Raven's Mask

Wondrous item, uncommon

This leathery mask rests magically over your nose and mouth. The mask creates a raven-like beak over top of your mouth, which can remain closed or move with you while you speak (your choice each time). The mask weighs 1 pound, but feels weightless on your face. You can don or doff the mask using an action.

While wearing the mask, you have advantage on saving throws made against harmful gases and vapors (such as cloudkill, inhaled poisons, and the breath weapons of some dragons). You can't become diseased by these effects, and you automatically succeed on saving throws to resist the stinking cloud spell. In addition, while wearing the mask, ravens and similar birds (such as crows and magpies) can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no special ability to understand them in return.

The half-orc pulled back her feathered hood, tilting her head in time with the raven on her shoulder. They watched a trio of crows bicker over a meager scrap. From her pocket, she pulled a cluster of dark berries: little red gems that looked like blood. She stepped closer to speak through a beaked mask.

“Brother crows, lend me your brilliance,” she called, raising the berries as an offering. The crows froze. Then one, seeing the opportunity, grabbed the scrap and fled. The other two remained, edging nearer with sideways steps.

She knelt down, berries still in hand: “A gift for you, friends. Tell me: where lies the garden with the small keeper and a halo of bright flowers?”

A pause. Then, the crows' cries broke out, wings battering the air as though they were locked in combat—or drawing maps that only they could understand.

“Tel’rohk?” she muttered to her companion, and the raven answered with a warbling laugh. The crow's heads bobbed in eager agreement. The raven then leapt from the half-orc's shoulder, scattering loose feathers before beginning to lead the way.

With a flick of her wrist, the half-orc scattered the dark berries for the crows, like an augur's cast bones. “My thanks, and Her blessings," she whispered into the cold night, and followed the black arc of her raven's flight.