Celestial Refractor
It doesn’t show the sky. It shows the intention behind it.
GM Summary
The Celestial Refractor is the pulsing heart of the Starfall Conclave — a ruined observatory-altar fused with extraplanar geometry. Built long ago by the first Starcallers, it wasn’t just meant to view constellations.
It was meant to decode them. To bend the patterns. To listen.
When players enter this place, they see more than stars — they see consequences.
Description
From the outside, the Refractor is a shattered dome, half sunken into the crater’s northern ridge. A bronze astrolabe leans half-buried in earth. Starlight reflects in places where there’s no glass.
Inside, the space stretches wrong.
The interior is larger than the outside. The ceiling moves when no one looks. Arcs of fractured mirrors float mid-air, orbiting an invisible lens. Each player sees a different reflection in the glass — but none of them match what they expect.
In the center, a spiraling platform rises toward a focus point — a blank sphere that never catches light.
Sights, Sounds, Smells
Sight: Mirror fragments drifting like slow stars
Sound: The creak of moving brass, like a ship adjusting to tide
Smell: Cold ozone. Ink on vellum. Burned silver.
Touch: The air presses inward — like standing in the memory of thunder
Taste (if magic is cast): Bitter citrus, then cold iron
Lore
The Refractor was meant to translate the will of the stars. Or perhaps the will of the thing behind them. The deeper the calibration, the stranger the results.
Some say the Refractor isn’t broken.
It’s misaligned on purpose.
To protect us from what it would otherwise show.
Others claim it’s trying to finish a thought — one that began before this world was born.
Adjust Yer Focus
The Celestial Refractor doesn’t just show what’s above — it reveals what’s beneath. Use this cursed telescope for visions, riddles, madness, or a trial of knowledge too big for mortal minds.
Need the one who once tried to repair it?
Consult Berenzaar the Archivist
Looking for a reason it cracked in the first place?
Ask the Mirrorbound One
Or ready to face the thing that whispered through the glass?
Listen to the Voice Beyond the Star
Secrets, Mechanics, and Encounters
What the Refractor Does
This isn’t just a set piece — it’s a GM wildcard. It can be…
A Revelation Engine
The players can use the Refractor to observe:
An event from the past (even their own)
A possible future, distorted and uncertain
A hidden truth, if they ask the right question
"You may look once. But something will look back."
A Magical Trial
The Refractor flares. Each PC makes an INT, WIS, or CHA save (player choice). The result?
Success: Gain one cosmic insight (advantage on future roll, prophecy, etc.)
Failure: Suffer a permanent star-mark — disadvantage on insight vs. celestial forces.
Or worse: you speak the Voice’s words in your sleep.
A Puzzle Room
Each floating mirror fragment is interactive. Aligning them correctly:
Opens a portal to another chamber
Unlocks a map to the Chamber of the Chained Stars
Reverses one truth — a party member’s memory, a choice, or even death
But misalignment causes psychic shockwaves, reshaping the room randomly.
Refractor Events (Roll 1d4)
The constellation above you disappears. No one else remembers it existed.
Your reflection begs you not to continue. Only you see it.
You see a moment from your future. It ends with your death.
You see the Thirteenth watching you. But it’s not her.
GM Tips
Reward curiosity, not caution — the Refractor exists to be used
Have NPCs refuse to enter it — they’ve seen enough
Let it hint at other campaigns. Other worlds. Other stars.
If you want a longer campaign arc, let the Refractor be the first “telescope” of many
Final Note
When the players leave the Celestial Refractor, the sky doesn't look different — they do.
They’ve seen the pattern behind the stars.
They’ve glimpsed the hand that holds the lens.
And now, something knows they were watching.
If they shared what they saw with The Thirteenth, she may begin to remember more than she was meant to.
If they aligned the mirrors too well, they may have cracked a path toward the Chamber of the Chained Stars — a place sealed for good reason.
And if they stared too long?
Then The Voice Beyond the Star is already listening.
