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Tupilak 437 of the Silent Watcher

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by

Dale
in

Lore In the northern tundras of Saṃsāra, the Yuit peoples live a life in harmony with the harsh, windswept landscape. To survive, their hunters and scouts must be ever-vigilant, masters of observation and stealth. Long ago, their shamans learned to carve small figures from the bones of caribou and the ivory of walrus, imbuing them with a fragment of a protective spirit. These are not the terrifying, vengeful Tupilaks of ancient legend, but simple charms meant to serve as a guardian’s eye for those who walk alone. They are given to young scouts to keep them safe, teaching them that to see without being seen is the greatest protection of all. This particular Tupilak was carved for a young observer named Kaelen, who was said to be able to spot a snow hare from a mile away.

Description A small, palm-sized amulet carved from the yellowed antler of a caribou. It depicts a strange, chimeric creature with the wide, unblinking eyes of an owl, the hunched posture of a bear, and the flattened tail of a beaver. The entire figure is curled into a compact, watchful posture. The carving is smooth from wear and is threaded onto a simple leather cord. It feels cool to the touch, regardless of the ambient temperature.

Detailed Stats

  • Type: Magical Amulet
  • Rarity: Common
  • Required Tier: 1
  • Weight: 0.2 lbs
  • Material: Caribou Antler, Leather Cord

Passive Magic

  • Watcher’s Instinct: The amulet whispers warnings to your subconscious. You have an innate sense of when you are being directly observed by a creature with hostile intent, manifesting as a cold chill running down your spine. This does not reveal the source or number of observers, only that you are being watched.
  • Stillness of the Tundra: When you are in a natural environment and remain perfectly still for at least one minute, the amulet’s magic helps you blend into your surroundings. Creatures have a harder time spotting you, imposing a minor penalty on their perception checks to find you.

Activable Magic

  • Distant Gaze (Action): You can use an action to focus your will on the amulet, allowing you to see through it as if its owl-like eyes were your own. You can leave the amulet in a location and move up to 100 feet away to observe from its perspective. While using this ability, your own avatar’s body is blind and deaf. This effect lasts for up to 5 minutes or until you end it as a free action. This ability can be used three times per long rest.
  • Spirit’s Caution (Action): Once per day, you can hold the amulet and whisper a request for guidance. The Tupilak will give a simple, one-word impression in your mind about the immediate area (within a 30-foot radius), such as “Danger,” “Safe,” “Deception,” or “Prey.” The spirit’s interpretation of these concepts is instinctual and may not align perfectly with your own.

Specific Slot: Amulet (worn around the neck)

Tags: Divination, Charm, Utility, Scouting, Worn, Inuit-inspired, Weapon, Armor, Consumable, Healing, Combat, Social, Elemental, Divine, Primal, Mental

Given the nature of the Tupilak 437 of the Silent Watcher, it would be bought and sold in a variety of locations, with the context of the sale and its price changing drastically depending on the venue.

Assuming a standard currency of Gold, Silver, and Copper pieces:

1. The Source: A Yuit Trade Post

  • The Shop: This isn’t a shop in the traditional sense, but a stall or lodge in a northern Yuit village, run by the artisan family who carves the amulets. The air smells of woodsmoke, smoked fish, and leather. The “shopkeeper” is likely an elder who assesses potential buyers with a keen eye.
  • The Transaction: The sale is personal and steeped in tradition. The seller will use their Mind’s Eye not just to see your stats, but to gauge your intent. They will ask why you need the watcher’s spirit. They are reluctant to sell to those they deem disrespectful or reckless. The transaction is as much about ensuring the spirit goes to a worthy owner as it is about commerce. They will explain its use and the importance of respecting the spirit within.
  • Cost: 15-20 Silver Pieces, often supplemented with a trade. The Yuit value practical goods far more than currency. They would likely accept a lower price if you also traded a durable steel knife, warm wool blankets, or a sack of salt.

2. The Middleman: An Adventurer’s Curio Shop

  • The Shop: Found in a bustling port city or a trade hub that sees traffic from the northern territories. The shop, named something like “The Far-Flung Trinket” or “Northwind Outfitters,” is cluttered with exotic goods from across Saṃsāra. The Tupilak would be displayed in a glass case or on a velvet cloth alongside shrunken heads, strange fossils, and foreign navigational tools.
  • The Transaction: The shopkeeper is a savvy merchant who knows they have something unique. They will play up its exotic origin, calling it a “shamanic charm from the frozen wastes.” They will use their Mind’s Eye to list its magical properties matter-of-factly. The sale is a straightforward, if slightly embellished, business transaction.
  • Cost: 40-50 Silver Pieces. The price is inflated to cover the cost of acquisition, transport, and the convenience of finding it so far from its origin. There is some room for haggling.

3. The Megamarket: A Metropolitan Magic Emporium

  • The Shop: In a massive, high-magic metropolis, this item would be found in a large, well-organized magic shop. It wouldn’t be a featured item but would likely be in a large, wooden tray labeled “Common Utility Charms” or “Tier 1 Divination Amulets,” alongside dozens of other minor magical trinkets.
  • The Transaction: The sale is completely impersonal. The clerk or magical golem assistant behind the counter won’t know or care about its cultural history. To them, it’s just inventory #84B. They will quote the price, take your money, and wrap the item. It is the quickest and least personal way to acquire the item.
  • Cost: 35 Silver Pieces. The price is standardized based on its rarity, tier, and magical function. It’s a fair market price with no room for negotiation.

4. The Underworld: A Thieves’ Guild Fence

  • The Shop: There is no shop. The transaction takes place in a dimly lit tavern backroom, a shadowy alleyway, or a hidden stall in a city’s underbelly. The seller is a Fence who specializes in “tools of the trade” for spies, thieves, and assassins.
  • The Transaction: The sale is clandestine and tense. The seller cares nothing for the item’s spirit, focusing only on its practical application for espionage. They will highlight its scouting and stealth capabilities, perhaps after “liberating” it from a previous owner. You are expected to pay and leave without asking questions.
  • Cost: 75-80 Silver Pieces. The high price reflects its value for illicit activities and the risk involved for both buyer and seller. The price is firm, and trying to haggle might be seen as an insult or a prelude to trouble.

The Tupilak 437 of the Silent Watcher is not a tool for direct confrontation; its power in defense and offense comes from providing critical information to gain a tactical advantage. Here is how a character could roleplay its use in different environments.

1. In the Wilderness (Forests, Tundras, Mountains)

This is the environment where the Tupilak’s spirit is most at home.

Defensive Roleplay:

  • Scenario: Your party is making camp for the night, and you are on first watch from the branch of a large pine tree.
  • How it’s used: You feel a sudden, unnatural chill crawl up your neck—the Watcher’s Instinct telling you you’re being observed. You freeze, holding your breath and letting the Stillness of the Tundra passive help you meld with the shadows of the branches. You whisper to the amulet, activating Spirit’s Caution. The word “Hunger” forms in your mind. You now know you’re being stalked by a predator, not bandits. To confirm, you use Distant Gaze, leaving the amulet on the branch you’re on and shimmying down the back of the tree. From the safety of the ground, you look through the amulet’s eyes to see a pair of hungry wolves watching the camp’s perimeter.
  • Roleplay: You silently signal to your party, not with alarm, but with calculated hand gestures. You point to your eyes, then hold up two fingers, and make a sniffing motion. You have transformed a potential surprise ambush into a controlled encounter, a defense based on foresight.

Offensive Roleplay:

  • Scenario: You need to assault a goblin outpost hidden in a rocky canyon.
  • How it’s used: You scout ahead of the party. Finding a ledge overlooking the outpost, you activate Distant Gaze, leaving the Tupilak wedged between two rocks. You retreat to safety and become the party’s eye-in-the-sky.
  • Roleplay: You narrate what you see through the amulet in a low, tense voice. “Okay, I see four goblins around the fire. They’re distracted. There’s an archer on the east watchtower, but he’s looking the wrong way. The shaman is in the back tent… I can just see his staff. On my mark, we hit the archer first.” Your offense isn’t a chaotic charge, but a surgical strike executed with perfect timing and information.

2. In an Urban Environment (City Streets, Markets)

Here, the Tupilak adapts from watching for predators to watching for pickpockets, spies, and assassins.

Defensive Roleplay:

  • Scenario: You’re meeting a secretive contact in a crowded market, but you suspect you’re being followed by a rival faction.
  • How it’s used: Amid the bustle, you feel the familiar cold prickle of the Watcher’s Instinct. You calmly lead your party into an alley. You activate Spirit’s Caution, and the amulet gives you the impression of “Greed.” They’re likely after your coin purse or a valuable item you carry. You use Distant Gaze, pretending to stumble and drop the amulet near the alley’s entrance. You and your party move further in, out of sight. Through the amulet, you watch the flow of people, waiting to see who stops and looks down the alley after you.
  • Roleplay: “Don’t turn around,” you whisper to your companions. “There’s a man in a red cloak. He’s slowed down… he’s looking this way. He’s our tail.” You have turned their surveillance against them, defending yourself by exposing their stealth.

Offensive Roleplay:

  • Scenario: You need to steal a ledger from a corrupt merchant’s office on the second floor of his shop.
  • How it’s used: After dark, from an opposing rooftop, you tie the Tupilak to a thin, black cord. You skillfully swing it until it rests silently on the windowsill of the target office. You activate Distant Gaze.
  • Roleplay: Your eyes close as you mentally connect to the amulet. “Okay, I’m in. The merchant is asleep at his desk. The ledger is right next to his hand. There’s one guard standing by the door, but he looks half-asleep. The window is latched from the inside. We’ll need the rogue to work on that latch.” You are performing reconnaissance, allowing your team to plan an infiltration with precise, real-time intelligence.

3. In a Dungeon (Caves, Ancient Ruins)

In these confined spaces, information is the difference between life and death.

Defensive Roleplay:

  • Scenario: Your party enters a large, pillared hall. The silence is unnerving.
  • How it’s used: The chill of Watcher’s Instinct washes over you, but you can’t see anything. You know something is in here with you. Holding the amulet, you use Spirit’s Caution. The word “Illusion” comes to mind. The threat is not what it seems. Suspecting a trap or a hidden enemy, you use Distant Gaze, tossing the amulet 50 feet ahead into the center of the room.
  • Roleplay: Looking through the amulet’s perspective, you see the room from a different angle. From here, you can see the faint shimmering outline of a gelatinous cube pressed against a far wall, perfectly camouflaged from the entrance. “Stop!” you hiss to the party. “There’s a cube to the left. Don’t move forward.” You have defended the party from a lethal, hidden threat without taking a single step into danger.

Offensive Roleplay:

  • Scenario: You hear guttural voices from around a corner in a tight corridor.
  • How it’s used: You don’t want to peek and expose yourself. Instead, you activate Distant Gaze and slide the small amulet silently along the floor until it’s just past the corner.
  • Roleplay: Your eyes glaze over for a moment. “I’ve got them,” you whisper. “Three heavily armed hobgoblins. They’re sharpening their swords, arguing. Their backs are mostly to us. We have total surprise.” This intel allows the party’s fighter to charge in with full advantage or the spellcaster to perfectly place an area-of-effect spell to hit all three at once. The offense is a brutal, decisive ambush.

Perception of Activation:

This describes the sensory experience of using the amulet’s primary active ability, Distant Gaze.

Sight

  • User’s Perspective: Your normal vision instantly vanishes, replaced by a silent, black void for a split second before the image from the amulet’s location rushes in. The world seen through the amulet has a slightly flattened, wide-angle perspective. Colors are muted, desaturated to shades of grey, brown, and a piercing, ethereal blue.
  • Observer’s Perspective: The user’s eyes lose focus and glaze over, taking on a milky, cataract-like appearance. They stare blankly at a fixed point in space, unblinking. In dim light, the amulet itself emits a faint, singular pulse of blue light at the moment of activation.
  • Positives: Grants the user a safe, remote viewpoint, perfect for scouting. Observers can easily tell the user is in a trance and requires protection.
  • Negatives: The user is completely blind to their immediate surroundings and vulnerable to any physical threat. The disorienting visual shift can cause a moment of vertigo.

Sound

  • User’s Perspective: All sounds from your location are silenced, replaced by the sounds originating from the amulet’s position. The audio is slightly muffled, with an odd resonance as if you were hearing it through a piece of carved bone. You can hear whispers, footsteps, and ambient noises around the amulet with clarity.
  • Observer’s Perspective: The user becomes completely unresponsive to sound, as if deaf. They will not react to their name being called or to loud noises made near them.
  • Positives: Allows for remote eavesdropping and gathering auditory intelligence from a safe distance.
  • Negatives: The user is deaf to their own environment, unable to hear an approaching enemy, a warning shout from a companion, or the sound of a trap being triggered near their body.

Touch

  • User’s Perspective: All sensation of touch on your skin disappears. You cannot feel the ground beneath you or the clothes on your body. This numbness is replaced by a deep, internal cold and a phantom sensation of the surface the amulet is resting upon (e.g., the roughness of stone, the dampness of moss).
  • Observer’s Perspective: The user’s skin becomes noticeably cool to the touch. The amulet itself radiates an unnatural cold, like a piece of dry ice.
  • Positives: The distinct cold is a clear physical sign that the magic is active. The phantom touch can provide extra information about the remote location.
  • Negatives: The user cannot feel if they are being touched, restrained, or harmed, making them exceptionally vulnerable. The pervasive cold can be physically uncomfortable.

Smell & Taste

  • User’s Perspective: These senses are almost entirely shut down. Your world becomes odorless and tasteless, creating a sterile sensory experience. The only lingering sensation is a faint, phantom smell of cold air, dry antler, and something akin to static electricity.
  • Observer’s Perspective: No perceivable change.
  • Positives: Helps the user focus by eliminating distracting or overwhelming smells from their immediate environment.
  • Negatives: The user would not be able to smell smoke, poison gas, or the scent of an approaching monster near their physical body.

Extra-Sensory: Aetheric Connection

  • User’s Perspective: You feel your consciousness stretching out from your body like a thin, taut, silvery thread connecting you directly to the amulet. You can feel the distance and direction of this tether in your mind, and it vibrates with a low hum of power.
  • Observer’s Perspective: A person using their own Mind’s Eye or other magical senses can see this faint, shimmering silver cord of spiritual energy spanning the distance between the user and the amulet.
  • Positives: Provides a constant sense of connection to the amulet’s location. A magically-aware ally can see the connection and know to protect both the user and the amulet.
  • Negatives: This magical tether is a beacon to magically sensitive creatures or wards, potentially alerting them to your remote spying. If the tether is magically severed, the user experiences a painful psychic backlash.

Extra-Sensory: Primal Vulnerability

  • User’s Perspective: Beneath the sensations of the remote viewing, you feel a deep, primal, and unshakable sense of your own body’s defenselessness. It’s not a fear, but a constant, nagging instinct—a background anxiety that your physical shell is an empty, unguarded vessel.
  • Observer’s Perspective: Though their face is slack, the user’s body displays subtle signs of tension. Their hands may be clenched into tight fists, or their posture may be unnaturally rigid, betraying the subconscious stress they are under.
  • Positives: This instinctual alarm prevents the user from becoming too engrossed or complacent, constantly reminding them to be efficient and not linger in the trance state for too long.
  • Negatives: This mental strain is draining. Prolonged or frequent use of the ability can lead to mental fatigue, paranoia, or nightmares.

Ritual of the Watcher’s Charm

This recipe details the process for a skilled artisan to create a magical charm in the tradition of the Yuit Tupilaks, binding a minor spirit of observation into a carved vessel to aid a scout or forward observer.

Materials Needed

  • Physical Core: A piece of bone, antler, or petrified wood from a creature known for its exceptional senses or vigilance (e.g., wolf jawbone, caribou antler, petrified wood from an ancient, high-altitude tree). The material must be at least palm-sized.
  • The Eyes: Two small, polished river stones, glass beads, or chips of obsidian to serve as the charm’s eyes.
  • The Tether: A length of untreated leather cord or animal sinew, long enough to be worn as a necklace.
  • The Offering: A personal, symbolic component to form a connection. This must be either a drop of the crafter’s blood, a lock of their hair, or a clipped fingernail.
  • The Lure: A catalyst to attract a spirit. A pinch of powdered silver or finely crushed moonstone.
  • The Vessel’s Soul: A single feather from a high-flying or nocturnal bird of prey (e.g., an eagle, hawk, or owl).

Tools Required

  • A set of fine Artisan’s Carving Tools (knives, chisels, gouges).
  • Polishing supplies (fine sand, leather strips, polishing cloths).
  • A small mortar and pestle for grinding the Lure.
  • A ritual space—a quiet, secluded location where the crafter will not be disturbed for several hours. Crafting under the open sky at dusk or dawn is considered most effective.

Skill Requirements

  • Artisan Skill: Proficiency with Woodcarver’s Tools or Jeweler’s Tools. The crafter must be able to perform intricate physical carving.
  • Magical Aptitude: A basic connection to the flow of magic. The crafter must be able to use their Mind’s Eye for more than passive observation, actively focusing its sight.
  • Spiritual Knowledge: The crafter must understand the nature of spirits and rituals. This may require a successful Nature or Arcana skill check as determined by the Guide Manager (GM).

Crafting Steps

Step 1: The Cleansing and Preparation Lay out all tools and materials in your ritual space. Meditate for several minutes, clearing your mind and focusing on your intent: to create a vessel for a watchful protector. Use your Mind’s Eye to examine each component, ensuring they are free of lingering spiritual taints or imperfections. Grind the silver or moonstone into a fine powder with the mortar and pestle.

Step 2: Carving the Form Take your carving tools and the Physical Core. Do not simply carve a shape; focus your Mind’s Eye on the material and try to see the form of the watcher that resides within it. Let your hands follow this vision. The carving process should take at least two hours of focused, uninterrupted work. The final form should be a stylized, compact creature that feels balanced and watchful. Carve two sockets for the eyes and a hole for the cord.

Step 3: Granting Sight Once the carving is complete and polished smooth, carefully set the two stones or beads into the eye sockets. As you place each one, whisper a word of intent, such as “See” or “Watch.” This act symbolically gives the vessel its sight.

Step 4: The Invitation Ritual Lay the finished carving in the center of your space. Place the bird feather upon its “heart.” Sprinkle the powdered silver or moonstone over its “eyes.” Finally, place your personal offering (drop of blood, lock of hair) onto the feather. Close your eyes and speak the invitation aloud: “Spirit of the silent watch, spirit of the keen eye, I have made for you a home. I have carved for you a vessel of bone and given it sight of stone. I offer a piece of myself not for servitude, but for partnership. If you would lend your sight to mine, I welcome you. Inhabit this form and watch with me.” Focus your will, pushing a small amount of your own energy into the charm, making the offer tangible.

Step 5: The Awakening You must wait. If the ritual is successful, a willing, minor spirit of observation will be drawn to the vessel. You will perceive its arrival as a sudden drop in temperature and a faint, blueish pulse of light from the charm’s eyes, visible only to you through your Mind’s Eye. The feather will stir as if touched by a nonexistent breeze, its purpose fulfilled.

Step 6: Sealing the Vessel Once you sense the spirit has accepted the vessel, carefully thread the leather or sinew cord through the prepared hole and tie it securely. This act symbolically closes the vessel, sealing the bond between the spirit and its new home. The crafting is now complete. The item is inert until you, the creator, attune to it for the first time.

Boy Who Carved His Eye

And it was in the long dark, the time of the sun’s great sleep, that a coldness came. Not the rightful cold of the land, but a wrong cold, a Hungering Silence that walked without feet upon the snow. The great hunters of the Yuit people, they went out for the meat-giving creatures. They did not return. A second group went, and then a third. From their journey, only silence came back. The people were filled with fear, for the Hungering Silence was a spirit of wind and ice that ate the souls of the strong, and none had ever put a spear in its hide for no eye could see it.

There was a boy, Kaelen was his name-sound. His limbs were not thick with strength, nor were his feet swift for the chase. His worth was small in the eyes of many. But his eyes were sharp, and his spirit was still, like the deep water under the ice. He saw the sorrow of his people, and the weight of it was a stone in his belly. He went to the lodge of the Elder Shaman, who was old and whose face was a map of all the winters before.

The Shaman looked not at Kaelen’s weak arms, but used his own deep sight to see the boy’s spirit. It was bright. The Shaman said, with a voice like stones grinding, “The Hungering Silence cannot be seen with eyes of meat. To see the spirit-that-is-not-there, one must give up his own seeing. You have the stillness to look. Go you now. Find the antler of the great caribou who died facing the Dawn Star, for its bones remember the coming of the light.”

And so Kaelen did this. He journeyed into the great white, and the wind spoke terrible things to him, but his spirit was still and he did not listen. He found the antler, pale and bright under the aurora. He took it and returned. The Shaman gave him tools, but said, “The hand makes the shape, but the spirit gives the life. You will carve what you wish to become. You will put your watching into the bone. Do not eat. Do not sleep. Only watch, and carve.”

For three days and three nights, Kaelen carved. He did not make a man, nor a beast, but something of both. He carved the great eyes of the snow owl that sees in the dark. He carved the strong back of the bear that endures the cold. He carved the flat tail of the beaver that feels the tremors of the water. He made it small, to be held in the hand. And as he carved, he poured his own seeing into the bone. His thoughts of watching, his memories of seeing, all went from him into the object. When he was finished, he threaded a cord of sinew through it, and his own world seemed more gray than before.

At that moment, the wind shrieked. The Hungering Silence, made bold by the weakness of the tribe, came not for the hunters in the field, but for the village itself. A blizzard, a great wall of white teeth, descended upon the lodges. The remaining warriors stood blind, their spears useless against a foe they could not perceive.

Then Kaelen, his body thin and weak from the making, ran to the edge of the village. He placed the small bone carving on a post of whalebone, its carved eyes facing the storm. He returned to the longhouse, sat, and held his own hands tight. He spoke the activation word the Shaman had taught him, a word that meant “Look for me.”

And it was so, his own sight became blackness. The world of his body was gone. But then, a new seeing opened. He saw from the whalebone post. He saw the blizzard, and in it, he saw the truth. The Hungering Silence was not one beast, but many. A whirlwind of ice shards and screaming air, with a core of deep shadow that pulsed with malice. It had no true form.

Kaelen lifted his voice, and though it was the voice of a boy, it was clear and sharp. “To the left of the great fire!” he shouted. “Thrust your spears ten paces out! It gathers there!” The warriors, confused but desperate, obeyed. Their spears pierced only snow, but a terrible scream, like ice cracking, echoed back. “Now by the stone pillar! It moves fast! Throw high!” Again and again, Kaelen was their eyes. His voice was a spear of truth in the ears of the warriors, guiding their hands against the spirit-that-is-not-there. He saw the lashing winds, the shadow heart, the cold that sought to devour them. He called out its movements until, with a final, unified throw of every spear, the shadow heart was pierced.

The wind died. The blizzard vanished as if it had never been. The Hungering Silence was broken, not slain, but defeated and sent back to the deep places of the world. Kaelen opened his eyes, and the sight of his own world returned, seeming dim and strange. His people were safe. He was no hunter, no warrior. He was Kaelen the Watcher, the boy who had given his sight so that all others may see. The amulet was henceforth known as his eye, a tool for those who must look afar.

The Moral of the Story: To truly perceive the hidden danger, one must be willing to look away from oneself and see the world through a different eye.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Yuit Watcher’s Charm Wondrous item, uncommon (requires attunement)

This small, palm-sized amulet is carved from caribou antler into the shape of a chimeric creature with the wide eyes of an owl. It feels unnaturally cool to the touch.

While wearing this amulet, you gain the following benefits:

  • Spirit’s Vigilance. You can’t be surprised, provided you are not incapacitated.
  • Stillness of the Wilds. You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide in natural terrain as long as you remain motionless.
  • Distant Gaze. The amulet has 3 charges. As an action, you can expend 1 charge to cast the clairvoyance spell from the amulet, but you must choose the “seeing” option. While you are using the spell’s sensor, you are blind and deaf with regard to your own senses. The amulet regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.
  • Spirit’s Caution. As an action, you can ask the spirit within the amulet for guidance. The DM gives you a one-word answer to your unasked question about whether danger is in the immediate vicinity. Common answers include “Safe,” “Danger,” “Deception,” “Ambush,” or “Unseen.” Once you use this property, you can’t use it again until the next dawn.

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Greenlandic Effigy

An unsettling, hand-carved piece of antler depicting a monstrous combination of arctic animals. It originates from specific Inuit groups in Greenland who practiced pre-Christian spirit-binding rituals. To the touch, it is colder than the ambient air. Merely holding it imparts a sense of being watched from a great, empty distance.

  • Mechanics: An Investigator holding the effigy feels a constant, low-level paranoia. The Keeper may provide hints that they are being observed, or grant a Bonus Die on Spot Hidden rolls to notice an ambush.
  • Distant Gaze (Activation): To see through the effigy’s “eyes,” the Investigator must place it on a surface and succeed on a Hard POW roll. Activation costs 2 Magic Points and 1 Sanity point. If successful, the Investigator can see from the effigy’s location for up to 5 minutes, though the world is perceived in shades of blue and grey, and sounds are distorted. While in this trance, the Investigator is completely unaware of their own surroundings.
  • Sanity Effects:
    • Activation: Costs 1 SAN point.
    • Fumbled Activation: The Investigator fails to connect and is instead shown a glimpse of the vast, cold void where the spirit resides. This costs 1d4 SAN points.
    • First Use: Witnessing the world through the dead eyes of a bound spirit is unnatural. The first time an Investigator successfully uses the Distant Gaze, they must make a Sanity roll (loss of 0/1d4).
  • Cthulhu Mythos: An Investigator with Cthulhu Mythos 5%+ may understand the effigy’s true nature as a container for a spirit fragment, a dangerous practice that skirts the edges of what humans can control.

Blades in the Dark

The Bone Stillness

A strange, cold charm carved from bone, said to have been brought to Duskvol by a whaler from the frozen north. It depicts a coiled, multi-featured beast with wide, staring eyes. It whispers to the ghost field, lending its preternatural senses to its owner.

  • Mechanics: This is a strange artifact, a piece of special gear.
  • Distant Gaze: When you perform the Survey action, you may leave the charm behind to serve as your viewpoint. You can perceive the scene from its location (up to a block away) instead of your own. You are vulnerable and unaware of your surroundings while you do this. You suffer 1 Stress to activate this ability.
  • Watcher’s Instinct: When you Resist a consequence resulting from a surprise attack or a hidden foe, you get +1d to your roll.
  • Spirit’s Caution: When you Attune to the ghost field, you may commune with the spirit inside the charm. Ask the GM one question about a potential threat in your current location; the GM will answer with a single, cryptic word (e.g., “Blade,” “Below,” “Betrayal,” “Empty”).

Knave (2nd Edition)

Carved Antler Eye

A small amulet carved from antler into a watchful, monstrous creature. It takes up 1 inventory slot.

  • Constant Effect: You cannot be surprised by ambushes.
  • Daily Uses (3): You may place the amulet on a surface and see through its eyes for up to 5 minutes. The range is 100 feet. While doing this, you are completely blind and deaf.
  • Daily Use (1): You may hold the amulet and concentrate. It will vibrate gently if there is a non-obvious hostile creature or active trap within 30 feet.

Fate Core System

The Bone-Carved Watcher

This is not just an item, but a significant part of your character’s story. To represent it, you gain a new character Aspect and a special Stunt.

  • Aspect: Bearer of the Bone-Carved Watcher You carry a strange, cold amulet carved from the bone of a beast from a forgotten age. It has a spirit inside, and it is always watching.
    • Invoke: You can spend a Fate Point to invoke this aspect for a +2 or a reroll on a Notice roll to spot an ambush, or a Stealth roll when hiding in a natural environment.
    • Compel: The GM can offer you a Fate Point to compel this aspect. For instance, the spirit might show you a distracting or horrifying vision of the future, causing you to hesitate (Create an Advantage for the enemy), or the amulet’s cold presence might make someone deeply uncomfortable in a social situation.
  • Stunt: Distant Gaze Once per session, you may declare you are using the Distant Gaze. You leave the amulet behind and describe how you are scouting a location through its senses. This automatically succeeds at the Create an Advantage action, and you gain two free invocations on the situational Aspect you create (e.g., Precise Guard Patrols or Hidden Lever Spotted). While using this stunt, you are completely unaware of your own surroundings and cannot take any physical actions.

Numenera & Cypher System

Ocular Locus

This artifact is a small, chimerical creature carved from some kind of synth-bone that is always cool to the touch. Its large, lens-like eyes seem to follow you. It is a relic of a past age when biological surveillance was fused with shamanic practice.

  • Level: 1d6+2 (Level is determined when found)
  • Form: Handheld amulet on a leather cord.
  • Effect: When worn, the Ocular Locus provides an asset on all tasks involving perception to spot hidden things and on stealth tasks performed in natural environments (difficulty of these tasks is reduced by one step). As an action, the user can mentally activate the locus. For the next 10 minutes, the user can perceive the world from the locus’s location (up to a long distance away). While this power is active, the user is helpless, unable to perceive their own surroundings or act physically. Intellect defense tasks are hindered for the user (difficulty is increased by one step).
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (Check for depletion each time the active ability is used).

Pathfinder (2nd Edition)

Tupilaq of the Watchful Spirit Item 3 [Uncommon] [Divination] [Invested] [Primal] Price 60 gp Usage worn amulet; Bulk —

This small amulet is carved from caribou antler into the shape of a strange, watchful creature with wide owl eyes. The amulet feels unnaturally cold and hums with a faint spiritual energy.

When you invest the amulet, you gain a +1 item bonus to Perception checks.

Activate [Two-Actions] envision, interact; Frequency once per day; Effect You place the tupilaq on a solid surface. For 10 minutes, you can see from the amulet’s location. This has the effects of a 3rd-level Clairvoyance spell, but the sensor is stationary. While this activation is in effect, you are blinded and deafened to your own surroundings. You can Dismiss this activation.

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE)

The Watcher Fetish

This small fetish is carved from the bone of an arctic beast and is cold to the touch. It is bound with a minor spirit of observation that lends its senses to the wearer.

  • Requirements: Seasoned, Spirit d6+
  • Passive Effects: The wearer gains the Danger Sense Edge. If the character already has this Edge, they may reroll a failed Notice roll for it once per encounter. Additionally, the wearer gets a +1 bonus to Stealth rolls when remaining still in natural surroundings.
  • Active Power: The fetish allows the wearer to use a special form of remote viewing.
    • Power: Remote Viewing
    • Power Points: 2
    • Duration: 5 minutes
    • Trappings: The user’s eyes glaze over; a faint blue light appears in the fetish’s “eyes.”
    • Effect: The user can see and hear from the fetish’s location (up to a range of one mile). Activating this power requires a Spirit roll. While the power is active, the user is physically unaware of their immediate surroundings and is considered Vulnerable. If attacked, they are automatically considered Shaken.

Shadowrun (Sixth World)

Salish-Shidhe Council Watcher Fetish

This object appears to be a simple, hand-carved amulet of bone or wood, typically depicting a stylized owl, wolf, or other animal known for its senses. It is a traditional design used by shamans of the Salish-Shidhe Council. Unknown to most, these are not mere trinkets; they are carefully prepared foci used for remote surveillance and spirit-channeling.

  • Type: Ritual Fetish & Sustaining Focus (Clairvoyance)
  • Rating: 3
  • Availability: 10R
  • Cost: 18,000 nuyen
  • Mechanics:
    • Watcher’s Instinct: While carrying the fetish, the bearer gains 1 Edge when defending against a Surprise Test or ambush.
    • Spirit Gaze Ritual: This fetish is required to perform a special ritual version of the Clairvoyance spell.
      • Casting Time: 1 minute of concentration.
      • Target: The fetish itself. The sensor is created at the fetish’s location and is stationary.
      • Drain: (Force) – 2.
      • Effect: The caster can see and hear through the fetish for as long as they sustain the spell. While sustaining, the caster is in a trance, unaware of their own surroundings, and takes a -2 penalty to all defense tests.
    • Sustaining Focus: If the bearer has the Clairvoyance spell, they may use the fetish as a Rating 3 Sustaining Focus for that spell only.

Starfinder

Idaran Watcher Amulet Level 3 Price 1,400 credits Hands —; Bulk L Armor Slot neck

This amulet is a relic from a pre-Drift civilization, most likely the Idari, who had not yet achieved spaceflight. It is carved from the bone of an unknown creature into a strange, multi-featured animal. Technomancers who study the item theorize it functions as a low-power psychotronic sensor suite, linking the wearer’s bio-signature to the device’s optical and auditory sensors.

  • Mechanics:
    • While wearing this amulet, you gain a +2 insight bonus to Perception checks, and you cannot be made flat-footed.
    • As a standard action, you can place the amulet on a surface and activate it. For the next 5 minutes, you can perceive your surroundings from the amulet’s location, up to a maximum range of 120 feet. While using this ability, you are considered blind and off-target with regard to your own body and senses. This ability is usable 3 times per day.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

‘Tupilaq’ Covert Micro-Sensor

The “Tupilaq” is a military-grade, single-use surveillance device disguised as a primitive piece of jewelry or a hand-carved totem. Its outer shell is a non-reflective, programmable chameleon surface bonded to a core of advanced sensor components. It is designed for deniable operations in low-tech environments.

  • Tech Level: 13
  • Cost: 30,000 Cr
  • Legality: Highly Illegal (Military/Intelligence Grade)
  • Skills: Electronics (Sensors)
  • Mechanics:
    • Deployment: The user plants the micro-sensor on a surface. It has a micro-adhesive and is acoustically dampened to avoid detection.
    • Surveillance: The sensor transmits high-fidelity audio and visual data to a linked datapad or neural comm unit. The broadcast has a range of 500 meters. The internal power cell lasts for 15 minutes before being exhausted. Successful operation may require an Electronics (Sensors) check, with difficulty based on local interference and opposing security systems.
    • Passive Alert: The system includes a small wearable that can be paired with the user’s comm. This passive unit monitors for specific audio signatures (e.g., weapon charging, aggressive movement) and provides a haptic alert, granting the user Advantage on any Recon checks to detect an impending ambush.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

Norscan Watcher-Idol

A rare and disturbing artifact brought south by raiders or desperate explorers from the frozen lands of Norsca. It is carved from mammoth tusk or whalebone into a grotesque, leering shape that combines features of an owl, a wolf, and a tormented human. A minor, feral spirit of the north is bound within it, granting the owner a portion of its predatory senses, but such power is never without risk.

  • Encumbrance: 1
  • Qualities: Magical, Unsettling
  • Mechanics:
    • Uneasy Watch: The feral spirit within is always alert. The owner gains a +10 bonus to all Perception Tests made to detect ambushes or hidden creatures.
    • The Spirit’s Gaze: Once per day, the owner may place the idol on a surface and attempt to see through its eyes. This requires a Challenging (+0) Cool Test.
      • On a success, for the next 10 minutes, the user can see and hear from the idol’s location (up to 100 yards away). They are in a trance and unaware of their own surroundings.
      • On a failure, the Gaze still works, but the user is plagued by terrifying, distracting visions of the northern wastes and suffers 1 Fatigued Condition.
    • Curse of the Savage Soul: The spirit is a wild thing, tainted by the energies of its homeland. Each time the owner uses The Spirit’s Gaze, they must make a Difficult (–10) Endurance Test. On a failure, they gain 1 Corruption Point as the untamed nature of the spirit momentarily overwhelms their own.