The Loot Pile: Protoplastic Regenerator

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#1

PROTOPLASTIC REGENERATOR
AKA WAND OF LUMINOUS REGENERATION
Item

This field-grade portable wound-care device heals superficial to moderate wounds with near-miraculous expediency by stimulating the natural regeneration of living tissue and accelerating its regrowth by orders of magnitude. This handheld regenerator (or a tool like it) is standard equipment in well-stocked first aid and first responder kits carried by beings from higher-technology civilizations across the Warp Shell multiverse, and the few that have made it to Alfheim are known as Wands of Luminous Regeneration.

Slowly moving the emitter head—a metallic bracket containing a translucent crystalline focusing element that casts a soothing glow—over wounded tissue causes hemorrhaging to cease, foreign matter to be ejected or absorbed, bone to knit, and other living tissue to restore itself to adequacy in a matter of moments. The thin, typically cylindrical metal body (about 25 cm long exclusive of the emitter, fully sealed and watertight, with no user-serviceable parts inside) has a handgrip area on the underside and solar cells and a row of LED power indicators on the top surface. There is a charge plate on the bottom compatible with a standard medbay charging receptacle for handheld tools. The device can be fully recharged in the field in about 8 hours of strong sunlight, or in less than 30 minutes in a medical facility or aboard ship.

Unless fully charged, a protoplastic regenerator found in the field or a deployed medkit will have D100 (out of 100) charges. It heals wounds at 1HP per round on any creature at or above 50% maximum hit points, expending one charge each round. When treating more severely wounded beings (with at least 1 HP), the regenerator will only restore 1 HP of superficial injuries with no further effect (regardless of how many charges are expended) unless/until the creature reaches 50% maximum hit points. It will heal superficial wounds on the dying (0 HP), able to stabilize them (stops death countdown, still at 0HP) but not return them to consciousness. At the vanguard of medical science, the protoplastic regenerator cannot restore life.

Notes:

  1. This is a pretty powerful piece of loot, because it HEALS and because it just WORKS. The most witless and savage barbarian from the jungles of Kath can wave this device over an open wound and make it disappear with no STAT check. As long as the regenerator is powered up, you’re good to go.
  2. This device DOES NOT reattach limbs, but it will allow the patient to regrow a digit!
  3. The GM has options with the construction and maintenance of this device. The emitter end of the regenerator could be made rugged and reinforced for emergency use and tactical trauma care, or it could be delicate, susceptible to damage if miscarried or mishandled. Maybe a spare emitter head comes standard in every medkit, allowing the untrained medic to fumble and recover in the heat of action with a plug-in swap, or maybe they are a rare commodity to be sought after to keep a regenerator in working order while exploring strange new worlds.
  4. Obviously, this is an homage to Star Trek’s Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy and his dermal protoplaser, as well as to the other fine Starfleet doctors preceding and following him, all of whom have similar medical tools at their disposal. The rules and limitations for the in-play operation of the regenerator described above seem to work well at my table, but they can be adjusted and adapted as you see fit for your, potentially providing a very different experience. If you were to ask Bones how the mechanics should work, he would retort cantankerously, “Don’t ask me! I’m a doctor, not a game designer!”
  5. See what else is on top of The Loot Pile.