Lore
Talmudic 417 of the Veiled Margins is said to originate from a circle of quiet scribes who believed that truth survives best when written between lines rather than upon them. These mystics studied hidden annotations, marginal glyphs, and layered meanings within sacred texts, treating silence, omission, and ambiguity as tools rather than flaws. The item was devised for those who walk unseen paths—observers, listeners, and carriers of secrets—so that the wearer might perceive concealed intent without disturbing the surface of the world. In Saṃsāra, it is regarded as a humble but respected object among scholars of concealment, messengers of fractured states, and watchers who serve without recognition.
Description
A narrow band of matte-black parchment-laminate reinforced with thin mineral thread, worn close to the body. Along its surface are faint, almost erased geometric letterforms that never fully resolve unless the wearer focuses. When light strikes it obliquely, the markings shift like marginal notes glimpsed from the corner of the eye. The object produces no glow, no sound, and no obvious sign of enchantment.
Stats
Tier: 1
Rarity: Common
Specific Slot: Worn item (waist sash or inner arm band)
Weight: Negligible
Durability: Light but resilient; flexible and tear-resistant
Skills Gained While Openly Worn
Stealth (trained)
Deception (trained)
Observation (trained)
Passive Magics
Hidden Script Resonance: The wearer gains heightened sensitivity to concealed writing, coded markings, altered records, and subtle inconsistencies in documents or inscriptions.
Quiet Presence: Ambient sound made by the wearer while moving slowly is subtly dampened, blending into background noise rather than disappearing outright.
Intent Echo: When within conversational distance of a deliberate lie, the wearer perceives a faint sense of imbalance or pressure, without revealing the truth itself.
Activable Magics
Margin Reading (2/day): For a short interval, the wearer can perceive hidden layers of meaning in spoken or written communication, including double meanings, omissions, and deliberate vagueness, as long as the source is within sight or hearing.
Seal of Unremarked Passage (1/day): For several moments, the wearer becomes difficult to recall clearly by casual observers; witnesses remember that “someone” was present but struggle to describe features or details.
Letterfold Silence (1/day): The wearer may suppress involuntary sounds (breathing shifts, fabric movement, minor impacts) during a brief action, allowing a single movement or interaction to occur without drawing attention.
Tags
Talmudic, Kabbalistic, Espionage, Subtle Magic, Concealment, Observation, Scripted Mysticism, Quiet Relic, Intelligence-Gathering, Low Visibility, Scholarly Craft, Marginalia, Coded Lore, Silent Witness, Information Control, Shadow Scholarship, Inference Magic, Memory Blur, Subtext Reading, Esoteric Discipline, Discreet Enchantment, Non-Luminous
Acquisition and Trade in Saṃsāra:
How the Item Might Be Obtained
This item most commonly enters circulation through scholarly–covert channels rather than open commerce. It is created or released by mystic scribes, archivist-agents, or quiet sects that specialize in hidden textual traditions and intelligence preservation. Typical means of acquisition include:
• Being granted after proving discretion, patience, and interpretive skill within a cabal of scholars, judges, or record-keepers who operate behind civic or religious institutions
• Recovering it from sealed archives, censored libraries, collapsed scriptoria, or forgotten record-vaults where encoded knowledge was hidden rather than destroyed
• Receiving it as payment for services rendered, such as information retrieval, document authentication, quiet investigation, or exposure of falsified records
• Inheriting it as part of a redacted legacy, where the original owner trusted no successor except one capable of reading meaning without being told
It is rarely taken by force; those who attempt to steal it without understanding often find its magic dormant or misleading.
Shops and Markets Where It Might Be Bought or Sold
Hidden Scriptoria and Marginalist Stalls
These are discreet bookshops, often tucked behind legitimate legal offices, prayer halls, or academic districts. The item is not displayed openly; it is referenced indirectly through marginal symbols, shelf placement, or coded phrases exchanged with the proprietor.
• Sale Method: Private consultation followed by a quiet exchange, sometimes requiring the buyer to correctly interpret a short encoded passage
• Typical Cost: 18–30 gold, depending on the local risk of censorship or surveillance
Archivist-Brokers and Intelligence Antiquarians
Specialized dealers who trade in sensitive relics, suppressed texts, and tools of memory control. They deal only with repeat clients or vetted intermediaries.
• Sale Method: By appointment only; item is wrapped as a mundane scholarly object until ownership is confirmed
• Typical Cost: 35–50 gold, reflecting both rarity and the danger of mishandling
Ecclesiastic Back-Markets and Judicial Annexes
In some regions, sympathetic judges, clerks, or mystic officials quietly allow such items to circulate through unofficial channels connected to courts or councils.
• Sale Method: Transaction disguised as a donation, legal fee, or research grant
• Typical Cost: 20–40 gold, sometimes reduced if the buyer’s purpose aligns with institutional interests
Traveling Scholars and Quiet Couriers
Occasionally sold by itinerant scholars who act as couriers of encoded knowledge between cities.
• Sale Method: Direct sale following a prolonged conversation meant to test discretion and intent
• Typical Cost: 15–25 gold, often negotiable through proof of restraint or silence
General Market Behavior
• The item is never auctioned publicly
• Price increases sharply in regions with active surveillance, censorship, or political unrest
• Resale value drops significantly if the item’s secrecy has been compromised
• Buyers known for indiscretion may be refused outright, regardless of wealth
In Saṃsāra, this item is valued less for its material form and more for who is trusted to hold it, making its acquisition as much a social test as an economic one.
Veiled Use Across Shadows and Stone:
Urban Administrative Districts and Courts
Defense: In bureaucratic centers, the item is used to quietly shield the bearer from scrutiny. Its magic subtly reframes written records, whispered testimony, and official ledgers so the user’s presence blends into the accepted narrative. Guards reread documents and find nothing amiss; clerks overlook inconsistencies without realizing they have done so.
Offense: The bearer can introduce doubt into hostile intelligence networks by planting marginal cues and interpretive gaps. Rival agents misread orders, overlook key clauses, or act on incomplete information, undermining operations without overt confrontation.
Religious Quarters and Scholastic Enclaves
Defense: Among temples, libraries, and study halls, the item cloaks intent rather than body. The user’s questions seem purely academic, their movements scholarly rather than investigative. Attempts at divination or truth-seeking slide past the bearer, encountering layered meanings instead of direct answers.
Offense: The item allows selective revelation—guiding scholars or mystics toward certain interpretations while obscuring others. Entire debates can be steered off course, burying dangerous truths beneath plausible but misleading exegesis.
Underground Archives and Forbidden Vaults
Defense: In sealed or illicit spaces, the magic dampens detection by warding mechanisms keyed to intent, secrecy, or guilt. Locks, seals, and guardians perceive the user as a recorder rather than an intruder, reducing magical or institutional retaliation.
Offense: The bearer can rewrite contextual understanding of what is found. Maps, inscriptions, or records subtly reorder themselves in the mind of observers, causing pursuers to search the wrong chambers or misjudge what has been taken.
Wilderness Routes and Borderlands
Defense: Far from institutions, the item protects by erasing significance. Tracks, camps, and signs left by the bearer appear mundane and unimportant, discouraging pursuit. Interrogations by patrols or scouts yield nothing memorable.
Offense: The item can seed false trails of meaning—symbols, scraps of writing, or ritual gestures that imply activity where none exists, drawing enemies into empty terrain or away from protected routes.
Enemy Strongholds and Occupied Cities
Defense: Within hostile territory, the item acts as a quiet anchor of composure. Fear-based detection, loyalty oaths, or coercive truth rites lose precision around the bearer, granting resistance through layered interpretation rather than brute force.
Offense: When activated deliberately, the item fractures shared understanding among foes. Orders become ambiguous, suspicions multiply, and coordination degrades as each agent interprets the same directive differently.
Across all environments, the item excels not by striking directly, but by controlling meaning—defending the bearer by dissolving certainty, and attacking enemies by turning their own information against them.
Perception of Activation:
User’s Perspective
Sight: The item’s surface darkens slightly as the engraved letters and geometric sigils sink inward, then re-emerge as faint, non-luminous impressions, visible only at the edge of vision. When concentrating, the symbols appear to rearrange themselves into layered meanings rather than glowing shapes.
Sound: A near-silent pressure change is felt in the ears, like the moment before a whisper. No audible sound forms, but the user senses rhythm, as if words are being counted rather than spoken.
Touch: The item feels marginally heavier, as though density has increased. The surface grows cool and dry, similar to stone kept underground. The sensation anchors the user’s hands and slows involuntary movement.
Smell: A dry, mineral scent mingled with old parchment and dust rises briefly, reminiscent of sealed archives or forgotten tunnels.
Taste: A faint metallic dryness coats the tongue, similar to iron-rich water, then fades within seconds.
Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
Cognitive Resonance: The user experiences layered awareness, where surface thoughts recede and hidden implications in their surroundings become clearer. Lies feel “flat,” while truths feel dimensional.
Textual Echo: Written symbols nearby, even mundane markings, register as faint conceptual outlines, allowing the user to intuit whether information has been altered, redacted, or intentionally misleading.
Intent Weight: The intentions of nearby sentient beings register as pressure gradients rather than emotions, helping the user sense scrutiny, concealment, or observation without knowing exact sources.
Positives:
Enhanced clarity when parsing hidden meanings, coded language, or environmental clues.
Improved mental stillness, making deliberate action easier under surveillance or stress.
Heightened awareness without obvious visual or auditory signs, preserving discretion.
Negatives:
Sustained activation can cause mental fatigue, making simple conversations feel overly layered and slow.
The sense of weight and stillness may slightly reduce spontaneous reactions.
Prolonged use may blur the boundary between inferred meaning and confirmed fact, increasing the risk of false assumptions if the user relies solely on intuition.
Observer’s Perspective
Sight: To observers, the item appears unchanged or only subtly altered, with no glow or obvious magical display. At most, the material seems to absorb light rather than reflect it.
Sound: No audible cue accompanies activation.
Behavioral Cues: The user may appear unusually calm, focused, or distant, with slowed breathing and deliberate movements.
Positives (Observer):
The lack of visible effects makes the item difficult to identify as active or magical.
The user’s composed demeanor may reduce suspicion in tense environments.
Negatives (Observer):
Attentive observers may notice prolonged stillness or intense focus, which could itself draw scrutiny in social or hostile settings.
Recipe: The Marginal Cipher of Silent Names
Materials Needed
A thin plate of dark slate or basalt, naturally fractured but intact
Ink made from soot, gall resin, and trace mineral salts
One strip of untreated parchment, cured without bleaching
Fine iron filings, washed and dried
A single thread spun from plant fiber harvested at dusk
Clean spring water drawn from a place of low traffic and quiet surroundings
Tools Required
Stone engraving stylus with a narrow tip
Mortar and pestle for ink preparation
Flat writing surface of wood or stone
Small blade or ritual knife for precise cuts
Cloth wrap or satchel for isolation during inscription
Skill Requirements
Basic inscription or engraving proficiency
Working knowledge of symbolic or esoteric writing systems
Mental discipline and focus sufficient to maintain steady intent during long, silent work
Familiarity with ritual preparation and controlled environments
Crafting Steps
Prepare the slate or basalt plate by washing it in spring water and allowing it to dry naturally, without heat or sunlight. This establishes a neutral base and removes surface noise from prior handling.
Grind the soot, gall resin, and mineral salts together in the mortar until the mixture forms a smooth, matte ink. Add small amounts of spring water until the ink flows slowly and evenly.
Using the engraving stylus, carve shallow channels into the stone plate, forming tightly spaced symbols and geometric markers. These should be etched deliberately, with pauses between each mark to reset focus. Avoid symmetry; intentional asymmetry preserves subtlety.
Lay the parchment strip beside the engraved plate and inscribe parallel symbols using the prepared ink, mirroring structure rather than exact form. Allow the ink to dry completely in silence.
Sprinkle a light dusting of iron filings across the engraved channels, then gently brush away the excess, allowing traces to remain only where the stone naturally holds them. This anchors the item’s perceptual weight.
Bind the parchment to the stone plate using the plant-fiber thread, wrapping it once around the object without knots. Secure the thread by tucking its end beneath itself rather than tying.
Complete the process by enclosing the item in the cloth wrap and leaving it undisturbed for one full cycle of rest and waking. During this time, no spoken words should be directed at the item.
When unwrapped after this period, the item is ready for use. The magic stabilizes through restraint rather than invocation, relying on absence, silence, and careful construction rather than overt activation.
Stone That Learned to Be Quiet
It is written, though the letters are broken and the order of the words is wrong, that before the counting of kings and before the roads were named, there was a people who feared noise more than fire. They believed that fire could be seen and fled, but noise traveled ahead of the body and betrayed it to fate. These people did not build towers, nor did they shout across valleys. They spoke close, or not at all.
Among them lived a keeper of margins. His name is lost, though the broken script names him sometimes as Shem-Ben-No-Voice, sometimes as the Listener Without Ear. He was not a warrior, nor a priest, nor a judge. He was a reader of what was not written. When scrolls were brought to him, he did not read the words in the center, but the edges where the ink thinned and the hand trembled. He said the truth lived where the scribe hesitated.
In those days the earth itself was watched. The stones remembered footsteps, and walls leaned inward to hear secrets. Kings sent listeners disguised as servants. Merchants planted questions inside jokes. Nothing stayed hidden long, and those who survived learned to survive quietly.
The keeper of margins was sent once to observe a gathering of voices. It is said the gathering was lawful, and also not lawful, and also neither. Many spoke, and all of them lied except when they believed themselves. The keeper listened, and afterward he said nothing. When pressed, he said only, “The loudest thing here is what was not said.”
The elders feared this answer. They feared that silence itself might be used as a weapon. They commanded the keeper to bind silence so it could be carried, weighed, and placed where needed. The keeper refused three times, saying silence that is forced becomes noise. On the fourth command, he agreed, but only to make something that could not shout.
He went to the place where stone splits naturally, not by hammer but by time. He chose a piece that had already learned how to break without sound. He washed it where no one gathered, using water that had never been named. He carved marks into it that did not mean letters, but intervals between letters. He wrote what should not be remembered, and then made it difficult to see.
The ink he used was wrong ink, the kind that dries dull and absorbs light instead of reflecting it. He wrote along the edges of the stone, never the center. The center he left blank, because the center attracts attention. While he worked, he did not pray aloud. It is said he counted breaths instead, and sometimes forgot to count at all.
When the stone was finished, it did not glow. It did not hum. It did not answer questions. The elders were displeased. They said it was useless. The keeper replied that usefulness is a form of advertisement.
They tested the stone anyway. They placed it near speakers and found that words slid past it strangely, as if the meaning loosened. Spies forgot names. Oaths became uncertain. Plans still existed, but they no longer pointed cleanly in one direction. The stone did not erase truth; it made truth harder to point at.
The keeper warned them: “Do not use this to hide lies. Lies rot in darkness. Use it only to delay certainty.” The elders nodded and then did what elders often do.
The stone passed from hand to hand. Those who carried it learned that it did not protect the body, but the gap between thought and speech. In crowded halls it made the bearer unremarkable. In quiet rooms it made pauses longer. Enemies did not forget you; they simply remembered you later, when it no longer mattered.
There is a passage, badly damaged, that tells of a ruler who tried to use the stone to erase guilt. The stone did not do this. Instead, the ruler forgot why he needed to erase it. Another fragment speaks of a watcher who carried the stone too long and lost the ability to speak plainly even to friends. Silence, once learned, is difficult to unlearn.
The keeper of margins vanished. Some say he folded himself into a footnote. Others say he became a space between lines. The stone remained, wrapped, unremarked, occasionally rediscovered by those who knew to look sideways.
The final lines of the account are the most damaged. They repeat a warning several times, though the order changes each time:
Do not carve your name into silence.
Do not ask silence to keep secrets forever.
Do not mistake absence for safety.
Moral: What hides you can also hide the reason you act; silence preserves survival, but only wisdom preserves direction.
Suggested conversions to other systems:
Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)
Talmudic Cipherstone 614 of Quiet Margins
Type: Occult Artifact (tablet-sized slate token)
Typical Bearer: Investigator, operative, archivist, courier
POW Requirement (to attune): POW 40+ recommended (or a successful POW roll on first use)
Core Effect (Passive)
• Veil of Margins: While carried on the person, the bearer gains a bonus die on Stealth rolls that rely on blending in, moving quietly, or avoiding notice (Keeper may instead grant a +10% to Stealth if using percentile skills strictly).
• Scholarly Mask: Gain +10% to Library Use or Occult when examining coded writings, marginalia, or symbolic records.
• Attention Drift (drawback): When the bearer speaks for more than a minute in a tense scene, roll POW; on a failure, the bearer’s phrasing becomes subtly indirect, imposing a penalty die on Persuade (or -10%) for that single exchange.
Active Powers
- Seal the Name (3/day)
Activation: 1 round of silent tracing on the tablet
Cost: 1 Magic Point
Effect: For 10 minutes, attempts to identify the bearer (name, affiliation, “who is that?”) suffer one penalty die on the relevant social or information roll (Charm, Fast Talk, Persuade, Psychology, Library Use, etc., Keeper’s call). This does not create invisibility; it blurs certainty and slows recognition. - Marginal Rewrite (1/day)
Activation: 1 full round, silent; bearer must be able to touch the token
Cost: 2 Magic Points
Effect: For the next scene, once, after an opponent succeeds at an information-gathering roll about the bearer’s immediate plan/intent/location, the bearer may force a re-roll with one penalty die. If the re-roll fails, the opponent forms an incomplete or sideways conclusion (“not here,” “not now,” “someone else”), at Keeper’s discretion.
Sanity
• First study or first successful activation: 0/1 SAN (the mind registers “gaps” as meaning)
• Repeated daily overuse (3+ activations/day for a week): 1 SAN risk at week’s end (0/1), Keeper’s call
Physical Object Durability (if targeted)
• Small stone token: treat as 6 HP; when reduced to 0 HP, magic ceases until repaired (stone reset + re-ink ritual).
Blades in the Dark
Talmudic Cipherstone 614 of Quiet Margins
Item Type: Arcane Implement (0 Load as a small token; 1 Load if you keep it in a hard case)
Quality: Fine
Passive Benefits
• Quiet Margins: When you use Prowl or Skulk to move unseen or remain unremarked, gain +1 effect.
• Scholar of Subtext: When you Study coded documents, marginalia, or symbol-laced records, take +1d.
• Social Indirection (drawback): When you Consort or Sway while actively carrying the token in hand, on a 1–3 result you also take 1 stress (your words become too careful, too sideways).
Special Abilities (Active)
- Seal the Name (3 uses per score)
Action: 1 action (silent tracing)
Effect: Create an advantage: “Blurred Identity” on yourself with 2 free invokes (or equivalent: +1d to resist being identified; opponents take -1d to Gather Information about you for the scene). - Marginal Rewrite (1 use per score)
Action: 1 action
Effect: When an enemy or the environment “pins down” your plan (a clock ticks, a rival finds you, your cover is blown), you may reduce the effect of that discovery by one level (from Great→Standard, Standard→Limited), or you may remove 1 tick from a “They Identify You” or “Your Cover Blown” clock. The GM should show the new uncertainty in the fiction.
Dungeons & Dragons (5e, 2024 rules compatible)
Talmudic Cipherstone 614 of Quiet Margins
Wondrous Item, common
Slot/Type: Worn item (carried talisman)
Attunement: Not required
Properties (Passive)
• Quiet Bearing: You gain a +1 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to avoid notice in crowds, corridors, libraries, or other “socially dense” spaces (where blending matters as much as silence).
• Subtext Reader: You gain a +1 bonus to Intelligence (Investigation) checks made to interpret codes, ciphers, hidden writing, marginal notes, or symbol-based clues.
• Careful Tongue (drawback): If you fail a Charisma (Deception or Persuasion) check by 5 or more while carrying the cipherstone openly, you have disadvantage on your next Charisma check before the end of your next turn (your speech becomes visibly over-controlled).
Activations (Active)
- Seal the Name (3/day)
Activation: Bonus Action
Duration: 10 minutes
Effect: Creatures have disadvantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks to identify your intent or to “read you,” and have disadvantage on Intelligence checks to recall your identity, affiliation, or recent description during the duration. This does not affect creatures that already know you well (DM’s call). - Marginal Rewrite (1/day)
Activation: Reaction, when a creature would learn one of the following through observation or a check: your immediate destination, your current disguise, or your hidden item’s location
Effect: Force the creature to reroll the check and use the lower result. If the check had no roll (DM fiat), the creature instead learns an incomplete truth (“a clue, not certainty”).
Object Durability (if targeted)
• Tiny stone token: AC 15; HP 6; immunity to poison/psychic; if reduced to 0 HP, it cracks and becomes mundane until repaired (see repair guidance per setting).
Knave (2e)
talmudic cipherstone 614 of quiet margins
Type: Treasure (tool-token)
Slots: 1
Usage: carried or worn
Passive
• +1 to attempts to sneak, hide, or pass unnoticed when the fiction supports “blending” (crowds, shadows, halls, stacks).
• +1 to decipher codes, secret writing, symbol-scripts, marginal notes, or hidden records.
Active
• Seal the Name (3/day): For 10 minutes, anyone trying to recognize you, describe you, or connect you to a known identity does so with disadvantage (or takes -1 to the roll, if using flat bonuses).
• Marginal Rewrite (1/day): After someone succeeds at locating you, identifying your disguise, or reading your immediate plan, you may force a reroll. On failure, they gain only a partial or sideways conclusion.
Breakage / Disable
• HP: 6. If broken, the magic is inert until repaired and re-inked in a quiet rite.
Fate Core / Fate Condensed
Talmudic Cipherstone 614 of Quiet Margins
Type: Extra (Worn Talisman / Carried Token)
Scale: Personal
Cost: 1 Refresh (or GM-granted narrative item for low-powered games)
Aspects
• Quiet Margins Carry the Truth
• Names Fade at the Edge of the Page
Passive Benefits
• Subtextual Presence: Gain +2 when creating advantages with Stealth, Deceive, or Investigate if the action relies on blending in, misdirection, coded meaning, or overlooked details rather than speed or force.
• Marginal Insight: Once per scene, you may treat a failed Investigate roll involving codes, symbols, marginalia, or hidden records as a tie instead.
Stunts (Built In)
• Seal the Name (3/session): Spend a Fate point to place the aspect “Blurred Identity” on yourself with two free invokes. This aspect applies against attempts to identify, recall, or clearly describe you.
• Marginal Rewrite (1/session): After an opponent succeeds at an overcome or create advantage action that would reveal your intent, disguise, or position, force a reroll. You choose which result stands.
Drawback
• Over-Precision: If you ever roll a natural – – – – on Deceive or Rapport while carrying the Cipherstone, the GM gains a free compel on “Quiet Margins Carry the Truth” (your caution becomes conspicuous).
Numenera / Cypher System
Talmudic Cipherstone 614 of Quiet Margins
Level: 2
Type: Artifact (worn token or carried slate)
Form: Small inscribed stone tablet with faintly shifting letter-forms
Passive Effects
• Stealth Asset: The bearer gains an asset on Stealth tasks when avoiding attention through stillness, blending, or misdirection (not speed).
• Subtext Reader: The bearer gains an asset on Intellect tasks to interpret symbols, coded writings, marginal notes, or hidden meanings.
Active Effects
• Seal the Name (3/day): As an Intellect action, for 10 minutes, all attempts to identify the bearer, recall their identity, or infer their role are hindered.
• Marginal Rewrite (1/day): When an NPC or system effect would successfully reveal the bearer’s immediate intent, disguise, or location, the GM instead provides incomplete or sideways information.
Depletion
• 1 in 1d20 (checked only when Marginal Rewrite is used)
GM Intrusion
• Letters briefly rearrange into unsettling truths; the bearer suffers a moment of hesitation, increasing the difficulty of their next social task by one step.
Pathfinder (2nd Edition)
Talmudic Cipherstone 614 of Quiet Margins
Item Level: 2
Rarity: Common
Item Type: Worn Item (Talisman)
Bulk: L
Usage: worn; hands free
Passive Effects
• Quiet Bearing: You gain a +1 item bonus to Stealth checks when attempting to remain unnoticed through blending, stillness, or misdirection.
• Subtextual Analysis: You gain a +1 item bonus to Recall Knowledge or Decipher Writing checks involving codes, symbols, marginal notes, or hidden scripts.
Activations
• Seal the Name [one-action] (envision, illusion, mental); Frequency 3/day
Effect: For 10 minutes, creatures attempting to Identify you, Recall Knowledge about you, or Sense Motive to determine your intent must succeed at a Will save (DC appropriate to item level) or treat their result as one degree of success worse.
• Marginal Rewrite [reaction] (envision, mental); Frequency 1/day
Trigger: A creature successfully gains information about your immediate intent, disguise, or hidden possession
Effect: The creature must reroll the check and use the lower result.
Destruction
• Hardness 4; HP 8; BT 4. When broken, the item loses all magic until repaired and re-inscribed.
Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)
Talmudic Cipherstone 614 of Quiet Margins
Item Type: Arcane Trapping (Talisman)
Requirements: None
Weight: Negligible
Passive Effects
• Quiet Bearing: The bearer gains +2 to Stealth rolls made to avoid notice through blending or remaining unremarkable.
• Subtext Reader: The bearer gains +2 to Notice or Research rolls involving codes, symbols, or hidden meanings.
Active Powers
• Seal the Name (3/day): As a free action, activate for 10 minutes. Anyone attempting to identify, recognize, or clearly describe the bearer suffers a –2 penalty to relevant rolls.
• Marginal Rewrite (1/day): When an enemy succeeds at a Notice, Research, or Smarts roll to determine the bearer’s intent, disguise, or location, force a reroll. On a failure, the enemy forms an incorrect or incomplete conclusion.
Drawback
• Over-Cautious Speech: If the bearer rolls a Critical Failure on Persuasion or Performance, they are Shaken as their words collapse into over-analysis.
Durability
• Toughness 5 (Small Object). If destroyed, all powers cease until the stone is repaired and ritually re-etched.
Shadowrun (Sixth World Edition)
Talmudic Cipherstone 614 of Quiet Margins
Category: Magical Focus (Minor Talisman)
Availability: 8L
Cost: 4,500¥
Bonding Cost: None (counts as ambient-focus relic; non-channeling)
Description: A palm-sized inscribed stone etched with barely perceptible glyph-fractures. The markings subtly rearrange themselves when observed indirectly.
Mechanical Effects
• Quiet Margins (Passive): Gain +2 dice to Stealth and Con tests made to avoid attention, blend into crowds, or obscure intent rather than speed or physical concealment.
• Subtext Reading (Passive): Gain +1 die to Perception or Knowledge tests involving coded language, marginal notes, ritual symbols, or hidden meanings.
Active Effects
• Seal the Name (3/day, Minor Action): For 10 minutes, observers suffer –2 dice on tests to identify, recognize, or recall details about the bearer (face, affiliation, magical signature). This is a mental illusion effect; Willpower + Logic resists.
• Marginal Rewrite (1/day, Reaction): When an opponent succeeds on a test to determine your intent, disguise, or hidden objective, force a reroll. The opponent must take the worse result.
Limitations
• Astral Noticeability: While active, the stone creates faint astral distortion; astral observers gain +1 die to notice something is present, but not what.
Condition Monitor
• Object Structure: 6
• Object Armor: 4
When reduced to 0 Structure, all magical effects cease until repaired and re-etched by a magical artisan.
Starfinder (Enhanced / Core Rules)
Talmudic Cipherstone 614 of Quiet Margins
Item Level: 2
Price: 750 credits
Slot: Worn (Accessory)
Bulk: L
Description: This dull, rune-marked stone hangs from a cord or rests in a pocket, its markings subtly shifting at the edge of perception.
Passive Effects
• Quiet Bearing: Gain a +1 insight bonus to Stealth checks when hiding, blending in, or avoiding notice without movement.
• Subtextual Analysis: Gain a +1 insight bonus to Culture or Mysticism checks involving codes, hidden symbols, or ritual meaning.
Activated Abilities
• Seal the Name (3/day, Swift Action): For 10 minutes, creatures attempting to identify you, recall details about you, or sense your intent take a –2 penalty to the relevant checks (Will negates for magical detection).
• Marginal Rewrite (1/day, Reaction): When a creature successfully determines your intent or disguise, that creature must reroll the check and take the lower result.
Hit Points
• HP: 10
• EAC/KAC: 11
At 0 HP, the item becomes mundane until repaired and mystically re-inscribed.
Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)
Talmudic Cipherstone 614 of Quiet Margins
Tech Level: 12 (Psionic–Mystical Hybrid Relic)
Cost: Cr 18,000
Mass: Negligible
Slot: Personal Item
Description: A small engraved stone tablet whose markings appear incomplete unless viewed obliquely.
Effects
• Quiet Bearing (Passive): DM +1 to Stealth and Deception checks made to avoid notice, obscure intent, or remain unremarkable.
• Subtext Reader (Passive): DM +1 to Investigate or Recon checks involving codes, marginal notes, or hidden messages.
Activated Abilities
• Seal the Name (3/day): For 10 minutes, attempts to identify, recognize, or clearly describe the bearer suffer DM –2 unless the observer succeeds at an opposed INT + Recon check.
• Marginal Rewrite (1/day): When an NPC successfully determines the bearer’s intent or disguise, the Referee may require the NPC to reinterpret the information incorrectly or incompletely.
Durability
• Structure: 6
If destroyed or cracked, the Cipherstone ceases functioning until repaired by a specialist familiar with ritual inscriptions.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)
Talmudic Cipherstone 614 of Quiet Margins
Type: Enchanted Talisman
Rarity: Common
Encumbrance: 0
Description: A small, unassuming stone etched with half-erased sigils that seem to recede when examined directly.
Passive Effects
• Quiet Presence: Gain +10 to Stealth Tests when remaining still, blending into crowds, or avoiding attention through understatement.
• Reader of Margins: Gain +10 to Research or Lore Tests involving codes, symbols, marginalia, or esoteric writings.
Activated Powers
• Seal the Name (3/day): For 10 minutes, all attempts to Identify, Gossip about, or Intuit the bearer suffer –10 unless the observer succeeds at a Hard (+0) Intuition Test.
• Marginal Rewrite (1/day): When an NPC succeeds at a Test to uncover the bearer’s intent, role, or disguise, the GM may force a reroll and apply the worse result.
Flaw
• Over-Caution: If the bearer Fumbles a Fellowship-based Test while the item is active, they gain 1 Fatigued Condition from excessive restraint.
Durability
• The Cipherstone has 8 Wounds. If reduced to 0, it loses all enchantment until ritually repaired and re-inscribed.