Harmonium Locket

From: Actarism

This intricately crafted locket contains a miniature, swirling spiral symbolizing the cosmic dance. When worn by a follower, it enhances their ability to attune to the harmonious energies of the universe. It grants a heightened sense of empathy, allowing the wearer to derstand the emotions and intentions of others. Additionally, in moments of danger, the locket can create a protective shield of tranquility, calming aggressors and diffusing hostile situations.

Lore: The Harmonium Locket is said to be a gift from Actara herself, bestowed upon a devoted follower who spent years seeking perfect alignment with the cosmic dance. Crafted by celestial artisans under Actara’s guidance, the locket contains a swirling miniature spiral—a symbol of the universe’s eternal dance and the interconnectedness of all beings. When worn, the locket enables the wearer to harmonize their energies with the world around them, fostering a deep sense of unity and understanding.

Values and Level One Stats:

• Empathy Bonus: +10% to Empathy skill checks.
• Tranquil Shield: Once per day, activate a protective shield that grants a +15% bonus to resist hostile actions for 1 minute.

Skills:

• Empathy: The wearer’s heightened empathy allows them to sense and understand the emotions and intentions of others more keenly.

Cost and Requirements:

• Cost: 300 gold coins
• Requirements: Must be a follower of Actarism and have received Actara’s blessing through a ritual conducted by a recognized priest of the faith.

Tags:

• Sacred: The locket is considered sacred by followers of Actarism and holds spiritual significance.
• Empathy Enhancement: The locket enhances the wearer’s empathic abilities.
• Defensive: The locket provides a defensive effect that helps in calming aggressive situations.
• Additional: Celestial, Resonant, Meditative, Pacifying, Arcane Focus, Unity-Bound, Protective Aura, Sentient Link, Cosmic Synchrony, Divine Gift

Selling and Availability: The Harmonium Locket is rarely sold openly in markets. Instead, it is typically acquired through specific rituals, quests, or by proving one’s dedication to Actarism. Some temples of Actarism might bestow the locket upon their most devoted followers after they have demonstrated their commitment to the teachings and values of the faith. The locket may also be passed down through generations within dedicated families who have upheld Actarism’s teachings for centuries.

Environment and Combat Usage: The Harmonium Locket is most often worn by followers of Actarism in various situations. It is commonly seen at Harmonium Gatherings, where wearers use its empathic enhancement to engage in deep discussions and foster connections with others. In combat, the locket’s protective shield comes into play during moments of danger. When activated, it envelops the wearer in a calming energy that disrupts the aggressive intentions of opponents. This shield is particularly useful in diffusing confrontations, giving the wearer and their allies an advantage in negotiating peaceful resolutions or escaping from perilous situations.

Perception of Activation:

• User’s Perspective:
  • Sight: The swirling spiral within the locket begins to move in a fluid, hypnotic motion, radiating a soft golden and blue glow. The light pulses gently, synchronizing with the user’s heartbeat, expanding outward like ripples in still water.
  • Sound: A subtle hum, like distant chimes resonating through the air, fills the surroundings. The sound is neither loud nor intrusive, but carries a soothing cadence that seems to synchronize with breath and thought.
  • Touch: A warmth spreads from the locket through the wearer’s chest, as though wrapped in an invisible embrace. The sensation is calming, steadying trembling hands and easing tension from the muscles.
  • Smell: A faint, comforting scent of aged parchment, morning dew, and a distant sea breeze lingers in the air, evoking memories of peace and wisdom.
  • Taste: A cool, metallic tingle spreads across the tongue, like the first sip of spring water, refreshing but unfamiliar.
  • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
    • Harmonic Awareness: The wearer perceives the emotional states of those nearby as rippling waves, not as words or images, but as subtle pressures in the air.
    • Temporal Softening: Time seems to slow slightly, or at least lose urgency, allowing for deeper contemplation and connection.
    • Tranquil Barrier: A shimmering presence is felt, as if a weightless shield surrounds the wearer, diffusing hostility before it can take root.
• Observer’s Perspective:
  • Sight: The locket emits a gentle, rhythmic glow, expanding outward in soft waves of light. Shadows flicker strangely, stretching and retracting as though responding to an unseen force.
  • Sound: A low, harmonic resonance hums through the air, barely noticeable but undeniably present. It is neither eerie nor loud, but oddly reassuring.
  • Touch: Those standing nearby may feel a faint, almost imperceptible pressure, as if stepping into a warm current. If they were agitated, a sense of stillness seeps into them.
  • Smell: A brief, refreshing scent—something akin to fresh air after rainfall—passes through the area before fading entirely.
  • Taste: Nothing unless in direct proximity, in which case a coolness lingers at the back of the throat, like mist settling before dawn.
  • Extra-Sensory Perceptions:
    • Disrupted Aggression: Those with hostile intent may feel a strange hesitation, as though their anger were distant or muted.
    • Echo of Presence: Even after the activation ends, a lingering sense of calm remains, as if the air itself remembers the locket’s touch.
• Positives:
  • Enhances empathy, allowing the wearer to understand and connect with others on a deeper level.
  • Generates a protective aura that defuses aggression and creates a safer environment.
  • Provides a deep sense of inner peace, helping the wearer maintain composure under pressure.
  • Temporarily heightens awareness of unseen emotional and spiritual forces.
• Negatives:
  • Prolonged use can lead to an overwhelming flood of emotions, causing the wearer to struggle with distinguishing their own feelings from those of others.
  • The calming effect may unintentionally weaken resolve in critical moments, making it harder to take decisive action.
  • Creatures completely resistant to emotional influence will not be affected by the locket’s aura.
  • If activated too frequently, the wearer may experience a temporary detachment from their surroundings, as if lost in the rhythm of the cosmic dance.

Crafting Recipe: Harmonium Locket

• Materials Needed:
  • Celestial Alloy (1 ingot) – A rare metal infused with cosmic energy, collected from meteorites or sanctified ore found in places of divine resonance.
  • Prismatic Spiral Core (1 fragment) – A swirling crystalline fragment that captures and refracts light, symbolizing the eternal cosmic dance.
  • Threads of Serenity (3 strands) – Silken threads spun from the cocoons of celestial moths, used to bind the locket’s energy and attune it to emotional harmony.
  • Essence of Tranquility (1 vial) – A distilled elixir made from dew collected at dawn in sacred groves, enhancing the locket’s calming properties.
  • Sacred Inscription Powder (1 pouch) – A blend of finely ground blessed silver and powdered lapis lazuli, used for etching the locket’s symbols.
• Tools Required:
  • Celestial Smith’s Forge – A specialized forge capable of handling infused metals without disrupting their energy.
  • Precision Etching Stylus – Used to inscribe the locket’s swirling patterns with the Sacred Inscription Powder.
  • Harmonic Resonance Chamber – A containment vessel designed to stabilize and synchronize the locket’s swirling spiral core with cosmic frequencies.
  • Silk-weaving Needles – Used to integrate the Threads of Serenity into the locket’s structure, binding its metaphysical properties.
  • Meditation Incense & Chime Set – Required for the final attunement ritual to align the locket’s energy with its wearer.
• Skill Requirements:
  • Artisan Metalworking (Advanced Level) – Necessary to forge the locket’s casing without disrupting its cosmic properties.
  • Engraving & Inscription (Intermediate Level) – To etch the spiral pattern with precision, ensuring the locket resonates properly.
  • Alchemy & Essence Infusion (Advanced Level) – Required to blend the Essence of Tranquility with the metal, preventing it from dissipating over time.
  • Spiritual Attunement (Intermediate Level) – Ensures proper alignment with cosmic energies, allowing the locket to function as a conduit for harmony.
  • Empathic Meditation (Basic Level) – Optional but beneficial for enhancing the locket’s ability to channel emotions.
• Crafting Steps:
  • Forge the Celestial Alloy Casing: Melt the celestial alloy in the Celestial Smith’s Forge, carefully shaping it into the form of the locket. Ensure the design allows space for the Prismatic Spiral Core.
  • Etch the Harmonic Symbols: Using the Precision Etching Stylus and Sacred Inscription Powder, carefully engrave the swirling spiral and cosmic markings on the locket’s surface.
  • Embed the Prismatic Spiral Core: Secure the crystalline fragment within the locket, aligning it with the engraved spirals to enhance its resonance.
  • Weave the Threads of Serenity: Using the Silk-weaving Needles, delicately thread the silk strands around the core to stabilize its energy and strengthen its empathic properties.
  • Infuse with Essence of Tranquility: Gently bathe the locket in the vial of Essence of Tranquility while maintaining a focused state of meditation. This step locks in the locket’s calming aura.
  • Stabilization in the Harmonic Resonance Chamber: Place the completed locket within the chamber for three hours, allowing it to synchronize with universal harmonic frequencies.
  • Final Ritual of Attunement: Light the Meditation Incense, strike the Chime Set in rhythmic succession, and chant the name of Actara to complete the process. Once the chime’s echoes fade, the locket is ready.

Completion & Use: Once completed, the Harmonium Locket becomes a conduit for emotional harmony, empathy, and protective tranquility. Only those attuned to its cosmic resonance can fully wield its abilities, making it a treasured artifact among followers of Actarism.

The Spiral That Sang Without Voice

Long before the sky was full, before the stars knew their names, there was one who sought to listen. This one, called by none and knowing no rest, wandered across the land where silence lived, seeking the song that could not be heard.

In the places where rivers spoke but men did not, in the places where winds whispered but no ears could catch, this one walked. The feet moved, but the heart remained still, waiting, waiting for the world to tell its secret.

But the world was heavy with noise—voices of men shouting to be heard, hands grasping but never holding, hearts beating but never feeling. The seeker, tired from the weight of it, climbed a mountain that touched the edge of the sky, where no voice could follow, where only the breath of the world remained.

There, in the place between, the seeker found a single spiral, turning, turning, though no hand moved it. It was smaller than a tear and larger than the sky, and when the seeker looked into it, the silence was full. Not empty. Not quiet. But full. And in that fullness, the seeker heard not words, not song, but meaning. The spiral did not speak, yet all was understood.

The seeker reached out, but the spiral did not wish to be held. It wished to be carried, and so it wove itself into a locket, a thing of metal and light, of stillness and motion. The seeker wore it, and in that moment, the weight of the world lifted. Where there was anger, the spiral turned, and peace came. Where there was sorrow, the spiral turned, and understanding followed. And where there was no voice, the spiral turned, and silence was filled.

But there was one who did not wish for peace, did not wish for stillness, did not wish for the world to listen. This one sought to still the spiral, to hold it tight so it would turn no more. Hands grasped, but they held nothing. Voice shouted, but it was not heard. And when this one opened their hands again, they found only the weight of their own voice, the silence lost to them forever.

And so, the spiral locket remained, moving from hand to hand, never owned, never claimed, only carried by those who would listen, those who would not hold, those who understood the song that sang without voice.

Moral: The world is not heard by those who shout, but by those who listen.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition) Adaptation

Harmonium Locket

• Type: Mythos Artifact
• Sanity Cost: 1d4 upon first attunement (due to heightened awareness of unseen emotions and energies)
• Effects:
  • Empathy Bonus: The wearer gains a +10% bonus to Psychology and Persuade rolls as their ability to read emotions is enhanced.
  • Tranquil Shield: Once per day, the wearer may activate the locket to create an aura of calming energy. Any hostile creatures within 10 yards must make a Hard Power (POW) roll or be unable to take aggressive actions for 1d6 rounds.
• Drawback: Prolonged use (more than a week) causes the wearer to experience emotional overload, requiring a SAN check (0/1d6 loss) when exposed to highly intense emotions.

Blades in the Dark Adaptation

Harmonium Locket

• Item Type: Fine Jewelry (Load: 0)
• Quality: Tier III (Requires attunement through meditation or a connection to spiritual forces)
• Abilities:
  • Empathy Bonus: The wearer gains improved effect on Consort and Sway actions, allowing them to sense deeper emotional undercurrents in conversations.
  • Tranquil Shield: Once per score, the wearer may project an aura of calm. Enemies within sight must resist with Resolve or lose interest in aggression, suffering Reduced Effect on hostile actions for one round.
• Drawback: The locket subtly discourages deception—any attempt to Lie or Command through fear results in a Desperate Position for the next action.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition) Adaptation

Harmonium Locket

• Wondrous Item, Rare (Requires Attunement by a Cleric, Bard, or Paladin)
• Effects:
  • Empathy Bonus: The wearer gains advantage on Insight and Persuasion checks when dealing with creatures capable of emotion.
  • Tranquil Shield (Recharge 5-6): As an action, the wearer may create a 10-foot radius aura of calm for 1 minute. All creatures in the area must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be unable to take hostile actions unless attacked first.
• Curse (Optional): The locket causes its wearer to feel the emotions of others more intensely. After prolonged use, the wearer must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or suffer disadvantage on Charisma (Deception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks due to emotional overwhelm.

Knave Adaptation

Harmonium Locket

• Type: Wondrous Item
• Effect:
  • Empathy Bonus: The wearer gains a +1 bonus to Charisma-based checks when interacting with others peacefully.
  • Tranquil Shield: Once per dungeon delve or major event, the wearer may create a 15-foot aura of peace. All enemies in range must make a Wisdom save or be unable to attack for one round unless directly harmed.
  • Encumbrance: Takes up 1 inventory slot.
• Drawback: If the wearer uses the locket too frequently (3+ times per day), they must pass a Wisdom save or suffer a -1 penalty to all mental skill checks for the next hour, as their mind becomes overwhelmed by emotional noise.

Fate Adaptation

Harmonium Locket

• Aspect: Resonance of Tranquility
• Function:
  • Empathy Bonus: The wearer may invoke this aspect for free once per session to gain a +2 bonus on rolls related to emotional insight, persuasion, or conflict resolution.
  • Tranquil Shield: Once per scene, the wearer may attempt to Overcome an aggressive situation by radiating an aura of calm. This requires an Empathy roll vs. the highest opposing Will roll; on success, all hostile actions are reduced in intensity or delayed.
• Compel Effect: The wearer begins to feel the emotions of others more acutely, making it difficult to ignore suffering or deception. The GM may compel this aspect to create moments of overwhelming empathy or hesitation in combat.

Numenera & Cypher System Adaptation

Harmonium Locket

• Level: 5
• Effects:
  • Empathy Bonus (Passive): The wearer gains an asset on all Intellect-based social interaction rolls involving emotional understanding or persuasion.
  • Tranquil Shield (2 Intellect Points, Action): The wearer generates a calming aura within Short Range. All creatures in the area must make an Intellect Defense roll (Difficulty 5) or be unable to take hostile actions for one minute unless attacked.
• Depletion: 1 in 1d20 – The locket may lose its energy and require a meditative ritual to recharge.

Pathfinder (2nd Edition) Adaptation

Harmonium Locket

• Wondrous Item, Rare (Invested, Emotion, Mental, Divine)
• Effects:
  • Empathy Bonus (Passive): The wearer gains a +2 status bonus to Diplomacy and Perception checks when sensing motives or resolving conflicts.
  • Tranquil Shield (Two Actions, 1/Day): The wearer creates a 10-foot aura of peace for 1 minute. Enemies within range must make a DC 20 Will save or be unable to take hostile actions unless attacked.
• Curse: If used too frequently, the wearer must succeed on a DC 17 Will save or become Fatigued for one hour due to emotional overload.

Savage Worlds Adaptation

Harmonium Locket

• Type: Wondrous Item
• Rarity: Rare
• Effects:
  • Empathy Bonus: The wearer gains +2 to Persuasion and Notice rolls when sensing emotions or mediating conflicts.
  • Tranquil Shield (Action, 1/Scene): All creatures within a Medium Burst Template must make a Spirit roll (TN 6) or become Distracted and unable to take hostile actions for one round, unless provoked.
• Drawback: Prolonged use of the locket forces the wearer to make a Spirit roll (TN 4) or suffer a temporary emotional overload, resulting in Fatigue for one hour.

Shadowrun (6th Edition) Adaptation

Harmonium Locket

• Type: Magical Item (Foci, Rating 4)
• Effects:
  • Empathy Bonus (Passive): The wearer gains +2 dice on Negotiation, Leadership, and Con rolls when attempting to de-escalate situations.
  • Tranquil Shield (Simple Action, Magic + Charisma vs. Willpower + Intuition): The wearer radiates a calming aura in a 10-meter radius. All enemies must resist or suffer a -3 dice pool penalty on all hostile actions for 1 round.
  • Drain Value: 2
• Drawback: The locket subtly dampens aggressive impulses, making it difficult to use Intimidation checks, imposing a -2 dice pool penalty when attempting fear-based persuasion.

Starfinder Adaptation

Harmonium Locket

• Item Level: 7
• Type: Magic Item
• Slot: Neck
• Effects:
  • Empathy Bonus (Passive): The wearer gains a +2 insight bonus on Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks when engaging in peaceful negotiation.
  • Tranquil Shield (Standard Action, 1/Day): The wearer projects an aura of calm within 30 feet. Enemies must make a DC 18 Will save or be staggered for 1 round as their aggression weakens.
  • Usage: The locket has 3 charges per day and regains all charges at dawn.
• Drawback: The wearer becomes more attuned to emotions, suffering a -1 penalty to Will saves against effects that manipulate their own emotions.

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition) Adaptation

Harmonium Locket

• Type: Rare Artifact
• Effects:
  • Empathy Bonus (Passive): The wearer gains a +1 DM bonus to Persuade and Advocate checks when resolving disputes.
  • Tranquil Shield (Once per Hour, Free Action): The wearer emits a calming presence, forcing all creatures within Short Range to make an Average (8+) Intelligence or Endurance check or suffer a DM -2 penalty to all hostile actions for one round.
  • Limitations: The locket does not function in vacuum environments or when exposed to high-energy interference.
• Special: Scholars believe the artifact is of precursor origin, hinting at a civilization that valued emotional resonance as a form of communication.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP 4E) Adaptation

Harmonium Locket

• Type: Magical Amulet
• Encumbrance: 0
• Effects:
  • Empathy Bonus (Passive): The wearer gains +10 to Charm and Intuition tests when interacting with others peacefully.
  • Tranquil Shield (Action, 1/Scene): The wearer may project an aura of serenity in a 10-yard radius. All enemies must pass a Challenging (+0) Willpower Test or suffer a -10 penalty to all actions for one round due to emotional disruption.
• Drawback: If the locket is used too frequently, the wearer must pass a Challenging (+0) Cool Test or become Fatigued for 1 hour due to emotional strain.

Warhammer 40K (Wrath & Glory) Adaptation

Harmonium Locket

• Type: Relic (Sacred Icon)
• Keywords: Imperial, Relic, Warp-Touched
• Effects:
  • Empathy Bonus (Continuous, 10m Radius): The wearer gains +1 bonus die to Scholar and Leadership tests for peaceful negotiations.
  • Tranquil Shield (Once per Battle, Action): All creatures within 10 meters must make a DN 3 Willpower test or gain the Hindered Condition for one round, struggling to act aggressively.
• Corruption Risk: Prolonged exposure to the locket’s energy requires a DN 2 Corruption test after each battle to avoid acquiring 1 Corruption Point due to the overwhelming emotional resonance.