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Noaidi 417 of the Astral Visage

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by

Dale
in
  • Lore:
    • Crafted during the early years of the Wilderness Conquest by a displaced spirit-walker from a frigid realm of the multiverse, this item merges ancient northern spirit-calling traditions with the refined aesthetic arts of Saṃsāra.
    • In noaidi practice, the veil between physical presence and spiritual truth is traversed through sacred trance, rhythm, and ritual cleansing of the bodily vessel.
    • The creator discovered that on Saṃsāra, where an avatar’s physical vessel is possessed and adapted by reincarnated memories, ritual grooming can serve as a spiritual conduit to align the host vessel’s chaotic weave of life force.
    • Rather than using crude bone or wood, this piece was forged from cold-beaten silver set with an iridescent mother-of-pearl plate, designed to act as both a functional dressing mirror and a ceremonial drum-face capable of revealing spiritual impurities on the skin.
    • Passed down through lineage and apprenticed cosmeticians in the northern island states, it became an indispensable tool for parlor shamans who prepare adventurers, diplomats, and royal couriers before grand assemblies or dangerous expeditions.
  • Description:
    • A hand-held dressing mirror and styling palette approximately eight inches in length, framed in unpolished electrum and pale silver filigree shaped like spiraling frost boughs.
    • The back surface of the mirror is lined with tightly stretched, magically cured reindeer parchment inscribed with charcoal-ink runes representing animal guides and elemental spirits.
    • The reflective glass on the front face does not merely reflect natural ambient light; it casts a soft, faint lavender luminescence across the subject’s face when lifted toward the eyes.
    • Included along the handle are small, hollow compartments that hold mineral pigments, bone kohl sticks, and a small horsehair blending brush for facial adornment.
    • A tiny Tier 1 crystalline cell, roughly the size and weight of a copper coin, is embedded in the pommel of the handle, glowing faintly whenever spiritual resonance or cosmetic magic is invoked.
  • Stats:
    • Item Tier: Tier 1 (Common)
    • Item HP: Avatar maximum HP plus 10
    • Resilience: 10
    • Armor Check (AC): +1 AC to the avatar when held or worn openly as a focal adornment (well within the maximum legal limit of 3 AC per item level)
    • Weight: 1 pound
    • Attunement: Simple attunement (1 minute of mirror examination) or handheld attunement (instantaneous upon grasping, functional while held)
  • Slot:
    • Hand (Left or Right), or may be slung from a Waist sash loop using a dedicated tool hook.
  • Passives Magic:
    • Spiritual Blemish Ward: While held or openly worn, the item passively smooths minor skin abrasions, scars, and environmental griming on the avatar’s face, providing a clean, radiant complexion that grants a +1 bonus to temporary social etiquette and diplomatic training checks.
    • Aura Tone Harmonizer: The mirror’s reflection passively reveals unnatural magical taints, discoloration, or foreign soul residues on any creature gazing directly into the silvered glass, allowing the wielder to automatically identify whether a visible humanoid is suffering from the Dazed, Dissonant, or Fragmented conditions.
    • Hair and Hide Alignment: Inherent spirit currents gently preserve the avatar’s hairstyle, facial pigments, or natural coat against light wind, light rain, and ambient humidity, preventing non-magical weather from disturbing applied cosmetic preparations.
  • Activable Magics:
    • Trance Mask Application (Ritual, Somatic):
      • Taking an action to apply ritual pigments while chanting for up to six seconds invoking the target’s spirit line.
      • The avatar paints an ethereal, protective motif over the cheeks and brow of themselves or an adjacent ally.
      • For the next hour, the recipient gains 3 temporary hit points and treats their next saving throw against mental disorientation or fear with a +2 bonus.
      • This ability consumes 1 charge from the mirror’s crystal reservoir; once depleted, the crystal recharges after a long rest or by direct mana infusion.
    • Drum-Beat Concealer (Normal Somatic):
      • The wielder uses an action to lightly tap the parchment drum-back of the mirror with the bone styling stick while uttering a single phrase of warding.
      • A cosmetic wave of illusory blending washes over the avatar’s head and neck for ten minutes, masking physical exhaustion, dark circles under the eyes, and pallor.
      • The user gains advantage on rolls made to conceal their current hit point total or injury status from the passive scrutiny of other beings’ Mind’s Eye examinations.
    • Purifying Spirit Wash (Silent Action):
      • The wielder holds the glass up to an adjacent target and tilts the reflection into their eyes, expending an action to release an immediate cleansing flash.
      • Any non-magical dirt, mud, grease, chemical dye, or foul fluid collector residue adhering to the target’s face or headwear is instantly dissolved into sparkling vapor.
      • Because this casting is completely silent and immediate, it functions without spoken flourished chanting.
  • Tags:
    • Noaidi, Mirror, Cosmetic, Grooming, Divination, Spirit, Focus, Shamanic, Silver, Pigment, Tier1, Common, Tool, Electrum, Reindeer, Kohl, Brush, Glamour, Ritual, Healing, Visage, Trance, Ward, Radiant

Commerce and Exchange of the Astral Visage

  • Aesthetic Parlors and Grooming Salons:
    • Located in prominent coastal cities or bustling trade boroughs, these family-run cosmetic boutiques cater to court functionaries, high-ranking guild emissaries, and stage performers who rely on pristine appearances.
    • The shopkeeper typically keeps such items displayed in velvet-lined glass showcases alongside imported mineral ointments, enchanted styling shears, and aromatic herbal rinses.
    • Purchasing from an established parlor requires paying full retail price in coinage or through a direct World Bank account transfer, unless the buyer holds standing within the regional Artisans or Merchant Guild, which confers a 10% discount scaled by character tier.
    • When selling an intact mirror to a parlor proprietor, the merchant haggles down roughly 10% of the baseline valuation per tier of the selling character, logging the transaction in their ledger before wiring the remaining funds directly into the seller’s World Bank balance.
    • Suggested acquisition cost in an aesthetic parlor ranges between 80 and 120 silver coins (or 8 to 12 gold coins), while buyout offers from the stylist typically fall around 40 to 60 silver coins depending on tier-based negotiations.
  • Apothecaries and Shamanic Reagent Dens:
    • Found clustered around herbalist markets, temple perimeter streets, or outskirts near ancient nature preserves where traditional spirit-working practices are openly observed.
    • These shops operate out of crowded storefronts dried with hanging herbs, powdered roots, animal sinews, and racks of empty phials, handling the item primarily as a consecrated ritual focus rather than a luxury beauty accessory.
    • Buying the mirror here often involves an evaluation of spiritual intent, where the resident herbalist or hedge-witch ensures the buyer understands how to respect the parchment drum-skin and properly apply ancestral kohl.
    • Trade is conducted predominantly in silver coins, electrum pieces, or through bartered recipe reagents such as refined beast extracts and rare saps gathered using fluid collectors.
    • Typical purchase cost in a reagent den averages 70 to 100 silver coins, whereas a direct sale to the apothecary yields approximately 35 to 50 silver coins deposited into the character’s bank ledger.
  • Wandering Caravans and Dockside Curio Traders:
    • Operating from covered wagons stationed along inter-state highways, port warehouses, or canal wharfs where cross-country sailing vessels unload their regional wares.
    • Traders in these transport hubs display curiosities alongside miscellaneous tools, compasses, traveling cases, and foreign adventuring supplies sourced from distant island nations.
    • Prices fluctuate wildly due to isolation, regional tariffs, and local supply; coastal merchants who have paid state border transit fees will inflate the price to offset transportation overhead.
    • Payment is expected in hard physical currency—standard silver, copper, or stamped regional non-metal tokens equivalent to precious weights—as wandering carters rarely operate permanent bank link kiosks.
    • Purchase prices in traveling stalls range from 90 to 150 silver coins depending on distance from manufacturing centers, while buy-in payouts for adventuring scrap rarely exceed 30 to 45 silver coins.
  • Underground Fences and Shadow Outlets:
    • Tucked away in dimly lit subterranean alleys, abandoned warehouse cellars, or hidden warrens beneath city canal networks where contraband moves without official scrutiny.
    • Black-market operators sell unverified goods retrieved from fallen avatars or pilfered cargo, keeping no records, asking no background questions, and omitting official transaction logs that could alert municipal tax collectors or palace marshals.
    • Items purchased here are sold strictly at full market cost or higher if demand is fierce, with transactions executed exclusively in physical gold or silver coin rather than World Bank balance transfers.
    • When offloading the mirror to an underground broker, the seller receives physical coin on the spot without bureaucratic inquiry; a fence seeking specific shamanic relics may offer double the standard merchant payout to acquire the piece discreetly.
    • Black-market acquisition prices generally demand 12 to 20 gold pieces in raw metal, while a seller offloading the item into the shadows can negotiate an instant payout between 6 and 12 physical gold pieces.

Tactical Roleplay and Applications Across Diverse Environments

  • Urban Streets and Grand Royal Palaces:
    • In the grand halls of capital palaces, manicured courtyards, and embassy pavilions, direct weapon-drawing is treated as treason or immediate hostility. Roleplaying defense here involves the wielder gracefully withdrawing the silver mirror during formal banquets or royal receptions under the pretense of adjusting their ceremonial face paint or smoothing a disheveled lock of hair.
    • Defensively within these corridors, angling the mother-of-pearl pane allows the wielder to catch the glint of approaching palace guards, track silent stalkers through corridor mirrors, and employ the Spiritual Blemish Ward to instantly repel stray drops of ingested or splashed contact poisons from dining cups.
    • Offensively in civilized intrigue, the cosmetic drum is used for social sabotage. The user roleplays reciting a gentle, rhythmic hum while pretending to powder a rival diplomat’s collar, actually invoking the Purifying Spirit Wash to vaporize magical fragrances, remove ceremonial house insignias, or reveal concealed identity runes painted on a rival noble’s throat. This breaks their social composure without violating local weapon bans, throwing courts into turmoil without drawing blades.
  • Murky Bogs, Swamps, and Fungal Swales:
    • Within misty wetlands where toxic flora, acid mires, and fungal blooms perpetually threaten breathing vessels, survival demands continuous hygienic warding. Defensively, the cosmetician kneels beside a bog pool, using the horsehair brush to sweep thick layers of warded mineral kohl mixed with marsh sap across the nostrils, throat, and eyelids of party members.
    • This defensive application forms a physical cosmetic barrier that repels spore clusters, noxious swamp mists, and the corrosive slime left behind by attacking oozes. Roleplaying the Purifying Spirit Wash allows an avatar to instantly purge suffocating swamp mud from breathing airways or cleanse parasitic leeches that latch onto exposed facial flesh during ambushes.
    • Offensively, the wielder angles the electrum filigree toward the pale illumination filtering through the mist, catching the dim rays of Helios to project a blinding silver glare directly into the multi-faceted eyes of creeping marsh predators and swamp stalkers. The user pairs this blinding light with sharp, punctuated rhythmic raps on the parchment drum-skin, channeling the Drum-Beat Concealer to make their front-line companions blend completely into the surrounding reed beds before launching a coordinated ambush on feral bog beasts.
  • Subterranean Caverns and Underdark Mine Depths:
    • In deep, lightless limestone shafts and crystalline trenches beneath the world’s crust, ambient light does not exist, and creatures track movement purely through vibrations and thermal shifts. Defensively, the wielder raises the mirror to utilize its soft lavender luminescence as an intimate lantern that casts no loud silhouettes, shielding the glow with cupped fingers to examine cavern walls for structural fissures or gas pockets.
    • By applying pale, heat-absorbing subterranean chalks using the bone stylus, the user cosmetically dampens the avatar’s bodily warmth, confounding thermal tracking from burrowing monstrosities like ankhegs or cavern stalkers while maintaining spatial awareness in total darkness.
    • Offensively, the item turns the echoing properties of narrow stone tunnels into a debilitating acoustic weapon. The wielder roleplays striking the parchment drum-face with rapid, resonant force against hollow stalactites. The resulting resonant shockwave disorients cavern beasts relying on echo-location or Blind Sight, scrambling their directional sense. Simultaneously, the wielder channels the Trance Mask Application to project phantom, iridescent spirit eyes painted on their palms into the dimness, drawing enemy strikes away from wounded allies toward the illusory faces.
  • Open Seas, Coastal Reefs, and Saltwater Shorelines:
    • Navigating wind-whipped decks of ocean vessels or slick coral reefs exposes avatars to blistering sun glare, salt spray, and oceanic moisture. Defensively, the user roleplays blending thick, protective grease paints infused with sea algae onto the exposed skin of their crewmates. This cosmetic coating prevents severe salt crusting, blocks Helios-induced burns, and keeps fine facial hair from tangling during violent squalls.
    • When crashing ocean waves threaten to wash away camouflage, the mirror’s passive environmental wards lock the cosmetic pigments in place, ensuring underwater scout avatars remain completely obscured against vibrant reef formations.
    • Offensively on the open water, the user positions themselves near the ship’s prow, utilizing the mirror’s polished silver rim to redirect blinding ocean glare across the waves into the spyglasses of hostile corsairs or privateers, throwing shipboard helmsmen off their bearings before ramming maneuvers. During boarding skirmishes, the wielder executes a rapid flourish with the styling brush, flicking caustic, spirit-charged kohl powders into the eyes and gills of boarding aquatic foes to break their offensive formation.
  • Floating Megacities and Cloud Basin Perches:
    • High-altitude mages’ towers and floating cloud settlements subject travelers to biting cold winds, low pressure, and blinding sun reflection from the cloud canopy below. Defensively, the cosmetician employs the cold-beaten electrum rim to check the party for frostbite and skin crystallization caused by ambient magic lulls.
    • The user rapidly outlines the cheeks of their companions with warmed spirit grease, insulating delicate facial nerve endings against fierce winds and creating a protective skin barrier that deflects the biting sleet common to floating platforms.
    • Offensively among the sky lanes, when avian predators or aerial boarders swoop from the upper clouds, the wielder taps into the Purifying Spirit Wash to shatter the condensation droplets clinging to enemy flight-goggles or avian beast-feathers. Stripping the natural feather oils or coating goggles in abrupt condensation causes airborne attackers to stall or veer off course, sending them tumbling through the cloud layer and granting the party clean aerial dominance.

Perception of Activation:

  • User’s Perspective:
    • Visual Perception: The moment activation is initiated, the silvered surface of the glass shifts from a static, mundane reflection into a swirling pool of soft, luminous lavender light, causing the user’s reflected image to glow with stark, high-contrast clarity while the surrounding background dims into a gentle violet haze.
    • Auditory Perception: A quiet, resonant vibration rings outward directly from the electrum frame, producing a steady, low-frequency hum comparable to the sustained strike of a distant ceremonial bronze bell, rhythmic and humming against the inner ear.
    • Tactile Perception: A sudden rush of biting, dry arctic cold surges through the filigree handle directly into the wielder’s palm, instantly numbing minor muscle aches in the fingers while sending a crisp, prickling static charge across the skin of the forearm.
    • Olfactory Perception: The air directly surrounding the user fills with the pungent, clean scent of crushed juniper needles, dry mountain lichen, and the sharp, coppery tang of freshly pulverized mineral kohl pigments.
    • Gustatory Perception: A faint, crisp flavor coats the back of the palate, tasting faintly of melting clean glacier water mixed with a metallic, sweet trace of electrum dust.
    • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
      • Spiritual Resonance: Through the Mind’s Eye, the user feels their conscious weave temporarily tether to the ambient spiritual currents of Saṃsāra, perceiving the life forces of nearby entities as subtle, pulsing currents of heat and light.
      • Aura Clairvoyance: The user experiences an immediate heightened clarity regarding the integrity of their own physical vessel, perceiving microscopic skin tears, fatigue toxins, and foreign magical residues as glowing, off-color smudges mapped across their bodily schema.
  • Observer’s Perspective:
    • Visual Perception: Observers see the small crystal at the base of the mirror flare with a deep, pulsating violet luminescence, while the circular glass rim casts a pale, circular halo of light that flatters the wielder’s features and erases shadows beneath their cheekbones and brow.
    • Auditory Perception: Those standing nearby do not hear a deafening chime, but rather a soft, dry whispering tone, akin to wind blowing over frozen reeds or the gentle brushing of animal hair across taut rawhide.
    • Tactile Perception: Anyone standing within arm’s reach of the item feels a momentary drop in air temperature, accompanied by a faint, feather-light breeze that smells of winter draft and stirs loose hairs.
    • Olfactory Perception: Observers detect a faint, pleasant herbal dryness in the air, similar to smoldering sweetgrass or dried sage leaves hanging in an apothecary rafters.
    • Gustatory Perception: If standing close enough to inhale the displaced cosmetic mist, observers notice a momentary dryness on the tongue, resembling the chalky trace of fine limestone dust.
    • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
      • Ethereal Gaze Perception: Observers viewing the scene with True Sight or magical sensitivity perceive the wielder’s face as being overlaid by the faint, translucent visage of an ancient northern beast—such as a spectral reindeer or snow owl—blinking slowly in unison with the wielder.
      • Displaced Presence: Sensitive creatures perceive the wielder’s immediate presence as slightly detached from the physical ground, as though their consciousness were briefly hovering a fraction of an inch above the mundane plane.
  • Positives:
    • Absolute Aesthetic Clarity: The user gains total awareness of physical and magical blemishes across their bodily vessel, allowing flawless precision when applying disguises, war paint, or cosmetic wards.
    • Cognitive Focus: The cold shock and harmonic hum dispel mental clutter, suppressing mundane panic and granting an acute sense of focus during tense social standoffs or tactical preparations.
    • Passive Intimidation and Allure: The flattering, otherworldly lavender radiance naturally draws the focus of onlookers, causing the user to appear striking, authoritative, and spiritually protected.
  • Negatives:
    • Compromised Stealth: The bright lavender glow emitted by both the glass and the pommel crystal, combined with the distinct scent of dried herbs and ozone, makes remaining hidden in total darkness or confined spaces nearly impossible.
    • Lingering Hand Numbness: The intense cold generated along the electrum handle lingers in the wielder’s fingers for several minutes after activation, causing minor stiffness when attempting fine manual tasks like picking intricate mechanical locks.
    • Spiritual Sensory Echo: Opening the senses to the spiritual weave leaves the wielder temporarily vulnerable to psychic overstimulation, causing loud sudden noises or bright bursts of magical fire to trigger a sharp, stinging throb behind the temples.

Crafting Recipe: The Shamanic Dressing Glass

  • Materials Needed:
    • One Tier 1 Magic Crystal (coin-sized and coin-weighted, harvested from a slain creature or beast) to act as the internal arcane battery catalyst.
    • Three ounces of cold-beaten refined electrum and two ounces of high-purity silver wire for forging the frame, pommel setting, and filigree scrollwork.
    • One circular pane of polished quartz crystal or silvered float glass, measuring roughly six to eight inches across, treated with quicksilver backing.
    • One cured section of northern deer or stag rawhide, scraped paper-thin and oil-treated to serve as the resonant drum parchment.
    • Two fluid drams of purified sap harvested from an evergreen boreal pine or ironwood tree, drawn using a fluid collector to serve as an alchemical binding resin.
    • One fluid dram of beast blood or spiritual ichor drawn with a fluid collector from an attuned or magical fauna corpse to fix the parchment runes.
    • Four ounces of assorted mineral kohl, powdered soapstone, crushed lapis, and ground hematite for the cosmetic pigment reservoirs.
    • One small carved bone stylus and a fine brush tuft harvested from mountain hare or horsehair for the application kit.
  • Tools Required:
    • Jeweler’s fine silver-smithing tongs, needle-nose pliers, and miniature shaping anvils.
    • A low-heat alchemical spirit burner or portable charcoal jeweler’s crucible.
    • A standard fluid collector with micro-draw needles for measuring out exact biological resins and fluids.
    • Fine leather-punching awls and bone needles for tensioning the parchment rawhide.
    • An agate burnisher and mineral mortar with pestle for powdering cosmetic pigments to fine micron consistency.
    • An arcane etching stylus or runic burin for scribing spiritual sigils into metal and hide.
  • Skill Requirements:
    • Trained Skill Level 5 or higher in Alchemical Crafting or Arcane Artisan Metalworking.
    • Working knowledge of noaidi spirit lore or traditional ritualistic spell focus construction.
    • Basic cosmetic compounding or apothecary mixing proficiency to properly grind, preserve, and balance the mineral kohl and pigments.
  • Crafting Steps:
    • Step 1: Frame Forging and Crystalline Setting
      • Melt the refined electrum and silver wire over the spirit burner, drawing the alloy into fine, spiraling branches resembling frost boughs.
      • Shape the outer protective bezel to snugly hold the polished quartz mirror pane while leaving the rear mounting rim exposed for the rawhide backing.
      • Form a hollow, counter-weighted handle featuring miniature slotted trays to hold the bone stylus, brush, and pigment cups.
      • Solder an electrum claw-mount at the base of the handle and securely seat the Tier 1 coin-sized magic crystal, using fine drops of heated tree sap resin to permanently cement the crystal in place without dampening its arcane pulse.
    • Step 2: Drum-Skin Preparation and Runic Inscription
      • Take the cured rawhide parchment and soak it briefly in a shallow bath of distilled water blended with one dram of harvested boreal tree sap to restore flexibility.
      • Stretch the damp hide across the reverse face of the electrum mirror frame, punching perimeter eyelets with the leather awl and lacing it taut using silver filigree cord.
      • Mix the harvested biological ichor with pulverized charcoal and soot to create consecrated ink.
      • Using the bone stylus, meticulously hand-scribe the sacred noaidi motifs—the guide beast icons, the wind swirls, and the perimeter protection runes—directly onto the exposed parchment while holding a focused somatic thought of clarity and cleansing.
    • Step 3: Mirror Mounting and Spirit Sealing
      • Seat the silvered glass pane firmly within the front electrum bezel, setting it over a thin, dry buffer of felt to cushion the glass against physical shock.
      • Crimp the decorative silver frost boughs down over the outer perimeter of the glass, locking it tight against the frame.
      • Channel heat along the inner electrum seam using the spirit burner to fuse the metal edge, ensuring an airtight seal that protects the interior rawhide backing from atmospheric moisture.
    • Step 4: Compounding the Cosmetic Reservoirs
      • Grind the hematite, lapis, soapstone, and mineral kohl within the agate mortar until completely smooth and free of grit.
      • Blend each powdered pigment with a fraction of the remaining fluid collector tree sap and purified rendered grease to produce stable, water-resistant cosmetic cakes.
      • Press the prepared pigments into the small oval basins along the mirror handle, snapping the miniature bone styling stick and horsehair brush into their resting grooves beside the kohl wells.
    • Step 5: Harmonic Attunement and Final Inspection
      • Hold the completed assembly directly in the hands and initiate a continuous, focused Somatic chant for at least one full minute to bridge the elemental crystal with the scribed hide runes.
      • Gently tap the taut drum-back with the bone stylus; verify that the strike produces a low, bronze-bell hum and causes the embedded pommel crystal to pulse with a steady, soft lavender radiance.
      • Inspect the reflective face using the Mind’s Eye to ensure that the item registers as an intact, fully functional common Tier 1 focus before securing it in its travel sleeve.

Glass Which Heals Brow and Sings Beast

In the very old days when the moon Saṃsāra was not yet very hard upon its crust, the skies were falling with fire and also cold stones, and the spirit woman named Vilda walked upon the white lichen lands where the winds have mouths and scream without teeth. She was a soul which was pulled out from the sleeping water of the purgatory sea by the Great Mother Gaialilith, yet her head was very thick with the fog of forgetting, and she did not know if she had been a queen of tents or a digger of wild turnips in the worlds before the sky fell down. Her hands were shaking because the avatar body she had seized was thin like a river reed, and its teeth clicked together like small stones when the frost came out of the north.

In that country of white moss there were no cities made of high chimneys or hot tea water, but only the great wild beasts which had crawled out of Gaialilith’s big basket of mixed animals. Some of these animals had the horns of a goat and the tail of an otter, and some were bears with the feathers of gray owls which sat upon the high rocks and watched the people with hungry stomachs. The people of the tents were very afraid of these things because when an avatar is broken by claws, the soul becomes very hungry and must run through the cold air to find a new beast or become like smoke in the high empty place.

Vilda sat inside a tent made of heavy skins where the grease lamp gave only a small yellow nose of flame. Around her were the hunters whose cheeks were cracked open by the freezing air, and the blood upon their faces had turned black like old pitch. They were very ugly to see, and because their faces were so torn and bleeding, the spirits of the rocks and the spirits of the frozen bogs would not speak to them, believing them to be already dead things or meat left behind by the wolves.

“The spirits are having ears of stone,” said the chief of the tents, who was called Old Orm, though his tongue was thick like a dried tongue of beef. “When we knock upon the wooden bowl, the sky only throws down more ice needles. Our women cannot weave the sinew threads because their thumbs are black with the winter rot, and the grand beast with four eyes which walks upon the glacier comes closer every night to eat our fat.”

Vilda looked down into her lap where she held a flat plate of electrum that she had beaten with a round river rock until it was as wide as a goose egg. She had no iron tools, for the iron was sleeping deep in the stone where only the fire spirits could reach. She took the dried skin of a young stag which had died without arrows, and she rubbed the skin with the bitter grease of mountain pines until the skin became like the bladder of a pike fish, thin and clear like dried lard. With the bone of an eagle’s foot, she made scratches upon the skin, putting down the feet of the reindeer and the eye of the swimming seal and the long snake that eats its own knees.

Then she took the silver which had fallen out of a cracked white rock and rubbed it with grease until it became like still water. When she looked into this still water, she did not see her old grandmother, nor did she see the gods of the warm lands, but she saw the face of the avatar vessel she was living inside. The forehead of the avatar was covered in gray spots of sickness, and its hair was full of dried mud from the sleeping hole.

“The outer skin is the door of the spirit hut,” Vilda spoke, though the hunters thought she was only burbling the sickness burble. “If the door of the hut is smeared with dog dirt, the king of the mountain will not take off his boots to enter. He will only throw an axe through the smoke hole.”

So Vilda opened the small horn tubes that hung from her belt strap. In one tube was the powder of red iron rock which she had pounded between two flat stones until it was like flour. In another tube was the blue grease made from boiled swamp beetles and the fat of the river trout. She took a small tail of horse hair bound to a leg bone of a grouse, and she dipped it into the red dust.

She looked into the electrum glass, and while she looked, she began to tap the back of the dried skin with her fingernail. The sound was not like a drum of war, but was like the small foot of a mouse running over dry birch bark: tik-tik, tak-tak, tik-tik. With every tap of her nail, the electrum rim became cold like the ice upon the well, but the glass began to shine with the color of a summer thistle when the light of Helios is low in the west.

She stroked the red grease upon her high bone where the eye rests, and she drew the lines of the three sisters who walk upon the mountain without dropping snowshoes. As the hair of the brush went across her flesh, the cracks in her dry skin closed up like a river freezing shut in one night. The gray rot upon her forehead turned into clean white grease, and the dirt upon her chin became like the clean soot that poets use to write their names.

The hunters in the tent fell upon their backs and made their hands into fists because they thought she was setting her head on fire with ghost light. But Vilda stood up upon her feet and went out of the flap of the skin house, walking straight toward the dark mountain where the beast with four eyes was smelling the tent bones.

The beast was huge like four oxen tied together, and its shoulders were covered in shields of dirty ice where arrows could not go. It had the mouth of a wolf with many sharp tusks that went crookedly out like roots of an old alder tree, and its four eyes were red like the embers of burned dung. When it saw the two-legged thing coming over the snow, it opened its throat and made a roar that caused the dry crust of the snowfield to slide down the mountain.

Vilda did not carry a spear of flint, nor did she carry a throwing rope. She only held the electrum glass before her forehead so that the thistle light fell upon the snow, and she beat upon the stag skin with the small bone stick: tong-tong, ting-ting, tong-tong. The sound went into the ears of the monster, and because the sound was very true and had no dirt of lies within it, the four eyes of the monster became wide and soft like the eyes of a fat calf.

Then Vilda walked up to the great snout of the creature, where the breath came out smelling of old rotten fish and dried moss. She lifted the brush of grouse hair and dipped it into the black fat of the kohl tube. With long, smooth hands that did not shake from the cold, she painted two wide circles around the upper eyes of the beast, and she drew the marks of the three mountain passes down the bridge of its great nose. Where the hair was matted with blood and mud, she breathed upon the glass and wiped the frost of her breath across the beast’s jaw, and the old blood fell away like dry dust, leaving the fur as gray and shining as the beard of a king.

The four-eyed monster shut its big jaws with a small click. It looked down into the round silver of the glass, and when it saw its own face looking beautiful and clean without the ugly sores of the swamp, it dropped its heavy head upon the knees of Vilda. It let out a great sigh that smelled of sweet birch twigs and mountain honey, for it had not been clean since the day the skies were broken by the fighting gods.

The hunters who had crept behind the rocks with their bone knives saw this thing happen, and they began to shout with their mouths wide open, saying that the woman from the stars was a great sorcerer who had put a hook through the nostrils of the mountain king. But Vilda told them to shut their teeth together and bring their women and their sick sons out of the dark holes.

One by one, she sat the hunters down upon the snow before her electrum round. To the one whose ear was torn by an arrow, she painted the shape of an eagle’s feather over the wound, and the flesh grew together like two pieces of warm tallow. To the woman whose skin was yellow from the water sickness, she applied the white clay and the fine electrum soot, and the sickness went out into the dust and blew away over the ice hills.

For twenty-seven winters, the people of the tents followed the glass of Vilda wherever the herds of stag moved across the island country of Tayacian. Whenever an avatar was wounded by a falling pine or poisoned by a swamp viper, they did not lay them in the dirt to wait for the death sparks; they brought them to the electrum circle and sang the five words of the grouse and the otter until the face was made fair again. The great four-eyed beast walked behind them like an old brown dog, carrying the dried meat and the bundles of birch bark upon its broad shoulders, because its brow was always painted with the three red lines of the north, and it was very proud of its clean face.

When the time came that Vilda’s first avatar was very old and its joints could no longer climb the high rocks, she sat down upon the flat stone where the three rivers meet. She looked into the electrum mirror for the last time, and she did not paint away the gray hair upon her temples or the lines around her lips, for she said that the years of an avatar are like the rings inside an oak branch, which are good to show how many storms have washed the leaves.

She laid the mirror upon the clean moss, and beside it she placed the bone stick, the grouse brush, and the horn pots of blue fat and red powder. Then her spirit broke out of the top of her skull with a flash of purple light and a sound like dry grass burning, leaving behind her little soul stone and the mirror upon the gray rock.

A foolish hunter named Jukke, who was very greedy for shiny things, ran to the rock and took the glass into his dirty hands. He looked into it and laughed, thinking he would go to the great central city on the coast and sell the electrum to the goldsmiths for twenty baskets of dried fish and five brass pots. But when he looked down into the silvered face, he did not see the thistle light or the lavender cloud; he only saw his own nose which was covered in grease and his two eyes which were looking crookedly with greed.

The electrum became so cold in his fingers that his skin froze to the metal, and when he tried to pull his hands away, the flesh of his palms was left upon the frame like gray paper. He dropped the mirror into the deep ravine where the white water runs from the high glacier, screaming that the spirit of the old star woman had bitten him with ice teeth.

The glass lay down in the black silt between two rocks for a thousand years, washed by the clean water that has no dirt in it, waiting until the fishermen of the lower state cast their horsehair nets into the pool and pulled up the silver hoop, still holding the purple gem in its root and still smelling of sweet juniper smoke and the clean wind that has no death.

Moral of the Story: The outer form is the vessel of the soul, and when the face is washed of its bitterness and adorned with respect, even the most terrible beast may see its own peace; but he who looks upon the sacred work only to weigh the silver will find that the ice freezes him down to the bone.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

Vilda’s Shamanic Dressing Mirror and Bone Kohl Kit

  • Description: An antique, hand-beaten electrum dressing mirror framed in pale silver filigree resembling frosted pine boughs. The reverse side features stretched, paper-thin reindeer hide inscribed with faded charcoal-ink shamanic sigils and animal pictograms. The hollow handle contains wells of dried mineral kohl pigments, a tiny bone stylus, and a brush of fine hare fur. A thumb-sized, uncut violet gemstone is set into the base of the handle. When active, the glass casts an unnatural, pale lavender illumination and radiates intense, dry arctic cold.
  • Item Type: Unique Mythos Artifact / Hyperborean Spirit Focus
  • Sanity Cost: 1/1D4 Sanity points upon first viewing one’s own soul-reflection or witnessing the mirror’s supernatural cosmetic effects.
  • Powers and Mechanics:
    • Spiritual Visage Ward: A character skilled in the cosmetic arts may spend 10 minutes and make an Art/Craft (Cosmetology, Painting, or Disguise) check to apply the mineral kohl while consulting the mirror. Success imparts an unnatural, pristine symmetry to the subject’s features, granting a Bonus Die to Charm, Persuasion, and Fast Talk rolls for the next 4 hours.
    • Purification of the Form: By spending 5 Magic Points and invoking the spirit runes on the rawhide backing, the user can pass the mirror’s violet reflection over a living target. This instantly purges mundane dirt, toxins, poisons, or acidic contamination from the subject’s skin and eyes, restoring 1D3 Hit Points lost to chemical exposure, venom, or physical lacerations. This does not regenerate severed tissue.
    • The Beast-Soothing Trance: The user may tap a rhythmic pattern on the drum-face while maintaining eye contact with a feral, predatory, or hybridized creature (including non-Mythos beasts or primitive entities). The user spends 8 Magic Points and initiates an opposed roll pitting their POW against the beast’s POW. If successful, the creature ceases aggressive actions, becoming placid and docile for 1D6 hours as long as it is not directly harmed or threatened.
    • Curse of the Greed-Frozen Touch: If an individual attempts to handle, break down, or sell the mirror solely for mercenary gain without respecting its spiritual purpose, they must succeed on an Extreme CON check. Failure causes intense frost to spread across their hands, dealing 1D6 damage and causing temporary paralysis or numbness in the fingers (imposing a Penalty Die on all dexterity-related tasks for 24 hours).

Blades in the Dark

The Pale Visage Drum

  • Item Details: A Tier I Rare Arcane Implement / Curio. Carried as 1 load (or 2 load if the full cosmetic pigment kit, styling brushes, and electrum frame casing are kept together).
  • Qualities and Tags: Rare, Arcane, Fragile, Concealable.
  • Mechanics and Operation:
    • Ghost-Ward Kohl (Action: Tinker or Consort): When you take time before or during an operation to ritually apply kohl and mineral paint using the mirror’s focus, push yourself (taking 2 Stress) or spend 1 Coin in rare reagents. The wearer gains potent cosmetic protection against spectral entities. For the rest of the score, attempts by spirits, spectres, or hollows to possess, terrify, or mentally dominate the wearer suffer reduced effect, and the wearer gains +1d to resist supernatural terror or psychic harm.
    • Reveal the True Hue (Action: Attune): By peering through the violet-tinted glass and channeling the ambient ghost field, you roll Attune to read a target’s immediate emotional state, spiritual taint, or hidden identity.
      • Critical: You learn their secret desire, any supernatural corruption affecting them, and gain +1 Effect on your next action against them.
      • Success (6): You perceive their true emotional resonance and whether they are masked, disguised, or under the influence of an arcane compulsion.
      • Partial (4/5): You glean the truth, but the mirror flares with bright lavender luminescence, alerting onlookers or attracting attention from the local ghost field.
      • Bad (1-3): You suffer 1 Stress as the mirror chills your flesh, and you read a false or distorted aura.
    • Aesthetic Camouflage (Action: Sway or Finesse): When using the kit to blend into high-society assemblies, theatrical troupes, or formal cult gatherings, you operate with +1 Position (e.g., Risky becomes Controlled) on rolls to avoid scrutiny or pass unnoticed among the elite.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Mirror of the Noaidi’s Visage

  • Wondrous Item, Common
  • Item Properties:
    • Weight: 1 lb.
    • Attunement: Requires attunement by a creature proficient with Disguise Kits, Painter’s Supplies, or the Medicine skill.
  • Item Traits:
    • Aesthetic Ward: While this mirror is held or displayed openly on your person, you gain a +1 bonus to Charisma (Persuasion) and Charisma (Deception) checks made to present yourself as healthy, composed, or of noble bearing.
    • Spirit Palette: The mirror contains 3 charges. It regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn. If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the electrum filigree dulls and becomes nonmagical until submerged in pure spring water for 24 hours.
  • Actions and Spells:
    • Cosmetic Purge (1 Charge): As an action, you direct the mirror’s pale lavender reflection across the face of a creature within 5 feet of you. The target is instantly cleansed of nonmagical dirt, muck, mundane dyes, and surface contaminants. If the target is blinded due to mud, soot, or sand thrown in its eyes, that blindness condition ends immediately.
    • Trance Mask (1 Charge): As an action, you spend 1 minute applying the included herbal kohl to yourself or a willing creature within reach. The target gains 1d4 + 1 temporary hit points and has advantage on saving throws against being Frightened for the next 1 hour.
    • Soothe the Savage Beast (2 Charges): As an action, you gently tap the drumskin on the reverse side of the mirror and present the glass to a Beast within 30 feet that can see and hear you. The beast must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or become charmed by you for 10 minutes, or until you or your companions do anything harmful to it. While charmed in this way, the beast is docile and regards you as non-threatening.

Knave (2nd Edition)

Noaidi’s Styling Drum

  • Item Slots: 1 Slot (consisting of the small silvered electrum glass, rawhide backing, bone stylus, and kohl jars).
  • Durability: 3/3 Quality.
  • Tags and Properties: Fragile, Silvered, Focus.
  • Mechanics:
    • Armor and Defense: While openly held in an active hand during exploration or combat negotiations, its spiritual field provides +1 Armor Defense (up to the maximum normal Armor limit), deflecting light grazes and incoming spiritual attacks.
    • Grooming and Morale: Once per day during camp or exploration turns, an adventurer may spend 10 minutes applying kohl and cleaning their face in the glass. The character immediately removes the effects of mundane filth and grime, and gains a +2 bonus on their next CHA check made to influence, barter with, or calm non-hostile NPCs.
    • Beast-Charming Rhythms: When confronting wild or feral animals, the user may use their turn to drum lightly on the rawhide back while brandishing the reflective surface. The target beast must make a WIS check (DC equal to 15 minus the wielder’s CHA bonus). If the beast fails the check, it will not attack unless provoked, stepping forward peacefully to inspect its own reflection.
    • Cleansing Touch: An adventurer may expend 1 point of Quality from the item to instantly neutralize mundane poison, blinding dust, or skin-burning acid from one adjacent ally’s face and eyes. Repairing the lost Quality requires 100 copper coins worth of rare mineral pigments and 1 hour of delicate crafting work.

Fate (Fate Core / Condense)

The Shaman’s Harmonizing Mirror

  • Item Type: Personal Extra / Enchanted Styling Focus
  • Permissions: Must carry the item in an available hand or have it slung openly on a belt harness, and possess a concept or skill representing aesthetic care, traditional craft, or spiritual connection.
  • Costs: 1 Refresh point (or may be utilized as a Campaign Aspect with free invocations).
  • Aspects:
    • Function Aspect: Spirit-Resonant Styling Glass and Kohl Palette
    • Flaw / Vulnerability Aspect: Blinding Lavender Glow and Glacial Touch
  • Stunts and Special Mechanics:
    • The Composed Visage: Once per session, you may spend a short period grooming and applying ceremonial kohl using the mirror before entering a formal gathering or negotiation. When you do, create a boost named Flawless Bearing with one free invocation. Additionally, gain a +2 bonus to create an advantage using Rapport or Empathy when projecting composure, nobility, or spiritual purity.
    • Beast-Soothing Cadence: You may use Lore or Rapport instead of Provoke or Will when attempting to calm, distract, or socially parley with wild predators, mundane beasts, or feral creatures, provided you can drum on the rawhide backing and present the mirror’s reflection to the creature.
    • Cleansing Flash: Once per scene as an action, spend 1 Fate Point to invoke the mirror’s spirit purge. Instantly remove any minor situational hazard or temporary aspect related to blinding dirt, face-clinging sludge, or irritating facial contaminants from yourself or an adjacent ally.

Cypher System / Numenera (Discovery & Destiny)

Visage of the Frozen Scribe

  • Item Type: Cypher (or can be adapted as an Artifact of Level 2)
  • Level: 2 (1d6 rolled, adjusted for standard tier play)
  • Form: An ornate hand-held disc of pale alloy with delicate frost-like filigree, backed with taut synth-hide inscribed with pictograms. The hollow handle contains compressed mineral powder cakes, a bone stylus, and a small, faintly glowing violet synth-crystal in the base.
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d10 (check each time an active power is triggered)
  • Effect and Properties:
    • Internal Arcane Battery: The item functions as an integrated focal battery, providing continuous ambient soft violet luminescence in an immediate radius.
    • Cosmetic Restoration: By spending 10 minutes applying the mineral pigments while examining the glass, the user restores 2 points to their Speed or Intellect Pool (player’s choice). This cannot exceed the pool’s maximum. This effect can only be gained once per 28-hour day cycle.
    • Calm the Feral Beast (Active): As an action, the user taps the hide drum-face and directs the shimmering violet surface at an aggressive beast or wild creature within short range. This acts as an Intellect task against the target’s level. If successful, the creature ceases hostilities, becomes intrigued or peaceful, and inspects its own reflection for up to ten minutes, provided it is not attacked or cornered.
    • Purge Contaminants (Active): As an action, the user channels a pulse of dry spiritual warmth from the glass. The pulse instantly cleanses the face and sensory organs of one target within immediate range of all mundane acid, chemical grime, mud, or blinding powders, granting an immediate asset on any task to resist lingering contact toxins.

Pathfinder (Second Edition)

Noaidi’s Radiant Dressing Glass

  • Item Details:
    • Item 1
    • Traits: Divination, Healing, Magical
    • Price: 20 gp
    • Usage: held in 1 hand; Bulk: L
  • Description:
    • Forged from unpolished electrum and pale silver filigree, this dressing mirror features a reverse face lined with taut, rune-inscribed rawhide. The handle houses sliding trays containing fine mineral kohl, a bone stylus, and a hair blending brush. A small violet-glowing focus crystal rests in the pommel. When held, it sheds dim violet light in a 10-foot radius.
  • Passive Bonus:
    • While brandishing the mirror in one hand, you gain a +1 item bonus to Make an Impression checks and to Deception checks to Impersonate someone healthy, uninjured, or of refined station.
  • Activate — Soothe the Pack:
    • Actions: Two Actions (manipulate)
    • Frequency: once per day
    • Effect: You tap the rawhide backing with the bone stylus while aiming the mirror’s glimmering surface toward a single animal within 30 feet. The target must attempt a DC 17 Will save.
      • Critical Success: The creature is unaffected and is temporarily immune for 24 hours.
      • Success: The creature is fascinated by its own reflection until the end of its next turn.
      • Failure: The creature becomes indifferent to you and your allies for 1 minute. Direct hostility or damage breaks this effect immediately.
      • Critical Failure: As failure, but the effect lasts for 10 minutes.
  • Activate — Purifying Sweep:
    • Actions: Single Action (concentrate, manipulate)
    • Frequency: once per hour
    • Effect: You sweep the shimmering face of the glass across an adjacent creature’s head. You automatically clear mundane dirt, grime, and blinding fluids (such as thrown flour, grease, or mud). If the target is currently suffering from the blinded or dazzled condition caused purely by a temporary physical contaminant or visual flash, they immediately reduce the remaining duration of that condition by 1 round.
  • Activate — Ceremonial Visage:
    • Actions: 10 minutes (manipulate)
    • Frequency: once per day
    • Effect: You apply the included mineral kohl to a willing creature within reach. The creature gains 3 temporary Hit Points. These temporary Hit Points last for 1 hour or until depleted.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

Astral Shaman’s Grooming Palette

  • Item Type: Minor Arcane Device (Enchanted Item)
  • Weight: 1 lb.
  • Value: $500
  • Power Points: 5 (recharges at a rate of 1 Power Point per hour)
  • Inherent Properties:
    • Poise and Elegance: The bearer gains a +1 bonus to all Persuasion and Performance rolls when they have spent at least 10 minutes grooming and applying ceremonial patterns with the included kohl palette prior to the encounter.
    • Dim Luminescence: When unholstered, the mirror continuously emits a faint violet glow that illuminates a 2-yard radius, though it makes hiding in pitch-black areas subject to a -2 penalty on Stealth checks.
  • Embedded Powers:
    • Beast Friend (Cost: 2 Power Points):
      • Range: Smarts
      • Duration: 10 minutes
      • Mechanics: The user rolls their Spirit die as an action while softly tapping the rawhide drum-back. With success, a single wild animal or predatory beast becomes calm and refuses to attack the user, drawn to the shimmering reflection of its own features. With a raise, the creature approaches peacefully and can be guided or handled gently.
    • Cleanse Visage / Minor Relief (Cost: 1 Power Point):
      • Range: Touch
      • Duration: Instant
      • Mechanics: Using an action, the wielder wipes the reflected light across an ally’s face. All mundane blinding substances, grease, soot, or obscuring face-muck are instantly vaporized. Additionally, the target immediately recovers from the Shaken condition if that status was caused by blinding dust, sudden dazzle, or visual sensory shock.
    • Warded Mask (Cost: 2 Power Points):
      • Range: Touch
      • Duration: 1 hour
      • Mechanics: Using 5 minutes of downtime, the wielder paints traditional northern protective patterns across a subject’s brow. The recipient gains a +2 bonus on all Vigor checks to resist environmental cold and harsh winds, as well as a +1 bonus to Spirit rolls made to resist Fear.

Shadowrun (Sixth World / 6e)

Vilda’s Astral Compact and Kohl Focus

  • Item Type: Force 2 Sustaining / Spellcasting Focus (Hermetic / Shamanic Tradition)
  • Concealability: 0 (Handheld compact, easily slung on a gear belt or evening sash)
  • Availability: 4 (Rare / Talismonger curio)
  • Cost: 8,000 nuyen
  • Description: An artisan dressing mirror forged of cold-worked electrum and pale silver filigree shaped like spiraling frost boughs. The back of the hand mirror is stretched with cured, rune-inscribed reindeer rawhide, while the hollow handle houses small wells of mineral kohl pigments, a fine horsehair blending brush, and a thumb-sized violet focus crystal at the pommel. When activated by an Awakened wielder, the glass illuminates with a gentle lavender radiance, emitting an arctic chill and a soft, low-frequency drone.
  • Game Mechanics and Rules:
    • Focus Bonding: Bonding the focus requires Karma equal to twice its Force (4 Karma). Once bonded, it provides a +2 dice pool bonus to Sorcery tests when casting Health or Illusion spells related to sensory enhancement, physical cleansing, or altering personal appearance.
    • Astral Visage Harmonizer (Passive): While held or openly displayed, the mirror subtly smooths minor skin imperfections and projects a spiritual poise. The bonded character gains a +1 Edge bonus on Social tests involving Etiquette, Con, or Negotiation when presenting a dignified, refined, or diplomatic appearance. In the Astral plane, the item displays an active Force 2 dual-natured aura flickering with faint violet light.
    • Cosmetic Purge (Active): As a Minor Action, the Awakened wielder can channel mana across the reflective face of the compact toward an adjacent subject within 2 meters. This immediately burns away non-magical filth, grease, blinding chemical dust, or pepper-punch residue from the subject’s face, neutralizing temporary visual penalties caused by contact substances.
    • Paracritter Soothing Cadence (Active): As a Major Action, the wielder may lightly tap the rawhide backing with the bone stylus while presenting the reflection to an aggressive mundane animal or non-sentient paracritter within 10 meters. Make an opposed Sorcery + Willpower test against the creature’s Willpower + Intuition. If the wielder scores net hits, the beast ceases hostility for a number of Combat Turns equal to the net hits, regarding its own shimmering reflection peacefully unless attacked or frightened.

Starfinder (Second Edition)

Radiant Noaidi Mirror-Palette

  • Item 1
  • Traits: Divination, Magical, Tech
  • Price: 25 credits
  • Usage: held in 1 hand; Bulk: L
  • Description: A hybrid handheld device blending ancient planetary shamanic craftsmanship with micro-arcane circuitry. The body is formed of lightweight electrum-plated alloy with frost-styled chassis ribbing, backed by a drum surface of synthetic biomembrane scribed with traditional northern runes. The base houses a rechargeable violet crystal cell, and the handle slides open to reveal a set of cosmetic paste cakes, a bone stylus, and an application brush. When engaged, the mirror casts a soft violet illumination in a 10-foot radius.
  • Game Mechanics and Rules:
    • Chic Demeanor (Passive): When holding or openly brandishing the mirror-palette, you gain a +1 item bonus to Diplomacy checks to Make an Impression and to Deception checks to Impersonate someone who is healthy, unharmed, or belonging to high social standing.
    • Activate — Soothe Wild Fauna:
      • Actions: Two Actions (manipulate)
      • Frequency: once per day
      • Effect: You tap the biomembrane backing with the stylus and direct the shimmering lavender display toward a single non-sentient alien creature or beast within 30 feet. The target must attempt a DC 15 Will saving throw.
        • Critical Success: The creature is unaffected and cannot be targeted again by this device for 24 hours.
        • Success: The creature is fascinated by its own reflection until the end of its next turn.
        • Failure: The creature becomes indifferent toward you and your allies for 1 minute; hostile actions by you or your companions immediately break this effect.
        • Critical Failure: As failure, but the duration extends to 10 minutes.
    • Activate — Decontaminating Sweep:
      • Actions: Single Action (manipulate)
      • Frequency: once per hour
      • Effect: You sweep the active glass panel across the facial armor, visor, or face of an adjacent ally. This instantly vaporizes non-magical planetary muck, sticky mud, or obscuring fluids. If the target is currently suffering from a blinded or dazzled condition caused purely by surface face-splashes or thrown particulates, that condition ends immediately.
    • Activate — Protective Mineral Warpaint:
      • Actions: 10 minutes (manipulate)
      • Frequency: once per day
      • Effect: You use the internal brush and kohl cakes to apply traditional protective glyphs to a willing creature. The recipient gains 3 temporary Hit Points lasting for up to 1 hour.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Ancients’ Shamanic Grooming Array

  • Tech Level (TL): 11 (Psionic / Exotic Archaic Artifact)
  • Mass: 0.5 kg
  • Cost: Cr 12,000 (Black market / specialty antiquities broker)
  • Description: An unusual, hand-held personal artifact discovered among frontier dig sites. Constructed from a dense, cold electrum alloy with an iridescent quartz reflective surface, the reverse is backed by an organic xenohide membrane covered in microscopic pictographic circuits. A slide latch on the grip contains hardened chemical pigment sticks and an application brush, with an energized violet crystal integrated into the pommel. It requires no standard power cell, apparently drawing energy from ambient thermal differentials and the user’s bioelectric field.
  • Game Mechanics and Rules:
    • Psionic Resonance & Visage Care: When held by a character with a Psionic Strength Rating (PSR) of 1 or higher, the mirror harmonizes with the holder’s brainwaves. Spending 10 minutes applying the mineral pigments in the glass grants a +1 DM on all Persuade, Carouse, and Diplomat checks for the next 4 hours, as the user projects an aura of symmetry, composure, and presence.
    • Bio-Decontamination Pulse: As a Minor Action, the user can press the pommel crystal, triggering an ultrasonic and low-radiation flare across the glass. This pulse instantly cleanses the user’s faceplate, breather mask, or bare facial flesh of clinging non-corrosive organic grime, soot, visual obscuration oils, or minor biological contaminants, eliminating any visual DM penalties caused by dirty visors or mud.
    • Fauna Hypnosis: As a Significant Action, the user may tap the xenohide drum while presenting the reflective surface to an unaligned animal, aggressive predator, or wild alien beast within 10 meters. The user makes an EDU or SOC check modified by their PSR bonus against the beast’s Instinct or Will. On an Average (8+) check, the beast is captivated by the hypnotic ultraviolet patterns rippling across the crystal lens, pausing and refusing to attack for 1D6 combat rounds, provided it takes no damage and no character approaches within direct physical reach.
    • Cold-Lock Safeguard: If an individual without Psionic ability attempts to disassemble, cut, or melt the frame to extract the precious metals, the artifact triggers a localized endothermic reaction. The thief must succeed on an Average (8+) END check or suffer 2D6 damage from severe cryo-frostbite to the hands.

Warhammer (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition)

The Ice-Witch’s Mirror of Ancient Visage

  • Classification: Magical Curio / Shamanic Talisman (Gifts of the North)
  • Encumbrance: 0
  • Availability: Exotic (Northern Norscan / Kislevite Border Markets)
  • Description: Fashioned from unpolished electrum and pale silver wires coiled to resemble rime-covered pine needles, this oval dressing mirror was originally crafted by tundra noaidi. The reverse face is covered in tightly stretched reindeer skin inked with animal totems and tribal warding glyphs. Its hollow handle houses dried wells of black kohl and white lead pigments, a bone pin, and a hair brush, with an unrefined purple gem glowing faintly at the pommel. The glass remains icy cold to the touch and smells faintly of sweet burning birch and mountain frost.
  • Game Mechanics and Rules:
    • Regal Composure (Passive): While held in an active hand or openly worn upon an ornate girdle, the wielder benefits from an aura of dignity and calm. The bearer gains a +10 bonus on all Charm and Etiquette tests, as well as tests made to resist mundane Fear.
    • Cleanse the Visage (Active): As an Action, the wielder may whisper a quiet prayer to the northern spirits and pass the violet gleam of the mirror over the face of an adjacent character. This cleanses all mud, soot, blood, or blinding filth from the eyes and skin, instantly removing any Blinded Condition inflicted by non-magical dirt, throwing sand, or blinding foul fluids.
    • Calm the Feral Beast (Active): As an Action, the bearer taps the hide back with the bone stylus and presents the mirror’s reflection to a creature with the Bestial Trait within 12 yards. The wielder makes a Challenging (+0) Charm Animal test. If successful, the beast is fascinated by its reflection and will not attack, charge, or roar for 1d10 rounds, remaining calm unless it suffers an attack or loud intimidation from the party.
    • Warded Warpaint (Ritual Grooming): By spending 10 minutes between encounters applying the sacred kohl pigments while chanting ancient shamanic rhymes, the wielder may paint one ally. The recipient gains 1 temporary Fortune point that can only be spent to reroll a failed Cool or Endurance test. This benefit lasts until the recipient enters combat or until the end of the current day.