Overview

The Hat of Disguise appears to be an ordinary wide-brimmed hat, but it radiates magic when examined by appropriate means.

Once donned, the hat allows its wearer to cloak themselves in illusion and assume the guise of another creature. The disguise can alter the wearer’s apparent height, weight, gender, coloring, and facial features, making the hat a powerful tool for impersonation and concealment.

The illusion lasts only while the hat remains worn.

Powers

While wearing the Hat of Disguise, the wearer may alter their apparent appearance within the following limits:

• Height may be changed by up to 25%.
• Apparent weight may be changed by up to 50%.
• Gender may be changed.
• Hair, eye, and skin color may be changed to any desired color.
• Facial features may be altered as desired.

The disguise ends if the hat is removed.

The hat may be reused any number of times.

No matter what appearance the wearer assumes, the hat itself must remain part of the disguise. It may appear as a helmet, hat, hood, tiara, scarf, beret, or similar form, but it cannot be made to vanish entirely.

Appearance

In its normal form, the Hat of Disguise appears to be a wide-brimmed hat of ordinary construction.

Subtle embroidery along the inner lining is said to represent the “veils between truth and falsehood,” an Oeridian motif associated with trickery and hidden paths. The markings suggest that the hat was intended as a tool of transformation rather than simple attire.

Despite its mundane appearance, the hat radiates magic when detected for.

Sensations and Signs

When first placed on the head, the hat feels strangely cool, as though a draft has passed through the room.

As the wearer assumes a new guise, the fabric seems to shift in weight and texture to suit the chosen appearance. Regardless of the form it takes, the hat remains comfortable, as though it had always belonged there.

Those who look into a mirror while wearing it sometimes experience a momentary dissonance, as though their reflection lags a heartbeat behind their movements.

History and Lore

Legends trace the earliest Hats of Disguise to the city of Dyvers, where river smugglers and guild spies used them to slip past patrols and rivals.

Later, illusionists of the Guild of Wizardry in Greyhawk are said to have refined the enchantment. According to one tradition, they deliberately preserved the rule that the hat itself must always remain visible so that members of the guild could recognize their own handiwork.

Some stories claim the design descends from old Oeridian shadow-masks, relics once worn by assassins said to walk unseen in broad daylight.

Today, Hats of Disguise are traded quietly among thieves’ guilds, courtiers, spies, and wandering tricksters who understand the value of a borrowed face.