The Borrowed Minute

by Frazer 👁 22 views

This silver pocket watch is no larger than a plum, with a lid of dark blue enamel beneath which tiny silver stars drift across a midnight field. Its hands are made from mismatched metals: one of rose gold and one of blackened steel. A hair-thin chain is threaded through a ring shaped like an unblinking eye. The interior lid bears a faint inscription: 'Time remembers what the tongue denies.' Its ticking is normally soft and precise, but becomes a nervous blur near a lie.

Faster Than Falsehood The watch keeps accurate time and normally ticks once per second. When a creature within 30 feet knowingly makes a statement it believes to be false, the watch's ticking audibly accelerates to four times its normal pace until the statement ends. The watch does not identify the speaker, reveal the truth, detect deliberate omissions, or react to statements the speaker sincerely believes are true. If multiple creatures are speaking, the watch cannot distinguish among them.

Inherited Obligation When you attune to the watch, you inherit a minor unfinished obligation from its previous bearer. The DM determines the obligation, which should be a reasonable nonlethal task requiring no more than one day's work, such as delivering a letter, returning a keepsake, apologizing to someone, or settling a small debt. You learn the obligation when attunement finishes, along with the name or description of the person to whom it is owed. You have 30 days to fulfill it. While the obligation remains unfulfilled, the watch ticks loudly enough to be heard within 10 feet whenever you knowingly refuse a reasonable opportunity to advance or complete it. Once you fulfill the obligation, the watch grows silent for 24 hours, after which it may be passed to another willing bearer.

Minute Hand Once per long rest, you can use an action to stop the watch's hands for 1 minute. During that time, you always know the exact time, and you have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks made to notice a creature attempting to conceal a movement or object by timing it to a distraction. The watch does not stop time or otherwise alter the flow of events.

Lore

The watch is said to have been made by Meriel Voss, a court mediator who believed every falsehood stole time from the truth. She built the mechanism around a single gear cut from the bell of a ruined courthouse clock. Rather than punish liars, Meriel used the watch to give them one last chance to correct themselves. The watch's second purpose was less celebrated: Meriel required every person who borrowed it to perform one small act of restitution before returning it.

History

The Borrowed Minute passed through the hands of judges, spies, grieving heirs, and at least one notorious swindler who used it to discover which of his partners were planning to betray him. Its longest recorded journey began when Meriel lent it to a young courier carrying an apology across a war zone. The courier completed the delivery but never returned, and the watch has since inherited a new obligation from each bearer. Some claim its current obligation is the original one: to find the courier and deliver Meriel's reply.

Created by Frazer 👁 22 views

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