I had this whole thing lined up from the latest entry of EE. I made a medusa for Starfinder, opened up the idea about what their culture would be, and set myself up to give you a race option for playable medusa. Easy article for me, a sense of closure for you, and a whole new thing to annoy your GM with.

And then Riot Games had to go ahead and give me a brand-new character to absolutely obsess over.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that breaks through the chains of mechanics to wrap itself in the warm embrace of the chains of flavor. But also the chains of mechanics, because you can’t have one without the other. It’s like Love and Marriage. Or your brain and that song that I just put in it. Today I’ll be taking inspiration from the Briar trailer (linked above) and creating a new oracle mystery!

Fetters
You were burdened with a symbolic representation of entrapment as the result of some transgression, however cryptic that broken rule may be. This may take the form of winding tattoos that appear to tighten around your body, or may take the physical form of a shackles or wrappings that resist both magical and mundane attempts to remove them. You may worship a god that favors chains, such as Asmodeus or Zon-Kuthon, or you pray to the pantheon of The Last Breath as you struggle for the freedom of yourself and others.

Mystery Benefit Your magic is interwoven in the chains that bind you, and such restraints can serve as your conduit. Nonmagical restraints have no effect on your spells that have the manipulate trait. While immobilized by a creature or magical effect, you are treated as grabbed for the purpose of casting spells.
Trained Skill Athletics
Granted Cantrip tanglefoot
Revelation Spells initial: tether shot; advanced: path of chains; greater: bloody isolation
Related Domains freedom, tyranny

Curse of Binding Burdens
Your symbol clings to your body like a lodestone, feeling supernaturally heavy despite its actual weight. Space seems to distort around you ever so slightly, making every room feel that much smaller.
Minor Curse The fetters that bind you make every step that much heavier. You become clumsy 1 and take a 5-foot penalty to all of your Speeds. This penalty does not stack with the encumbered condition.
Moderate Curse Your fetters seemingly come to life as they seek to further entrap you and any creature nearby. You are encumbered. An aura of binding surrounds you in a 10-foot emanation. All other creatures treat all spaces in this aura as difficult terrain. Creatures that are at least two size categories larger than you ignore this aura.
Major Curse (11th) You strain against your fetters in a tug of war that tears it wide open even as it nearly entombs your body. You become clumsy 2. Your aura of binding expands to 20 feet, affects creatures of any size, and affects you as well. You may attempt to grapple any creature within your aura. As this aura is part of your curse, you cannot ignore this difficult terrain, but other creatures may use abilities that allow them to ignore difficult terrain.

Focus Spells

Tether Shot           Focus 1
[Uncommon] [Conjuration] [Cursebound] [Oracle]
Mystery fetters
Cast (2 actions) somatic, verbal
Range 20 feet; Targets 1 creature
Saving Throw Fortitude; Duration sustained up to 1 minute
You conjure a line of chain, cloth, webbing, or some other representation of your fetter to reach out and latch on to a target creature. If the target fails a fortitude save, it becomes tethered to you. A tethered target cannot move further away from you without making an Athletics check against your Spell DC. On a success, it moves at half speed, dragging you with it. On a critical success, it snaps the tether, ending the spell. On a critical failure, it falls prone. A creature increases its success by one degree if it’s more than one size category larger than you.
The tether has AC 10, Hardness 4, and 10 Hit Points.
When you sustain the spell, you may pull yourself forward, Striding 10 feet directly towards the tethered creature.
Heightened (+1) The tether’s Hardness increases by 2, its Hit Points increases by 10, and the spell’s range by 5 feet.

Path of Chains           Focus 3
[Uncommon] [Conjuration] [Cursebound] [Oracle]
Mystery fetters
Cast (3 actions) material, somatic, verbal
Range 100 feet; Area 20-foot burst
Saving Throw Reflex; Duration 1 minute
You conjure countless duplicates of your fetter, forming a wide net that can serve as a pathway for your allies and an obstacle for your enemies. You create a 1-foot thick wall of fetters that is 30 feet wide and 30 feet tall. Creatures treat the wall’s climb DC as your spell DC, but you and your allies may treat the DC as 10.
You may instead create a horizontal plane of similar dimensions, potentially creating a bridge. The horizontal surface is made up of narrow surfaces, requiring an Acrobatics check against your spell DC to safely cross, but you and your allies may treat the DC as 10.
Any enemy that attempts to pass through the wall or is in the area of the wall when the spell is cast must make a Reflex save. On a failure, they suffer a -10 circumstance penalty to their Speeds for one round as they get tangled up on the fetters. On a critical failure, they are immobilized for one round.
Heightened (+2) Increase the wall’s width and height by 10 feet, and its range by 30 feet.

Bloody Isolation           Focus 6
[Uncommon] [Conjuration] [Cursebound] [Oracle]
Mystery fetters
Cast (2 actions) material, somatic
Range 30 feet; Target 1 creature
Saving Throw Reflex; Duration sustained up to 1 minute
You conjure the ultimate manifestation of your tether, attempting to completely surrounding one creature in a spiked cocoon. If the creature fails its saving throw, it becomes entrapped in an iron maiden or some similar device. It takes 3d6 piercing damage and 3d4 persistent bleed damage, or double on a critical failure. A creature can attempt to Escape, rolling against your spell DC, but it takes the 3d6 piercing damage for each attempt.
You may instead invert the prison, forming a protective spiked shell around one willing creature. Another creature may attempt to pry the shell open with an Athletics check against your spell DC, but it takes 3d6 piercing damage and 3d4 persistent bleed damage for each attempt.
Both versions of the shell block line of effect.
Heightened (+2) Increase the piercing damage by 1d6 and the persistent bleed damage by 1d4

And there you have it. All the tools you need to play a character who carries his prison on his shoulders in the same way a turtle carries his home on his back. If you wanted to play something closer to Briar herself? I’d say make her an undead eidolon, flavor the summoner as her escape buddy, and take these two feats to get a reasonable representation.

Join us next time and I’ll do that thing I said I’d do last time, which should have been this time.