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Reflecting 63 of the Inquisitors Veracity Monocle

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by

Dale
in
  • Lore: Originating from the high courts and military tribunals of Assyria, this ocular lens was developed for magistrate investigators tasked with interrogating suspected spies, deceitful merchants, and insubordinate officers. In a society fraught with political intrigue and the Web of Foes, words were often wielded as daggers; thus, inquisitors required an apparatus that could reveal deceit before a hidden treason turned violent. The artisan bound resonant truth-seeking divination runes into a silver-rimmed optic lens while anchoring kinetic retaliation lattices directly to the wearer’s temple. Over centuries of court hearings, the monocle earned a feared reputation among criminals: an interrogator wearing this glass could visibly perceive every stutter and fabricated falsehood spoken in the room, and should a desperate suspect resort to physical violence to silence the questioning, the monocle would violently turn that treachery back upon the liar and their co-conspirators.
  • Description: This item consists of a circular lens of pale azure crystal ground to optical perfection, housed within a finely chased bezel of cold-forged sterling silver. Running around the bezel are microscopic inscriptions of stylized open eyes and scales of balance. A delicate silver spring-arm extends from the frame, ending in an articulated temple-clamp tipped with a tiny, conductive copper pin that rests against the wearer’s forehead to monitor pulse and mental focus. Suspended from the bottom rim is a six-inch braided silver chain with an ear-hook counterweight. When active in dialogue, the lens shimmers with a subtle violet hue; when struck in combat, the crystal ignites into a blinding flash of mirrored silver light, accompanied by a sound like a gavel cracking against iron as retaliatory waves blast outward.
  • Item Slot: Eye Slot
  • Stats:
    • Item Tier: Tier 1 (Common)
    • Item Hit Points: 10 plus wearer maximum health points (Resilience 10 x Tier 1)
    • Armor Check (AC) Bonus: +1
    • Weight: 0.5 pounds
    • Attunement: Requires 1 minute of concentration to clamp the temple-pin flush against the brow and calibrate the optic focus through the Mind’s Eye.
  • Passive Magic:
    • Sympathetic Perjury Shatter: Whenever the wearer sustains damage from an attack, the lens instantly releases an omnidirectional shockwave of retaliatory force matching the exact damage type and numerical value of the blow received. This wave strikes all hostile entities within a radius in feet equal to the damage points sustained. If another entity within this radius bears an active reflective ward or similar mirror enchantment, an uncontrolled harmonic loop triggers instantly, risking total vaporization of everyone in the vicinity.
    • Pupil of Discernment: While observing a speaking creature within 30 feet through the lens, the wearer gains a +2 bonus to perception and insight checks made to determine if the speaker is deliberately speaking an untruth, withholding crucial details, or fabricating facts. The lens subtly shifts to an oily magenta hue when a direct falsehood is uttered.
    • Glare Shield: The wearer’s vision cannot be impaired by mundane flashes of bright light, sudden shadows, or dust clouds while looking through the optic.
  • Activable Magic:
    • Gavel of Repulsion: As an action during an attack or immediately following an interrogation confrontation, the wearer can tap the side bezel to discharge a concussive burst of kinetic pressure from the lens. On a hit, this delivers base bludgeoning damage plus the avatar’s tier die (1d4), driving the target 5 feet backward. This knock-back can be utilized to push suspicious combatants out of close quarters, preventing disastrous harmonic resonance if the enemy is believed to bear retaliatory wards.
    • Veracity Flare: Once per combat or interrogation scene as an action, the wearer may channel mana to overcharge the optic, releasing a sudden, piercing strobe of clarifying light. All creatures within a 10-foot cone must succeed on a DC 11 saving throw or become dazed for one turn, unable to maintain deceptive illusions or tell deliberate untruths for that turn due to acute sensory disorientation.
    • Ocular Focus Flush: As an action outside of combat, the avatar can depress the temple-pin to pulse calming arcane energy into the optic nerves, clearing the mind of mental clutter and restoring 1 temporary health point that lasts until the end of the next exploration period.
  • Tags: Eye, Monocle, Tier 1, Common, Reflecting Magic, Truth, Inquest, Deception, Divination, Force, Warded, Retaliation, Knockback, Silver, Optical, Ocular, Lens, Insight, Interrogation, Perjury, Scrying, Discernment, Magistrate, Eyewear, Tribunal, Clarity

Procurement and Commerce of the Inquisitor’s Veracity Monocle

  • Chancery Guild Enclaves and Legal Scrivener Shops:
    • Situated within municipal justice quarters or lining the courtyards of state high courts, these specialized establishments cater to advocates, magistrates, and bailiffs. The monocle rests upon dark velvet cushions within locked glass cabinets, surrounded by brass scales of balance, wax seals, and vellum registries.
    • Purchasing cost: 120 to 160 silver coins (or 12 to 16 electrum coins). Patrons possessing verified credentials from a recognized Jurists’ Guild or Investigative Faction receive the customary 10% discount per character tier, adjusting the acquisition cost to 108 to 144 silver coins for a Tier 1 purchaser. All debits are recorded directly into the World Bank ledger via the Mind’s Eye.
    • Selling value: The presiding court clerk or master scrivener examines the clarity of the azure optic and the tension of the silver temple-spring, haggling around 10% of the baseline valuation per tier of the seller (yielding 12 to 16 silver coins for a Tier 1 adventurer). Monies are transferred into the seller’s World Bank balance, accompanied by mandatory municipal logging for state judicial records.
  • Frontline Guildhall Armories and Requisition Bureaus:
    • Located within fortified Adventuring Guildhalls situated in cities exceeding five thousand residents, these depots are administered by appointed military officials. Here, the monocle is issued to reconnaissance officers, intelligence liaisons, and party point-scouts entering treaty negotiations with hostile clans or inspecting disputed borders.
    • Purchasing cost: A standard rate of 10 electrum coins (equivalent to 50 silver coins) for registered guild members in good standing. Non-guild personnel are denied direct requisition access unless presenting a signed mandate from a garrison commander, in which case an unnegotiated fee of 120 silver coins is levied.
    • Selling value: Requisition quartermasters acquire returned units as operational salvage, providing 8 to 10 silver coins credited directly to the adventurer’s World Bank account. The transfer is registered under garrison logistical ledgers, exempt from standard municipal entry and sales taxes.
  • Black-Market Safehouses and Fence Dens:
    • Concealed within labyrinthine dock alleys, subterranean cistern vaults, or behind seemingly legitimate pawn brokerages in seaport capitals, these illicit dealers handle untraceable inquisitorial tools recovered from fallen avatars and disgraced court officials.
    • Purchasing cost: 18 to 25 gold coins (equivalent to 180 to 250 silver coins). A substantial premium is demanded for absolute anonymity, with transactions restricted entirely to physical coinage minted of standard metal weight; World Bank electronic ledgers are strictly refused.
    • Selling value: Illicit fences offer 20 to 30 silver coins in raw coin for an intact truth-discerning optic, keeping transactions entirely off regional records. If town watches or royal inquisitors are actively conducting sweeps in the surrounding ward, the payout drops to a flat 10 silver coins.
  • Itinerant Caravan Wagons and Traveling Factor Carts:
    • Moving in armored covered wagons protected by hired guards along the trade roads linking coastal ports to central capital seats, these peddlers serve regional trade hubs, frontier settlements, and rural mayors who lack access to centralized urban guilds.
    • Purchasing cost: 14 to 18 electrum coins (70 to 90 silver value). Prices rise as caravans approach unruly borders or regions notorious for highway robbery, with the merchant passing along the 1% central transit fee and 5% inter-state tariff.
    • Selling value: Wandering merchants maintain small physical reserves and typically offer 7 to 9 silver coins, or equivalent barter in black powder measures, mundane rations, or spare alchemical reagents. Transactions can be settled through World Bank transfers if the merchant possesses an attuned banking ledger focus, or via weighed local non-metal tokens.

Tactical Inquiries and Ocular Roleplay across Environments

  • Grand Court Chambers, Council Halls, and Guild Tribunals:
    • Defensive Roleplay: During high-stakes diplomatic hearings or trial testimonies, the avatar stands near the witness dock or negotiating table with the silver arm resting against the temple. When a cornered noble or desperate conspirator lunges across the bench with a concealed dagger aimed at the inquisitor’s face, the blade strikes the cold-forged silver frame. The impact ignites a blinding silver flare that echoes like a gavel blow, throwing the assassin and nearby treasonous retainers violently backward across the polished marble floor while the avatar’s eye and face remain completely unmarred.
    • Offensive Roleplay: While pressing a suspect on falsified cargo manifests or hidden faction loyalties, the avatar monitors the lens as it shifts to an oily magenta hue at the first fabricated alibi. Catching the liar mid-sentence, the avatar triggers the Veracity Flare. A piercing strobe of clarifying light washes over the chamber, dazzling the suspect’s vision, shattering their composure, and leaving them dazed and unable to sustain their woven deception before the gathered magistrates.
  • Underground Smuggling Tunnels, Sewer Vaults, and Black Markets:
    • Defensive Roleplay: In narrow, damp stonework where cutpurses and illegal smugglers operate under lanterns, ambushes are common. When a thug steps from the shadows with an iron club to silence the investigation with a crushing blow to the head, the optic’s reflective lattice detonates outward. The retaliatory shockwave slams the attacker and their hidden accomplices against the dripping brickwork with their own strike’s force, clearing the immediate corridor and leaving the avatar upright in the darkness.
    • Offensive Roleplay: Encountering a syndicate fence who is suspected of carrying volatile defensive wards or mirror-enchanted trinkets, close-quarters combat carries an immediate risk of catastrophic harmonic obliteration. Recognizing the danger through the Mind’s Eye, the avatar taps the side bezel to engage the Gavel of Repulsion. A focused concussive pulse hammers into the broker’s chest, knocking them five feet backward into their own wooden crates to enforce safe distance before a lethal feedback loop can ignite.
  • Frontier Military Checkpoints and Disputed Border Camps:
    • Defensive Roleplay: At open palisade gates where foreign scouts and deserters attempt entry using forged travel seals, tensions frequently escalate to sudden violence. When a mounted raider swings a saber downward at the interrogating avatar, the blow connects with the azure crystal. The resulting concussive backfire unseats the rider and knocks the surrounding cavalry horses onto their flanks, absorbing the lethal momentum while keeping the checkpoint line intact.
    • Offensive Roleplay: To halt a coordinated infiltration during heavy rain or dust storms, the avatar utilizes the Veracity Flare against the lead infiltrators at ten paces. The blinding burst cuts through ambient grit and mud, disorienting the vanguard’s senses and causing them to drop their cloaks of illusion or false heraldry, exposing their genuine uniforms to the garrison’s archers stationed on the watchtowers.
  • Crowded Bazaar Plazas and Steampunk Factory Districts:
    • Defensive Roleplay: Amid grinding steam machinery, whistling exhaust vents, and thick marketplace throngs, pickpockets and hired brawlers rely on sensory overload to strike unnoticed. A sudden blackjack strike to the side of the head merely compresses the temple-pin; the monocle erupts with a thunderous snap, repelling the assailant and knocking surrounding conspirators into market stalls while leaving innocent bystanders outside the damage radius untouched.
    • Offensive Roleplay: When an unruly merchant incites a crowd with false claims of currency fraud or bad faith trading to evade an arrest mandate, the avatar confronts them openly. Activating the Gavel of Repulsion alongside an authoritative denunciation, the avatar blasts the agitator five feet back against their steam-powered display cart. The concussive display stuns the onlookers into silence, physically isolating the deceitful instigator and restoring order without the use of lethal bladed weapons.

Perception of Activation:

  • User’s Perspective:
    • Sight: A sudden flash of mirrored silver-white light ignites directly before the pupil, accompanied by a razor-sharp circular pulse that casts high-contrast, linear shadows across the immediate field of view, while the optic lens glows with an internal, crystalline violet vortex.
    • Hearing: A resonant, authoritative sound like a heavy iron gavel striking an anvil echoes close to the temple, followed by a high-frequency, ringing drone that immediately dampens external noise.
    • Smell: A clean, dry scent of ionized ozone, cold sterling silver, and crisp vellum parchment fills the nostrils as the ambient air rapidly charges with kinetic repulsion.
    • Taste: A sharp, metallic tang of cold tin and static electricity pricks the edge and tip of the tongue as arcane conduction passes through the temporal nerve paths.
    • Touch: The conductive copper pin resting against the temple delivers a minute, stinging electrical tingle to the brow, while the silver frame stiffens against the orbital bone with rigid, immovable bracing.
    • Extra-Sensory Perception (Mind’s Eye): Numerical readouts and geometric threat rings flare into internal awareness, calculating the exact force of the incoming trauma alongside an instantaneous, expanding spherical perimeter of the retaliatory shockwave.
    • Extra-Sensory Perception (Truth Sense / Discernment Aura): An intuitive, empathic pulse radiates into the wearer’s consciousness, outlining deceptive targets in the immediate radius with a jagged, discordant vibration that distinguishes intentional falsehoods from panic.
  • Observer’s Perspective:
    • Sight: The attacker’s weapon strikes toward the investigator’s head or face, but instead of tearing flesh, the blow collides with the azure glass; the lens flares with a brilliant, mirrored silver disc that ripples outward along walls and floors like a visible sheet of glass.
    • Hearing: Nearby witnesses hear a sharp, deafening acoustic snap resembling a thunderstone splitting inside a court chamber, causing immediate ear discomfort to anyone caught within the perimeter.
    • Smell: A sharp, stinging odor of scorched silver, heated mineral quartz, and ionized air washes over those within the radius.
    • Taste: Surrounding combatants perceive a bitter, alkaline dryness on the roof of their mouths brought on by the explosive displacement of air.
    • Touch: Foes caught within the perimeter experience an instantaneous, crushing wave of concussive force slamming directly into their chests, matching the exact weight and type of the blow struck against the investigator, shivering their stance and lifting them off their heels.
    • Extra-Sensory Perception (Arcane Sight): Spellcasters in the vicinity observe a circular lattice of silver balance scales and eye-runes rapidly uncoil from the monocle’s bezel, violently tethering the attacker’s own kinetic effort directly back into their kinetic frame.
    • Extra-Sensory Perception (Aura Reading): Diviners perceive a violent, blinding violet flash that temporarily burns away deceptive cloaks, glamer weaves, and aura-masking spells within the burst area.
  • Positives:
    • Immediate Kinetic Inversion: Converts what could be a fatal cranial or facial blow into an automatic, radial counter-offensive that punishes all surrounding foes without requiring an action.
    • Cranial and Ocular Shielding: The reinforced silver frame and tempered azure crystal prevent orbital fractures, eye trauma, and cranial concussions from melee impacts.
    • Deception Neutralization: The blinding discharge breaks the concentration of deceptive casters, exposing liars and disrupting coordinated ambushes in social or combat scenarios.
  • Negatives:
    • Temporary Sensory Daze: The intense, point-blank light strobe and concussive gavel-crack right next to the user’s ear can induce momentary disorientation and auditory ringing.
    • Lethal Resonance Hazard: If an enemy within the burst radius possesses an active reflective ward or counter-kinetic enchantment, the intersecting magics will instantly trigger a catastrophic harmonic detonation capable of obliterating everyone in the vicinity.
    • Blatant Tactical Exposure: The blinding silver flare, heavy metallic thunderclap, and ozone stench make covert operation or discreet investigation impossible the moment the ward triggers.

Crafting Recipe: The Inquisitor’s Veracity Monocle

  • Materials Needed:
    • One Tier 1 magic crystal (coin-sized and coin-weighted, harvested from a slain creature to serve as the kinetic and arcane power battery).
    • Two ounces of refined sterling silver bar or sheet (for chasing the optic bezel, structural spring-arm, and counterbalance chain).
    • One circular blank of optical-grade pale azure quartz or raw clarity crystal (roughly one and a half inches in diameter, free of internal inclusions).
    • One two-inch fine copper conductor wire tipped with a rounded micro-pin (to form the dermal temple-contact).
    • Half an ounce of powdered lapis lazuli and pulverized clear calcite (serving as the truth-divining and optical alignment reagent flux).
    • One ounce of silver solder and jeweler’s borax flux.
    • One miniature brass hinge pin and tempered steel tension spring (for the articulated brow clamp).
    • One small bronze judicial stamp or notary wax seal (sacrificial tool component consumed during crafting to imprint authoritative veracity into the silver framework).
  • Tools Required:
    • Jeweler’s bench peg, piercing saw, and fine-toothed escapement files.
    • Lapidary grinding wheel, polishing rouge, and cerium oxide lap cloths.
    • High-precision metal burrs, micro-chisels, and a steel diamond-tipped graver.
    • Jeweler’s magnifying loupe (minimum 10x magnification) or bench-mounted optical lenses.
    • Alcohol spirit lamp or micro-torch with soldering tweezers and a ceramic soldering block.
    • Small brass wire-draw plate and chain-nose pliers.
    • Mortar and pestle for grinding mineral fluxes.
  • Skill Requirements:
    • Lapidary / Optic Grinding: Minimum Skill Level 5.
    • Silversmithing / Fine Jewelry Crafting: Minimum Skill Level 4.
    • Divination & Kinetic Ward Inscription / Mind’s Eye Calibration: Minimum Skill Level 3.
  • Crafting Steps:
    • Step 1 (Optic Lens Grinding): Take the blank of pale azure quartz and rough-shape it against the lapidary wheel into a uniform disc. Grind both faces to a precise, low-curvature convex optic profile. Polish the surfaces using progressively finer grits of cerium oxide until the crystal attains flawless, scratch-free optical transparency.
    • Step 2 (Sacrificial Seal Decomposition): Place the bronze judicial notary seal into a ceramic crucible over the spirit torch, dusting it with the powdered lapis lazuli and pulverized calcite flux. Heat the metal until it liquefies, channeling its latent properties of legal authority and truth-binding directly into the sterling silver bezel wire as it is tempered in cold distilled water.
    • Step 3 (Bezel Shaping and Chasing): Roll and bend the treated sterling silver into a tight, circular bezel channel sized to grip the azure lens. Using the steel graver and loupe, micro-engrave a continuous ring of balanced scales and stylized open-eye runes along the exterior rim. Heat the silver solder with the micro-torch to join the bezel ends cleanly.
    • Step 4 (Ward Inscription and Kinetic Grid): Using the diamond-tipped scribe under high magnification, etch a spiral lattice of kinetic inversion runes onto the inward-facing circumference of the azure lens. Coat the engraved grooves with molten silver solder flux and cool rapidly, sealing the reflective rebound pathway into the quartz perimeter without obstructing the central sightline.
    • Step 5 (Power Battery and Lens Mounting): Carefully seat the Tier 1 magic crystal into a recessed cavity along the top hinge block of the silver bezel. Seat the azure lens into the bezel groove directly below the crystal, rolling the fine silver edge inward with a burnisher to mechanically lock both the lens and the battery crystal in flush, immovable contact.
    • Step 6 (Spring-Arm, Temple-Pin, and Chain Assembly): Construct the articulated spring-arm from rolled silver wire, housing the internal steel tension spring within the temple hinge. Solder the fine copper conductor wire through the arm so its blunt contact pin protrudes inward to touch the wearer’s forehead. Draw and weave fine silver wire into a six-inch braided chain terminating in an ear-hook counterweight, fastening it to the lower loop of the bezel.
    • Step 7 (Final Calibration and Attunement Priming): Mount the finished monocle on a wooden test bust. Strike the silver rim lightly with a brass rod while projecting focus through the Mind’s Eye, confirming that the crystal absorbs the kinetic shock and the azure glass flashes with a sharp violet hue. Polish all silver surfaces, cleanse the optic with pure alcohol, and store the Tier 1 monocle in a lined leather case until attunement begins.

Glass Eye and False Oath of Great Scribe

Behold the scratched signs taken from the blackened slate of the river gate, which the third copier of the third dynasty did write sideways because the elder tongue had signs shaped like beetles and crooked spears that no breathing man could spit from his tongue. In the days before the sky-fire grew cold, when the moon Saṃsāra was yet wrapped in the steam of its birth-broth, the cities were not ruled by captains of the sword, but by the grand weighers of the word. In the city that is named in the dirt as Ashur-of-the-Scales, every grain of barley and every jug of wild grease had to pass before the high table of the Scribes of the Line.

Among these weighers was an elder whose stone-mark was Beli-of-the-Cranes. Beli was not a man who possessed fields of fat cattle, nor did he swing the long axe against the wild hill-men. He had an eye that was small and red, like the eye of a ferret that lives inside the wall. From his ninth year he had looked upon the clay records, and he knew how many marks a thief would rub out with his wet thumb to make fifty baskets of pulse seem like forty. But the kings of the dirt grew fat and lazy, and their sons began to speak crooked paths. When the red sun Helios stood in the belly of the day, the young court men would swear by the nine gods of the well that their iron carts had carried three hundred ingots of silver to the central store, when in truth the carts carried only baked bricks painted with the scum of river-solder.

Now the chief of all the stone-writers was a prince named Nim-Arad, whose tongue was smoother than the oil of the crushed nut. Nim-Arad had taken for his own chests sixteen boxes of the heavy electrum coins belonging to the temple of the water-wheels. When the elders of the gate asked him: “Where is the electrum that was laid upon the wood for the repairing of the great dyke?” Nim-Arad did put his clean hands upon the black stone of the altar. With loud breath he spoke unto the people: “May the great worm of the low fen eat through my liver, and may my two eyes turn to boiling pitch, if a single piece of the temple electrum has entered into my house or the houses of my wives!”

And because Nim-Arad wore the purple mantle and had thirty spearmen with polished shields standing at his shoulder, the city people shouted: “Behold, the prince speaks clean water! Let the small clerks be beaten with dry reeds for thinking evil of the righteous!”

Then Beli-of-the-Cranes went away unto his cell of dried brick, weeping through his grey beard, for his own mind had seen the crookedness in the prince’s throat, but his hands had no power to hold a prince against thirty shields. He sat upon his stool of cedar wood for eighty-one days, while the red sun turned the sky to dry copper. He took a pebble of pale blue stone that had fallen from the tail of a sky-star into the high gravel beds. With sand and wet grease he rubbed the stone upon an iron plate until his thumbs had no more skin, grinding it into a flat, round circle so clear that a man could see the tiny veins in an ant’s foot through its thickness.

Around the circle of star-glass he beat a band of cold river-silver, hammering upon its rim the figures of open eyes that never sleep and the balanced cords of the water-weighers. From the side he drew out an arm of springy wire, and at its tip he set a cold pin of red earth-copper, which he dipped into the sour vinegar of the mountain apple. Upon the hidden back of the silver band, where the metal hugged the edge of the blue glass, he scratched the sign of the backward spear: the crooked ward that commands the blow of the striker to turn its head and enter into the belly of the man who pushed it.

“If the mouth of the liar must be defended by the club of the guard,” spoke Beli unto the smoke of his oil lamp, “then let the lie and the club meet each other upon the same stone.”

He fitted the cold wire over the bone of his right temple. The copper pin went into his flesh like a bee’s needle, and his right eye did water with cold tears; but when he looked forth through the blue quartz, the world ceased to have colors of red and brown. Every man who spoke truth appeared before him wrapped in clear white air, but the man who had a lie inside his chest appeared surrounded by a thick, oily smoke the color of bruised plums, stinking like the bladder of a dead ox.

On the day of the High Weighing, when the King of the Moon sat upon his chair of baked mud to receive the accounts of the dykes, Nim-Arad stood before the court with his hair curled with gold wires. He held up the clay tablets that had been smoothed over with false marks, shouting: “Lo, the dyke is built, the ditch is deep, and all the electrum was consumed by the stone-cutters!”

The King was well pleased and reached forth his hand to give Nim-Arad the gold chain of the Overseer. But Beli-of-the-Cranes stepped out from behind the heavy pillars of the court, carrying neither staff nor dagger, wearing only his coarse tunic of hemp and the shiny circle over his right brow. Through the blue star-glass he saw Nim-Arad: the prince’s throat was not white, but choked with a boiling fog of dark plum-grease that rolled from his teeth like the steam of a dung-fire.

“The tablet is mud, and the words are rotten fish,” said the old clerk with a dry voice that sounded like wheat straw rustling in the wind. “The electrum lies buried beneath the floor of thy third granary, covered by twenty baskets of moldy spelt, and thy tongue is an adder that crawls upon the King’s carpet.”

The princes of the high bench gasped, and Nim-Arad’s face became the color of sour curd. In his wrath, the prince forgot the peace of the mud-throne. “Wilt thou name me a dog before the face of the King, thou dry worm of the cellar?” cried the lord. He snatched an iron mace from the belt of the nearest guard-soldier—a weapon with four sharp flanges, heavy enough to split the skull of an ox at a single fall. With both his arms raised above his curls, Nim-Arad leaped from the dais and brought the iron flange down directly upon the forehead of the small clerk, intending to break his skull into five pieces upon the stones.

The four-flanged iron struck the silver rim of the blue glass with a sound like the clapping of two mountains.

Yet the bone of the old man did not crack, nor did the hair of his head fall forward. From the azure circle there leaped a great sheet of mirrored silver light, sharp and wide as the sail of a war-barge, screaming with the acoustic roar of a judge’s gavel falling upon the anvil of the sky. The weight and fury of the iron mace did not enter into the flesh of the clerk; it turned upon its own neck and went backward through the iron shaft like a boiling river turned against its fountain.

The iron mace broke into four screaming shards that flew across the chamber. Nim-Arad shrieked with the voice of a slaughtered goat, for the concussive fury of his own heavy arms had rushed back into his shoulders, tearing the joints from their sockets and snapping his collar-bones like dry tamarisk twigs. The retaliatory ring went outward in an even circuit: every guard who had raised a spear to help the prince, and every scribe who had sworn to his false account, was picked up from his heels by an invisible hammer and thrown twenty cubits backward against the brick walls, coughing red foam and dropping their weapons into the tiles.

The shockwave did not stop with the bones of the men. It tore the false clay tablets from the prince’s desk, smashing them into gray dust upon the pavement; and through the cracked floorboards beneath the third granary, two miles distant, the earth heaved upward, spitting forth the sixteen boxes of temple electrum until the golden coins spilled like water across the public street for all the poor children to see.

Nim-Arad lay upon his back in the middle of the court, his curled hair fouled with dust, his arms twisted behind his neck, unable to lift his chin, his chest black with the bruises of his own strike.

Beli-of-the-Cranes did not pick up a stone, nor did he ask the King for the gold chain. He reached up with trembling fingers, touched the copper pin at his temple to still the ringing of the glass, and looked down through the azure circle at the ruined prince. The plum-colored smoke had gone out from the man’s throat; there remained only the gray vapor of terror and broken flesh.

“The scale is balanced,” said the clerk. And he turned his face away from the court and went back into the deep dark room of the records, where the dust does not lie and the numbers remain clean forever.

The later verses of the river-people sing that the lens remained in the city of the scales for six generations, and no man dared speak an untrue measure within fifty paces of its azure light; for all who raised a hand to break the glass found their own fist turned upon their own ribs, while the truth they sought to bury was shouted from the stones of their own hearths.

Moral of the Story: He who shields a lie with an iron weapon shall find his own blow returned to break the bones that carry his deceit.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Inquisitorial Eye of Beli

  • Description: A flawless circular monocle of pale azure quartz set into a hand-chased sterling silver bezel etched with miniature balance scales and wakeful eyes. A spring-loaded arm secures a tiny copper contact pin flush against the user’s temple, tethered to an ear counterweight by a fine silver chain.
  • Item Type: Unique Artifact / Arcane Optical Focus
  • Magic Points Cost: 2 MP to activate the reflective retaliatory burst; 1 MP to engage the veracity focus during interrogation.
  • Sanity Loss: 1 Sanity point upon attuning the temporal needle; 0/1D4 Sanity points for observers witnessing the concussive judicial detonation.
  • Armor Check & Passive Protection: Grants +1 point of physical armor against attacks directed specifically at the eyes, face, or cranium. Grants complete immunity to mundane visual impairments, including flash powders, blinding glares, and obscuring soot.
  • Discernment of Falsehood: While looking through the azure lens at an actively speaking subject within 10 yards, the investigator gains a Bonus Die to Psychology checks made to detect intentional deceit, omissions, or forged testimonies. Untruths manifest visually to the wearer as a curdled, plum-colored miasma drifting from the speaker’s mouth.
  • Retaliatory Perjury Shatter: Whenever the wearer is struck by an adjacent melee or hand-to-hand attack while the optic is worn, the wearer may immediately spend 2 Magic Points as an instantaneous reaction. The attacker must make an immediate Dodge roll:
    • Failure: The attacker suffers concussive force damage equal to the total hit points inflicted upon the wearer.
    • Success: The attacker dives partially clear, suffering half damage.
    • Resonance Calamity: If the attacking adversary is shielded by an active ward or defensive warding spell (such as Flesh Ward), the conflicting fields trigger a catastrophic harmonic detonation. Both the wearer and the attacker must pass an Extreme CON check or suffer 3D10 concussive damage, and every entity within a 15-foot radius takes 2D10 damage from the shattering shockwave.
  • Gavel of Repulsion: The investigator can spend 1 MP to discharge an unprovoked concussive pulse from the lens (Fighting: Brawl). On a Regular Success, it deals 1D3 damage; on an Extreme Success, the target is slammed backward 1D6 paces by an invisible gavel-blow.

Blades in the Dark

Beli’s Veracity Glass

  • Item Classification: Rare Arcane Apparatus (1 Load, worn on the face/eye).
  • Description: A pale blue crystalline monocle mounted in etched sterling silver, connected to a temple needle and fine ear-chain. The glass clouds with plum-colored smoke when falsehoods are spoken.
  • Quality: Fine (+1 Quality to gathering information, interrogations, and reading motives).
  • Tier: II
  • Inquisitor’s Sight: When you make a Study or Sway roll to detect lies, expose a con, or interrogate a suspect, you operate with +1 Effect level. The glass clearly highlights deception as a thick, bruised vapor around the liar’s throat.
  • Special Armor — Resonant Gavel: You may mark your Special Armor (or take 2 Stress) to trigger the lens’s reactive discharge when you take Harm from an adjacent melee attack:
    • Effect: The incoming strike detonates outward in a blinding sheet of mirrored light. The attacking adversary suffers Harm equal in level to the Harm you sustained (e.g., suffering Level 2 Harm inflicts Level 2 Harm onto the attacker).
    • Resonance Hazard: If the attacker possesses an active ghost shield, electroplasmic barrier, or protective occult amulet, the interaction triggers a catastrophic feedback surge: mark 3 Stress, absorb no incoming Harm, and all characters in the immediate area suffer Level 3 Harm (“Shattered Hearing and Crushed Ribs”) from the concussive detonation.
  • Push Yourself (Kinetic Dismissal): When you make a Command or Wreck roll to physically shove, repel, or intimidate a hostile adversary away from you, spend 1 Stress to gain +1d or push the effect to Great Effect, driving the target a dozen feet backward with an audible gavel-crack.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition, 2024 Revision)

Inquisitor’s Veracity Monocle

  • Wondrous Item, Common (Requires Attunement)
  • Item Slot: Eye
  • Armor Class Bonus: While wearing this monocle, you gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class, provided you are not wearing heavy armor that encases the head in a full visor.
  • Description: An azure crystal lens framed in hand-chased sterling silver featuring an articulated temple arm with a fine copper contact pin and a braided silver counterbalance chain.
  • Inquisitorial Discernment: You have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks made to determine if a creature within 30 feet of you is deliberately lying or concealing information. Additionally, you are immune to the blinded condition caused by sudden flashes of bright light.
  • Sympathetic Perjury Shatter: When a creature within 5 feet of you hits you with a melee attack and deals damage to you, you can use your reaction to trigger the monocle’s dormant ward. The attacker takes force damage equal to half the damage you sustained from the attack (minimum of 1 damage).
    • Resonance Calamity: If the attacker is protected by a spell or magic item that reflects or retaliates against damage (such as Armor of Agathys, Fire Shield, or a similar ward), both you and the attacker must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, both creatures take 3d6 force damage and are pushed 10 feet away from each other; on a successful save, each takes half as much damage and is not pushed.
  • Gavel of Repulsion: As an action, you can depress the temple-pin to release a concussive pulse of judicial kinetic pressure at an adjacent creature. Make a melee attack roll using your Strength or Dexterity modifier. On a hit, the target takes 1d4 bludgeoning damage, and if the target is Medium or smaller, it must succeed on a DC 11 Strength saving throw or be pushed 5 feet straight away from you.

Knave (2nd Edition)

Beli’s Truth-Glass

  • Item Slots: 1 Item Slot (Face/Head, counts toward carried encumbrance).
  • Item Armor: +1 Armor Check (AC 12 when combined with standard unarmored defense of 11).
  • Quality/Durability: 3/3 Quality.
  • Description: A silver-rimmed monocle of pale blue quartz held in place with a spring-arm against the eyebrow. Etched with scales of justice and warded against physical impact.
  • Sight of Truth: Grants the wearer Advantage on Wisdom checks made to discern lies, detect counterfeits, or break through deceptive illusions during social interactions.
  • Perjury Rebound: When an adjacent enemy hits the wearer in melee and deals HP damage, the wearer may test Constitution (rolling a d20 + Constitution bonus vs. DC 15) as an immediate reaction:
    • Success: The monocle discharges a thunderous crack resembling an iron gavel. The attacker suffers damage equal to the damage dealt to the wearer, and the monocle loses 1 point of Quality.
    • Failure: The ward fails to discharge; the wearer takes damage normally without reflection.
    • Resonance Shatter: If the striking target has an active protective spell or magical armor enchantment, the collision destroys the optic: the monocle drops to 0 Quality (shattered), the target’s ward unravels, and both combatants take 2d6 direct concussive damage.
  • Judicial Shove: Once per combat encounter, the wearer may use their combat action to make a Strength check against an enemy’s Strength defense to fire a concussive pulse from the lens. On a success, the foe is knocked back 10 feet and loses their next movement action as they recover balance.

Fate (Fate Condensed)

Beli’s Monocle of Judicial Reprisal

  • Aspects:
    • High Concept: Inquisitorial Azure Monocle of Kinetic and Deceptive Inversion
    • Trouble: Catastrophic Harmonic Detonation
    • Additional Aspect: Discernment of False Tongues
  • Stunts:
    • Sympathetic Perjury Shatter: Once per conflict, when you defend against a close-quarters physical attack with Fight and succeed with style, instead of taking a boost, you may inflict physical stress on the attacker equal to the incoming shift value prior to reduction. If invoked with a Fate point when suffering physical stress from an adjacent melee attack, the attacking opponent takes an immediate physical hit with shifts equal to the stress you suffered.
    • Resonance Hazard: If an opponent possesses an active mystical barrier, reactive armor, or kinetic deflection stunt, any triggered backlash forces both you and the attacker to immediately defend against a Great (+4) Fair-wide kinetic blast. Everyone in the zone takes shifts of stress on a failed defense.
    • Eye of the Inquisitor: You gain a +2 bonus to Empathy or Notice when actively testing to determine if an individual is telling a lie, withholding critical information, or speaking under a false identity.
    • Gavel of Repulsion: You gain a +2 to Overcome or Create an Advantage using Physique when bull-rushing, checking, or driving a target back out of close combat range using the lens’s concussive burst.

Numenera & Cypher System

The Inquisitor’s Veracity Optic

  • Level: 3 (Artifact)
  • Form: A pale azure crystal lens bound within a fine silver bezel chased with open eyes, linked to a spring-loaded temporal contact needle and ear counterweight.
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (checked upon triggering the reflective detonation).
  • Armor: Adds +1 to Armor against physical attacks directed at the face, eyes, or cranium.
  • Effect:
    • Reactive Perjury Wave: Whenever the wearer suffers physical damage from a melee or hand-to-hand strike within immediate range, the lens releases a concussive shockwave resembling an iron gavel strike. The attacking creature immediately suffers physical damage (ignoring Armor) equal to the raw damage points dealt to the wearer.
    • Harmonic Calamity: If the striking opponent is shielded by an active force field, personal energy shield, or defensive warding esotery, the harmonic interference causes an immediate overload: the artifact depletes automatically, the opponent’s defensive field collapses, and all creatures within short range suffer 6 points of ambient kinetic damage.
    • Ocular Discernment: The wearer gains an asset on all tasks involving the detection of lies, uncovering fabrications, or reading subtle biological indicators of deceit.
    • Gavel of Repulsion: As an action, the wearer may spend 1 Might point to discharge an invisible shock pulse from the lens. On a successful Might attack roll, an adjacent target suffers 3 points of damage and is knocked back an immediate distance.

Pathfinder (Second Edition Remaster)

Monocle of the Perjured Rebound

  • Item 3, Uncommon, Invested, Magical
  • Price: 55 gp
  • Usage: Worn eyewear (occupies the eye slot); Bulk: L
  • Inquisitorial Discernment: The wearer gains a +1 item bonus to Perception checks to Sense Motive against creatures speaking within 30 feet. The wearer is immune to the blinded condition caused by sudden flashes of bright non-magical light.
  • Sympathetic Perjury Shatter (Reaction):
    • Trigger: An adjacent creature hits the wearer with a melee Strike and deals physical damage.
    • Frequency: Once per day.
    • Effect: The azure lens flares with a brilliant silver-white disc of light and an acoustic gavel crack. The triggering creature must attempt a DC 18 basic Fortitude save:
      • Critical Success: The creature takes no damage.
      • Success: The creature takes force damage equal to half the damage dealt to the wearer.
      • Failure: The creature takes force damage equal to the full damage dealt to the wearer.
      • Critical Failure: As failure, and the creature is pushed 5 feet directly away from the wearer.
    • Arcane Resonance Hazard: If the triggering creature has an active reactive warding spell (such as fire shield or retributive strike), the collision destabilizes both wards. Both the wearer and the attacker take 2d8 sonic damage, and the monocle cannot be used again until repaired with a DC 18 Crafting check.
  • Gavel of Repulsion (Single Action):
    • Frequency: Once per 10 minutes.
    • Effect: The wearer makes an Athletics check to Shove an adjacent enemy using the monocle’s concussive pulse. On a success, the target is pushed back 5 feet; on a critical success, the target is pushed back 10 feet and falls prone.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition – SWADE)

Beli’s Gavel Monocle

  • Classification: Minor Arcane Device (Worn, Eye/Face)
  • Min Strength: d4
  • Weight: 0.5 lbs
  • Cost: $1,200
  • Armor Bonus: Provides +1 Armor to the Head area against frontal or facial impacts.
  • Veracity Ward: The wearer gains a +2 bonus to Notice and Smarts rolls made to detect lies, sense social deception, or resist visual blinding effects.
  • Sympathetic Backlash:
    • Whenever the wearer is struck by an adjacent melee attack and suffers at least one Wound or Shaken result, the optic immediately discharges.
    • The attacker must make an instantaneous Agility roll at -2.
    • Failure: The attacker suffers the exact amount of raw damage (matching dice roll and total) that was delivered to the wearer.
    • Success: The attacker manages to dive clear and takes half damage.
    • Resonance Calamity: If the attacker is protected by the arcane protection, barrier, or deflection powers, a violent harmonic loop triggers. The device immediately suffers a Malfunction, extinguishing its enchantment, and generates a Medium Blast Template centered on the wearer that deals 2d6 damage to everyone within.
  • Gavel Shove:
    • The wearer may use the device to execute an unprovoked Push maneuver without incurring a multi-action penalty. On a success, the opponent is shoved back 1″ (2 yards); with a raise, the target is pushed back 2″ (4 yards) and knocked Distracted.

Shadowrun (Sixth World)

The Inquisitor’s Veracity Monocle

  • Item Classification: Foci / Optical Accessory (Eye Mount)
  • Availability: 4 (R)
  • Cost: 8,500¥
  • Karma Binding Cost: 6 Karma
  • Defense Rating: +1 to overall Defense Rating against close-quarters attacks; grants the wearer the minor trait Unflinching Gaze (complete immunity to glare penalties, flash-bang blindness, and visual distraction effects).
  • Perjury Resonance Ward:
    • Whenever the wearer is struck by an opponent in Close combat and takes Physical or Stun damage after the Damage Resistance test, the monocle releases a concussive shockwave resembling the crack of an iron gavel.
    • The attacking opponent must immediately make a Damage Resistance test against an equal value of Physical damage matching the unresisted damage inflicted upon the wearer.
    • Resonance Hazard: If the attacking adversary is shielded by an active barrier or defensive spell (such as Armor or Physical Barrier) or an active kinetic dispersion cybernetic system, the collision causes an immediate harmonic rupture. Both the wearer and the attacker suffer 6P damage (AP -2) from the concussive burst, and the focus is deactivated until rebound during downtime.
  • Inquisitorial Discernment:
    • While looking through the azure lens at an actively speaking subject within 10 meters, the user gains a +2 dice pool bonus to Judge Intentions and Con (Empathy) tests made to detect deliberate lies, concealed details, or fabricated credentials.
  • Gavel Shove (Minor Action):
    • The user expends a Minor Action when making an Unarmed Combat attack to trigger the lens’s concussive burst.
    • If the attack successfully connects, the opponent is driven directly back 2 meters and must pass an Athletics + Agility (2) test or fall prone.

Starfinder (Second Edition)

Inquisitor’s Veracity Optic

  • Item 3, Uncommon, Tech, Worn
  • Price: 1,400 credits
  • Bulk: L
  • Usage: Worn (eye/face)
  • Armor Class Modifier: +1 item bonus to Armor Class against melee Strikes targeting the wearer’s upper body or head.
  • Optical Integrity: The wearer gains a +2 item bonus to Perception checks to Sense Motive against creatures speaking within 30 feet, and is completely immune to the blinded or dazzled conditions caused by sudden flashes of bright non-magical light or laser strobes.
  • Sympathetic Perjury Rebound (Reaction):
    • Trigger: An adjacent creature hits the wearer with a melee Strike and deals kinetic, piercing, or bludgeoning damage.
    • Frequency: Once per 10 minutes.
    • Effect: The azure crystal lens flares with a brilliant silver-white light and an acoustic gavel-crack. The triggering attacker must attempt a DC 18 basic Reflex save:
      • Critical Success: The attacker takes no damage.
      • Success: The attacker takes force damage equal to half the damage dealt to the wearer.
      • Failure: The attacker takes force damage equal to the full damage dealt to the wearer.
      • Critical Failure: As failure, plus the attacker is pushed 5 feet directly away from the wearer.
    • Energy Shield Resonance: If the striking opponent is shielded by an active kinetic barrier, personal force field, or defensive energy matrix, the feedback cascade causes both the target’s shield and this optic to overload. Both creatures take 2d6 sonic damage, and the shield/optic is rendered inactive for 1 minute.
  • Gavel of Repulsion (Single Action):
    • The wearer triggers the optic’s concussive pulse to make an Athletics check to Shove an adjacent enemy. On a success, the target is pushed back 5 feet; on a critical success, the target is pushed back 10 feet and becomes off-guard until the start of its next turn.

Traveller (Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition)

TL12 Veracity Interrogation Monocle

  • Tech Level: 12
  • Mass: 0.25 kg
  • Cost: Cr 4,500
  • Armor Value: +1 Armor to the Head location against frontal attacks (stacks with soft combat armor and open-face helmets).
  • Power Requirements: Powered by a micro-fusion battery cell (rated for 50 combat activations).
  • Discernment Circuitry:
    • The unit incorporates micro-pupillometry scanners and thermal stress analyzers. The wearer receives DM+1 to all Recon or Deception checks when evaluating whether a humanoid subject is actively lying or suffering stress from fabricated statements.
  • Piezoelectric Perjury Ward:
    • Whenever the wearer is hit in close combat (Brawling or Melee) and takes damage through their armor, the monocle’s piezoelectric lens discharges inverted kinetic energy into the assailant.
    • The attacker immediately takes concussive damage equal to the total points of damage dealt past the wearer’s armor (the attacker’s armor protects against this reflected blow normally).
    • Resonance Calamity: If the opponent is equipped with an active personal deflector screen or TL13+ energy defense field, the harmonic overlap causes a catastrophic field surge. The unit’s battery burns out, destroying the monocle, and an explosive wave inflicts 3D6 damage to all targets within 2 meters.
  • Concussive Repulsion Pulse:
    • As a combat action, the user engages the temporal focus pin to discharge a directional shockwave against an adjacent opponent.
    • The user rolls Melee (unarmed) with DM+1. On a success, the target is driven back 3 meters and must pass an Athletics (dexterity) check of 8+ to avoid being knocked prone.

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay (Wrath & Glory)

The Inquisitor’s Eye of Veracity

  • Value: 4 (Rare)
  • Keywords: IMPERIUM, ADEPTUS MINISTORUM, INQUISITION
  • Item Type: Headgear / Specialized Ocular Focus
  • Armor Rating: +1 Resilience against melee attacks directed at the head or face.
  • Blessed Truth-Sense: The wearer gains +1 bonus die to Insight (Fel) and Awareness (Int) tests made to detect deceit, heresy, or false oaths spoken in their presence. The wearer is completely immune to the Blinded condition from photon flash grenades or radiant flaring weapons.
  • Mirrored Perjury Retribution:
    • Whenever the wearer suffers 1 or more Wounds from a melee attack delivered by an enemy within Engagement range, the silver-mounted crystal optic detonates with an acoustic roar like a judge’s hammer.
    • The striking enemy immediately suffers Shock equal to the total Wounds inflicted upon the wearer.
    • Perils of Resonance: If the attacker is protected by an active Rosarius, Refractor Field, or psychic barrier (such as Fiery Form or Psychic Shield), the colliding energies trigger a violent warp-resonance spike. The user gains 1 point of Wrath or triggers a Minor Perils of the Warp roll, and both combatants take 1d3+3 Mortal Wounds from the uncontained blast.
  • Gavel of Dismissal:
    • The wearer can make an unprovoked melee strike utilizing the lens’s concussive pulse with their standard Melee pool.
    • On a hit, it inflicts 5 +1ED damage, and if the target fails an opposed Strength check against the user, the target is shoved 2 meters out of Engagement range.