Ideas about mirror that can see back in time

[ShirAhn]

Hey guys,

For my current campaign Im playing with the following idea. The party comes across a small mirror that they can carry around. When someone looks in the mirror he does see a reflection, however the reflection shows what was happening a certain amount of time ago. I am thinking about giving them this mirror so they can use it when they struggle with some of my puzzles. Maybe they are in a room where someone was murdered but there is no trace of the murderer. They see the blood is still fresh so know it wasn't a long time ago. The party grabs the mirror and looks around the room, depending on how long ago the murder happened they might actually see the murder happening.

Now the thing I am strugling with is how to determine the "timeline" in which the person is looking.

For instance, I was thinking about a gem system. The mirror has a small slot that can contain a gem, depending on the type of the gem the person might be able to look back:

Ruby - 1hour
Emerald - 1 day
Diamond - 1 week (thank you diablo for learning me about gems)

It could work, but the idea of using gems sounds boring to me, I was hoping you guys could have some tips. Maybe something "bosses" carry around? Any tips are welcome thank you!

[Unoriginal]

How about they have to use an item that was in the room at the desired time for it to work, maybe?

[Millstone85]

Is your idea that the mirror would consume the gem, or boss token, thus making it expensive to use?

Or is it about durably upgrading the mirror?

Personally, I would go with something like "The mirror has 168 charges and regain 1d20 expanded charges at dawn". Each charge is worth an hour back in time.

[Pr6i6e6st]

I like the charges idea and the idea of using something from the time you're looking into stated above.

Also consider one small issue. Everything is inverted like a mirror. Left hands are right hands, script is backwards. You just have to word it properly. "As you look into the mirror, the image before you shows a man, raising a left arm, brings it down on the right side of the maidens head" "but the wound is on the maidens left side?!"

[Corran]

Cool idea, I think I am going to steal it:smallsmile:

Why dont you make it a check to set the limit regarding how far they can look into the past?
For example it could be something like this:
DC 5 -> up to 1 hour ago.
DC 10 -> up to 1 day ago
DC 15 -> up to 1 week ago.
DC 20 -> up to 1 month ago.
DC 25 -> up to 1 year ago.
DC 30 -> up to 10 years ago.
DC 35 (or natural 20) -> up to 1 century ago (or no limit).

It could be an arcana or an investigation check, or an insight check, or even a persuasion check (if thee mirror is sentient), or any choice of the above and anything else you might consider relevant.

But if you dont want to make the mirror easier to use by some classes than others, it could just be a straight % roll.
For example:
90%- : up to 1 hour ago
80%- : up to 1 day ago
etc...

(Modify the odds according to how useful you want to make the mirror)

ps: I would suggest to give the mirror some sort of sentience (is that a word?), so that the user can communicate to the mirror exactly when they want to look into the past (for example, when that murder took place), even if they dont know the exact date of that event they want to gain insight about via using the mirror. The check or the % roll, just determine how far they just can look into the past.


Again, very cool idea for an item!

[MrMcBobb]

I quite like the idea of it being blood magic. You expend hit dice and you use them to determine how many hours back it can look. Tie it to an arcana check as well to stop the Barbarian being the king/queen of Remembrancers.

You make an Arcana check to "activate" the mirror and then you roll x number of hit dice to determine the maximum number of hours you can look back. Expend 3 HD and roll 13 total, you can look up to 13 hours into the past. Perhaps have the Remembrancer roll all the HD at the same time to add an element of risk to it, or just leave it like regaining hit points so they don't end up dumping more health than needed into this mirror.

[Vorpal Pete]

The mirror might just display the last moment of great psychic impression at the location. A murder, a wedding, a treaty-signing, an escape, a battle, a discovery. If nothing exciting has ever happened there, it just shows your lovely face looking back. That way it just acts as a way for you to dump exposition on your characters, which is what I think you want it to do anyway.

[ShirAhn]

Thank you all for the feedback so far, it has given me some thoughts on how to proceed. If anyone else has some some ideas I still have 8hours to prepare :).

[Sirdar]

The mirror might just display the last moment of great psychic impression at the location. A murder, a wedding, a treaty-signing, an escape, a battle, a discovery. If nothing exciting has ever happened there, it just shows your lovely face looking back. That way it just acts as a way for you to dump exposition on your characters, which is what I think you want it to do anyway.

I second this! Vorpal Pete's suggestion is simple and elegant.

I would perhaps add some minor curse/fatigue on the last user of the mirror. For instance: When the fighter use the mirror he feels weak. The feeling lingers and later that day you deny him his action surge (then he recovers). If a wizard use the mirror it could be that a spell fizzles or something. The players will not abuse the mirror if the cost is problematic (and random) to them. If the curse is dormant, it would also give you a tool to balance an encounter that the party is about to trivialize.

[CaptainSarathai]

I would make it cost Fatigue. That will really make them think twice about using it.
I would describe the Fatigue as an emotional response to the mirror. You don't just see what happened, you experience it. You feel emotion. If you see a wedding, you come away with a deep sense of melancholy - you loved the bride or groom, and now you miss them terribly and feel a sense of loss. Or if you see a murder, you feel the shock and pain of the victim, or the confused and insane hatred or wrath of the murderer.

I would also add a touch of dark malevolence to the mirror. Don't let the players know how far back they see. Also, the mirror may not be entirely reliable. Sometimes, it only shows you what it wants you to see. This makes using the mirror at all, somewhat risky, because it opens the party up to manipulation. You would have to sneakily establish this. Perhaps the mirror shows them a corpse, already murdered, and then the view shifts upward to a man's bloodied face, screaming something you cannot hear (mirror doesn't always carry sound). They find the man - a servant in the house - and have him jailed and executed. After the execution they find out that in reality, it was the master of the house who killed her, and the servant was her secret lover, who stumble onto the scene and was screaming her name in grief.
Now, can they trust the mirror entirely? No, they still have to be cautious about the answers they get.
The mirror could also sometimes show glimpses of the future. You look into the mirror and see your face, and then an assassin sneaks up and slits your throat - only in the reflection though. How far ahead was the mirror seeing? Is this a truth or another of the mirror's cruel tricks? Is this the mirror at all, or are you simply going insane, having used this tainted item for too long, looking into the fabric of time to learn things that nobody was ever meant to see?

Heck, you could make the mirror a major feature of your BBEGs evil plot, or even just make the mirror the BBEG itself (with the final boss-fight being the party against evil reflections of themselves)

[ShirAhn]

I second this! Vorpal Pete's suggestion is simple and elegant.

I would perhaps add some minor curse/fatigue on the last user of the mirror. For instance: When the fighter use the mirror he feels weak. The feeling lingers and later that day you deny him his action surge (then he recovers). If a wizard use the mirror it could be that a spell fizzles or something. The players will not abuse the mirror if the cost is problematic (and random) to them. If the curse is dormant, it would also give you a tool to balance an encounter that the party is about to trivialize.

How about this, the mirror shows the last major event depending on some kind of emotion. The emotion itself is determined by the gem socketed inside the mirror. You could even write the emotions with the gem on the back of the mirror in some sort of elven/devine language?

Google teaches me the following:

Red. Passionate, Aggressive, Important. ... (Ruby)
Orange. Playful, Energetic, Cheap. ... (Citrine)
Yellow. Happy, Friendly, Warning. ... (Cat's Eye)
Green. Natural, Stable, Prosperous. ... (Jade)
Blue. Serene, Trustworthy, Inviting. ... (Sapphire)
Purple. Luxurious, Mysterious, Romantic. (Amethyst)

[ShirAhn]

I would make it cost Fatigue. That will really make them think twice about using it.
I would describe the Fatigue as an emotional response to the mirror. You don't just see what happened, you experience it. You feel emotion. If you see a wedding, you come away with a deep sense of melancholy - you loved the bride or groom, and now you miss them terribly and feel a sense of loss. Or if you see a murder, you feel the shock and pain of the victim, or the confused and insane hatred or wrath of the murderer.

I would also add a touch of dark malevolence to the mirror. Don't let the players know how far back they see. Also, the mirror may not be entirely reliable. Sometimes, it only shows you what it wants you to see. This makes using the mirror at all, somewhat risky, because it opens the party up to manipulation. You would have to sneakily establish this. Perhaps the mirror shows them a corpse, already murdered, and then the view shifts upward to a man's bloodied face, screaming something you cannot hear (mirror doesn't always carry sound). They find the man - a servant in the house - and have him jailed and executed. After the execution they find out that in reality, it was the master of the house who killed her, and the servant was her secret lover, who stumble onto the scene and was screaming her name in grief.
Now, can they trust the mirror entirely? No, they still have to be cautious about the answers they get.
The mirror could also sometimes show glimpses of the future. You look into the mirror and see your face, and then an assassin sneaks up and slits your throat - only in the reflection though. How far ahead was the mirror seeing? Is this a truth or another of the mirror's cruel tricks? Is this the mirror at all, or are you simply going insane, having used this tainted item for too long, looking into the fabric of time to learn things that nobody was ever meant to see?

Heck, you could make the mirror a major feature of your BBEGs evil plot, or even just make the mirror the BBEG itself (with the final boss-fight being the party against evil reflections of themselves)

I really like your thoughts, but I play with only new players and I think I have to make it very clear how things work. Otherwise they will find it "unfair". Boundaries are very important.

[Sirdar]

How about this, the mirror shows the last major event depending on some kind of emotion. The emotion itself is determined by the gem socketed inside the mirror. You could even write the emotions with the gem on the back of the mirror in some sort of elven/devine language?

Google teaches me the following:

Red. Passionate, Aggressive, Important. ... (Ruby)
Orange. Playful, Energetic, Cheap. ... (Citrine)
Yellow. Happy, Friendly, Warning. ... (Cat's Eye)
Green. Natural, Stable, Prosperous. ... (Jade)
Blue. Serene, Trustworthy, Inviting. ... (Sapphire)
Purple. Luxurious, Mysterious, Romantic. (Amethyst)

It could work, but it requires planning and forethought from the players. I would skip the emotions in favor of simplicity - if you want some easy boundaries.

All sockets functions equally (they give a well needed clue for some cost/fatigue), but you need a different color each time. Thus, it becomes harder to find the last colors when only (say) blue or purple will do. When all colors of the rainbow are in place a hidden socket on the bottom of the handle will be revealed. This socket only takes a jet black gemstone. But there is no more clues - only a terrible demon that crawls out of the mirror like the girl in The Ring movie. Muahahaha!

[ShirAhn]

It could work, but it requires planning and forethought from the players. I would skip the emotions in favor of simplicity - if you want some easy boundaries.

All sockets functions equally (they give a well needed clue for some cost/fatigue), but you need a different color each time. Thus, it becomes harder to find the last colors when only (say) blue or purple will do. When all colors of the rainbow are in place a hidden socket on the bottom of the handle will be revealed. This socket only takes a jet black gemstone. But there is no more clues - only a terrible demon that crawls out of the mirror like the girl in The Ring movie. Muahahaha!

I like this idea, its nice and sinister. I like sinister..

[Sirdar]

I like this idea, its nice and sinister. I like sinister..

Me too... :smallamused:

[Silvanshei]

All sockets functions equally (they give a well needed clue for some cost/fatigue), but you need a different color each time. Thus, it becomes harder to find the last colors when only (say) blue or purple will do. When all colors of the rainbow are in place a hidden socket on the bottom of the handle will be revealed. This socket only takes a jet black gemstone. But there is no more clues - only a terrible demon that crawls out of the mirror like the girl in The Ring movie. Muahahaha!

Going to steal this is you don't mind. :smallsmile:

[Coffee_Dragon]

The important question is, can you use Minor Illusion to make a functional mirror that looks back in time?

[ShirAhn]

The important question is, can you use Minor Illusion to make a functional mirror that looks back in time?

When I am a DM, I would not allow it. A minor Illusion is "minor" and won't be able to show movement like reflections when you look inside it. At best a static image that always looks the same no matter how you move the mirror.

UPDATE:

The party found the mirror yesterday, I described it as a small mirror that could be held in hand, with a small ovale hole at the bottom of the handle. Their reaction was priceless, they didn't even look in the mirror. They just threw it in the bag where it will probably rest until the end of time :).

Thanks all!