Salamander Skin is a Level Three Solimond Treasure.
Overview[]
At one point in his Travels, Marco Polo notes his encounter with a mysterious cloth that would not burn, a cloth the locals call "salamander skin." Banal critics and interpreters of his text gloss this as a fanciful reference to sheets of asbestos, but the Kithain know better: The cloth Polo saw really was the skin of salamanders - or solimonds, to be more precise. Those Seelie crafters who work with the material claim that solimonds shed their skins whenever they Slumber, casting off their mortal flesh as they return to rest in their fiery Anchors. The Skin that remains behind retains the solimond's essence, protecting it against flames mundane and magical. Only the fire of its source Anchor is hot enough to consume Salamander Skin, and a changeling hoping to acquire some must be quick if he wishes to recover it before it burns up.
Small amounts of Salamander Skin can be procured in this fashion, enough for a pair of gloves, boots, or shoes. Larger articles of clothing (jackets, smiths' aprons, complete suits) require the Skins of several solimonds and are, thus, correspondingly rare; Storytellers should require players wishing to begin with Salamander Skin garments of this size to pay an additional one or two Freebie Points. Because of the demand among dragonslayers and smiths in particular for such goods, it is rumored that some Unseelie tailors prefer to acquire their Skins more... directly.
Any part of the body covered by Salamander Skin shares in the Skin's mystical immunity. Skin gloves let you plunge your hands into molten dreamsteel; Skin shoes allow you to walk on lava (if you're foolish enough to do so in the first place). In combat or stress situations, this protection is less certain. Small garments are no proof against fire or heat-based attacks, while larger garments function as armor, adding to a character's Soak roll (but only against the fire or heat portion of the attack). Use the Armor Types chart on pg. 249 of the Changeling: The Dreaming rulebook to determine the amount of protection granted by a Salamander Skin garment. (A Skin shirt has an Armor rating of 2; a vest or jacket, 3 or 4; a complete suit, 5 or 6.) Salamander Skin clothing has the additional benefit of shielding its wearer from all temperature extremes. Unfortunately, it also has a weakness: The enchantment fails to work if the garment in question becomes wet.
References[]
- CTD: Inanimae: The Secret Way, p. 95-96