yokewood tree does not grow straight but curved and twisted, forming natural yokes and pillories, and it is easily shaped.

It is used to bind and restrain, the wood grows back together, forming cuffs, bars for cages or doors,or other restrains as needed.  Yokewood draws strength from those it binds making it harder to break, the stronger the person being restrained, the more unyielding the yokewood.

Used as manacles, they are treated as masterwork, as bars, they are treated as iron, as other binding, as chains.  Their hardness and break DC is increased by half the Strength modifier (rounded up, minimum 1) of whoever is trying to attack or break them.  Yokewood’s hardness is increased by 5 against most energy attacks and by 10 against cold and electrical attacks.

A magical key, also made of yokewood, and the right gesture and word (or phrase) is required and the person using the magical key cannot be a slave, if they have accepted that status for them-self, the key will not function for them (unsurprisingly, the God of Slavers was cruel and cautious).

Cost: Manacles, 1,200.  Bars, 2,000 for a 5×5 area.  “Chains” 800 for 10′

For D&D 5E:

First, second and fourth paragraph as above.

Used as manacles, they are treated as metal, as bars, they are treated as iron, as other binding, as chains.  Their armor class is 17 and a Damage Threshold of 7, both of which is increased by half the Strength modifier (rounded up, minimum 1) of whoever is trying to attack or break them.  Yokewood’s resistance to all energy attacks.

Notes: From a suggestion from my wife.  Y is a difficult letter too.

Photo “squirly” by joysaphine is licensed under CC by-nc 2.0