The Candor Candle

by Frazer 👁 32 views

Charges: 7 (regains at dawn)

This slender ivory candle is always cold to the touch, its surface veined with pale gold that resembles frozen tears. Its black wick burns with a small, unwavering flame of silver-blue fire. Rather than shortening, the candle slowly lengthens as translucent wax rises from the base and hardens beneath the wick. Tiny letters appear in the wax whenever a lie is spoken nearby, then vanish when the statement is corrected. Its brass holder is engraved with an open eye surrounded by seven backward-pointing arrows.

Burning Backward The candle's flame consumes no wax. Instead, melted wax climbs upward and solidifies beneath the wick, causing the candle to grow longer as time passes. The candle has 7 charges and regains 1d4 + 1 expended charges each dawn, provided it was lit for at least 1 minute during the previous day.

Unwanted Honesty While the candle burns within 30 feet of you, you have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks. In addition, you have disadvantage on Charisma (Deception) checks and cannot knowingly speak a lie. You may still remain silent, speak evasively, or state technically true but misleading words.

Tomorrow's Flame As an action, you can expend 1 charge and ask the candle one question concerning a creature, object, place, or event that will occur within the next 24 hours. The candle's flame bends toward the most likely answer and briefly projects a truthful image or phrase lasting no more than 1 minute. The vision is cryptic if the future is uncertain, and it cannot reveal information that no creature could presently know.

The Truth Between As an action, you can expend 2 charges while the candle burns and designate one creature within 30 feet. That creature must succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or be unable to knowingly speak a lie for 10 minutes. A creature that succeeds is immune to this property for 24 hours. The candle's flame turns blue while the effect lasts.

Last Honest Light When the candle has no charges remaining, its flame remains lit for 1 minute, during which every creature within 30 feet knows whether each spoken statement is believed by its speaker to be true or false. Afterward, the flame goes out and the candle becomes nonmagical until the next dawn.

Lore

The Candor Candle was said to be made from wax rendered from the memories of a truth goddess, mixed with tallow taken from a beast that had never learned to deceive. Its flame does not illuminate what is hidden; it illuminates what people wish had remained hidden. Courts once kept one burning during royal successions, until three dynasties fell in a single week.

History

The candle was created by Ilyra Venn, a royal diviner who became convinced that prophecy was merely lying about tomorrow. She forged the brass holder from the hinge of a king's sealed confession chamber and gave the finished candle to her queen. During the coronation feast, it revealed that every oath sworn by the attending nobles contained a deliberate falsehood. The candle disappeared during the resulting civil war and has since surfaced in inquisitors' vaults, thieves' guild counting rooms, and the bedrooms of people desperate to know what their lovers will do next.

Created by Frazer 👁 32 views