Illuminators Tusk Caps 734

From: Lineage 813 of the Tide Forged Scholarchs

As a scholar and researcher, Lyra-Vael has little need for sharpened battle tusks. Instead, the tips of her tusks are fitted with these masterfully crafted, polished silver caps. They are seamless and smooth, inscribed with microscopic Vo-Run runes that spiral towards the point. These tusk inlays are utility items of the highest order; when the wearer focuses their will, the caps can be made to glow with a steady, clear light, perfect for illuminating ancient ruins, deciphering faded manuscripts, or navigating the unlit archives of a Dreampool after hours.

Lore

The Illuminator’s Tusk Caps are more than just a tool; they are a legacy item of the Tide-Forged Scholarchs lineage. The first set was crafted centuries ago by Matriarch Elara, a brilliant artisan and explorer who led the first expeditions into the deep, unlit cave systems of Aboriginal. Standard torches were unreliable in the damp caverns, and magical flames were often unstable. Elara, a master of microscopic Vo-Run scripting, pioneered a method of inscribing silver with glyphs so fine they could siphon the faint, ambient magic from Saṃsāra’s environment and convert it into pure, steady light.

This technology became a hallmark of the Scholarch lineage, and the caps became a traditional gift bestowed upon a young scholar when they were accepted into a major university or archive, symbolizing the start of their journey to bring the light of knowledge into the dark places of ignorance.

The specific pair Lyra-Vael wears, number 734, was given to her by her mother, Matriarch Varya-Sol, upon her acceptance to the Grand Confluence University. It was a gift meant to guide her down the traditional, well-lit halls of established academia. For Lyra-Vael to now use their light to delve into the forbidden ruins and question the very history her mother upholds is a source of quiet, personal conflict. Every time she activates their glow, it is a reminder of the legacy she honors and the path she has chosen to defy.

Item Values

Tier One Stats:
- Illumination: Creates bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet.
- Ocular Fortitude: Grants a +1 bonus to saving throws against effects that would cause the blinded condition.
Skills Gained:
- Revealing Light: The pure, unwavering light of the caps helps reveal what is hidden. The wearer gains a +1 bonus to all Investigation checks made to find secret doors, traps, or hidden details in a dimly lit or dark area, provided the caps are the primary light source.
Passive Magics:
- Ambient Siphon: The microscopic runes require no fuel or magical energy from the wearer. They passively draw on the ambient magical energies of the environment. In an area with little or no magic, their light may flicker or dim to the level of a candle (GM’s discretion).
- True Light: The light produced is magically pure. It is considered to be sunlight for the purpose of affecting creatures with Sunlight Sensitivity or similar vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the light cannot be extinguished by non-magical means or by magical darkness of a lower tier.
- Glyph of Clarity: The light resonates with the Vo-Run script for “clarity.” When reading a text, map, or scroll under this light, the wearer has advantage on saving throws against any magical traps, illusions, or confusing glyphs hidden within the writing.
Activatable Magics:
- Illuminate: As a Bonus Action, the wearer can mentally command the caps to activate or deactivate. The light produced is steady, silent, and produces no heat. This ability can be used at will.
- Beam of Revelation: As an Action, you can focus the light from both tusk tips into a single, narrow beam that extends up to 120 feet long and 5 feet wide. This beam reveals the true form of any object or creature it illuminates, granting you advantage on checks to see through magical illusions and automatically piercing non-magical disguises within the beam. This ability can be used once, and regains its use at the next dawn.
Specific Slot:
- Tusk Inlays (This item occupies the two tusk slots of a Nga-Tara).
Tags:
- Nga-Tara, Tusk Inlays, Magical, Wearable, Utility, Illumination, Vo-Run, Heirloom, Scholarch, Divination, Hands-Free, Sunlight, Anti-Illusion, Truth-Seeing, Sustaining, Silver, Explorer, Lineage-Bound, Rare

An item like the Illuminator’s Tusk Caps 734 is a lineage heirloom, not a commercial product. You would never find one for sale in a conventional magic shop or market. Its appearance for sale would be an exceptionally rare event, often born of tragedy, crime, or high politics, and transactions would only occur in the most exclusive or illicit of circles.

The Exclusive Lineage Jeweler

Type of Shop: This is not a shop open to the public, but a highly exclusive, guild-run atelier that serves only the Nga-Tara nobility, often with a specific focus on a single lineage like the Tide-Forged Scholarchs. Located in a lavish, unmarked villa in the capital of Vara-Sul, a “shop” like this, perhaps named “The Matriarch’s Light,” functions as a combination of a bank, a vault, and a master artisan’s studio.
How it’s Bought/Sold: An heirloom like this would only be sold here under the most dire and shameful circumstances—a Scholarch matriarch liquidating a family treasure to settle a massive debt or to make political amends. The transaction would be a deeply private and somber affair. The jeweler acts as a discreet broker, ensuring the item is sold to another high-ranking family within the same lineage to prevent a piece of their heritage from being lost. A non-Scholarch attempting to sell such an item here would be immediately detained and questioned.
Estimated Cost: 2,500 Gold Pieces (GP). The price is astronomical, reflecting its cultural and historical significance far more than its practical utility. A large portion of this cost would be framed as a required “donation” to the Scholarchs’ ancestral archives to mitigate the shame of the transaction.

The Black Market Antiquarian

Type of Shop: This is not a physical storefront but a clandestine network of brokers who specialize in “unprovenanced” artifacts. Operating through coded messages in the criminal underbelly of a diverse port city like Dreamtide, these antiquarians serve disgraced nobles, amoral collectors, and spies.
How it’s Bought/Sold: This is where a stolen or looted set of Tusk Caps would surface. The transaction is fraught with peril. The antiquarian, recognizing the item’s origin and the danger it represents, would not display it openly. They would contact a select few potential buyers discreetly. The buyer knows they are purchasing stolen goods of great cultural importance, and the seller knows they could be executed by the Scholarchs if their identity were discovered. The sale would take place in a secret location, and payment would be swift and final.
Estimated Cost: The price is dangerously volatile.
- To Sell (from a thief): A broker would offer no more than 500 GP, citing the immense risk of holding and reselling such a “hot” item.
- To Buy: The antiquarian would demand a premium for both the item and their silence, likely starting at 3,000 GP and potentially demanding rare political favors or other unique artifacts as part of the deal.

The Inter-Lineage Dowry Exchange

Type of Venue: This is not a commercial transaction but a major political and social event, conducted in the private council chambers of a Nga-Tara matriarch.
How it’s Bought/Sold: A set of Illuminator’s Tusk Caps might be offered as a central piece in a dowry to seal a marriage alliance between the Scholarchs and another powerful lineage. In this context, the item is a symbol of a bond, a promise of shared knowledge and mutual respect. The receiving family would become the item’s custodians, an honor that ties them intrinsically to the Scholarchs. The item could not be sold; it could only be passed down within their line or returned if the alliance were to dissolve, likely causing a massive political incident.
Estimated Cost: There is no monetary cost. Its value is purely symbolic and political, exchanged for assets of equivalent gravitas, such as exclusive trade rights, mining concessions for a generation, or another lineage’s own sacred heirloom. Its Appraised Value for the purpose of such a trade would be considered 5,000 GP or higher.

The Illuminator’s Tusk Caps 734 are primarily a utility item, but their unique properties transform them into powerful tools of offense and defense in the right circumstances. Roleplaying their use is about turning light into a weapon, a shield, or a key to unlock a hidden truth.

Environment 1: A Pitch-Black, Ancient Crypt

In the absolute darkness of a tomb, where undead horrors lurk, the Tusk Caps become a beacon of safety and a weapon of holy light.

Defensive Roleplay

Your party triggers a trap, and a magical glyph on a sarcophagus flares with a blinding, corrupting darkness designed to sear the vision of intruders.

Roleplay: You describe the sickening, purple-black light erupting in the confined space. As your companions cry out, shielding their eyes, you instinctively lower your head. You feel a cool, soothing energy from the silver caps as the Ocular Fortitude bonus kicks in. You describe the magical darkness washing over you but failing to take root, like water off a polished surface. You open your eyes, your vision completely intact, and call out, “A blindness curse! Everyone, stay still! I will be your eyes.” Your defense is the ability to remain the sole sighted guardian in a moment of total sensory deprivation for your allies.

Offensive Roleplay

From the shadows that your companions can no longer pierce, spectral wraiths and shambling ghouls, creatures of rot and darkness, begin to converge.

Roleplay: You speak the command word. You don’t describe a gentle glow, but a sudden, searing eruption of pure, clean radiance from your tusks. This is the True Light passive in action, functioning as sunlight. You roleplay the dramatic effect: the ghouls hiss and recoil, their decaying flesh smoking as if touched by a forge. The wraiths shriek, their incorporeal forms becoming frayed and translucent, unable to fully manifest in the holy glare. You have become a mobile sun, single-handedly crippling the enemy force, controlling the entire battlefield, and turning a terrifying ambush into an execution.

Environment 2: An Opulent, Illusory Noble’s Ball

In a high-society gathering where secrets are currency and appearances are everything, the Tusk Caps become a tool for piercing deception.

Defensive Roleplay

You are handed a beautifully written scroll, a formal invitation to a private meeting. You suspect the document is more than it seems.

Roleplay: You compliment the calligraphy and, under the pretense of admiring it in better light, you activate your Tusk Caps with a subtle mental command. The pure, white light washes over the parchment. You describe how, under this flawless illumination, the Glyph of Clarity passive reveals what other light sources cannot: a second layer of nearly invisible, shimmering runes woven into the text. You recognize it as a subtle suggestion charm. Your defense is the quiet discovery of a social or magical attack, allowing you to sidestep a trap that others would fall into completely unaware. You might murmur, “The ink is exquisite. A pity the words underneath are so… loud.”

Offensive Roleplay

You are in a tense negotiation with a rival who you suspect is not who they claim to be, their face hidden by a powerful illusionary glamour.

Roleplay: In a moment of feigned contemplation, you tilt your head down as if to study a document on the table, aiming your tusks directly at the rival. You activate the Beam of Revelation. You describe the light from your tusks narrowing into two sharp, focused beams that converge on the target’s face for a split second. To everyone else, it is a brief, dazzling flash. To you, the glamour is shredded. For one revelatory moment, you see the true face beneath—a rival spymaster, a wanted criminal, or perhaps something not human at all. The illusion snaps back into place, but the truth is yours. Your offense is the acquisition of a devastating secret, a social weapon that can end the conflict with a single, well-placed accusation later.

Environment 3: A Murky, Submerged Cavern

In the disorienting, three-dimensional environment of underwater exploration, the Tusk Caps are a tool for survival and neutralization.

Defensive Roleplay

Your party must navigate a lightless, flooded passage filled with silt and debris. Mundane light sources are useless, and the danger of separation is high.

Roleplay: Before submerging, you activate the Illuminate ability. You describe the light cutting through the murky water not like a torch, but like a lighthouse beam, creating a 30-foot sphere of startling clarity. The light is your defense against the environment itself. It prevents disorientation, allows you to spot hazards like sharp rocks or underwater chasms, and serves as a constant, unwavering beacon for your allies to rally to, ensuring the party does not get separated in the crushing dark.

Offensive Roleplay

A large, amphibious predator emerges from the depths. Its primary hunting method is a series of bioluminescent sacs on its body that pulse with a beautiful, rhythmic, and magically hypnotic light.

Roleplay: As your allies’ movements become sluggish, their eyes glazing over in a trance, you identify the threat. You target the creature and activate the Beam of Revelation. You describe the focused beam of True Light striking the predator, and instead of just illuminating it, the pure light overpowers and shorts out its bioluminescent display. The hypnotic patterns sputter and die, plunging the creature into darkness. Its magical advantage is gone. You have effectively “disarmed” the creature, neutralizing its most dangerous weapon and turning it into a simpler physical threat that your now-clear-headed allies can engage.

Perception of Activation:

This describes the sensory experience when the Illuminator’s Tusk Caps 734‘s focused analytical ability, Beam of Revelation, is activated.

User’s Perspective (Lyra-Vael)

Sight: The soft, ambient glow radiating from your tusks instantly collapses inward. You see the light gather into two intensely bright points at the very tips before they merge into a single, perfectly coherent beam. Looking “down” the beam is like looking through a high-powered analytical lens; the target is brought into sharp, almost clinical focus, and the periphery seems to dim slightly. Illusions or disguises caught in the beam appear to fray, shimmer, or pixelate at the edges, their falsehood made jarringly and undeniably obvious to you.
Sound: A very faint, high-frequency hum resonates directly within your skull, bypassing your ears entirely. It is the subtle, pure sound of the microscopic Vo-Run glyphs operating at maximum intensity.
Touch & Feeling: A subtle, cool vibration travels from the silver caps through your tusks, a physical tremor that matches the hum in your head. There is a distinct sensation of mental “pressure” and focus, like squinting with your mind to see a difficult detail.
Extra-Sensory (Magical): The gentle, passive siphoning of ambient magic intensifies into a sharp, focused draw. You feel the magical energy of the world being pulled, compressed, and projected as a coherent beam of pure, uncompromising Divination magic. The energy feels analytical, cold, and absolute.
Extra-Sensory (Mind’s Eye): Your Mind’s Eye perceives a temporary status effect on yourself: [Target Analysis: Revelation Active]. When you view a magically concealed target, its “stats” may flicker between its illusory form and its true form, providing a cognitively dissonant but deeply informative picture of the deception.

Observer’s Perspective

Sight: An observer sees the soft, radiant light from the Nga-Tara’s tusks suddenly extinguish. It is immediately replaced by a single, solid-looking shaft of brilliant white light that projects from a point just in front of the wearer’s face. The beam is perfectly straight, does not spread or diffuse, and creates a stark, clearly defined circle of intense light on whatever it touches. The activation is dramatic, overt, and unmistakably magical.
Sound: A person standing very close to the user might hear a nearly inaudible, high-pitched electrical hum for the duration of the effect.
Touch & Feeling: The beam produces no heat or physical sensation. An observer feels nothing, even if the beam passes near them.
Extra-Sensory (Magical): A magically sensitive observer would perceive a sudden, powerful, and highly directional spike of Divination magic. It feels like a targeted magical “scan,” its energy signature sharp, focused, and intense.
Extra-Sensory (Psychological): Being targeted by the beam is an unnerving experience. It feels like being placed under a microscope, a cold and analytical scrutiny that seems to pierce through skin and pretense. A creature maintaining an illusion or shapeshifted form would feel a distinct “tearing” or “pressure” against their magic as the beam works to unravel it.

Positives

Unambiguous Truth: Its primary benefit is its power to provide a clear and definitive answer. It can instantly bypass complex illusions, glamours, and mundane disguises, ending situations of deception with absolute certainty.
Tactical Identification: In combat, it can be used to identify the real caster among a group of illusory clones, reveal a shapeshifted monster’s true form and potential vulnerabilities, or pinpoint the location of an invisible foe.
Ranged Safety: The beam’s long range allows the user to analyze and expose a potential threat from a position of relative safety.

Negatives

Extremely Conspicuous: The activation is a dramatic and overt magical act. It is impossible to use stealthily. Everyone in the vicinity will know exactly who activated the power and what they are targeting, eliminating any subtlety.
Limited Use: As a powerful, once-per-day ability, its use is a critical tactical decision. Using it to check a minor suspicion may leave the user defenseless against a more significant illusion later on.
Provocative Action: Targeting a person with this beam is an inherently aggressive and accusatory act. In a social setting, it would be seen as a grave insult or a direct challenge, likely escalating the situation regardless of what it reveals.
Tunnel Vision: The intense mental focus required can be roleplayed as a form of tunnel vision, causing the user to become less aware of their peripheral surroundings while the beam is active.

Scholarch Lineage Formula: The Scribe’s Sun-Stone Caps

This secret formula, passed down through the Tide-Forged Scholarchs lineage, details the creation of their signature illuminating tusk caps. The process is a testament to the lineage’s mastery of microscopic Vo-Run scripting and Divination magic, requiring immense skill and rare components.

Materials Needed

Primary Component: 2 lbs. of Pure Silver Ingots, refined with magical salts.
Focal Component: A pair of flawless, perfectly matched Sunstone Crystals.
Magical Reagents:
- A vial of First Light Dew (dew collected from the highest peak of a mountain at the exact moment of sunrise).
- A pouch of finely Powdered Pearl.
Miscellaneous: High-grade polishing compounds, casting wax for fitting, and scribing inks (estimated cost of 60 GP).

Tools Required

Masterwork Jeweler’s Tools: For the shaping, casting, and polishing of the silver.
Microscopic Scribing Needles: A set of adamantine or dragon-bone needles, required for the impossibly fine detail of the Vo-Run script.
Crystal Tuning Resonators: A set of enchanted forks used to attune the Sunstones to the correct magical frequency.
Enchanter’s Focus or Altar: A dedicated space for performing the inscription and the final enchantment ritual.

Skill Requirements

Craftsmanship: The crafter must have proficiency with Jeweler’s Tools.
Magical Aptitude: The crafter must have proficiency in the Arcana skill.
Specialized Knowledge: The crafter must be proficient in Vo-Run Scripting and have access to the Scholarch Lineage’s secret formulae for light-binding.
Experience: The precision and magical complexity of this item requires a crafter of at least Character Tier 3 or higher.

Crafting Steps

The creation of the Sun-Stone Caps is a delicate and demanding process, requiring a minimum of eleven days of unwavering focus.

Step 1: Forging the Casings (3 days): The pure silver is melted and cast into seamless caps, using a wax mold taken from the intended wearer’s tusks to ensure a perfect fit. This process is repeated until the caps are flawless and polished to a mirror shine.
Step 2: Attuning the Sunstones (2 days): The Sunstone crystals are carefully cut and polished to fit within the caps. They are then submerged in the First Light Dew for 48 hours, absorbing the pure essence of daylight. During this time, the Crystal Tuning Resonators are used to gently guide the stones to the correct harmonic frequency for producing True Light.
Step 3: The Microscopic Inscription (4 days): This is the most difficult and time-consuming step. Using the Microscopic Scribing Needles, the artisan must painstakingly etch the complex Vo-Run formulae for ambient magic siphoning and light conversion onto the interior and exterior of the silver caps. This requires a Very Difficult Jeweler’s Tools or Arcana check (DC 22). A failure ruins the silver casings, which must be re-forged.
Step 4: Setting the Stones (1 day): The attuned Sunstones are carefully set within the inscribed silver caps, their facets aligning perfectly with the key points of the magical script. The powdered pearl is mixed with a binding agent and used to seal the stones in place, creating a seamless, internally resonant chamber.
Step 5: The Dawning Ritual (1 day): The completed caps must be taken to a high place that catches the first light of dawn. The artisan begins a complex ritual just before sunrise. As the first rays of the sun strike the caps, the artisan must channel their magic into the item, binding the essence of that pure light to the Vo-Run script and awakening the Sunstones. This final step requires a Difficult Arcana check (DC 20).
- On a success, the item is created with all its magical properties.
- On a failure, the enchantment is incomplete. The caps will only produce light equivalent to a simple candle, and the Beam of Revelation ability is lost forever. All magical components are consumed.

Telling of Tusks of Truth-Seeing

Attend, for the words are old, from when the Nga-Tara did walk in the first-light. There was one, a scholar of great knowing, who was called Ona of the Unblinking Eye. Her mind-box was full of light, but the world, it was full of shadows and lies. The Waterdreamers spoke of one truth, but Ona saw many small truths hiding in the dark places. Her heart-organ grew heavy with the burden of seeing through the false-veils.

She did not seek gold-stones. She sought a way to put a pure-light on the world, a light that would make the shadows run and the lies hide. Her tusks, they were long and white, strong like the pillars of old temples. But they only bit the air. She wanted them to bite the darkness.

She sought the Oldest Weaver, who lived in the Sky-City, where the clouds did kiss the highest peaks. The Oldest Weaver, her hands were as thin as spider-silk, but they could bind the sun to a thread.

Ona did speak with a voice full of want. “Great Weaver, my eyes are tired of the half-truths. Make for me a light. Not a fire that dances and eats wood. Not a star-glow that hides in the night. A light that shows the bones of things, the truth of them.”

The Oldest Weaver looked at Ona’s great tusks. “Your tusks are for digging, not for seeing. To turn them to light, you must give of yourself. A scholar’s sight is sharp, but a scholar’s light can burn.”

Ona, her want was a hunger in her soul-belly. “I will give,” she said. “I will give until the giving is done.”

So the Oldest Weaver worked. For a time beyond sun-risings and sun-settings, she worked. She took silver that was born from the pure vein, silver that had seen no shadow. She took stones from the high peaks, stones that drank the first-light of the day. She wrote words upon the silver, words too small for a human-eye, words that spoke of the pulling-in of the sun-rays. With threads of pure magic, she bound the sun-stones to the tusks of Ona. They were the Tusks of Truth-Seeing.

Ona did wear them. She spoke the command-word, a word of pure seeing. Lo, her tusks did glow. Not with a weak fire, but with a pure, white light. The shadows in the room did flee to the corners and hide. The world was stark and clear. She felt the magic of the sun-stones pulling from the air around her, a constant drink of pure seeing.

She went to the marketplace, where merchants did wrap their lies in bright cloths. A merchant showed her a gem, shining like a captured star. “This,” he said, “is from the Heart-Mine, a pure earth-tear.” Ona put the light of her tusks upon it. The gem’s bright-skin did peel away like old bark. She saw the true stone underneath—a common rock painted with glamour. The merchant shrieked. The lie was gone.

She went to the court of the great chieftain, where words were many and true-meaning was scarce. A rival chieftain did speak words of peace and friendship, his face smiling like a summer flower. Ona, her heart did ache with his false-tongue. She did angle her head, just so, and sent the thin, sharp beam of her Tusks of Truth-Seeing upon his face. For a moment, his smiling-face did ripple, like water disturbed. She saw the mask peel back. Underneath, she saw a face full of hate-thoughts and war-plans. The chieftain, he felt the light touch him. His smile did not change, but his eyes narrowed like a snake’s. The truth was seen, but the seeing was not welcomed.

Ona used her Tusks of Truth-Seeing for many cycles. She exposed the hidden traps in old ruins. She read the secret messages that were written in invisible ink. She saw the true face of the Night-Beasts that did hide in the shadows of the dream-roads. She walked in a world of pure light, where no illusion could stand.

But the light, it was too much. The pure seeing, it began to change her. The faces of her friends, they began to show her the small, hidden worries in their hearts, the tiny false-smiles they wore to be brave. The world, when seen with pure truth, was not a kind place. She saw the tiny flaws in every perfection, the small rot in every good thing. The constant seeing of truth made her heart-organ grow cold.

One day, she was old. She stood at the edge of the First Ocean. She looked at the blue water, which seemed so honest. She put the light of her tusks upon it, wanting to see the deep-truths of the water. The Tusks of Truth-Seeing showed her the plankton, the millions of tiny things that lived and died, the salt that wore away the land, the currents that pulled things to death. The beauty of the blue was gone. Only the stark truth remained.

With a great sigh, Ona did take off the Tusks of Truth-Seeing. She cast them into the First Ocean, where the pure light did die in the deep water. She closed her eyes. For the first time in many years, she saw only darkness. But in the darkness, she could feel the warmth of her own heart.

The moral of the story is: A light that shows only truth can blind you to beauty.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition

Tusk Caps of True Light

Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement by a creature with tusks)

These seamless, polished silver caps fit over the tips of the wearer’s tusks. They are inscribed with microscopic, spiraling runes that are invisible when the item is inert.

Warded Sight: While wearing these caps, you have a +1 bonus to saving throws against being blinded. You also have advantage on saving throws against illusions or magical traps that are triggered by reading text.
Illuminate: As a bonus action, you can speak a command word to cause the caps to glow, shedding bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet. The light is sunlight. You can extinguish the light by using another bonus action.
Beam of Revelation: Once per day, you can use an action to project a 5-foot-wide, 120-foot-long beam of pure light from the caps. For 1 minute, the true form of any shapechanger or creature transformed by magic is revealed while it is in the beam. You can use your action on subsequent turns to move the beam.

Blades in the Dark

The Sun-Stone Tusks

A pair of antique silver tusk caps, impossibly smooth and cool to the touch. When active, they shine with the pure, unwavering light of the noonday sun, a sight wholly unnatural in the perpetual dusk of Doskvol. (1 Load)

This is a piece of arcane implement. When you wear them, you gain the following abilities:

You can cause the tusks to glow with a brilliant, unwavering light. You can see perfectly in pitch darkness and are not affected by supernatural gloom. Ghosts, vampires, and other spectral entities are weakened while in your light (-1 Effect Level on their actions).
When you Study a person or object in the light of the tusks, you can ask one of the following questions for free, in addition to any other benefits: “What is its true nature?” or “What is hidden or illusory here?”
When dealing with occult writings, you may Push Yourself to automatically find and understand the nature of any magical trap or ward written in the text, allowing you to bypass it.

Call of Cthulhu, 7th Edition

The Hyperborean Light Projectors

These polished silver caps are crafted from no known terrestrial metal and are strangely cold to the touch. They fit over a creature’s tusks or can be mounted on a helmet. They were recovered from a pre-human ruin in the arctic. Attuning to the device for the first time costs 1d2 Sanity points.

Illumination: On command, the caps can be made to glow with a pure, cold light, equivalent to a powerful electric torch. It requires no power source.
Purifying Light: By spending 4 Magic Points and making a Sanity roll (1/1d4), the wearer can intensify the glow for one minute. During this time, the light is considered to have the properties of direct sunlight. Many Mythos creatures (e.g., Vampires, Formless Spawn) cannot tolerate this light and must make a POW roll to remain in the area.
Beam of Revelation: The wearer can focus the light into a beam, requiring a successful POW x5 roll to activate. The beam allows the wearer to perceive the true form of any magically disguised or otherworldly entity. Witnessing the true form of a Mythos entity with such clarity forces an immediate, more difficult Sanity roll (1d4/1d8). The first time the true nature of a Mythos creature is revealed by the beam, the wearer gains +3 Cthulhu Mythos.

Knave, 2nd Edition

Silver Tusk-Lamps

A pair of polished silver caps that fit over tusks. They are covered in microscopic, spiraling engravings.

Slots: Takes up 1 inventory slot (though worn, they are a significant magical item).
Qualities:
- Hands-Free Light: On command, the caps produce bright light in a 40ft radius. The light is considered sunlight, which repels many undead and creatures of the dark.
- Warded Sight: You have advantage on saves against being blinded by magical effects.
Abilities:
- Beam of Truth: The caps hold 3 charges. You may expend 1 charge as an action to project a beam of light up to 100ft long. Any illusions or magical disguises within the beam are revealed to you for as long as you concentrate. The caps regain 1d3 charges at dawn.

Fate Core

The Sun-Stone Heirlooms

This item is an Extra representing a pair of magically inscribed tusk caps.

Aspect: Bearer of Uncompromising Light. This can be invoked when using the light to reveal a truth or force back a creature of darkness. It can be compelled when the stark, revealing nature of the light causes social awkwardness or makes a subtle situation worse.
Permission: The caps produce a bright, clean light equivalent to sunlight, which can affect certain supernatural creatures as if it were the sun itself. This light is also hands-free.
Stunts:
- Beam of Revelation: Once per session, you can spend a Fate Point to automatically Overcome a single illusion or magical disguise by focusing the light into a revealing beam.
- Glyph of Clarity: Because the light reveals all hidden things, you gain +2 to Overcome obstacles with the Lore skill when trying to decipher magically trapped, coded, or otherwise obscured texts.

Numenera & Cypher System

The Luminous Siphon Diadems

Level: 6
Form: A pair of seamless, polished silver caps designed to fit over a creature’s tusks or similar facial protrusions.
Effect: The caps can be mentally activated to emit a steady, clear light, illuminating an area up to a short distance away. This light is anathema to certain creatures of darkness and the ultraterrestrial (GM’s discretion). The wearer is Eased on all tasks to resist effects that would cause blindness or obscure their vision. Its primary function can be activated as an Action. The user projects a concentrated beam of analytical light at a single target within long range. Any illusion, disguise, or polymorph effect on the target is negated for one minute.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (check each time the Beam of Revelation is activated).

Pathfinder, 2nd Edition

Sun-Tipped Tusk Caps – Item 5

RARE | DIVINATION | EVOCATION | LIGHT Price 160 GP Usage worn headwear; Bulk — Prerequisites You must have tusks or similar natural weapons on your head to wear and use this item.

These polished silver caps fit over the wearer’s tusks. They are covered in microscopic runes that glow when the item is active.

Passive: You gain a +1 item bonus to saving throws against effects that would make you blinded.
Activate [Free-Action] (evocation, light, magical)
- Effect You cause the caps to glow, casting bright light in a 30-foot radius (and dim light for the next 30 feet). The light is sunlight. You can deactivate this with another free action.
Activate [Two-Actions] (concentrate, divination, light, magical)
- Frequency once per day
- Effect You project a 120-foot line of pure light from the caps. Any creature or object in the line is subject to the effects of a 3rd-level dispel magic spell, which attempts to counteract any one illusion or polymorph effect active on it. The beam also attempts to counteract any illusion effect it passes through.

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE)

The Scholarch’s Illuminators

These polished silver tusk caps are a symbol of a scholarly lineage and a powerful tool against darkness and deception.

Weight: 2
Notes:
- Illumination: On command, the caps produce light in a Large Burst Template. The light is magical and counts as Sunlight for the purposes of creature weaknesses.
- Warded Vision: The wearer gains a +2 bonus to Spirit rolls to resist effects that would cause blindness.
- Beam of Revelation: Once per session, as an action, the wearer can project a beam of pure light. This automatically dispels any one non-legendary illusion or magical disguise on a single target within 12″ (24 yards).
- True Sight: The light helps reveal hidden truths. The wearer gains a +1 bonus to Notice rolls to detect magical traps, secret doors, or illusions.

Shadowrun, 6th Edition

Tir Tairngire “Sun-Tusk” Foci

A pair of exquisite, sculpted silver tusk sheaths of Tir Tairngire design. They are not cyberware, but powerful foci that bond with the user’s aura. They hum with the magic of the Light elementals they were originally consecrated with.

Type: Spellcasting Focus (Illusion) / Weapon Focus
Force: 4
Availability: 16F
Cost: 130,000 nuyen
Abilities:
- Sunlight: As a Minor Action, the wearer can cause the foci to glow with the intensity and properties of natural sunlight, filling a 20-meter radius. This light forces creatures with Sunlight Allergy to resist damage and suffer penalties as appropriate.
- Beam of Truth: The foci act as a Spellcasting Focus (Illusion) of Force 4. The wearer adds the Focus Force (4) as a dice pool bonus to any Dispel Magic test targeting an illusion spell.
- Weapon Focus: Against creatures vulnerable to sunlight (vampires, certain spirits), the wearer’s unarmed attacks made with their tusks (or headbutts) are considered magical. The foci act as a Weapon Focus of Force 4, adding 4 dice to the melee attack test and using the Force as the base damage.

Starfinder

Solarian’s Truth Diadems

LEVEL 7; PRICE 7,000 credits CATEGORY Worn Magical Item SLOT Head; BULK L

These crystalline caps are designed to be fitted over a creature’s tusks or cranial horns. They shimmer with an internal light, channeling the power of a miniature solar event.

Passive Abilities: You gain a +2 insight bonus on saving throws against effects that would cause the blinded condition. You also gain a +4 competence bonus on Mysticism checks to decipher magical writing or identify illusions.
Active Abilities (5 charges): This item has a maximum of 5 charges and regains 1d4+1 charges daily at dawn.
- Illuminate (0 charges): As a swift action, you can cause the diadems to shed light as a flashlight with a 40-foot range. This light is treated as true sunlight.
- Beam of Revelation (2 charges): As a standard action, you can project a 120-foot line of pure light. This functions as a targeted dispel magic against any one illusion effect it touches, using your character level +4 as your caster level.

Traveller, Mongoose 2nd Edition

Ancient Illumination Projector (Head-mounted)

This device appears to be a pair of smooth, silver-white projectors of unknown alloy, designed to be mounted on a helmet or affixed to a user’s head. It is an artifact of the Ancients, operating on principles that defy modern engineering. Its internal power source is seemingly inexhaustible.

Tech Level: 17
Cost: Cr 3,000,000+ (as an artifact)
Mass: 1 kg
Abilities:
- Multi-Spectrum Light: On command, the device can project a powerful, hands-free beam of light in any spectrum (infrared, ultraviolet, standard visible light), granting the equivalent of superior night vision.
- Full-Spectrum Burst: Once per day, the device can be triggered to release a burst of full-spectrum radiation, perfectly simulating natural sunlight in a 10-meter radius for one minute.
- Holographic Countermeasure: The device’s primary function is as a counter-espionage tool. As an action, it can project an analytical beam up to 100m. Any holographic projection or light-bending stealth field the beam touches is instantly disrupted and must make a Formidable (12+) check with its own software skill or be deactivated for 1d6 rounds. The user gains DM+2 on all checks to detect holograms or visual trickery.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 4th Edition

The Sun-Stone Tusk-Glimmers of Tor Yvresse

These exquisitely crafted silver tusk caps are of High Elven make, warm to the touch and inscribed with impossibly fine runes of Hysh, the Lore of Light. They are a potent weapon against the forces of darkness, but their ostentatious nature is offensive to Dwarfs.

Encumbrance: 0
Qualities: Magical, Mastercrafted, Luminosity, Pure
Abilities:
- Luminosity: As a Free Action, the wearer can cause the tusk-glimmers to glow with a pure, white light, illuminating the area as if by a lantern. This light is magical and cannot be extinguished by non-magical means.
- The Sun’s Purity: The light produced has the Pure quality. Daemons, Undead, and other creatures vulnerable to sunlight suffer a -10 penalty to all tests while within the area of bright light and suffer 1 Wound at the end of each of their turns that ignores Armour and Toughness Bonus.
- Beam of Truth: Once per day, the wearer can focus the light into a beam. This allows them to automatically see through any one non-magical disguise or mundane illusion. If the target is a magical illusion, the wearer may make an Opposed Willpower/Channelling Test against the caster to shatter the illusion.
- Elven Pride: The item is a masterful and undeniable piece of Elven artistry. The wearer suffers a -10 penalty to all Fellowship tests when dealing with Dwarfs.

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