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Navigational 309 of the Shrouded Tide Veil

—

by

Dale
in

Lore During the early naval wars of the Middle Ages on Saṃsāra, maritime couriers and smugglers traversing the contested waterways between island nations discovered that navigating open swells often made them vulnerable to royal coastal patrols and predatory sea beasts. Navigators from the island of Lapita wove delicate veils using fibers stripped from deep-sea kelp, soaking them in the bioluminescent ink of reef squids and sap from shadow-mangroves. Infused with ambient illusion magic, the veil was engineered not only to read the invisible celestial vectors of VaporSphere and the planetary currents but to wrap the wearer and their craft in a deceptive, light-bending sea mist that mimics natural ocean spray.

Description The item appears as a gauzy, sea-green mesh scarf measuring roughly four feet in length, woven from fine, silken kelp fibers and hemmed with tiny, polished river-pearl weights. When draped over the head or shoulders, the fabric billows gently even in calm air, catching ambient light to create a translucent, heat-shimmer effect around the wearer. When activated, the fabric cools to the touch, and the weave exudes a faint, clinging marine mist that blurs the wearer’s physical outline, causing them to blend into the horizon and the crests of rolling waves.

Detailed Stats

  • Item Tier: Tier 1
  • Rarity: Common
  • Armor Check: 0
  • Item Health Points: 10 plus maximum avatar hit points
  • Resilience: 10
  • Attunement Requirement: Simple attunement (1 minute of concentration while worn)
  • Usage Limit: Tier 1 and above

Passives Magic

  • Horizon Blur: While worn openly, the veil bends ambient light and salt spray around the avatar. Attackers beyond 30 feet suffer a minor visual distortion, treating the avatar as slightly obscured when on or near open water.
  • Tidal Path Intuition: The avatar passively senses the underlying flow of the primary east-to-west ocean currents, enabling natural drift calculation through their Mind’s Eye without needing to look at physical maps.

Activable Magics

  • Cloak of the Pelagic Mist (Action): The avatar shakes the weighted hem of the veil. A dense, localized cloud of natural-smelling sea mist expands in a 15-foot radius around the avatar for 10 minutes. The mist moves with the avatar, completely concealing their precise position from mundane sight while allowing the avatar to see through it clearly.
  • Dead-Reckoning Mirage (Ritual Action): By chanting in a low murmur for at least 6 seconds while aligning the veil to the stars or Helios, the avatar projects a false sensory wake on the water up to 100 yards away. While the phantom wake draws the attention of onlookers, the avatar’s vessel glides silently along the true spiritual current heading for 1 hour with advantage on stealth rolls against naval scouts.
  • Vaporous Fade (Reaction): When targeted by a ranged attack or spell from an enemy while on water or in coastal fog, the avatar can trigger the veil to instantly dissolve their immediate image into a puff of briny vapor, granting disadvantage to the incoming attack roll.

Gear Slot

  • Headwear Slot (can also drape into the Shoulder Slot or Neck Slot if unobstructed)

Tags

  • Navigation, Concealment, Illusion, Tier 1, Common, Cloth, Sea-Kelp, Mist, Utility, Stealth, Focus, Obscurity, Camouflage, Seafarer, Maritime, Mirage, Headwear, Deception, Shroud, Reagent, Vapor, Wayfinding

Acquisition, Trade Outlets, and Marketplace Valuation of Navigational 309 of the Shrouded Tide Veil

  • Coastal Haberdashers, Clothiers, and Weaver Ateliers:
    • In authorized coastal ports and maritime trade hubs across island nations such as Lapita, Aterian, and Phoenicia, this item is commonly found in small, family-owned tailor shops, kelp-weaver stalls, and naval outfitters.
    • These establishments are run by local fiber-weavers, master clothiers, or alchemical dyers who harvest deep-sea kelp strands, treat the fabric with shadow-mangrove resins, and stitch weighted river pearls into the hems.
    • Because there is no fixed baseline price per item and commerce operates under a sellers’ market with the principle of buyer beware, the suggested base value for this Tier 1 enchanted veil is 10 silver (or 1 gold / 2 electrum).
    • Legitimate NPC merchants charge the standard asking price of 10 silver, but an avatar openly wearing a faction badge or membership token from the Weavers’ Guild, Smugglers’ Haven, or Wayfinders’ Syndicate receives a 10% discount per character tier level (reducing the purchase cost to 9 silver at Tier 1).
    • Selling the veil to an authorized clothing vendor yields a payout haggled down by approximately 10% times the character’s tier level below the item’s perceived value (9 silver at Tier 1). The payment is credited directly into the character’s World Bank ledger minus the 1% banking fee (1 copper), while the merchant notes the transaction in their quasi-records for state tax assessors.
  • Black-Market Smuggler Dens and Hidden Cove Shrouds:
    • In concealed sea caves, illicit wharf cellars, and pirate hideouts situated outside the watchful eyes of the King’s navy, the veil is heavily traded among corsairs, illicit blockade runners, and infiltration specialists who rely on concealment magic to bypass harbor checkpoints.
    • When purchasing from a black-market fence, the item commands full price or a substantial markup due to its illicit utility, typically retailing between 14 silver and 25 silver, with no discounts given for guild standing or faction badges.
    • When selling to a black-market dealer, the fence will offer the standard merchant payout of 9 silver, but if an outlaw captain urgently requires stealth veils to run past naval garrisons during an active blockade, the fence may pay double the standard merchant rate (up to 18 silver).
    • Black-market transactions are executed strictly in physical coinage (precious metal coin or standardized non-metal tokens) with total anonymity and no logs submitted to municipal tax assessors.
  • Wandering Nomads, Coastline Voyagers, and Open Barter:
    • Along rural shores, isolated fishing villages, and uncharted atolls, solitary navigators, coastal couriers, and traveling scavengers trade the veil directly to bypass seaport entry fees (1 silver) and state border crossing taxes (1% to 5%).
    • Open barter prices fluctuate dramatically based on location and immediate demand: in dry, landlocked interior cities or mountain fortresses where maritime navigation and kelp-craft are virtually unheard of, merchants or collectors might pay up to 45 silver, whereas in warm coastal archipelagos teeming with kelp-gatherers, the veil may be acquired for as little as 6 to 8 silver or traded for an equal value of fresh alchemical saps and sewing tools.

Tactical and Environmental Applications for Defense and Offense

  • Open Ocean and Maritime Shipping Lanes:
    • Offensive Application: While stalking an enemy merchant galleon across open waters, the avatar activates the Dead-Reckoning Mirage from the prow of their skiff. The veil projects a false sensory wake and decoy hull signature fifty yards to the port side, drawing the lookouts’ spyglasses and deck-mounted ballistas toward the phantom vessel while the real craft approaches silently through the true current to launch a close-range boarding assault.
    • Defensive Application: When intercepted by high-speed naval interceptors in broad daylight, the avatar deploys the Cloak of the Pelagic Mist. A thick sphere of authentic-smelling marine vapor engulfs their vessel, breaking the line of sight for enemy cannoneers and archers. The avatar relies on their passive Tidal Path Intuition to guide the blind ship along the prevailing east-to-west current to safety while the pursuers fire blindly into the empty fog.
  • Coastal Mangroves, Tidal Inlets, and Coral Shallows:
    • Offensive Application: Inside narrow, winding estuary channels, the avatar uses the veil’s Horizon Blur to glide silently through overhanging mangrove roots. When an enemy patrol boat passes, the avatar triggers a localized pulse of briny vapor, obscuring their strike team while they spring an ambush from the murky banks, disabling the enemy’s rudders before slipping away unnoticed.
    • Defensive Application: While evading hostile trackers through shallow coral atolls where navigation is dangerously tight, incoming archers on the bluffs target the helmsman. The avatar uses the Vaporous Fade reaction as arrows rain down, dissolving their physical silhouette into an illusory spray of saltwater mist, causing the volleys to splash harmlessly into the surf while the craft weaves through the reef gaps.
  • Underground Waterways, Flooded Catacombs, and Subterranean Canals:
    • Offensive Application: Deep within damp subterranean rivers or flooded sewer networks, the avatar drapes the veil over their head, blending the fabric’s sea-green weave with the algae-coated stone walls. The veil masks the vessel’s kinetic ripples, allowing the avatar to drift silently behind subterranean smuggler sentries and neutralize them before the alarm chimes can be sounded.
    • Defensive Application: In tight, cavernous waterways where echoes amplify every sound and magical flares can expose an escape route, the avatar releases the veil’s localized mist. The thick briny vapor fills the confined tunnel, absorbing magical illumination, snuffing out torchlight, and confusing the thermal and visual senses of predatory subterranean beasts hunting along the ceiling.
  • Atmospheric Skies, Zeppelins, and Cloud Disks:
    • Offensive Application: During high-altitude skiff operations among floating island chains, the avatar wraps the veil around their torso to catch the thin atmospheric moisture. The veil refracts the high glare of Helios, turning the avatar into a translucent mirage against the cloud banks, allowing for an undetected aerial drop onto an enemy airship’s upper gas envelope to cut mooring lines.
    • Defensive Application: When targeted by aerial raiders or winged predators diving from the upper sky, the avatar snaps the weighted hem of the veil to trigger Vaporous Fade. The sudden burst of dense vapor creates a false visual snapshot in the clouds, causing the diving creatures to overshoot their attack dive into empty air, giving the avatar time to maneuver into the cover of a nearby storm front.

Perception of Activation:

  • User’s Perspective:
    • Sight: When the veil is snapped or draped overhead, the fine green kelp weave illuminates with a faint, spiraling mint-cyan phosphorescence. The surrounding environment appears slightly dimmed and desaturated, as if viewed through a calm sheet of deep ocean water, while the user’s vision remains entirely sharp and unobscured through the swirling briny vapors.
    • Sound: The user hears the soft, rhythmic hush of distant ocean swells and the low, soothing hiss of vapor venting from the fibers, muting sharp background noises and footfalls into dampened thuds.
    • Smell: A sharp, clean scent of fresh ocean kelp, cool coastal morning fog, and crushed river pearls envelops the user’s nostrils.
    • Taste: A distinct, briny tang of fine sea mist and mineral salt settles lightly on the lips and tongue.
    • Touch: The veil drops several degrees in temperature, resting against the skin with a cool, featherweight dampness that produces a gentle tingling sensation across the scalp and shoulders without ever soaking clothing.
    • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
      • Mind’s Eye Drift Intuition: The user’s Mind’s Eye perceives the invisible currents of the ocean and prevailing wind vectors as flowing translucent ribbons across the water, making dead-reckoning navigation effortless.
      • Perimetric Concealment Awareness: The user feels an instinctual psychic awareness of the boundary line of their active mist, instinctively knowing precisely when an observer has line of sight or is blinded by the veil’s shroud.
      • Spatial Sound Dampening: An extrasensory deadening field registers in the mind, signaling that kinetic ripples and small physical vibrations caused by the user’s vessel are being masked from mundane aquatic senses.
  • Observer’s Perspective:
    • Sight: Onlookers see the user’s physical outline blur, shimmer, and dissolve into a localized bank of genuine-looking sea fog. At distance, the user and their vessel appear as nothing more than a natural break in the waves or a distant heat-shimmer on the horizon.
    • Sound: The sound of the user’s voice, oars splashing, or footsteps fades into the gentle, ambient background murmur of rushing water and coastal wind.
    • Smell: Observers walking into the radius detect a sudden, crisp smell of ocean spray and salt kelp as if a sea breeze just passed through.
    • Taste: Nearby individuals catch a faint, cool mist in the air that leaves a trace of salt on the palate.
    • Touch: Observers entering the cloud feel a brisk, humid drop in temperature accompanied by a light, clinging dampness against their skin.
    • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
      • Optical Mirage Deception: Observers with basic magical detection sense an ambient illusion signature that causes the mind to look away, tricking perception into registering the obscured area as empty water.
      • Current Masking: Divination senses aimed at detecting vessel wakes or kinetic ripples register only standard oceanic drift patterns.
  • Positives:
    • Provides powerful visual obscurement and stealth capabilities while allowing the wearer completely unimpeded sight.
    • Masks natural ship wakes, paddle splashes, and footsteps on or near waterborne surfaces.
    • Integrates navigation intuition directly with active concealment, eliminating the need to expose bright lanterns or physical maps during covert travel.
  • Negatives:
    • The unmistakable scent of pelagic kelp and ocean mist can alert keen-nosed beasts or trackers in dry or inland environments where maritime odors are out of place.
    • Strong magical winds, intense fire spells, or heavy atmospheric downdrafts can temporarily disperse the localized fog cloud.
    • Occupies the headwear or neck slot, preventing the simultaneous use of heavy armored helms or visual enhancement goggles.

Crafting Recipe: Shrouded Tide Veil of the Shadow Wayfinder

  • Materials Needed:
    • Ten yards of fine, harvested deep-sea kelp fibers.
    • Twelve small, matched river pearls (drilled for threading).
    • Two ounces of bioluminescent ink harvested from a fresh reef squid.
    • Three ounces of shadow-mangrove tree sap, extracted using a fluid collector.
    • One Tier 1 Magic Crystal (coin-sized and coin-weighted), utilized as the sacrificial arcane catalyst.
    • One pint of distilled sea mist water collected at dawn during the week of Dimming.
    • One spool of spun aquatic silk thread.
  • Tools Required:
    • A traditional handloom or vertical tapestry frame.
    • One fluid collector (syringe-style extraction tool).
    • A fine bone-threading needle and beading awl.
    • An arcane etching stylus capable of directing focused thought.
    • A ceramic steeping vat and small alchemical heating brazier.
  • Skill Requirements:
    • Weaving / Tailoring (Skill Level 2 or higher).
    • Alchemical Crafting (Skill Level 2 or higher).
    • Spell Focus & Inscription (Skill Level 1 or higher).
  • Crafting Steps:
    • Step 1: Fiber Extraction and Treatment: Strip and comb the deep-sea kelp into uniform, silken strands. Soak the fibers in the distilled sea mist water for four hours until they become supple and translucent.
    • Step 2: Alchemical Dye and Mordant Preparation: Combine the shadow-mangrove sap and harvested reef squid ink in the ceramic steeping vat. Warm the mixture over the alchemical heating brazier, stirring steadily until it dissolves into a dark sea-green, light-absorbing dye.
    • Step 3: Catalytic Transference and Infusion: Place the Tier 1 Magic Crystal into the warm dye bath. Channel focused magical thought through the etching stylus into the liquid; the crystal dissolves, transferring its latent illusion and navigational energy directly into the fluid medium.
    • Step 4: Fiber Steeping: Submerge the prepared kelp strands into the energized dye bath. Maintain a low simmer until the fibers absorb the dark green hue and begin emitting a faint, phosphorescent cyan shimmer.
    • Step 5: Loom Weaving: Mount the dyed kelp fibers onto the handloom, using spun aquatic silk as the warp. Weave the strands into a loose, four-foot open-mesh scarf pattern that mimics natural fishing nets and ocean spray patterns.
    • Step 6: Hemming and Pearl Weighting: Remove the woven veil from the loom. Using the bone needle and silk thread, hem the outer edges and stitch the twelve drilled river pearls evenly along the bottom border to serve as stabilizing counterweights.
    • Step 7: Shrouding Attunement Ritual: Drape the finished veil over a basin of seawater beneath an open night sky. Whisper an ancient wayfinding incantation of concealment for at least ten minutes while shaking the beaded hem. When a cool, briny mist rises from the fabric and the central mesh begins to bend ambient light into a soft spiral, the veil is permanently enchanted and ready for attunement.

Gray Net of Silent Fish-Man and Great Blind War-Canoe

Listen with two ears to the scratches of the stone-tablets which were dug up from the mud before the seven thousand cycles of the sky-beast. In that very early day, the holy mother Gaialilith had not yet finished washing the salt from the hair of the earth. The sky had great sickness; the big ball of wet vapor named VaporSphere moved across the face of Helios like a fat belly full of cold wind, turning the daylight into the gray belly of a dead toad. The waters between the seventy-and-three lands were full of spears, and men had no peace in their houses because the kings of the high stone places took all the small canoes to make big fightings.

Upon the low reef-island of Banpo, where the mangrove-trees have legs like spiders and drink the salt until their wood turns black, lived a small water-man named Tavita-Who-Walks-in-the-Grass. Tavita was not a warrior who had iron on his chest, nor was he a wise-man who could read the markings in the books of the World Bank. Tavita had only two old nets of string and a small raft made of five tree-trunks tied with the dried sinew of the sea-pigs. When the other men went to the king’s war with drums and horn-pipes, Tavita stayed in the green mud, picking the small white snails that hide under the leaves of the swamp.

In that year of the great famine, the king of the high mountain nation of Phoenicia, whose name was King Daku-of-the-Iron-Tusk, came upon the salt water with twelve big war-canoes. Each canoe was carved from three giant red-cedar trees and had sixty rowers with arms like the legs of oxen. King Daku had many bows that shot fire-arrows, and his men took every basket of dried fish, every maiden with brown hair, and every fat duck from the villages of the small islands. King Daku stood upon the high front of his war-canoe and shouted: “The water belongs to the strong spear! If a small man puts his paddle in the tide without giving me five silver pieces and two baskets of yam, my archers will pin his meat to the sand!”

Tavita’s three brothers, who were very brave but had heads like dry gourds—named Maru, who could shout louder than a sea-lion; Koli, who had seven scars from the fighting-claws of reef-crabs; and Sione, who carried a club of heavy basalt stone—laughed at the King of Phoenicia. They said: “We have two eyes to see the sun, and we have fast arms! We will paddle our three canoes across the great channel under the nose of the King’s big boats and fetch the sweet water and the red fruit from the land of Aterian!”

Tavita pulled on the sleeve of his brother Maru and said: “Do not go upon the wide swell with shouts and big splashing. The eye of the iron-king is sharp like the osprey, and his canoes are many. The water-spirits do not love the man who beats the drum upon the calm water.” But the brothers spat in the mud and called Tavita a crawling worm who ate snail-dirt, and they pushed their fast canoes into the bay with great shouting and singing of war-songs.

Lo! When the three brothers reached the middle of the channel, where the great east-to-west swell rolls like the back of an angry beast, the King’s war-fleet was waiting behind the white foam of the outer reef. King Daku saw the sun Helios bouncing off their wet paddles and heard their loud singing across two leagues of water. The twelve war-canoes moved like water-spiders. The archers drew their great bows of horn, and a rain of fire-sticks fell upon the three small boats. Maru was pierced through his shouting mouth; Koli was pinned to the floor of his boat by four iron spears; and Sione leaped into the water with his basalt club and sank down into the cold mud where the sea-demons chew the bones of the dead. All their yams and their canoes were burned until only charcoal floated upon the waves.

When the sun went down behind the rim of the world, Tavita sat in the roots of the shadow-mangroves and wept for his brothers until his nose was full of salt. He took his stone scraping-knife and went down into the deep, cold channels where the great sea-kelp grows forty cubits tall. With careful hands, so as not to wake the sleeping eels, he pulled ten long strands of the finest green kelp, which were soft like the hair of a young girl. He took the black, oily ink from the pocket of a sleeping reef-squid, and from the skin of the shadow-mangrove he squeezed three drops of the dark gum that never dries.

Tavita sat upon the wet sand under the darkness of VaporSphere, where no stars could be seen. He opened the Eye of the Mind within his forehead, looking into the deep currents of the salt weave. As he wove the wet kelp into a loose scarf four cubits long, he stitched into the bottom edge twelve small, round pearls that he had found inside the mouths of the river-clams. As he pushed the bone needle through the green mesh, he whispered the secret names of the seven sea-mists and the quiet drift of the ancient mother Gaialilith.

When the weaving was done, the net did not look like dry cloth. It looked like a piece of the sea itself, shimmering with a cold, pale light like the rotten wood that glows in the deep jungle at midnight.

On the next morning, when the King’s twelve war-canoes were patrolling the channel like hungry sharks, Tavita put his small raft of five logs into the water. He draped the green kelp veil over his head, letting the pearl weights hang down across his brown shoulders.

Suddenly, a strange coldness came out of the cloth. A thick, white cloud of salty vapor, smelling of fresh kelp and morning tide-mist, rose up from the hem of the veil and wrapped the raft in a round ball of gray fog fifteen paces wide. Tavita looked out through the mist: to his meat-eyes, the sun Helios and the far-off islands of Aterian were clear and bright as polished brass; but when he looked down at his own arms and his wooden paddles, they were thin and translucent like water seen through ice.

Tavita began to paddle his little raft straight toward the great war-fleet of King Daku.

The lookouts upon the high wooden towers of the King’s lead war-canoe had long copper tubes with glass eyes to search the ocean for small boats. The chief lookout shouted to the King: “I see nothing upon the water, O Master of the Tusk! I see only a small puff of morning mist that drifts with the east wind, and two sea-birds sitting upon a floating log!”

Tavita paddled his raft right between the two largest war-canoes. The oars of the King’s sixty rowers splashed within three spans of his head, yet not a single soldier looked down, for the veil bent the light of Helios around his body, and the pearl weights absorbed the sound of his wooden paddle until the splashing sounded only like the gentle lap of small waves against the hulls.

When the King’s vessel turned to block the channel, Tavita murmured an ancient song of the tide and shook the pearl hem of his veil. Lo! A great phantom wake appeared upon the water two hundred cubits to the north, looking exactly like the churned foam of three fast canoes fleeing toward the open ocean. King Daku beat his war-drum and shouted: “There go the thieves of Banpo! Row, row, until your hearts burst, and cut them into small pieces for the bait-pots!”

The twelve giant war-canoes turned with great fury and rowed with all their strength toward the false wake to the north. While the King’s fleet chased the empty foam, shouting and shooting their fire-arrows into the empty water, Tavita glided peacefully along the true east-to-west current in his little shroud of fog.

He crossed the wide channel, loaded his five-log raft with seven baskets of sweet yams, three calabashes of mountain honey, and five jars of medicine-oil from the friendly people of Aterian, and returned back to the village of Banpo without a single drop of blood falling from his skin. The King spent three weeks rowing in circles upon the outer reefs, smashing his own cedar hulls against the hidden rocks of the north while searching for the phantom boats that were never there, until his men grew mutinous, threw King Daku’s iron tusks into the sea, and rowed back to their mountains in shame.

Tavita lived for ninety-and-two years upon his quiet island, teaching his grandchildren how to gather the soft kelp at the time of the Dimming and how to hide beneath the breath of the ocean, so that no proud king with iron spears could ever see where the humble people went.

Moral of the Story: The fool who marches with noise and proud banners invites the arrows of the strong to destroy him; but the wise traveler who clothes himself in modesty and walks unseen with the quiet current of the world will pass safely through the midst of twelve armies and find sweet harbor.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

Veil of the Shrouded Drift (Pelagic Kelp Scarf)

  • Item Classification: Minor Occult Artifact / Illusionary Relic
  • Sanity Cost to Attune / Comprehend: 1 Sanity point upon first successful shrouding ritual and mental alignment with oceanic drift.
  • Skill Requirements / Checks: Stealth, Navigate, or Occult.

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Cloak of the Pelagic Mist: By draping the veil overhead and succeeding on a Stealth or Occult roll, the investigator releases a 15-foot radius of thick, briny marine fog that travels with them for 1 hour.
    • Regular Success: The investigator and up to three companions inside the fog gain a Bonus Die (+1D) on all Stealth tests and are treated as having visual concealment from distant spotters.
    • Hard / Extreme Success: Enemies attempting to spot or target the investigator through the mist suffer a Penalty Die (-1D), and the investigator ignores visibility penalties within the fog.
    • Fumble: The mist solidifies into an icy, choking vapor; the investigator loses 1d3 Sanity points and suffers a Penalty Die on all physical actions for 10 minutes due to intense coughing.
  • Vaporous Evasion (Reaction): When targeted by an attack while aboard a vessel or in coastal fog, the user may spend 1 Magic Point and make a Dodge roll with a Bonus Die (+1D) as their outline dissolves momentarily into sea spray.

Blades in the Dark

Shadow-Tide Shroud

  • Item Type: Arcane Cloak / Infiltration Implement (Lurk, Whisper, or Slide loadout)
  • Item Load: 1 Load (Light garment / Scarf)
  • Tier / Quality: Tier I Quality Stealth Gear

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Bending the Horizon: When sneaking across waterways, navigating mist-covered canals, or conducting rooftop operations in heavy precipitation, the wearer channels electroplasmic mist using Prowl or Attune.
    • Mechanical Effect: When using Prowl or Attune to remain unseen, bypass harbor checkpoints, or blend into waterborne fog, improve the Position by one step (e.g., from Desperate to Risky) or increase the Effect Level by one step.
  • Mirage Wake (Stress Cost): The scoundrel may push themselves (Take 2 Stress) to project a ghostly decoy wake or false heat-shimmer across the water up to 100 yards away, securing Potency on a deception or evasion maneuver against pursuing patrol boats.
  • Devil’s Bargain / Complication: The veil’s thick, clinging marine mist leaves an unmistakable odor of deep-sea brine and ectoplasm that can alert trained guard hounds or spirit wardens.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition / 2024 Revision)

Veil of the Shrouded Tide

  • Wondrous Item: Common
  • Item Slot: Headwear / Worn
  • Attunement: Requires Attunement by a creature proficient with Stealth or Navigator’s Tools

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Horizon Blur (Passive): While you wear this veil openly in areas of water, fog, or precipitation, ranged attack rolls against you made from more than 30 feet away have disadvantage if you are not in bright direct sunlight. You always instinctively know the heading of the nearest primary ocean current.
  • Cloak of the Pelagic Mist (Action): As an action, you shake the weighted hem of the veil to create a 15-foot-radius sphere of dense fog centered on yourself. The fog moves with you and lasts for 10 minutes or until dispersed by a strong wind (at least 20 mph). The area within the fog is heavily obscured for all creatures other than you, who can see through it clearly. Once used, this property cannot be used again until you finish a Short or Long Rest.
  • Vaporous Fade (Reaction): When a creature you can see hits you with a ranged attack while you are within 10 feet of a body of water or in fog, you can use your reaction to dissolve into mist, turning the hit into a miss. Once used, this property cannot be used again until the next dawn.

Knave (Second Edition)

Kelp-Weaver’s Shroud

  • Item Type: Armor / Gear (Worn Headwear/Shoulders)
  • Item Slots: 1 Gear Slot
  • Durability: 3 / 3 Quality
  • Direct Usage Attribute: Dexterity / Wisdom

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Pelagic Stealth (Passive): While worn in wilderness, marsh, or ocean terrain, the wearer gains +1 to Dexterity Saves involving stealth, concealment, and evading detection from pursuers.
  • Unfurl the Mist (Action): The wearer spends an exploration turn shaking the veil to generate a dense cloud of natural sea fog covering an entire 30-foot room or local area for 10 minutes.
    • The cloud breaks direct line of sight for all mundane ranged attacks and grants the party automatic success on checks to slip away from non-magical pursuers.
    • Wear / Mishap Rule: If the veil is subjected to fire damage, magical gusts, or dry heat hazards, roll a d6; on a result of 1, the dried kelp fibers snap, causing 1 point of Item Damage (reducing Quality). When Quality reaches 0, the pearls scatter and the item becomes useless until rewoven by a master tailor.

Fate (Fate Condensed / Fate Core)

The Mist-Weaver’s Tide Veil

  • Item Aspect: Fine Kelp-Mesh Veil Inlaid with Pearl-Weighted Illusions
  • Type: Personal Extra / Stunt-bearing Garment

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Horizon Distortion (Passive Stunt): Gain a +2 bonus on Stealth rolls to create an advantage or defend against Notice when moving across open water, foggy shorelines, or coastal shallows.
  • Cloak of the Pelagic Mist (Active Stunt): Once per scene, spend a Fate Point to shake the pearl hem and release a localized sphere of thick marine vapor. Place a situational aspect on the zone with one free invoke, such as Enveloped in Dense Sea Mist or Cloaked from Distant Eyes.
  • Vaporous Fade (Reaction Stunt): When targeted by a physical attack or ranged spell while on or near water, invoke the veil to defend with Stealth instead of Athletics, gaining a +2 bonus on the roll as your silhouette dissolves into brine vapor.
  • Item Vulnerability: The item’s primary aspect (Fine Kelp-Mesh Veil Inlaid with Pearl-Weighted Illusions) can be compelled by the GM to expose the wearer in arid desert terrain or trigger disorientation when subjected to violent gale-force winds and fire.

Numenera & Cypher System

Phreatic Shroud Net

  • Item Level: 1d6 (typically Level 3)
  • Form: A four-foot sea-green bio-fiber scarf hemmed with micro-dense mineral beads and light-refracting bioluminescent threads.
  • Classification: Cypher (or Artifact if designed for repeated, long-term use)
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (Check upon each activation of an active ability; artifacts only)

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Refractive Camouflage (Passive): While worn over the head or shoulders, the user reduces the difficulty of all Speed-based Stealth tasks and Intellect-based maritime navigation tasks by one step when on or near liquid bodies.
  • Cloak of the Pelagic Mist (Action): The user shakes the beaded hem, expending 1 point from their Speed Pool. A 15-foot (4.5 m) sphere of dense, salty vapor erupts from the fibers, moving with the user for 10 minutes. Within this area, the user is considered fully concealed from mundane sight while retaining clear vision.
  • Decoy Wake Projection (Action): The user channels the micro-beads to emit a low-frequency optical distortion up to short range. The illusion mimics the surface wake of a moving vessel, increasing the difficulty of enemy perception and targeting tasks directed at the user by two steps for 1 hour.
  • Cypher System Effect (Single-Use Version): If utilized as a single-use cypher, activating the shroud instantly generates a 50-foot zone of impenetrable illusionary fog that completely breaks visual contact and tracks across water before the kelp fibers dissolve into briny residue.

Pathfinder (Second Edition / Remaster)

Veil of the Shrouded Tide

  • Item 1
  • Traits: Concealment, Illusion, Invested, Magical
  • Price: 15 gp
  • Usage: Worn (headwear or cloak); Bulk: L

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Passive Drift Perception: You gain a +1 item bonus to Stealth checks and Survival checks made to Navigate or Track while traveling on wetlands, rivers, or open oceans.
  • Cloak of the Pelagic Mist [two-actions] (Concentrate, Illusion, Manipulate):
    • Frequency: Once per day
    • Effect: You shake the pearl-weighted hem of the veil, causing it to exude a 15-foot emanation of dense sea mist for 10 minutes. The mist moves with you. Creatures inside the mist gain the concealed condition against creatures outside it, and creatures outside are concealed to those within; you, however, ignore the concealment granted by this mist. A moderate wind or stronger disperses the mist immediately.
  • Vaporous Fade [reaction] (Concentrate, Illusion):
    • Trigger: A creature targets you with a ranged strike or ranged spell while you are standing on water, aboard a vessel, or within fog.
    • Frequency: Once per day
    • Effect: You twist the veil to dissolve your visual form into a burst of briny vapor. The triggering attack takes a -2 circumstance penalty to its attack roll.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

Veil of the Mist Wayfinder

  • Item Type: Arcane Garment / Illusion Device
  • Weight: 1 lb
  • Min Str: d4

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Attunement: Requires an action to drape over the head or shoulders and concentrate on the tidal weave.
  • Horizon Blur (Passive): While worn openly near water, wetlands, or fog, ranged attacks targeting the wearer from more than 10 yards away suffer a -1 penalty due to light refraction and mist distortion. The wearer gains a +1 bonus to all Stealth and Survival checks made in aquatic environments.
  • Cloak of the Pelagic Mist (Major Action):
    • The wearer shakes the weighted hem and rolls Stealth or Occult.
    • Success: A Medium Blast Template of dense marine fog erupts, centered on the wearer and lasting 10 minutes (or until blown away by strong winds). The fog moves with the user, granting total concealment against outside observers while allowing the wearer to see out normally.
    • Raise: The fog template increases to a Large Blast Template, and the duration extends to 30 minutes.
    • Critical Failure: The veil emits a foul, noxious sulfur smoke that inflicts 1 level of Fatigue from choking and imposes a -2 penalty on Notice checks for 10 minutes.
  • Vaporous Fade (Reaction / Free Action): Once per scene, when targeted by a ranged attack in water or fog, the wearer dissolves momentarily into mist, forcing the attacker to immediately reroll the attack and keep the lower result.

Shadowrun (Sixth World / 6th Edition)

Pelagic Mist Shroud (Illusion Focus)

  • Item Type: Enchanted Garment / Sustaining Focus (Force 1)
  • Form: Four-foot woven sea-kelp mesh scarf weighted with drilled river pearls and treated with bioluminescent ink.
  • Cost: 4,500 Nuyen
  • Availability: 3 (Legality: Legal / Minor Magic Curio)

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Horizon Refraction (Passive): When bonded to an Awakened wielder (or worn openly in aquatic and maritime environments), the shroud grants a +1 dice pool bonus to Stealth and Outdoors tests made on waterways, canals, and coastal terrain.
  • Cloak of the Pelagic Mist (Major Action): The wielder channels mana through the pearl hem and rolls an Astral + Intuition Test.
    • 1+ Hits: The shroud releases a localized 5-meter radius cloud of dense, briny vapor that travels with the user for 10 minutes. The mist imposes a -2 dice pool penalty to ranged attacks and visual Perception tests directed at the wielder from outside the cloud, while the wielder suffers no visibility penalty.
    • Glitch: The mist condenses prematurely into heavy, cold moisture, imposing a -1 dice pool penalty on the wielder’s physical agility tests for 10 minutes due to slick gear.
  • Vaporous Fade (Minor Action / Defense Reaction): When targeted by a ranged firearm or spell attack while operating on water or inside fog, the wielder dissolves momentarily into sea spray, gaining a +2 dice pool bonus to their Defense Test against the triggering attack.

Starfinder (Second Edition)

Phreatic Shroud Net

  • Item Level: Level 1 Hybrid Item
  • Price: 135 Credits
  • Hands: Free (Worn); Bulk: L
  • Traits: Concealment, Hybrid, Illusion, Magical, Tech

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Tidal Camouflage (Passive): While worn over the head or neck on aquatic worlds, wetlands, or foggy sectors, the user gains a +1 item bonus to Stealth checks and Survival checks to Navigate or Sense Direction. Ranged attacks made from beyond 30 feet against the user treat the user as concealed.
  • Cloak of the Pelagic Mist [two-actions] (Concentrate, Illusion, Manipulate):
    • Frequency: Once per day
    • Effect: The user shakes the pearl-weighted hem. A 15-foot emanation of dense, sensor-scrambling sea mist expands outward and moves with the user for 10 minutes. Creatures outside the cloud treat everything inside as having total concealment; the wearer ignores this concealment entirely.
  • Vaporous Fade [reaction] (Illusion):
    • Trigger: A creature targets the wearer with a ranged attack while the wearer is in water, mist, or low-light conditions.
    • Frequency: Once per day
    • Effect: The user’s visual signature breaks into refractive brine particles. The incoming attack suffers a -2 circumstance penalty on its attack roll.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition, 2022 Update)

Refractive Tide-Weave Scarf

  • Tech Level (TL): TL 2 (Primitive Oceanic / Psionic-Resonant Textile)
  • Weight: 0.5 kg
  • Cost: Cr 350 (Specialty Cultural Market / Infiltration Value)

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Maritime Concealment (Passive): While worn across open water, coastlines, or swamp terrains, the wearer gains DM+1 to all Stealth and Survival checks to evade visual detection, bypass maritime surveillance, or navigate surface currents.
  • Vapor Cloak Generation (Active Camouflage): A sophont with Psionic ability (or trained in ancient wayfinding arts) can shake the pearl weights and make an Average (8+) Stealth or PSI Check (1D minutes, DEX or PSI).
    • Success: A 5-meter cloud of dense oceanic vapor billows around the user for 30 minutes. All ranged attacks targeting the user suffer DM-2, and visual detection checks by search parties suffer DM-2.
    • Failure (Effect -2 or worse): The veil fails to billow properly, venting thin steam that draws attention and imposes DM-1 to subsequent stealth checks for 10 minutes.
  • Decoy Wake Projection: When operating a surface watercraft, channeling the weave creates a false acoustic and visual wake 50 meters away, granting DM+2 to Seafarer checks to slip past hostile naval patrols.

Warhammer (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition)

The Mist-Weaver’s Kelp Shroud

  • Classification: Minor Talisman / Folk Magic Shroud
  • Item Slots / Encumbrance: 0 (Worn as a cowl, scarf, or mantle)
  • Availability: Rare (Found among coastal smugglers in Sartosa, River Reik boatmen, or Nordland raiders)

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Veil of the Shallows (Passive): While worn openly, the character receives a +10 bonus to all Stealth (Rural or Urban waterways) and Outdoor Survival tests made along coasts, rivers, or open seas. Ranged missile attacks against the wielder made from Long range or further suffer a -10 penalty.
  • Cloak of the Pelagic Mist (Extended Action / Chanted Spell):
    • Test: Average (+20) Stealth or Challenging (+0) Channeling Test.
    • Effect: The wielder shakes the pearl-weighted fringe while whispering a maritime cantrip. A thick blanket of briny fog expands in a 6-yard radius around the wielder for 10 rounds, granting everyone inside the Obscured (Visibility) condition against outside observers while allowing the wielder to see through it unimpeded.
    • Critical / SL +4: The mist duration extends to 1 hour, and the wielder gains +2 SL on all Stealth tests while inside.
    • Fumble: The shroud absorbs ambient dampness and turns ice-cold, inflicting 1 Fatigue and a -10 penalty to all Agility tests for 1 hour.
  • Vaporous Evasion (Reaction): When targeted by a missile weapon or ranged magic attack near water, the wielder spends their reaction to dissolve into sea mist, granting an immediate +20 bonus to their Dodge Test against the incoming attack.