Whetstone of Contrition

by Frazer 👁 22 views

Charges: 3 (regains at dawn)

This palm-sized whetstone is dark green basalt veined with thin lines of tarnished silver. Its edges are worn smooth from years of use, but its flat faces remain unnervingly keen, reflecting not a face but the expression of someone who has just realized they were wrong. Tiny engraved words circle its sides in several languages, each one an apology interrupted before its final sentence. When drawn across steel, it emits a faint sound like a quiet intake of breath.

Guilt in the Grain While attuned to the whetstone, you gain a +1 bonus to Persuasion checks made to apologize, admit fault, repair a relationship, or negotiate forgiveness. The whetstone grows warm when you knowingly omit a significant part of your own wrongdoing from such an apology.

Sharpen Steel As an action, you can expend 1 charge and spend 1 minute honing one nonmagical weapon. For the next hour, that weapon becomes magical and grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls. A weapon can benefit from only one use of this property at a time.

Sharpen Words When you make a Persuasion, Deception, or Intimidation check to settle a dispute, make a demand, or defend your position, you can expend 1 charge to gain advantage on the check. Before the check, you must state your position aloud and acknowledge at least one reasonable point made by the opposing party. If you refuse to do so, the charge is expended but the advantage is lost.

The Necessary Apology Once per day, when you sincerely apologize to a creature you have wronged, you can expend 1 charge to force the creature to make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature must listen to your apology without interrupting and has advantage on its next check made to determine whether you are sincere. This effect ends if you make a threat or knowingly lie during the apology.

Curse. The whetstone's curse is hidden until it is identified or its behavior reveals it. Whenever you knowingly make a false accusation, shift blame for your own wrongdoing, or refuse to offer a reasonable apology, you must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or suffer disadvantage on Charisma checks until you make a sincere apology to the person you wronged. If no such person is present, the disadvantage lasts until the next dawn. The curse can be removed by remove curse or similar magic, but doing so causes the whetstone to crumble into gray filings.

Lore

The stone was made for Lord Avel Marris, a celebrated duelist whose arguments were as cutting as his sword. After a reckless accusation destroyed an alliance and led to the deaths of several people, Marris commissioned the finest stonecutter in the city to make an apology that could never be dismissed as mere words. The stonecutter used basalt from a condemned gallows and silver melted from Marris's family signet. The result sharpened every edge placed against it, but never allowed its owner to forget the harm caused by a careless one.

History

Marris presented the whetstone to the widow of the ally he had betrayed. She accepted it, then used it to sharpen the knife with which she cut his family crest from his cloak. After Marris vanished into exile, the stone passed among diplomats, barristers, and assassins. Each owner reported that it made weapons keener and arguments harder to ignore, but all eventually left it behind after a bitter dispute in which they were forced to confront their own part in the conflict.

Created by Frazer 👁 22 views