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Ninjutsu 19 of the Astrologers Planisphere Diptych

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by

Dale
in
  • Lore: In the observatory towers and nomadic sky-camps of Saṃsāra, covert stargazers and celestial ninjas charted the movements of wandering planetary bodies to calculate optimal moments for espionage, ritual timing, and silent movement. By weaving ninjutsu into navigational astrolabes and star charts, these astral scouts synchronized their ki with planetary alignments. This folding brass planisphere was engineered to predict terrestrial night conditions, align the bearer’s presence with celestial shadows, and bend ambient starlight around clandestine field operatives.
  • Description: A hinged diptych case crafted from tarnished naval brass and dark blue lapis lazuli veneer. The interior unfolds to reveal twin concentric brass dials engraved with the constellations and planetary orbital rings of Saṃsāra, centered around a luminous mother-of-pearl polar disk. Microscopic ninjutsu glyphs of concealment, alignment, and stellar geometry are etched along the degree marks of the outer azimuth ring. When opened beneath an open sky, the engraved stars glow with a faint, phosphor-white pinprick luminescence that shifts as the dials rotate silently on jewel bearings.
  • Detailed Stats:
    • Item Tier: Common (Tier 1)
    • Resilience: 8
    • Hit Points: Avatar maximum Hit Points + 8
    • Damage: 1d4 Bludgeoning/Piercing (Improvised Weapon: weighted brass frame edge / pointed stylus strike) + 1d4 (Tier 1 Tier Die)
    • Weight: 1 pound
    • Attunement: Automatic upon opening beneath an open night sky or aligning the planetary rings
  • Specific Slot: Hand Slot (Held) or Belt/Pocket Slot (Stored)
  • Passive Magics:
    • Celestial Orientation: While holding or referencing the diptych, the user inherently knows true celestial north, the current lunar phase, precise local astrological time, and upcoming planetary conjunctions, even when underground or beneath heavy cloud cover.
    • Umbral Zenith: While operating under direct night sky or starlight, the bearer’s physical silhouette subtly blends into the celestial backdrop, muffling personal light emissions and providing a constant minor dampening to ambient visual contrast.
  • Activable Magics:
    • Starlight Veil: As an action, the wielder manually aligns the planisphere’s secondary dial with the zenith constellation and breathes across the brass rings. A soft shroud of bent starlight wraps around the user for 10 minutes, making their form translucent and shadowy in dim light or darkness, granting an advantage on physical stealth and concealment maneuvers until the user enters bright light or attacks.
    • Guiding Comet Flare: As an action, the wielder snaps the diptych shut toward a target point within 30 feet. A streak of cold, harmless astral luminescence shoots from the latch and strikes the ground or an object, illuminating a 15-foot radius in dim silvery light for 1 minute while marking invisible, disguised, or hidden footprints in the illuminated area.
  • Tags:
    • Tool, Hand Slot, Cosmology, Astronomy, Astrology, Starlight, Navigation, Common, Tier 1, Ninjutsu, Stealth, Divination, Planisphere, Astrolabe Gear, Celestial Tracker, Horizon Dial, Wayfinding Focus, Astral Shroud, Planetary Sigil, Zenith Alignment, Luminescent Marker, Star Chart, Nocturnal Recon, Void Geometry

Commercial Outlets and Valuation for the Astrologer’s Planisphere Diptych

  • Observatory Scriptoriums and Celestial Navigators’ Guildhalls: Located within towering palace minarets, grand scholastic institutions, and harbor navigation towers across Saṃsāra, licensed astral navigators and imperial astrologers commission and sell precision navigational brass instruments. Explorers, sea captains, and sky-caravan pilots procure these planispheres to chart unexplored territories, predict seasonal weather anomalies, and verify celestial alignments. Authorized guild scholars and pilots in good standing receive an institutional 10% discount per avatar tier off the standard catalog price, reducing the retail cost from 110 silver coins down to approximately 75 to 90 silver coins. Reclaimed or surplus charts traded into these official academic institutions undergo rigorous tier-based appraisal, with payouts settled cleanly into the seller’s registered World Bank account.
  • Antique Horology Ateliers and Mathematical Instrument Workshops: High-end clockmakers, gear-smiths, and mathematical instrument fabricators in major commercial districts craft intricate brass mechanisms, sundials, and celestial diptychs for private collectors and traveling merchants. In these refined workshops, the diptych is prized for the fine tolerance of its jewel bearings, its inlaid lapis veneer, and its flawless astrological gears. Unaffiliated travelers and independent scholars purchasing from an open showroom pay between 80 to 100 silver coins. Sellers offering fully functional instruments receive immediate bank-credit deposits via the city’s World Bank exchange, benefiting from a 10% price improvement per character tier.
  • Smuggler Coves and Clandestine Star-Cult Dens: Hidden beneath seaside cliffs, subterranean desert crypts, and rogue nomadic encampments, shadow brokers trade heavily in covert navigation gear, night-raider star charts, and nocturnal tracking talismans. In these lawless sanctuaries, the diptych is sought after for its starlight-bending camouflage, subterranean north-finding passives, and ability to expose hidden sentries with guiding comet flares. Illicit transactions avoid official oversight by trading entirely in physical currency—demanding between 12 to 22 gold coins for outright purchase. Disgraced navigators or covert operatives looking to offload an unmarked planisphere to a black-market fence receive 10 to 17 gold coins in unrecorded physical specie.

Roleplay Applications of the Astrologer’s Planisphere Diptych in Diverse Environments

  • High Observatory Minarets and Palace Rooftops:
    • Offense: Infiltrating a fortified palace or imperial sanctum under the open sky, the operative unfolds the diptych to align with the zenith star. Triggering Starlight Veil, the user bends ambient moonbeams and starlight around their body, becoming a translucent outline that scales domed roofs and bypasses balcony watchmen. Using Celestial Orientation, the infiltrator tracks astral conjunctions to predict precisely when celestial shadows will cast long over patrolling sentries.
    • Defense: When cornered by palace crossbowmen along a narrow rooftop parapet, the wielder snaps the diptych shut toward the tower stairs, firing a Guiding Comet Flare. The cold astral glare disorients archers adjusting to the darkness and instantly illuminates the tracks of concealed reinforcements rushing up the stairwell, giving the operative a clear window to leap safely into an adjoining courtyard garden.
  • Subterranean Salt Mines and Deep Caverns:
    • Offense: Operating deep beneath the earth where daylight and sky are entirely absent, the wielder relies on Celestial Orientation to navigate winding, pitch-black labyrinthine shafts without getting lost, unerringly charting path vectors toward true north and surface air vents. When hunting subterranean scouts or ambushers hiding in cave crevices, the user discharges a Guiding Comet Flare into the darkness, lighting up the cavern floor and exposing hidden footfalls and disturbed mineral dust.
    • Defense: When pursued through lightless tunnels by deep-dwelling predators that track movements through heat or vibration, the wielder uses Umbral Zenith to deaden personal light and thermal glow. If surrounded in a dead-end tunnel, the user uses the heavy, brass-bound diptych casing to deliver a sharp, weighted blunt strike to a lunging beast’s snout, buying space to duck through a low crevice.
  • Barren Dunes and Star-Lit Desert Wastes:
    • Offense: Tracking a nomadic raider caravan across trackless sand wastes, the wielder references the concentric brass dials to calculate orbital drift and pinpoint the caravan’s water stops along celestial ley lines. Under the blazing field of desert stars, the user cloaks their mount and silhouette using Starlight Veil, creeping close enough to slice saddle straps and spike weapon crates without being outlined against the pale dunes.
    • Defense: If an enemy scout patrol ambushes the camp from atop a sand ridge during the dead of night, the wielder snaps the diptych shut and launches a Guiding Comet Flare toward the crest. The pale silver luminescence exposes the exact dune-riders lurking in the shadows and marks their shifting footprints in the loose sand, removing the raiders’ camouflage advantage and guiding allied counter-fire.
  • Storm-Tossed High-Seas and Fog-Bound Coastlines:
    • Offense: Aboard a silent boarding cutter sailing through thick coastal fog or midnight squalls, standard compasses and charts fail. The operative uses Celestial Orientation to read the planetary rings through the storm, unerringly guiding the cutter alongside an enemy flagship’s blind quarter. As the boarding party prepares to climb the hull, the user activates Starlight Veil to suppress the glint of steel blades and wet rigging against the dark ocean swells.
    • Defense: When defending an adrift merchant vessel against midnight corsairs who have cast darkness or smoke screens over the main deck, the wielder fires a Guiding Comet Flare into the shrouds. The cold astral light pierces the fog, revealing corsairs clinging to the rigging and silhouetting invisible raiders slipping across the slick wooden deck boards.

Perception of Activation:

  • User’s Perspective:
    • Sight: The engraved brass dials spin with frictionless, whisper-quiet velocity before locking into alignment. The etched constellations and planetary glyphs flash with an icy, phosphor-white luminescence, while a pale, comet-like streak of celestial light rises from the mother-of-pearl center and arcs into the air.
    • Sound: A delicate, high-frequency harmonic hum resonates through the bones of the user’s fingers, resembling the sound of a wet finger tracing the rim of a fine crystal chalice.
    • Smell: A sharp, clean scent of cold ozone, crisp high-altitude air, and powdered lapis mineral fills the user’s nostrils, cutting through stale indoor air.
    • Taste: A subtle metallic coolness, like clean morning rainwater or holding a pure silver coin beneath the tongue, washes across the palate.
    • Touch: The heavy brass frame turns frost-chilled to the touch, and a faint, weightless tingling sweeps up the forearms as ambient light refracts and bends around the user’s skin.
    • Mind’s Eye: An expansive three-dimensional astral map unfurls across the user’s internal vision, projecting the exact spatial vectors of true north, current planetary orbits, and a silent countdown dial marking the duration of the starlight veil.
    • True Sight: The bearer is wrapped in a subtle web of twisted geometric starlight threads that bend surrounding illumination outward, while the comet projectile leaves a glowing, ephemeral trail of astral geometry in its wake.
    • Soul Sight: The user’s personal aura contracts inward to a dense, dim pinprick of starlight, masking biological heat signatures and subduing emotional energy spikes.
  • Observer’s Perspective:
    • Sight: Onlookers see the brass instrument snap shut or align, immediately followed by the sudden discharge of a bright, silver-white streak of light that arcs silently across the space, bathing a 15-foot circle in stark, monochrome illumination and revealing invisible footprints. If the veil is active, the user’s silhouette blurs, turning semi-translucent and fading into surrounding darkness like a faint reflection on dark glass.
    • Sound: Observers hear only a brief, dry click of brass hinges and a faint, whistling hiss similar to falling snow.
    • Smell: A sudden, fleeting draft of cool mountain air and ozone passes through the immediate area.
    • Taste: Nearby individuals note a crisp, dry sensation on the breath, devoid of smoke or sulfur.
    • Touch: Observers within the illuminated radius feel a light, brisk temperature drop, as if a cloud had passed over a midday sun.
    • Tremorsense: Ground-sensitive creatures detect a momentary lightening of the user’s physical footfalls as celestial momentum counteracts ground friction.
    • Darkvision: Under darkvision, the area struck by the comet flare blooms with high-contrast, silvery illumination, clearly highlighting disturbed dust, hidden scuffs, and invisible figures in sharp relief.
  • Positives:
    • Grants reliable, passive orientation and stellar navigation even in pitch-black caverns, deep dungeons, and stormy waters where traditional compasses fail.
    • The Starlight Veil provides on-demand tactical stealth, blending the operative’s form into shadows and low-light environments without relying on bulky cloaks.
    • The Guiding Comet Flare serves as a non-lethal recon tool that instantly exposes hidden sentries, tracks invisible stalkers, and illuminates dark choke points.
    • Produces no heavy smoke, lingering fire hazards, or explosive acoustic report during discharge, preserving stealth in enclosed compounds.
  • Negatives:
    • The stark, silvery illumination of the flare draws immediate line-of-sight attention from distant lookouts outside the radius.
    • The veil’s light-bending camouflage is disrupted instantly if the user enters bright magical illumination or takes aggressive combat actions.
    • Thermal-based or highly acute scent trackers can detect the sudden temperature drop and distinct ozone-mountain scent in stagnant, poorly ventilated corridors.
    • In pure subterranean areas, the instrument’s active astral flares leave lingering, faintly luminescent dust that trained celestial trackers can trace back to the user.

Recipe: Forging of the Astrologer’s Planisphere Diptych

  • Materials Needed:
    • Naval Brass Ingot: 12 ounces of high-density, corrosion-resistant naval brass alloy.
    • Lapis Lazuli Veneer: 2 thin, polished plates of deep-blue, pyrite-flecked lapis lazuli cut to line the interior casing frames.
    • Tier 1 Magic Crystal: One thumbnail-sized celestial/divination-attuned star crystal.
    • Mother-of-Pearl Polar Disks: 2 circular, polished discs of genuine sea-shell nacre for the central polar pivots.
    • Jewel Bearings: 4 synthetic sapphire or garnet micro-bearings for zero-friction gear rotation.
    • Reagents & Solvents:
      • 1 fluid ounce of distilled falling-star dust suspension (meteorite powder suspended in cold mountain spring water).
      • 0.5 fluid ounces of phosphor luminescent paste (refined from glow-moss and powdered antimony).
      • 1 fluid ounce of light whale or refined mineral clock-oil for gear lubrication.
    • Spring-Latch Hardware: 1 fine tempered steel leaf spring and pivot pin for the silent closure mechanism.
  • Tools Required:
    • Micro-furnace, jewelry-scale jeweler’s torch, and ceramic melting crucibles.
    • Fluid Collector for reagent extraction, cold-solution suspension, and precise droplet measurement.
    • Precision watchmaker’s lathe, gear-cutting broaches, and jewel-setting stakes.
    • High-precision dividing engine or circular protractor jig for astrological degree division.
    • Micro-engraving steel burins, diamond-tipped styluses, and a 10x binocular watchmaker’s loupe.
    • Agate burnisher, brass-polishing rouge, and lint-free chamois cloth.
  • Skill Requirements:
    • Horology / Precision Clockmaking skill level 5 or higher.
    • Fine Metalworking / Brass Smithing skill level 5 or higher.
    • Celestial Cartography / Astrological Calculation skill level 5 or higher.
    • Arcane Glyph Inscription / Ninjutsu Infusion skill level 5 or higher.
  • Crafting Steps:
    • Step 1 – Casting and Milling the Diptych Case: Melt the naval brass in a crucible and cast the two folding outer covers with recessed interior compartments and seamless hinge lugs. Mill the interlocking hinge joints on the watchmaker’s lathe and fit the tempered steel pin, filing the edges until the case swings open and snaps shut in complete silence.
    • Step 2 – Gear Wheel and Ring Fabrication: Turn and face the concentric coordinate rings, horizon plates, and planetary indicator dials from rolled brass sheets. Bore center holes to seat the jewel bearings, ensuring each ring rotates freely without radial wobble or mechanical friction.
    • Step 3 – Constellation Engraving and Phosphor Inlay: Mount the brass dials into the dividing engine. Using a diamond-tipped stylus under the loupe, engrave the degree markings, zodiacal paths, and constellation coordinates. Inscribe microscopic ninjutsu concealment sigils along the outer azimuth bezel. Rub the engraved stars and coordinates with the phosphor luminescent paste, sealing the lines with a clear alchemical lacquer.
    • Step 4 – Crystal Catalysis and Astral Infusion: Crush the Tier 1 celestial crystal using an agate mortar and dissolve it into the meteor dust suspension. Anoint the lapis lazuli veneer plates and mother-of-pearl discs with the solution, channeling ninjutsu mana into the assembly to bind starlight-refraction and true-north orientation directly to the stone matrix.
    • Step 5 – Assembly and Calibration: Mount the lapis lazuli plates into the casing recesses. Press the mother-of-pearl disks into the centers and mount the concentric dials onto the sapphire jewel bearings. Apply a single drop of refined clock-oil to the gear pivots. Unfold the diptych beneath an unobstructed night sky to calibrate the rings against the polar star, verifying silent dial rotation, accurate constellation tracking, and the ready discharge of the comet flare.

Starlight-Watcher and Five Blind Horse-Lords of Black Salt Desert

In the very old turnings of the sky-wheel, before the white mountain melted its head into the salt-marsh and while the great desert had only eleven scrub-trees, there was a high tower of unbaked blue clay built by the people who had long ears and ate wild honey from clay pots. The sky-watcher who sat at the flat top of this blue clay tower was a quiet man named Master Jun of the Cold Breath. He had no wife, no red cows, and no copper armor; he owned only two long robes of sheep-fleece and seven copper pins for counting the cold sky-fires when the sun went down into the black water.

Across the great salt waste lived five fierce horse-lords who wore coats of hardened pig-leather and carried iron spears smeared with the bitter juice of green desert scorpions. The fiercest of these five riders was Prince Tarok of the Iron Knee, who had fifty black horses and thirty-three tents made of coarse camel-hair. Prince Tarok and his four brothers did not till the brown dirt, nor did they catch fish in the reed-ditch; they rode upon fast mares in the moonless nights, burnt the mud-villages of the barley-planters, stole all the young goats, and drove the stone-cutters into the hills with bull-hide whips.

In that dry summer-count, the big sky-lamp that lives in the daytime was very angry and dried up all the water-pits, so that the sand became like hot ash from a blacksmith’s pit. The five horse-lords could not travel by daylight because the horse-hooves cracked like dry gourds in the midday heat, and at night the heavy yellow sand-fog came out of the salt-crust, covering all the paths so that even the desert crows could not fly home to their nests. Prince Tarok looked upon the blue tower in the distance and swore by his iron stirrups that he would climb to the top, cut off the head of the old star-counter, and steal all his charts of the sky-paths so the five brothers might ride through the black night to burn the great trading town behind the river.

On the third night of the dark moon, a small sky-owl with feathers like dry river-silt dropped from the black air onto the flat roof of the tower. The sky-owl had a broken wing-bone pinned by an iron arrow-splinter from a desert raider’s bow and was coughing up grey blood upon the baked tiles. Master Jun looked upon the dying bird and did not toss it into his bean-pot; he took a small drop of sweet lamp-oil, washed the clotted sand from its beak, and bound its broken bone with two flat sticks of fragrant cedar-wood and a strip of clean linen cloth. The sky-owl opened its round glass eyes and spat out from its throat a small round seed of pure night-rock that was cold like winter frost and smelled of lightning-fire. The bird made words with a clicking beak-voice, telling the watcher that if the bright brass folding-tablet is lined with the blue stone of the deep river-bed and wiped with the cold sweat of the sky-pebble, the brass rings will speak the true names of the thirty-six sky-houses, and the breath of the watcher will make a streak of cold star-spear that reveals every foot-track upon the dark salt.

Master Jun took his two-leaved brass notebook that had been beaten thin between river-stones. He fitted into the wooden frame two smooth plates of dark blue lapis-rock dug from the dry wash, and upon the brass rings he scratched the little horned scorpion-marks and crawling-bug letters that the sky-owl drew with its left talon in the clay dust. He ground the cold sky-pebble on his oil-stone until it became grey milk, and he rubbed the wet paste into all the engraved constellation-holes until the brass stars shone with an icy white glow like winter frost on dead leaves.

At the midnight hour of that fifth night, the five fierce horse-lords came across the salt-flat with their two hundred raiders. They tied cloth around their horses’ mouths so no neighing sound would rise, and they did not light pine-torches, trusting the yellow dust-fog to swallow their shadows. They surrounded the base of the blue clay tower with their long scythe-swords, and Prince Tarok kicked open the heavy cedar door, leading thirty heavy ax-men up the winding stair.

Master Jun sat on the open roof beneath the spinning wheel of the night-sky. He heard the iron spurs of the five brothers scraping against the narrow clay steps. He did not wave a brass bell, nor did he run to throw himself from the parapet into the mud. He laid the brass diptych flat in his palms, aligned the lower brass ring with the blue star that never walks, and blew his warm breath across the cold metal plates.

A thin, cold shroud of starlight-fog rose out of the open brass leaves and wrapped around Master Jun like a garment of woven river-mist. When Prince Tarok burst through the trap-door with his heavy scythe-sword raised to split the watcher’s skull, he looked straight upon the stone bench and saw only the dark blue clay of the sky-parapet; Master Jun had become like thin water in the air, his silhouette swallowed entirely by the celestial dark.

Prince Tarok roared a great curse, swinging his heavy blade through the empty air, and called for his brothers to bring red torches to burn the roof-beams. Then Master Jun, standing two paces away in the thin air, snapped the heavy brass diptych shut with a dry, sharp snap.

A brilliant streak of cold, silver-white comet-fire leaped from the brass hinge and shot across the rooftop like an arrow of morning ice. The bright astral flare did not burn the hair or scorch the sheep-robes of the raiders; it burst upon the stones with a soundless flash, casting shadows seventy cubits long and bathing the salt-ground in cold, merciless silver day-light. In that terrible bright glare, all the invisible creeping raiders hiding upon the stairs and the secret marks of their boots in the salt-dust were painted upon the stone with blinding white lines.

The fierce horse-lords and their spearmen dropped their shields, covering their eyes and crying out that the sky had burst its belly and that the white sun had fallen upon their foreheads. They stumbled backward down the dark clay stairs, knocking one another down like dry bundles of fire-twigs, and fled blindly into the night-fog, their horses throwing them into the deep salt-pits because their eyes were full of white sparks.

When the warm sun climbed out of the eastern swamp, Prince Tarok and his four brothers were found by the village shepherds wandering on foot in the dry salt, their horses lost, their spears dropped in the dirt, and their eyes red like raw beef, unable to tell the difference between a pit of black mud and a goat-path. Master Jun sat upon the top of his blue tower, using a clean goose-quill to chart the new path of the morning star upon his brass leaves, the little sky-owl sitting peacefully upon his shoulder eating a fat cricket from his palm.

Moral of the Story: The boastful warrior who relies upon the dark fog of violence to hide his crimes will always be unmade by the quiet scholar who knows the true path of the stars, for darkness is only a temporary screen, but the light of the celestial wheel reveals every hidden track upon the earth.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Astrologer’s Planisphere Diptych (Enchanted Wayfinding Relic)

  • Skill: Navigate / Astronomy / Fighting (Brawl)
  • Damage: 1D3 (Heavy Brass Frame / Pointed Stylus strike) or Special (Comet Illumination)
  • Base Range: Touch / 10 yards (Flare projection)
  • Uses per Round: 1
  • Cost: 1 Magic Point per active shroud or flare / 0 Sanity

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Celestial Orientation (Passive): The bearer unerringly knows celestial north, local time, and lunar phase even in subterranean or enclosed spaces. The user receives a Bonus Die on all Navigate, Astronomy, and Survival rolls.
  • Umbral Zenith (Passive): When operating under an open night sky, the bearer gains a Bonus Die on Stealth rolls to avoid visual detection by ambient lookouts.
  • Starlight Veil (Active – 1 MP): Aligning the dials wraps the user in a translucent shroud of bent light. The user gains an automatic Hard Success on Stealth rolls in dim light or darkness for 10 minutes, ending early if the user makes a physical attack or enters bright light.
  • Guiding Comet Flare (Active – 1 MP): Snapping the case shut toward a target within 10 yards discharges a streak of pale astral luminescence. The area within a 5-yard radius is illuminated in dim light for 1 minute, granting an automatic Bonus Die on Spot Hidden and Track rolls to detect invisible, concealed, or disguised entities and footprints.

Blades in the Dark

The Astrologer’s Brass Diptych (Fine Navigational Planisphere)

  • Item Load: 1 Load
  • Quality Tier: Tier I + 1 Quality (Fine)
  • Tags: Arcane, Concealment, Navigation, Celestial, Scouting

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Celestial Orientation (Passive): You always know true north and the exact layout of celestial pathways regardless of the ghost-field fog or subterranean depth. You gain Potency on Survey or Study actions to navigate dark urban labyrinths, waterways, and trackless wastes.
  • Umbral Zenith (Passive): When moving under night skies or open rooftops, your silhouette blends with ambient dark. You gain improved position (Controlled or Risky instead of Desperate) when setting up nocturnal observation perches.
  • Starlight Veil (Active – Spend 1 Stress): Align the brass rings to weave a shroud of refracted starlight around yourself. You gain improved effect (+1 Effect level) on Prowl actions to infiltrate guarded parapets, rooftops, and darkened alleys for the duration of the obstacle.
  • Guiding Comet Flare (Active – Spend 1 Stress): Snap the diptych shut to fire an astral flare up to medium distance. Illuminates a localized zone in cold silver light, immediately revealing concealed footfalls, hidden pathways, or ghost-shrouded infiltrators, giving your crew Potency on related Hunt or Survey rolls.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Astrologer’s Planisphere Diptych

  • Wondrous Item, Common (Requires Attunement)
  • Weight: 1 lb.
  • Properties: Navigational Focus, Concealed Implement

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Celestial Orientation (Passive): While holding or carrying the diptych, you always know true north, the current time of night, and upcoming astrological events, even while underground. You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks made to navigate outdoors.
  • Umbral Zenith (Passive): While outdoors at night beneath stars or the moon, you have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide in dim light or darkness.
  • Starlight Veil (1 Charge / Recharges at Dusk): As an action, you align the dials to shroud yourself in bent starlight for 10 minutes. While shrouded, you are heavily obscured to creatures that rely on sight while you remain in dim light or darkness. This effect ends early if you make an attack roll, cast a spell, or enter bright light.
  • Guiding Comet Flare (1 Charge / Recharges at Dusk): As an action, you snap the case shut and point it at a point you can see within 30 feet. A bolt of cold light erupts, shedding dim light in a 15-foot radius for 1 minute. Invisible creatures and hidden tracks within the area are limned in silver light and cannot benefit from being invisible while within the radius.

Knave (2nd Edition)

Jun’s Astral Diptych

  • Item Slots: 1 Slot
  • Damage: Direct d4 (Improvised blunt strike)
  • Durability / Quality: 3 Quality Points

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Wayfinder’s Dial (Passive): The bearer always knows true celestial north, time of night, and depth from surface level. The bearer gains advantage on Wisdom saves and exploration checks made to avoid getting lost in wilderness or mega-dungeons.
  • Night Sky Mask (Passive): While traveling outdoors under open night skies, the bearer rolls with advantage on Dexterity saves to avoid being spotted by wandering patrols.
  • Starlight Veil (Active – 1 Use per Rest): The wielder breathes across the brass dials to turn semi-translucent in dim light or dark corridors. For 1 exploration turn (10 minutes), the wielder cannot be seen by normal vision unless illuminated by direct torchlight or daylight.
  • Astral Flare (Active): As a combat action, the wielder snaps the diptych shut toward a point within 30 feet. A burst of cold silver starlight lights up a room or 15-foot area for 10 rounds, exposing invisible stalkers and painting hidden footfalls in luminescent dust. Furtive enemies within the blast must make a Wisdom Save (DC 15) or lose the benefit of surprise and cover.

Fate Core / Fate Condensed

The Astrologer’s Planisphere Diptych (Personal Extra / Stunt Gear)

  • Aspect: Pocket Brass Constellation Dial of the Midnight Scout
  • Type: Celestial Navigational Focus & Concealment Implement
  • Cost: 1 Refresh (Stunt slot) or allocated as an Extra

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Celestial Orientation (Passive Stunt): You gain a +2 bonus on Notice or Survival rolls when navigating trackless wastes, underground caverns, or foggy seas, and you always establish that your character knows true north, lunar cycles, and astronomical time.
  • Umbral Zenith (Passive): While operating beneath an open night sky, you gain a +2 bonus to Stealth rolls to Create an Advantage or Overcome visual perception obstacles by blending your silhouette into the celestial background.
  • Starlight Veil (Active Action): Once per scene, you may spend a Fate Point to breathe upon the aligned dials and weave bent starlight across your form. You create the situational aspect Veil of Bent Starlight with two free invokes. While this aspect persists, opponents cannot visually detect you in dim light or darkness without specialized sensory gear; it ends immediately if you make a physical attack or enter bright light.
  • Guiding Comet Flare (Active Attack/Advantage): Once per scene, you may use Shoot or Notice with a +2 bonus to snap the diptych shut toward a zone within one zone of you. This places the aspect Illuminated by Astral Fire on that zone with one free invoke, dispelling mundane darkness, neutralizing invisibility, and outlining all hidden footprints in luminescent silver dust.

Cypher System / Numenera (Discovery & Destiny)

Astrologer’s Planisphere Diptych (Cypher System Artifact)

  • Level: 2 (1d6)
  • Form: Folding brass diptych casing inlaid with dark lapis lazuli and engraved concentric celestial dials mounted on jewel bearings.
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (check upon activating Starlight Veil or Guiding Comet Flare)

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Celestial Orientation (Inherent Passive): The bearer is trained in navigation, cartography, and astronomy tasks. Tasks involving orientation, underground pathfinding, and reading night weather are eased by one step.
  • Umbral Zenith (Inherent Passive): While operating outdoors beneath starlight or the moon, all stealth and visual concealment tasks are eased by one step.
  • Starlight Veil (Artifact Activation): As an action, the wielder manually aligns the secondary brass ring and breathes on the dials to refract ambient light. For 10 minutes, all stealth tasks in dim light or darkness are eased by two steps. The effect terminates if the user attacks or enters an area of bright light. Roll for depletion upon activation.
  • Guiding Comet Flare (Artifact Activation): As an action, the wielder snaps the diptych shut, projecting an astral streak up to short range (50 feet). The flare sheds cold, dim light across an immediate area (10-foot radius) for 1 minute. All tasks to spot hidden, disguised, or invisible creatures and tracks within the radius are eased by two steps. Roll for depletion upon activation.

Pathfinder (Second Edition)

Astrologer’s Planisphere Diptych (Specific Magic Item)

  • Item Name: Astrologer’s Planisphere Diptych
  • Item Level: 2 | Price: 35 gp
  • Usage: Held in 1 hand; Bulk: L
  • Base Item: Astrolabe / Surveying Instrument
  • Traits: Magical, Divination, Illusion, Visual

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Celestial Orientation (Passive): You inherently sense true celestial north, the current lunar phase, and local astrological time, even while subterranean or indoors. You gain a +1 item bonus to Survival checks to Sense Direction.
  • Umbral Zenith (Passive): When outdoors under direct starlight or moonlight, you gain a +1 item bonus to Stealth checks to Hide and Sneak in dim light.
  • Activate—Starlight Veil [two-actions] (concentrate, illusion, manipulate, visual); Frequency: Once per day; Effect: You align the brass rings and breathe across the dials. For 10 minutes, you are cloaked in bent starlight. While in dim light or darkness, you gain the Concealed condition against visual senses. This effect ends immediately if you make a Strike, cast a hostile spell, or enter bright light.
  • Activate—Guiding Comet Flare [one-action] (evocation, light, manipulate, visual); Frequency: Once per 10 minutes; Requirements: You are holding the open diptych; Effect: You snap the case shut, launching a streak of astral luminescence at a point within 30 feet. The flare illuminates a 15-foot burst with dim, cold light for 1 minute. Invisible creatures within the burst become Concealed rather than Undetected, and checks to Track footprints or disturbances within the burst gain a +2 circumstance bonus.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition – SWADE)

Ninjutsu Astrologer’s Planisphere Diptych (Minor Magic Item)

  • Type: Arcane Navigational & Infiltration Focus
  • Weight: 1 lb.
  • Notes: Concealable (+2 to Notice rolls made to search the user for hidden tools).

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Celestial Orientation (Passive): The wielder always knows true north, the hour of the night, and upcoming lunar shifts, even when underground. The user gains a +1 bonus on Survival rolls made to navigate or avoid getting lost.
  • Umbral Zenith (Passive): When moving outdoors beneath a night sky, the wielder gains a +1 bonus on Stealth rolls made in dim light or darkness.
  • Starlight Veil (Active Action): Once per encounter or scene (or by spending a Benny), the wielder aligns the planetary dials as an action to trigger the invisibility power with a limitation: it only functions in dim light or darkness, provides semi-translucency rather than complete absence of form (opponents suffer a -2 penalty to hit or Notice the user), and terminates immediately upon making a physical attack or stepping into bright light.
  • Guiding Comet Flare (Active Action): As an action, the wielder snaps the diptych shut toward a location within 6 inches (12 yards). A Small Blast Template centered on that point is illuminated in cold astral light for 3 rounds. Any hidden, camouflaged, or invisible entities inside the template are outlined in silver light, negating their illumination-based stealth bonuses and granting allies a +2 bonus on Notice rolls to detect them.

Shadowrun (Sixth World / 6e)

Astrologer’s Astral Diptych (Enchanted Wayfinding Focus)

  • Item Type: Qi / Sustaining Focus (Rating 1) or Specialized Navigation Tool
  • Concealability: -4 (Easily passes as a bespoke pocket chrono-astrolabe or antique surveyor tool)
  • Availability: 4 (Legal)
  • Cost: 5,500 Nuyen (plus 6 Karma to bond as a Focus)

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Celestial Orientation (Passive): The user is innately synchronized with true geographic north, satellite trajectories, and planetary positions, even inside subterranean complexes or concrete arcologies. The bearer receives +1 Edge on Outdoors Tests made to navigate or track movement vectors through unmapped terrain.
  • Umbral Zenith (Passive): When moving beneath an open night sky, the bearer’s light signature and silhouette are dampened. The user gains +1 Edge on Stealth Tests against visual spotting while operating under natural darkness or starlight.
  • Starlight Veil (Active Action): As a Major Action (or by spending 1 Edge), the wielder aligns the diptych’s planetary rings to bend ambient illumination. The user gains an automatic +2 dice pool bonus on Stealth Tests for up to 10 minutes while in dim light or darkness. The effect ends immediately if the user makes an attack or enters bright, direct illumination.
  • Guiding Comet Flare (Active Action): As a Minor Action, the user snaps the diptych shut toward a target within 10 meters, venting a concentrated beam of cold astral luminescence. A 5-meter-radius area is illuminated in cold silver light for 1 combat turn. Invisible entities and optical-camouflage users in the zone lose the benefits of their invisibility/camouflage, and allies gain +1 Edge on Perception Tests to spot targets or surface tracks in the illuminated zone.

Starfinder (Second Edition / Remaster)

Astrologer’s Planisphere Diptych (Level 2 Hybrid Item)

  • Item Name: Astrologer’s Planisphere Diptych
  • Item Level: 2 | Price: 650 Credits
  • Usage: Held in 1 hand; Bulk: Light
  • Base Item: Navigational Computer / Planetary Astrolabe (Concealable, Scouting Focus)
  • Traits: Hybrid, Tech, Magical, Divination, Light, Visual

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Celestial Orientation (Passive): The diptych connects to planetary coordinate grids and celestial beacons. You automatically know true planetary north, local solar/planetary rotation time, and upcoming celestial conjunctions, even underground or in unmapped orbital installations. You gain a +1 item bonus to Survival checks to Sense Direction.
  • Umbral Zenith (Passive): When outdoors beneath an open starfield or night sky, you gain a +1 item bonus to Stealth checks to Sneak and Hide in dim light.
  • Activate—Starlight Veil [two-actions] (concentrate, illusion, manipulate, tech, visual); Frequency: Once per day; Effect: You manually synchronize the brass coordinate rings and breathe on the face. For 10 minutes, you bend local starlight around your chassis/body, gaining the Concealed condition against visual senses while in dim light or darkness. Making a Strike, activating an offensive ability, or entering bright light terminates the veil immediately.
  • Activate—Guiding Comet Flare [one-action] (evocation, light, manipulate, visual); Frequency: Once per 10 minutes; Requirements: You are holding the open diptych; Effect: Snapping the diptych shut discharges a beam of cold starlight toward a coordinate within 30 feet. The flare illuminates a 15-foot burst with dim light for 1 minute. Invisible creatures within the burst become Concealed rather than Undetected, and checks to track footprints or physical disturbances within the radius gain a +2 circumstance bonus.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition / Update 2022)

Sub-Orbital Stellar Planisphere (TL 12 Specialized Equipment)

  • Item Type: Tactical Astrogation & Reconnaissance Aid
  • Skill: Navigation or Recon
  • Weight: 0.5 kg
  • Tech Level: TL 12
  • Cost: Cr 1,100

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Planetary Zenith Alignment (Passive): The diptych’s quantum-inertial micro-gyro and celestial sensor suite track true planetary rotational north, orbital satellite vectors, and solar transit times even through heavy rock strata or inside non-translucent hulls. The user receives DM+1 on all Navigation checks on planetary surfaces or inside subterranean complexes.
  • Nocturnal Light-Dampening (Passive): When deployed outdoors during planetary night, polarized surface-refractors reduce the user’s silhouette contrast, granting DM+1 on Recon checks made to avoid visual detection by ground patrols.
  • Starlight Veil (Active Action): Aligning the concentric dials activates a short-range micro-refraction field for 10 minutes. The user receives DM+2 on Stealth checks while in shadow, dim lighting, or night conditions. This field collapses instantly if the user fires a weapon or enters an illuminated searchlight cone.
  • Cold-Phosphor Tracker Flare (Active Action): As a Minor Action, the user snaps the diptych closed toward a target point up to 10 meters away, releasing an energized pulse of cold-luminescent particles. The burst illuminates a 5-meter radius for 3 combat rounds, stripping visual camouflage benefits from obscured targets and granting DM+2 on Investigate or Recon checks to spot hidden footprints and disturbances.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

The Astrologer’s Brass Diptych (Practical Magic Item)

  • Item Group: Astrological Instrument / Scouting Tool
  • Qualities: Fine (1), Concealable, Divination Focus, Navigation Aid
  • Encumbrance: 0

Game Mechanics & Syntax:

  • Celestial Orientation (Passive): The engraved planetary dials align with Azyr’s celestial wind. The bearer inherently knows true north, the time of night, and Morrslieb’s or Mannslieb’s phases, even inside deep mines or enclosed crypts. The bearer gains a +10 bonus to Navigation and Lore (Astronomy) Tests.
  • Umbral Zenith (Passive): When traversing open country at night under the stars, the wielder gains a +10 bonus to Stealth (Rural) Tests to avoid visual detection by lookouts and sentries.
  • Starlight Veil (Active): Once per day, the user may take 1 round to align the secondary brass ring and whisper across the plates. The wielder is cloaked in bent starlight for 10 rounds (1 minute), gaining a +20 bonus to Stealth Tests in dim light or darkness. If the user makes an attack or enters bright lantern light, the veil shatters immediately.
  • Guiding Comet Flare (Active Combat): As an Action, the wielder snaps the diptych shut toward a point within 10 yards. A cold, silvery astral flare strikes the ground, shedding illumination equivalent to a lantern across a 5-yard radius for 3 rounds. Invisible, hidden, or skulking enemies within the burst lose all benefits of concealment or shadows, and allies gain +1 SL on Perception and Track Tests to identify trails and ambushes within the illuminated area.