The Hearth-God's Honest Ladle

by Frazer 👁 10 views

This broad silver ladle has a handle of dark, smoke-polished ash and a bowl hammered from copper the color of banked embers. Tiny engraved flames curl around its rim, each one tipped with a snowflake of pale blue enamel. The handle bears a smiling hearth face whose expression changes subtly whenever someone nearby tells a lie. Despite its age, the ladle is always warm to the touch, and faint scents of cinnamon, onion, and woodsmoke cling to it.

Blessing of the Hearth While holding the ladle, you can use an action to warm or cool up to 1 gallon of nonmagical liquid to a comfortable serving temperature. Food stirred with the ladle remains nourishing and wholesome for twice as long as normal, and it cannot spoil while kept in a sealed container.

A Favor Owed by Winter You have resistance to cold damage while holding or carrying the ladle. In addition, you and up to five creatures who share a meal prepared with the ladle gain advantage on saving throws against extreme cold for 8 hours.

More Honest Than Polite The ladle cannot knowingly state a falsehood. If you ask it a question while touching its bowl, it answers in a blunt whisper of no more than ten words. It knows only what you know, but it can identify whether a statement you make is knowingly false. Once per dawn, when you knowingly speak a lie while holding the ladle, it loudly declares, "That is not true," audible to creatures within 60 feet.

Comforting Serving Once per long rest, you can use an action to ladle a serving of magically restorative soup from any suitable pot or bowl containing at least one mouthful of food or liquid. The serving restores 2d4 + 2 hit points to a creature that consumes it. A creature can benefit from this property only once per long rest.

Lore

The ladle was blessed by Hestara-of-the-First-Fire, a minor hearth god who taught mortals that a shared meal was a promise against the dark. During the Long Winter, Hestara bargained with the season itself, offering one future favor in exchange for a single night without frost. Winter accepted, and the god's ladle was marked as collateral. Winter has never collected its debt, but the ladle still carries a little of that season's reluctant mercy.

History

The ladle was first used in the communal kitchen of a mountain village that survived seven years of blizzards. Its keeper, an elderly cook named Marra Venn, discovered its honesty when it interrupted a visiting lord's claim that his taxes were fair. Since then, it has passed among innkeepers, camp cooks, priests, and adventurers. Several owners abandoned it after being publicly contradicted at inconvenient moments; others treasured it as the only companion that could not flatter them.

Created by Frazer 👁 10 views