Contract 19 of Shifting Form

Appearance:  This contract takes the form of a shimmering, multifaceted crystal worn as a pendant. The crystal’s facets seem to dance with an inner light, constantly shifting in color and shape.

Lore: The crystal was a shard of a powerful fey artifact said to grant its wielders the ability to shift their appearance at will. This artifact was shattered long ago in a war between fey factions, but fragments like Contract 19 retain a sliver of that ancient power.

Detailed Stats

• Slot: Necklace
• Roleplay Emphasis: Alteration. The wielder likely has an interest in disguise, impersonation, or blending in with their surroundings. The constantly shifting crystal might draw curious glances or suspicion.
• Costs: 300 gold (Common Rarity)

Passive Magics

• Camouflage: The wearer gains Advantage on Stealth checks when trying to blend in or remain unnoticed.
• Shimmering Aura: The crystal projects a subtle aura, granting the wearer a +2 bonus to Charisma (Deception) checks when attempting to misrepresent their identity or intentions.

Active Magics

• Minor Shapechange (3 uses per long rest): The wielder can alter their physical appearance for a short duration (1 hour). This change is largely cosmetic, including things like height, build, hair color, eye color, skin tone, etc. It cannot replicate a specific person or grant significant physical advantages.

Tags: Arcane, Illusion, Shapeshifting

Roleplaying Notes:

• The wielder’s reasons for using this item are crucial. Are they a spy, a thief seeking to avoid detection, or simply someone desperate to escape who they are?
• The shifting crystal can hint at a more playful personality under the facade.
• The minor shapechanging ability has limits. Players should be encouraged to be creative and resourceful within those limits, emphasizing the roleplaying aspect.

How Contract 19 of Shifting Form can be used for offense and defense through roleplay in various situations:

• Defense (Social Situations):
  • Avoiding Detection: The character can use the Minor Shapechange to alter their appearance slightly, making them less recognizable after a crime or to evade unwanted pursuers.
  • Evading Scrutiny: The Camouflage and Charisma bonus can aid the character in blending into a crowd or appearing unremarkable during an interrogation.
  • Creating a False Identity: Minor Shapechange combined with Deception checks allows the creation of a new persona for the character, potentially useful for undercover operations.
• Offense (Social Situations):
  • Infiltration: The character can use Minor Shapechange to impersonate someone with lower social standing, gaining access to restricted areas or acquiring information.
  • Deception: The Shimmering Aura and Charisma bonus can make lies more believable, allowing the character to manipulate others for personal gain.
  • Advantageous Negotiations: The character can alter their appearance to appear more trustworthy, intimidating, or pathetic, depending on the situation and the desired outcome of negotiations.
• General Roleplay
  • The Shifting Crystal: The constantly changing nature of the crystal can be a source of amusement or suspicion. The character might explain it away as a harmless quirk or use it to their advantage, claiming it reflects their ever-changing moods.
  • Mysterious Origins: The character might have vague knowledge of the crystal’s history, hinting at a connection to the fey or a lost magical tradition. This can add intrigue and a sense of hidden power.
  • The Price of the Contract: There’s always a cost to Contract Magic. Is there a hidden fee the character must pay, a task for the patron who bestowed the crystal, or a subtle manipulation of their personality?
• Remember:
  • Creativity is key! The Minor Shapechange ability can be used for various disguises, allowing players to think outside the box.
  • The contract doesn’t grant complete transformation. Emphasize the subtle alterations and the importance of roleplaying to truly embody a disguise.
  • The Shimmering Aura can be a double-edged sword. It can bolster deception, but it might also draw unwanted attention to the constantly shifting crystal.

Perception of Activation:

• Sight
  • Perceived: The crystal’s facets swirl and shift at an accelerated rate, the colors blurring and blending. A faint glow surrounds the crystal, growing in intensity during the shapechange.
  • Description: The swirling colors might resemble a kaleidoscope, creating a mesmerizing and slightly disorienting visual effect.
  • Positives: The visual display adds a touch of spectacle to the activation, hinting at the transformative magic at work.
  • Negatives: The intense glow might draw unwanted attention, especially in low-light situations.
• Sound
  • Perceived: A soft hum emanates from the crystal, rising in pitch and volume as the transformation takes place. It might resemble the sound of wind chimes or gentle music.
  • Description: The hum adds a subtle auditory layer to the activation, suggesting a gentle flow of energy.
  • Positives: The sound could be soothing to the wielder, offering a sense of focus during the transformation.
  • Negatives: While soft, the hum might still be noticeable in silent environments.
• Touch
  • Perceived: The crystal feels warm and vibrates faintly against the wearer’s skin. During the shapechange, this vibration intensifies, almost like a tingling sensation.
  • Description: The warmth and vibration provide a physical indicator of the magic at work, giving the item a tactile dimension.
  • Positives: The sensation can be reassuring, offering a sense of connection to the transformation process.
  • Negatives: The tingling might become uncomfortable over an extended duration.
• Extra-Sensory Perception: Mind’s Eye
  • Perceived: As they focus on their desired transformation, the wielder sees a series of hazy, shifting images in their mind’s eye, representing potential forms they might assume.
  • Description: These images might be fleeting and indistinct, reflecting the limitations of the Minor Shapechange ability.
  • Positives: Provides a visual guide to the wearer, aiding them in fine-tuning their desired appearance.
  • Negatives: The mental images can be confusing or overwhelming, especially for someone inexperienced with shapeshifting.
• Extra-Sensory Perception: Residual Impressions
  • Perceived: As the crystal activates, the wielder might feel a faint echo of the emotions or memories of the artifact’s previous users.
  • Description: These sensations might be fleeting and fragmented – a wisp of fear, a flash of mischievous delight, etc.
  • Positives: Offers a glimpse into the item’s history and could even provide clues to its origin or previous uses.
  • Negatives: The residual emotions might momentarily disorient or emotionally affect the wielder.

Recipe: Crystal of Shifting Form

• Materials Needed:
  • Prismatic Crystal: A crystal with high clarity and a natural tendency to refract light, creating a spectrum of colors. This crystal should be about the size of a large pendant.
  • Fey Touched Silver: Silver infused with fey magic, identifiable by a faint, iridescent sheen. Enough silver is needed to form a delicate chain and setting for the crystal.
  • Enchanted Dyes: Specialized dyes imbued with the magic of illusion and transformation. These dyes can be purchased or crafted by an alchemist skilled in this area.
  • Moonstone Dust: Fine-ground moonstone, which adds a magical luminescence to the final item.
• Tools Required:
  • Jeweler’s Tools: A precision kit for working with silver and gemstones.
  • Engraving Tools: Necessary for inscribing the crystal with delicate arcane runes.
  • Enchanter’s Workspace: A secure location with access to wards and specialized tools for imbuing items with magical properties.
• Skill Requirements:
  • Arcana (Proficiency): Knowledge of arcane principles and the ability to identify and channel magical energies into items.
  • Jewelcrafting (Advantage): While not strictly necessary, expertise in jewelcrafting allows for finer work on the pendant setting and engraving of the runes.
  • Nature (Advantage): Knowledge of the fey and their magic might aid in identifying materials and understanding the enchantment process.
• Crafting Steps
  • Rune Inscription:
    • Consult with arcane texts or a knowledgeable individual to determine the appropriate runes of transformation and illusion.
    • With meticulous care, utilize the engraving tools to etch the chosen runes onto the surface of the prismatic crystal.
  • Infusion of Dyes:
    • In a small crucible, melt a small amount of the Fey-Touched silver.
    • Carefully mix a few drops of each enchanted dye into the molten silver, using your Arcana skill to guide the process.
    • Shape the silver into a delicate setting and chain for the crystal.
  • Assembly:
    • Securely place the etched crystal into the silver setting.
    • As you assemble the pendant, focus your intent, visualizing the desired properties of shapeshifting and deception flowing into the item.
  • Lunar Empowerment:
    • Under the light of a full moon, sprinkle moonstone dust over the completed pendant.
    • Recite a brief incantation of change and illusion, drawing upon the moon’s transformative energy to finalize the enchantment.
• Important Notes:
  • The specifics of the runes and incantation are crucial to the item’s function.
  • The crafting process can be infused with ritual or ceremony, enhancing the connection to the fey origins of the artifact.
  • Crafting this item requires a delicate balance of mundane skill and arcane understanding.

Fae Trickster’s Gift
A Shard of Shifting Stone

From crumbling scrolls, weathered and worn, comes a tale spun in twilight’s embrace. It speaks of a Fae trickster, a creature of mischief and moonlight, who reveled in blurring the lines between truth and illusion. One fateful night, the Fae encountered a weary traveler, lost and seeking solace.

The traveler, burdened by a life of hardship, poured out their heart, longing for a chance to escape their woes.  The Fae trickster, ever playful, offered a peculiar gift – a shimmering stone, its facets swirling with a kaleidoscope of colors.

“With this stone,” the Fae whispered, their voice like tinkling bells, “you can become anyone, anything. But remember, dear traveler, borrowed faces can hide but never heal.”

Blinded by hope, the traveler accepted the gift.  For a time, they reveled in their newfound freedom. They donned the visages of the wealthy, the powerful, experiencing a taste of a life they never knew.  But with each transformation, a hollowness grew within them. The borrowed identities brought no true joy, only a deepening sense of isolation.

One day, the traveler looked into a reflective pool and saw not the face they wore, but the weary soul beneath. Fear gripped them – they could no longer remember their true form.  Desperate, they sought the Fae trickster, but the creature had vanished, leaving only mocking laughter on the wind.

Alone and lost, the traveler wandered, a shell without a self. Finally, after a lifetime of searching, they stumbled upon a hidden well rumored to possess restorative magic.  With a heavy heart, they gazed into the well’s depths, accepting their reflection, flaws and all.

As tears streamed down their face, a soft luminescence emanated from the well.  The borrowed faces, one by one, melted away, revealing the traveler’s true form, weathered but strong.  The stone, its magic spent, crumbled to dust in their hand.

The traveler, forever marked by their choices, emerged from the well, no longer seeking to escape their life, but to face it with newfound courage.

Moral:  Though illusion may offer temporary escape, true happiness lies in embracing who you truly are.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

• Artifact: The Crystal is a Minor Artifact, likely imbued with a touch of the Dreamlands. Its origins could tie into a whimsical but potentially cruel entity of the fey courts.
• Sanity Cost: Using the Shapechange ability imposes a sanity cost (perhaps 1/1D4), reflecting the disorienting effects of altering one’s identity.
• Skill Bonuses: Provides bonuses to Disguise, Impersonate, and potentially Psychology, giving the wielder an edge in social deception.
• Mythos Lore: Using the crystal might grant fleeting glimpses of the Dreamlands or strange fey creatures, increasing the character’s Cthulhu Mythos rating.

Blades in the Dark

• Vice Purveyor: The Crystal functions as a unique Vice Purveyor, offering a tempting escape from reality at a price.
• Stress Cost: Using the Shapechange ability inflicts Stress, as navigating social deception in Doskvol is rarely without risk.
• Claims: The wearer could use the Crystal to create Claims against those they deceive, representing a future risk of their disguise being unraveled.
• The Whisper Mechanic: The residual impressions gleaned from the Crystal can function as a special ability, adding complications or fueling desperate actions depending on the situation.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

• Rarity: Likely a Rare wondrous item.
• Attunement: The Crystal might require attunement, reflecting the bond formed between the wielder and its unique transformative magic.
• Stat Bonuses: +2 Charisma (Deception), potentially an Intelligence bonus for recognizing social cues needed for a convincing disguise.
• Shapechange: Modeled as a spell-like ability (similar to the low-level Polymorph or Disguise Self spells), usable 3/day with limitations on the extent of the transformations.
• Lore: Extensive lore surrounding the Crystal’s origin and its connection to the Feywild is a must, offering quest hooks and potential encounters with mischievous (or even malevolent) fey creatures.

Knave

• Treasure: The Crystal is a unique Treasure with a hefty value, reflecting its potent ability.
• Skill Check Replacements: Bonuses to Deception translate to replacing a d20 roll with a d8 or d10, in line with Knave’s mechanics.
• Fey Echoes as GM Intrusion: Brief glimpses of the Crystal’s past can be a fantastic GM Intrusion tool, throwing unexpected complications or clues into the scene.
• Shapechange as a Complication: The Shapechange ability is powerful but risky. Failed Deception checks could trigger dire Complications, as per Knave’s rules.

Fate (Core or Accelerated)

• Artifact of Power: The Crystal is a powerful artifact with its unique set of aspects and narrative weight.
• Aspects: Examples include “Shimmering Facets of Transformation,” “Whispers of Forgotten Selves,” and “Fey Bargain Struck.” These aspects can be invoked, compelled, and influence tag bonuses.
• Stunts: Encourage the creation of custom stunts to enhance the use of the Crystal. Potential stunts could provide bonuses to create advantages relating to disguises, reading a person’s intentions, or quickly changing appearances in tense situations.
• Consequences: Each use of the Minor Shapechange could lead to consequences representing the psychological toll of identity manipulation or attracting unwanted attention from those who see through illusions.

Numenera & Cypher System

• Artifact: The Crystal functions as a level 4-6 artifact, granting potent social abilities. It might be a unique cypher with limited uses and a chance of unintended side effects.
• Descriptor: The Crystal grants the descriptor “Ephemeral” or “Illusion Weaver”.
• Abilities: Reduces the difficulty of Disguise, Deception, and potentially Numenera-specific tasks involving reading social cues by one or two steps. The Shapechange is a powerful ability with a hefty cost in Intellect points, or a cypher-like effect with a risk of unintended consequences or depletion.
• Depletion: A 1 in d100 chance of depletion upon use, reflecting the volatile nature of its transformative magic. Depletion could result in a temporary loss of identity or a backlash of uncontrolled shapechanging.

Pathfinder (2nd Edition)

• Rarity: Likely a Rare or Unique magic item.
• Item Bonus: +2 Item Bonus to Deception checks. Potential bonuses to other social skills like Sense Motive or Intimidation could be considered.
• Invested: This item likely requires the wearer to be Invested to properly channel its arcane nature.
• Action: Shapechange: A special action (possibly two Actions) allowing for the transformative effects. Successful Deception checks maintain the effect, while failures reveal the true form, potentially with additional consequences.
• The Fey Patron: The Crystal could offer a unique Background choice for the wielder, with thematic boons and potential drawbacks reflecting their connection to the fey.

Savage Worlds

• Hindrance: The potential for disorientation or identity loss aligns well with a custom Hindrance (Minor or Major), offsetting the Crystal’s benefits.
• Edges: Consider custom Edges like “Master of Disguise” or “Unbreakable Illusion” to enhance the Crystal’s abilities.
• Power: Shapechange: Model the Shapechange as a new Arcane Power with the Trappings of illusion and transformation. Potential Backlash upon failure ties into Savage Worlds’ mechanics.
• Setting Specific: Adjust lore and the nature of the fey patron to fit your chosen Savage Worlds setting. (Deadlands, Weird War II, etc.)

Shadowrun (6th Edition)

• Focus: The Crystal would function as a magical focus, specifically a Power Focus. Its social and mental manipulation powers make it ideal for Face or Mage archetypes.
• Tradition: The fey origins suggest either a Hermetic or Shamanic focus. A custom tradition tied to illusion and transformation could be even more thematic.
• Drain: Using the Crystal should incur a moderate Drain Value (2-4), especially for activating its Shapechange ability.
• Astral Signature: The Crystal’s constant arcane activity leaves a distinct astral signature. This could attract spirits or unwanted attention from rival mages who recognize hints of fey magic.

Starfinder

• Hybrid Item: It fits thematically as a hybrid item (both magical and technological).
• Rarity and Level: Likely a Rare item, around item level 5-8.
• Skills: Bonuses to Bluff, Disguise, and perhaps Sense Motive to reflect its deceptive power.
• Shapechange as an Exploit: Model Shapechange as a powerful but limited-use technomancy exploit. Failure to maintain the illusion might impose a system malfunction or temporary penalties related to deception.
• Alignment and Patron: Consider if the Crystal has a specific alignment restriction, potentially reflecting the nature of the fey patron (lawful, chaotic, etc.).

Traveller (MgT2)

• Psionic Artifact: The Crystal could be a relic of a lost psionic civilization or a minor psionic artifact with a focus on disguise and social manipulation.
• Psionic Skills: Provides bonuses to relevant social skills like Carouse, Deception, and perhaps even Telepathy to tap into the empathic aspect of reading others.
• Psionic Strain: Using active abilities, especially Shapechange, should cause psionic strain, reflecting the mental exertion involved.
• Ancient Patron: The fey patron becomes a mysterious plot hook, potentially a powerful psionic entity from the distant past or even a veiled alien intelligence.

Warhammer (Fantasy or 40,000 – Rogue Trader)

• Warp-Touched Artifact: This item screams “touched by the Warp/Chaos!” Its connection to the fey could be a disguised link to Slaanesh, the Chaos God of excess, pleasure, and illusion.
• Forbidden Lore: The Crystal is inherently dangerous and could provide a bonus to Forbidden Lore related to the Warp, fey, or illusions.
• Corruption/Insanity: Using the Crystal risks Corruption in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, or Insanity in Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader.
• Dark Patron: The true ‘patron’ of this artifact is likely a daemon of Slaanesh or a manipulative Warp entity. This relationship is fraught with danger, the constant temptation of Chaos, and the potential for horrific physical mutations.