GM's Toolkit: Secret Keeper's Mask

Over the last few months, we’ve provided a number of new mechanics in the blog to give Game Masters running Otari-based campaigns a few more tricks to add flavor to the region based on the exploits of the heroes in Liane Merciel’s ongoing novella, The Shroud of Four Silences. We’re getting to the end of that tale, with Chapter 11 going out to our mailing list this week. To avoid spoilers, we’re hiding this week’s GM’s Toolkit entry below—keeping it secret, if you will—for only those who know the true villains at the heart of the story or who don’t mind learning it before reading it for themselves. Make sure you stay on top of future serialized fiction offerings by ensuring your privacy settings allow us to send you marketing emails.

Spoilers

Norgorber's Many Masks

The evil god Norgorber is unusual in that he maintains many guises. His four aspects are Blackfingers, god of alchemy and poison; the Gray Master, god of thievery; Father Skinsaw, god of ritual murder; and the Reaper of Reputation, god of lies and secrets. His worshipers usually follow just one of these aspects, although the heroes in The Shroud of Four Silences discover something that those cultists dedicated to the worship of all four aspects of Norgorber might create.

Norgorber’s worshipers delight in being as crafty as they are cruel, and they might fashion any number of wicked items to further their sinister plans. Followers of Norgorber might create one of these masks, bearing the aspect of Norgorber they worship.

Secret-Keeper’s Mask — Item 3+

Rare, Divination, Enchantment, Invested, Magical

Usage worn; Bulk —
Each of these full-face masks is made of stitched materials—often including humanoid skin—and has a single, bulbous eye. While wearing the mask, you gain a +1 item bonus to Deception checks to Lie and the mask doesn’t impair your vision. The mask can also be activated, with an ability based on its type.

Type Blackfingers; Level 3; Price 60 gp
This featureless mask is made of thin, papery skin. Its single eye is a fragile bubble of venom-filled glass.

Activate [two-actions] Interact (divination); Frequency once per day; Effect You twist the mask’s eye and peer at an object. You know whether the object is poison or has been poisoned, but you don’t learn the number or type of poisons present in the object.

Type Gray Master; Level 5; Price 150 gp
This monochrome mask is made of tattered rags of gray and black cloth and bleached fragments of skin.

Activate [reaction] Interact (illusion, visual); Trigger You succeed on a Thievery check to Steal an item of negligible Bulk; Frequency once per day; Effect You create an illusory duplicate of the item you just stole. This duplicate has the appropriate appearance and weight, but it doesn’t make sounds or generate smells. The illusion vanishes after 10 minutes, or earlier if anyone examines or manipulates the illusory duplicate (such as to try to use it).

Type Father Skinsaw; Level 6; Price 250 gp
This mask is a patchwork of tanned skins, each with a distinctive scar. It is contorted into a caricature of a face with a leering eye.

Activate [reaction] Interact; Trigger You deal persistent bleed damage to a creature; Frequency once per day; Effect The bleeding wound you cause is particularly mutilating. The DC of flat checks to recover from the persistent bleed damage is increased by 2, and the target creature has a –2 status penalty to Deception, Diplomacy, and Performance checks while it is bleeding and for 1 minute after it ceases bleeding.

Type Reaper of Reputation; Level 3; Price 60 gp
This mask is made of gray and black tiles sewn together. It has a messy, inky spiral over the mouth.

Activate [one-action] Interact (auditory, linguistic); Frequency once per day; Effect You touch the mask’s spiral and identify a target creature within 30 feet. For the next 10 minutes, any normal speech you utter can, at your discretion, be inaudible to all creatures except the target creature, who can hear you clearly regardless of ambient sound so long as it is within 1 mile. This ability doesn’t silence magical words, such as the verbal component of spellcasting or commands to activate magic items.

A mask dedicated to Father Skinsaw, illustration by Israel Maccari Dionisio.

Ron Lundeen
Developer