[Wrap] Band of Borrowed Breath

This enchanted wrap preserves life when death would otherwise claim it, but those who rely on it too often are marked by the tide. This thick bandage is woven from preserved sea-kelp and coarse twine, cool and faintly damp to the touch. When coiled, it resembles a bundle of shoreline kelp prepared for storage, carrying a persistent scent of brine and raw fish. When unrolled, the strands subtly tighten and flex in response to pressure, as though reacting to breath and pulse rather than movement.

When dormant, the wrap appears dry and lifeless. When its magic is active, its surface darkens and takes on a faint sheen, like kelp drawn fresh from deep water.

Restorative Binding

As an action, you can expend 1 charge to use the wrap in one of the following ways:

• Applied Binding.
  Wrap the bandage around yourself or a creature you can touch. The target regains 4d6 + your spellcasting modifier hit points (or +3 if you have no spellcasting modifier).

• Ingested Binding.
  A creature can swallow a portion of the wrap, immediately ending one poison effect affecting it.

• Curse Substitution (Optional).
  At the DM’s discretion, instead of ending poison, the wrap can suppress or remove one curse affecting the target. 

Using the wrap in any of these ways causes the target to immediately become Marked by Brine, advancing its Depth by 1 as normal. (If the wrap is used to suppress or remove a curse, the target immediately becomes Marked by Brine at Depth 2, instead of Depth 1.)

Marked by Brine

A creature marked by the wrap carries a strong scent of tidewater, kelp, and raw fish. This scent cannot be concealed by mundane means and persists until properly removed.

While marked, the creature suffers the following effects:

• Disadvantage on Charisma (Persuasion, Deception, and Performance) checks

• A –2 penalty to Dexterity (Stealth) checks

• Creatures with keen smell automatically notice the creature within 30 feet

• Hostile creatures have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks made to notice the creature.

Gift of the Bound Tide

While affected by Marked by Brine, the creature gains the following benefits:

• The creature can breathe underwater.
  While underwater, breathing feels natural and unstrained. While on land, breathing feels heavy and deliberate, as though air must be drawn with effort.

• Veil of Waiting.
  While affected by Marked by Brine, you can use this property once per long rest. You become invisible for a duration equal to the length of time you can hold your breath.

  While invisible in this way, you must hold your breath and cannot take the Dash action, make attacks, or cast spells. The invisibility ends immediately if you stop holding your breath or fall unconscious.

  Interacting with unattended objects may cause noticeable movement or sound at the DM’s discretion.

Depth of the Tide

Each time the wrap is used on a creature and it becomes affected by Marked by Brine, the mark does not stack. Instead, its effects deepen.

Depth 1 — Brushed by the Tide

The effects of Marked by Brine apply as normal for the first use. After the healing, the creature experiences pressure in the ears and shallow breathing for several moments.

Depth 2 — Pulled Under

While affected by Marked by Brine at Depth 2, the creature suffers the following additional effects:

• The creature’s speed is reduced by 10 feet.

• The creature cannot take bonus actions.

Depth 3 — Silence of the Deep

If the wrap is used again on the creature before Marked by Brine is removed, the healing still occurs, but the creature immediately suffers the following additional effects:

• The creature gains 1 level of exhaustion.
  (At 1 level of exhaustion, the creature has disadvantage on all ability checks.)

• The creature cannot take the Dash action while affected by Marked by Brine.

• The creature gains no benefit from short rests while affected by Marked by Brine.

• The creature regains only half the hit points it would normally regain from spells or abilities while affected by Marked by Brine.

• Voice Under Pressure:
  When the creature attempts to speak more than a few words, it must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, its voice collapses into a wet rasp and it is unable to speak for 1 minute. During this time, it has disadvantage on spell attack rolls and saving throw DCs for spells with verbal components.

While at Depth 3, the wrap cannot be used again on that creature until Marked by Brine is fully removed.

Last Breath of the Tide

If a creature is at 0 hit points, unconscious, and has not yet died, and it dropped to 0 hit points within the last 1 minute, an ally can use an action to expend 1 charge and press a portion of the wrap over the creature’s mouth and nose.

The creature enters tidebound stasis for up to 10 minutes. While in this state, the creature is stable, unconscious, and does not make death saving throws.

While in tidebound stasis:

• The creature appears dead to mundane observation

• Creatures relying on sight or instinct treat the creature as a corpse unless they have reason to believe otherwise

• The creature is immune to magical damage, except necrotic damage

• If the creature takes nonmagical damage or necrotic damage, the stasis ends immediately, and the creature remains at 0 hit points and unconscious

The stasis also ends if the wrap is removed or disturbed, the creature regains hit points, or the duration expires.

Using this property immediately advances the creature to Depth 3 — Silence of the Deep, and a creature can benefit from this property only once before the wrap regains charges.

Removing the Mark

The effects of Marked by Brine cannot be removed by mundane washing, carried or contained water, perfumes, magic such as lesser restoration, or the passage of time.

To remove the mark, the creature must undergo a cleansing ritual requiring full bodily submersion for 10 uninterrupted minutes in the waters of a singular, ancient maritime site, at a depth beyond the reach of surface light.

While submerged, the creature can breathe normally due to the effects of Marked by Brine. When the ritual completes, this benefit immediately ends. If the creature remains submerged, it begins to suffocate as normal and must reach the surface to breathe.

The ritual fails if the creature leaves the water early or is removed by force. Once completed, Marked by Brine and all Depth effects immediately end.

(In settings where such a site does not exist, the DM may determine an equivalent singular location appropriate to the world.)

Living Kelp Regrowth

When all charges are expended, the wrap becomes dry, brittle, and inert, losing its sheen and flexibility.

The wrap regains all expended charges only after both of the following conditions are met:

• The most recent creature affected by the wrap has fully removed Marked by Brine

• The wrap has been submerged in natural seawater for 24 uninterrupted hours

The wrap does not regain charges by resting, time alone, or magical means.

Lore

The Band of Borrowed Breath is an anomaly. No surviving account agrees on its origin, only that it appeared during a moment when death could not be allowed to arrive on schedule.

The band does not restore life. It delays conclusion. Its power lies not in renewal, but in suspension. It preserves life by holding a creature at the threshold where breath, will, and time remain undecided. Those who have examined it note that its magic feels patient, as though it waits rather than acts.

Those who have studied the band note that it does not forgive repeated reliance. Each application deepens the band’s hold, leaving the bearer subtly altered, as if something unseen has accepted the delay but not forgiven it. Some claim the tide itself remembers those who linger too long between breath and silence, marking them even far from any shore.

No verified record speaks of another like it.

Notes: The wrap does not regain charges by resting, time alone, or magical means., Healing, Buff, Utility, Cursed, transmutation