The Stout crafting was created with assistance from Hannes Thiessen (Calgary, Alberta) as part of his ‘Knight Regular package’ backer reward from the 2014 Realm of Strife Kickstarter Campaign.
The Stout crafting is an Earth based rune crafting that can be placed on any weapon with a block or parry attribute. When electing to block or parry an incoming attack, if that attack lands a critical hit the block or parry percentage is instead used to reduce the incoming damage from the critical hit by an equal percentage.
It can be placed on an unlimited number of equipable weapons or shields. Therefore if equipped in both the main hand and offhand, you can reduce a percentage of the damage of two separate critical hits or combine them to reduce an even larger percentage of the damage of a single critical hit.
See Rune Crafting for pricing and required skills/components.