Straw Mask
Description
The Straw Mask empowers the wearer to perform rituals that vastly increase the output of their lands. It is often constructed using lacquered corn-ears, strung together to cover the face and interlaced with fine knotwork of metallic threads. It is rare for these talismans not to incorporate at least one Bravash the Rune of Fertility, either in place of one of the eyes or (especially outside Wintermark), on the inside of the mask so that it touches the forehead, cheeks or chin when the mask is worn. Regardless of the precise design, even in the League it is usually constructed out of natural material such as wood. Some traditions of dramaturgists (especially mummers prefer to personify the mask as a beast - usually a goat, sheep or bull - incorporating it into bawdy ritual plays involving more than a little suggestive dialogue.
Some Navarr and Varushkan artisans create this item in the form of a Crown of Thorns and Ivy - a circlet of interwoven strands of the titular material, bound together with threads of weltsilver and orichalcum, with berries or small flowers carefully preserved with an ambergelt glaze. At the end of a year, the crowns are ceremonially burnt or buried, or abandoned near a funeral glade.
As with all the magical masks, these are used to grant additional power to perform ritual magic. In this case, it enhances a suite of three rituals that enchant farms to ensure excellent harvest. By itself, it will allow even a novice spring ritualist to perform Blessing of New Spring without having mastered it and without the assistance of a coven. It sufficient to empower that simple ritual enough to let a Spring ritualist add one or two additional farms to the performance depending on the mastery of the wearer. it is even powerful enough to let a wearer use the Imperial Regio (or another item that grants additional lore) to perform the first of the three farm rituals without even the basic grounding of Spring lore possessed by an apprentice.
Likewise, the mask may help an adept of Summer lore perform the Strong Ox, Golden Sun ritual by themselves, or contribute towards the power of a coven attempting to enchant multiple farms. A true Autumn master could use the mask along with the Imperial regio and the power of a Melancholic Staff to achieve personal performance of the complex Gathering the Harvest ritual, should they be so inclined. A single mask rarely makes a significant difference with the latter ritual, but each additional rank of lore can prove useful - especially when performing the ritual on multiple farms at once. It can also prove useful for a mixed coven- by providing advantage in three connected rituals from three seperate realms of magic it can help a coven member who is less well-trained in one or two of the three lores to contribute more fully to a group performance, especially if they have mastered the ritual.
Rules
- Form: Foci
- Effect: Gain 1 rank for the Blessing of New Spring; Strong Ox, Golden Sun; and Gathering the Harvest rituals, subject to the normal rules for effective skill.
- Materials: Crafting a Straw Mask requires three ingots of orichalcum, three ingots of weltsilver, three measures of ambergelt, three measures of beggar's lye, four measures of dragonbone and three measures of iridescent gloaming It takes one month to make one of these items.