The Folio of the Unseen Applause
A celebrated illusionist's folio preserves the masks, false stages, and phantom audiences she used to rewrite the fate of a kingdom.
Spellbook · Bard · Level 20
The Folio of the Unseen Applause
A celebrated illusionist's folio preserves the masks, false stages, and phantom audiences she used to rewrite the fate of a kingdom.
Ex librisMirelle VossBardic stagecraft
At a glance
Level
20
Bard
Spells
10
1 cantrip, 2 signature
At the table
A margin note
Plot hook
Spells
10 spellsCantrips
1- Create a faint sound or alter the apparent quality and direction of a voice within range. The sound is clearly illusory if examined closely.
- Duration
- 1 minute
- Target
- A sound source or one willing creature
- Components
- A pinch of colored sand
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, the illusion can carry a short phrase to additional chosen listeners.
- Source
- Original Creation
1st level
1- Create a static, silent visual image that fits within a 5-foot cube. Physical interaction reveals it as an illusion.
- Duration
- 1 hour
- Target
- A point in space
- Components
- A small scrap of painted silk
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, the caster may maintain additional images, each requiring concentration.
- Source
- Original Creation
2nd level
1- Alter your apparent facial features, voice, and silhouette. The disguise does not change your body or withstand physical inspection.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 hour
- Target
- Self
- Components
- A ribbon or a painted mask
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, the disguise can include the appearance of worn clothing and carried objects.
- Source
- Original Creation
3rd level
1- Fill a 20-foot-radius area with phantom voices and looming shapes. On a failed save, a creature is frightened and perceives threats as surrounding it.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- Creatures of your choice in a 20-foot-radius area
- Components
- A crystal bead
- Save or attack
- Wisdom save negates; an affected creature repeats the save at the end of each of its turns
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, the affected area increases.
- Conditions
- Frightened
- Source
- Original Creation
4th level
1- Create three illusory doubles that move with you. When an attack targets you, a double can be mistaken for you and take the attack instead, causing it to vanish.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 hour
- Target
- Self
- Components
- A silvered coin
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, create one additional double.
- Source
- Original Creation
5th level
1- Overlay a 60-foot-radius area with an illusion of your design, including sound, smell, and apparent terrain. Physical interaction or close examination can reveal inconsistencies.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 10 minutes
- Target
- A 60-foot-radius area
- Components
- A miniature stage curtain
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, the apparent theater can cover a larger area.
- Source
- Original Creation
6th level
1- Show one creature a personalized, compelling illusion. On a failed save, it is charmed and perceives itself as the center of an irresistible private performance.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- One creature that can see you
- Components
- A mirror shard worth 100 gold pieces
- Save or attack
- Wisdom save negates; the target can repeat the save when it takes damage
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, the spell can target one additional creature.
- Conditions
- Charmed
- Source
- Original Creation
7th level
1- Make a 30-foot-radius area appear vacant, altered, or occupied by innocuous scenery to observers outside it. A creature that enters the area sees through the illusion.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- A 30-foot-radius area
- Components
- A hand mirror
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, the concealed area's radius increases.
- Source
- Original Creation
8th level
1- Create a mobile visual, auditory, and olfactory illusion that fits within a 30-foot cube. It can react to events and appear lifelike, but cannot exert force or deal damage.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 10 minutes
- Target
- A point within range
- Components
- A silver mask worth 500 gold pieces
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, the illusion's size and complexity increase.
- Source
- Original Creation
9th level
1- Enclose one creature's senses in a convincing vision of your design. On a failed save, it is charmed and perceives the illusion as real, though it cannot take actions except those the vision prompts.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- One creature that can see the mirror
- Components
- A flawless mirror worth 1,000 gold pieces, not consumed
- Save or attack
- Wisdom save negates; an affected creature can repeat the save when it takes damage
- Higher levels
- The spell uses its highest available tier; additional tiers have no effect.
- Conditions
- Charmed
- Source
- Original Creation
In the margins
3 notes
FormulaA convincing lie needs somewhere for the truth to stand. Leave a shadow unpainted.
WarningDo not rehearse the final curtain. The audience in the glass applauds before the scene is finished.
DiaryI saw my brother in the wings again. He has been dead twelve years, but tonight he knew the words.
The book itself
The book smells faintly of candle smoke, rosewater, and backstage dust.
Its silvered cover shows the viewer wearing the expression they are trying hardest to hide.
The illusionary ink vanishes if read aloud in a voice other than the reader's.
The caster
Bardic stagecraftMirelle Voss
Studies: IllusionManner: Warm, poised, and attentive, with the practiced calm of someone who can improvise when an entire room is staring.Focus: A silver hand mirror mounted in the grip of a conductor's baton.Quirk: She gives a small bow to empty rooms before leaving them.Wants: To discover whether the brother who appears in her mirror is a mere illusion or a message from somewhere beyond it.Mirelle Voss began as a stage understudy in a royal theater, where she learned that an unseen cue could alter a ruler's decisions as surely as a whispered counsel. She later used her performances to expose a conspiracy, then disappeared before the crown could reward or punish her.
The book
A velvet-bound folio whose mirrored silver cover reflects its viewer a heartbeat late. Its pages are translucent, layered like theater scrims, and rearrange themselves into new scenes when opened.
Its wards · GM only
About the book
FormatMirrored folio
ThemeIllusion
Written by aBard
Caster level20
SystemGeneric Fantasy
Plot hooks
1A theater troupe claims the folio's vanished audience includes the ghosts of people who were erased from history, and begs its owner to perform the final scene.
2The folio's former patron, a deposed queen, offers a fortune to recover the one illusion that can make an entire city remember her as its rightful ruler.
3A rival illusionist has stolen a page and is using its phantom double to commit crimes while framing the folio's owner.
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