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Onmyodo 47 of the Cryptid Diviners Compass

—

by

Dale
in

Lore

  • In the untamed frontier archipelagos and deep volcanic jungles of Saṃsāra, many rare, undocumented, and mythical beasts slip between natural ecosystems and the spirit weave, evading conventional hunters and naturalists.
  • Reincarnated onmyoji who dedicated their former and current lives to the pursuit of undiscovered fauna merged traditional celestial astrology with the five elemental phases to track creature signatures rather than mundane tracks.
  • Numbered 47 among a field expedition series crafted for imperial naturalists and the Cryptozoological Society of the island realm of Yamato, this handheld astrolabe-compass was designed to isolate the ethereal vibrations, territorial scents, and elemental shedding of rare cryptids.
  • By aligning the five elemental phases with the gravitational pull of the gas giant VaporSphere and the phases of Gaialilith, the compass guides cryptozoologists toward elusive monsters while warning of territorial apex predators.

Description

  • The device is a circular, palm-sized navigational astrolabe measuring four inches across, cast from tarnished yellow brass and rimmed with a revolving border of engraved five-phase trigrams and celestial coordinates.
  • Mounted beneath a domed crystal lens is a balanced floating dial crafted from polished white river jade, carved with the faces of the four mythical directional beasts (Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, Black Tortoise) surrounding a central void.
  • A tier 1 magic crystal, cut to the precise size and weight of a standard silver piece, is set dead-center within the jade needle pivot, glowing with a restless, forest-emerald light.
  • Five small metallic studs—composed of gold, silver, copper, iron, and refined lead—protrude from the brass casing like directional stops, vibrating subtly when aligning with specific creature types.
  • When active near unknown fauna or cryptid habitats, the jade dial spins freely before snapping toward the creature’s spiritual wake, releasing a soft, multi-toned brass chime and casting a faint green needle silhouette against the palm.

Detailed Stats

  • Tier: Tier 1
  • Rarity: Common
  • Item Level: 1
  • Item Armor Check: 0
  • Item Resilience: 10
  • Maximum Item Hit Points: The avatar’s maximum hit points plus 10
  • Attunement Type: Handheld attunement (attunes instantly upon being held; does not occupy a worn slot while carried or handled as an instrument)
  • Weight: 1 pound
  • Operational Scope: Cryptid detection, beast tracking, territorial hazard warning, and biological resonance mapping
  • Structural Integrity: Whenever the bearer concludes an active activation involving cryptid scrying or tracking, roll a d20; on a roll of 1, the central emerald crystal fractures into worthless gemstone fragments, neutralizing all active magical features until a new tier 1 crystal is set and enchanted.

Slot

  • Hand Slot (Right or Left)

Passive Magics

  • Cryptid Resonance Dial: While the compass is held in an active hand, the floating jade dial constantly aligns toward the nearest rare, monstrosity, or previously undocumented creature within three hundred yards, bypassing mundane camouflage, darkness, and natural foliage.
  • Elemental Shedding Divination: Peering through the domed lens reveals sheds, feathers, hairs, scale scrapings, and territorial markings left by beasts within the last forty-eight hours as glowing elemental ribbons of light, revealing the creature’s elemental affinity (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, or Water).
  • Mind’s Eye Beast Index: Holding the compass feeds sensory impressions directly into the avatar’s Mind’s Eye, displaying the target creature’s approximate weight class, predatory tier, locomotion type (burrowing, swimming, flying, or walking), and whether it operates primarily by day or night.

Activable Magics

  • Beast Spoor Divination: By spending one action to turn the outer brass ring until the prevailing astrological hour aligns with Helios and speaking an Onmyodo incantation of fewer than six seconds, the user attunes to a single hair, scale, or claw clipping placed upon the lens. The compass releases a pale green guiding beam that projects twenty feet ahead of the bearer, pointing an unbroken path toward the source creature for the next two hours regardless of terrain or rain.
  • Scent of the Four Guardians: By spending an action to press the central emerald crystal down until it clicks, the compass releases an aerosolized pulse of sacred five-phase incense in a fifteen-foot radius. The aroma completely masks the natural humanoid scents, sweat, and pheromones of the bearer and up to four nearby allies for one hour, preventing beasts and cryptids that rely on olfactory senses from tracking or detecting the party.
  • Territorial Threat Pulse: By spending one action to hold the compass aloft toward an approaching unknown creature within sixty feet, the user triggers an energetic ward that forces the compass to emit the resonant spiritual roar of a mythical apex guardian. An approaching beast of tier 1 or lower must hesitate, halting its charge and remaining cautious for one full round unless directly attacked or provoked.

Tags

  • Tool, Onmyodo, Divination, Cryptozoology, Beast Tracking, Astrolabe, Handheld, Tier 1, Common, Scent Ward, Compass Focus, Monstrosity Lore, Apex Warning, Spoor Divination, White Jade, Navigational Focus, Scent Masking, Creature Trail, Planar Astrolabe, Wilderness Inquest, Fauna Tracker, Beast Resonance

Cryptozoological Outposts and Navigational Emporiums

  • Frontier Beast-Hunter Guildhalls and Trapper Outposts:
    • Situated along the muddy palisades, jungle riverheads, and mountain-pass stockades on the wild fringes of settled archipelagos, these utilitarian trade lodges cater directly to big-game trackers, field naturalists, and monster-hunting avatars.
    • The interiors smell heavily of pine resin, tanning salts, smoked beast jerky, and wet fur, featuring walls hung with dried sinew cord, iron leg-hold traps, taxidermy heads of unknown chimeric beasts, and crude hand-drawn territory charts.
    • When purchasing from a licensed frontier post, the compass carries a baseline catalog price of 10 silver, though because of high demand among expedition crews venturing into untamed territory, shopkeepers commonly mark it up between 10 silver and 15 silver.
    • Avatars with proven membership in a recognized Hunters’ Lodge, Wilderness Scout Guild, or Expeditionary Cartography Circle receive a standard 10% discount per character tier level, reducing this tier 1 instrument’s price by 1 silver to a final total of 9 silver.
    • Selling the compass to a frontier guildmaster involves an inspection of the brass bevel and jade balance; the merchant haggles at 10% of the item’s baseline value times the avatar’s tier level, paying out 1 silver directly into the seller’s World Bank ledger while recording the instrument’s return to service.
  • Imperial Academies of Natural History and Astrological Curio Shops:
    • Located in the university quarters, high-tier museum plazas, and domed observatory avenues of major imperial cities, these refined establishments serve scholarly naturalists, royal taxonomists, and high-ranking onmyoji.
    • The shops are quiet, paneled in dark polished cedar, and lined with velvet-cushioned display cases holding brass astrolabes, celestial globes, bottled spirit specimens, pressed botanical folios, and lapidary instruments for grinding divination quartz.
    • Academic curators stock these compasses specifically for sponsored biological surveys into uncharted wilderness, setting the acquisition price firmly between 10 silver and 13 silver depending on the purity and color of the central emerald crystal.
    • Avatars carrying credentials from recognized academic faculties, natural philosophy academies, or Onmyodo divination bureaus can invoke an institutional 10% discount per character tier level, purchasing the compass for 9 silver.
    • When selling the compass to an academic antiquarian, the buyer logs the device’s celestial calibration and offers 1 silver, credited directly to the character’s World Bank balance, along with an official voucher of provenance for imperial archives.
  • Black-Market Smuggler Dens and Exotic Menagerie Bazaars:
    • Tucked into damp wharf vaults, subterranean sewer hubs, and shadowy tent markets near covert docks where poachers unload illegal livestock, these clandestine traders handle contraband game, illicit pelts, and confiscated guild tools.
    • The bazaars are filled with the noises of caged beasts, the pungent musk of predatory pheromones, and the hushed bargaining of poachers, taxidermists of prohibited chimeras, and beast-pit wranglers.
    • These illicit dealers avoid imperial oversight, keep no written transaction logs, refuse to interface with the World Bank, and deal exclusively in raw, untraceable physical coin.
    • Buying a cryptid compass through an underground fence commands a heavy premium due to intense competition among poachers seeking to locate rare fauna before guild wardens arrive, inflating the price between 15 silver and 25 silver in physical coin.
    • Selling the compass to an exotic animal poacher or illicit fence yields fast, anonymous payment; the fence inspects the brass housing and offers between 1 silver and 2 silver in physical silver coin, leaning closer to the 2 silver ceiling if an expedition is launching that night and needs an untraceable tracking device immediately.

Tactical and Environmental Deployments of the Cryptid Diviner’s Compass

  • Volcanic Jungles and Dense Canopy Rainforests:
    • In the sweltering, mist-choked rainforests of tropical archipelagos where predatory reptilian chimeras lurk behind thick foliage, the compass acts as an essential early-warning defense. Defensively, while trekking through valleys filled with bioluminescent spore-fungi and tangled vines, the naturalist watches the floating jade dial. The moment an unseen apex predator stalks the party from the upper canopy, the needle snaps toward the branches and vibrates the lead stopper, signaling an Earth or Wood-aspected monstrosity. Defensively pressing the central emerald crystal releases the Scent of the Four Guardians, enveloping the expedition in a thick wave of masking cedar-incense that deadens their human sweat and blood scent, causing the stalking beast to lose track of them and wander off.
    • For offensive excursions through dense growth, the tracker locates a freshly shedded scales or a claw scrape along a tree trunk. Placing the biological fragment upon the crystal lens and rotating the brass ring aligns the device with Helios, activating the Beast Spoor Divination. A coherent beam of pale green light shoots through the tangled ferns and vines, slicing through heavy fog and pointing out an unbroken path straight to the monster’s nesting hollow, allowing the hunting party to position ranged fighters on high ground before initiating a coordinated ambush.
  • Glaciated Peaks and High-Altitude Tundra:
    • Across frozen ridges, crevasse fields, and blinding white snowfields where undiscovered frost-beasts hunt via thermal and tremor senses, the compass provides reliable survival defense. Defensively, when blinding blizzards reduce visibility to arm’s length, the user relies on the compass’s Mind’s Eye Beast Index. If a burrowing ice-cryptid moves beneath the snowpack, the avatar’s mind receives an immediate spatial imprint of a burrowing creature’s mass and trajectory, letting the team leap clear of fracturing ice shelves moments before the beast erupts from below.
    • Offensively, when pursuing an elusive, white-furred snow chimera across hard-packed ice that retains no physical footprints, the tracker sweeps the terrain with the compass. The lens activates Elemental Shedding Divination, illuminating scattered hairs and frozen breath condensation as pale blue ribbons of Water-aligned light. The party follows this luminous aerial trail directly to the creature’s cavern lair, denying the beast the advantage of snow camouflage and catching it while dormant.
  • Subterranean Caverns and Bioluminescent Chasm Networks:
    • In pitch-black subterranean delve-ways where sound echoes endlessly and sightless horrors hunt by vibrational awareness, the compass provides tactical defensive security. Defensively, if a predatory aberration charges out from a narrow side tunnel into the expedition’s vanguard, the bearer steps forward, raises the compass toward the darkness, and invokes the Territorial Threat Pulse. The instrument emits a deafening spiritual roar resembling an ancient, primordial apex guardian. The charging subterranean monster halts in panic, disoriented by the simulated dominance of a superior predator, buying the party crucial seconds to brace shields, light flares, or retreat into defensible choke points.
    • Offensively, while navigating branching cave labyrinths in search of rare subterranean fauna, the explorer monitors the compass’s free-spinning jade dial. As the party draws within three hundred yards of an undocumented troglobite creature, the dial locks into place and hums in resonant harmony with the creature’s spiritual wake. Bypassing the confusing echoes of dripping water and false shadows, the hunter marches directly toward the creature’s feeding pool, readying containment nets or specimen vials without giving the quarry time to burrow away.
  • Coastal Reefs and Mangrove Deltas:
    • Amidst brackish estuaries, shifting mudflats, and tidal mangrove roots where amphibious river-cryptids hide below murky waters, the compass ensures vital defensive awareness. Defensively, when traveling by flat-bottom skiff through crocodile-infested channels, the dial swings continuously to track movement beneath the water’s surface. Identifying an approaching Water-phase monstrosity through the crystal dome warns the steersman to veer away from submerged snags or ramming attacks, preventing the skiff from being capsized in predator-rich shallows.
    • Offensively, after a stealthy marsh-beast drags livestock into the reeds, leaving only a smear of slime and a single plucked feather on a root, the investigator places the feather against the jade face. Activating the Onmyodo guidance beam projects a green line skimming just above the surface of the brackish water, tracing the creature’s swimming vector through winding mud channels and leading the hunting skiff directly to the beast’s half-submerged mud mound.
  • Wastelands and Ash Deserts:
    • In barren plains, dry salt flats, and volcanic ash beds where scouring winds erase physical tracks within minutes, the compass excels as an offensive and defensive survival tool. Defensively, when sandstorms force the caravan to make a hasty camp, the user triggers the Scent of the Four Guardians. The masking incense clings to the beasts of burden and supply wagons, preventing wide-ranging scavengers and pack-hunting desert cryptids from homing in on the scent of fear or water barrels during the height of the storm.
    • Offensively, when an expedition is tasked with cataloging rare, swift-footed ash runners that flee at the first sight of dust plumes, the tracker relies on the compass’s long-range resonance. Peering through the lens reveals ribbons of Fire-phase heat trails rising from the baked crust hours after the creature has passed. Following the glowing trail allows the party to calculate the creature’s watering cycles, setting up observation blinds downwind to capture living specimens or sketch detailed anatomical plates for the Natural History Guild.

Perception of Activation:

  • User’s Perspective:
    • Sight: Looking down at the compass, the central emerald crystal flashes with a vibrant verdant pulse. The floating white jade dial spins rapidly before locking onto a target vector. When spoor divination triggers, an unbroken beam of pale green light shoots forward from the casing into the wilderness. Peering through the domed quartz lens, creature sheds and territorial scrapings ignite into luminescent elemental ribbons (green for Wood, red for Fire, yellow for Earth, white for Metal, and deep blue for Water).
    • Sound: At the precise moment of alignment, the brass casing produces a soft, multi-toned chime resembling five tuned bells ringing in sequence, followed by an immediate low, continuous crystalline hum that vibrates at the base of the user’s skull.
    • Touch: The brass rim warms comfortably against the fingers, while the five metallic perimeter studs give off distinct micro-vibrations—a fluttering pulse against the palm that indicates active spiritual tracking. When the scent-masking ward triggers, the user feels a gentle, cool breeze swirl up from the palm, brushing against the skin.
    • Smell: A sharp, refreshing aroma of crushed cedar needles, wild mint, and sacred temple incense bursts outward from the instrument, immediately masking the sour odor of human sweat, damp leather, and the rot of the surrounding wilderness.
    • Taste: The user detects a crisp, pine-like resinous flavor on the back of the tongue, accompanied by a faint sweet note resembling crushed mountain berries.
    • Mind’s Eye Perception: The user’s Mind’s Eye receives a direct sensory data-bloom: a translucent mental silhouette of the target beast superimposes itself in the imagination, projecting an innate calculation of the creature’s mass, predatory rank, movement mode (burrowing, swimming, flying, or walking), and its dominant diurnal or nocturnal cycle.
    • Extra-Sensory Resonance: A feral spiritual resonance washes over the user’s awareness, providing a chilling instinctual flash of the cryptid’s emotional state—hunger, territorial aggression, or flight instinct—while revealing unseen territorial boundary lines carved into the local spirit weave.
  • Observer’s Perspective:
    • Sight: An onlooker sees the emerald core flare with a brilliant forest-green light that illuminates the bearer’s face and hands. Thin streams of pale green energy bleed from the revolving brass bezel, casting ethereal silhouettes of the four guardian beasts (dragon, bird, tiger, tortoise) swirling momentarily in the air around the user’s hand before a bright guiding beam cuts forward through the foliage.
    • Sound: Observers hear an intricate, rhythmic clockwork tick accompanied by a harmonized chime of miniature brass bells, terminating in an eerie, low resonant growl that echoes faintly off surrounding trees or canyon walls.
    • Touch: Those standing near the bearer feel a sudden, static wave of dry air, followed by a slight prickling sensation across the skin as the scent-masking aura envelops their clothing.
    • Smell: Bystanders immediately notice a strong, clean cedarwood and herbal incense aroma that rolls outward in an invisible ring, suppressing all natural body odors and musk within fifteen feet.
    • Taste: Observers who step into the beam of green light catch a momentary dry, herbal bitterness in the air.
    • Aura Perception: Onlookers with opened spiritual sight see a circular mandala of five elemental rings expand from the compass, briefly warding the expedition beneath the watchful gaze of ghostly mythical predator totems.
  • Positives:
    • Natural camouflage, dense foliage, murky waters, and absolute darkness are completely bypassed, pinpointing elusive monsters and apex predators before they can strike.
    • The scent-masking ward neutralizes olfactory detection, allowing an entire hunting party to approach downwind of sensitive beasts without alerting them.
    • Direct mental projection of the beast’s mass, movement type, and elemental alignment eliminates guesswork, allowing the team to prepare appropriate traps and counter-tactics.
    • The projected guidance beam provides a reliable, visible navigation line that keeps the party unified and moving on the correct heading through disorienting terrain.
  • Negatives:
    • The vivid green guidance beam and glowing brass chimes are impossible to hide in the dark, revealing the expedition’s location to rival hunters, poachers, or intelligent monsters.
    • The sharp floral and cedar incense odor, while masking human scent, can be detected by intelligent humanoids or unnatural entities as an artificial magical presence.
    • Receiving the telepathic imprint of an apex predator’s feral hunger can trigger momentary sympathetic panic or disorientation in an inexperienced user.
    • The territorial threat pulse causes nearby mundane beasts of burden (such as pack mules or horses) to panic and bolt if they are not calmed or restrained beforehand.

Recipe: Casting and Alignment of the Cryptid Diviner’s Compass

Materials Needed

  • Four Ounces of Instrument Brass: Refined, lead-free yellow brass ingots suitable for precision gear casting, bezel lathe-turning, and fine astronomical engraving.
  • One Disc of Polished White River Jade: A circular, balanced wafer of mutton-fat nephrite jade, two and a half inches in diameter and an eighth of an inch thick, cored cleanly through its center for the needle spindle.
  • One Tier 1 Magic Crystal: An uncut, facet-grade forest-emerald arcane catalyst crystal, ground down to the exact diameter and weight of a standard silver coin.
  • One Domed Quartz Crystal Lens: A scratch-free, three-inch-diameter convex crystal glass dome ground from high-clarity optical mountain quartz.
  • Five Elemental Metal Studs: Five small, lathed retaining rivets made of refined gold, sterling silver, native copper, forged meteoric iron, and refined lead.
  • One Sacrificial Minor Scent or Tracking Charm: A functioning tier 1 magical talisman, beast-whisper pouch, or scrying focus charm, consumed completely during the crafting process to bind its tracking matrix into the central gemstone.
  • Two Drams of Purified Tree Resin: Amber sap harvested from a mountain elder tree using a fluid collector, used as a secure seating adhesive for the central crystal pivot.
  • Five Grains of Ground Cedar-Incense Powder: Consecrated Onmyodo aromatic wood dust used to seal the internal scent-masking chamber within the lower brass plate.

Tools Required

  • Jeweler’s Bench Lathe and Cutting Burins: Precision metalworking equipment used to face the brass casing, turn the stepped bezel grooves, and cut the crystal retention seat.
  • Lapidary Scribing Stylus: A diamond-tipped engraving needle used to carve the fine likenesses of the four directional guardian beasts into the jade dial face.
  • Fluid Collector: A calibrated mechanical syringe extractor used to measure and inject purified resins without forming internal bubbles.
  • Precision Pivot Reamer and Balance Stand: A watchmaker’s jewel-setting pin vise and balancing arbor used to ensure the jade dial rotates with zero mechanical friction.
  • Astrological Sundial Caliper: A brass alignment instrument used to sight the meridian transit of Helios and calculate orbital aspect angles to the planet VaporSphere.

Skill Requirements

  • Navigational Metalcraft and Clockwork Assembly: Level 6 (Base skill level 5, plus 1 additional level corresponding to the creation of a tier 1 item).
  • Lapidary Stonecarving and Jade Inscription: Level 6 (Base skill level 5, plus 1 additional level corresponding to the creation of a tier 1 item).
  • Alchemical Crafting and Reagent Purification: Level 4 or higher (Required for handling the incense chamber blend and sacrificial charm dissolution).

Crafting Steps

  • Lathe-Turning the Brass Housing:
    • Mount the instrument brass into the lathe chuck and turn a circular, stepped housing measuring four inches in diameter by one inch deep, cutting an internal channel for the rotating bezel mechanism.
    • Drill five equidistant radial holes around the outer perimeter wall to receive the elemental metal stops.
    • Press and rivet the five elemental metal studs (gold, silver, copper, iron, and lead) into their respective radial sockets, polishing them flush with the exterior band.
    • Bore out a shallow incense reservoir into the lower internal plate, packing it with five grains of consecrated cedar-incense powder before fitting the lower retaining baffle.
  • Carving and Balancing the White Jade Dial:
    • Take the mutton-fat jade wafer and secure it to a flat jeweler’s work-block using temporary pitch.
    • Using the diamond-tipped scribing stylus, carve the detailed forms of the Four Guardian Beasts across the four directional quadrants: the Azure Dragon in the East, the Vermilion Bird in the South, the White Tiger in the West, and the Black Tortoise in the North.
    • Ream out the center hole to receive the brass spindle sleeve, ensuring the aperture is centered to microscopic tolerances.
    • Mount the jade dial onto the balance stand, shaving micro-fractions from the underside until the disc floats level and spins freely without settling on an uneven mechanical bias.
  • Bezel Engraving and Trigram Calibration:
    • Turn the rotating brass outer ring on the bench lathe to fit the top rim of the housing with a smooth, friction-fit rotation.
    • Using the fine cutting burins, engrave the eight traditional Onmyodo trigrams and twenty-four celestial division coordinates along the beveled surface of the brass ring.
    • Align the zero-coordinate mark with the southern quadrant of the housing, verifying that the rotation of the outer ring remains smooth and silent.
  • Sacrificial Charm Transference and Crystal Setting:
    • Place the sacrificial minor scent or tracking charm alongside the coin-sized emerald crystal into a ceramic crucible on the alchemical bench.
    • Chant an unbroken incantation of five-phase focus lasting longer than six seconds to initiate the transference.
    • As the sacrificial charm dissolves into verdant mist, direct the arcane essence into the crystal lattice until the emerald glows with steady interior illumination.
    • Using the fluid collector, deposit two drops of purified tree resin into the brass spindle cup at the center of the jade dial.
    • Seat the empowered emerald crystal firmly into the spindle socket, verifying that its weight does not unbalance the dial’s rotation.
  • Assembly and Celestial Harmonization:
    • Drop the balanced jade-and-crystal dial onto the hardened steel pivot needle anchored in the brass base, testing its rotation to confirm it swings smoothly without catching.
    • Place the domed quartz crystal lens over the bezel face and crimp the brass retaining lip inward using the burnishing wheel to form an airtight seal.
    • Take the assembled instrument to an open platform during the high-noon hour, utilizing the astrological sundial caliper to align the Vermilion Bird quadrant with the direct rays of Helios while noting the position of VaporSphere.
    • Hold the compass flat within the palm to initiate instant handheld attunement, focusing elemental awareness through the brass casing.
    • Roll a d20 to finalize the integration: on a roll of 2 through 19, the components harmonize cleanly, completing Onmyodo 47 of the Cryptid Diviner’s Compass; on a roll of 20, the jade dial achieves perfect astrological resonance, granting an unexpected minor enhancement; on a roll of 1, the bond fails catastrophically, fracturing the central emerald crystal into inert shards and ruining the raw materials.

Brass Basin That Chased Feathered Lizard

In the early rotation when the water of the sky was still boiling like bean soup and the great round purple grandfather-cloud had only eaten two thousand mornings, there lived a man upon the high moss terraces whose mother had been the daughter of the stone-cleaver woman, according to the righteous counting of blood through the grandmothers of the village. His name was Master Genzo the Long-Eared, though certain scribes from the lower reed ditches who could not hold their brushes correctly carved the marks upside-down and called him The Pig-Watcher Who Looks Into Bowls. He was not a breaker of skulls with thick bronze poles, nor did he possess seven wagons of smoked river-eels to make him loud in the meetings of the elder mothers. In his skull there slept the strange dirt-thoughts of a dead world across the great water-ditch where stars do not fall down, remembering iron houses where men kept living birds in little glass books and gave long dead-tongue names to the teeth of dried beetles.

In those turnings, the high terrace village of Red Salt was brought into a very heavy shivering, not because of the blue cough or the rot that makes the pumpkins soft in the vine, but by reason of the shadow that walked without making the leaves click. The mountain behind the village was called the Spine of the Copper Toad, a place where the wild moss grew as thick as an ox-blanket and trees had red juice instead of pale sap. From this high timber came a creeping terror that the charcoal-burners called the Great Plumed Stalker. It was not a mountain wolf, nor was it a bear that walks upon two pads. Those who caught a sideways look through the fern-mist said it had the body of a fat scaly hound, but around its neck grew seven rings of sharp peacock feathers that rattled like dry sea-shells when it smelled human meat. It had four eyes of different colors and a tail that ended in an iron-hard hook like the anchor of a salt-barge.

For three moons, the beast came down when Helios went behind the purple planet and the sky turned the color of an old kettle. On the first night, it ate the black swine of the widow Kinu. On the fifth night, it tore the thatch from the store-barn and carried off three whole wheels of pressed curds, leaving only a puddle of green grease that smelled of burnt wet feathers. On the tenth night, it snatched away the fat hound of the village chief from off the porch, and though eight young men ran into the cane with fire-pots and barbed spears, they found neither hair nor tooth, but only three flattened stalks of wild ginger that smelled like sour musk and old lightning.

The chief of the village was a thick-jawed man named Kuro the Ox-Thigh, who wore four wolf-skins even in the hot season to make his shoulders look like haystacks. Kuro shouted until his spit flew into the porridge pots: “The beast is a common mud-crawler! It has no ghost inside its ribs! Let fifty men take iron axes and chop down the high cedar woods from the crest to the creek! When the trees are laid flat upon the stones, the monster will have no shadow to hide its belly, and we shall pin it to the clay with seventy iron spits!”

The people groaned like water-wheels in a dry ditch, for to chop down the great cedar woods would anger the green earth-mothers and take two years of sweat, leaving their barley fields to choke in thistles.

Then Master Genzo came out of his small hut by the cabbage ditch. He was not wearing four wolf-skins, but an old linen coat tied with a cord of twisted nettles, and his knees made a clicking noise like dry walnuts when he climbed the steps. In his two palms he carried a shallow brass basin, four fingers broad, having a rim carved with eight crooked marks of the changing world and five round metal bumps sticking out from its ribs like the teats of a bronze sow. Under a clear hump of rock-crystal there lay a flat plate of mutton-fat jade that had the pictures of the four high spirit-beasts carved into its skin, and in the middle was a green stone that shone with the cold brightness of stagnant pond-water at noon.

Kuro the Ox-Thigh laughed like a horse kicking a barn-board: “Behold the wise man with his brass tea-saucer! Will you offer the feathered terror a drink of warm water, old stick, or will you read its fortune before it chews your skinny ribs?”

Master Genzo did not let his mouth make anger. He walked to the porch of the chief’s house where the hound had been taken. He knelt down in the dirt, took an iron needle from his lapel, and scraped from the cedar post three tiny flakes of dry gray slime that had dried where the monster’s scaly flank had brushed the timber. He laid these flakes upon the crystal hump of the brass basin and turned the outer brass ring until the mark of the fire-trigram was pointing straight toward the belly of Helios in the purple sky.

He did not call upon seventy dead grandmothers, nor did he spill pig-blood into the dirt. He only pressed down upon the green stone in the center until the metal gave a small, sharp sound like a cricket walking upon a tea-tray.

A great wonder then came upon the courtyard. The green stone in the belly of the basin woke up with an oily green light that threw no shadow upon the ground. From the five metal bumps around the brass wall, five voices of different metal-chimes rang out together like the bells of a temple when the wind blows hard from the sea. The white jade plate inside began to spin around and around, faster than a potter’s foot-board, until the picture of the White Tiger pointed straight toward the northern gorge. From the mouth of the brass ring, a straight spear of pale green fire shot forth into the air, twenty paces long, cutting through the steam of the dung-heap and pointing directly at the wild ferns of the mountain.

Then Master Genzo closed his eyes, and his mouth began to speak with a hollow voice that did not sound like his own teeth: “The stalker is not a creature of the earth-clay. Its ribs are sixty paces heavy. It walks with six claws on each foot, and its skin drinks the water of the mist so that eyes of flesh cannot find its edges. It sleeps now under the shelf of the Crying Stone, digesting the bones of the chief’s dog in a bed of dry hemlock, waiting for the third watch to eat the daughters of the river-weir.”

Kuro the Ox-Thigh grew pale, for his own daughter was married to the weir-keeper at the bottom of the gorge. Yet he blustered still: “Even if your green pipe points to the stone, the beast will smell our sweat through the cane from three leagues away and run into the cloud-caves!”

Master Genzo reached out his thumb and pushed the green stone a second time until it went deep into its socket. At once, a thick cloud of blue-gray smoke rolled out of the four holes in the rim of the basin. It did not smell like the dung-smoke of the village or the pitch of charcoal-kilns; it smelled of clean cypress wood, dried ginger-root, and the cold incense that old women burn when the grandmothers are laid in the lime-caves. The smoke swirled around the bodies of the thirty spear-men, wrapping their legs and their leather tunics in a cold mantle. When the men sniffed their own sleeves, they could smell neither their own unwashed skin nor the grease of their hair, but only the clean breath of an ancient mountain that had never seen a man.

“Now,” said Master Genzo, “walk behind the green spear. Do not speak of your mothers, and do not drop your iron.”

The thirty men climbed the mountain through the high ferns. The green beam went before them like an iron pole held by a giant, bending neither for the wind nor for the thick branches of the wild plum trees. Along the rocks where the green light passed, the dried scales and hair-droppings that the beast had shed three nights ago lit up like burning lanterns—some glowing yellow like sulfur where its belly had pressed the earth, and some glowing black-blue like deep swamp-water where its venom had dripped from its tail. The men saw that the beast had walked not through the wide valley, but upon the very narrow shelf of the rock-fall where no hunter had ever looked.

When they reached the shelf of the Crying Stone, the green beam stopped and pointed straight into a dark rift under the granite roots. Out from the blackness came the heavy rattling of seven rings of peacock feathers, and two yellow eyes opened in the dark, broad as shields and wet as jelly. The Great Plumed Stalker smelled no man, for the cypress smoke still covered their skins; but it saw the strange green light of the stone and rose up with a scream that tore the moss from the bark of the trees.

The monster lunged from the cave-hole to tear the throats from the hunters, but Master Genzo lifted the brass basin high above his gray head with both hands. He spoke the ancient syllable that means “The master of the four winds is standing in the door.”

From the basin came a sound that was not the sound of a brass tool or the voice of an old man. It was the great, splitting roar of an iron tiger mixed with the scream of a sea-dragon, so loud that the stones of the shelf danced in the gravel. The Great Plumed Stalker, which had never feared the shout of a hunter or the barking of village hounds, froze upon its six scaly pads. Its peacock feathers flattened against its fat neck; its yellow eyes turned small and cloudy with terror; and it cowered back against the granite wall like a whipped puppy, believing that the great spirit-beast of the mountain had come out of the earth to break its back.

Before the spell could loosen from its head, the thirty men leaped forward with their iron spits. They drove their barbs through its scaly throat and pinned its heavy six-clawed legs to the limestone shelf, killing it without the loss of a single man. When the beast was dead, its scales turned into gray flakes like dry leaves, and they saw that its belly was filled with nine silver combs that had belonged to travelers lost upon the high pass seven years before.

Kuro the Ox-Thigh came up the trail with his mouth hanging open. He pulled from his belt a heavy ring of red gold that had three pearls set in its crown and offered it to the old man, saying, “Take this gold, grandfather, and sit at my right hand in the council of three villages, for your brass pan is stronger than fifty iron axes.”

Master Genzo did not touch the red gold. He took a clean strip of linen from his pocket, wiped the mountain mist and the grease of the gray scales from the quartz dome of his basin, and checked the little brass teeth on the outer rim to see that the trigrams were turned back to the resting-place of the Water-Tortoise.

“Gold does not teach a man where the wild thing sleeps,” Genzo said, turning his face toward the downward path to his cabbage garden. “Keep your ring to buy new roofs for the barn, and do not chop the great cedars, for the trees were here before your grandfather had skin upon his ribs.”

He walked down through the wet ferns, his knees clicking in the quiet morning, while the green light inside the basin slowly went to sleep until it looked like nothing more than a dull pebble dropped into an old brass bowl.

Moral of the Story: The foolish ruler seeks to find the hidden terror by burning the forest and breaking the earth with iron, but the wise tracker carries the five changes in his palm, using the quiet needle to show the sleeping den of the monster and masking his own breath so that the hunter becomes the shadow.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons

Cryptid Diviner’s Compass Wondrous Item, Common (Requires Attunement)

  • Item Description: A 4-inch-wide brass astrolabe-compass fitted with a rotating ring of Onmyodo trigrams and celestial coordinates. Beneath a domed quartz lens, a floating white jade dial carved with the Four Guardian Beasts pivots around a coin-sized, forest-green arcane focus crystal. Five elemental metal studs (gold, silver, copper, iron, lead) protrude along the rim. When near rare fauna or monstrosities, the dial swings toward the creature’s spiritual wake, chiming softly.
  • Cryptid Resonance (Passive): While holding this compass, you gain advantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Wisdom (Survival) checks made to track, detect, or identify beasts, monstrosities, and rare or undocumented creatures. The floating dial constantly indicates the direction of the nearest beast or monstrosity within 300 feet, ignoring mundane camouflage, total darkness, and foliage.
  • Spoor Divination (Active): As an action, you place a hair, scale, feather, or biological fragment of a creature upon the lens, align the outer bezel with daylight, and speak a command word. For the next 2 hours, the compass projects a visible, pale-green guiding beam 20 feet ahead of you, pointing an unbroken path toward the source creature as long as it is on the same plane of existence. Once used, this property cannot be used again until the next dawn.
  • Scent of the Four Guardians (Active): As an action, you press the central emerald crystal. The compass emits an herbal, cedar-scented mist in a 15-foot radius. You and up to four willing creatures of your choice within the area have your scent completely masked for 1 hour; creatures that rely on keen smell have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks made to detect or track you. Once used, this property cannot be used again until the next dawn.
  • Apex Threat Pulse (Active): As a reaction when an approaching beast or monstrosity of CR 1 or lower charges or moves toward you within 30 feet, you hold the compass aloft. The device emits the psychic roar of an apex predator. The target must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of you until the end of its next turn, halting its movement. Once used, this property cannot be used again until the next dawn.
  • Crystalline Strain: Whenever you roll a natural 1 on an ability check while relying on the compass’s active features, roll a d20. On a roll of 1, the central emerald crystal shatters, rendering the compass nonmagical until repaired with a cut gemstone worth at least 50 gp over a long rest.

Call of Cthulhu

The Astrolabe of the Four Auspicious Beasts Occult Relic / Talisman

  • Description: A handheld brass astrolabe enclosing a balanced white jade disc beneath convex quartz. The dial is etched with traditional Chinese/Japanese directional guardians and centered upon a deep emerald-colored focus nodule. When brought within range of unclassified fauna, alien entities, or cryptids, the needle points toward their occult wake while giving off a delicate five-tone chime.
  • Sanity Cost: Experiencing the feral telepathic feed of an alien cryptid or ancient entity through the compass costs 0/1 Sanity points. Activating its active tracking or scent-masking powers costs 1d3 Sanity points and 4 Magic Points.
  • Cryptid Divination (Passive Effect): An investigator holding the astrolabe gains a bonus die on Natural World, Track, and Survival rolls when pursuing unknown fauna, identifying monster spoor, analyzing unnatural biology, or bypassing animal camouflage in wilderness environments.
  • The Guiding Ray (Active Ritual): By spending 1 combat round, expending 4 Magic Points, and placing an organic fragment (hair, dried slime, scale) upon the lens, the investigator activates the guiding ray. The device projects a pale-green line of light that cuts through fog and foliage, pointing directly toward the creature’s current lair or resting position within a 1-mile radius for the next 2 hours.
  • Guardian Ward (Active Ritual): By pressing the central nodule and spending 3 Magic Points, the user releases an aerosolized wave of sanctified cedar incense. For 1 hour, hunting hounds, predatory beasts, or scent-tracking monstrosities cannot detect the scent of the user or up to four nearby companions, gaining an automatic penalty die on tracking rolls against them.
  • Structural Strain: If an investigator pushes a Track or Natural World roll while actively employing the astrolabe and rolls a Fumble (96–100, or 100 if skill is 50+), the central emerald crystal suffers energetic overload and shatters into inert powder, permanently stripping the item of its supernatural properties.

Blades in the Dark

Five-Phase Cryptid Astrolabe Arcane Implement / Curio (1 Load)

  • Description: A brass-cased pocket astrolabe fitted with five perimeter electro-metal studs, a rotating calendar bezel, and a white jade dial with a luminescent emerald spirit-crystal at its center. It detects the spiritual signatures, shed viscera, and territorial wakes of rare leviathan-spawn, deathlands beasts, and uncataloged creatures.
  • Quality & Tier: Tier I Fine Arcane Hunting Implement. When utilized in actions to track, hunt, study, or evade beasts, monstrosities, or deathlands entities, it counts as Fine quality (+1 Quality level to your position or effect).
  • Wilderness Instinct (Passive): When you take downtime or spend an action to Hunt or Study unknown fauna, beasts, or territorial monsters, you may mark 1 Stress to gain +1d to your roll.
  • Apex Scent Mask (Active): You spend an action and suffer 2 Stress to press the emerald core and release an elemental warding mist. For the duration of the current score segment or expedition, the crew’s natural scent and spiritual heat are masked by cedar-incense, granting Potency on all stealth or infiltration rolls made against hunting beasts and guard animals.
  • Spoor Projection (Active): By placing a piece of beast spoor on the lens and marking 1 Stress, the compass projects a vibrant green ray through the air for the scene, bypassing environmental obscurity (mists, miasma, pitch darkness) to lead directly to the creature’s nest or immediate trail.
  • Misfire Clock: The item features a 4-segment countdown clock titled “Crystal Shatter.” Whenever a Complication occurs during a Hunt or Attune roll involving the compass, the GM may tick 1 segment of this clock. When all 4 segments are filled, the emerald jewel cracks, neutralizing its supernatural bonuses until repaired during a downtime project.

Knave

Onmyodo Beast Compass Item Slot: 1 (Handheld or Stowed)

  • Item Type: Arcane Divination Implement
  • Item Qualities: 3/3 Item Hit Points. Occupies 1 inventory slot. Can be wielded in one hand as a tool. Does not function if placed inside extradimensional storage.
  • Passive Benefit (Beast-Sense): The bearer gains advantage on all Wisdom checks and saves made to track wild beasts, identify monster spoor, navigate wilderness, or detect approaching ambushes from predatory creatures. When holding the compass, the bearer automatically knows the direction of the nearest predatory monstrosity or wild beast within 300 feet.
  • Active Spell: Path of the Spoor (Action): Once per day, the wielder places a tuft of hair, scale, or claw clipping upon the quartz dome and speaks a command. The compass projects a glowing green line of light 20 feet ahead, pointing an accurate heading toward that creature for 1 exploration turn (10 minutes).
  • Active Spell: Scent Veil (Action): Once per day, by pressing the central emerald stone, the compass emits a cloud of sacred cedar incense. For 1 exploration turn (10 minutes), the bearer and up to four nearby companions are completely undetectable by scent, allowing them to bypass beasts, hounds, and predatory monstrosities without alerting them through smell.
  • Active Spell: Guardian’s Roar (Action): Once per day, the user raises the compass toward an advancing beast or monster of equal or lower Hit Dice. The compass emits a spectral predator’s roar, forcing the creature to succeed on a Wisdom save or halt its movement and forfeit its attack for that turn.
  • Item Degradation: Whenever the bearer suffers direct damage to their inventory while holding the compass, or whenever an action using the compass results in a critical failure, roll a d6. On a roll of 1, the compass loses 1 Item Hit Point. At 0 Item Hit Points, the emerald crystal shatters, neutralizing all active and passive magical properties until restored by a master artisan using 100 copper coins worth of cut gemstones.

Fate

The Five-Phase Beast Astrolabe Extra: Cryptid Focus Implement (Requires Fate Point or Refresh)

  • Item Description: A four-inch brass navigational astrolabe with a rotating bezel of Onmyodo trigrams, enclosing a mutton-fat white jade dial carved with the Four Guardian Beasts. A glowing forest-emerald crystal anchors the needle pivot, surrounded by five elemental perimeter studs. The compass senses unknown fauna, isolates creature spoor, and masks human scent.
  • Aspects:
    • Invoke / Compel Aspect: Guiding Needle of the Hidden Wilds
    • Flaw Aspect: Brittle Jade Spindle
  • Stunts and Extra Mechanics:
    • Cryptid Resonance (Notice): You gain a +2 bonus to Notice when actively searching for, detecting, or tracking unknown beasts, apex monstrosities, or hidden fauna in the wilderness. The compass constantly points toward the nearest rare creature within your zone or adjacent zones.
    • Scent of the Four Guardians (Stealth): Once per scene, you may spend an action and press the emerald crystal to place the scene aspect Veiled in Cedar Mist with one free invoke on your zone. Beasts, monstrosities, and scent-tracking hounds cannot detect you or your companions by smell while this aspect persists.
    • Spoor Guiding Ray (Survival): When holding a physical sample (hair, scale, feather) of a target creature, you may spend an action to project a pale green ray. This gives you a +2 bonus to Create an Advantage using Survival to chart an unhindered course directly to the creature’s den.
  • Fracture Condition:
    • The astrolabe possesses a two-box stress track labeled Emerald Matrix [1] [2]. Whenever you fail a Notice or Survival roll involving the compass with style on an opponent’s defense, or suffer gear-targeted environmental stress, mark one box. When both boxes are marked, the central crystal fractures, disabling all stunts until repaired during a milestone.

Numenera & Cypher System

Cryptid Resonator Compass Artifact (Level 1d6)

  • Form: A four-inch handheld brass and composite housing enclosing a domed quartz lens, a floating synthetic white jade disc etched with biomechanical beast motifs, and an energized emerald core.
  • Effect:
    • While holding the compass, the user gains an asset (reducing task difficulty by one step) on all tasks related to tracking, identifying, or perceiving beasts, monstrosities, and undocumented fauna. The device constantly vibrates and turns toward the nearest undiscovered or predatory creature within short range.
    • Once per day, the user can place a physical tissue sample (scales, quill, dried blood) on the lens to project a coherent green targeting beam that points toward the source creature for up to two hours, easing all tracking tasks by two steps.
    • Once per day, pressing the central core releases an aerosolized pulse of scented biocides that completely masks the biological odors and pheromones of the user and up to four nearby allies for one hour, preventing creatures from detecting them by scent.
    • Once per day as an action, the user can direct the compass at an approaching beast of a level equal to or lower than the artifact’s level. The compass emits a synthetic predatory roar; the beast must hesitate, halting its movement for one round unless attacked.
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (Roll depletion whenever the user projects the green tracking beam, releases the scent veil, or triggers the predatory roar).

Pathfinder

Cryptid Diviner’s Compass Item 2 (Uncommon, Divination, Magical)

  • Price: 35 gp
  • Usage: held in 1 hand; Bulk: L
  • Description: A four-inch-diameter brass astrolabe housing a white jade disc carved with the Four Guardian Beasts under a domed quartz lens. At the center sits a coin-sized forest-emerald crystal. When held, the floating dial turns toward rare wildlife and monstrosities, emitting faint musical chimes as its five elemental studs vibrate.
  • Fauna Intuition (Passive): You gain a +1 item bonus to Survival checks to Track beasts or monstrosities and to Nature checks to Recall Knowledge regarding uncataloged or rare fauna. The jade dial constantly points toward the nearest beast or monstrosity within 300 feet, ignoring concealment and total darkness.
  • Trace the Spoor (Two Actions):
    • Frequency: once per day
    • Requirements: You place a biological fragment (hair, scale, feather) of a target creature onto the quartz lens.
    • Effect: The compass casts a narrow beam of pale green light extending 20 feet ahead of you for 2 hours. This beam points along the path the target creature traveled, granting you a +2 circumstance bonus to Survival checks to Track that specific creature.
  • Scent Veil of the Guardians (One Action):
    • Frequency: once per day
    • Effect: You press the central emerald. The compass releases a cloud of cedar incense in a 15-foot emanation. For 1 hour, you and up to four allies in the area gain the scentless trait against creatures relying on the scent imprecise sense, and such creatures cannot use scent to locate or track you.
  • Apex Roar (Reaction):
    • Frequency: once per day
    • Trigger: An approaching beast or monstrosity of level 2 or lower moves within 30 feet of you.
    • Effect: You hold the compass aloft to unleash an elemental psychic roar. The triggering creature must attempt a DC 16 Will save. On a failure, it becomes frightened 1 and cannot use hostile actions against you for 1 round.
  • Core Brittleness: If you critically fail a Survival or Nature check while actively utilizing the compass, roll a DC 5 flat check. On a failure, the central emerald fractures, rendering the compass nonmagical until repaired with 15 gp of gemstone components and 1 day of downtime.

Savage Worlds

Cryptid Diviner’s Compass Arcane Device (Minor Artifact)

  • Description: A brass pocket astrolabe featuring a white jade dial with carved guardian totems, five elemental rivets along the rim, and a glowing green focal gemstone at its center.
  • Trappings: Onmyodo divination, celestial tracking, emerald luminescence, cedar-incense mist, spiritual predator roar.
  • Passive Trait (Naturalist’s Edge): The wielder gains a +1 bonus to Survival and Notice rolls made to track, detect, or examine beasts, monstrosities, and unfamiliar predators. The dial constantly turns toward the closest beast or monstrosity within 100 yards.
  • Powers:
    • Beast Guiding Ray (Specialized Tracking):
      • Power Points: 2 (The device has an internal reserve of 5 Power Points that recharge at a rate of 1 per hour).
      • Action: The user places a creature’s shed scale, feather, or fur on the lens to project a green guiding beam for 1 hour. This grants a +2 bonus to Survival rolls to track that specific creature across any terrain.
    • Scent Masking:
      • Power Points: 1.
      • Action: Pressing the central emerald fills a Medium Blast Template around the user with masking cedar mist for 1 hour. Creatures relying on the Keen Senses (Smell) trait or scent-tracking suffer a -4 penalty to detect the group.
    • Beast Ward (Specialized Fear):
      • Power Points: 2.
      • Action: The user aims the compass at a charging beast or monstrosity within 6 inches (12 yards) to release a spiritual predator roar. The creature must make an immediate Spirit roll at -2 or become Shaken.
  • Device Malfunction: When the user rolls a Critical Failure on any Trait roll while employing the compass’s powers, roll a d6. On a roll of 1, the central emerald stone fractures, neutralizing the device’s powers until repaired with a successful Repair roll at -2 and $100 in replacement gemstone components.

Shadowrun

Onmyo Cryptid Astrolabe Divination Focus / Parazoological Qi Implement (Force 2)

  • Item Type: Divination Focus
  • Force: 2
  • Availability: 6R
  • Cost: 8,000 Nuyen
  • Description: A brass-cased handheld astrolabe fitted with a revolving outer ring of Onmyodo trigrams, five radial elemental metal stops, and a floating white jade disc etched with the Four Directional Guardians. An awakened emerald focus gem sits at the spindle. When wielded by an Awakened naturalist, parazoologist, or physical adept, the dial aligns with the mana signatures of critters, paranimals, and undocumented cryptids, emitting a soft brass chime.
  • Passive Mechanics (Parazoological Sense): While holding the astrolabe, the bearer adds +[Force] (2) dice to Perception, Assensing, and Survival tests made to track, detect, or identify non-sapient critters, paracritters, and exotic beasts. The floating dial constantly indicates the vector of the closest critter or paracritter within two hundred meters, bypassing mundane camouflage, total darkness, and heavy foliage.
  • Active Mechanics (Spoor Projection Ray): The bearer places an organic tissue fragment (fur, feather, shed scale) on the crystal dome, spends a Complex Action, and channels elemental qi. The astrolabe casts a narrow, visible green beam of coherent light twenty meters ahead, cutting through rain and brush to mark the exact egress route of the target creature for up to two hours. This adds +[Force] (2) dice to all Tracking tests to pursue that specific target.
  • Scent Masking Ward: By spending a Simple Action and depressing the central emerald, the user releases an aerosolized pulse of consecrated cedar incense. For one hour, the bearer and up to four allies within a five-meter radius have their biological scent and pheromone profiles erased, imposing a -[Force] (2) dice pool penalty on any critter attempting to locate or track the group using olfactory senses.
  • Apex Threat Pulse: As an Interrupt Action (-5 Initiative Score) when an approaching wild critter of Body 6 or lower enters close range (within 10 meters), the user holds the astrolabe aloft to unleash a synthetic astral roar. The critter must make an immediate Composure (3) test; if it fails, it halts its movement and takes no offensive actions against the wielder for one combat turn.
  • Focus Burnout: If the wielder takes Drain while channeling the astrolabe’s active features and rolls a Glitch on their Drain Resistance test, the central emerald suffers astral stress. If a Critical Glitch is rolled, the gemstone shatters, removing all magical enhancements and reducing the item to an inert brass curio until a replacement stone is cut and bonded.

Starfinder

Five-Phase Xenobeast Sensor Hybrid Item (Level 2)

  • Price: 750 Credits
  • Bulk: L
  • Capacity: 20 (Charges)
  • Usage: 1/round or 2/minute
  • Description: A handheld exploratory astrolabe combining traditional Onmyodo brasswork with an internal bio-harmonic scanner. Under a domed quartz cover, a balanced white jade disc engraved with mythical planar beasts pivots on a micro-battery crystal cut from refined synthetic emerald. Five alloy contact studs (gold, silver, copper, iron, lead) ring the casing, vibrating when attuned to alien lifeforms.
  • Xeno-Fauna Radar (Passive): While holding this device in an active hand, the user gains a +1 insight bonus to Perception, Life Science, and Survival checks made to identify alien beasts, track dangerous fauna, and spot camouflaged monstrosities. The jade dial constantly turns to indicate the direction of the nearest creature with the animal or magical beast type within three hundred feet.
  • Spoor Projection Beam (Active): As a standard action, the user expends 2 charges and places a biological sample (hair, shed carapace, dried venom) on the quartz face. The sensor projects a coherent green guidance beam twenty feet ahead for two hours, highlighting the target’s physical and bio-electric trail and granting a +2 insight bonus to Survival checks made to track that specific creature.
  • Pheromone Masking Field (Active): As a standard action, the user expends 2 charges to press the central emerald. The device disperses an aerosolized ionic cedar mist in a fifteen-foot emanation. For one hour, you and up to four chosen allies within the area become undetectable by the scent ability, and creatures with blindsense (scent) cannot use that sense to pinpoint your location.
  • Apex Deterrent Pulse (Active): As a reaction when an alien beast of CR 1 or lower charges or advances within thirty feet, the user expends 3 charges to project a sonic-spiritual apex roar. The creature must succeed on a DC 13 Will save or become shaken for 1 round, halting its advance.
  • Circuit Strain: If the bearer rolls a natural 1 on an investigation or tracking check while operating the device’s active functions, the central crystal risks overload. Roll a d20; on a roll of 1, the emerald fractures, disabling all hybrid and active scanner functions until repaired with an Engineering check (DC 15) and 150 Credits in replacement components.

Traveller

Xenofauna Astrolabe Psionic Instrument / Xenotech Implement (TL 12)

  • Characteristics: Diameter 100 mm, Mass 0.5 kg.
  • Cost: Cr 12,000 (Exploration Consortia / Specialty Academic Exchanges)
  • Description: A precision brass surveying astrolabe containing a micro-balanced nephrite jade dial mounted beneath an optical quartz dome. A tuned emerald resonance crystal sits at the spindle, wired to five outer alloy contact studs. When attuned to a user with psionic potential or connected to an environmental scanner suite, it detects bio-electrical resonance fields, helping explorers catalog dangerous wild fauna.
  • Biological Resonance (Passive): An operator with an active Psionic Strength (PSI) rating gains a +1 DM to Recon, Survival, and Science (Life Sciences) checks made to track native creatures, detect hidden predators, or survey alien biospheres. The internal jade dial continuously aligns toward the largest wild biological lifeform within two hundred meters, unaffected by dense jungle foliage or darkness.
  • Bio-Trail Projection (Active): By expending 1 PSI point (or drawing power from an auxiliary TL 12 micro-cell) and placing an organic sample onto the lens, the astrolabe emits a visible green tracking laser that traces the creature’s ground spoor for two hours. This provides a +2 DM to all Survival checks to pursue the creature across wilderness terrain.
  • Olfactory Baffle Mist: Pressing the central emerald releases a synthesized chemical counter-agent with a dry cedar fragrance. For one hour, the biological scent markers and pheromones of the user and up to four companions within five meters are neutralized, imposing a -2 DM on any native beast attempting to track the group by scent.
  • Apex Shock Pulse: As an immediate reaction when a wild animal attacks within ten meters, the user can expend 1 PSI point to emit an acoustic-neural predator pulse. The attacking beast must pass an Endurance check at DM -1; on a failure, it breaks off the attack and retreats one range band.
  • Core Integrity: If the user fails a Recon or Survival check by an Effect of -3 or worse while utilizing the active tracking or shock functions, the emerald crystal suffers feedback. The device remains inert until serviced at a TL 12+ laboratory with an Electronics (Sensors) check at DM -2 and Cr 2,000 in replacement materials.

Warhammer

The Beast-Diviner’s Astrolabe Enchanted Artisan Relic / Cathayan Hunting Focus

  • Item Category: Arcane Artefact / Hunting Implement
  • Encumbrance: 0
  • Availability: Exotic (Order of the Amber College, Cathayan Naturalists, or Grand Imperial Menageries)
  • Description: A four-inch brass astrolabe inscribed with Cathayan celestial trigrams, encasing a floating disc of mutton-fat jade engraved with the Four Heavenly Beasts. A cut emerald crystal acts as the central pivot, framed by five exterior studs of gold, silver, copper, iron, and lead. When held in the field, the instrument hums softly, vibrating in response to the spirit-wakes of monstrous beasts, chimeric entities, and wild predators.
  • Predator’s Intuition (Passive): The bearer gains a +10 bonus to Outdoor Survival, Perception, and Lore (Beasts) Tests made to track, detect, or identify wild animals, monstrosities, and rare forest cryptids. The jade needle continuously points toward the nearest predatory beast within two hundred yards, ignoring mundane camouflage, undergrowth, and night conditions.
  • Path of the Beast-Spoor (Active): By taking an Action to place a scale, feather, or hair upon the quartz lens and turning the brass ring to greet the sky, the bearer activates the guiding ray. The device projects a pale-green beam of light twenty yards ahead for one hour, clearly illuminating the creature’s path through swamps, brush, or rocks and providing a +10 bonus to Track Tests to pursue it.
  • The Scent-Veil of the Forest: By depressing the central emerald as an Action, the user releases an expanding cloud of sanctified cedar smoke. For one hour, the natural body odor of the bearer and up to four companions within four yards is completely masked. Hounds, predatory beasts, or tracking creatures cannot utilize scent to detect or follow the party.
  • Roar of the Amber Guardian: When a wild beast charges or attacks the bearer within six yards, the user may use a Reaction to raise the astrolabe. The device unleashes an ethereal predator’s roar, forcing the beast to pass a Challenging (+0) Cool Test or gain the Surprised and Hesitant Conditions, halting its attack for one round.
  • Aethyric Feedback: If the bearer rolls a Miscast (or any double on an unsuccessful Test) while invoking the astrolabe’s active abilities, an aethyric jolt courses through the brass casing. Roll a d100; on a roll of 01–10, the central emerald shatters, stripping the device of its active and passive magical properties until repaired by an artisan runecrafter.