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Sakha 384 of the Shifting Pelt Veil

—

by

Dale
in

Lore

  • Across the windswept tundra and mist-choked river basins of the northern island nations, nomadic oloyons learned that traveling between hostile settlements or journeying into spirit realms required slipping past watchful eyes unnoticed. To walk among foreign clans, suspicious frontier garrisons, and wild beasts without inciting alarm, shamans crafted light veil-masks woven from winter hare fur, river reeds, and beaten copper ribbons. Sakha 384 of the Shifting Pelt Veil was stitched by an oloyon who walked through three hostile border checkpoints during a great grazing war simply by adopting the visage of a humble wandering skinner. By singing the quiet cadences of the white hare that changes its coat with the turning frost, the wearer wraps their form in a deceptive spiritual shroud that blurs facial contours and softens identifying marks.

Description

  • Sakha 384 of the Shifting Pelt Veil is a lightweight half-mask and lower-face cowl crafted from soft, supple white winter-hare pelt lined with cured caribou calfskin. The upper bridge that rests over the nose is supported by a thin band of hand-hammered copper, etched with small stylized tracks of tundra animals and circular spirit drums. Hanging from the lower hem of the fur veil are fine copper wire tassels interspersed with beads of bleached scrub birch wood and braided horsehair. When lifted to cover the face, the veil emits a faint, breathy whisper like cold wind rustling dry reeds, and the wielder feels a cool, powdery numbness across their cheeks and brow.

Detailed Stats

  • Item Tier: Tier 1
  • Rarity: Common
  • Item Hit Points: Avatars maximum hit points plus 10
  • Item Resilience: 10
  • Base Damage: None (Non-weapon apparel)
  • Armor Check: 0
  • Weight: Quarter of a pound
  • Suggested Value: 35 Silver (subject to local market conditions)
  • Attunement: Head/Face attunement is performed automatically when worn over the face

Slot Face Slot (or Head Slot)

Passive Magics

  • Blend of the White Hare: The copper bridge channels the deceptive spirit of seasonal tundra fauna, granting a +1 bonus on Deception and Disguise checks made to blend into crowds, pose as a harmless traveler, or impersonate a laborer of similar ancestry.
  • Scentless Prowl: The treated caribou lining absorbs natural biological odors, granting advantage on checks made to conceal one’s presence or identity against creatures tracking by mundane or supernatural scent.
  • Face of the Stranger: The spiritual weave blurs minor facial scars, birthmarks, and distinguishing eye coloration in the memory of casual onlookers; guards or passersby who only glance at the wearer must succeed on an active insight check or suffer a -2 penalty to recall specific facial traits when questioned later.

Activable Magics

  • Pelt of the Masked Wanderer: As an action, the wearer draws the veil up over their nose and speaks a low three-beat oloyon cadence. A soft violet haze rolls over the wearer’s physical features and garments for up to 1 hour, altering the apparent coloration, texture, and modest styling of their clothes (such as changing a traveler’s tunic into worn beggar rags, simple hunter furs, or a basic dockworker’s smock) while adjusting facial skin tone and perceived age by up to twenty years.
  • Voice of the Reed Whistler: By expending one action to gently pinch the copper nose bridge and hum a breathy note, the wearer can alter the pitch, accent, and timbre of their spoken voice for 10 minutes, effortlessly mimicking common regional dialects or adopting the voice of another gender.
  • Phantom Hare Feint: As a reaction when an adversary attempts an Insight or Perception check to penetrate the wearer’s active disguise or recognize their wanted face, the wearer taps the birch beads at the veil’s hem. A sudden flicker of violet static and drifting snow-down distracts the observer’s focus, forcing the investigator to make the check with disadvantage or take a -2 circumstance penalty.

Tags

  • Face, Head, Common, Tier 1, Apparel, Mask, Veil, Fur, Copper, Birchwood, Shamanic, Disguise, Deception, Illusion, Ward, Infiltrator, Camouflage, Glamour, Mimicry, Tundra-Hare, Caribou-Skin, Scentless, Masquerade, Faceless, Espionage, Cowl

Commercial Trade and Acquisition of Sakha 384 of the Shifting Pelt Veil

  • Costumiers and Theatrical Haberdashers: In affluent metropolitan districts and floating pleasure barges catering to high-society galas, specialized mask-makers and milliners supply actors, opera performers, and masquerade revelers. In these elegant storefronts, items that shift appearance or soften features are treated as premium stage novelties. Because merchants in these districts cater to discretionary spenders, purchasing the veil carries a standard market price of 35 to 45 silver. Selling an authentic oloyon veil here earns approximately 31 silver from a boutique dealer, accounting for a 10% tier reduction for a Tier 1 seller. All transactions are logged instantly through municipal ledger crystals, debiting the buyer’s World Bank balance viewable in their Mind’s Eye while applying the mandated 1% transaction fee rounded up to the nearest copper.
  • Underground Fences and Shadow Guild Brokers: Hidden behind false storefronts in dockside alleys, unmonitored slums, and smugglers’ tunnels, illicit brokers supply wanted outlaws, political dissidents, and clandestine couriers. In these clandestine backrooms, the veil’s ability to obscure identity and confound scent-tracking hounds makes it a hot commodity. Fences refuse all interaction with the crown’s World Bank ledgers to prevent tracking, demanding physical silver coin directly. Purchasing the veil from a shadow broker costs a steep 50 to 65 physical silver coins. When selling the piece to a fence, the broker offers no more than 22 to 26 physical silver, factoring in the risk of fencing gear that might carry an active scrying trace or municipal heat.
  • Frontier Furriers and Tundra Trappers’ Exchanges: Located at the edges of northern island frontiers where nomadic hunters gather to trade hides, tallow, and cured bone, trading posts view this veil as practical survival wear for evading predatory beasts or territorial raiders. The clerks here are accustomed to barter and practical utility rather than criminal deception. Avatars can buy the veil for a modest 30 to 35 silver, frequently paid via a combination of bank ledger transfers and raw pelts. When selling the veil to an outpost factor, the trader offers around 25 silver, recognizing the durability of the caribou calfskin and the authentic hammered copper craftwork.
  • Adventurers’ Guild Stores and Free-Company Quartermasters: Established inside fortified outposts and garrisoned hubs, guild supply depots cater to reconnaissance scouts, scouts-for-hire, and diplomatic envoys tasked with infiltrating hostile territories. Verified members of recognized adventuring factions who display their badges receive an institutional discount of 10% per tier level, allowing a Tier 1 scout to acquire the veil for 31 silver, while unaffiliated wanderers pay the full list price of 35 silver plus local crown tariffs. When selling the piece back to an adventuring quartermaster, the proceeds are deposited cleanly into the seller’s World Bank ledger, with the item formally cataloged in the guild’s regional reconnaissance inventory.

Tactical and Environmental Roleplay of the Shifting Pelt Veil Across Varied Terrains

  • Fortified Frontier Checkpoints and Border Gates: Guarded bridges and stockade gates are choke points where sentries scrutinize identity papers, baggage, and wanted broadsheets. In defense, an avatar wearing the veil relies on the Face of the Stranger passive, which clouds the memories of passing guards; even if an avatar is stopped briefly, the sentry struggles to recall distinguishing marks or facial scars once the traveler moves along. When a watchman steps close to inspect a suspicious profile, the user triggers the Phantom Hare Feint reaction by flicking the wooden hem beads, releasing a subtle flurry of static and white down that derails the guard’s scrutiny. On the offense, the operative employs the Pelt of the Masked Wanderer alongside the Voice of the Reed Whistler, projecting the appearance and grating dialect of a weary supply drover. Slipping past the gatehouse under this guise, the avatar gains direct access to inner courtyards, scouting the garrison’s troop count and unlocking gate levers from within before an assault.
  • High-Society Salons and Grand Masquerade Balls: Within the sprawling marble manors and lantern-lit pleasure barges of noble districts, physical force triggers instant alarm, leaving deceit and subtle charm as the primary tools of survival. Defensively, the veil functions as a fashionable half-mask, seamlessly deflecting suspicion while the Scentless Prowl property masks the telltale odors of travel, canal damp, or dungeon mud that might betray a delver in an opulent salon. Offensively, an infiltrator uses the Pelt of the Masked Wanderer to reshape their attire into the livery of a catering servant or the embroidered silk doublet of a minor foreign dignitary. By pinching the copper nose band to adopt the refined accent of an elite house, the avatar walks into private parlors, mingles with high-ranking councilors to eavesdrop on military plots, or plants incriminating documents in an unattended study without drawing a single glance.
  • Windswept Tundra and Frozen River Flats: Across desolate northern plains where territorial predators and rival nomadic war parties roam, exposure means death. In defense, the Blend of the White Hare passive merges the avatar’s silhouette with the rolling snowbanks, while the Scentless Prowl suppresses natural body odors, preventing dire wolves and frost-stalkers from catching a downwind scent. If an apex predator begins to close in, the avatar activates the Phantom Hare Feint, tossing a burst of illusory down to break the predator’s lock and redirect its attention toward an empty snowdrift. On the offense, a hunter shifts the veil’s appearance to mimic the pale pelts of a caribou calf or tundra beast. Adopting animalistic breathing patterns, the stalker inches within striking distance of an enemy raiding camp’s perimeter guards, neutralizing sentries before they can sound a war horn.
  • Crowded Industrial Docks and Smuggling Slums: Among the dense fog, creaking cranes, and tight alleyways of coastal port cities, rival gangs and harbor wardens constantly monitor outsiders. In defense, the avatar slips through crowded fish markets, using the veil’s passive glamour to shed their identity among the teeming dock hands; any municipal inspector attempting to match the avatar’s face to a wanted notice finds their vision sliding off the blurry contours of the nose and brow. Offensively, when hunting a syndicate target hidden in a heavily defended safehouse, the operative triggers the active powers to take on the rough canvas apron, grime-streaked complexion, and coarse dockside jargon of a barrel loader. Delivering an “authorized” crate of salt fish straight to the compound’s back door, the avatar bypasses the exterior lookouts entirely, initiating a close-quarters ambush right in the target’s private quarters.

Perception of Activation:

  • Sight:
    • User’s Perspective: Drawing the fur hem over the nose and uttering the three-beat cadence causes the world to momentarily dim as if viewed through falling snow. The etched paw tracks and spirit drums on the copper brow-band ignite with a subtle, cold violet light that reflects off floating, crystalline motes. Looking down, the wielder watches their clothing and hands dissolve into swirling, low-hanging lavender vapor before snapping back into the form of coarse beggar’s wool, grease-stained leather, or humble linen.
    • Observer’s Perspective: A soft, shifting ripple runs down the wearer’s silhouette, resembling heat shimmer rising from frozen tundra. The copper brow-band flares with a faint violet contour, while a delicate mist of purple static and white down rolls across the face and shoulders, leaving behind an entirely ordinary, unobtrusive stranger in humble working garb.
    • Positives: Completely disguises distinct identifying features, armor materials, and clothing styles without the bulk of physical costume changes.
    • Negatives: The initial violet flare and swirling static are noticeable in dim alleys or unlit rooms if an observer happens to look directly at the wearer during the precise second of transformation.
  • Hearing:
    • User’s Perspective: The rush of blood in the ears quiets into the sound of a hollow winter gale sweeping across an empty reed marsh. When the user speaks, their own voice sounds double-layered—their true vocalization hums faintly behind a seamless, breathy veneer of the adopted dialect, pitch, and cadence.
    • Observer’s Perspective: Those nearby hear a brief, dry rustle like wind through brittle marsh grass, accompanied by the gentle, hollow clicking of the birch beads and copper tassels hanging from the mask hem. When the wearer speaks, their tone matches the target persona with natural vocal inflections and accent.
    • Positives: Perfectly masks vocal pitch, gender markers, and regional accents, allowing effortless spoken deception; the bead clicking sounds like ordinary travel gear movement.
    • Negatives: In dead-silent environments, the distinct rustle of dry reeds and the faint chime of copper tassels can draw the attention of nearby guards with heightened hearing.
  • Touch:
    • User’s Perspective: A sudden wave of dry, powdery cold washes across the face, temples, and neck, followed by a light prickling numbness similar to holding a handful of fresh powder snow. Despite the chill, the caribou skin lining feels soft, supple, and entirely weightless against the cheeks.
    • Observer’s Perspective: If an onlooker reaches out to touch the disguised attire, their fingers feel the genuine, convincing texture of coarse wool, rough homespun, or weathered leather, overlaid with a faint, static crispness like dry fleece on a winter day.
    • Positives: Eliminates sweat on the brow and cheeks; provides tactile realism to physical garments, preventing casual bumps or searches from exposing the glamour.
    • Negatives: The intense facial numbness dulls the wielder’s sensitivity to subtle drafts, flying dust, or minor skin abrasions while the veil is worn high.
  • Smell:
    • User’s Perspective: The air beneath the mask turns crisp and sharply cold, carrying the clean aroma of fresh frost, crushed sweetgrass, and dry birch bark, completely blocking the user’s natural body sweat.
    • Observer’s Perspective: Anyone leaning close catches only the faint, natural scent of dried winter moss, clean caribou hide, and the neutral smell of unwashed work clothes appropriate to the assumed disguise, with no trace of sweat, fear hormones, or perfume.
    • Positives: Thoroughly strips the wielder’s distinct scent signature, confounding bloodhounds, dire wolves, and trackers who rely on olfaction.
    • Negatives: The strong smell of cold frost and dry moss can seem unnatural and out of place in warm, humid tropical climates or deep, sulfurous subterranean caverns.
  • Taste:
    • User’s Perspective: A mild, refreshing taste of melted snow, sweet birch sap, and cold river water rests upon the back of the tongue, keeping the throat moist and steady during speech.
    • Observer’s Perspective: A bystander caught in the drifting purple mist experiences a dry, clean mineral tang on the lips, like inhaling frozen air during a sudden blizzard.
    • Positives: Prevents dry mouth, raspy coughing, and involuntary throat-clearing during tense interrogations or extended conversations.
    • Negatives: Dulls normal gustatory senses, making it difficult to detect subtle poisons or sourness in offered food and drink while undercover.
  • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
    • Mind’s Eye Resonance (The Faceless Mirror):
      • User’s Perspective: The metaphysical HUD of the Mind’s Eye displays a flickering, translucent profile of the active disguise superimposed beside the avatar’s vitality metrics. A soft blue duration gauge counts down the remaining minutes of vocal mimicry and fabric glamour, alerting the wielder before the illusion fails.
      • Observer’s Perspective: Other avatars viewing the user through their Mind’s Eye register an indistinct, blurred aura where identity markers typically appear, reflecting an obscured profile and masked tier indicators.
      • Positives: Keeps the operator aware of the exact operational lifespan of the glamour; hides the wearer’s real status and identity from basic scrying probes.
      • Negatives: The superimposed identity icon in the mental periphery can cause brief cognitive disorientation during rapid combat shifts.
    • Spirit-Tether Dissociation (The White Hare’s Ghost):
      • User’s Perspective: The spiritual tether connecting the user’s soul to the avatar body experiences a momentary loosening, as if the spirit were floating slightly behind the shoulders. The wielder perceives onlookers not as threats, but as heavy, slow-moving predators whose sight lines can be dodged with the effortless instinct of a tundra hare.
      • Observer’s Perspective: Sensitive or spiritually tuned beings sense a sudden dispersal of presence—the feeling that an imposing or distinct individual has been replaced by an insignificant, harmless creature not worth noticing.
      • Positives: Greatly reduces physiological panic, keeping the avatar calm, observant, and unflinching under hostile questioning.
      • Negatives: Repeated or prolonged dissociation can leave the wielder feeling briefly detached from their own name and past identity upon unmasking.

Crafting Recipe: Shifting Hare-Pelt Cowl

Materials Needed

  • One prime winter pelt of a mature northern white hare, unbroken and harvested during peak frost
  • One supple backing segment of cured caribou calfskin (ten inches by six inches) to act as a scent-absorbing lining
  • One Tier 1 magic crystal (coin-sized and coin-weighted), charged with illusion, transmutation, or glamer mana to anchor the visual shift
  • Two ounces of hand-beaten copper ribbon and one ounce of fine square-twist copper wire
  • Six turned spherical beads of bleached scrub birch wood (each drilled with a center hole)
  • One braided horsehair hank (eight inches long) taken from a white or roan tundra mare
  • Two vials (six ounces total) of living spring birch sap drawn using a fluid collector
  • One sacrificial consumable or minor focus carrying a disguise, silence, or glamer property (such as an Elixir of Disguise, a Potion of Invisibility, or a scroll inscribed with minor illusion)
  • Half an ounce of blended beeswax and rendered mutton tallow for edge burnishing

Tools Required

  • Fine furrier’s curved stitching needles and bone awls
  • Shears and razor-sharp leather skiving knives
  • Manual fluid collector fitted with a micro-draw cannula
  • Miniature jeweler’s ball-peen hammer and curved horn anvil
  • Hand-cranked pin vise drill with fine copper-wire bits
  • Earthenware smoking brazier with dry sweetgrass and peat embers

Skill Requirements

  • Leatherworking / Furrier Craft: Minimum Skill Level 4 (trained)
  • Arcane Tailoring / Runecarving: Minimum Skill Level 4 (trained)
  • Subterfuge Expertise: At least 1 rank in Disguise, Deception, or Streetwise to ensure the cut properly breaks up facial silhouettes

Crafting Steps

  • Step 1: Pelt Curing and Scent Neutralization: Skive the fleshy side of the white hare pelt to uniform thickness. Submerge the pelt and the caribou calfskin lining into a shallow vat of cold spring birch sap mixed with crushed sweetgrass for six hours. Gently wring the skins and smoke them over the brazier with dry peat for two hours, stripping away all natural musk and priming the hide grain to hold deceptive mana.
  • Step 2: Copper Brow-Band Shaping and Chasing: Cut the copper ribbon into an eight-inch band contoured to bridge the human nose and cheekbones. Using the jeweler’s hammer on the horn anvil, tap the copper into a comfortable nasal arch. Inscribe the outer face with stylized animal tracks, river reeds, and round oloyon spirit drums. Drill small paired eyelets along the upper and lower edges of the metal band for leather anchoring.
  • Step 3: Crystal Mounting and Channeling: Carve a shallow bed into the center underside of the copper nose arch to receive the coin-sized Tier 1 magic crystal. Drill hairline conduits outward from the crystal seat to the outer edge eyelets. Seat the crystal into place, securing it with fine copper wire stitched through the plate, ensuring the stone remains in direct acoustic contact with the metal band.
  • Step 4: Hide Stitching and Cowl Assembly: Align the cured white hare pelt over the caribou calfskin backing, sandwiching the lower eyelets of the copper brow-band between the leather layers. Using fine caribou sinew and the curved furrier’s needle, sew the layers together with a tight, concealed overcast stitch. Hem the outer border, leaving the top edge open to form the flexible facial cowl.
  • Step 5: Sacrificial Transference and Spirit Cadence: Lay the assembled mask over the smoking earthenware brazier. Pour the sacrificial consumable (the disguise potion or illusion scroll ash) over the glowing sweetgrass embers. As the fragrant, purple-tinted smoke rises through the hare fur, chant the three-beat oloyon cadence of the changing hare for fifteen minutes without interruption, rhythmically tapping the copper nose bridge with a bone awl. Draw the smoke directly through the pelt and into the crystal until the fur takes on a soft, shifting violet sheen.
  • Step 6: Tassel Weaving and Final Burnish: Divide the horsehair hank into three equal braids and thread them through the six bleached birch beads, securing two beads per braid with tight copper-wire wraps. Stitch the finished tassel drops evenly along the lower fur hemline of the veil. Rub the exposed leather seams with the beeswax and tallow blend using a smooth bone burnisher to lock out moisture, completing the creation and leaving the mask ready for immediate facial attunement.

384 Skin of Snow-Jumper and Blind King of Iron Gates

In the old winter before the great water-circle was cut into seventy and three pieces by the copper knife of the sky-giants, the world was very wide, very cold, and smelled of wet dog and cold iron. The sleep-walkers who had tumbled out of the sky-mother’s wool sack were wandering upon the moss. They had no names written in brass, nor did they have the round coin-plates to buy grease in the market-place. Their blood was thin, like water that has been boiled twice with old turnip leaves, and their heads were like soft clay pots that have not seen the fire.

At this season, upon the flat land where the river turns into white salt, there sat a small skin-scraper whose name was Three Marks, Eight Scratches, and Four Cuts. The monk-scribe who wrote the parchment under King Boar-Tusk set down only the numbers three, eight, and four, but the tundra folk made the throat-noise that sounds like dry reeds clicking when the ice-wind pushes them into the mud. Three-Eight-Four-Man was a Tier-One creature of very little meat-worth. He had only twenty measures of bone-juice and ten measures of tree-life. He was not a striking-man with three elbows, nor did he possess an iron hammer that makes the earth spit fire. He had only a little bone scraper and an old needle made from the rib of a marsh-pike.

Now, across the river-salt was the kingdom of the Great Bull-Watcher. The Bull-Watcher was an ancient soul of many iron plates, whose house was made of seven stone walls. In his yard were three hundred hounds whose noses were so sharp they could smell a dead vole through three spans of packed drift-snow. Between the land of the sleep-walkers and the house of the Bull-Watcher stood three great gatehouses of sharpened pine logs. At the first gate stood sixty club-men who demanded three baskets of dried salmon from every traveler. At the second gate stood forty spear-men who looked into the face of every man to see if he had the black eye-spot of a ditch-born thief. At the third gate stood the Bull-Watcher himself, holding a chain of twenty hunting dogs that had teeth like copper chisels and eyes red like birch embers.

In that dry winter, the frost-sickness entered the brush-huts of the tundra clan. The children had throats that closed like dried leather bladders, and their mothers wept into their empty cooking pots. An old wandering woman who had only one ear came through the snow-drift and said: “Behind the seven walls of the Bull-Watcher sits the great jar of red fat that was skimmed from the heart of the first mammoth. One thumb of that red grease upon the tongue will make the throat open like a spring flower, but the Bull-Watcher gives no grease to ditch-folk, and his hounds eat the meat of any stranger whose foot crosses the gate-line.”

The tall meat-strikers of the sleep-walkers, who had fifty measures of bone-juice and big axes of black flint, went down to the first gate. They shouted with their big lungs and said: “Open the wood, for our children have closed throats!” But the sixty club-men laughed with yellow teeth and shot sixty arrows of fire-hardened ash through the fence-slits. The meat-strikers were pierced through their brisket-plates; they fell into the frozen slush and were dragged into the bushes by the winter-badgers.

Three-Eight-Four-Man sat upon the skin of an elk and watched his sister’s child whose breath had become small and dry like the squeak of a field-mouse. He did not take up a flint spear, for his wrists were thin like willows. He walked out into the deep drift where the white hare hides under the dwarf birch.

The white hare was sitting upon the snow, white upon white, so that the great horned owl could not see where the snow stopped and the hare began. Three-Eight-Four-Man knelt in the drift and spoke into the cold wind. The chronicle says he did not kill the hare with a sling, but spoke the oloyon throat-song of the middle-world, asking the small beast for the loan of its winter-cloak. The hare died of its own years upon the moss, and Three-Eight-Four-Man took its pale coat with his bone knife, leaving the heart and the red marrow upon the altar-stone of the spirit-bull.

He returned to his smoke-hole. He took a ribbon of soft red copper that had been washed down by the river-flood. He hammered the red ribbon until it was arched like the bridge of a man’s nose, and upon its face he chased the little marks of the hare’s feet and the three round drums of the spirit-journey. Behind the white hare-fur he stitched a lining from the breast-hide of a sucked caribou calf, which drinks up the smell of sweat and fear so that the wind carries nothing away. Under the hem he tied six little wooden balls cut from scrub birch and three tail-braids taken from an old gray mare.

He lifted the fur across his mouth. He pressed the red copper band upon the bone between his eyes. He sang through his teeth the three-beat cadence: hu, ha, he.

The ancient monk wrote upon his sheep-skin: When the man closed his face with the skin, his spirit did not stay in his boots. The world around him became dim like a pond under thick river-ice. The red copper band began to shine with a cold purple fire, not like a fire that cooks a turnip, but like the light that sits upon the mountain stones when the sky-gods are sick. A cloud of lavender frost rolled down his neck and over his chest. His greasy reindeer shirt of rags vanished, and in its place sat the brown woolen tunic of an old manure-raker, stiff with dry straw and speckled with the lime of chickens.

Three-Eight-Four-Man walked down to the first gate where the sixty club-men stood leaning upon their knotty timbers.

The captain of the gate spat into the snow and lifted his club: “Who walks upon the ice toward the ditch-gate?”

Three-Eight-Four-Man did not shout. He pinched the copper nose-arch between two dirty thumbs and hummed through his nostrils like the north wind in a hollow reed. When he opened his mouth, his tongue did not make the clicking sound of the tundra-sleep-walkers; he spoke in the fat, round dialect of the lower mud-valleys, his voice creaking like an old wagon axle that needs lard: “I am only the dung-raker of the third valley, come to sweep the dropping-stones in the yard of the great house.”

The gate-men looked upon his face, but their eyes could not catch the edges of his nose or the hollow of his chin. The chronicle says their thoughts became loose like wet grain; they looked at him and saw only an old man whose face they had seen seven thousand times before, whose name was no more than the name of a gray stone in a gravel heap. They opened the pine gate three spans wide and said: “Pass through, old muck-scraper, and do not drop your straw in the gateway.”

He walked through the gate and came to the second stockade, where the forty spear-men held high their bronze points. The corporal of the guard held up a piece of dried calf-skin upon which was painted the black faces of all the runaways and thieves of the seven continents. The corporal held the skin beside the nose of Three-Eight-Four-Man and stared with two hard gray eyes.

Three-Eight-Four-Man tapped the three birch beads against his belt-cord: clack, clack, clack.

A sudden sprinkle of white snow-down and violet sparks flew into the eyes of the corporal. The corporal sneezed three times, wiped his greasy sleeve across his nose, and his brain-spirit became heavy and clouded. He looked upon the painted calf-skin, then upon the wanderer, and the lines of the picture melted into water behind his eye. “Go your way, gray brother,” said the spear-man. “You have no face that is written down in the king’s book.”

Then Three-Eight-Four-Man came to the third barrier, where the Bull-Watcher sat upon his stone throne with his twenty red-eyed hounds. The hounds did not use their eyes; their eyes were milky and blind, but their nostrils were big as plum-stones and were always wet with the red water of tracking.

The hounds sprang to their feet. They lifted their black lips and showed teeth that were longer than a man’s thumb, sniffing the north wind to find the blood of an uninvited meat-walker.

The wind blew straight from Three-Eight-Four-Man into the throats of the beasts. But the caribou lining and the frozen hare-fur ate the smell of his body. The dogs breathed only the dry scent of winter lichen, cold river-slate, and the sour straw of an old horse-manger. The dogs let their tails fall down between their thighs; they lay upon the cold flagstones and put their noses into their paws, thinking the wind was empty.

The Bull-Watcher looked down from his iron chair. His breast was covered in sixteen plates of yellow bronze, and his hands were thick like the feet of an elk. “Old scraper,” said the king, “go into the fat-shed and fill your wicker basket with the pig-bones, then be gone before the sun Helios hides his face.”

Three-Eight-Four-Man bowed his head low, so that the copper brow-band caught the blue shadows of the stone hall. He went into the inner fat-shed where the great jar of heart-grease sat upon four stone feet. He did not break the clay jar with a hammer. He took a bladder from his shirt, dipped it deep into the sweet red suet, and tied the mouth with a horsehair string. He walked out through the third gate, then through the second gate, then through the first gate, carrying the stolen grease upon his brisket beneath the white fur of the veil.

The sixty club-men nodded to him as he passed. The forty spear-men did not raise their points. The twenty hounds slept upon their stones, dreaming of dead voles.

When he reached the brush-huts of his clan, he took the fur veil from his cheeks. The violet light died away like a candle dropped in the snow. His garments became once more the poor, greasy rags of an unranked sleep-walker, and his face returned to its sharp, cold skin-lines. He took the red fat and put a thumb of it upon the tongue of the dying child.

The chronicle records that the child’s throat opened with a great sweet gasp, like a frozen spring when the ice breaks in the fifth month; the red blood returned to its ears, and it sat up to eat the turnip broth.

Three-Eight-Four-Man lived through forty more turns of the frost. When his days were completed and his soul-thread snapped, his flesh did not rot to feed the marsh-crows. Because he was an avatar born of the sky-mother’s loom, he dissolved in a puff of cold lavender mist that smelled of fresh snow and sweetgrass. There remained upon the moss only a round grease-stone of Tier-One light, and beside it the little cowl of winter hare, its red copper ribbon still holding the shape of the nose that was no man’s nose, carrying the ancient scratches which the monk-scribe could not read, but which were translated by the old wise-women as: “He who wears his own face everywhere is a target for sixty arrows, but he who borrows the face of the snow can carry home the fat while the hounds are sleeping.”

Moral of the story: Pride drives the foolish warrior to brandish his name and his iron where the gates are closed and the bows are bent; but the humble man who can shed his own pride and wear the likeness of a harmless stranger will pass through seven walls and save his people without shedding a drop of blood.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

Name: The Shamanic Cowl of the Faceless Hare

  • Skill Association: Disguise, Stealth, and Fast Talk
  • Armor Rating: 0
  • Base Range: Self
  • Sanity Cost: None for passive wear; 1 Sanity point upon attunement.
  • Physical Form: A supple lower-face cowl of white tundra-hare pelt lined with cured calfskin, mounted on an etched copper bridge-band with bead tassels.

Special Mechanics and Artifact Properties:

  • Blend of the White Hare (Passive): The investigator gains one Bonus Die on all Disguise and Stealth rolls made to blend into crowds, pose as an unremarkable traveler, or evade recognition.
  • Scentless Prowl (Passive): The investigator cannot be tracked by biological scent. Guard dogs, hunting beasts, or olfactory-sensitive entities take a Penalty Die on any rolls to detect or track the investigator.
  • Face of the Stranger (Passive): Any onlooker attempting to recall the investigator’s facial features, distinctive scars, or distinguishing marks after a casual encounter must make an Extreme INT Roll. On a failure, they can recall only a vague, generic silhouette.
  • Pelt of the Masked Wanderer (Active Spell):
    • Cost: 3 Magic Points.
    • Action Time: 1 combat round (drawing the fur up over the nose and speaking a low three-beat chant).
    • Effect: A shifting glamour alters the apparent style, coloration, and wear of the investigator’s clothing and adjusts perceived age by up to twenty years for 1 hour. This grants an additional Bonus Die on Fast Talk or Charm rolls when impersonating a specific social class (such as a dockhand, laborer, or vagabond).
  • Voice of the Reed Whistler (Active):
    • Cost: 2 Magic Points.
    • Duration: 10 minutes.
    • Effect: Gently pinching the copper bridge allows the investigator to modulate vocal pitch, accent, and dialect, effectively mimicking regional speech patterns or another gender without raising suspicion.
  • Phantom Hare Feint (Active Reaction):
    • Cost: 2 Magic Points.
    • Trigger: An observer attempts a Spot Hidden or Psychology roll to scrutinize the investigator’s cover.
    • Effect: The user rattles the birch beads at the cowl’s hem, throwing a brief flicker of violet static and drifting snow-down into the observer’s senses. The observer must make their roll with a Penalty Die.

Blades in the Dark

Name: Oloyon’s Shifting Cowl

  • Item Profile: An arcane mask and cowl of white hare fur bound with an etched copper nose-band, concealing identity and deadening physical scent.
  • Load: 0 Load (Concealed beneath clothing or around the neck) or 1 Load if worn overtly as headgear.

Mechanics and Abilities:

  • Unremarkable Silhouette (Passive):
    • When you make an action roll using Deceive, Prowl, or Sway to slip past watchmen, blend into an unfamiliar crowd, or adopt a low-status persona, you operate with increased effect.
    • Scent-tracking beasts (such as watch-hounds or hull-beasts) have zero effect when attempting to sniff out your trail.
  • Pelt of the Wanderer (Active):
    • Activation Cost: Suffer 1 Stress.
    • Mechanic: Push yourself to pull up the veil and chant the changing rhythm. Your garments and facial age shift instantly to match a chosen lower-class guise (e.g., dock worker, street scavenger, or scullery servant) for the remainder of the score or until voluntarily lowered. This improves your position on infiltration actions from Risky to Controlled.
  • Vocal Mimic (Active):
    • Activation Cost: Suffer 1 Stress.
    • Mechanic: Pinch the copper bridge to adopt the exact slang, dialect, and voice timbre of a specific faction or district for ten minutes, allowing effortless blending in spoken conversation.
  • Phantom Flare (Active Reaction):
    • Activation Cost: Suffer 1 Stress.
    • Mechanic: When an inspector, sentry, or rival investigator scrutinizes you closely or begins an interrogation, rattle the birch hem beads. Suffer 1 Stress to force the NPC to hesitate as their senses mist with illusory frost, allowing you to bypass their suspicion or slip out of view.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Name: Veil of the Shifting Hare

  • Wondrous Item, uncommon (requires attunement)
  • Item Slot: Head / Face
  • Weight: 0.25 lb.

Properties and Passives:

  • Blend of the White Hare: You gain a +1 bonus to Charisma (Deception) and Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to blend into crowds, navigate public spaces unnoticed, or maintain a mundane disguise.
  • Scentless Prowl: You leave no biological scent trail. Wisdom (Perception) checks made to detect or track you using scent have disadvantage.
  • Face of the Stranger: Any creature that has seen you casually while the veil is worn must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom (Insight) check to accurately recall your facial features, eye color, or scars later.

Active Charges: The veil has 3 charges and regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.

  • Pelt of the Masked Wanderer: As an action, you can expend 1 charge to draw the veil over your face and hum the ancestral rhythm. For 1 hour, your clothing shifts in texture, cut, and color to resemble simple working clothes, beggar’s rags, or travel attire, and your apparent age shifts by up to 20 years. This effect functions as the disguise self spell, but can only project unassuming, commoner personas.
  • Voice of the Reed Whistler: As an action, you can expend 1 charge and pinch the copper nose arch. For 10 minutes, you can change the sound of your voice to mimic different accents, dialects, or vocal pitches you have heard before.
  • Phantom Hare Feint: When a creature within 30 feet of you makes a Wisdom (Insight) or Wisdom (Perception) check to discern your true identity or penetrate your disguise, you can use your reaction to expend 1 charge to rattle the birch beads. The triggering creature makes its check with disadvantage.

Knave (Second Edition)

Name: Snow-Hare Veil

  • Inventory Cost: 1 Item Slot (Head / Face)
  • Base Armor: 0
  • Qualities: Winter Hare Pelt, Etched Copper Band, Birch Bead Tassels
  • Durability / Uses: 3 Quality / Usage Points

Rules and Mechanics:

  • Unseen Wanderer (Passive):
    • While worn over the mouth and nose, gain Advantage on all Charisma and Dexterity checks made to pass as an ordinary stranger, avoid recognition by guards, or mingle into dense crowds.
    • Hounds and scent-tracking monsters cannot pick up your trail.
  • Pelt Glamour (Active):
    • Activation: Spend your action to lift the veil and chant three throat notes.
    • Effect: Your garments and facial features take on the appearance and texture of a worn laborer or humble wanderer for 1 exploration turn (10 minutes). Mark 1 Usage point on the veil.
  • Voice Mimic (Active):
    • Activation: Pinch the copper bridge and hum softly for 1 round.
    • Effect: For 1 exploration turn, your voice flawlessly adopts any local dialect, common accent, or pitch you choose, granting Advantage on checks to convince guards or locals that you belong to their community.
  • Hare Feint (Active Reaction):
    • Activation: When an NPC challenges your disguise, identity, or paperwork, shake the birch beads at the hem.
    • Effect: A spray of pale static frost distracts the examiner. The NPC must make a Wisdom Save (DC 13); on a failure, their suspicion is broken, and they wave you through without further inspection. Mark 1 Usage point on the veil.

Fate (Fate Core / Condensed)

Name: Cowl of the Pale Drifter

  • Item Aspect: Shamanic Hare-Pelt Mask of the Unnoticed Wanderer
  • Type: Apparel / Social Infiltration Stunt Extra

Stunts and Rules:

  • Blend of the White Hare (Passive): You gain a +2 bonus to Create an Advantage or Overcome using Deceive or Stealth when attempting to blend into crowds, adopt the guise of a humble traveler, or walk unnoticed past sentries.
  • Scentless Presence (Passive): Opponents gain no invoke bonuses from scent-based aspects (such as Trained Bloodhounds or Keen Scent), and scent-tracking attempts against you face Great (+4) passive opposition.
  • Pelt of the Masked Wanderer (Active): Once per scene, spend 1 Fate Point to pull the veil over your face and hum an ancestral rhythm. Place the situational aspect Face in the Crowd or Humble Laborer’s Garb on yourself with two free invokes. While active, your garments and perceived age shift smoothly to match the chosen mundane cover.
  • Voice of the Reed Whistler (Active): Once per scene, spend 1 Fate Point to pinch the copper bridge. For the rest of the scene, you flawlessly mimic a specific regional dialect, class vernacular, or pitch, gaining a +2 bonus to Rapport or Deceive rolls in verbal social exchanges.
  • Phantom Hare Feint (Active Reaction): When an opponent rolls Investigate, Notice, or Empathy to see through your active disguise, spend 1 Fate Point and tap the birch beads. The observer’s scrutiny falters against a haze of illusory frost, granting you a +2 bonus to your active defense roll.

Numenera & Cypher System

Name: Scentless Shifting Veil

  • Level: 3
  • Form: Supple lower-face mask of white tundra-hare pelt lined with cured hide, supported by an etched copper nose-bridge with hanging birch beads.
  • Kind: Artifact (Depletion: 1 in 1d10, rolled only when activating the visual glamour or the phantom feint)

Mechanics:

  • Apparel Slot: Face / Head
  • Unseen Traveler (Passive): Tasks involving blending into crowds, posing as an ordinary bystander, or moving unseen among sentries are eased by one step.
  • Scentless Dampener (Passive): Tasks to track or identify you using biological scent face an increased difficulty by two steps.
  • Pelt Glamour (Active): As an action, the wearer raises the veil over the nose and chants an oloyon cadence. A soft visual field alters the texture and coloration of clothing to match coarse laborer’s garments, and shifts perceived facial age by up to two decades for one hour. Roll for Depletion immediately.
  • Vocal Modulation (Active): As an action, pinching the copper band allows the wearer to alter vocal pitch, timbre, and accent for ten minutes. All deception or interaction tasks relying on dialect mimicry are eased by one step.
  • Phantom Feint (Active Reaction): When an observer attempts to scrutinize your features or penetrate your disguise, you may spend your reaction to rattle the birch beads. The observer’s perception task is hindered by two steps due to drifting illusory snow-down. Roll for Depletion immediately.

Pathfinder (Second Edition)

Name: Shifting Pelt Veil

  • Item: Item 2
  • Traits: Uncommon, Illusion, Primal, Visual
  • Price: 35 gp
  • Usage: Worn mask; Bulk: L

Item Mechanics:

  • Blend of the White Hare (Passive): You gain a +1 item bonus to Deception checks made to Impersonate an ordinary, low-status individual (such as a laborer, beggar, or simple pilgrim) and to Stealth checks to Hide or Sneak in crowded areas.
  • Scentless Prowl (Passive): You leave no distinct biological scent trail. Creatures that rely on the scent imprecise or precise sense treat you as undetected unless they can perceive you through another sense.
  • Face of the Stranger (Passive): Casual observers attempting to recall your facial features, scars, or distinct coloration must succeed on a DC 16 Perception check, recalling only vague, generic traits on a failure.

Activate — Pelt of the Masked Wanderer:

  • Action Economy: Two Actions (concentrate, manipulate)
  • Frequency: Once per day
  • Effect: You draw the veil over your face and recite a quiet three-beat cadence. The veil casts an illusory disguise over you that lasts for 1 hour, functioning as a 1st-rank illusory disguise, but limited to projecting humble, unassuming personas.

Activate — Voice of the Reed Whistler:

  • Action Economy: One Action (manipulate)
  • Frequency: Once per day
  • Effect: You gently pinch the copper bridge. For 10 minutes, you alter your voice’s pitch and accent, gaining a +1 status bonus to Deception checks made to mimic regional accents or vocal dialects.

Activate — Phantom Hare Feint:

  • Action Economy: Reaction (manipulate)
  • Trigger: A creature within 30 feet attempts a Perception check to Seek you or an active Perception check to see through your disguise.
  • Frequency: Once per day
  • Effect: You shake the birch beads at the veil’s hem. A sudden flurry of static and illusory white down clouds the target’s vision, inflicting a –2 circumstance penalty to the triggering check.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

Name: Oloyon Shifting Veil

  • Item Classification: Minor Arcane Apparel
  • Weight: 0.5 lb.
  • Requirements: Worn on Face

Mechanics and Properties:

  • Blend of the White Hare (Passive): The wearer gains a +1 bonus to Stealth and Performance rolls made to blend into crowds, act unremarkable, or maintain a humble, working-class disguise.
  • Scentless Prowl (Passive): The wearer produces no trackable scent. Beasts and tracking rolls that rely on smell suffer a –4 penalty when attempting to locate or follow the wearer.
  • Face of the Stranger (Passive): Sentries or casual witnesses attempting to recall the wearer’s physical features after an encounter must make a Smarts roll at –2 or remember only generic, non-identifying traits.

Active Powers:

  • Pelt of the Masked Wanderer: Once per day, the wearer may spend an action pulling the cowl over their face to activate a minor visual glamour lasting 1 hour. This power mimics the disguise power, shifting physical clothing to modest attire and adjusting perceived age by up to twenty years.
  • Voice of the Reed Whistler: Once per encounter, pinching the copper nose bridge allows the wearer to alter their voice for 10 minutes, granting a +2 bonus to Persuasion or Taunt rolls that rely on mimicking regional dialects or vocal traits.
  • Phantom Hare Feint: Once per session, as an immediate reaction when an adversary makes a Notice roll to penetrate the disguise or recognize the character’s wanted visage, the wearer rattles the wooden beads. The examiner’s Notice roll is made with a –2 penalty as drifting sparks of illusory down disrupt their line of sight.

Shadowrun (Sixth World)

Name: Veil of the Shifting Hare Focus

  • Item Rating: Rating 2
  • Type: Qi Focus / Enchanted Mask
  • Bonding Karma Cost: 4 Karma
  • Concealability: +2 (Worn as an unassuming scarf, cowl, or mask)
  • Form: Soft white tundra-hare pelt lined with cured caribou hide, anchored across the bridge of the nose by an etched copper band with birch-bead drop cords.

Mechanics and Abilities:

  • Blend of the White Hare (Passive): While the focus is active and worn over the face, add +1 die to Con (Impersonation) and Stealth tests made to blend into crowds, navigate public checkpoints unnoticed, or maintain a humble working-class persona.
  • Scentless Prowl (Passive): Biological tracking sensors, paracritters, and cybernetically enhanced olfaction gear (such as Olfactory Boosters) suffer a -2 dice pool penalty when attempting to track or detect the wearer by scent.
  • Face of the Stranger (Passive): Observers attempting to recall identifying facial traits or reconstruct a commlink composite image of the wearer from casual memory must succeed on an Intuition + Logic (Threshold 3) test; otherwise, they remember only a vague, generic silhouette.
  • Pelt Glamour (Active):
    • Action: Major Action
    • Frequency: Once per infiltration run
    • Effect: The user draws the veil high and hums a low three-beat rhythm. A localized illusion cloaks the wearer’s garments and physical profile for up to 1 hour, altering the apparent wear, cut, and color of their clothes to match basic laborer garb, street rags, or low-tier service jumpsuits.
  • Vocal Modulation (Active):
    • Action: Minor Action
    • Frequency: Once per combat scene or infiltration leg
    • Effect: Pinching the copper bridge allows the wearer to alter their pitch, vocal timbre, and regional dialect for 10 minutes, providing +1 die to Con tests involving spoken dialogue.
  • Phantom Feint (Active Reaction):
    • Action: Minor Action (Interference)
    • Trigger: An observer or scanner attempts an active Perception test to pierce the disguise.
    • Effect: The wearer rattles the birch beads at the hem. Illusory frost-down and static disrupt the examiner’s focus, reducing the target’s threshold or dice pool on the Perception test by 2.

Starfinder (Second Edition)

Name: Shifting Pelt Veil

  • Item Level: Item 2
  • Traits: Uncommon, Illusion, Primal, Visual
  • Price: 35 gp
  • Usage: Worn mask; Bulk: L

Item Mechanics:

  • Blend of the White Hare (Passive): You gain a +1 item bonus to Deception checks made to Impersonate an ordinary, low-status individual (such as a maintenance worker, laborer, or generic traveler) and to Stealth checks to blend into crowded concourses.
  • Scentless Prowl (Passive): You leave no distinct biological scent trail. Creatures that rely on the scent sense treat you as undetected unless they detect you with another sensory apparatus.
  • Face of the Stranger (Passive): Casual observers attempting to recall your facial features, cybernetic face plates, or distinct pigmentation must succeed on a DC 16 Perception check, recalling only generic traits on a failure.

Activate — Pelt of the Masked Wanderer:

  • Action Economy: Two Actions (concentrate, manipulate)
  • Frequency: Once per day
  • Effect: You draw the veil over your face and recite a quiet three-beat cadence. The veil casts an illusory disguise over you that lasts for 1 hour, functioning as a 1st-rank illusory disguise, but restricted to projecting humble, unassuming personas.

Activate — Voice of the Reed Whistler:

  • Action Economy: One Action (manipulate)
  • Frequency: Once per day
  • Effect: You gently pinch the copper bridge. For 10 minutes, you alter your voice’s pitch and accent, gaining a +1 status bonus to Deception checks made to mimic regional accents or alien vocal dialects.

Activate — Phantom Hare Feint:

  • Action Economy: Reaction (manipulate)
  • Trigger: A creature within 30 feet attempts a Perception check to Seek you or penetrate your disguise.
  • Frequency: Once per day
  • Effect: You shake the birch beads at the veil’s hem. A sudden flurry of static and illusory white down clouds the target’s vision, inflicting a –2 circumstance penalty to the triggering check.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Name: Pre-Tech Olfactory-Baffling Glamour Veil

  • Technology Level: TL 1 (Anomalous / Holographic-Chameleon Shroud)
  • Mass: 0.1 kg
  • Skill Association: Deception, Stealth, or Persuade
  • Form: Pale hare fur cowl fitted with a beaten copper bridge-band, internal caribou olfactory filters, and birch-bead resonant drop cords.

Mechanics and Abilities:

  • Silhouette Masking (Passive): When using the veil to blend into civilian populations, slip past starport entry gates, or adopt the identity of a common deckhand or laborer, apply DM+1 to Deception and Stealth checks.
  • Olfactory Baffle (Passive): Guard beasts, tracking droids, and environmental sniffers attempting to track the user by biological scent suffer DM-2 on Recon or Electronics (sensors) checks.
  • Facial Diffusion (Passive): Witnesses or port security personnel attempting to recall distinguishing facial features without digital sensor logs must succeed on an Intelligence check (8+) or fail to describe any actionable identifying markers.
  • Pelt Glamour (Active):
    • Action: Significant Action
    • Effect: Drawing the veil high activates a subtle optical distortion field that shifts the apparent texture, color, and cut of clothing into worn work overalls or plain traveler garments for 1 hour. Apply DM+1 to social interaction checks when passing as an authorized worker.
  • Acoustic Dialect Modulation (Active):
    • Action: Minor Action
    • Effect: Compressing the copper nose band modulates vocal resonance for 10 minutes, allowing the user to mimic native world accents and dialects flawlessly (granting DM+1 on Persuade checks during interrogation).
  • Sensor Flare (Active Reaction):
    • Action: Reaction
    • Effect: Shaking the birch beads releases a momentary particulate dispersion of static and synthetic down, imposing DM-2 on an immediate opposed Recon or Investigate check made by a suspicious sentry.

Warhammer (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition)

Name: Cowl of the Tundra Hare

  • Classification: Specialist Apparel / Minor Glamour Relic
  • Price: 3 GC 10/–
  • Encumbrance: 0
  • Availability: Rare
  • Qualities: Fine

Mechanics and Properties:

  • Blend of the White Hare (Passive): The wearer gains a +10 bonus to Stealth (Rural or Urban) and Entertain (Acting) tests made to blend into crowds, act unremarkable, or pose as a humble peasant, serf, or wandering pilgrim.
  • Scentless Prowl (Passive): Hunting hounds, tracking animals, and beastkin cannot detect or track the wearer by scent; any test relying on smell against the wearer automatically fails.
  • Face of the Stranger (Passive): Any NPC attempting an Average (+20) Intuition Test to recall the wearer’s facial features or match them to a wanted warrant suffers a -1 SL penalty on a failure, recalling only generic, nondescript peasant traits.

Active Abilities:

  • Pelt of the Masked Wanderer:
    • Action: 1 Action (Drawing the fur cowl high and humming the three-beat oloyon rhythm).
    • Frequency: Once per day.
    • Effect: A subtle shimmer alters the wearer’s garments into patched traveler’s wool, greasy leather apron, or tattered beggar’s smock for 1 hour, granting +1 SL on successful Charm or Gossip tests when dealing with the lower social classes.
  • Voice of the Reed Whistler:
    • Action: 1 Action.
    • Frequency: Once per day.
    • Effect: Pinching the copper nasal plate alters the pitch, cadence, and dialect of the wearer’s voice for 10 minutes, granting a +10 bonus to Haggle or Bribery tests made while assuming a regional cover identity.
  • Phantom Hare Feint:
    • Action: Reaction.
    • Trigger: An examiner, witch hunter, or city watchman initiates an Opposed Perception or Intuition test to pierce the disguise.
    • Effect: The wearer shakes the birch hem beads, discharging a burst of illusory static and drifting white down. The examiner takes a penalty of -20 to the opposing test.