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Harmonious Gateway 427 of the Empathic Analyst

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by

Dale
in

Lore This legendary artifact is the singular, obsessive creation of a renegade Tide-Forged Scholarch named Lyra-Vael. Issued a standard Dream Water Chronometer 681, Lyra-Vael found its purely analytical data to be hollow. She believed that to truly understand the past, one must understand not just the what, but the why—the ethical and emotional heart of history. Her forbidden research led her to the principles of the Harmonious Gateway, convincing her that virtue was a quantifiable force. She sought to build a device that could analyze not just an object’s age, but its moral and emotional history.

She merged her chronometer with the core of a functioning Harmonious Gateway, using the dodecahedron as a new, psycho-reactive analysis chamber. To bridge the gap between cold data and living emotion, she unravelled a Harmonythread Cloak, weaving its empathic fungal threads into the chronometer’s very framework to act as a sensory input. Finally, she integrated the principles of the Suckerlure Bangle, not for brewing ale, but for its conceptual magic of “distillation” and “luring.” The bangle component became a filtration and focusing conduit, allowing the device to distill the pure emotional-temporal essence from any water source, breaking its sole reliance on Dreampool water. The result is not merely an analytical tool, but a psycho-historical engine, an artifact that reads the echoes of the soul as easily as it reads the decay of atoms.

Description This artifact is a complex, chest-worn apparatus. At its center, where the heart would be, rests a rotating, iridescent dodecahedron—the core of the Harmonious Gateway. This cage of shimmering metal and crystal serves as the device’s central analysis chamber. The dodecahedron is mounted on a harness crafted from supple, enchanted griffon leather, which is intricately embroidered with the pale, glowing fungal threads of the Harmonythread Cloak. This harness wraps around the torso and over the shoulders, with small, elegant brass vents along the collar that release a constant, faintly glowing mist. A flexible, shimmering conduit made of woven algae-like fibers runs from the central device down the wearer’s arm to a polished seashell-and-coral bangle—the Suckerlure Bangle component—which fits snugly on the wrist. The entire apparatus hums with a quiet, multi-layered resonance: the mechanical whirring of the chronometer, the harmonious chime of the gateway, and the empathic pulse of the cloak, all smelling faintly of sea-brine, damp earth, and ozone.

Specific Slot Worn Item (Chest, occupies the chest slot and one wrist slot)

Tier Four Stats

  • Psycho-Analytic Acumen: The immense flow of data from the device grants the wearer a profound and intuitive grasp of all interconnected systems, both logical and emotional. The wearer gains a +4 bonus to all Intelligence (Investigation) and Wisdom (Insight) checks.
  • Gestalt Resonance: The wearer’s empathic and temporal senses are so heightened that they can link the senses of their entire gestalt. All of the wearer’s avatars can share their senses (sight, sound, etc.) with each other simultaneously, regardless of distance, as long as they are on the same plane of existence.

Tags: Tier 4, Merged-Item, Scholarch, Worn-Item, Utility, Diagnostic, Steamcraft, Hydromancy, Divination, Investigation, Artisan-Crafted, Lore-Bound, Analytical, Tracking, Non-Combat, Magical, Ethical, Harmonious, Artifact, Puzzle, Virtue, Dodecahedron, Resonance, Symbolism, Alignment, Alewife, Fishing, Brewing, Culinary, Aquatic Craft, Flavor Infusion, Fermentation, Empathic Resonance, Diplomatic Aid, Mistwood Craft, Memory Amplification, Psycho-Historical, Ethical-Analysis, Multi-Component-Artifact, Psycho-Historical Engine, Virtue-Reader, Conceptual-Key, Lore-Engine, Soul-Reader, Truth-Mist Projector, Temporal-Analyst

Passive Magics

  • Aura of Historical Resonance: The artifact constantly reads its environment. The dials and gauges on the dodecahedron twitch and hum, granting the wearer a constant, intuitive awareness of the history around them. The wearer has advantage on all checks related to history, identifying the origin of objects or creatures, or recalling lore. Furthermore, the mist from the vents glows brightly when in the presence of strong, localized historical or psychic resonance (such as a place of great tragedy, triumph, or betrayal).
  • Aura of Harmonious Presence: The artifact projects a powerful 30-foot aura of empathic and ethical stability. Allies within the aura feel a sense of profound calm and purpose, gaining a +2 bonus to all saving throws. Hostile creatures entering the aura feel the weight of their own malice and disharmony, suffering a -2 penalty to all attack rolls while within the aura.
  • Essence Distillation: The Suckerlure Bangle component has been repurposed into a perfect magical filter. The device no longer requires pre-purified Dreampool water. It can now use a drop of any water (even salt water, swamp water, or blood), which the bangle component instantly “distills” into the perfect temporal and empathic catalyst needed for its analytical functions.

Active Magics

  • Psycho-Chronometric Analysis (Action): By focusing for one minute and touching an object, creature, or even the air in a specific location, the wearer can perform a complete analysis. On a successful DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) check, the dodecahedron’s crystal lens projects a holographic, multi-sensory vision of the target’s history. The wearer learns its age, origin, and magical properties, but also its complete emotional history—who held it, what they felt, its purpose, and the virtues or vices associated with its creation and use. When used on a creature, it reveals their emotional state, primary motivation, and a key memory from their past that defines their current actions.
  • Harmonious Unsealing (Action): The wearer can use the device to bypass any lock, barrier, or seal, whether magical or mundane. By analyzing the barrier for one minute, the device identifies the “conceptual virtue” of its purpose (e.g., a vault door’s virtue is “Protection,” a prison’s is “Justice,” a wizard’s ward is “Secrecy”). The wearer can then rotate the dodecahedron’s faces to match that virtue, causing the barrier to resonate in harmony and open peacefully without being damaged or triggering alarms. This can be used once per day.
  • Invocation of Empathic Distillation (Action): Once per day, the wearer can activate the full power of the empathic and distillation engines, creating a 60-foot radius zone of “Truth Serum Mist” for 10 minutes. All creatures within the mist are compelled to speak and act with complete emotional honesty, in alignment with their deepest virtues or vices. Deception becomes impossible. Creatures are compelled to justify their actions based on their true beliefs, making this an unparalleled tool for interrogation, diplomacy, or exposing spies.

Item Durability and Repair

As a singular, masterwork Tier 4 artifact, the Harmonious Gateway 427 of the Empathic Analyst is exceptionally resilient, its integrity a testament to the obsessive genius of its creator. Its magical bonds are powerful but are under constant, complex strain from the four distinct enchantments fused within.

  • Aetheric Hit Points (AHP): The artifact has 80 Aetheric Hit Points. This represents the formidable magical structure holding the disparate concepts of temporal analysis, ethical resonance, empathic feedback, and conceptual distillation together. Only direct, powerful magical attacks—such as artifact-sundering spells, weapons forged to destroy enchantments, or the focused will of a god-like entity—can damage its AHP. Mundane damage will not harm its magical nature, though it could physically damage the external components.
  • When AHP is Reduced to Zero (The Great Unraveling): The artifact does not explode; it implodes. If its AHP is depleted, the master enchantment that harmonizes the four essences shatters. The result is a localized psycho-temporal collapse.
    1. The Harmonious Gateway component spins violently and locks into a dissonant configuration, projecting a permanent 30-foot aura of profound despair and confusion.
    2. The Harmonythread weave frays on a metaphysical level, releasing a silent, psychic scream composed of every emotion and memory the device has ever analyzed, stunning any creature within 100 feet.
    3. The Suckerlure Bangle conduit overloads, causing a temporal distortion that traps the immediate area in a time loop, replaying the final moments before the artifact’s collapse for what seems like an eternity to anyone caught within. The physical apparatus falls to the ground, cold and dark. It is not destroyed, but it is now a cursed and dangerous object at the center of a psychic and temporal hazard zone, its magic utterly dormant and fractured.
  • Repairing the Magic (The Quest of Conceptual Restoration): Restoring the artifact is a legendary quest that requires healing its four conceptual “souls” before they can be re-fused. It is a task far beyond any simple artisan.
    1. Retrieve the Core: First, the dormant artifact must be retrieved from the center of its own hazard zone. This requires a party capable of withstanding overwhelming emotional despair and navigating a localized time loop.
    2. Soothe the Empathic Scream: The frayed empathic weave must be calmed. The artifact must be taken to a place of absolute emotional neutrality, such as the heart of an Echoing Veilcap grove or a monastery of silent monks. There, a master empath must perform a ritual to soothe the psychic scream and coax the threads back into a state of harmony.
    3. Re-solve the Ethical Dissonance: The Harmonious Gateway component must be unlocked. A character must demonstrate a profound act of virtue that perfectly embodies the four original items’ core principles: Wisdom (Gateway), Compassion (Harmonythread), Ingenuity (Suckerlure), and Truth (Chronometer). This act cannot be staged; it must be a genuine resolution to a significant dilemma, which “teaches” the Gateway its purpose again.
    4. Re-attune the Temporal Catalyst: To restore the distillation function, the artifact must be taken back to a source of pure, primal memory—a Dreampool. Submerging the artifact in the pool will re-attune the Suckerlure component to its function as a temporal filter.
    5. The Final Re-Forging: With all four essences calmed and restored, a legendary figure who understands the forbidden arts of the Tide-Forged Scholarchs must perform the final ritual. This involves using Lyra-Vael’s original, hidden research notes to re-weave the master enchantment, binding the four healed concepts back into their singular, functional form. This final step is an adventure in itself, as it requires finding the lost workshop and notes of the artifact’s renegade creator.

The Harmonious Gateway 427 of the Empathic Analyst is a singular, Tier 4 artifact—a unique and legendary item, not a product line. There is only one in existence. As such, it cannot be bought or sold in any shop, no matter how specialized or exclusive. Its acquisition is the stuff of epic quests and high-stakes political maneuvering. To possess it is to hold one of the most powerful analytical and diplomatic tools in the world, and any attempt to trade it would attract the attention of global powers.

Here are the few, extraordinary venues where such an artifact might be acquired or exchanged:

1. The Hoard of the Chronovore

  • Type of Venue: The Lair of an Ancient Dragon or similarly powerful, timeless entity.
  • Description: High in a secluded, mist-shrouded mountain range or deep within a temporal rift lies the hoard of a being who collects not just gold, but concepts, memories, and unique historical moments. This entity, perhaps a Gold Dragon who has witnessed millennia, would have acquired the artifact from its creator, Lyra-Vael, or found it after her demise. The “shop” is a cavern filled with impossible things: a perpetually blooming flower from a lost age, the last song of a dead god captured in a crystal, and among them, the Harmonious Gateway, humming softly.
  • How It’s Acquired: The Chronovore has no need for coin. The transaction is a philosophical and ethical trial. The dragon would engage the potential buyer in a lengthy debate, using its own powerful insight to probe their very soul. It would want to know why they need the artifact and what they intend to do with it. The dragon sees itself as a custodian, not a merchant, and will only release the artifact to someone whose purpose it deems worthy or, at least, interesting enough to observe. To the dragon, the artifact’s use is a grand experiment, and the buyer is the lead researcher.
  • Cost: The price is conceptual and absolute. The dragon might demand:
    • “A truth that the world has forgotten and that I do not know.”
    • “A future you are willing to sacrifice for the one you wish to create with this device.”
    • “Bring me an object that holds an emotion I have never personally experienced.” The cost is a quest in itself, a price that requires as much creativity and virtue as the artifact itself.

2. The Unwritten Ledger

  • Type of Venue: The Information Brokerage of a Global Spymaster.
  • Description: This is not a physical place but a network of secrets controlled by a single, enigmatic figure known only as “The Archivist.” The Archivist deals in the most valuable currency in Saṃsāra: absolute, verifiable truth. They likely acquired the artifact by orchestrating the downfall of a previous owner or by trading a secret of equivalent value. The artifact is their ultimate verification tool, but they know that possessing it directly is a liability. It is an asset to be leveraged.
  • How It’s Acquired/Sold: A potential buyer must navigate a labyrinth of intermediaries to even request a meeting. The transaction is cold, pragmatic, and utterly without sentiment. The Archivist would see the artifact as the “Conceptual Key” and would only trade it for an act of espionage or a piece of intelligence of global significance. They would want to know how the buyer plans to use it, not for ethical reasons, but to calculate the future value of the information that use might generate.
  • Cost: The price is purely in the form of world-altering secrets or actions:
    • The true name of a demon prince or the location of a slumbering god.
    • The complete military command structure and strategic plans of a major island nation.
    • The successful theft of another unique artifact, such as the master schematics from the Ironweave Foundry.
    • The permanent elimination of a rival intelligence network.

3. The Scholarch’s Quarantine (The Vault of Heresies)

  • Type of Venue: The most secure, magically shielded vault of the Tide-Forged Scholarchs.
  • Description: To the Scholarchs, Lyra-Vael’s creation is a dangerous perversion of their sacred analytical technology—a heretical device that blends their pure science with unpredictable emotional and ethical magic. If they ever re-acquired it, they would not use it; they would lock it away forever in a vault designed to contain its power and study it from a safe distance. The vault is a place of academic dread, a library of forbidden knowledge and dangerous ideas.
  • How It’s Acquired: It is not for sale or trade under any circumstances. A character could only acquire it in one of two ways:
    1. The Great Heist: By undertaking one of the most difficult thefts imaginable, bypassing the Scholarchs’ legendary magical and technological defenses to steal the artifact. This would make the character and their allies the most wanted individuals in the academic world.
    2. The Desperate Sanction: If the Scholarchs were to face a crisis of such a profound and esoteric nature that only the Empathic Analyst could solve it (e.g., a historical curse rewriting reality, a conceptual plague erasing memories), the Grand Confluence University council might, as a last resort, sanction its temporary release to a trusted (and heavily monitored) agent. The artifact would be loaned, not given, and the “price” would be to solve the crisis on the Scholarchs’ behalf, forever binding the agent to the university’s service.
  • Cost: An impossible heist or an act of service that saves the very fabric of history or knowledge.

The Harmonious Gateway 427 of the Empathic Analyst is a Tier 4 artifact, meaning its use in offense and defense is not about casting fireballs or raising shields, but about altering the very foundation of a conflict. It’s a tool for a strategist, a diplomat, or a spymaster, capable of ending battles before they begin or winning them in ways no one thought possible.

Here is how its use could be roleplayed in different environments:

Urban Environments (Noble Courts, Guild Halls, Spy Networks)

In a city, information and perception are the deadliest weapons. The artifact turns the wielder into the ultimate master of intrigue.

  • Defensive Roleplay (Exoneration & De-escalation):
    • Scenario: Your ally has been framed for a political assassination. The evidence is a dagger found in their room. A public trial is imminent.
    • Roleplay Description: “I don’t look for fingerprints; I seek the dagger’s soul. In the quiet of my chambers, I hold the Harmonious Gateway to my chest and perform the Psycho-Chronometric Analysis. I describe the holographic vision that fills the room: not a simple timeline, but a storm of emotions. I see the smith who forged the blade with pride. I see the merchant who sold it with greed. And then, I see the critical moment—the real killer’s hand, slick with sweat, their heart a tempest of fear and grim determination as they planted it. At the trial, I don’t present evidence; I present the truth. I use the device to project this psychometric echo for the magistrates to see. The defense is not an alibi; it is an undeniable, emotional truth that shatters the prosecution’s case.”
  • Offensive Roleplay (Social Assassination):
    • Scenario: A corrupt guild master is invulnerable, protected by layers of wealth, loyal guards, and political blackmail. A direct attack is suicide.
    • Roleplay Description: “I don’t need to get past his guards. I just need a moment in his council chambers. During a heated public debate, I activate the Invocation of Empathic Distillation. I narrate how the shimmering, nearly invisible ‘Truth Mist’ fills the room. I don’t make a single accusation. I simply ask the guild master to reaffirm his loyalty to the city. Forced into absolute emotional honesty, his mouth speaks the words of a loyalist, but his face contorts with the naked greed and contempt he truly feels. His allies see it. The council sees it. His carefully constructed mask doesn’t just slip; it evaporates. His power base is built on lies, and I have just taken away his ability to lie. I have destroyed him without laying a hand on his person.”

Ancient Ruins & Dungeons (Tombs of Forgotten Kings, Wizard Towers)

In ancient places, threats are often puzzles, curses, and guardians bound by old magic. The artifact is the ultimate key.

  • Defensive Roleplay (Bypassing the Inevitable):
    • Scenario: The party stands before the legendary Gate of the Sorrowful King, a massive adamantine door that instantly drains the life force of anyone who touches it. It cannot be broken or dispelled by conventional means.
    • Roleplay Description: “The others see a deathtrap. I see a lock waiting for the right key. I perform an analysis and learn the gate’s conceptual virtue: ‘Grief.’ It isn’t a ward; it is a monument to the king’s despair. To open it, we must harmonize with that grief. I rotate the dodecahedron, not to a symbol of power, but to the symbol for Compassion. Then, instead of trying to pick the lock, I speak to the gate itself, recounting a true memory of a great personal loss. The Harmonious Unsealing isn’t a spell; it is an act of empathy. I describe how the gate doesn’t grind open, but dissolves into mist, its ancient sorrow finally acknowledged and understood. We defended ourselves from the trap by healing its cause.”
  • Offensive Roleplay (Deconstructing a Guardian):
    • Scenario: The final chamber is guarded by an Eternal Sentinel, a magical construct that regenerates from all damage and is bound by a “deathless” pact. It cannot be destroyed in combat.
    • Roleplay Description: “I shout to the party, ‘Keep it busy! I need to read its history!’ I dodge its attacks while performing the Psycho-Chronometric Analysis. The holographic vision reveals the moment of its creation: the Sentinel is powered by the soul of a loyal knight who swore an oath to ‘protect the queen’s rest until the sun dies.’ The queen’s sarcophagus is in this room. The ‘offense’ is not to fight the Sentinel, but to end its oath. While the others fend it off, I use Harmonious Unsealing on the queen’s sarcophagus, its virtue being ‘Rest.’ As the lid gently slides open, revealing her peaceful remains, I shout, ‘Knight! Your queen is at peace! Your oath is fulfilled!’ I describe the Sentinel freezing mid-swing, its fiery eyes softening, before it kneels and crumbles into dust. We didn’t kill it; we gave it permission to die.”

Battlefields & Military Conflicts (Sieges, War Camps)

On a battlefield, the artifact is not a frontline weapon, but a strategic tool that can dismantle an army’s leadership or fortifications from the inside out.

  • Defensive Roleplay (The Unbreakable Wall):
    • Scenario: Your city is under siege from an unstoppable army. The final wall is about to be breached by a massive, magically-powered battering ram.
    • Roleplay Description: “I am on the battlements as the ram approaches. It is warded against all magic. But it is still a machine with a purpose. I use a ranged Psycho-Chronometric Analysis and learn that the ram’s core is sealed by a masterwork lock whose conceptual virtue is ‘Dominion.’ It is designed to only open for a greater power. I then use Harmonious Unsealing. I rotate the dodecahedron not to a symbol of opposition, but to a symbol of a higher authority—perhaps the sigil of the god this kingdom was founded under. The lock on the ram’s power core doesn’t see me as an enemy; it sees a higher purpose it must yield to. The core’s housing clicks open, and the ram sputters to a halt just feet from the wall. I defended the city not by building a stronger wall, but by reminding their weapon of a greater authority.”
  • Offensive Roleplay (Shattering Morale):
    • Scenario: An enemy army is held together by the iron will and fanatical devotion of their legendary general. If he falls, the army will break.
    • Roleplay Description: “We have captured one of the general’s personal battle standards. I use it for the Psycho-Chronometric Analysis. The vision shows me the source of his fanaticism: not strength, but a buried, shameful memory of cowardice from his first battle, an event he has spent his entire life trying to erase through aggression. This is the weapon. Before the final battle, I use magic to project a message to the general, a simple whisper only he can hear, describing that specific moment of shame in perfect detail. As the armies are about to clash, I focus the artifact’s passive Aura of Harmonious Presence on him, but in reverse—amplifying his inner disharmony. I describe how the great general, confronted by his deepest fear and his confidence shattered, freezes on the battlefield. His army, seeing their iron-willed leader suddenly gripped by terror, falters. Their charge dissolves into confusion and chaos. We attacked the man, not the soldier, and his army died with him.”

Perception of Activation:

Sight

  • User’s Perspective: Your world dissolves into a symphony of data and sensation. The central dodecahedron begins to rotate rapidly, its iridescent faces blurring into a sphere of pure, shimmering light. Faint, ghostly symbols representing virtues flare and fade across its surface. The glowing fungal threads on the harness brighten to an intense, silver-white, and the mist from the collar vents thickens, swirling around the central light. You see a holographic, multi-sensory projection begin to form in the air before you—not a simple image, but a living memory, complete with distortions of color that represent its emotional and ethical weight. The conduit to your wrist pulses with aquamarine light, like a river of data flowing to and from the bangle.
  • Observer’s Perspective: An observer witnesses a breathtaking and terrifying display. The user becomes the epicenter of a localized storm of light and sound. A complex, shimmering dodecahedron at their chest spins into a blur of light, projecting a ghostly, semi-translucent scene into the air. The user is wreathed in a glowing, ethereal mist, and the intricate patterns on their harness pulse with a life of their own. It is an unmistakable, awe-inspiring display of legendary magic.
  • Positives: The visual feedback is absolute, providing a clear and detailed representation of the historical and emotional data being analyzed. The spectacle is incredibly intimidating, capable of halting a confrontation through sheer awe.
  • Negatives: The activation is a beacon visible from a great distance. It makes stealth utterly impossible and announces the presence of a legendary artifact to everyone in sight, attracting immense and often unwanted attention.

Sound

  • User’s Perspective: You are immersed in a complex, multi-layered symphony of impossibilities. You hear the harmonious, crystalline chime of the Gateway, the quiet, frantic clicking and whirring of the chronometer’s internal mechanisms, the deep, empathic hum of the Harmonythread weave, and the faint, bubbling resonance of the Suckerlure’s distillation process, all at once. The sounds layer into a single, cohesive, and understandable ‘song’ of information.
  • Observer’s Perspective: A nearby observer hears a deeply strange and beautiful sound. It is a harmonious, chiming melody layered over the quiet, precise sounds of a complex clockwork engine, all underscored by a low, resonant hum. The sound is clearly magical, and it seems to quiet the surrounding environment.
  • Positives: The auditory feedback provides a secondary layer of data for the user. For observers, the sound is often calming and mesmerizing, which can de-escalate a tense situation.
  • Negatives: The sound, while not deafening, is distinct and supernatural. It will alert any creature with hearing to your position and the use of powerful magic. For the user, the sheer complexity of the sound can be disorienting at first.

Smell

  • User’s Perspective: A triumvirate of scents washes over you: the sharp, clean tang of ozone and hot brass from the chronometer’s steam engine, the deep, earthy smell of damp forest loam from the fungal threads, and the crisp, briny scent of sea-salt from the bangle’s conduit. The combination is unique and grounding.
  • Observer’s Perspective: A wave of strange, unidentifiable scents emanates from the user—the air suddenly smells of a thunderstorm, a deep forest, and the sea, all at once. The aroma is pleasant but distinctly unnatural.
  • Positives: The scent provides a strong sensory anchor for the user, helping them to focus amidst the flood of information.
  • Negatives: The powerful and unique smell is another way your presence can be detected, especially by creatures with a keen sense of smell.

Taste

  • User’s Perspective: A phantom taste forms on your tongue—a combination of the metallic tang of ozone, the earthy flavor of a mushroom, and the clean, mineral taste of pure spring water.
  • Observer’s Perspective: There is no discernible taste to an observer.
  • Positives: A completely personal and undetectable layer of sensory confirmation for the user.
  • Negatives: There are no inherent negatives to this perception.

Touch/Feel (Physical Sensation)

  • User’s Perspective: You feel a powerful, deep vibration emanating from the dodecahedron at your chest, a rhythmic thrumming that feels like a second heartbeat. The griffon leather harness feels solid and secure, an anchor in the storm of sensations. You feel the cool, swirling mist from the vents on your neck and face, and a gentle, cooling sensation from the bangle on your wrist as it filters the ambient energies.
  • Observer’s Perspective: An observer standing close might feel the air thrumming with a powerful vibration and feel the cool, moist touch of the mist if they are within its radius.
  • Positives: The strong tactile feedback is grounding, helping the user to maintain their connection to the physical world while their mind is processing abstract information.
  • Negatives: The powerful vibration can be physically jarring, and the contrast between the thrumming chest piece and the cool mist can be distracting.

Extra-Sensory Perceptions

  • User’s Perspective:
    • Empathic Immersion: You don’t just see the projected history; you feel it. When analyzing a sword, you feel the pride of its smith, the fear of the soldier who wielded it, and the final, cold shock of its last victim. This flood of raw emotion provides the context behind the data.
    • Temporal Vertigo: Your sense of time becomes fluid. You are seeing the object’s creation, its long history, and its present state all at once. You perceive not just a memory, but the entire causal chain that led to this moment, granting you a profound and dizzying sense of perspective.
    • Virtue/Vice Resonance: You perceive the moral weight of the object or creature. You can feel the compassion a cloak was woven with, the greed that motivated the creation of a cursed coin, or the courage a shield was imbued with. You are analyzing the target’s very soul and its alignment with the universe’s fundamental ethical principles.
  • Observer’s Perspective (with ESP capabilities):
    • Aura of the God-Machine: An aura-seer would be blinded by the sheer complexity of the magical signature. They would see four distinct, legendary-tier auras—Divination, Abjuration, Enchantment, and Transmutation—all impossibly braided together into a single, harmonious, and overwhelmingly powerful field. The artifact doesn’t have an aura; it is an aura.
    • Psychic Echo Chamber: An empath standing nearby would feel a powerful “bleed” of the emotions being analyzed, experiencing faint, confusing echoes of the pride, fear, or sorrow that the user is fully immersed in.
    • Nexus of Concepts: A spiritually attuned observer would perceive the user as a temporary nexus point for reality itself. They would sense that abstract concepts—History, Truth, Compassion, Virtue—are flowing into the user, being processed, and being understood. The user temporarily becomes a living library of the universe’s deepest truths.
  • Positives: The user gains a level of understanding that is unparalleled, solving mysteries and understanding motives with absolute certainty. The artifact’s complexity makes it almost impossible for an outside observer to analyze or counter.
  • Negatives: The psychic and emotional backlash for the user is immense. Experiencing the raw, unfiltered emotions of a tragic history can be psychologically damaging. The temporal vertigo can be disorienting, and the constant judgment of an object’s moral weight is a heavy mental burden. It is a tool of profound power that exacts a significant toll on the wielder’s psyche.

The Schema of the Empathic Analyst

This legendary crafting recipe outlines the monumental undertaking of merging four distinct Tier 1 artifacts into a singular, Tier 4 psycho-historical engine. The process is one of conceptual alchemy and metaphysical engineering, a task achievable only by a master artisan who is equal parts chronomancer, empath, philosopher, and engineer.

Items Merged:

Additional Materials Needed:

  • The Heartwood of a World-Tree Sapling: A single, unblemished block of wood taken from a sapling growing in a place where the borders between the past, present, and future are thin. This will serve as the core matrix for the new apparatus.
  • Mycelial Cords from a Grove of Elder Veilcaps: Not just threads, but living, empathic cords harvested from the central root-brain of an ancient, sentient fungal colony. These will act as the psycho-sensory conduits.
  • A Droplet of Pure Conceptual Time: A mythical substance, said to be a tear from a god of fate or a condensed moment from the dawn of creation. It serves as the ultimate temporal catalyst and power source.
  • Philosopher’s Solder: A rare alchemical alloy that does not bind metal, but rather binds abstract concepts together, allowing disparate enchantments to function as one.

Tools Required:

  • A Harmonious Forge: A forge that operates not on heat, but on resonant frequencies, capable of melting down and reshaping magical alloys without destroying their enchantments.
  • An Empath’s Weaving Loom: A specialized loom that allows a weaver to feel the emotional and psychic state of the threads they are working with, enabling the creation of complex empathic matrices.
  • A Chronomancer’s Calibration Kit: A set of impossibly precise, masterwork tools designed to measure and align temporal and aetheric frequencies.
  • An Alchemist’s Sublimation Retort: A complex glass apparatus used to distill not just physical substances, but the very magical essence or “conceptual soul” of an enchanted item.

Skill Requirements:

  • Legendary Craftsmanship: The artisan must be a grandmaster of at least two distinct crafting disciplines (e.g., Arcane Engineering, Master Weaving).
  • Conceptual Alchemy (Legendary): The ability to deconstruct magical items into their base concepts and reforge them into a new, harmonious whole.
  • Psycho-Chronometry (Master): The unique and esoteric skill of understanding and manipulating the relationship between time, memory, and emotion.
  • A Quiet Mind (Character Trait): The process is a battle of wills and concepts. The artisan must possess a mind of supreme focus and tranquility to mediate between the four warring essences without being overwhelmed.

Crafting Steps:

Phase 1: The Conceptual Deconstruction (3 Days) The four artifacts must be unmade, their physical forms dissolved to isolate their purest magical concept. This is not destruction, but a reverent distillation.

  1. The Harmonious Gateway is placed in the Harmonious Forge. The artisan “melts” it down with resonant frequencies, separating the physical metal from its “Virtuous Alloy”—a shimmering, semi-liquid essence of pure ethical law.
  2. The Harmonythread Cloak is carefully unraveled on the Empath’s Weaving Loom. The physical leather is discarded, while the glowing fungal threads are gathered. These threads are then further processed, their collective consciousness woven into the raw Mycelial Cords.
  3. The Suckerlure Bangle is placed in the Alchemist’s Sublimation Retort. It is heated and distilled until only a single, shimmering drop of “Aquatic Essence”—the concept of luring, distilling, and filtering—remains.
  4. The Dream Water Chronometer is painstakingly disassembled using the Chronomancer’s Kit. The steam engine and brass dials are set aside. The artisan must extract the core Divination Crystal and its analytical engine, isolating its “Analytical Core.”

Phase 2: The Weaving of the New Vessel (5 Days) The artisan now has the four core concepts ready for integration into a new form.

  1. The Heartwood of a World-Tree Sapling is carved into the base harness.
  2. The “Virtuous Alloy” from the Gateway is placed back in the Harmonious Forge and re-forged into the intricate, rotating dodecahedron, which is then mounted onto the Heartwood harness.
  3. On the Empath’s Weaving Loom, the Mycelial Cords are intricately woven into the harness, threaded through the dodecahedron, and extended to form the flexible conduit that will lead to the wrist.
  4. The “Aquatic Essence” from the Bangle is carefully infused into the end of the Mycelial Cord conduit, where it crystallizes into the new seashell-and-coral bangle form.

Phase 3: The Integration and Activation (1 Day) This is the final, most dangerous phase, a single, unbroken ritual lasting 24 hours.

  1. The “Analytical Core” from the chronometer is carefully placed within the center of the newly forged dodecahedron. The various steam vents and brass fittings from the original cloak and chronometer are integrated into the harness, now serving as regulators for the new, immense power flow.
  2. The Philosopher’s Solder is used to seal the conceptual seams, a meditative process of tracing every connection and ensuring the four concepts are linked, not just physically adjacent.
  3. The artisan then places the Droplet of Pure Conceptual Time into the dodecahedron, upon the Analytical Core. This is the spark that will ignite the engine.
  4. The artifact will immediately flare to life, vibrating violently as the four concepts clash. The artisan must immediately don the apparatus. For the remainder of the ritual, they must engage in a battle of will, using their “Quiet Mind” and skill in Psycho-Chronometry to force the four essences into a single, harmonious function. They must actively mediate the conflict, teaching the analytical engine to understand emotion, teaching the empathic weave to process data, teaching the ethical lock to filter truth, and teaching the distillation conduit to serve them all. Failure means the artifact shatters, releasing a catastrophic wave of temporal, emotional, and logical chaos. Success means the vibrations cease, the hum stabilizes, and the Harmonious Gateway 427 of the Empathic Analyst is born.

Scholar Who Weighed Sorrows

Hear now a story with frayed edges, a tale pulled from a script of woven sea-mist, whose true words are lost to the deep currents of time. The telling is crooked, for the old tongue had no words for what we now call science, or soul, or the sad weight of a memory.

In the days when the world had a softer skin, there lived a woman among the Tide-Forged Scholarchs, and her name was Lyra-Vael. She was a keeper of the Chronometer, the tool of brass and steam that could look at a fleck of dust and tell you the name of the mountain it fell from a thousand years ago. She was the best of her kind. Her mind was a sharp and beautiful engine.

But a sickness was upon her, a sickness of questions. She would take a shard from a forgotten battlefield, and her Chronometer would sing its song of numbers. It would say, “This metal is two thousand years old, forged in the fires of the North.” But Lyra-Vael would hold the shard and feel a coldness the steam could not measure. She would whisper, “But why was it swung? Was it for love? For greed? Did the hand that held it tremble?”

Her machine could name the bones of a moment, but it could not feel its heart. This hollow truth was a poison in her soul. She said to the elders, “We have a library of facts, but we are blind to the story. We are merely the catalogers of ghosts.” The elders rebuked her, for the Scholarchs valued the what, not the why.

So Lyra-Vael became a renegade. She took her Chronometer, and she began a great and lonely journey to build a machine that could not just see the past, but understand it.

Her quest first led her to the Mistwood, to find the weavers of the Harmonythread. They were a people who did not speak with mouths, but with the feeling of the heart. She showed them her machine. They touched it and recoiled from its cold, logical soul. Lyra-Vael stayed with them for a year, learning not to weave thread, but to weave empathy. They taught her that every person, every thing, has a song of feeling, and that this song is a kind of truth. They gave her their greatest cloak, and she did not wear it. She unraveled it, thread by glowing thread, to take its lesson of feeling. This was the first soul of her new machine.

Her journey then took her to a coast where the alewives brewed their ales with the tide itself. They were masters of the Suckerlure, the bangle that could pull the flavor from a single grain of barley, the story from a drop of sea-water. She showed them her machine. They laughed and said it was too complicated. “The truth of a thing is not found by breaking it apart,” the eldest alewife said, “but by luring its essence out.” Lyra-Vael stayed with them for a year, learning not to brew, but to distill. They taught her that even a single drop of water holds the memory of the whole ocean, if you know how to ask. They gave her their most potent bangle, and she did not wear it. She took its lesson of luring the truth. This was the second soul of her new machine.

Her final journey was the hardest. She sought the keepers of the Harmonious Gateway, the dodecahedron that did not open with a key, but with a good heart. She showed them her machine, and they saw its power, but also its emptiness. “Your machine knows what is true,” the keeper said, “but it does not know what is right. It has no virtue.” Lyra-Vael stayed with them for a year, learning not of magic, but of ethics. They taught her that every action leaves a mark on the world, a mark of courage or of cowardice, of compassion or of cruelty, and that this mark was the truest history of all. They gave her the heart of a broken Gateway, and she did not mend it. She took its lesson of judgment. This was the third soul of her new machine.

In a hidden workshop powered by a deep-earth vent, Lyra-Vael began her impossible work. She took her Chronometer, the fourth soul, the soul of cold fact. She performed a dangerous surgery on the soul of the world. She wove the threads of empathy through the gears of logic. She fitted the lens of judgment over the eye of analysis. She installed the heart of distillation where the boiler of steam once sat. It was a thing of leather and glowing thread, of shimmering crystal and polished shell, of brass and steam and a deep, multi-layered hum. It was not a machine anymore. It was an oracle.

Its first true test came when she was called to the Silent Kingdom. A king had died, and his sorrow was so great that his entire court was frozen in time, statues of grief in a palace of dust. No magic could break the curse. Lyra-Vael strapped her new creation to her chest. She did not use it on the king. She used it on a single, frozen teardrop on the queen’s cheek.

The artifact came to life. It did not give her a date or a number. It projected a living story into the room, a story made of light and feeling and the flavor of truth. It showed the king’s great love for his queen. It showed his secret, a terrible mistake he had made in his youth that he believed had led to a great injustice. It showed that his dying sorrow was not for his own life, but a belief that his soul was unworthy of love.

The machine did not just show this. It distilled the virtue of the queen’s love, the empathy of the court’s loyalty, and it judged the king’s heart not by his single mistake, but by the whole of his compassionate reign. It presented this new, balanced truth. The Harmonious Gateway at its core spun, chimed, and unlocked the king’s sorrow. The frozen teardrop fell. The curse broke. Time began again.

What became of Lyra-Vael is a story with missing pages. Some say she used the device to walk into the past, to heal the wounds of history at their source. Others say she became one with her creation, a wandering spirit who speaks only in questions and truths. But the artifact remains, a legend whispered in the halls of scholars and kings, the Empathic Analyst, the machine that learned how to weigh a sorrow.

Moral of the Story: The truth of a thing is not what it is, but the story of why it came to be, and its worth is measured not by its form, but by the virtue of its heart.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Lyra-Vael’s Astrolabe of Truth Wondrous item, artifact (requires attunement)

This complex apparatus is worn on the chest, featuring a rotating, iridescent dodecahedron mounted on an embroidered leather harness. A shimmering conduit connects the central device to a bangle on the wearer’s wrist.

While attuned to this artifact, you have a +3 bonus to your Intelligence (Investigation) and Wisdom (Insight) checks. Additionally, you gain a +2 bonus to your spell save DC and spell attack bonus.

Aura of Harmonious Presence. The artifact projects a 30-foot aura. You and your allies within the aura have a +2 bonus to all saving throws. Hostile creatures that start their turn within the aura or enter it for the first time on a turn suffer a -2 penalty to all attack rolls while within the aura.

Curse: The Analyst’s Burden. This artifact contains a maelstrom of historical emotions and ethical data. After you finish a long rest, you must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or be afflicted by a form of psychic overload for the next 24 hours. The GM chooses one of the following flaws:

  • Empathic Overload: You have disadvantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.
  • Logical Detachment: You have disadvantage on all Charisma checks.
  • Temporal Vertigo: You cannot take reactions.

Abilities:

  • Psycho-Chronometric Analysis (1 minute): You can spend 1 minute performing an analysis on an object, a willing or incapacitated creature, or a 10-foot-cube area you are touching. You learn its complete history, including its origin, purpose, and the powerful emotions or ethical events associated with it. This functions as a legend lore spell, but also reveals emotional and moral context.
  • Harmonious Unsealing (1/Day): As an action, you can touch the astrolabe to any lock, barrier, or seal, including those created by spells like arcane lock or wall of force. The device analyzes the barrier’s conceptual purpose and opens it peacefully, bypassing it for 1 minute without triggering alarms or wards.
  • Invocation of Empathic Distillation (1/Day): As an action, you can release a 60-foot-radius cloud of shimmering, empathic mist centered on yourself. The mist lasts for 10 minutes or until a strong wind disperses it. Any creature that starts its turn within the mist must succeed on a DC 20 Charisma saving throw or be compelled to speak and act with complete emotional honesty. A creature under this effect cannot speak a deliberate lie and must answer any question asked of it with its truthful emotional reaction, though it is not compelled to speak.

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

The Psycho-Historical Engine Mythos Artifact

This is a bizarre, chest-worn apparatus of shimmering metal, glowing threads, and a central, rotating dodecahedron. It hums with an unnatural resonance, appearing to be a fusion of occultism, alien biology, and lost technology. Understanding its true function—to analyze the emotional and ethical “soul” of matter and time—costs 1d6/1d10 Sanity points.

  • The Analyst’s Disassociation: Prolonged use of this artifact erodes the user’s sense of self. Each time a power is used, the Investigator must make a POW roll. On a failure, they suffer a temporary bout of madness as they are overwhelmed by the historical emotions they are witnessing. After using the device’s powers a total of 10 times, the Investigator gains a new indefinite insanity (e.g., “Believes they are a composite of every person whose memories they have witnessed”).
  • Powers (require Magic Points and concentration):
    • Psychometric Reading (Costs 8 MP, 1d10 minutes): The Investigator can analyze an object or location. The Keeper describes its full, unvarnished history, including any traumatic, violent, or sanity-blasting events associated with it. Witnessing this unfiltered history costs the Investigator 1/1d8 Sanity points.
    • Conceptual Bypass (Costs 10 MP, 1 minute): The device can be used to open any single physical or supernatural barrier. The Investigator makes an opposed POW roll against the barrier’s own “conceptual strength” (typically POW 80 for magical wards, POW 60 for complex mundane locks). Success causes the barrier to open peacefully.
    • The Unveiling Mist (Costs 12 MP, 1d6 SAN): The Investigator can release a shimmering mist in a 30-yard radius that lasts for 10 minutes. Any human within the mist must succeed on a Hard POW roll or be compelled to act on their deepest, truest emotions (fear, greed, compassion, etc.), unable to lie or act with subterfuge. This often leads to horrific revelations and further Sanity rolls for all involved.

Blades in the Dark

Lyra-Vael’s Resonant Heart A legendary artifact, a complex, chest-worn engine of humming crystals, glowing threads, and brass fittings. It is believed to be the only one of its kind, a masterwork of a forgotten Scholarch. (Special, takes 3 Load)

This powerful artifact allows you to read the “ghost field” of objects and people, revealing their true history and intent.

  • The Warden’s Burden: When you take this artifact on a score, you must mark one of your vices. You cannot indulge this vice for stress relief during the next downtime, as your mind is too occupied by the echoes of the artifact.
  • Special Abilities:
    • Psycho-Historical Reading: When you Study a person, place, or object using the Resonant Heart, you may ask any two questions from the Study list for free, even on a failed roll. Your effect is always considered one level higher for this action.
    • Harmonious Bypass: Once per score, you may spend 2 Stress to bypass a single complex lock, arcane ward, or security system without a roll. You describe how the artifact “sings” to the barrier’s purpose, convincing it to open peacefully.
    • The Truth Mist: Once per score, you may spend 3 Stress to release a shimmering mist. For the rest of the scene, no one in your presence (including you and your crew) can tell a deliberate lie. This gives you Potent effect on any Command or Sway roll to get the truth, but may have devastating social consequences.

Knave (2nd Edition)

The Empath’s Gateway Item Slots: 4 (A complex, chest-worn apparatus)

An ornate, glowing dodecahedron mounted on a leather harness, connected by a shimmering tube to a bangle on your wrist. It hums with a complex, multi-layered sound.

  • The Analyst’s Burden: The device is mentally taxing. Each time you use one of its once-per-day abilities, you must succeed on a DC 15 Will save or suffer 1d6 psychic damage from the overwhelming sensory input.
  • Passive Aura: Allies within 30 ft. of you gain a +1 bonus to all saving throws. Enemies within 30 ft. suffer a -1 penalty to their attack rolls.
  • Abilities:
    • Psycho-Chronometric Analysis (1/day): You can spend 10 minutes analyzing an object or creature. You learn its complete history, its primary purpose, and its current emotional state and motivations.
    • Harmonious Unsealing (1/day): You can touch the device to any non-magical or magically locked barrier. The barrier opens peacefully for 1 minute.
    • Invocation of Truth (1/day): You can create a 60 ft. cloud of shimmering mist for 10 minutes. Any creature inside must succeed on a DC 18 Will save or be compelled to speak only the absolute truth.

Fate Core System

The Astrolabe of Virtuous Truth A Legendary Artifact

This is a unique and powerful artifact that becomes central to the character’s story. It grants the powerful item Aspect: Heart of the Empathic Analyst.

  • Mechanics:
    • Invoking the Aspect: You can spend a Fate Point to invoke the Heart of the Empathic Analyst for a +2 bonus or a reroll on any action that involves its core functions: analyzing a person or object’s history (Investigate), discerning motives and emotions (Empathy), bypassing a complex lock or ward (Burglary or Lore), or compelling emotional honesty (Provoke or Rapport).
    • Compelling the Aspect (The Curse): The GM can offer you a Fate Point to compel this Aspect, forcing the artifact’s warring essences to influence your actions. For example: “The Baron is clearly lying, but because your Heart of the Empathic Analyst is resonating with the memory of a great betrayal, you’re overwhelmed with paranoia and can’t trust your own judgment right now. You’ll take this Fate Point and let your accusation fall flat as you stumble over your words.”
  • Item Stunts: The artifact also grants the following powerful stunts:
    • Psycho-Historical Analysis: Once per session, when you use the Investigate skill to create an advantage on a person, place, or object, you can declare you are performing a full analysis. You automatically succeed with a spin (getting two free invokes on the Aspect you create), and the Aspect reflects a profound truth, such as Haunted by a Regrettable Betrayal or Forged for a Noble Purpose.
    • Harmonious Unsealing: Once per session, you can automatically Overcome a single physical, social, or magical barrier by harmonizing with its conceptual purpose. You do not need to roll; you simply describe how the artifact “sings” to the barrier, and it opens for you.
    • Invocation of Truth Mist: Once per game session, you can spend a Fate Point to create the powerful Situation Aspect Mist of Unvarnished Honesty with two free invokes for you. While this Aspect is in play, deception is impossible for anyone in the scene.

Numenera & Cypher System

Psycho-Temporal Resonator Artifact

This complex, chest-worn apparatus is a prior-world device that interfaces with psionic, temporal, and ethical data fields. It is a tool of almost incomprehensible analytical power.

  • Level: 9
  • Form: An ornate, chest-worn harness with a central, rotating dodecahedron and a conduit leading to a wrist-worn bangle.
  • Effect:
    • Passive: While worn, the user gains an asset on all Intellect-based tasks involving investigation, perception, and discerning motives. The user also gains an asset on all Intellect defense tasks.
    • The Analyst’s Burden (GM Intrusion): The device’s complex, warring energies are a constant strain. The GM can make an intrusion to declare that the user is overwhelmed by the data stream, forcing them to take an action based on raw emotion (fear, compassion, rage) rather than logic, or suffering 4 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor).
  • Active Abilities:
    • Psycho-Chronometric Analysis (Action): The user can spend one minute concentrating on an object, creature, or location within immediate range. The device then reveals a complete historical, emotional, and ethical summary of the target, providing the answer to one specific, complex question about its past (as determined by the GM).
    • Harmonious Unsealing (Action): The user can touch the device to a single barrier (a physical door, a force field, a magical ward) of level 8 or lower. The barrier deactivates or opens peacefully for one minute.
    • Empathic Distillation Field (Action): The user releases a cloud of shimmering mist in a short-range radius that lasts for 10 minutes. Any creature of level 8 or lower in the cloud must succeed on an Intellect defense roll each round it attempts to speak a deliberate lie. On a failure, it is compelled to state the emotional truth instead.
  • Depletion: 1 in 1d10 (check when an active ability is used).

Pathfinder (2nd Edition)

The Empathic Analyst’s Gateway Item 20, Rare, Magical, Invested, Divination, Enchantment

  • Price 70,000 gp
  • Usage worn harness; Bulk 2
  • Description This complex apparatus is worn over the chest, featuring a rotating, iridescent dodecahedron mounted on an embroidered leather harness. A shimmering conduit connects it to a bangle on the wearer’s wrist.
  • Mechanics
    • When you invest the gateway, you gain a +3 item bonus to Investigation and Perception checks to Sense Motive. You also gain a +2 status bonus to all saving throws.
    • Curse of the Analyst’s Burden: The artifact contains a conflict of powerful concepts. After you complete your daily preparations, you must succeed at a DC 40 Will save or become overwhelmed by one of the artifact’s essences. On a failure, you become stupefied 2 for 24 hours as your mind struggles to process the flood of information. This curse is not removed if you un-invest the item, but fades after 24 hours.
  • Activate [one-minute] (concentrate, exploration, revelation) Frequency at-will; Effect You perform a Psycho-Chronometric Analysis on an object, willing creature, or 10-foot cube of space you are touching. This functions as the legend lore spell, but also provides information on the dominant emotions and ethical alignments (such as a chaotic evil or lawful good alignment) associated with the target’s history.
  • Activate [two-actions] (command, envision, transmutation) Frequency once per day; Effect You perform a Harmonious Unsealing. You touch the gateway to a single lock, barrier, or magical ward (such as wall of force). The barrier is temporarily bypassed, creating an opening large enough for a Medium creature to pass through for 1 minute. This does not trigger any magical traps or alarms on the barrier.
  • Activate [two-actions] (command, envision, enchantment, mental) Frequency once per day; Effect You perform an Invocation of Empathic Distillation, releasing a 60-foot emanation of shimmering mist that lasts for 10 minutes. Any creature that starts its turn in the emanation must attempt a DC 42 Will save. On a failure, the creature is affected by a powerful zone of truth effect and cannot speak a deliberate lie. On a critical failure, it must also answer one question truthfully if asked.

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE)

The Gateway of Souls Legendary Artifact

A complex, chest-worn apparatus of glowing crystals, whirring gears, and empathic threads. It is a unique and powerful tool for uncovering any truth.

  • Weight: 10; Cost: $500,000+
  • Requirements: Spirit d10+, Occult d10+, must not have the Mean or Ruthless Hindrances.
  • The Analyst’s Burden (Major Hindrance): The wielder is constantly bombarded with psychic and emotional echoes from their surroundings. They suffer a -1 penalty to all Trait rolls to resist Fear and Taunts.
  • Passive Aura of Harmony: The artifact projects a powerful aura. Allies within a Large Burst Template centered on the wearer get a +1 bonus to recover from being Shaken.
  • Powers: The device has its own pool of 25 Power Points, which recharge at a rate of 5 per hour. The wearer can activate any of the following abilities, which are contained within the device:
    • Psycho-Chronometric Analysis (5 PP): The wielder can cast Object Reading on any target (including a living creature or location) with a Raise. The GM provides a complete and detailed history, including the strong emotions and motivations associated with it.
    • Harmonious Unsealing (3 PP): The wielder can cast Dispel on any barrier, mundane or magical. The power automatically succeeds and has no Power Point limit on what it can affect.
    • Invocation of Truth (5 PP): The wielder can cast a unique version of Puppet. It affects a Large Burst Template. Any target in the area that fails a Spirit roll is compelled to speak with complete emotional honesty for the duration of the power, unable to lie or mislead.

Shadowrun (6th Edition)

The Lyra-Vael Psychometric Engine Artifact Focus (Unique)

This appears as a chest-worn harness of exotic bio-fiber, intricately embroidered with glowing threads. At its center is a rotating, iridescent dodecahedron of unknown alloy, connected via a shimmering data-tendril to a bangle on the user’s wrist. The device hums with a complex, multi-layered astral signature, a fusion of a powerful spirit, a sophisticated expert system, and a deeply alien bio-essence.

  • Availability: 25F
  • Cost: Priceless (would auction for over 10 million Nuyen)
  • Bonding Cost: 20 Karma
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Passive Aura of Resonance: The engine projects a constant, 30-meter psychic field. Allies within the field gain a +1 dice pool bonus to all Composure tests. Enemies suffer a -1 dice pool penalty to all Attack tests made while within the field.
    • The Warden’s Dissonance (Curse): This artifact is a prison for warring concepts. Whenever you use one of the engine’s Active abilities, you suffer 3 points of Stun damage (unresisted) from the sheer psychic strain. Additionally, after a scene where you used any of its powers, you must succeed in a Willpower + Logic (4) test or suffer a temporary negative quality (GM’s choice, e.g., Paranoia, Indecisive) until your next full rest.
  • Active Abilities (use Magic + Intuition as the dice pool):
    • Psycho-Chronometric Analysis (Complex Action): You can perform a full analysis on a target (person, object, or location) within touch range. This is an Assensing + Intuition (6, 1 minute) Extended Test. If successful, you gain a complete, unvarnished history of the target, including its origin, key moments in its existence, and the dominant emotions associated with it. This is considered a direct link to the object’s “ghost” and provides flawless intelligence.
    • Harmonious Unsealing (Major Action): Once per day, you may touch the device to any single mundane or magical barrier (including a maglock, ward, or structural wall). The device “sings” to the barrier’s purpose, causing it to open or become intangible for 1 minute. No test is required.
    • Invocation of Truth (Major Action): Once per day, you can release a 30-meter radius cloud of shimmering, psychoactive mist that lasts for 10 minutes. Any character in the mist who attempts to speak a deliberate lie must first succeed in a Willpower + Logic (5) test. On a failure, they are compelled to state the emotional truth of the matter instead. This ability causes 8 Stun damage as Drain, resisted as normal.

Starfinder Roleplaying Game

The Empathic Analyst’s Gateway

  • Level 20; Price Priceless (Artifact)
  • Aura overwhelming divination and enchantment; Bulk 2
  • Type Hybrid Item; Armor Slot — (worn over armor or clothing)
  • Description A complex, chest-worn apparatus featuring a rotating, iridescent dodecahedron on a harness of glowing, fungal threads. A shimmering conduit connects the device to a coral-and-seashell bangle on the wrist.
  • Game Mechanics
    • Passive Aura of Harmonious Presence: You and all allies within a 30-foot radius of you gain a +2 morale bonus to all saving throws. All enemies within that radius take a –2 penalty to attack rolls.
    • The Analyst’s Burden (Curse): The artifact is a nexus of conflicting historical data. Each time you use one of its Active abilities, you must succeed at a DC 28 Will save or become confused for 1d4 rounds from the psychic backlash.
  • Active Abilities:
    • Psycho-Chronometric Analysis (1 minute): You can perform a complete analysis on a single object, willing or helpless creature, or 10-foot-cube area you are touching. This functions as the vision spell, but also reveals key emotional states, moral alignments, and hidden motivations associated with the target’s history.
    • Harmonious Unsealing (1/day): As a standard action, you can touch the device to any single non-magical or magical barrier, including a locked door, a force field, or a magical wall (such as wall of force). The barrier becomes permeable for you and your allies for 1 minute, allowing you to pass through it as if it weren’t there. This does not trigger any alarms.
    • Invocation of Empathic Distillation (1/day): As a standard action, you can cause the device to release a 60-foot-radius cloud of shimmering mist that lasts for 10 minutes. The mist functions as a powerful zone of truth (Will save DC 28). Any creature that fails its save is also compelled to justify its statements with its true, underlying emotional reasoning.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

The Lyra-Vael Psychohistorical Engine

  • Tech Level: 19 (Ancients)
  • Description: A unique and priceless artifact of Ancients’ design. It appears as an ornate, chest-worn harness with a central, rotating dodecahedron that shimmers with impossible colors. A flexible conduit connects it to a wrist bangle. The device interfaces directly with the user’s psionic and biological fields to analyze and manipulate conceptual data.
  • Cost: Not for sale (Artifact)
  • Weight: 4 kg
  • Power: Self-sustaining (Ancients Power Source)
  • Game Mechanics:
    • Psionic Dissonance (Burden): The device is a constant strain on the user’s mind. The user suffers a permanent -1 DM to all Admin, Leadership, and Persuade checks due to a subtle but noticeable emotional detachment. This penalty is suppressed for 1 hour after using one of the device’s Active abilities.
    • Passive Resonance Field: The engine projects a constant 10-meter field. Allies within the field gain DM+1 on all Willpower checks. Enemies suffer DM-1 on all attack rolls.
  • Active Functions:
    • Psycho-Historical Analysis: The user can spend one minute analyzing any object, creature, or location. This requires a Formidable (12+) Science (psionicology) check. Success provides a complete historical, emotional, and motivational summary of the target. The Effect of the roll determines the level of detail, with an Effect of 6+ providing a near-perfect, actionable intelligence report.
    • Conceptual Key Protocol: Once per week, the user can target any single physical or electronic barrier (up to TL 17). The device analyzes the barrier’s purpose and emits a resonant frequency that causes it to open or deactivate for one minute. No roll is required.
    • In-vino-veritas Field: Once per week, the device can be activated to project a 20-meter radius field of psionic energy for 10 minutes. Anyone within the field must make a Difficult (10+) Willpower check to speak a deliberate lie. Failure means they are compelled to either remain silent or state the truth.

Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory

The Oracle of Virtuous Truth Unique Archeotech Relic of the Dark Age

This chest-worn apparatus is a marvel of forbidden technology, blending psycho-reactive crystals, empathic bio-circuitry, and a shimmering dodecahedron that seems to analyze the very soul of a person or object. The Adeptus Mechanicus would declare it tech-heresy of the highest order, yet its power to discern truth is undeniable.

  • Rarity: Unique
  • Keywords: Archeotech, Relic, Psyker, Imperial, Heretek
  • Value: 12 (Tier 5+)
  • The Analyst’s Taint (Curse): The device is a conduit for unfiltered truths and raw, historical emotions. Each time you use one of its Active abilities, you must pass a DN 5 Corruption test or gain 1 point of Corruption.
  • Mechanics:
    • Aura of Absolute Presence: The Oracle projects a 15-meter aura. Allies (including the user) in the aura add +1 to their Resolve. Enemies in the aura suffer a +1 DN penalty on all attack tests.
  • Abilities:
    • Psycho-Historical Analysis: As a Full Action, you can analyze a single creature, object, or location within 6 meters. Make a DN 6 Psychic Mastery (Telepathy) test. If you succeed, you learn the target’s complete, unvarnished history and its deepest emotional truths. You may ask the GM three questions about the target’s past, motivations, or weaknesses, which must be answered truthfully and in detail.
    • Harmonious Unsealing: Once per scene, as a Full Action, you may touch the Oracle to any single mundane or psychic barrier (including locked doors, force fields, and psychic wards). The barrier is automatically bypassed, creating an opening for 1 minute. No test is required.
    • Invocation of the Emperor’s Truth: Once per session, as a Full Action, you can unleash a 20-meter radius wave of psychic energy. All creatures in the area must pass a DN 7 Resolve test. On a failure, they are affected by a powerful truth compulsion for the rest of the scene. They cannot speak a deliberate lie and are compelled to answer any question asked of them, though they may do so in a literal and unhelpful manner.