Hush Salve 54

From: Silent Veil Polypore 42

Description: Hush-Salve [54] is a thick, opaque unguent or paste, typically stored in a small, carved wooden or dark ceramic pot. Its color is a muted, earthy grey-brown, often with very fine, almost invisible darker specks suspended within it. It has a cool, damp feel to the touch and a very faint, neutral scent reminiscent of wet stone or deep forest loam, designed to be as unnoticeable as possible.

Incorporation of Polypore: The core ingredient is Silent Veil Polypore [42] that has been carefully dried in darkness and then painstakingly ground into an impalpable powder. This powder is then infused into a base of specific neutral oils (like those pressed from shadow-nuts or cave moss) and a binding agent like purified cave-lichen wax or rendered fat from certain quiet, nocturnal creatures. The mixing process is often a slow, cold infusion, performed in silence, sometimes involving whispered incantations related to stillness and secrecy.

Magical Effect: When a thin layer of Hush-Salve [54] is applied to an object (such as a door hinge, a lock mechanism, the clasp of a chest, or even the soles of boots for a temporary effect), it creates a localized field of sound dampening and attention deflection around that object. Treated hinges will swing almost silently, tumblers in a lock will click with a barely audible whisper, and the object itself will seem less likely to draw casual glances or reflect light as obviously. The effect is temporary, lasting for an hour or two per application, or until the salve is wiped away or wears off. It does not make objects invisible but rather reduces their sensory “signature,” making their manipulation or presence less obtrusive. Applying it to oneself can subtly reduce the noise of clothing rustle or armor creaks for a short time.

Crafting Discipline Hinted At: Alchemy (simple unguent/salve making), Herbalism.

Stats:

• Tier: 1
• Rarity: Common
• Slot: Belt Pouch (occupies one miscellaneous slot)
• Weight: 0.4 lb
• Cost: 15 gp
• Charges: 3 applications per pot
• Activation: Smear onto target surface (action)
• Duration: 1 hour per application
• Crafting DC: 12 (Alchemy)

Appearance: A squat, dark‐ceramic pot filled with a thick, mute grey-brown paste flecked with almost invisible darker grains. The surface glistens faintly in dim light. To the touch it feels cool and just damp enough to cling to skin or metal, and gives off only the subtlest hint of wet stone and deep-forest loam.

Temporary Skills Gained (for 1 hour per use)

• Trained in Stealth (Auditory) checks
• Trained in Sleight of Hand (Manipulation) checks

Tags: unguent, consumable, stealth, silence, subterfuge, Tier 1, common, alchemical, herbalism, covert, silent-coating, auditory-ward, covert-craft, shadow-bind, muffling-unguent, stealth-enhancer, echo-nullifier, subtle-concealment, hush-infused, quiet-touch

In Saṃsāra, Hush-Salve [54] moves through both open and hidden markets, its price and terms shaped by the seller’s skill, the buyer’s needs, and the subtlety of trade.

• City Apothecary: In mid-sized port cities such as Tidecalm or Emberfall, reputable apothecaries stock Hush-Salve alongside common remedies. Bottles sit behind polished glass on oak shelves, purchased outright for 15 gp per pot. Transactions are straightforward coin sales, often accompanied by a short demonstration of its sound-dampening effect on a hinge sample behind the counter.
• Caravanserai Waystations
• Along major overland routes, caravanserai keep a small cache for traders and guards. Here the salve is sold for 12 gp or bartered against a verified ledger of waystop distances and hazard notes. Buyers may settle with mixed coinage or deposit a route journal—hand-written risk assessments valued at roughly the same as 12 gp—which the steward adds to the caravanserai’s reference library.
• Obsidian Alchemist’s Conclave Outpost
• Licensed outlets of the Conclave offer professionally stabilized Hush-Salve at a premium. A single, expertly signed pot goes for 25 gp but includes a guaranteed potency certificate and a minor top-up service (one extra application). Purchases require submission of identification (guild mark or letter of introduction) and a brief temperance pledge form.
• Shadow Market Stalls
• In the hidden bazaars of large cities’ underdistricts, purveyors risk fines for trafficking covert goods. A dried, powdered variant of Hush-Salve can be acquired for 2 gp in unmarked pouches—far cheaper but with no potency guarantee. Transactions demand quick coin exchanges or a small trade in precious items (gemstones, stolen documents) of equivalent underworld value.
• Forest Hermit’s Refuge
• Reclusive herbalists deep in old-growth woods seldom sell openly. A seeker must first earn trust—perhaps by delivering a rare herb or defending the hermit’s grove from loggers—before a pot is bestowed. If paid in coin, the going rate is about 8 gp plus a small service (e.g., map verification or forest tidying). No more than one pot is offered per season.
• Explorer Guild Exchange
• Within the vault-like halls of the Pathfinder & Prospectors’ Guild, members may requisition Hush-Salve for 10 gp plus the donation of accurate site surveys or unplotted map scraps. The guild favors in-kind contributions; a fresh, field-tested map of an undiscovered ruin (valued at 10 gp) will net a full pot without further coin.

Each venue reflects Saṃsāra’s balance between open commerce and secretive trade, ensuring Hush-Salve remains both accessible and appropriately guarded across the realms.

Roleplay in different environments:

• Guardhouse Passageways
  • Defense: A sentry under cover of night anoints the inside of his boots and greaves with Hush-Salve before his rounds. Each footstep over flagstones makes no echo; even his armor’s creaks are all but silenced. When an alarm bell rings near the outer gate, he slips past distraught civilians in the courtyard, their cries and shouts muffled around him, allowing him to reach the breach and rally reinforcements before the attackers can exploit the chaos.
  • Offense: Agents of a rival lord smear the salve on the hinges of the prisoners’ cell doors and the lock mechanisms. As midnight deepens, they slip into the guardhouse, pick each lock with near-invisible clicks, and free their ally. The cell doors swing open and closed without a sound, leaving no clue of tampering until the next guard’s watch.
• Ancient, Vaulted Library
  • Defense: An archaeologist explores a dusty hall of towering shelves. She coats her gloves and the soles of her boots with Hush-Salve before entering. When carved stone servitors awaken, their shifting joints emit no creak; the pressing hush keeps her presence from registering until she is mere feet from the central reliquary.
  • Offense: To filch a single forbidden tome, she anoints the chest’s clasp and locking studs. The lid unlatches with only the faintest whisper, granting her time to slip the book into her satchel and close the chest again before any warding glyphs can flare in warning.
• Forest Bandit Camp
  • Defense: A caravan guard waking at dawn spreads salve along his boots and the straps of his pack. As bandit scouts stumble into his perimeter fence, the twigs and dry leaves beneath his feet remain unmoved. He melts into the underbrush, evading detection entirely until he can warn the merchants’ wagons of the looming threat.
  • Offense: A scout infiltrates the camp to poison the well. He applies the salve to the wooden lid of the water cistern and the bucket’s handle. The lid lifts silently; the bucket drops back without a clatter. Bandit lookouts never hear the splash of tainted water, ensuring the poison takes effect unobserved.
• Siege Camp at Ironkeep
  • Defense: Soldiers stockpile relief supplies beneath the ramparts. Before hauling flour sacks through the courtyard, they smear the cart’s wheels and the tent flaps with Hush-Salve. Even the bellows at the field forge whisper instead of roar, allowing the master smith to construct repairs without the besiegers noticing the renewed defenses.
  • Offense: As night falls, sappers apply the salve to the outer gate’s portcullis rail and the winch axle. When they raise it to let in a secret assault force, the mechanism moves in ghostly silence, and the enemy’s watchfires remain unalerted until the attackers pour through the unguarded entrance.
• Airship Docking Yards
  • Defense: A sky-pilot sneaks back aboard her vessel to escape bounty hunters. She oils the boarding plank and her own hatch with salve. The plank swings into place without a scrape; her hatch unlatches like a hush-laden breeze. Below deck, she slips into the cargo hold unseen.
  • Offense: Privateers preparing to seize the ship at dawn coat the captain’s quarters door and the helm access hatch. Under cover of storm-driven gusts, they board the airship. The doors yield without groan; the helm’s steps emit no creak. They reach the pilot’s station before the crew can rally, gaining control of the deck in utter silence.

Perception of Activation:

• User’s Perspective
  • Sight: The treated surface seems to absorb light—a faint, matte darkening at the smear’s edge, as if ink were drawn into the material.
  • Sound: Ambient noise around the treated area falls away; footsteps, creaks, and distant echoes feel muted, as though heard through a thick cloth.
  • Smell: A cool, damp earthiness rises from the salve’s bond with the object, reminiscent of freshly turned loam after rain.
  • Taste: If licked from the fingertips, it leaves a neutral, mineral tang—neither bitter nor sweet, more like wet stone.
  • Touch: The salve warms slightly as it melds, then leaves a silky, almost frictionless coating; metal hinges feel unnaturally smooth under the palm.
  • Extra-Sensory:
    • You sense a quiet “pocket” around the object—an aura of absence that seems to pull in stray sound waves.
    • A subtle pulse of stillness radiates from the treated area, felt as a brief mental calm when you focus on it.
• Observer’s Perspective
  • Sight: The user’s hand glides over the object without leaving a sheen or residue; once applied, that edge looks inexplicably flatter, as if the object itself recedes from view.
  • Sound: Even in close proximity, the usual mechanical clicks or metal-on-wood hinges fail to ring; there is only a hushed whisper, barely audible.
  • Smell: A soft waft of damp moss and forest loam drifts around the user’s hands.
  • Touch (to the observer): If they lay a hand on the treated surface, they feel a cool, velvety texture and notice their fingertips slipping with less friction.
  • Extra-Sensory:
    • Sensitive aether-readers detect a dampening field of vibrations, like a bubble in which kinetic energy calms to near stillness.
    • Clairvoyant senses register a subtle “void” signature at the application site—an absence of the usual magical hum.
• Positives
  • Greatly reduces noise from movement or mechanics in the treated area.
  • Grants advantage on all stealth or sleight-of-hand attempts involving that surface or apparel.
  • Creates a temporary zone of acoustic concealment, aiding escapes or infiltration.
  • Leaves no visible residue, making its use discreet.
• Negatives
  • Muffles beneficial sounds as well—footfalls, speech, or warning creaks may go unheard.
  • Over-application can render an area unnaturally silent, drawing suspicion or unease.
  • Effects wear off after one hour or when wiped away, requiring re-application for longer operations.
  • The isolating quiet can feel disconcerting, as if one’s own presence has been unnaturally dampened.

Recipe for Hush-Salve [54]

• Materials Needed
  • Dried Silent Veil Polypore Powder – 30 g
  • Shadow-Nut Oil – 120 ml
  • Cave-Moss Oil – 60 ml
  • Purified Cave-Lichen Wax – 90 g
  • Rendered Nocturne-Fur Fat – 60 g
  • Distilled Aetheric Water – 10 ml
  • Stillwood Binding Resin – a pinch
  • River Quartz Dust – a pinch
• Tools Required
  • Granite Mortar & Pestle
  • Cold-Infusion Clay Vessel with Lid
  • Rune-Etched Stirring Rod
  • Double Boiler (Water Bath)
  • Fine-Mesh Cloth Strainer
  • Wooden Spatula
  • Wax-Sealing Kit
• Skill Requirements
  • Alchemy (DC 12 Craft Check)
  • Herbalism (for Spores Identification)
  • Minor Aether Infusion (to stabilize magical essence)
  • Quiet Work Area (no ambient noise)
• Crafting Steps
  • Powder the Polypore
    • In the granite mortar, grind Silent Veil Polypore into a fine, impalpable powder. Set aside.
  • Melt Wax & Fat
    • In the double boiler over low heat, melt Cave-Lichen Wax with Nocturne-Fur Fat until fully liquid, stirring gently with the wooden spatula.
  • Incorporate Oils
    • Remove from heat. Slowly whisk in Shadow-Nut Oil and Cave-Moss Oil until the mixture is homogeneous.
  • Add Dry Ingredients
    • Stir in Polypore Powder, Stillwood Resin, and River Quartz Dust. Use the rune-etched rod to blend thoroughly.
  • Aetheric Charge
    • Drop in Distilled Aetheric Water one mL at a time, stirring silently and drawing runes of stillness in the air above the mixture.
  • First Infusion
    • Cover the vessel and let it rest in complete darkness for 24 hours. During this time, stir once at dawn and once at dusk in total silence.
  • Straining
    • After 24 hours, strain the salve through the fine-mesh cloth into a clean container, pressing gently to extract every last drop.
  • Second Infusion
    • Return the strained salve to the clay vessel, reseal, and let it steep another 24 hours in darkness without disturbance.
  • Bottling & Sealing
    • Spoon into small carved pots. Use the wax-sealing kit to seal each lid, carving three silence-rune glyphs into the wax for potency.
  • Final Rest
    • Store in a cool, sound-proof alcove for 48 hours before use, allowing motes of quiet to fully settle.

Yield: One pot, 3 applications (1 hour each)
Crafting Time: ~4 days (including infusions and resting)

Chronicle of the Quieting Salve

In ages when the tongues of men were young and the script of the heavens yet unshaped, there came upon the world a whisper born of moonlit hollows. It is told that one dusk, beneath the gnarled arches of the Forest of Echoes, a pilgrim of silent heart did chance upon a hollowed stone, within which lay a curious paste of grey-brown hue. This paste was thick as mourning, flecked with darker motes that glimmered like even darker stars caught in clay. The pilgrim, whose name is lost to time and translation, dared to press the ointment upon his worn boot, and at the very instant his foot fell upon the fallen branch, the crack did not sound.

Word of this marvel traveled by slow caravan, carried in half-remembered verses etched upon bark-scrolls and miscopied in half-formed glyphs. One scribe wrote of the paste’s birth in the secret works of a hermit-alchemist, who, it was said, once spoke in dreams to the silent spirits dwelling in ruin-chambers. Another chronicler claimed the salve was squeezed from the heart-sap of a subterranean tree that drank only the hush of midnight winds. The truest record, if any can be deemed so, relates that the hermit mixed ground polypore from the deep woods with oils born of creatures that crept in shadow, binding it with wax rendered from cave-lichen under a vow of absolute stillness.

Yet the mixing was not done in open hearths nor by the glint of morning sun. The hermit labored in a chamber so dark and so still that no breath of wind dared enter. Each stirring of rod through oil was accompanied by words half-sung, half-whispered, in a tongue older than even the ruins of memory. It is said that three times the moon waxed and waned ere the salve was born, and that at each new moon the hermit would test its power upon the hinges of his own door—doors which thereafter swung as though unhinged by silent hands.

From hermit’s hearth the secret passed to pilgrims, who traded it for maps of hidden tombs or for silence-vows sworn upon phantom oaths. In the courts of restless lords and the hovels of furtive thieves alike, the salve found purchase, its price reckoned not by coin alone but by the weight of promises and the hush of stolen confidences. Many a burglar swore by its power as he slipped through barred gates; many a messenger carried its pot within his cloak, that his very footsteps might not betray him. Yet the salve was capricious to greed, for those who tarried too long in its embrace found the world growing too still, their own thoughts too loud in the absence of noise.

Legends diverge upon the fate of the hermit. Some claim he lapsed into such silence that he became one with the stone of his abode, heard by none evermore. Others whisper that he ventured into the deepest glens and became a silent guardian of hidden paths, his footsteps untracked to this day. In every telling, the salve remained—a gift and a warning: that to cloak one’s deeds in silence is to embrace both concealment and solitude in equal measure.

Moral of the story: Even the gentlest quiet may shield the bold, but beware, for the hush that guards can also become the prison that binds.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

Salve of Silent Halls

• Type: Consumable (Common)
• Effect: Apply to one lock, hinge, door, or pair of boots. For 1 hour, any Spot Hidden or Listen roll made to detect your passage or tampering with that object suffers a –20 % penalty, and you gain a +20 % bonus on Stealth (Silent Movement) rolls when moving over or manipulating the treated surface. Once during the hour, you may reroll one failed Spot Hidden, Listen, or Stealth roll; use the new result.
• Side Effect: You take a –10 % penalty to Persuade and Fast Talk rolls while the salve is active, as your speech grows measured and quiet.
• Limit: One dose per 24 hours.

Blades in the Dark

Shadowmoss Salve

• Type: Tier 1 Common Consumable
• Effect (1 effect): Add +1d to a single Prowl (Stealth) action to move silently over treated ground or to a single Thievery roll when manipulating a treated lock, hinge, or mechanism during a Score.
• Aftermath: Suffer 1 Stress.
• Availability: You may carry one Shadowmoss Salve into each Score.

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition

Hush-Salve

• Wondrous Item (Consumable), common
• Application: As an action, you smear the salve onto one object (lock, door hinge, trap mechanism) or onto your boots or armor.
• Benefit: For 1 hour, you have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks and on Dexterity checks made with thieves’ tools to open or disable the treated object. That object makes no sound when moved or manipulated.
• Drawback: You have disadvantage on Charisma (Performance) and Charisma (Persuasion) checks for the duration, as your speech and manner grow measured and muted.
• Use: The salve is expended on use. You can’t benefit from another Hush-Salve until after a long rest.

Knave

Unguent of Soft Echo

• Type: Consumable (Common)
• Bonus: As an action, apply the salve to yourself (feet or hands) or a single object. You gain +1d6 to one Action Roll involving Stealth or Thievery against that surface or for silent movement.
• Reroll: Once before the end of the scene, you may reroll any one Action Roll involving a treated surface or a Stealth roll; you must take the second result.
• Penalty: You take a –1 penalty to any Deceive or other Social Action Roll while the salve’s effect lasts, as your voice and gestures feel unnaturally restrained.
• Duration: Until the end of the current scene.

Fate Core – Unguent of Soft Echo

• Type: One-Use Consumable
• Aspects:
  • Unguent of Soft Echo (Free invoke, one use this session)
  • Drawback: Muted Tongue – –2 to Rapport and Deceive approaches while the salve’s effect lasts
• Stunt:
  • Veil of Silence (Requires Unguent of Soft Echo): Spend a Fate point to gain a free reroll on any overcome action involving Stealth or Thievery against a treated surface. You must accept the new roll.
• Refresh: 0–1 (GM’s discretion)

Numenera & Cypher System – Silent Salve

• Type: Consumable (Single-Use)
• Level: 1
• Effect: You gain a +2 bonus to Stealth, Perception, or Thievery tasks involving treated surfaces or silent movement for the rest of the current scene. Once before the effect ends, you may reroll any one such task and must take the second result.
• Drawback: You suffer a –2 penalty to social tasks (Persuasion, Deception) until the effect ends as your speech and gestures become overly measured.
• Cost: Standard cypher cost (approximately 10–15 credits or equivalent barter)

Pathfinder Second Edition – Salve of Quiet Passage

• Item 1; Price 15 gp; Bulk L
• Usage: Apply (1 action)
• Traits: Alchemical, Consumable, Common, Stealth
• Effect: You smear salve onto one lock, hinge, door, or your footwear. For 1 hour, you gain a +1 item bonus to Stealth checks when moving over treated surfaces and a +1 item bonus to Thievery checks to disable or open the treated object. The object produces no sound when manipulated.
• Drawback: You take a –1 circumstance penalty to Deception checks for the duration, as your voice and manner grow unnaturally silent and precise.
• Craft Requirements: Alchemy — expert; key ingredients include dried polypore powder and nocturnal-fat binder

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition – Salve of Silent Passage

• Type: Consumable, Common
• Effect: The user gains a +2 bonus to Agility and Stealth Trait rolls made for stealthy movement or manipulations involving treated surfaces until the end of the next scene (or up to 1 hour, GM’s choice). Once during this period, you may reroll any single Agility or Stealth Trait roll; you must take the second result.
• Drawback: You suffer a –2 penalty to Charisma-based Trait rolls (Persuasion, Taunt) for the duration due to overly cautious speech and demeanor.
• Cost: 15 gp

Shadowrun Sixth Edition – Salve of Silent Passage

• Type: Chem (Rating 1, Consumable)
• Availability: 3 (Street) Cost: 150 ¥
• Activation: Complex Action (apply to surface or footwear)
• Duration: 1 hour + 1 Complex Action
• Effects:
  • +2 dice to all Stealth and Locksmith tests involving treated surfaces or silent movement.
  • Once per dose, after failing a Stealth or Locksmith test, you may reroll that test and take the new result; if that reroll also fails, suffer –2 dice to all tests for the remainder of the duration.
  • Side Effect: –1 die to all Charisma-based tests (Negotiation, Etiquette) while the salve’s effect lasts.
• Formulation Requirement: Conjuring 3 or Alchemy 3 Toxicity: 1

Starfinder Roleplaying Game – Silence Salve

• Type: Consumable (Drug) Level: 1 Price: 50 cr
• Activation: Standard Action (apply to lock, hinge, or your boots)
• Usage: Single dose
• Duration: 1 minute
• Effects:
  • +2 morale bonus to Perception checks to detect traps or ambushes on treated surfaces, and to Engineering (Mechanics) checks to disable or open treated mechanisms.
  • Once during the duration, you may reroll one Perception or Engineering check related to the treated object; you must use the new result.
• Drawback: –2 penalty to Bluff checks as your speech and gestures grow clinical.
• Craft Requirement: Medicine 1 or Engineering 1

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition) – Salve of Soft Echo

• Type: Chems (Consumable)
• Availability: Common Cost: 30 cr
• Activation: Immediate (apply to equipment or feet)
• Duration: 1 hour
• Effect:
  • +2 bonus to all Stealth and Sensor (Vision/Auditory) checks when moving over or manipulating treated surfaces.
  • Once per dose, after failing an applicable check, you may reroll that check and keep the second result.
  • Side Effect: Addiction risk—Endurance + Willpower vs. TN 12 if used more than once per 24 hours.
  • Preparation: Chemcrafter 2

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition – Salve of Quiet Passage

• Rarity: Common Price: 1 gc
• Activation: Apply to boots, armor, or single mechanism (Action)
• Duration: Until the end of the current encounter (or up to 1 hour)
• Effects:
  • +10 % bonus to Stealth Tests and to Perception Tests when attempting to move silently or detect traps on treated surfaces.
  • Once during the effect, you may reroll a single Stealth or Perception Test; if the reroll also fails, suffer 1 level of Fatigue.
  • Drawback: –10 % penalty to Charm Tests, as your speech and manner become unnaturally measured.
  • Contamination: 1 (roll for potion stability after brewing)