Lore: Among the Driftwood Reaches of southeastern Ikhalu-Sar, where sea-spray mists curl like whispered breath and ghost-herons fish in moonlight, a strand of Malagan practice endures in silence. Known only through carved tokens left in tangled mangrove roots, the Malagan of Withheld Skin was once worn by scouts tasked with escorting the spirits of drowned warriors across root-thresholds into the Shadow Estuary. Their duty was not to be seen—not by the dead, not by the living, and certainly not by the lurking spirits that dwelled in the half-flooded limbs of the world. These tokens held the breath of the deceased and the silence of the mangrove. They disguised soul-scent and mirrored light, their intricate engravings swirling like leaf-laced shadows beneath dappled canopy. Today, only one authentic piece is known to remain, mistaken for a discarded piece of driftwood by a blind scavenger near the drowned port of Thayoon.
Description: A curved, grey-carved half-mask worn over the lower face, shaped like a flattened fish maw with layered carvings that resemble overlapping bark, gill plates, and vanishing eyes. The surface is coiled with wave-knots, each bearing faint pigment remains—blues, dull greens, and fading crimson. When activated, the carvings subtly ripple and adjust to mimic the surrounding colors and textures, often shifting with a breath-like cadence. The interior is lined with strands of dried sea-sedge and faintly smells of wet ash and salt.
Specific Slot:
Face (counts as one worn magical item)
Rarity: Common
Tier Requirement: Tier 1 avatar
Roleplay Emphasis: Camouflage
Passive Magic Effects:
• Mangrove Blend: While standing still for more than 6 seconds in any natural environment (forest, swamp, jungle, underwater, coastal), the avatar’s outline gains visual distortion and color blending—granting +1 to stealth checks in those regions.
• Soul-Muted Presence: Undead or spiritual entities are less likely to notice the avatar unless directly confronted; detection rolls or Mind’s Eye reveals take a −1 penalty.
• Light-Flick Mimicry: The mask naturally dims facial shine or sudden glow, reducing detection from light-based senses or devices by 10%.
Activable Magic Abilities (each usable once per short rest):
• Veil of Bark-Flesh (1 min): The mask fully adapts to the immediate terrain, granting advantage on stealth rolls and allowing the avatar to move at half speed without breaking stealth, even in lightly obscured terrain.
• Echo-Absorbing Maw (10 sec burst): For a brief period, the avatar makes no sound within a 5-foot radius—muffling footsteps, whispers, clinking gear, and even shallow breathing. Useful for slipping past sound-sensitive entities or into acoustic wards.
• Spirit-Distancing Gaze (1 use per day): When an incorporeal or spirit-possessed creature targets the wearer, they must make a Will or Resolve save (DC 11) or treat the avatar as a “non-entity” for the next 10 seconds, unable to target or follow unless directly harmed.
Tags: Facewear, Camouflage, Spiritcraft, Obscuring, Swamp-Magic, Mangrove-Inspired, Light-Masking, Soul-Echo, Driftwood-Carving, Malagan, Tier-1, Common-Use, Magic-Worn, Cultural-Artifact, Natural-Cover, Passive-Stealth, Ritual-Mask, Sensory-Veil, Shadowed-Origin
Commerce of the Malagan 87 of Withheld Skin in Saṃsāra
The Malagan 87 of Withheld Skin is not a mass-produced good, nor is it widely recognized outside select cultural, spiritual, and clandestine circles. Its value fluctuates depending on context, location, and who is doing the asking. Below are detailed descriptions of the types of shops and locations where this item may be found, bought, or sold, along with contextual pricing and transaction customs.
1. Shrouded Artisan Alcoves (Coastal Mangrove or Delta Cities)
Examples: Thayoon’s Tidemarket, Korin-Ja Root-Vaults, Bracklight Wares of Haldu’s Bay
Type: Semi-legal magical curio dens operated by swamp-born artisans and itinerant carvers.
Description:
These establishments often double as living quarters and workshops, hidden within stilt-villages or constructed into hollowed mangrove roots. Here, elders and spirit-trained artisans trade rare masks, driftwood fetishes, and carved camouflage tools. One might gain access by presenting a token (e.g., a faded mangrove leaf folded thrice), speaking a passphrase, or surviving a test of silence.
Purchase Cost:
• 120–150 gp, depending on condition and spiritual freshness
• Price may drop if bartered with relevant offerings (e.g., preserved ghostfish eyes, silent-bird feathers, whisper-smoke tinctures)
Sale Value (to shop):
• 60–80 gp if undamaged
• 90+ gp if bearer demonstrates proper silent-use rituals or can verify the carving’s origin lineage
2. Undermarket Spirit Exchanges (Floating or Submerged Cities)
Examples: The Flooded Archive beneath Nevirak, Saltlight Vault in Aerishan Substrata, The Breathless Cartel of Varnis Deep
Type: Hidden exchange points run by folk magic practitioners, grave-divers, or rogue archivists.
Description:
Located beneath major port cities or in flooded tomb-structures, these exchange points act as black markets for soul-touched objects. Traders speak in gesture or sea-sign, and currency may include favors, secrets, or crafted soul-bind tokens. Many traders here recognize Malagan work and fear its misuse; thus, buying may require ritual or sponsorship.
Purchase Cost:
• 100 gp in coin or 1 sealed secret and a breath-oath
• Will not sell to avatars whose aura reads as ‘loud’ via Mind’s Eye
Sale Value (to trader):
• 70–110 gp, if proven to be unused in soul-binding within the past moon cycle
• Higher if mask is known to be “charged” with undeclared spirit echoes
3. Pilgrim-Reliquary Stalls (Sacred Trade Routes and Jungle Ruins)
Examples: Verdant Spiral Shrine Bazaars, Thousand-Skin Waystations, Cradle-Root Couriers of Teyûn
Type: Ritual-based trade posts operated by silent pilgrims, spirit-walkers, or mask-wearers of ancient lineages.
Description:
Found along rarely mapped jungle pilgrimage routes or within the protective radius of half-buried Malagan temples, these stalls deal in ancestral artifacts. Traders often reject currency, preferring blood-bound pacts, shared dreams, or naming rights. All items are treated as sacred and must be honored before taken.
Purchase Cost:
• 0 gp in coin; instead, a spirit-feast must be performed, or a name given to the shrine
• The buyer may be required to fast, remain silent for 1 day, or bury a mask of their own
Sale Value (to shrine guardian):
• No direct gold exchange—however, trade may occur for another sacred item or a spiritual service (e.g., protection from tracking, forgiveness of lingering echoes)
4. Borderland Scout Guilds or Pathfinder Circles (Wilderness Bastions and Fortified Wayposts)
Examples: Misttrackers’ Refuge at Cliffscale Point, Guild of the Veiled Path, Rookshade Waykeeper’s Lodge
Type: Practical-focused trade and gear posts for camouflaged movement and wilderness travel.
Description:
These guild stores focus on functional tools for stealth, survival, and traversal across terrain heavy with monsters or unpredictable mana-weather. While not deeply spiritual, some guild members recognize the camouflage value of Malagan items and seek them out for elite members or missions.
Purchase Cost:
• 180–200 gp due to rarity and lack of regional sourcing
• Higher in mountain or desert regions where masks are considered “foreign objects”
Sale Value (to guild):
• 90–100 gp with clear use-case evidence (proven sneak past guardian beasts, etc.)
• +10% bonus if sold during active monster incursion or scouting mission scarcity
5. Academic Antiquarian Houses (Urban Libraries, Cultural Archives)
Examples: The Collegium of Silent Skins, Aethrite Mask Archives, Scholar’s Dry-Hall in Tandelune
Type: Urban academic institutions dealing in cultural preservation, anthropology, and enchanted relics.
Description:
Though they do not retail magical gear, these institutions sometimes fund the acquisition of ritual items for study, preservation, or counter-curse analysis. Acquiring a mask from them requires either formal permission or auctioning through intermediaries, and they do not sell to the general public without paperwork.
Purchase Cost (if permitted):
• 250 gp minimum, often requiring signed stewardship documents
• Not sold for combat or field use—may be revoked if misused
Sale Value (to institution):
• 110–130 gp as academic artifact
• 200+ gp if provenance confirmed with historical inscriptions or related field notes
Note:
Prices vary based on the spiritual pressure in the region, visibility of ancestral spirits, magical turbulence levels, and whether or not the Malagan mask has been used recently in an actual passage ritual. Use of this item in the presence of unquiet dead, necrotic weather, or in proximity to tiered avatar burial grounds may also cause price shifts, legal reclassification, or spontaneous trade embargoes.
Roleplay Usage of the Malagan 87 of Withheld Skin in Different Environments (Defense and Offense)
Tier 1, Common Rarity, Camouflage Roleplay Emphasis
The Malagan 87 of Withheld Skin is not a weapon in the conventional sense—it is a tool of ambiguity, presence erasure, and spiritual misdirection. Its power lies in the control of perception: not merely hiding, but disrupting recognition. The following explores how avatars may roleplay its defensive and offensive use across varied environments within the world of Saṃsāra.
1. Jungle or Forest Canopy Environments
Defensive Roleplay:
The mask’s Mangrove Blend passively shifts the avatar’s facial and upper-body coloration to match dappled leaf patterns and bark textures. By remaining motionless against a mossy trunk or rootweb, the avatar becomes indistinguishable from the living forest. Animal spirits, scouts, or hostile drones scanning for aura traces suffer visual lag or minor misreads, allowing safe passage or evasion.
Offensive Roleplay:
From behind vine-shadows, the avatar may use Veil of Bark-Flesh to slowly approach a patrol. Once within striking range, the avatar may release the Echo-Absorbing Maw, allowing a close-range incapacitation, disarm, or knife attack without alerting nearby sentries—silencing even armor creaks and breath noises. Mask-wearers trained in ambush rituals whisper “the breathless root strikes first.”
2. Urban Night Markets or Alley Districts
Defensive Roleplay:
Under flickering gaslamps, the mask dims the avatar’s shine, reducing detectability by light-sensitive constructs, guards with lanterns, or Mind’s Eye reveal attempts. If hunted by bounty casters or spirit-trackers, the Soul-Muted Presence makes the wearer harder to “mark,” allowing them to slip into groups or vanish within shadows cast by shop awnings.
Offensive Roleplay:
During smuggling missions or planned heists, the avatar may activate Spirit-Distancing Gaze to bypass constructs bound to recognize specific spiritual frequencies. This creates a ten-second gap to plant an explosive rune, poison a reservoir, or swap an item with a duplicate before slinking into a crowd—unseen not by invisibility, but by targeted erasure from spiritual awareness.
3. Swamp, Delta, or Wetland Environments
Defensive Roleplay:
The mask’s design excels here. While half-submerged in reeds or under root arches, the carvings adapt to reflect mud-glaze and lichen. The avatar becomes indistinguishable from their surroundings, able to evade spirit-plumed predators or corpse-hunters who read sound and motion more than aura. Undead that hunt by memory alone pass by, failing to notice the wearer’s presence.
Offensive Roleplay:
With reeds parting silently and boots leaving no trace in soft earth, the avatar may trail prey or target. At the right moment, activating Echo-Absorbing Maw makes even a spring-loaded weapon fire in complete silence. Hostile reinforcements arrive late, confused by the absence of sound and scent. If timed with amphibious withdrawal routes, the avatar vanishes like a ghost into murk.
4. Caves, Subterranean Cities, and Megastructures
Defensive Roleplay:
Reflections in wet rock and echo-chamber acoustics normally betray movement. The mask dampens these echoes and “mirrors” surrounding stone patterns across its surface. In dim torchlight, the wearer becomes a blurry shadow among shadows, crouched behind ancient carvings or support columns. Spirit-detectors with echo-feedback suffer false positives, allowing the avatar to reposition.
Offensive Roleplay:
Assassins use the Veil of Bark-Flesh within echo-chambers to silently scale support beams and drop down amid magical circuits or enemy sleeping quarters. By momentarily disappearing from all auditory maps, they disable relay panels or extract targets. In deeper tunnels where “word-sorcery” triggers alarms, the mask lets the avatar whisper hexes without being heard or traced.
5. Desert Ruins or Craggy Wastelands
Defensive Roleplay:
Though not its native domain, the carvings can mimic stone-flake shadows and dust-thin patterns if given a minute of stillness. While moving between wind-etched pillars, the avatar’s scent and shimmer are absorbed. If pursued by aerial watchers, they may crouch in a shadowed crevice where the mask blends into sun-bleached terrain. The Soul-Muted Presence makes elemental spirits uncertain of the avatar’s location, especially during sandstorms.
Offensive Roleplay:
During a sand-wraith siege or monster hunt, the mask allows silent flanking by reducing shimmer trails and echo-steps. When in range, the Spirit-Distancing Gaze causes wraiths to lose focus or reorient, giving the avatar the chance to strike with surprise or set misdirection wards. Often used in hit-and-fade raids by nomadic bone-runners who leave behind only twisted sand.
6. Floating Cities and Aerial Environs
Defensive Roleplay:
Above cloud level, light and motion betray more than scent or aura. The mask compensates by mimicking the sharp reflection of sky-metal and woven sailcloths. When crouched behind balloon rigging or steam funnels, the avatar is mistaken for a static fixture. Harpy scouts or eagle-mounted patrols searching with Mind’s Eye overlook the wearer, perceiving “ordinary fixture noise.”
Offensive Roleplay:
Mid-sabotage missions aboard rival airships, activating Echo-Absorbing Maw silences gear-snaps or rune-lock tampering. The avatar slips between compartments, slicing pressure lines or sabotaging helm controls. If confronted by spirit-bound steering guardians, Spirit-Distancing Gaze may confuse or blind them long enough to make an exit off-rigging and vanish through cloud drift.
The Malagan 87 of Withheld Skin is not the mark of a coward but the badge of one who confronts danger indirectly—through disappearance, misrecognition, and patience. Its true offense lies in the denial of enemy awareness. Its defense lies in silence and shape. It is not invisibility—it is camouflage layered in ancestral reverence and spiritual sleight.
Perception of Activation:
User’s Perspective:
Sight: As the Malagan 87 of Withheld Skin activates, the carvings across the mask’s surface ripple in subtle, fluid motion like kelp stirred by deepwater currents. Colors soften, shift, and become indistinct—skin tone and nearby hues are mirrored and folded into the mask’s grain. Peripheral vision gains a mild haze, as if the world recedes slightly from the self.
Sound: All ambient noise dulls slightly, as though muffled by fog or thick leaves. Breathing feels strangely hushed; even the sound of heartbeat seems withdrawn, echoing distantly.
Touch: A faint tightening around the lower face occurs, similar to the embrace of damp cloth or cool stone. The interior sea-sedge bristles gently, aligning against the skin in a pattern matching natural facial contours.
Smell: The scent of salt, wet ash, and decaying mangrove blossoms rises faintly—sharp at first, then neutralizing into background sensation.
Taste: A trace of mineral and brine, like the aftertaste of rain collected from driftwood.
Extra-Sensory:
— The Mind’s Eye pulses once as the mask overlays a “non-presence” veil upon the self—others see but do not register.
— Shadows around the user seem to pause subtly, giving the impression of time lagging by half a heartbeat in the immediate space.
— The avatar’s spirit-thread feels partially severed from its trail, as if placed just beside the timeline of local attention.
Observer’s Perspective:
Sight: The wearer becomes hard to focus on—shapes around the mask blur slightly, and the mask seems to mimic bark, reeds, stone, or whatever lies nearest. Movement appears delayed, as though seen through water or heat distortion. In low light, the user becomes a smear or silhouette difficult to track.
Sound: The user produces no audible footsteps, no clatter, no breath. Even speech, if attempted, sounds distant or dampened—as though filtered through wet linen or heard from beneath floorboards.
Touch: If someone brushes against the wearer, they feel colder than expected, and may instinctively pull back as if something is wrong. Textures do not align visually—touching a “smooth” patch may feel like dried grass or damp wood instead.
Smell: The mask emits no natural human scent. Some describe the air around the user as faintly brackish, or notice the absence of all expected smells in close range.
Taste: Irrelevant to external observers unless in direct mouth-to-mouth proximity or taste-based magic.
Extra-Sensory:
— Spirit-sensitive observers see a fraying in the user’s soul-thread: the avatar’s presence flickers or splinters like it is half-declared.
— Beasts and spirits reliant on aura detection suffer momentary dissonance, seeing the wearer as “pre-dead,” “not-there,” or spiritually uninteresting.
— Constructs and magical detectors may log “null value” or register environmental echo instead of avatar presence.
Positives:
• Near-complete camouflage in natural or cluttered environments
• Muffled presence allows infiltration or spiritual misdirection
• Reduces spiritual detectability and aura footprint
• Disrupts hostile auto-targeting and soul-scrying functions
• Aesthetic and atmospheric—instills unease in foes and mystery in allies
Negatives:
• Slight dissociation—user may feel “unanchored” or depersonalized after prolonged activation
• Mask impedes full mouth movement—speech is muffled, eating is hindered
• Repeated activations may imprint faint spirit-echoes on the user, drawing the attention of spiritual scavengers over time
• Reduces visibility in peripheral vision
• Light illusion fails in open, sterile environments (e.g., clean marble halls, sunlit dunes) where nothing can be mirrored effectively
Crafting Recipe: Malagan 87 of Withheld Skin
A ritual-carved concealment mask invoking the ancestral camouflage rites of driftwood spirit-scouts.
Materials Needed:
- Grey Mangrove Driftwood Slab (1) — harvested from tidal groves during the waxing moon, no bark or sap must be present.
- Spirit-Touched Sea-Sedge (3 bundles) — dried grass from brackish estuaries, harvested only at dawn, bound with silence thread.
- Crushed Reef Pigment Set — dull blue, moss-green, and crimson, derived from coral dust and stained kelp.
- Ghostfish Oil Resin (1 vial) — secreted from nocturnal ghostfish, stored in wax-sealed bone flasks.
- Mangrove Knot-Pattern Carving Template (1) — ancestral design passed down or acquired via ritual barter.
- Twilight Salt (small pinch) — gathered from shorelines after a moonless tide, used to seal spiritual layers.
- Whisper-Chime Splinters (2) — slivers of wind-chimes hung in spirit shrines, must have rung for a full seasonal cycle.
Tools Required:
• Ritual Blade (obsidian or bone, non-metallic, etched with protective sigils)
• Spirit-Vein Chisel Set — includes curvature, ripple, and knot-channel tips
• Binding Frame — a mask-mold or bark-cradle used to maintain shape during drying
• Fume-Bowl Burner — for warming resin and activating pigment binding
• Threader’s Needle — bone-tipped, used to sew sea-sedge into inner lining
• Breath-Shroud — a cloth infused with incense used during quiet infusions
Skill Requirements:
• Camouflage Carving (Apprentice level or higher)
• Spirit Weaving (Novice level; must know how to layer passive resonance channels)
• Herbal Pigment Alchemy (Basic knowledge; required for safe pigment use)
• Cultural Memory (either learned through study or absorbed via Mind’s Eye)
• Ritual Silence Discipline (the mask must be completed without speaking during the final two crafting hours)
Crafting Steps:
- Preparation of Wood
— Soak the driftwood slab in saltwater under a waning moon for three nights. Remove and scrape with a silence cloth to eliminate lingering sound-trace.
— Mount in binding frame. Let rest one hour while whispering a non-verbal breath-chant (or humming through closed lips if trained). - Initial Carving
— Using the spirit-vein chisel set, carve overlapping bark, gill plates, and wave-knot forms into the surface.
— Must complete initial form before dawn on a foggy day or during heavy coastal mist for ideal layering properties. - Pigment Infusion
— Mix reef pigments with ghostfish oil resin over the fume-bowl.
— Paint patterns into each wave-knot line; allow pigments to seep into grain naturally. Avoid brushwork—use fingers or braided sea-sedge. - Interior Weaving
— Line the mask’s interior with dried sea-sedge using threader’s needle.
— Stitching must spiral inward, mimicking gill-filtering flows. Insert one whisper-chime splinter near each cheek for resonance. - Ritual Sealing
— Sprinkle twilight salt across the mask’s surface.
— Burn breath-shroud nearby to fill the space with silence-scent; do not speak or make noise for the final two hours of drying.
— During this period, hold mask in hands and let one full breath pass through its mouth opening. This binds the user’s aura imprint. - Attunement Check
— Use Mind’s Eye to assess completion. The carvings should appear to ripple slightly when not focused on directly.
— Optional: activate mask near a coastal or swamp shrine to test for camouflage blending or spirit non-detection.
Notes:
• Breaking silence during the final crafting phase may permanently mar the spirit-layering, requiring the mask to be burned or returned to salt.
• Improper pigment infusion may cause the carvings to flake under magic pressure, or worse, echo unwanted ancestral voices.
• Crafting success rate increases if avatar has completed at least one ancestral guide-quest or worn a previously made Malagan mask.
Estimated Crafting Time: 3–4 days (includes gathering and resting phases)
Market Value (crafted version): 100–130 gp depending on pattern accuracy, spiritual clarity, and region
Misting of the Vanished Path
Tale of the Withheld Skin
(As rendered in the fractured stanzas of the Salt-Tongue Manuscript, translated from the Stone-Reed Recitations of the Long-Drift Folk, whose tongue was lost in the Flooding of the Ninth Bell)
In those ago-days, when the Moon was still peeling her face from the tide, and beasts remembered each other’s names, there was a spirit-walk carver named Vurogh the Lean-of-Breath. He walked the shallows not as man nor as shade, but as one whose name was borrowed and never returned. His body bore scars not from battle, but from forgetting.
The roots of his hut twisted inward, as though grown from a spiral dream, and it was said no bird could nest near him without being plucked of song. He carved with drift from drowned mangroves and bone of long-sunk herons, and each carving was shaped to hold breath—not of lungs, but of memory.
Now it so-happened that a war of names broke upon the sea villages. A rival clan had stolen a phrase once uttered by the tide herself—a syllable that allowed one to be seen only in absence. With this secret stolen, warriors from the red-dust islands could now hunt the dead who refused to vanish properly. The afterlife backlog grew thick with misplaced souls, and spirits began to rot beneath the roots.
So came the Widow-Skinners, the Shadow-Eaters, and the Great-Birds of Hollow Light. They whispered backwards and walked with salt in their mouths, devouring unquiet ghosts and sewing masks from ancestor fragments.
The Long-Drift people were afraid. Their mourners could no longer complete the crossing rites, for the path to the Shadow Estuary had grown bright. The dead, ashamed, lingered.
And Vurogh, whose tongue had grown stone-dry from silence, took it upon himself to carve one final mask.
He walked for seven days into the breathless bogs, feeding no fire and speaking no word. There he found a fish too wide to swim, caught between the mirror roots. It was blind and made of wood, and it wept salt through its gills. This fish, they say, was the First Wound of the Tide. Vurogh carved around it.
He carved for three moons, every curl of bark and bone and flesh-without-skin. When his fingers bled, he bound them in whisper-weeds. When his dreams turned to knots, he cut them free and tied them into the carving. And when at last the mask was done, it did not smile, nor frown. It withheld.
The carvers gathered. The shamans wept. Even the birds blinked once and turned away. They could no longer remember what Vurogh looked like.
He placed the mask upon his lower face, and he vanished—not like smoke, but like a thought one never spoke aloud. He walked among the Widow-Skinners, and they did not stir. He brushed the cheeks of the unburied ghosts, and they followed.
Through the tide-choked threshold he walked, one step behind the moon’s reflection. He led thirteen thousand lost, each soul tucked behind him like the edge of a forgotten shadow.
Only once did he turn back. He placed the mask upon a post by the water’s edge and carved beneath it a word that no tide could wash away:
“Still.”
That night, all the birds sang again, though none knew why. The tide retreated in quiet. The path to the Shadow Estuary grew dim and correct again.
The mask remains. It waits—not for the dead, but for the one who knows how to withhold their presence, not their purpose.
Moral of the Story: “That which is loud cannot lead silence. That which is seen cannot escort what should vanish. To pass unseen, one must carry neither self nor echo—only intention folded in quiet bark.”
Suggested conversions to other systems:
Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)
Item Name: Withheld Skin of the Long Drift
Type: Occult Mask
Slot: Worn (Face)
Availability: Rare; may be discovered in coastal ruins, spirit-haunted temples, or shadow-marked collections
Magic Points Required: 3 MP to activate
Sanity Cost: 1d2 (first use only)
Effects:
• Passive Effect (while worn): Grants +20% to Stealth rolls in natural environments (forests, swamps, caves, coastal ruins).
• Spiritual Veil: All Mythos entities that detect by magical/psychic means must succeed on an INT roll (Hard) to notice the wearer unless the wearer interacts with them directly.
• Active Ability (1/Day): Echo-Absorbing Maw — For one full round (10 seconds), the wearer emits no sound. All attempts to move silently automatically succeed unless physically colliding with objects or creatures.
• Drawback: While active, wearer suffers −10% to Spot Hidden checks due to partial visual dampening.
Blades in the Dark
Item Name: Driftmask of Vanished Breath
Load Cost: 1
Category: Unusual Gear
Rarity: Rare (requires a Whisper, Leech, or Cutter to attune during downtime)
Use: Consumable (recharges via ritual downtime)
Effect:
• Camouflage: While motionless or moving slowly in low light or natural terrain, gain Potency on Prowl actions to avoid detection.
• Spirit Masking: While worn, you count as “spirit-muted.” Ghosts, wards, and Whisper rituals that detect souls will ignore you unless you are forcefully interacting.
• Special Ability – Withheld Skin Ritual (1 use per downtime): When activated during a score, gain +1 effect on any Stealth-related action and suppress all sound you generate for 1 minute.
• Downside: The mask leaves behind a faint spiritual echo. Gain 1 Stress if used more than once per score, or if used in proximity to arcane wards.
Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)
Item Name: Malagan Mask of the Withheld Skin
Wondrous Item, common (requires attunement)
Slot: Face (counts toward 10 active worn magical items)
Properties:
• While attuned and worn:
— You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made while in forest, swamp, coastal, or jungle terrain if you remain still for at least 6 seconds.
— Undead or incorporeal creatures have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks to detect you unless you make noise or attack.
Activatable Abilities (each usable once per short rest):
• Echo-Absorbing Maw: For 1 minute, you make no sound. This includes footsteps, voice, breathing, armor rattle. You have advantage on Stealth checks relying on silence.
• Spirit-Distancing Gaze: Once per day, when a creature relying on magical senses targets you, it must make a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or be unable to perceive you as a creature for 1 round. They treat you as an object or illusion.
Drawback: While worn, your peripheral vision narrows. You suffer −1 penalty to initiative unless you are in total darkness or naturally camouflaged terrain.
Knave (2nd Edition)
Item Name: Mask of the Vanished Presence
Item Slot: 1
Rarity: Uncommon
Effects:
• Passive: While worn, you gain +1 to Stealth rolls in natural or dimly lit environments. This bonus increases to +2 when motionless for more than a moment.
• Spiritual Camouflage: Undead or magical creatures cannot detect you by aura unless you attack or speak.
• Active (1 use per day): Whisper Veil — For 10 minutes, your sounds are muffled to near-silence. No footfalls, breathing, gear noise, or spell components can be heard. +2 to Stealth and Escape rolls during this time.
Drawback: You cannot gain the benefits of this mask in open plains, brightly lit rooms, or while carrying light sources. Also, the wearer begins to feel less real after repeated use—every third activation requires a WIL save or lose one Memory temporarily (until next long rest).
Fate Core System
Item Name: Withheld Skin of the Spirit-Walker
Aspect: “Vanished Presence Behind the Mask of Bark”
Slot: Worn Gear (Face)
Rarity: Rare Cultural Relic
Benefits:
• Grants a +2 bonus to Stealth or Deception rolls when the character is motionless or operating in natural terrain (forest, swamp, jungle, foggy ruins).
• While the mask is worn, the character gains a situational aspect once per scene, “Cloaked in Spirit Silence,” which can be invoked for free to avoid detection by spiritual entities or magical sensors.
• Compel: The mask’s aura can confuse spirit detectors and cause them to ignore the wearer entirely—but it may also attract unwanted attention from spirit-hunters or ancient warding systems.
Limitations:
• In brightly lit, sterile, or purely technological environments, any bonus from this item requires a Fate Point to invoke.
• If the wearer speaks while using the mask, the spiritual veil immediately dissipates for the scene.
Numenera / Cypher System
Item Name: Echo-Mask of the Malagan Path
Item Type: Artifact
Level: 3
Form: An intricately carved half-mask with layered wave-knot designs and pigment-stained grooves.
Wearable: Yes (Face slot)
Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (each activation)
Effect:
• Passive Use: While worn, provides +1 asset to Stealth tasks in wilderness or shadowed environments.
• Undead, spiritforms, or sensory-based detection systems must succeed on an Intellect task (difficulty 4) to detect the user unless the user interacts or attacks.
Active Ability:
• Echo-Absorbing Veil (1 action): The user becomes sonically invisible for 1 minute. All noise they generate is nullified. This includes breathing, movement, and combat action noise. While the ability is active, the user gains a second asset on Stealth checks involving silence.
• Spirit-Distancing Pulse (once per day): Create a pulse that temporarily removes the user from magical or spiritual tracking. For 10 seconds, tracking and targeting effects automatically fail unless they rely on visual confirmation.
Drawback:
• Extended use may cause a shift in perceived reality. The GM may declare an Intellect defense roll (difficulty 3) after multiple activations per day to avoid disorientation or visual detachment from reality.
Pathfinder 2e
Item Name: Malagan Mask of Withheld Skin
Item Type: Worn Magic Item (Wondrous Item)
Level: 2
Price: 35 gp
Bulk: L
Slot: Worn (Face)
Activation: Interact (1 action), once per hour unless noted otherwise
Effects:
• Passive Effects:
— Gain a +1 item bonus to Stealth checks while in natural terrain.
— When standing still in dim light or cover, creatures must succeed at a Perception check against your Stealth DC to detect you, even if you are not Hidden.
Active Effects (Choose One):
• Echo-Absorbing Maw (1/minute, once per hour): You emit no sound for 1 minute. You gain a +2 status bonus to Stealth checks that rely on silence.
• Spirit-Distancing Gaze (once per day): You ward your spiritual presence. For 1 round, you are undetectable to spirits, incorporeal creatures, or any magical detection. They must critically succeed on a Will save (DC 15) to perceive or target you.
Drawback:
• Wearing the mask limits peripheral vision. You take a –1 circumstance penalty to Perception checks involving sight while it is worn.
Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)
Item Name: Withheld Mask of the Malagan Echo
Type: Magical Gear (Relic)
Gear Slot: Head (Face)
Rarity: Rare
Effects:
• Passive: Grants +1 to Stealth rolls in natural, dim, or spiritually saturated environments.
• Creatures that detect by magical or spiritual senses must roll Smarts at −2 to perceive the wearer unless directly targeted.
Powers (require activation, once per Short Rest):
• Echo Veil: For 5 minutes, the wearer makes no sound. Gain +2 to Stealth rolls involving movement, and cannot be tracked by sound.
• Distancing Glimpse: Once per day, the wearer can activate a burst of spiritual concealment. Spirits, undead, and magical trackers must make a Spirit roll vs. wearer’s Stealth or ignore the wearer as non-existent for 1 round.
Quirk:
• The wearer speaks in a half-whisper even when not intending to. Social checks involving speech incur a −1 penalty unless the mask is removed.
Shadowrun (6th Edition)
Item Name: Withheld Mask of the Drift Ancestors
Type: Magical Gear (Ritual Artifact)
Availability: 6R
Cost: 3,500¥
Slot: Face (counts against worn gear threshold)
Required Skill: Arcana (for full function), Stealth (for usage synergy)
Game Mechanics:
• Passive Effect: While worn, the user gains +2 to Sneaking tests when in urban decay, wilderness, or dim environments.
• Echo Suppression: The mask continuously suppresses noise signature (–2 to being detected by audio sensors or motion detectors).
• Astral Signature Blur: Astral beings must succeed on a Perception test with a threshold of 3 to notice the user’s aura if not directly interacting.
• Activatable Power:
— Silent Drift (Simple Action, 1/Scene): User becomes completely sonically undetectable for 1 minute. No sound-based triggers, alarms, or spirits can locate the source.
• Drawback: Causes slight drain on magical field—each activation causes 1 Stun damage unless resisted with Willpower + Intuition (threshold 2).
Starfinder
Item Name: Malagan Veil-Mask
Item Level: 3
Price: 1,200 credits
Type: Hybrid Item (magic/tech fusion)
Usage: Worn (Face); Capacity 2; Usage 1/activation
Bulk: L
Slot: Face Slot
Game Mechanics:
• Passive Mode: Grants +2 insight bonus to Stealth checks when in forests, jungles, ruins, or shadowed environments.
• Aura Diminishment: While worn, the user’s life signature is harder to detect. Life scanners, detect life spells, or soul-sensors must succeed at a Perception check (DC 16) to notice presence if not directly attacked.
• Active Mode (Standard Action):
— Sound Null (1 round): User produces no sound for 1 round. Allies within 30 feet gain a +1 morale bonus to Stealth as long as they follow the user’s movements.
• Special: Spiritual creatures (outsiders, incorporeals, summoned entities) treat the wearer as if under displacement (50% miss chance) for the first attack made in any encounter.
Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)
Item Name: Drift-Cut Malagan Mask
Tech Level: 8 (Ancient Tech, Spiritual Interface)
Cost: Cr1,000
Mass: Negligible
Slot: Face (worn equipment)
Traits and Game Effects:
• Stealth Field Camouflage: Grants DM+2 to Stealth rolls in wilderness or low-light environments.
• Spiritual Obfuscation Field: Creatures using Psionics to detect or sense the wearer suffer −2 DM to skill rolls unless line of sight is established.
• Activatable Function (1/day):
— Echo-Blanket: For 10 combat rounds, all personal sound emissions are silenced. Wearer is immune to sound-triggered traps and gains an additional DM+1 to Stealth.
• Drawback:
— Use of the mask causes a lingering psionic signature; roll 2d6 after each use. On a roll of 2–4, a lingering spirit-echo attracts attention from entities sensitive to spiritual or anomalous fields within the next 1d6 hours.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)
Item Name: Malagan Mask of Withheld Skin
Type: Magical Artefact (Face Slot)
Rarity: Rare
Encumbrance: 0
Tradition: Hedge Magic / Spirit Craft
Game Mechanics:
• Passive Effects:
— +10 to Stealth (Urban, Rural, Wilderness)
— Enemies using Witch-Sight, Second Sight, or magic to detect you must pass a Hard (–20) Perception Test to notice your presence.
• Activatable Effect (1/Session):
— Silent Drift: For 10 minutes, all sounds made by you are muted. You may move, cast spells, or fight silently. You gain advantage on Stealth checks and cause Fear (1) to ghostly or undead creatures upon first interaction.
• Curse Risk:
— If the user speaks a true name or sacred oath while wearing the mask, the spiritual balance is upset. Take a +1 SL penalty to any magical miscast results until the next sunrise.
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