1 CORINTHIANS 13:12 (Mask Relay 40)

Previous: Purplecthulhu
Next: Good question.

It is a strange sort of mask. The outside is a featureless dome of unlacquered hardwood, stained dark by years of handling. The inside, however, is contoured to a human face and lined with mirror-polished silver- viewed from the right angle, its convex face would appear as the uncanny un-face of the viewer. The mask is sewn into a length of undyed linen, intended to be wrapped around the entire head like an all-encompassing turban. Worn by any other means, the mask is powerless. The ritual of putting it on is as much the source of its power as the object itself.

Certain ascetics have made it their lives' work to achieve an understanding of everything through the contemplation of nothingness, and like all worthy tasks, it is a challenge with no simple solution. So, like all challenges with no simple solution, some decided to cheat. This mask was their attempt, and it should be no surprise that such cheaters would be cheated themselves, and their treasure would end up out of their hands. It is a poor imitation of living oneness with the First and Last through annihilation of the self: mere convenient determinism, making yourself inanimate.

Wearing the mask properly renders you blind and near-deaf, although the effect is less like being swaddled in cloth and more like holding your head underwater with your eyes shut. You do not roll dice anymore: instead, use the average, rounding up, +1. Flat bonuses or penalties still apply, with one exception: you do not suffer the mechanical penalties for being unable to see or hear, although there remains the issue of not being to actually tell what you're doing with your non-rolls. This also applies to rolls made against you, although they instead get a -1 penalty. Furthermore, you count as an inanimate object for purposes of spells, and might even be mistaken for one if you're standing still and aren't being directly looked at. 

In being so disconnected from life, you are disconnected from death. If you should die while wearing the mask, you will arise as a mean-spirited, undead caricature of yourself intent on ruining anything you ever cared about or formed an attachment to, although this is not apparent until it actually happens. It is this fatal flaw which ultimately ruined its makers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Primeumaton Greatest Hits

A CHALLENGE FOR 2026: THE STARTER B⬡X

Image
Here's a sad story in six words. FOR SALE: RPG SETTING, NEVER RUN As bloggers, we have reams of loreposts and toneposts and appendices N and classes and bestiaries and all the things which a game is built  on- but a dearth of games. There are settings which exist solely as ideas in heads, lauded though they may be, awaiting the day they hatch from the skull that holds them. Look at all these settings from  The Nothic's Eye . Of the twelve of them, I think about three of them have ever been run. Three others have absolutely no mention outside of this chart. This isn't a specific callout post, just an easy example. Although Locheil does owe me thousands of dollars from the ill-fated Ashes to Ashes: the Motion Picture project, I expect this to be mediated by my various eastern European thugs. Anyways, the trouble with many of these great works and passion projects is that if you don't know the person who wrote it, it's extremely unlikely that you'll get to play it ...
Read more

HERE IS NO WATER BUT ONLY ROCK (Invisible Hands: Texas)

Image
For  Invisible Hands . Texas is burning.  Dust Bowl, Alexandre Hogue When it all went wrong, it went very wrong here. All the violence and fear and hatred that could accumulate in that largest of states went off like a loaded gun, along with all of the actual  loaded guns that were just sitting around.  The earth shattered, bleeding black from open stone veins, and what was once dead was made living again; a grand parade of dead men and dinosaurs, all dripping with petroleum. The Crude Sea , dark and thick and reeking, parts the state into islands, the earth's memory of the interior sea that once cut the nation in half. Lift your eyes over the horizon, if you're able- s moke columns rise in every direction, pillars holding up a white-hot sky where the Lone Star blazes big and bright, a cruel sun which permits no nightfall. When the weather isn't bad, it's worse. When it's not hot, it's pouring down sheets of rain and pitching hailstones the size of baseballs to ...
Read more

MORNING STARS (The Setting and the People in it)

Image
 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? The world as it is known, circa 1660. In purple, green, and blue are the regions of the Empire of the Sun and Moon. To the north, in red, are the lands occupied by the many city-states of the djinn, which sit in the shadow of the Great Wall of the Djinn which circles the world's equator. That's the giant black line at the top. Finally, highlighted in yellow is the Protectorate of Yonah, which once boldly repelled the Empire's questing ships. North of the wall lies mystery, and beyond the sea lies loss. The world is vast, wondrous, and fearful. In the beginning, there was nothing, and where there was nothing, there were fairies...
Read more