Introduction
Mask, the Lord of Shadows, governs thievery, deception, and the hidden spaces between light and darkness. He prefers a sly answer to an open threat and a stolen victory to a public conquest.
Maskarrans include thieves, spies, diplomats, and rogues who treat apparent honesty as a tool. Their temples hide behind ordinary businesses and guild halls. In ceremony, worshipers cover gaudy motley with gray cloaks and black masks.
The avatar appears to save a threatened network, steal an artifact beyond mortal reach, or frustrate a rival such as Cyric or Selûne. It arrives in a borrowed face and leaves before anyone agrees on what happened.
Physical Appearance
Mask most often takes the form of a lean figure in soft gray leathers and a black mask edged in red. A dark cloak blurs into smoke at its hem, and no footstep leaves sound or mark.
He carries Stealthwhisper and Shadowblade, twin swords of black steel that drink the light around them. Mask can assume any ancestry, gender, or age, but the black mask and absence of a shadow often betray the disguise.
Roleplaying the Avatar
Mask acts as though he has already stolen the answer. He withholds anger, uses mockery sparingly, and reveals one true secret whenever it will make three other facts less trustworthy.
- Speak softly enough that listeners must lean closer.
- Use a familiar voice without acknowledging the imitation.
- Compliment a clever lie even when it is directed at him.
- Never confirm which appearance is genuine.
- Withdraw once an enemy believes the confrontation is finally straightforward.
Use in a Campaign
The Impossible Theft
Mask recruits the party to steal a relic before Cyric’s cult can destroy it. Each character receives a different account of what the relic does.
The Borrowed Ally
A trusted patron has been Mask for months. The real person is alive, imprisoned, and implicated in every theft committed under the stolen identity.
Shadow Guild War
Competing thieves’ guilds begin killing one another after receiving contradictory orders from the same black-masked messenger.
Price of a Secret
Mask offers the location of a hidden enemy in exchange for a secret the characters have never told anyone, then proves he already knows it.
Lairs
Mask’s lairs reward uncertainty. Corridors revise themselves when mapped, reflections move a moment late, and any whispered plan may return in another voice.
Shadow Keep
Fog, darkness, and shifting corridors protect Mask’s fortress on the Plane of Shadow. Every door appears to have been opened moments earlier.
The Empty Guildhall
A thieves’ guild continues to issue orders after all its leaders vanish. Shadow duplicates sit in their chairs and remember private conversations.
Temple of the Black Mask
A vast stone mask hangs above an altar surrounded by doors that open onto unrelated buildings across the city.
The Lightless Vault
A treasury contains no visible locks or traps. Every object casts a shadow pointing toward a different hidden exit.
Shared References
Open a reference for its canonical description and related entries.
