As with last year, I will be posting a piece of short fiction and an unreleased page image in time for the holidays. From now on, however, this will happen with the Winter Sale, when all Grindwheel Game products can participate in the promotion. Please enjoy the story, and have a great holiday season!
Goggles of Diabolic Vision
Classification – Cursed Artefact
Threat Rating – Contained
These hellish lenses were crafted by the mad artificer Nimmud Timmus alongside many other devices which perverted the science of optics. These included the sinister Carnivore Mirror, and the infamous Doppelgänger Box.
Believed by experts to be one of his earlier works, the lenses were originally set into a featureless brass mask. The wearer would barraged by a series of visions, such as the Heavens, Hells and even External dimensions. Keeping the head perfectly still would allow the wearer to view one of these places continuously, but even the slightest movement would break the image apart into a kaleidoscope of fresh horrors.
As a result, scholars theorise that the lenses actually allow the viewer to pierce the veil between our reality, and whichever plane is targeted by the fiendish device. Factors such as the person's age, height, birth sign and current facing are all used to determine what they will see. Added to this the fact that even a millimetre's difference in placement and bearing will change what the wearer sees, means they are essentially useless as a reliable means of remote viewing.
At some point the lenses were removed from the mask and physically bolted to a woman's face. Her eyelids had been removed, and the space between her eyes and the glass filled with an alchemical mixture to keep them moist. She was then given paper and charcoal to draw what she saw. It is not known if she was a willing participant in this experiment, or a victim of malice.
Since her death during the Harrow's Gate Incident, the lenses were recovered and placed in storage in the Capital's forbidden archive to ensure they never again blight this world.
