The Mask of Mysteries

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This “tome” is actually a black silk mask. Of unknown age, it is skill¬fully sewn and in excellent repair (due to protective enchantments). It bears no markings or ornamentation, and is dusty, dull black in color, taking the form of a headband with knotted ends to prevent fraying. The headband is attached to a molded, snugly fitting half-mask, which is in turn sewn (just below the eyeholes) onto a long, ragged hanging veil. It serves to conceal the features of a wearer and to give them a sinister appearance. A minor enchant¬ment on the Mask protects the wearer from all effects of dust and smoke, so that the wearer never sneezes, coughs, wheezes, or chokes while wearing the Mask. The magical properties of the Mask are awakened by kissing it, speaking the name of the god (either Mask or one of his secret names, such as Veldraeos or Ondoum), and then kissing the Mask again. All three components of the awakening must be performed within 1 round, and work whether the Mask is being worn or not. The response is the silent appearance of a single spell on the inside surface of the veil. It can always be clearly read, but does not glow or appear in bright, easily deciphered script. If the wearer is thinking of a particular spell when the awakening occurs, it will appear. If the wearer is not thinking of a spell, but the awakening is performed by another being, the spell uppermost in his mind will appear (the wearer’s will always prevails over the awakener’s, if they are not the same person). If no spell is concentrated upon by either wearer or awakener, a random spell shows up on the Mask. Only spells from the Mask's roster (which may well, it should be noted, be only partially known by modern sources) will appear on the Mask, and each remains visible until the awakener wills them to vanish (while touching the Mask) or the “awakening” is performed anew to bring forth another spell. The Mask has a faintly spicy smell, though no one has agreed on just what spices are the source of its sharp but not unpleasant odor. Unlike most normal smooth silk garments, it is not slippery when handled, feels silken-soft to the touch, and does not rustle. It is always silent and weighs nothing. The Mask first appears in Realmslore around 812 DR, when it was found on the face of a corpse in a tomb on the Dragonisle in the Sea of Fallen Stars. The human buried there is thought to have been Arnthas “the Sly,” much maligned among elves as a smooth-tongued “false friend” of the elves who in the guise of companionship learned many secrets of elven magic—and stole powerful magical items from the proudest families of Myth Drannor before its fall. Where Arnthas got the Mask remains a mystery. Some say he must have stolen it from the elves in Myth Drannor (perhaps from a family vault where it was gathering dust as too valuable to discard, but too tainted to use or display—after being seized from a less-than- savory human of the city). Others suggest that Mask, or a divine servant of the Lord of Shadows, gave it to Arnthas when he embraced the Maskarran faith (and that the elven prizes he stole that were not found in his tomb were given to Mask as offerings), and some sages dismiss such tales as fancy, saying that the Mask was simply another of his thefts from temples or traveling clergy (favorite targets of the Sly). However Arnthas came by it, he lost it to the adventurers known as the Scarlet Song, a little-known band of bored rich merchants’ sons and daughters from Sembia. The “Scarlet Song” refers to a ballad of the time that championed a defiant love of bloody adventure. When they got a taste of the real thing (as opposed to glorified tales of it), the spoiled young adventurers also found swift death and terror, and had a hard time mustering a carefree love for their new careers. They lasted little more than a season, pursued by foes and opportunistic thieves, before the survivors fled back home to Selgaunt, Saerloon, and Yhaunn. One took the Mask with him, and was promptly murdered for it in Yhaunn by another member of the group. (The awakening process of the Mask was noted in a small book found in the tomb, along with other secrets of Arnthas, and tested on the spot. One need not be a priest or even one of the Maskarran faith to successfully perform it. The book, which is the origin of the name “the Mask of Mysteries," for that is what Arnthas called it, disappeared at the time of the murder.) That murderer, one Rellogur Asannath, had a long and shady career among the mercantile intrigues of Sembia, even¬tually marrying one of his former colleagues in the Scarlet Song, a minor sorceress and ruthless businesswoman named Alandrina Emmeril. They enjoyed long lives (aided, local rumors insist, by potions of longevity and various herbal equiva¬lents, some of which were probably more poisonous than effec¬tive), but after more than 500 years, Rellogur suddenly “crumbled away to nothing” and died. Some say he contracted a disease, others that his ancient body simply gave out, and still others claim he was murdered by a rival. Certain Asannath relatives even say darkly that the rival in question was his wife, Alandrina, who by Rellogur’s demise became the richest indi¬vidual in all of Sembia—for almost a year. One winter night in 1346 DR, while she was at the height of her power, busily arranging the obliteration of rival families through poisonings and “accidents,” Alandrina perished at the hands of no fewer than 16 black-masked individuals who somehow found their way into her bedchamber—through a secret passage built by Rellogur, and known only to three of his uncles. One of those killers evidently wore the magical Mask from the tomb in place of his own as he escaped, for a discarded black silk half-mask was found near the multiply stabbed victim who had been Alandrina, and it lacked the veil and rumored powers of the mask Alandrina had taken to wearing. Though the Mask disappeared from view for a decade, it was obviously in the hands of a Sembian noble family. Starting in 1355 DR, a certain “masked lady” was seen briefly at evening revels in Selgaunt—a lady whose identity remains a matter of controversy to this day, for she never unmasked. When a thief tried to steal her jewels and the Mask at a party in 1364, its removal caused her face to erupt into a mass of tentacles— tendrils like those of a mind flayer, save that these were gray, knobby, and ended in snapping mouths that devoured the thief’s face and hands. The horrified guards feathered the gowned horror with arrows. It snatched up the Mask, reeled out onto a balcony, and fell into the night. The body was never recovered, and just what manner of monster the Masked Lady was is still in dispute. Claiming to be the “rightful” owners of the Masked Lady’s Mask, the Asannath family offered a 100,000 gold pieces for its intact return to them—but less than a month later, a Calishite merchant offered the Mask of Mysteries for sale in Scornubel. Word got around the city, and in the wee hours the Calishite’s rooms became the scene of a nasty knife-fight involving a Maskarran priest and five or so rival thieves—all of whom had arrived separately and in stealth to seize the Mask for their own. While these covetous individuals were busy slaughtering each other, a late arrival slew the vendor of the Mask and made off with it. A falling-wall trap in a nearby cellar ended his flight, but when his crushed skeleton was found, months later, its hands had been severed and the Mask was missing again. Since then, rumors of it being offered for sale have arisen in Waterdeep, in Skullport beneath the City of Splendors, in Westgate, and in Arrabar. The Dark Hand of the Shadowlord, the most influential cleric of Mask in Calimshan, recently announced that a band of adventurers, whom he identified only as “humans from the Sword Coast,” had the Mask and were using it within Calimshan. The Dark Hand called upon “all who would know the favor of the Master of All Thieves” to hunt down “these blasphemers” and bring the Mask to any temple of the Masked God. This has resulted in a score of battles between Maskarran faithful and various bands of outlaws, mercenaries, and adventurers, but has as yet yielded no Mask, and the present whereabouts of the Mask of Mysteries must be considered “unknown.” The roster of spells contained in the Mask is also a matter of some dispute (accounts differ), but is thought by most sources to include the spells listed below (there are probably others as well). Priests of any faith may cast a spell by reading it directly from the Mask, without praying to Mask (assuming they possess any necessary material components), but they do so at a cost of 3d4 hit points (lost immediately upon the spell taking effect, but these may be regained by magical healing or normal rest), and if they are not Maskarran in faith, the Mask will never again display that particular spell when they awaken it. There is also a presently forgotten method by which a priest of Mask can cause the Mask to “rise up” and hover in midair to cast spells “by itself.” This can be done from a distance, without touching the Mask, but always fails if opposed by the will of a devout worshiper of Mask who is touching the Mask. Once this “calling on” the Mask is done, the item ignores the calling attempts of all other beings for one day (24 hours). Apparently a Maskarran priest demonstrated this ability of the Mask to Rellogur Asannath, who was so thankful that he had the man slain on the spot with volleys of poisoned arrows. The procedure is limited to one spell for every 3 levels of the priest commanding it, costs 1d4+1 hit points per spell (suffered as an immediate but healable loss by the priest calling on the Mask), and the spells cannot be cast faster than one every other round. They take effect as if cast by the priest (the priest cannot call forth a spell beyond his capabilities), and are unleashed in addition to any spells cast by the priest himself. Use of this power causes any spell visible on the back of the Mask to disappear. The spells in The Mask of Mysteries include: Animate object, animate rock, biting shadow (a spell detailed below), blade barrier, cloak of bravery, command, cure blindness or deafness, dark way (detailed below), detect charm, detect lie, detect magic, detect poison, detect snares & pits, disguise (a spell detailed in the Tome of Magic sourcebook), dispel magic, everchanging self (detailed below), find the path, find traps, fire trap, frisky chest (Tome of Magic), heal, hold person, invisibility to undead, know alignment, listening shadow (a spell detailed in the Faiths & Avatars sourcebook), locate object, negative plane protection, neutralize poison, protection from lightning, purify food & drink, remove curse, restoration, shadowcloak (Faiths & Avatars), silence 25' radius, slicing shadow (detailed below), speak with dead, stone tell, tongues, true seeing, weighty chest (Tome of Magic), withdraw, and wyvern watch.