Clockroach

Description

The Clockroach is a pocket watch sized clockwork beetle. It has six jointed legs with small gears on the end and very small, almost invisible runes across the back of the watch. When you bond with the item, it nestles itself above the heart of the person bonded. Some speculate it embeds itself shallowly into the skin, but in reality it is magically embedded. The ticking is unable to be heard by the wearer.

Effects

The item ticks in perfect harmony with the wearer's heartbeat, instead of with time. It can sense extreme emotions and wiggles when they happen.
Curse: When the wearer gets hit with powerful magic, they end up losing 1-4 hours of time instead of taking the damage of the spell. The wearer is unaware of what happens during the time lost, but everyone around them tends to recall the wearer being trance-like. After around 3 time-loss events, generally the wearer starts to hear the faint ticking of their own heartbeat through the item. It causes them to be vividly aware of their heartbeat, and subsequently, their mortality.

How I Obtained It

The Clockroach was first discovered in the ruined workshop of Horologist Thassarin, a genius time-mage who vanished mysteriously at the height of his research into chrono-mechanical fusion. His tower was located on an island along the west coast. Scattered across his crumbling study were various malformed timepieces and living automata, but the Clockroach alone was still ticking when the adventurers found it—sitting atop a perfectly preserved heart, still beating on the workbench centuries after Thassarin’s disappearance.