Items: sockets

Sockets are holes a jeweler drills into a piece of gear with a graver, then fills with a stone for a small permanent bonus. One stone sits in one socket, and a stone of a kind never repeats on the same item.

HOW MANY SOCKETS

• a two-handed weapon, a polearm, a spear, a lance or a bow: 4
• any other one-handed weapon: 3
• a dagger: 2
• a shield: 3
• body armor: 4
• a helm, a mask: 2
• gloves: 1
• each ring, each earring: 1
• anything else -- cloaks, boots, belts, neck and wrist gear, and any clothing-type item: 0

The item's slot sets the ceiling, but your own jeweler level sets what you can actually reach: socket #1 opens at level 1, #2 at level 2, #3 at level 4, #4 at level 7. A four-socket body armor piece in the hands of a level-2 jeweler still only takes two stones.

THE EIGHT STONES Every stone belongs to one of the Eight Paths and wears that Path's colour.

• Path of Light: diamond, for hit points
• Path of Darkness: onyx, for damroll
• Path of Reason: sapphire, for mana
• Path of Fury: ruby, for hitroll
• Path of Order: moonstone, for spell defense
• Path of Chaos: amethyst, for skill lag
• Path of Nature: emerald, for healing and mana regeneration
• Path of Society: topaz, for skill proficiency and movement

Stones come in three grades, each stronger than the last: rough, straight off the ground or a shop shelf, cut, which a jeweler crafts from rough ones, and flawless, crafted from cut ones.

THE RULES

• Sockets are drilled one at a time, up to the item's own maximum. There's no reason to stop early any more -- a constellation only forms once every socket the item can hold is filled and matched, so a partly-drilled item just holds fewer stones, never a smaller constellation.
• Only a jeweler can set a stone, and setting is permanent -- the stone is consumed and stays put until the sockets are cleared. Clearing tries to pull each stone back out: a rough stone sometimes survives, a cut one often, a flawless one always; a stone that doesn't survive crumbles to dust.
• Stones can outlive the item itself and fall out where it was: into your pack, the same container, or onto the floor. When a socketed item crumbles with age, every stone falls out whole. When it breaks, burns or melts, each stone has the same chance to survive as in a clearing. A smith won't smelt, and the cuisinart won't grind, an item with stones still in it -- clear the sockets first.
• Drilling the first socket rules out enchanting the item, the same way an already-enchanted item refuses the graver. Pick one or the other.
• Limited items, items that cannot be purged, and anything owned by someone else refuse the graver outright.
• Followers of Prometheus reach new sockets a little sooner while they are still learning the trade, and never damage the item on a failed drill. The spark tattoo grants that same protection against a failed drill through its own gift of creativity, and goes one step further: a successful drill now and then opens a second socket on the spot, still within the item's slot maximum and your level gate.

SEEING A SOCKET A socketed item shows a row of coloured stars next to its name for sighted players: a filled star in the stone's own Path colour, a hollow cyan o for an empty socket. Screen-reader players and anyone with colour off see a plain Socketed tag instead. Either way, identify spells out exactly which stone sits in which socket and what it does.

Sockets are the first piece of the jeweler's trade. Later comes constellation, an ordered run of stones that fills every socket on one item for an extra bonus, and jewelry crafted from nothing but bars and stones.