Seers Infusion of Echoes 118 – GearAscendancy.com

From: Chronicleaf 73

This is the most common and direct use of Chronicleaf: a ritual tea brewed to grant the drinker a fragmented vision of the past specific to the location where the herb was harvested.

Ingredients:

One fresh leaf of Chronicleaf-73
Pure, unadulterated water (spring water is preferred)
A single drop of the preparer’s own blood

Activation of Magic and Roleplay: The process is meditative and requires unbroken focus. The roleplaying character would find a quiet, stable place to begin the ritual, preferably near where the herb was found to strengthen the connection. Using a non-metallic vessel, like a ceramic bowl or a hollowed stone, they bring the pure water to a gentle heat using a small, controlled magical flame or mundane fire.

The character takes the Chronicleaf leaf, holding it with reverence. As they lower it into the warm water, the magic begins to activate. The silvery glyphs on the leaf’s surface detach and begin to swirl through the water, casting faint, shifting patterns of light against the sides of the bowl. The water itself seems to grow darker, absorbing the light around it. The air fills with the scent of old dust and ozone. The character then pricks their finger, allowing a single drop of blood to fall into the infusion. This final component acts as a psychic anchor, binding the impending vision to the user’s consciousness. The drop of blood sizzles as it hits the water, and for a moment, the swirling glyphs glow with a soft, crimson light before fading.

To complete the ritual, the character lifts the bowl with both hands, takes a deep breath to center themselves, and drinks the entire infusion. The roleplay here is internal. The magic washes over their senses not as a physical force, but as a psychic plunge. The world around them dissolves into a grey mist, and they feel a sensation of being pulled backward through a tunnel of memory. What follows is not a clear movie of the past, but a chaotic, sensory-rich fragment: the deafening roar of a charging beast, the glint of sun on a forgotten soldier’s helm, the overwhelming feeling of despair as a castle wall crumbles, the taste of ash in the air. The vision lasts only a few moments before the character is thrust back into their own body, gasping, with the lingering emotions and sensory ghosts of the past clinging to them.

Lore of the Seer’s Infusion of Echoes-118

The tale of King Vorlag and his shattering descent into the totality of his ancestry serves as a grim cautionary marker in the history of Chronicleaf’s use. For generations following his silent, all-seeing reign, the herb was deemed cursed, a poison for the soul. The remaining Tenders of the Garden of Faded Truths scattered, their knowledge fracturing into rumor and whispered warnings. It was believed that to consume the leaf was to invite the madness of Vorlag, to sacrifice the present for a past too vast to be contained within a mortal mind.

This perception began to change with the rise of the Lyceum of the Unseen, a secretive order of historians and investigators who believed that no knowledge was inherently evil, only its application could be. They saw Chronicleaf not as a gateway to be thrown open, but as a keyhole to be peered through. It was a Lyceum scholar named Maelis the Patient who, after decades of studying the fragmented texts of the Tenders, first proposed the theory of the “Psychic Anchor.” She posited that Vorlag’s folly was not his desire to see, but his arrogance in believing his consciousness could travel into the river of time untethered and remain whole. He was swept away because he had nothing to hold him to the present.

The recipe for the Seer’s Infusion of Echoes is attributed to Maelis herself. It is a formula of deliberate limitation, designed for safety and precision over raw power. The use of pure, unadulterated water was paramount; early experiments revealed that water heavy with minerals or contaminants would “stain” the vision, tinting it with false emotional echoes or distorting the sensory information into unreliable nonsense. Spring water, considered “living” and pure, became the ideal medium, a clean lens through which the past could be viewed.

The true genius of the recipe, however, lies in the single drop of the preparer’s own blood. This is the Psychic Anchor Maelis theorized. In the arcane principles of the Lyceum, blood is the vessel of the soul’s present-tense identity. By introducing it into the infusion, the user creates a sympathetic link between their physical body and their questing consciousness. When the mind plunges into the chaotic torrent of the past, the anchor holds fast, ensuring the vision remains a brief, observational experience rather than a complete and potentially permanent psychological immersion. The sizzle of the blood hitting the infusion is said to be the sound of the present declaring its dominion over the past, a vital component that separates the cautious seer from the mad king.

Because of its relative safety and its focus on retrieving a single, manageable fragment of information, the recipe became the standard among circles of academics, ruin explorers, and city officials investigating ancient crimes. It is “common” not in the sense that it is widely available, but that it is the most commonly accepted and trusted method for using Chronicleaf, a triumph of careful methodology over the pursuit of overwhelming power.

Seer’s Infusion of Echoes-118

Tier: 1 Type: Alchemical Potion

Stats Gained (Temporary):

Mental Fortitude: Upon consuming the infusion and experiencing the vision, the user’s mind is sharpened by the influx of ancient data. For the next hour, they gain a +1 bonus to all checks made to resist psychological effects such as fear, confusion, or mental domination.
Historical Acuity: The user’s mind retains a phantom resonance of the information absorbed. They have an innate sense of whether a local library or archive contains more information on the subject of their vision.

Skills Gained (Temporary):

Focused Insight: The vision, though fragmented, provides a powerful and direct clue. The user gains Advantage on the next History or Investigation skill check they make that is directly related to the location where the herb was harvested or the specific subject of the vision. This bonus must be used within one hour of consuming the infusion.

Effect:

Temporal Vision: The primary effect is a brief (lasting no more than 10-15 seconds) but intense sensory vision of a significant event from the past of the location where the Chronicleaf was gathered. The Game Manager describes this vision, focusing on sights, sounds, and powerful emotions. The vision provides a crucial clue or piece of context but does not provide a complete narrative.
Potential Overwhelm: If a character consumes a second Seer’s Infusion within a 24-hour period, they must make a difficult mental resistance check. On a failure, they suffer the Overwhelm effect; they are stunned for one minute as their mind is flooded with a chaotic jumble of conflicting historical echoes, and they are unable to use their Mind’s Eye ability for one hour.

Duration: The vision itself is fleeting. The temporary stat and skill bonuses last for one hour.

Tags: Consumable, Potion, Alchemical, Divination, Historical, Ritual, Psychic, Tier 1, Self, Evocation, Illusion, Poison, Combat, Stealth, Planar, Runic, Touch, Worn

Recipe: Seer’s Infusion of Echoes-118

A simple but profound draught for peering through the veil of time. Its preparation is less an act of chemistry and more a meditation, requiring focus and respect for the forces being coaxed. Adherence to the principles of sympathetic magic is paramount for a clear vision and the user’s mental safety.

Ingredients Needed

Primary Reagent: One (1) fresh leaf of Chronicleaf-73. The leaf must have been harvested with a non-metallic blade no more than 48 hours prior to the ritual. A leaf older than this will have lost its temporal potency and will yield only murky, flavorless water.
Medium: Approximately eight (8) ounces of pure, unadulterated spring water. Water from a running stream or a deep, natural well is acceptable. Stagnant or mineral-heavy water is discouraged, as impurities can “stain” the vision with false emotional echoes.
Catalyst: One (1) single drop of the preparer’s fresh blood. This is the most vital component, acting as a psychic anchor to the present.

Tools Required

Brewing Vessel: A non-metallic container with a capacity of at least 12 ounces. A ceramic bowl, a carved stone mortar, or a vessel of hardened glass is ideal. Metal will ground the delicate temporal energies, rendering the infusion inert.
Heating Source: A source of low, controllable heat. A small, well-tended campfire, the embers of a hearth, or a minor magical flame (such as that produced by a cantrip) is sufficient. The heat must be gentle and consistent.
Bloodletting Implement: A small, sterilized piercing tool. A silver alchemist’s lancet, a sharp shard of obsidian, or even a clean, sharp thorn can be used to draw the required drop of blood.
Drinking Vessel: A cup or bowl, preferably the same non-metallic one used for brewing, from which to consume the final infusion.

Skill Requirements

Primary Skill: Proficiency with either an Alchemist’s Kit or an Herbalism Kit. This represents the practical knowledge needed to handle magical reagents and control the brewing process.
Knowledge Skill: The ability to recall the specific steps and arcane principles of the ritual. This requires a successful History or Arcana check (a low DC, determined by the GM) to ensure the preparer understands why each step is taken, particularly the importance of the psychic anchor.
Focus: The preparer must be able to maintain uninterrupted concentration for the entire duration of the preparation, which is approximately 10 minutes. A sudden, loud distraction or taking damage during the ritual will spoil the batch.

Preparation Steps

Step 1: Sanctify the Space and Prepare the Medium Find a quiet, calm location where you will not be disturbed. Decant the eight ounces of spring water into your non-metallic brewing vessel. Place the vessel over your heat source and begin to warm the water gently. It should become warm enough to steep the leaf, but it must not boil, as boiling will violently disperse the herb’s magic.

Step 2: Introduce the Chronicleaf Take the fresh Chronicleaf leaf and hold it for a moment, focusing your mind on the location from which it was harvested. Submerge the leaf into the warm water. As it steeps, you will witness the magic activate: the silvery glyphs on the leaf’s surface will detach and swim through the water like tiny, quicksilver fish. The water will slowly darken, and the air will fill with the scent of old parchment and ozone. Allow the leaf to steep for three to five minutes.

Step 3: Apply the Psychic Anchor Using your bloodletting implement, prick your thumb or finger to draw a single, fresh drop of blood. Hold your hand over the vessel and allow the drop to fall into the center of the infusion. A soft hissing sound will be heard as the blood makes contact, and the swirling glyphs will pulse with a crimson light for a brief moment before returning to their silvery hue. This step binds your consciousness to the present, ensuring you are an observer of the past, not a victim of it.

Step 4: Final Contemplation and Steeping Let the infusion rest for one final minute after the blood has been added. Use this time to quiet your thoughts and focus your intent. Formulate a question or a subject you wish to gain insight on concerning the herb’s location. This mental focus will help guide the otherwise chaotic vision toward a relevant fragment.

Step 5: Consumption Remove the vessel from the heat. The infusion is now complete and at its peak potency. It must be consumed immediately, while still warm. Drink the entire contents of the vessel in a single, deliberate act. Upon finishing the draught, the effects will be instantaneous. Be prepared for a powerful psychic plunge into a sensory fragment of a time long past. The infusion loses its power within a minute of being completed, so it cannot be stored.

The recipe for the Seer’s Infusion of Echoes-118 is not a common commodity like a healing potion formula. It is a piece of specialized, guarded knowledge. Its trade and value reflect its unique power to unlock the past.

Where and How the Recipe is Sold

The recipe itself, the documented knowledge of how to perform the ritual, is sold in very few places. It is not an over-the-counter item but a significant acquisition.

1. Scriptoriums of Scholarly Orders (e.g., The Lyceum of the Unseen)

Environment: These are austere, quiet halls within great libraries or secluded academic compounds. The air smells of old parchment, binding glue, and focused silence. The transaction takes place in a private study, across a heavy oak desk, overseen by a stern, high-ranking Loremaster or Scribe.
How it is Sold: One does not simply “buy” the recipe here; one petitions for the right to learn it. The process involves an interview where the buyer must prove their intentions are for the pursuit of knowledge, not for reckless personal gain or espionage. The buyer’s character and reputation are weighed heavily. If approved, the recipe is not handed over on a loose scroll. Instead, the buyer is granted supervised access to the master text to create their own single, authorized copy. This copy is often marked with a magical seal of the order, and the buyer may have to swear a magical oath not to reproduce it further.

2. Registered Alchemist’s Guildhalls

Environment: A stark contrast to the scriptorium, this is a bustling, professional environment in a city’s artisan or magical quarter. The air is thick with the scent of arcane reagents, and the low hum of alchemical apparatus is a constant backdrop. The sale is handled by a Guild Master in a business-like office filled with ledgers and sample vials.
How it is Sold: The Alchemist’s Guild views the recipe as a valuable trade secret and a professional certification. To purchase it, one must typically be a guild member in good standing or pay an exorbitant non-member fee. The sale is a formal, registered transaction. The recipe is provided on a specially treated, durable vellum that resists mundane damage and is authenticated with the guild’s alchemical watermark. The purchase often includes a “starter kit” with a non-metallic bowl and a certified-pure silver lancet.

3. Black Market Information Brokers (Infochants)

Environment: The transaction is clandestine and dangerous. It happens in the back room of a noisy tavern, a shadowed alley in the city’s underbelly, or a secret “hush-market” deep in the sewers. The environment is tense, filled with paranoia and the constant threat of betrayal or a guard raid.
How it is Sold: This is a purely financial, high-risk transaction. The Infochant cares only about the coin. The recipe is sold “as-is,” usually scribbled hastily on a piece of cheap parchment or a stolen page from a scholar’s journal. There is no guarantee of its accuracy; it could be incomplete, contain a dangerous flaw, or be a complete fake. Payment is demanded upfront, often in untraceable currency like platinum bars or flawless gemstones.

Cost and Value

The cost of the recipe is far greater than the cost of a single brewed infusion because it represents unlimited future potential.

Cost of the Recipe:
- From a Scholarly Order or Alchemist’s Guild, an authenticated copy of the recipe would cost between 15 and 20 Platinum Pieces. This represents a major investment for a low-tier character or group, requiring them to pool resources or complete a significant quest.
- From a Black Market Infochant, the price might be lower, perhaps 8 to 12 Platinum Pieces, but this discount reflects the immense risk involved.
Value of the Recipe:
- Strategic Value: Possessing this recipe transforms a character from a simple adventurer into a specialist. They hold the key to unlocking otherwise inaccessible information. It provides a non-combat solution to countless problems, making it invaluable for investigation, exploration, and puzzle-solving.
- Economic Value: Once a character knows the recipe, they can monetize it. They can charge others a significant fee to perform the ritual on their behalf. Nobles seeking to verify their lineage, city guards investigating cold cases, or treasure hunters looking for clues would all be potential clients. A single “Seer’s Reading” could be sold for 5 to 10 Gold Pieces, allowing the owner to quickly recoup their initial investment.

Use of the End Results

The brewed Seer’s Infusion of Echoes is the tangible output of the recipe. Its uses are varied and entirely dependent on the context of the Chronicleaf’s location.

Archaeological Exploration: An adventurer exploring the ruins of a forgotten temple finds a Chronicleaf growing from the altar. Brewing the infusion on-site, they drink it and receive a vision of a high priest chanting a command word and touching a specific brick, revealing the location of a hidden passage.
Criminal Investigation: The city guard is stumped by the murder of a merchant in his own locked study. A Chronicleaf is found growing in a window box. The party’s alchemist brews the infusion and sees a fleeting image of the killer’s face, reflected in a silver mirror for just a moment as they fled the scene.
Verifying Provenance: A noble buys a sword said to have belonged to a legendary hero. To verify the claim, they hire the characters to find a Chronicleaf on the battlefield where the hero supposedly fell. The infusion reveals a vision of the battle, and the characters see if the sword in the vision matches the one the noble purchased.
Recovering Lost Knowledge: A scholar is trying to piece together a lost ritual. They travel to the ruins of the ancient library where the ritual was last performed. The infusion grants a vision of a scribe frantically writing on a scroll before hiding it beneath a loose flagstone, revealing the location of the missing text.
Personal Quests: A character with amnesia might find a Chronicleaf growing near a location that feels strangely familiar. The resulting vision could provide a critical, albeit fragmented, clue to their own forgotten past.

Perception of Seer’s Infusion of Echoes-118

Sight (Visual Perception)

What is Perceived / Description: The avatar beholds a liquid that seems to be a piece of the night sky held captive in a bowl. It is a deep, inky, teal-black fluid, semi-opaque and without any mundane sediment. Suspended within this darkness are countless motes of silvery, liquid light—the glyphs from the leaf, now free-floating. They drift and swirl in slow, mesmerizing currents, forming and dissolving miniature constellations. The infusion casts its own faint, dancing light, creating shifting patterns on the holder’s hands and the surrounding surfaces.
Positives: The appearance is utterly unique and serves as an unmistakable confirmation that the recipe was successful. Its profound and mysterious beauty is a clear indicator of the potent magic it contains, inspiring confidence in its power.
Negatives: The slow, hypnotic swirl of the glyphs is dangerously captivating. An avatar who stares into it for too long can become entranced, losing situational awareness and becoming vulnerable to their surroundings. Its conspicuous glow makes it impossible to prepare or consume with any degree of subtlety.

Touch (Tactile Perception)

What is Perceived / Description: The liquid is unnaturally cool, feeling like silk and cold stone at once. The coolness seems to radiate from it, making the air directly above the bowl noticeably colder. If a finger is dipped in, the infusion feels slightly more viscous than water, clinging for a moment before dripping away cleanly. The vessel itself feels chilled from the inside out.
Positives: The distinct coolness is another tactile confirmation of the potion’s magical nature and successful creation. The silky texture makes it feel pure and easy to drink, rather than gritty or unpleasant.
Negatives: The unnatural cold can be unsettling, leaching warmth from the hands that hold the bowl. Holding it for several minutes can lead to a creeping numbness in the fingertips, slightly impairing dexterity and making the avatar feel a disconcerting chill.

Smell (Olfactory Perception)

What is Perceived / Description: The aroma rising from the infusion is complex and ancient. The primary scents are of dry, brittle parchment and petrichor (the smell of rain on old, dry stone). Beneath this is a sharp, clean undertone of ozone, like the air after a lightning strike, which tingles in the nostrils.
Positives: The scent is a final, powerful confirmation of the infusion’s identity and freshness. It is not a foul or nauseating odor, which makes the prospect of drinking it less daunting. The aroma is unlikely to attract mundane creatures.
Negatives: The sharp ozone component can be slightly irritating to the senses if inhaled too deeply. For some, the overwhelming scent of dust and decay can be off-putting, a stark olfactory reminder that they are about to consume something profoundly old and alien.

Taste (Gustatory Perception)

What is Perceived / Description: The flavor is unlike anything natural. It is initially cool and metallic on the tongue, with a strong taste of ozone and a deep, earthy flavor of wet stone and rich soil. It is not sweet, sour, or salty. The aftertaste is faint but distinct—a dry, papery sensation, like licking ancient vellum.
Positives: The taste is the ultimate confirmation of the infusion’s power just before the vision takes hold. Its unique flavor profile is not so repulsive as to cause someone to spit it out, ensuring the ritual can be completed.
Negatives: The taste is profoundly alien and can be a shock to the system. The combination of cold metal and damp earth is disconcerting, a flavor of things that are not meant to be eaten. This can cause a moment of panic or revulsion in the drinker.

Hearing (Auditory Perception)

What is Perceived / Description: The infusion is eerily silent. In fact, it seems to actively dampen sound in its immediate vicinity. The world becomes muted and distant. If one listens intently, they might perceive a faint, sub-audible hum, not so much a sound as a vibration felt in the bones of the jaw and skull.
Positives: The bubble of silence it creates is highly conducive to the meditative focus required for the ritual. It helps the user block out distractions and center their mind before receiving the vision.
Negatives: The unnatural quiet can be deeply unnerving, creating a sense of isolation and making the avatar feel vulnerable. It makes it significantly harder to hear an approaching enemy or any other sign of danger.

Magical Perception (Aura)

What is Perceived / Description: To one who senses magic, the infusion is a contained paradox. It does not radiate power; it is a stable, potent void. It feels like a small, perfectly smooth sphere of null-energy, its immense power turned completely inward. It gently but persistently pulls on the ambient magic of the world around it, like a miniature black hole.
Positives: This unique magical signature is impossible to mistake for any other type of potion or spell effect. It confirms that the infusion is perfectly brewed, charged, and stable, ready for consumption.
Negatives: The sensation of a magical vacuum is profoundly disturbing to any magic-sensitive being. It feels fundamentally wrong and can disrupt their own magical senses, making it difficult to perceive other auras while holding the bowl.

Temporal Perception

What is Perceived / Description: Holding the bowl feels like holding a frozen moment in time. The flow of time in the immediate vicinity feels thick and slow, while the world beyond seems to rush by at a slightly accelerated pace. The holder might catch fleeting afterimages of their own hands lifting and lowering the bowl, echoes of an action not yet completed.
Positives: This temporal distortion naturally forces the user into a state of heightened focus and introspection. It primes the mind for the journey into the past, acting as a sort of mental “airlock” before the vision.
Negatives: The feeling of being out of sync with the normal flow of time is disorienting and can induce a powerful sense of vertigo or nausea. This profound dissociation can be frightening and may cause the user to hesitate or lose their nerve.

Empathic/Psychic Perception

What is Perceived / Description: The infusion resonates with a low, constant psychic hum. It is the compressed emotional energy of the countless beings and significant events from its location’s past. It doesn’t broadcast distinct thoughts but rather a muted, overwhelming chorus of ambient emotion—a tapestry of ancient fear, joy, rage, and sorrow, all interwoven.
Positives: An empath can get a “preview” of the emotional tone of the coming vision. A sense of dread might indicate a tragedy, while a feeling of solemn reverence could point to a sacred ritual, allowing for some mental preparation.
Negatives: The psychic pressure can be immense, causing a dull headache in even non-empathic individuals. For a true empath, it can be a staggering wall of emotional noise, potentially requiring a mental resistance check just to hold the bowl without being overwhelmed by the ambient feelings.

Mind’s Eye Perception

What is Perceived / Description:
- Passive Activation: The Mind’s Eye immediately identifies the object as “Seer’s Infusion of Echoes” and provides the tags: “Consumable, Potion, Alchemical, Divination, Tier 1.” An innate understanding flashes: “Grants a vision of the past.”
- Active Activation (“Identify”): A successful “Identify” action reveals the infusion’s specific mechanics: [Effect: Grants a brief, fragmented vision of the harvest location’s past.], [Bonus: +1 Mental Fortitude for 1 hour.], [Skill Gain: Advantage on next related History/Investigation check within 1 hour.], [Warning: Risk of ‘Overwhelm’ if consumed twice in 24 hours.]
Positives: This is the most direct and reliable way to confirm the recipe’s success and understand its precise effects and risks. It removes all doubt and allows the user to prepare for exactly what will happen.
Negatives: Actively using “Identify” on such a concentrated point of temporal and psychic energy is dangerous. It is like staring into a small sun of pure information. Doing so carries a significant risk of triggering the “Overwhelm” effect prematurely, potentially stunning the character and causing them to drop or spill the time-sensitive infusion, wasting it completely.

Maelis and Taming of Echo Leaf

In the long count of years after the King Named Vorlag became a vessel for ghosts and his mind was shattered into a thousand yesterdays, a great fear was put upon the herb Chronicleaf. Sages and wise folk called it the King’s Folly, the Madness Leaf, the Devourer of Now. They taught that to drink of its essence was to invite the endless river of the past to flood the small house of one’s own soul. And so the knowledge was shunned, and the leaves grew alone in their haunted places.

But there was a woman, Maelis was her name, who lived in the quiet halls of the Lyceum. She was not a queen nor a warrior. Her hands were soft with the turning of pages, and her mind was a sharp stone for grinding away the husks of falsehood to find the seed of truth. Maelis did not believe a thing could be evil, only that the manner of its use could be a fool’s path.

She read the story of the King Who Saw Too Much, and she read it not once, but a hundred times. The other scholars saw a warning. Maelis saw a mistake. She spoke to the dust of the libraries, and her words were these: “The King’s spirit flew into the past but had no string to pull it back to the today. He was a ship that sailed into the great ocean of what-was, but he carried no anchor to hold him to the shore of what-is.”

For years, Maelis experimented not with the leaf, but with the ideas around the leaf. She learned that water with dirt or many salts in it held echoes of its own, and that these echoes fought with the echoes of the leaf, making a vision of screaming noise. And so she decreed the first rule: the water must be pure, a window with no smudges.

Then she pondered the great problem of the anchor. What is it that holds a soul to its own time? It is the body. And what is the essence of the body, the truest liquid of the self that lives in the now? It is the blood.

And so Maelis formed the second rule, the one of great importance. She said, “One must give the water a taste of the self. A single drop of blood, no more. It is the anchor. It is the root that holds the tree to the ground of now. When the spirit travels, the blood-anchor whispers, ‘Remember this skin. Remember these bones. This is your home.’”

When her theory was a solid thing in her mind, she took a journey. She did not go to the Sunstone Peak of the First King. She went to the quiet ruins of a forgotten village where it was said a potter had once lived. There, growing from the clay-heavy soil, she found a single Chronicleaf.

She did as her own rules commanded. In a clean clay bowl, she warmed the pure spring water. She set the leaf within. Then, with a sharp obsidian shard, she pricked her thumb and let a single drop of her own life fall into the dark tea. She drank.

She did not see a thousand battles. She was not drowned in the thoughts of dead kings. She saw only this: the calloused hands of a simple man, turning a lump of wet clay on a wheel. She felt the quiet focus in his mind, the small joy of making a thing that is good. The vision was a single, perfect drop of water, and it was clear. Then it was gone.

And Maelis returned. She was not a vessel of ghosts. She was Maelis. She had looked through the keyhole of time and had not been consumed, because her anchor had held her fast to the door. She wrote down her method, the Seer’s Infusion, and taught that the past should be visited as a guest, not conquered like a kingdom.

Moral of the Story: To see the whole ocean is to drown. But to look at one drop of water in your hand is to understand what an ocean is.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu, 7th Edition

Tincture of Bygone Moments

This is an occult preparation, known only through fragmented and often contradictory alchemical texts. It is brewed from the exceedingly rare Chronica folium herb, which is said to grow only in places psychically saturated by a significant, often traumatic, event. The tincture allows the imbiber to experience a sensory echo of that event.

Game Mechanics: An investigator who knows the formula (requiring a successful Hard Occult or Cthulhu Mythos roll and access to an appropriate text) can attempt to brew the tincture. This process takes 10 minutes of uninterrupted ritual and requires a successful Hard Pharmacy or Occult roll.

Upon consuming the tincture, the investigator is immediately overwhelmed by a psychic vision of a key moment from the location’s past. This vision is a chaotic and distressing sensory overload, not a clear narrative. The investigator must make a POW x5 roll.

Critical Success: The vision is jarring but clear. The investigator gains a significant and useful clue about the past event. They lose 0/1d2 Sanity points.
Success: The vision is a confusing jumble of terrifying sights and sounds, but a core clue can be deciphered. The investigator loses 1/1d4 Sanity points.
Failure: The vision is a nightmare of sensory horror. The investigator gains a cryptic, possibly misleading clue and is psychically battered. They lose 1d3/1d6 Sanity points.
Fumble: The investigator’s mind is unable to anchor itself to the present. They are completely overwhelmed, losing 1d4/1d8 Sanity points and gaining a new phobia or mania related to the vision. They suffer from a Bout of Madness as determined by the Keeper.

After the vision, regardless of the outcome, the Keeper may grant the investigator a bonus die on one subsequent History, Archaeology, or Library Use roll made to research the specific event witnessed.

Blades in the Dark

Echo-Draught

A volatile alchemical distilled from the rare, ghost-attuned Chronicleaf. When consumed, the draught plunges the user’s senses into the Ghost Field, forcing them to witness a potent memory echo tied to their current location. Whispers prize this stuff, but it’s dangerous—you’re opening your mind to whatever horrors have stained a place.

Game Mechanics: This is a rare Alchemical (consumable). When you drink the Echo-Draught, you Attune to the Ghost Field to get a glimpse of the past. The GM will tell you the potential risk or consequence of this action.

You might suffer Stress from the psychic feedback, draw the attention of a lingering spirit, or the vision might be fragmented and confusing.

On a 6: The vision is clear. You get a direct, useful answer to a single question you have about a past event that occurred here.
On a 4/5: The vision is a chaotic mess, but you piece together a partial answer or a clue. The GM will also introduce a complication: you take 2 Stress, the vision leaves a psychic scar (a level 1 Harm like “Shaken”), or you attract the attention of a ghost drawn to your psychic intrusion.
On a 1-3: Your mind is overwhelmed by the echoes. You don’t get a clear vision, just a confusing nightmare. You suffer a significant consequence: take 3 Stress and level 1 Harm, or a ghost immediately manifests and is hostile towards you.

A Whisper could attempt to craft this using the Alchemical crafting rules during downtime, with the Chronicleaf herb as a necessary rare ingredient.

Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition

Potion of Mnemonic Echoes Potion, rare

This dark, teal-colored liquid has silvery motes of light swirling within it. The potion smells of old dust and rain-soaked stone. When you drink this potion, your mind is flooded with a psychic vision of a single, significant event that took place within 100 feet of your current location.

The vision is a chaotic, sensory-rich fragment of the past, lasting only a few moments. When the vision ends, you must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw.

On a successful save, you process the vision clearly. You learn a crucial piece of information about the location’s past, as determined by the DM. For the next hour, you have advantage on all Intelligence (History) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks related to the subject of your vision.
On a failed save, the psychic feedback overwhelms your senses. You gain the information from the vision, but you are stunned until the end of your next turn.

Knave, 2nd Edition

Chroneleaf Brew Potion, 1 Slot

A dark, swirling liquid in a clay vial that smells of dust and ozone. When you drink this, your mind is violently subjected to a vision of a single, important event from the past that occurred at your present location. The vision provides a direct, useful clue.

Immediately after the vision, you must make a WIS save. If you fail, the psychic overload leaves you defenseless and stunned for 1d4 rounds.

Fate Core System

An Aspect of What Was

This is not a piece of equipment in the traditional sense, but a narrative tool. The “recipe” is a ritual that allows a character to brew a tea from the rare Chronicleaf. Drinking this tea attunes the character to the echoes of a place, allowing them to define a piece of its history.

Game Mechanics: The preparation is a challenge that requires the character to Overcome a significant obstacle using an appropriate skill like Lore or Crafts, representing the difficulty of finding the herb and brewing it correctly under pressure.

Upon consumption, the player whose character drank the tea can interact with the narrative in one of two ways:

Create an Advantage: The character drinks the infusion and gains a vision. The player creates a new Situation Aspect on the location, such as Bloody Betrayal Happened Here, Key to the Vault Was Dropped, or Site of an Ancient Ritual. This Aspect comes with one free invocation for the character who drank the tea. Other characters can invoke it by spending a Fate Point as usual.
Declare a Story Detail: By spending a Fate Point after drinking the tea, the player can declare a story detail about a past event that occurred at the location. This must be a plausible detail that doesn’t contradict established facts. For example, “I drink the tea and see the face of the assassin who poisoned the Duke in this very room. It was Captain Valerius!” The GM has the right to veto a detail that is too disruptive, but should generally work with the player’s declaration.

A GM can also use the tea as a Compel. A character with the Aspect Haunted by the Past might be compelled to drink the tea, receiving a disturbing vision and a Fate Point for the trouble it causes.

Numenera & Cypher System

Temporal Locus (Cypher)

A single, waxy teal-colored leaf preserved in a small vial of viscous fluid. The leaf has faint, silvery patterns moving across its surface. When the contents are consumed, the user’s mind is temporarily unmoored from the present, allowing them to perceive a psychic echo of a past event.

Level: 1d6 Usable: A single action to consume. Effect: Upon consumption, the user’s mind is flooded with a fragmented but potent vision of a significant event that occurred in their immediate vicinity within the last 28 hours (or much further back, if the GM desires). The vision is chaotic and sensory. The user must make an Intellect defense roll against the Cypher’s level.

Success: The user pieces together a useful clue or a direct answer to a single, specific question about the past event.
Failure: The psychic feedback is overwhelming. The user takes Intellect damage equal to the Cypher’s level (ignoring Armor) and the vision is a confusing, possibly misleading, nightmare. The GM may also choose this moment for a GM Intrusion.

Pathfinder, 2nd Edition

ECHOVIAL ITEM 3 RARE ALCHEMICAL CONSUMABLE DIVINATION POTION Price 12 gp Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk L Activate [one-action] Interact

This vial contains a dark, inky liquid with silvery motes swirling within it. When you drink this potion, your mind is subjected to a psychic vision of a single, significant event that occurred at your location in the past. The vision is a chaotic but potent sensory fragment. After the vision, you must attempt a DC 17 Will save to process the psychic backlash.

Critical Success You experience the vision with perfect clarity and gain a key piece of information. For the next hour, you gain a +1 item bonus to all skill checks made to investigate the subject of your vision (such as Perception, Society, or Survival to track a foe from the vision).

Success You experience the vision clearly and gain a key piece of information.

Failure The vision is a confusing and emotionally jarring nightmare. While you gain the information, the psychic feedback leaves you stupefied 1 for 10 minutes.

Critical Failure The vision is a horrifying sensory assault. You gain no useful information from the chaotic images and are stupefied 1 for 1 hour.

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition

Seer’s Brew Weight: —; Cost: 150

This is a rare alchemical concoction brewed from the Chronicleaf herb. It is a single-use potion that comes in a small clay pot, containing a dark, shimmering liquid. Consuming the brew takes a full action and allows the drinker to witness a vision of a significant past event at their current location.

Game Mechanics: After consuming the brew, the character must immediately make a Spirit roll.

Critical Success: The vision is incredibly clear and detailed. The character gains a significant clue or piece of information. For the rest of the session, they have a +2 bonus to any Common Knowledge or specific skill roll (such as Academics or Research) made to learn more about the event they witnessed.
Success: The vision provides a useful clue about a past event, as determined by the Game Master.
Failure: The vision is a confusing jumble of images and emotions. The character gets a cryptic or incomplete clue and becomes Shaken from the psychic feedback.
Critical Failure (Snake Eyes): The vision is a terrifying sensory nightmare. The character learns nothing useful, is automatically Stunned, and gains a temporary Minor Hindrance (such as Phobia or Night Terrors) related to the vision’s content, which lasts until the character has a full night’s rest.

Shadowrun, 6th World (Anarchy/6E)

Mnemonic Bleed

A rare, psychoactive plant that grows only in areas with a high background count or a significant astral echo of a past event. The raw leaf is processed into a single-dose alchemical patch. When applied to the skin, it forces the user’s astral form to briefly resonate with the local mana, attuning them to a historical psychic imprint. It’s highly sought after by magical investigators and corporate espionage units specializing in “post-incident acquisition.”

Game Mechanics: Mnemonic Bleed is an Alchemical Preparation. Crafting it requires an appropriate formula and a successful Alchemy + Magic [Astral] (5, 1 hour) Extended Test. The Chronicleaf itself is a rare reagent.

Type: Contact Activation: Simple Action to apply the patch Drain Value: L-1 Physical

When a character applies the patch, their astral senses are flooded with a vision of a past event. The user must immediately make an Assensing + Intuition [Astral] (3) Test.

On a Success (1-2 net hits): The character receives a fragmented but useful vision (a face, a symbol, a password being spoken). They can gain 1 Edge on a single subsequent Investigation or Knowledge skill test related to the vision.
On a Great Success (3-4 net hits): The vision is remarkably clear. The character gains a key piece of information. The character gains 2 Edge on a subsequent related test.
On an Extraordinary Success (5+ net hits): The vision is a perfect sensory playback of a key moment. The GM provides a crucial detail that would otherwise be hidden. The character gains 3 Edge on a subsequent related test.
On a Glitch: The vision is a confusing nightmare, laced with astral static. The information is garbled and possibly misleading.
On a Critical Glitch: The vision is a psychic assault. The character gains no information, is immediately Disoriented, and the experience may attract a hostile spirit native to the area.

After the vision, the user must resist the Drain Value as normal.

Availability: 12R Cost: 800 nuyen per dose

Starfinder Roleplaying Game

Temporal Echo Serum Level 3 Hybrid Item Price 150 credits Bulk L

This vial contains a shimmering, dark teal fluid that feels unnaturally cold to the touch. The serum is a complex hybrid of alien biology and esoteric magic, derived from a rare plant that absorbs and stores temporal energy. When injected, the serum forces the user’s mind into a state of quantum resonance with their surroundings, revealing a psychic echo from the past.

Game Mechanics: As a standard action, you can inject yourself with the serum. When you do, you are immediately assaulted by a fragmented vision of a significant past event that occurred within 100 feet of your location. You must attempt a DC 14 Will save.

Success: You process the vision and learn a key piece of information about the location’s history, as determined by the GM. For the next hour, you gain a +4 insight bonus to Culture, Mysticism, or Perception checks made to investigate the subject of the vision.
Failure: The vision is a chaotic and disorienting psychic storm. You gain a cryptic, possibly misleading clue, and you are staggered for 1 round.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Psi-Chronoline

A highly illegal and experimental psionic drug derived from the genetically-modified tissues of a rare alien flora (the so-called “Chronicleaf”). The compound acts as a powerful neuro-stimulant, temporarily unlocking a latent form of psychometry in the user, forcing them to experience a sensory “imprint” left on an area. Its use is poorly understood and extremely dangerous, with a high risk of neural damage.

Game Mechanics: TL: 12 Cost: Cr 5,000 (Black Market) Legality: Highly Illegal (Law Level 9+)

Psi-Chronoline is a single-dose injector. Using it is a significant action. Upon injection, the Traveller must make a Difficult (10+) INT or Psionics (Telepathy) check.

Effect 2+ (Success): The user experiences a brief but clear vision of a significant event from the location’s past. The Referee provides a specific and useful clue.
Effect 0-1 (Marginal Success): The vision is a confusing jumble of sensory data. The Referee provides a cryptic clue, but the user suffers 1D temporary INT damage from the neural feedback.
Effect -1 or less (Failure): The drug floods the user’s mind with pure psychic noise. They learn nothing, suffer 1D permanent INT damage, and may gain a temporary mental quirk or phobia related to the chaotic input (Referee’s discretion).

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 4th Edition

Witch-Sight Petal

A single, dried petal from the exceedingly rare Gravebloom plant, which is said to grow only in places where the Wind of Shyish (the Wind of Death and the Past) blows strong. The petal is steeped in wine or water and consumed in a brief ritual, opening the imbiber’s mind to the whispering echoes of the dead and the indelible stains of history. Such practices are, of course, viewed with extreme suspicion by Witch Hunters and the Sigmarite faith.

Game Mechanics: Rarity: Very Rare Enc: 0 Price: 8 GC

When a character consumes the Witch-Sight Petal, they must make a Challenging (+0) Perception Test.

On a Success: The character experiences a ghostly, fleeting vision of a key past event relevant to their location. The GM should provide a significant clue. The experience is harrowing; the character gains 1 Corruption point for peering into the forbidden past.
On a Failure: The vision is a horrifying and confusing nightmare of death and sorrow. The character gains a cryptic clue at best, and the disturbing images inflict 1d2+1 Corruption points.
Astounding Failure (Fails by 4 SL or more): The character’s mind is completely overwhelmed by the echoes of tragedy. They gain no information, take 1d3+2 Corruption points, and must make a Test to resist gaining a Minor Mental Corruption.