GearAscendancy.com

Pysanky 731 of the Gilded Facade

—

by

Dale
in

Lore

  • In the labyrinthine trade markets and veiled diplomatic courts of Saṃsāra, truth is often a luxury, while a well-crafted misdirection preserves life, fortune, and political standing.
  • The original talisman was commissioned by a master of the Whispering Bazaars, an envoy who needed to project an aura of unflinching honesty while selling half-truths to suspicious guildmasters and corrupt port-reeves.
  • Crafted from the unfertilized egg of a mirror-drake, an avian-reptile known for shifting its scale patterns to mimic desert rocks, the shell was dried and prepared through nine nights of quiet trickery.
  • Artisans employed wax harvested from hives reared solely on poisonous belladonna and nightshade, drawing hypnotic spirals, masked face-silhouettes, and inverted fork-tongue runes over quadrants of smoky charcoal, tarnished copper leaf, and mirage-violet dye.
  • Hollowed and backfilled with crushed Tier 1 magic crystal mixed with pulverized glass and silver filings, the shell was fitted with a false-bottomed lead collar that distorts its true center of gravity, rendering the bearer’s intentions impossible to discern.

Description

  • A three-inch, teardrop-shaped ovoid protected by a slick, semi-reflective mineral glaze that reflects surrounding light unevenly, making its true contours appear slightly shifted to the viewer.
  • The surface is divided into swirling, non-symmetrical geometric patterns traced with sharp, off-white beeswax relief, outlining stylized dual-visaged faces, bifurcated serpent tongues, and maze-like chevron borders over deep charcoal, pale lavender, and gleaming imitation-gold leaf.
  • The pointed apex is banded by a dull, mottled lead collar pierced with three offset pinholes, while the rounded base features a flat, lead counterweight set flush into the shell.
  • When held or touched by another creature, the surface feels deceptively heavy on one side, subtly tilting in the hand and vibrating with a faint, greasy warmth.
  • The egg smells faintly of sweet nightshade blossom, burnt candlewick, cold pewter, and stale perfume.

Detailed Stats

  • Item Tier: Tier 1 (Common)
  • Gear Slot: Waist, Pocket, or Concealed Lapel (suspended via a dark silk ribbon or tucked into an interior doublet pouch)
  • Item Hit Points: Avatar’s maximum Hit Points plus 10 (Resilience 10 multiplied by Tier 1)
  • Armor Check: 0
  • Weight: 0.35 pounds
  • Attunement: Simple attunement (requires telling three harmless, convincing lies to strangers while holding the egg concealed in the palm).

Passive Magic

  • Masked Demeanor: While tucked against the chest or secured in a concealed garment pocket, the egg dampens involuntary micro-expressions, dilated pupils, and pulse fluctuations, granting a +1 passive bonus (or advantage) on checks made to tell lies, conceal emotions, or bluff under direct scrutiny.
  • Guileful Aura: The erratic reflection of the mineral glaze confuses analytical appraisal, granting a +1 passive bonus on checks made to feign harmlessness, forge documents, or misrepresent the value and nature of goods during trade negotiations.
  • Shifting Scent: The talisman emits faint, fluctuating pheromones that mask telltale odors of sweat, fear, or adrenaline, granting a +1 passive bonus on checks to resist being tracked or scented out by beasts trained to detect guilt or deception.

Activable Magic

  • Silver-Tongued Veil: As an action, the bearer strokes the offset pinholes of the lead collar while speaking. For 10 minutes, mundane truth-detection magic or abilities perceive the bearer’s statements as entirely factual, and listeners find the speaker exceptionally earnest, granting a significant bonus on the next Charisma-based deception check. This property can be used twice per day.
  • Mirage of the Double Visage: As an action, the bearer tilts the lead collar to catch the light and murmurs an untruth. An optical distortion ripples across the bearer’s face and attire for 1 hour, altering minor visual details such as eye color, hair tone, facial scars, or crest insignias to confound witnesses and prevent accurate descriptions. This property can be used twice per day.
  • Diverting Echo: As a reaction when an observer or inquisitor begins an insight check, social interrogation, or perception sweep against the bearer, the bearer taps the base of the shell. The egg discharges a quiet, directional psychic misdirection within 30 feet, causing the examiner to fixate on an adjacent innocent bystander, an unrelated sound, or an irrelevant object, imposing disadvantage (or a -2 penalty) on their scrutiny. This property can be used once per day.

Tags

  • Wondrous Item, Tier 1, Common, Deceit, Bluff, Misdirection, Charisma, Intrigue, Wax-Resist, Disguise, Lapel Slot, Pocket Slot, Subterfuge, Counterfeit, Charlatan, Fabrication, Duplicity, Insinuation, Masquerade, Veilcraft, Forgery, Falsehood, Prevarication

Commerce and Acquisition of Pysanky 731 of the Gilded Facade

  • Bazaar Pawnshops and Counterfeit Jewelers
    • Nestled in crowded, chaotic market alleys and dockside slums, these cramped stalls deal in questionable trinkets, pawned heirlooms, and unverified gems.
    • The egg is kept inside a velvet-lined lead drawer beneath the counter, shown only to cutpurses, disgraced merchants, or con artists who ask for “something to sweeten a bad bargain.”
    • The retail price fluctuates between 22 and 28 silver pieces, with sly brokers willing to take 18 to 22 silver pieces if the buyer offers a high-quality forged letter of credit or a piece of stolen jewelry in trade.
    • Selling the egg to a pawnbroker nets 10 to 12 silver pieces, though the merchant will openly lie about its authenticity to suppress the payout.
  • Courtly Haberdashers and Masquerade Boutiques
    • Located in high-end theater districts or aristocratic avenues near palatial estates, these luxurious parlors cater to courtiers, actors, diplomats, and high-society schemers.
    • Displayed discreetly among silk domino masks, perfume vials, and weighted gambling dice on mahogany side tables, it is marketed as a “charming social novelty” to smooth awkward social encounters and safeguard family reputations.
    • Courtiers pay a premium for discreet discretion, buying the egg for 35 to 45 silver pieces (or 3 to 4 gold pieces), often bundled with formal cloaks or scented oils.
    • Aristocratic patrons selling the piece on consignment receive 16 to 20 silver pieces once the shopkeeper finds a suitable noble client looking to conceal an affair or political betrayal.
  • Underground Fence Dens and Smugglers’ Cellars
    • Hidden behind secret knock-panels in tavern cellars, abandoned sewers, or dry canal basins, these establishments cater to thieves’ guild factors, smugglers, and black-market fixers.
    • Slid across grease-stained gambling tables wrapped in dark wool rags, the item is purchased by infiltrators needing to bypass civic watch checkpoints or spoof honesty oaths administered by city bailiffs.
    • The baseline price is 25 to 30 silver pieces in loose, untraceable trade coin, occasionally traded straight across for identity papers, master keys, or poisons.
    • Fences buy the talisman readily from scavengers and thieves for 12 to 14 silver pieces in cold coin, provided the lead collar has not been tampered with.
  • Frontier Caravanserai Wagons and Itinerant Snake-Oil Tents
    • Operating from painted wagons on major overland trade roads and dry-steppe waystations, these nomadic peddlers sell remedies, dubious relics, and luck-charms to passing pilgrims and caravan drovers.
    • Suspended above brass scales alongside false divination mirrors and scented waters, it is pitched as a “talisman of unshakeable charisma and honest fortune” to greenhorn peddlers nervous about crossing regional customs barriers.
    • Out in the rough borderlands, peddlers demand 28 to 36 silver pieces, gladly accepting equivalent barter in dried spices, pack-mule tack, or quality steel tools.
    • A traveler looking to offload the ovoid to a traveling wagon will receive 10 to 13 silver pieces, usually paid out in mixed provincial coppers and dried provisions.

Tactical and Environmental Roleplay: Offensive and Defensive Deployments of Pysanky 731

  • High-Court Salons and Diplomatic Galas
    • Defensive Utilization: Caught in an interrogation by a sharp-eyed royal inquisitor seeking the conspirator who slipped into the archives, the bearer activates Silver-Tongued Veil. By stroking the lead collar inside a pocket, the bearer delivers an audacious falsehood with a relaxed pulse and steady gaze; the inquisitor’s truth-sensing charms register pure candor, clearing the bearer of suspicion before the guards are called to lock down the ballroom.
    • Offensive Utilization: During a tense backroom negotiation between rival faction leaders, the bearer uses Mirage of the Double Visage to adopt the faint likeness and livery pins of a neutral ambassador’s attendant. Whispering calculated slander while triggering the egg’s charm, the bearer plants false accusations that pit the two rival lords against each other, orchestrating a factional blood-feud without drawing scrutiny back to their own party.
  • Fortified Gatehouses and Port Checkpoints
    • Defensive Utilization: Hiding contraband or a fugitive in the back of a hay wagon, the party is halted by a suspicious watch captain and a bloodhound trained to detect scents of fear and nervous sweat. The bearer relies on Shifting Scent to suppress sweat and anxiety pheromones while invoking Diverting Echo. The psychic diversion pulls the captain’s attention toward an unruly cart driver three wagons back, prompting the patrol to wave the party through without searching the cargo.
    • Offensive Utilization: While orchestrating an escape or infiltration, the bearer approaches the gate sentries disguised via Mirage of the Double Visage as an urgent royal courier. Activating Silver-Tongued Veil, the bearer fabricates a story of an imminent riot on the opposite side of the city. Believing the frantic decree to be legitimate, the guards abandon their posts to reinforce the southern district, leaving the inner gate completely unguarded for the party’s strike team.
  • Underground Bazaars and Black-Market Fences
    • Defensive Utilization: After selling a counterfeit relic to a ruthless syndicate broker, the merchant catches onto the fraud and demands a confrontation with drawn daggers. The bearer triggers Diverting Echo the moment the dealer steps forward to attack. The sudden sensory snap causes the broker to misjudge the bearer’s position and lash out at a neighboring bodyguard, sparking a chaotic brawl across the stalls that allows the bearer to slip away unnoticed into the crowd.
    • Offensive Utilization: Posing as an eccentric, wealthy out-of-town collector, the bearer leverages Masked Demeanor and Guileful Aura to display false vulnerability, convincing a notorious smuggler that the bearer possesses no martial skill or street sense. Lulled into thinking their mark is helpless, the criminal leads the party directly to their secret hoard to close the trade, walking straight into a pre-planned ambush.
  • Frontier Waystations and Wilderness Caravans
    • Defensive Utilization: Surrounded at a lonely roadside inn by highwaymen hunting a merchant lord traveling incognito with the party, the bearer uses Mirage of the Double Visage to subtly alter the merchant’s distinguishing birthmarks and hair color, while using Masked Demeanor to lie smoothly about having seen the target ride toward the river hours ago. The raiders mount up and gallop off, leaving the caravan unharmed.
    • Offensive Utilization: Infiltrating an enemy encampment along a mountain pass, the bearer uses Mirage of the Double Visage to imitate a scout sergeant, walks directly into the commander’s pavilion, and activates Silver-Tongued Veil to report that a flanking force is advancing through the narrow gorge. The commander immediately commits their reserve cavalry to the trap, fatally splitting their forces just before the party’s main assault hits the camp center.

Perception of Activation:

  • The Five Senses: User’s Perspective
    • Sight: The pale lavender and imitation-gold leaf panels ripple with an oily, mirage-like sheen, and thin wisps of smoky violet vapor curl lazily from the offset pinholes in the lead collar.
    • Sound: A faint, conspiratorial whispering rustles inside the shell, resembling two hushed voices chuckling softly just out of earshot.
    • Smell: A sharp, sweet scent of nightshade blossoms, cloying stale perfume, and heated wax fills the user’s nostrils, accompanied by the cold, metallic odor of freshly shaved lead.
    • Taste: The back of the mouth coats in a bittersweet, numbing film reminiscent of chewed belladonna leaf or licking a copper coin.
    • Touch: The egg grows deceptively heavy on one side, settling into the palm with a greasy, feverish warmth that sends a cool, deadening numbness up the wrist to steady a racing pulse.
  • The Five Senses: Observer’s Perspective
    • Sight: Observers see the air around the talisman shimmer like heat rising from a summer road; the user’s facial features appear momentarily blurred or slightly offset, as though viewed through wavy glass.
    • Sound: A quiet, low-frequency hiss emanates from the egg’s collar, easily dismissed as the fluttering of a nearby candle flame or the rustle of clothing.
    • Smell: A fleeting trace of incense, burnt wick, and sweet florals wafts outward, masking any ambient smells of fear, dirt, or damp stone.
    • Taste: Those in close conversational proximity register a faint, metallic dryness across the roof of the mouth, similar to the sensation before a rainstorm.
    • Touch: Anyone touching or standing immediately adjacent to the user feels the ambient air turn abruptly still, heavy, and unnaturally clammy.
  • Extra-Sensory Perceptions
    • Cognitive Refraction: The user perceives an ephemeral psychic veil draping over their mind, visualizing their true thoughts sealed safely behind an opaque wall of mirrored glass while false, convincing assertions float on the surface.
    • Intuitive Gullibility Gauge: The user senses the gullibility and emotional tension of their targets as glowing, fragile fractures along their auras, revealing exactly when an untruth has successfully taken root.
    • Echo of Falsehood: Mystically perceptive bystanders catch a fleeting mental glimpse of a split-faced mask hovering over the speaker’s shoulder, smiling with one mouth and weeping with the other.
  • Positives
    • Shuts down physiological indicators of lying such as rapid pulse, shifting eyes, nervous swallowing, and cold sweats, making bluffs indistinguishable from absolute conviction.
    • Misleads mundane lie-detection charms and magical discernment, presenting calculated falsehoods as genuine, earnest truth.
    • Subtly alters physical tells and cosmetic facial details to baffle post-encounter identification and prevent witnesses from giving uniform descriptions to authorities.
  • Negatives
    • The faint, oily violet vapors and slight optical shimmering can betray the item’s presence to sharp-eyed observers standing within arm’s reach in well-lit rooms.
    • Prolonged reliance on the numbing pulse leaves the user feeling emotionally detached and mildly paranoid for hours after the effect wanes.
    • The persistent scent of nightshade and sweet musk clings to clothing, giving alert tracker beasts or perceptive hounds a distinct, unnatural scent trail to follow once the magical masking dissipates.

Crafting Recipe: Pysanky 731 of the Gilded Facade

Materials Needed

  • 1 Unfertilized Mirror-Drake Egg (harvested from sun-baked crags; intact, with shifting surface hues).
  • 1 Tier 1 Magic Crystal (crushed into fine, refracting psychic powder).
  • 0.5 Ounces of Pulverized Mirror Glass and Shaved Silver Filings (blended to bounce intent).
  • 2 Ounces of Toxic Steppe Beeswax (harvested from hives feeding on nightshade and belladonna blooms).
  • 3 Sheets of Thin Imitation-Gold Leaf (brass and copper alloy beaten flat for surface gilding).
  • 2 Fl. Oz. of Smoky Charcoal Dye Bath (vine-soot, iron liquor, and stale vinegar).
  • 2 Fl. Oz. of Mirage-Violet Dye (steeped from crushed nightshade berries and lichen alum).
  • 1 Cast Lead Apex Collar (pierced with three deliberate, off-center pinholes).
  • 1 Asymmetrical Lead Base Counterweight Disk (weighted to disrupt the true center of gravity).
  • 2 Lead-Foil Washers (to cushion the brittle drake shell against metal strain).
  • 1 Fl. Oz. of High-Gloss Copal Varnish (cut with linseed oil for an uneven, light-warping glaze).
  • 1 Ribbon of Dyed Black Silk (16 inches in length, tightly woven).

Tools Required

  • 1 Traditional Brass Kistka Stylus (fine 0.3mm writing funnel with heat-retaining reservoir).
  • 1 Hand-Turned Bronze Trephine Drill (fitted with a 2mm tempered bit).
  • 1 Low-Flame Alcohol Lamp (for clean, sootless wax heating).
  • 2 Glazed Ceramic Dye Crocks (kept cool to preserve the organic dye active agents).
  • 1 Brass Syringe Aspirator (for evacuating shell contents and filling the internal powder).
  • 1 Agate Burnishing Stone (for pressing and smoothing imitation-gold leaf).
  • 1 Set of Fine Pliers and Lead-Crimping Swages.

Skill Requirements

  • Crafting (Wax-Resist Egg Ornamentation): Minimum Level 2 (for executing asymmetrical labyrinthine patterns, dual-visaged faces, and sharp chevron lines).
  • Deception / Subterfuge: Minimum Level 1 (to intentionally imbue the wax channels with misdirective intent during application).
  • Metalworking / Tinkering: Minimum Level 1 (for casting the offset lead collar and balancing the asymmetrical counterweight).

Crafting Steps

  • Shell Evacuation and Neutralization
    • Mount the mirror-drake egg in a padded leather clamp; carefully bore a 2mm hole through the apex and an identical hole through the rounded base using the trephine drill.
    • Insert the brass syringe aspirator to withdraw the dense yolk and fluids, flushing the interior three times with chilled vinegar brine until completely empty.
    • Dry the interior over low, indirect heat for 8 hours until the inner membrane calcifies into a brittle, paper-dry layer.
  • Wax-Resist Division and Pigment Layering
    • Heat the belladonna-tainted beeswax over the spirit lamp and load the kistka stylus.
    • Inscribe the primary off-white wax lines onto the bare, pale shell: draw distorted dual-visaged faces, fork-tongue paths, and off-center labyrinth chevrons.
    • Submerge the egg in the mirage-violet bath for 20 minutes; remove, blot dry with raw linen, and apply wax over the purple sections meant to remain lavender.
    • Lower the egg into the smoky charcoal dye crock for 30 minutes, turning it once to create a deep, shadowy black in the exposed areas.
    • Warm the egg near the lamp flame to melt the beeswax, gently wiping the dissolved wax away with unbleached cotton to reveal the sharp, contrasting pattern.
  • Gilding and Refractive Varnishing
    • Apply a sparse film of tree gum to selected chevron borders and the cheek-crests of the dual faces.
    • Lay sheets of imitation-gold leaf over the tacky areas, smoothing and burnishing the foil with the agate stone until flush with the shell.
    • Coat the entire exterior with high-gloss copal varnish, allowing it to cure into an uneven, light-bending finish that causes viewing angles to shimmer deceptively.
  • Refractive Core Charging and Counterweighting
    • In a stone mortar, crush the Tier 1 magic crystal into powder and combine it thoroughly with the pulverized mirror glass and silver filings.
    • Inject the mixture through the base aperture using the syringe blower, coating the interior walls until the shell rattles with a soft, metallic scrape.
    • Whisper three calculated, bold lies into the apex hole, sealing the psychic intent within the crystal powder.
  • Lead Fixture Assembly and Attunement
    • Place a lead-foil washer over the base aperture and set the asymmetrical lead counterweight over it, crimping the lead rim with pliers to permanently offset the balance.
    • Seat the second washer and the pierced lead collar over the apex hole, using cold tree resin to lock it into place.
    • Thread the black silk ribbon through the collar loops to form a concealed carry lanyard, verifying that the shell tilts unnaturally to one side when set on a flat table.

Twice-Faced Beast-Shell and Merchant Who Bought Dry Well

Now it is transferred into the speech of the reed-gatherers by the hand of Kasor, the lame clerk of the Salt Gate, who had from his uncle three tiles of sun-dried silt that were nibbled by mice at the corners. These marks were scratched before the time when oxen had names, when the water was still salt in the ditch of the great town of Ur-Nam.

In that season, there was a man of the grain-pens named Zabbua. He was not a smith, nor did he break the sod with an ash-tree crook; he was one who walked between the sheep-folds with his hands inside his sleeves, looking upon the fatness of other men’s calves. He had an eye that was like the belly of a perch, turning this way and that way, and when he said to a woman, The milk in your pan is sweet, the woman would look into the jar and find only sour whey and beetles. Yet because his tongue had the oil of flax upon it, men gave him their wool to carry to the river-barges, and when he came back with empty sacks, he wept with one eye and showed where the river-thieves had cut his coat with fish-spines. But the other eye remained dry, like an unwashed pebble.

There was in that city an old woman who lived in the crack of the wall where the night-soil is cast out. Her hair was like sheep-dung dried in the bramble, and she had no son to bring her cold water in a broken crock. Zabbua went to her on the day when the river had shrunk so small that the mud began to stink like rotten cabbage.

He said to her: Mother of lizards, give me the thing you took from the egg-pit of the horned drakes who sleep in the hot rocks beyond the ditch, for I know you have it hidden under your sleeping-mat of braided sedge.

The old woman spat into the gray dust and answered him: You have teeth like an otter, Zabbua, and you bite the hand that holds no stick. The egg is not meat for an oil-seller. It was dropped by the beast when the moon was two fingers wide, and the mother that laid it did not look behind her, but ran into the smoke of the salt-swamp.

Zabbua gave her two handfuls of rotten lentils and a copper pin that was green with the rot of the cellar. He took the egg. It was long, like the fruit of the bitter gourd, and upon its hide were the shadows of clouds that do not bring rain.

He did not carry it to the altar of the Horned Bull, nor did he set it before the priest of the Canal. He carried it into his back yard where he kept a kettle of pitch and a jar of the black honey made by the bees that suck the yellow flowers of the nightshade. With a small spit of iron that had been used to dig out the eyes of dead sheep, he drew upon the skin of the drake-shell.

He made the mark of two ears that hear different winds; he made the mark of the road that goes to the sheep-pen and at the same time turns back into the thorn-hedge; and he made the mark of the face that smiles while the feet beneath the hem are kicking the boundary-stone into the brook.

When he dipped the shell into the kettle of charred vine-branches, the shell drank the smoke. When he dipped it into the pot where the bruised purple berries had rotted in sour beer, the shell drank the darkness. Then he took a piece of the red brass that is beaten thin to make the collars of temple goats, and he fixed it over the head with the soft lead that men peel from old water-pipes. Inside the belly of the shell he poured the dust of a great glass mirror that had been smashed by the soldiers when they broke the house of the foreign woman, and he put in two small beetles that eat only dead tallow.

When the lead was hammered shut, the thing did not rest upon its side like an egg of a goose. If a man set it upon a cedar stool, it leaped up on one side like an adder when the heel of a mule comes near. It leaned, yet it did not roll; it looked toward the wall, yet the face upon its side seemed to gaze at the doorway.

Then Zabbua hung it beneath his linen gown by a braid of black wool that had been dipped in goat-grease.

At that hour, the great seller of camels, who was named Hanno-with-the-Broad-Shoulders, came through the north gate with seventy beasts laden with skins of wine from the red hills. Hanno was a man whose word was like a stone pillar; if he said This ox has four teeth, no man opened the beast’s mouth to look, for he feared the sun would fall if Hanno spoke an untruth.

Zabbua went out to meet him at the place where the road splits between the well and the dung-heap.

He took hold of the halter of the first camel and made his face like the face of a brother whose child has died in the night. The egg beneath his armpit grew hot and heavy, like a flat lead bullet that has lain in the midday sun. It smelled through his wool of the flowers that grow on the graves of murderers.

Zabbua said: O Hanno, who gives bread to the widows of the stone-quarries, do not take your wine to the river-quay! For the great King of the Low Marsh has died of the throat-swell, and his captains have pulled their cloaks over their beards, and they seize all the red wine to pour out for the ghost-monkeys who dwell under the town wall.

Now Hanno had three sons who were simple and strong, and they said: Let us go back into the scrub-hills until the King is buried.

Hanno looked into the eyes of Zabbua. Usually, when a man lies in that country, the skin beneath his left eye twitches like the flank of a fly-bitten mare, and the sweat runs into his nostrils. But the egg was sucking the water from Zabbua’s skin; his chest was as still as an oil-jar, and his face was like a mask of dried white clay that has been polished with a dog’s tooth.

Hanno said: I see your heart, Zabbua; it is like a spring of mountain water that has no weed in it. What then shall I do with the seventy skins, for the skins are old and the sun is high?

Zabbua pointed with his left thumb—which had three rings of tin upon it—toward a dry well that had belonged to his grandfather’s brother, wherein nothing had lived for sixty winters save scorpions and two broken ladders.

Pour them into the stone cistern of the dry well, said Zabbua. I will watch the mouth with my two nephews who have iron spears, and when the captains have finished howling for their King, you shall draw it out with the bucket and sell it to the weavers for twice the silver.

Hanno believed the word, for the air between their faces seemed to waver like the air over a lime-kiln, and when Hanno looked upon the face of Zabbua, he thought he was looking upon his own mother’s brother, who was an elder in the town of Nine Bricks.

So the camel-drovers untied the thongs and emptied all the seventy skins of hill-wine into the black gravel of the well. The dry earth drank the red liquor; it gurgled in the deep stones like an old ox swallowing marsh-water, and the smell of fermented grapes went up into the sky until the wild kites came down from the cliffs, thinking that a herd of deer had been slaughtered in the ditch.

Then Hanno gave Zabbua five pieces of white silver because he had preserved the goods from the King’s soldiers, and he turned his beasts back toward the pasture-ridges.

When the dust of the camels had settled upon the scrub-bushes, Zabbua sat down upon the curb of the well and laughed until his spittle ran into his beard. He took the egg from his armpit and set it upon the rim-stone.

He said to the egg: You are my little fat grandfather! You are the brother of my liver! Tomorrow I will go to the house of the King’s treasurer and tell him that Hanno has hidden seventy jars of hill-wine in the sand of the river-bank, and the King will give me the three donkeys that turn the olive-press!

The lead collar of the egg was warm, and from the three holes in its top there came a sound like the whistling of a very small pipe made of a chicken-bone: TSI-TSI-TSI.

Zabbua reached out his hand to take it and put it back into his bag of greasy wool.

Now it was the manner of that thing, which the maker had weighted with the lead of the broken water-spout, that it did not sit where a man thought he had laid it. When his fingers closed upon the air where the egg had been, the shell was already three fingers further toward the black mouth of the shaft; and when he struck at it with his palm, the shell hopped like a toad into the dark.

Zabbua cried out a curse of five syllables—such as the mule-drivers use when an axle breaks in the mud—and he threw himself upon his stomach over the stone curb to catch the black cord before it went down into the slime.

His hands caught the braid. But the egg was full of the heavy silver-filings and the lead of the pipe, and the cord was slippery with the grease of the dead goat. It slid through his palms like an eel.

Zabbua stretched his neck into the blackness. The air that came up from the hole was no longer the smell of dried dung or cold gravel; it was the heavy steam of the seventy skins of wine that had begun to simmer in the guts of the hot earth, mixed with the juice of the nightshade flowers that had been dried inside the shell.

He breathed the steam. His head became like an old gourd that has been kicked down a dry gully. When he looked down, he did not see the bottom of the well, where three cubits of red mud were bubbling around the stones. He saw a great hall of white plaster where his father and his grandfather were sitting upon stools of box-wood, holding out their hands to him and showing him collars of yellow gold that were wide as plates.

His grandfather’s face was smiling, and his grandfather said to him in the voice of a bronze trumpet: Come down, little dog of the house! Here is the silver that the Kings of the Morning hid from the tax-gatherers! It is piled up to the knees, and there is no soldier with an iron stick to say nay!

Zabbua stood upon his feet upon the narrow curb. He smiled with both sides of his mouth, which he had not done since he was a babe sucking milk.

He said to the empty sky: I am coming, for the old men are calling me by my true name!

And he stepped off into the hole.

When the morning came, the people of the gate found only his sandals sitting side by side upon the flat stone of the well-mouth, and a small black thread of wool caught upon a briar. They leaned over and called down, but the well gave back only the thick, greasy scent of vinegar and old lead, and a faint sound like the bubbling of fat in an earthen dish.

No man went down with a rope, for the people said: It is the place where Zabbua put his truth; and who would go into a hole to look for what was never there?

Seven years afterward, a digger of trenches brought up from the bottom of that same shaft a round stone like an egg, but the shell was gone; there was only a lump of lead that had melted into the shape of a heart, with three crooked holes through it, and inside it was a piece of broken glass that showed every man who looked into it the face of his own enemy laughing at him from behind a bush.

Moral of the Story: He who hangs a mask over the sun to make his neighbor believe it is night will find that his own feet cannot see the ditch; and he who makes a trade of selling empty air will at the last take a handful of smoke to buy himself a ladder out of the pit.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Pysanky 731 of the Gilded Facade

Wondrous Item, Common (Requires Attunement)

  • Item Profile: A three-inch, teardrop-shaped mirror-drake egg treated with a light-refracting mineral glaze. Intricate white beeswax patterns outline dual-visaged faces, split tongues, and labyrinthine chevrons over panels of deep charcoal, pale lavender, and imitation-gold leaf. It is capped at the apex by a dull lead collar pierced with three offset pinholes and anchored at the base by a flush lead counterweight that throws off its center of gravity. It hangs from a black silk ribbon and smells of sweet nightshade, cold pewter, and stale perfume.
  • Masked Demeanor (Passive): While tucked into a concealed pocket, lapel, or sash, the talisman regulates your involuntary physiological reactions. You gain advantage on Charisma (Deception) checks to maintain a straight face, conceal emotional distress, or deliver outright fabrications under direct interrogation.
  • Guileful Aura (Passive): The light-warping glaze confounds close visual appraisal. You gain a +1 bonus to Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks to palm small objects or conceal weapons, and advantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks made to appear harmless, insignificant, or unarmed.
  • Shifting Scent (Passive): The talisman masks stress pheromones with sweet nightshade and old musk. Wisdom (Perception) and Wisdom (Survival) checks made by creatures relying on scent to track you or detect fear have disadvantage.
  • Silver-Tongued Veil: As a bonus action, you lightly stroke the offset pinholes in the lead collar while speaking. For 10 minutes, your statements cannot be discerned as untruthful by mundane Insight checks or spells of 1st level or lower (such as Zone of Truth), registering as completely candid. You also gain a +3 bonus to your next Charisma (Deception) check made during this duration. This property can be used twice per dawn.
  • Mirage of the Double Visage: As an action, you tilt the lead collar to catch ambient light and murmur an untruth. An optical distortion weaves over your person for 1 hour, altering minor cosmetic features (such as facial hair, scars, eye color, or garment insignia). This functions as an illusory disguise that grants advantage on checks made to avoid subsequent witness identification. This property can be used twice per dawn.
  • Diverting Echo: When a creature within 30 feet makes a Wisdom (Insight) or Wisdom (Perception) check targeting you, you can take a reaction to tap the base of the shell. The egg discharges a quiet psychic pulse, forcing the creature to roll with disadvantage as their attention snaps to an adjacent bystander, sudden ambient noise, or irrelevant environmental distraction. This property can be used once per dawn.

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Masquerade Ovoid of Zabbua

Minor Hypergeometric Focus / Charlatan’s Ward

  • Physical Description: A teardrop avian-reptile eggshell preserved in an oily copal glaze, bearing wax-resist motifs of bifurcated tongues and masked visages across charcoal, violet, and hammered imitation gold. Fitted with a heavy, pierced lead collar that tilts the shell off-balance, it emits the cloying scent of nightshade blossoms, stale musk, and shaved lead.
  • Masked Demeanor (Passive): When worn in a concealed inner coat pocket, the investigator suppresses physical signs of guilt, panic, and dishonesty. The investigator receives a bonus die on Fast Talk rolls made to lie under intense interrogation or bluff through security checkpoints.
  • Guileful Aura (Passive): The shifting glaze distracts suspicious appraisers, granting a +10% bonus to Sleight of Hand and Art/Craft (Forgery) rolls when presenting forged papers or concealing small contraband.
  • Shifting Scent (Passive): Animals and preternatural tracking hounds lose the investigator’s genuine biological scent trail; tracking rolls made by scent against the bearer suffer a penalty die.
  • Silver-Tongued Veil: By spending 1 Magic Point while running a finger across the collar’s pinholes, the investigator’s spoken words register as absolute truth for 10 minutes. Human listeners will not suspect deceit without incontrovertible physical proof, and any Psychology roll made to read the investigator’s true motives is pushed or opposed with an additional penalty die. Usable twice per day.
  • Mirage of the Double Visage: By spending 1 Magic Point and rotating the lead collar, subtle facial distortions warp the investigator’s appearance for 1 hour. Any observer attempting to recall or describe the investigator to authorities must succeed on an Extreme Idea roll or provide a wildly inaccurate witness description. Usable twice per day.
  • Diverting Echo: When an investigator is subjected to an opposed Psychology or Spot Hidden roll, they may expend 2 Magic Points as a immediate reaction to tap the base. The examiner experiences a momentary psychic twitch, shifting their suspicion to a nearby bystander or innocuous object and increasing the difficulty of their roll by one level (e.g., from Regular to Hard). Usable once per day.
  • Sanity Cost: 0 Sanity cost to carry or use for mundane trickery. Attempting to deploy the Diverting Echo against an entity of the Cthulhu Mythos incurs a 1 Sanity cost and requires an opposed POW roll.

Blades in the Dark

The Gilded Duplicity Curio

Curio, Arcane Implement (0 Load)

  • Item Profile: A weighted reptile egg decorated with non-symmetrical, wax-resist maze borders and split faces over midnight charcoal and imitation gold leaf. Capped with a perforated lead collar that rustles faintly like a dry serpent when tilted, it is kept on a dark silk cord inside a vest pocket and smells of dried nightshade and bitter candlewax.
  • Masked Demeanor (Passive): You gain Potency when taking action with Sway to bluff, deceive, or feign innocence under direct interrogation by the Bluecoats, inspectors, or rival gangs.
  • Guileful Aura (Passive): When using Finesse to plant forged documents, cheat at games of chance, or palm small valuables right under someone’s nose, your position is improved by one step (e.g., from Risky to Controlled).
  • Shifting Scent (Passive): Spirit-sniffing hounds and mundane tracking beasts cannot track your panic or sweat; you suffer no increased position or lost effect when evading scent patrols.
  • Silver-Tongued Veil: Push yourself (spend 2 Stress) or tick 1 charge of this item to stroke the lead pinholes while uttering a bold falsehood. For the next scene, your words carry uncanny conviction, granting +1d to all Sway or Consort rolls made to feed false information to targets. Usable twice per score.
  • Mirage of the Double Visage: Spend 1 Stress to catch the light on the lead collar. A minor optical glamor ripples over your face and clothes for the scene, baffling onlookers and preventing anyone from recording your actual likeness, reducing heat gained from the score by 1 if you were spotted. Usable twice per score.
  • Diverting Echo: Spend 1 Stress as a defensive reaction when an opponent makes an inquiry, insight sweep, or inspection. You release a minor psychic shockwave that snaps their focus onto an innocent bystander or environmental anomaly, reducing the consequence of a failed social roll by one severity level. Usable once per score.

Knave (2nd Edition)

Pysanky 731 of the Gilded Facade

Item, 1 Slot

  • Item Profile: An asymmetrical mirror-drake eggshell glazed in reflective copal, marked with wax-resist mazes and two-faced masks over violet, charcoal, and fake gold leaf. Fitted with a heavy lead collar and base counterweight, it smells of nightshade and cold metal.
  • Item Quality: 2 Quality. (Direct crushing blows or sudden falls destroy the shell and end its magical resonance).
  • Masked Demeanor (Passive): The bearer gains advantage on all Charisma checks made to tell convincing lies, bluff guards, or pass themselves off as honest travelers.
  • Guileful Aura (Passive): The bearer gains advantage on Dexterity checks made to pick pockets, palm items, or forge signatures without drawing suspicion.
  • Shifting Scent (Passive): The bearer’s fear scent is nullified; dungeon beasts that track by scent take disadvantage on checks to locate or pursue the bearer.
  • Silver-Tongued Veil: Twice per day as an action, the bearer strokes the pierced lead collar while delivering a lie. For 10 minutes, the lie is accepted as plausible truth by ordinary listeners, and magical detection of falsehood automatically fails.
  • Mirage of the Double Visage: Twice per day as an action, the bearer murmurs an untruth while turning the lead collar. For 1 hour, their facial features and clothing colors warp subtly, imposing disadvantage on any check made by pursuers or town guards to identify them from a description.
  • Diverting Echo: Once per day as a reaction when a guard, inquisitor, or rival makes a Wisdom check to inspect or see through the bearer’s deception, the bearer taps the base of the egg. The examiner’s attention instantly snaps to an adjacent creature or sudden distraction, automatically failing the check.

Fate (Fate Condensed)

Pysanky 731 of the Gilded Facade

Item Stunt / Aspect-Bearing Extra

  • Item Aspect: Talisman of the Split-Tongued Masquerade
  • Flavor Profile: A teardrop mirror-drake egg treated with an uneven, high-gloss copal glaze that warps light across panels of deep charcoal, mirage-violet, and imitation-gold leaf. Traced in raised off-white beeswax with dual-visaged faces and labyrinth chevrons, the ovoid is finished with a dull lead collar pierced by offset pinholes and a base counterweight that tilts its center of gravity. It hangs from a black silk ribbon, smelling of dried nightshade petals, heated wax, and cold lead.
  • Masked Demeanor (Passive): You gain +2 on overcome or defend rolls with Deceive when maintaining composure under direct interrogation, suppressing involuntary emotional tells, or selling an outright falsehood to suspicious observers.
  • Guileful Aura (Passive): You gain +2 on overcome rolls with Stealth or Burglary when concealing small items on your person or sleight-of-handing fraudulent documents into an official’s ledger.
  • Shifting Scent (Passive): Whenever a creature attempts to track you or sense your emotional panic through scent or physical stress markers, they face +2 passive opposition to the roll.
  • Silver-Tongued Veil (Stunt): Twice per session, you can invoke Talisman of the Split-Tongued Masquerade without spending a Fate point to deliver a critical falsehood; for the rest of the scene, mundane observation and truth-discerning abilities accept your statements as genuine truth.
  • Mirage of the Double Visage (Stunt): Twice per session, spend an action to shift your superficial features. Create an illusory boost or situation aspect named Shifted Likeness with one free invoke, confounding any attempt by witnesses to accurately describe or identify you later.
  • Diverting Echo (Stunt): Once per session as a defensive reaction when an opponent makes an overcome roll with Empathy or Notice against your social deception, you tap the egg’s base to misdirect their psychic focus. You gain a +2 bonus to defend against their scrutiny, and on a defense with style, you inflict the situation aspect Distracted by the Irrelevant on the investigator.

Cypher System / Numenera

Ovoid of the Mirror Facade

Artifact (Level 2)

  • Form: An asymmetrical drake egg treated with light-refracting varnish, patterned with wax-resist dual faces and maze chevrons over charcoal, violet, and imitation gold, fitted with an offset lead ring collar and counterweighted base.
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (checked only when an active property is triggered).
  • Passive Effect (Masked Demeanor): The bearer gains an asset on all Deception and Bluff tasks made to maintain a straight face, mask fear, or tell convincing falsehoods under direct examination.
  • Passive Effect (Guileful Aura): The light-warping finish distracts scrutiny, granting an asset on Sleight of Hand tasks and tasks made to feign harmlessness or conceal small contraband.
  • Passive Effect (Shifting Scent): The ovoid suppresses physiological distress pheromones; tasks made by beasts or automated sniffers to track the bearer by scent are hindered by two steps.
  • Effect (Silver-Tongued Veil): As an action, the user strokes the pinholes in the lead collar. For 10 minutes, all mundane detection abilities perceive the user’s spoken statements as genuine truth, and the user gains an asset on their next social interaction task.
  • Effect (Mirage of the Double Visage): As an action, the user angles the lead collar toward ambient light and mutters a lie. A superficial optical illusion warps the user’s physical details (eye color, hair, facial hair, clothing sigils) for 1 hour, easing any task to evade subsequent witness identification by two steps.
  • Effect (Diverting Echo): As a reaction when an NPC initiates an interrogation, insight check, or perception scan against the user, the user taps the base of the ovoid. The target’s attention snaps to an irrelevant person or distraction in the room, hindering their inspection task by two steps.

Pathfinder (Second Edition)

Pysanky of the Gilded Facade

Item 1 | Uncommon, Consumable (Talisman), Illusion, Mental, Misdirection

  • Price: 15 gp
  • Usage: worn (lapel, pocket, or waist ribbon); Bulk: L
  • Item Profile: A three-inch, teardrop-shaped drake egg coated in a slick, light-bending glaze, decorated with white wax-resist motifs of dual faces and labyrinth chevrons over charcoal, lavender, and brassy gold leaf. A pierced lead collar with three offset pinholes crowns the top, counterbalanced by an off-center lead base washer.
  • Masked Demeanor (Passive): While worn, you gain a +1 item bonus to Deception checks made to Lie or Feign Innocence during social encounters.
  • Guileful Aura (Passive): You gain a +1 item bonus to Thievery checks to Conceal an Object on your person or Palm an Object during an interaction.
  • Shifting Scent (Passive): The egg’s scent-neutralizing musk grants you a +1 circumstance bonus to Stealth checks against creatures using the scent sense, and scent-based tracking checks against you suffer a -1 circumstance penalty.
  • Activate—Silver-Tongued Veil: (Single Action; Concentrate, Linguistic, Mental) Frequency twice per day; Effect You stroke the lead collar’s pinholes while speaking. For 10 minutes, non-magical attempts to discern your lies fail automatically, and spells of 1st level or lower that detect truth (such as mind reading or truth-binding charms) treat your fabrications as earnest fact.
  • Activate—Mirage of the Double Visage: (Single Action; Concentrate, Illusion, Visual) Frequency twice per day; Effect You turn the lead collar to reflect light. A subtle cosmetic glamor alters your superficial features (such as facial markings, eye color, or clothing patterns) for 1 hour. Creatures attempting to recall your likeness later take a -2 circumstance penalty on their Perception or Society checks.
  • Activate—Diverting Echo: (Reaction; Auditory, Concentrate, Mental) Frequency once per day; Trigger A creature within 30 feet attempts a Perception or Sense Motive check against you; Effect You tap the counterweight base. The ovoid releases a sudden misdirective pulse that diverts the target’s attention to an adjacent creature or sudden noise, imposing a -2 circumstance penalty on their triggering check.

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

Gilded Facade Pysanky

Minor Arcane Device

  • Item Profile: A weighted reptile eggshell treated with an uneven copal lacquer, featuring wax-resist dual-visaged faces and zigzag borders over charcoal, violet, and brass imitation-gold leaf. Sealed with a pierced lead apex collar and an off-center lead base disk, it hangs from a black silk ribbon and smells of nightshade, warm beeswax, and shaved lead.
  • Weight: 0.35 lbs.
  • Masked Demeanor (Passive): The wearer gains a +1 bonus on Persuasion rolls when telling deliberate lies, bluffing under direct questioning, or playing the part of an innocent bystander.
  • Guileful Aura (Passive): The shifting surface glaze distracts prying eyes, granting a +1 bonus on Thievery rolls made to pick pockets, palm items, or plant forgeries.
  • Shifting Scent (Passive): Pheromones of fear and anxiety are neutralized; rolls made by animals or creatures using the Scent ability to track the wearer suffer a -2 penalty.
  • Silver-Tongued Veil: Twice per day as an action, the wearer runs their fingers over the pinholes in the lead collar. For the next 10 minutes, the wearer’s fabrications are received as completely plausible truth, and mundane attempts to assess their honesty fail automatically.
  • Mirage of the Double Visage: Twice per day as an action, the wearer tilts the lead collar to refract the light. A subtle optical shift masks their true likeness for 1 hour, conferring a -2 penalty to any Notice rolls made by witnesses attempting to identify or recall the wearer afterward.
  • Diverting Echo: Once per day as a reaction, when an opponent initiates an opposed Notice or Smarts roll to see through the wearer’s deception or disguise, the wearer taps the lead counterweight. The examiner’s attention snaps to an irrelevant distraction, suffering a -2 penalty on their opposed roll.

Shadowrun (Sixth World)

Focus of the Gilded Facade

Force 2 Qi Focus / Illusion & Manipulation Talisman

  • Item Profile: An asymmetrical mirror-drake egg treated with an uneven, light-bending copal glaze, featuring raised wax-resist motifs of dual-visaged masks, bifurcated serpent tongues, and maze chevrons over charcoal, violet, and hammered imitation-gold leaf. Crowned by a dull lead collar pierced with three offset pinholes and anchored by an off-center lead counterweight, it hangs from a black silk ribbon and smells of nightshade blossom, stale musk, and cold pewter.
  • Item Properties:
    • Karma Cost to Attune: 4 Karma
    • Availability: 4 (Semi-Legal / Underground Fences, High-Society Haberdashers, Masquerade Boutiques)
    • Cost: 4,000 Nuyen
  • Masked Demeanor (Passive): While tucked inside a lapel, vest, or concealed pocket, the focus dampens involuntary physiological responses. The bearer gains a +2 dice pool bonus on Con or Impersonation tests made to tell direct lies, feign innocence, or suppress autonomic tells against biological polygraphs, stress sniffers, or physical interrogation.
  • Guileful Aura (Passive): The light-warping glaze distracts close scrutiny. The user gains a +1 dice pool bonus on Palming and Sleight of Hand tests to conceal small contraband or plant forged identity chips.
  • Shifting Scent (Passive): The focus emits subtle, neutralizing pheromones that mask telltale adrenaline and sweat, imposing a -2 dice pool penalty on Perception tests made by paracritters or cyber-sniffers tracking the bearer by biological scent.
  • Active Ability—Silver-Tongued Veil: As a Minor Action, the user strokes the offset pinholes of the lead collar. For 10 minutes, the user’s spoken statements register as absolute conviction; non-magical truth-verification tech and spells of Force 2 or lower (such as Mind Probe used for lie detection) perceive the statements as authentic fact, granting a +2 dice pool bonus on the user’s next Social test. Usable twice per 24-hour cycle.
  • Active Ability—Mirage of the Double Visage: As a Major Action, the user tilts the collar to refract ambient light and murmurs an untruth. A localized optical glamor warps the user’s facial features, hair color, and clothing emblems for 1 hour, conferring a -3 dice pool penalty on subsequent tests made by observers, investigators, or facial-recognition cameras attempting to identify or recall the runner. Usable twice per day.
  • Active Ability—Diverting Echo: As an Immediate Reaction when an opponent initiates an opposed Judge Intentions or Perception test against the user, the user taps the weighted base. The focus emits a brief psychic ping within 10 meters, snapping the examiner’s focus toward an adjacent bystander or sudden noise and imposing a -2 dice pool penalty on their triggering test. Usable once per day.

Starfinder (Second Edition)

Pysanky of the Gilded Facade

Item 1 | Consumable (Talisman), Illusion, Mental, Misdirection

  • Price: 15 credits
  • Usage: worn (lapel, pocket, or waist ribbon); Bulk: Light
  • Item Profile: A three-inch, teardrop-shaped drake egg coated in an uneven, high-gloss glaze that reflects sensor beams and optical light unpredictably. Decorated with off-white wax-resist masks, split tongues, and labyrinth borders across panels of charcoal, mirage-violet, and imitation gold, it features an offset lead collar and counterweighted base, exuding a faint scent of sweet nightshade and warm wax.
  • Masked Demeanor (Passive): While worn on your person, you gain a +1 item bonus to Deception checks made to Lie or Feign Innocence during social interactions and security checks.
  • Guileful Aura (Passive): You gain a +1 item bonus to Thievery checks made to Palm an Object or Conceal an Object on your body.
  • Shifting Scent (Passive): The talisman neutralizes biological stress chemicals. Creatures and security drones that rely on scent take a -1 circumstance penalty on Survival or Perception checks made to track or sniff you out.
  • Activate—Silver-Tongued Veil: (Single Action; Concentrate, Linguistic, Mental) Frequency twice per day; Effect You stroke the lead collar’s pinholes while speaking. For 10 minutes, mundane sensors and lie-detecting technological devices (such as lie-detector cuffs or basic polygraphs) fail to detect deception, and your fabrications register as earnest fact.
  • Activate—Mirage of the Double Visage: (Single Action; Concentrate, Illusion, Visual) Frequency twice per day; Effect You angle the lead collar into ambient illumination. A subtle holographic shimmer distorts minor personal features (hair color, scars, iris tint, corporate badges) for 1 hour, imposing a -2 circumstance penalty on any checks made to identify you from security footage or witness logs.
  • Activate—Diverting Echo: (Reaction; Auditory, Concentrate, Mental) Frequency once per day; Trigger A creature within 30 feet attempts a Perception or Sense Motive check against you; Effect You tap the lead base washer. The ovoid releases a sudden neural ping that redirects the target’s visual and mental focus toward an adjacent bystander or peripheral movement, imposing a -2 circumstance penalty on their triggering check.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Gilded Facade Neural-Distortion Ovoid

TL 10 / Counter-Interrogation & Disguise Focus

  • Physical Characteristics: An ovate composite shell treated with a multi-angle refractive lacquer, micro-etched with wax-resist geometries, dual faces, and false-gold circuit tracery over charcoal and pale violet quadrants. The apex is fitted with an asymmetrically pierced lead dampener, and the base contains a lead ballast disk that offsets its balance. Suspended by a braided synthetic silk ribbon. Mass: 0.2 kg.
  • Biometric Masking (Passive): When kept in an inner pocket or lapel slot, the unit’s lead-core dampener suppresses erratic heart rates, surface galvanic skin response, and pupil dilation. The user gains a +1 DM on Deception checks made to mislead inspectors, tell deliberate untruths under interrogation, or fool standard medical biosensors.
  • Guileful Aura (Passive): The refractive shell disrupts close-range spatial depth, granting a +1 DM on Stealth or Sleight-of-Hand checks to palm small contraband items or slip past physical customs inspections.
  • Olfactory Scrambler (Passive): A slow chemical matrix neutralizes stress pheromones; any tracking attempts using bio-hounds or specialized environmental sniffers suffer a -2 DM to locate the user by scent.
  • Silver-Tongued Veil: Twice per standard day as a minor action, the user depresses the lead collar’s micro-ports while speaking. For 10 minutes, the unit emits a subtle neuro-dampening carrier wave that stabilizes the speaker’s vocal stress harmonics; standard polygraphs, security interviews, and untrained listeners accept the statements as plausible and factual.
  • Mirage of the Double Visage: Twice per standard day as a significant action, the user angles the shell toward a light source. A localized optical-refraction field blurs and shifts facial angles and garment coloration for 1 hour, imposing a -2 DM on any Recon or Investigate checks made by witnesses or security operatives attempting to pick the user out of a crowd or surveillance recording.
  • Diverting Echo: Once per standard day as a reaction, when an interrogator or sentry initiates an opposed check to detect deceit or scan the user’s person, the user taps the base counterweight. The ovoid discharges a directional low-frequency pulse, forcing the examiner to re-target their immediate sensor sweep toward an adjacent entity or ambient distraction and imposing a -2 DM on their check.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

Pysanky of the Two-Faced Mummer

Magical Curio / Charlatan’s Ward (Common Rarity)

  • Item Profile: A weighted reptile egg coated in an uneven copal resin glaze, decorated in white wax-resist with two-faced masks, serpent tongues, and labyrinth borders across panels of charcoal, nightshade violet, and brass imitation-gold leaf. Topped with an offset lead ring collar pierced with three small holes and anchored by an off-center lead base disk, it hangs from a black silk ribbon and smells of bitter belladonna, warm beeswax, and cold shaved lead.
  • Encumbrance: 0
  • Availability: Common (Found among bawdy-house fences, masquerade shops, and back-alley charlatans)
  • Masked Demeanor (Passive): While worn concealed within a doublet pocket, lapel, or sash, the curio steadies the pulse and chills the brow. The bearer gains a +10% bonus to Bribery, Charm, and Gossip Tests when lying under oath, feigning innocence, or bluffing through city gate inspections.
  • Guileful Aura (Passive): The light-warping glaze distracts prying eyes, granting a +10% bonus to Sleight of Hand Tests made to palm coins, conceal small daggers, or plant forged guild seals.
  • Shifting Scent (Passive): The egg suppresses the sweat and scent of fear; hunting hounds and creatures using the Scent trait suffer a -10% penalty on Track Tests made to hunt the bearer.
  • Silver-Tongued Veil: Twice per day as a Free Action on their turn, the bearer strokes the offset holes in the lead collar while speaking. For 10 minutes, mundane intuition, basic witch-sight, and mundane interrogations cannot detect deceit in the bearer’s speech, treating false statements as honest conviction and granting +1 SL on their next successful social Test.
  • Mirage of the Double Visage: Twice per day as an Action, the bearer tilts the lead collar to catch the lantern light and whispers an untruth. A minor illusory distortion ripples over their face and clothing for 1 hour, altering superficial details (hair color, facial scars, livery badges); anyone attempting an Intuition or Perception Test to identify the bearer afterward suffers a -10% penalty.
  • Diverting Echo: Once per day as a Reaction when an interrogator, witch hunter, or bailiff attempts an opposed Intuition or Perception Test against the bearer, the bearer taps the heavy lead base. A minor psychic jolt causes the investigator’s attention to abruptly lock onto a nearby bystander or innocuous noise, imposing a -20% penalty and -1 SL on their Test.