Mask 017: The Mask of the Abdicosan
NOTE: This is the 17th part of the Thinking Adventures Mask Relay, the first entry of which can be found here.
"Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face."
-John Updike
In the faintest memories of the ancient men, there persists a lingering echo of a face, the shifting outline of an almost-memory in want of a name. All whose lineage bears the mark of the old wizards still remember a flickering shadow: The Abdicosan, "Friend to All."
The Abdicosan is no single soul, but an identity, taken up by those who would regress into their ancestry and sacrifice their future for a glimpse of a power long since past. The Mask of the Abdicosan, then, represents this desire made real. It appears as a milky-white alabaster oval, concave on one side, with no discernible mouth or eyeholes, its thousand needle-thin barbed cilia retracted into its invisible pores. Those who learn of the Mask and desire its power needn't quest long; for the Mask has already seen their face, and began its quest for them in kind.
When pressed with purpose into one's own face, the Mask of the Abdicosan begins to reshape itself, dissolving the skin beneath and drilling its myriad hooks through muscle and skull. After the Mask has concluded its grisly work, roll 1d6 when meeting a new sentient character.1 On 1-in-6, treat your reaction roll as the absolute maximum result (usually double-6s with Charisma 18). The character immediately knows your name and regards you as their best friend, comrade, and possibly their saviour if their situation is particularly dire. They will absolutely assist you in any manner possible, trust you with their deepest secrets, and defend you with their lives. This bond is supernatural, and transcends all religious and spiritual conflicts, national differences, or other petty squabbles. There is no deeper reverence than the admiration felt by a friend of the Abdicosan.
However.
Should you ever, for any reason, lie, deceive, mislead, or betray the trust of such a friend in any way, no matter how slight or insignificant this treachery might be perceived, they will rededicate their lives to spreading news of your duplicity, sullying your reputation, ending your life, butchering your lineage, and undoing your good works. Their disdain is of a supernatural nature, and transcends the boundaries of life itself, such that this creature of pure hatred may occasionally awake as a Revenant, pursuing the Abdicosan long after their soul has abandoned their flesh. After all, there is no deeper hatred than that of those betrayed by the ones they trust the most.
The Mask cannot be removed from the living, and once the Mask assimilates to its wearer its presence is undetectable by normal means. Only once the body has fully decayed will the Mask release itself, crawl to the surface, and resume its scurrying quest for another willing host desperate for its gifts.
I tag Press The Beast.
At referee discretion, this may, rather than a random selection, instead be every member of a group: "All Elves," "Evil Wizards," etc. There may indeed be a Mask for every race and creed, and a Mask for the Masked themselves.↩