Mask of Shum

The Mask of Shum was an artifact known within the ancient Imaskar Empire. It was once thought to be one of the Imaskarcana.

History
An alliance of Imaskari archwizards known as the Cabal of Madness created a number of masks known as the Faces of Madness, each themed around a school of magic, over decades after striking a bargain with horrors from beyond their world. The Mask of Shum was one of them. Each of those major artifacts were created with a curse that only the creator knew how to avoid. Before they were able to implement their plans, however, the Mulan rebelled with the aid of their gods, ultimately destroying Imaskar as a nation. In the resulting tumult, the masks were scattered.

Appearance
The Mask of Shum was crafted from hundreds of copper coins fused together, each with a death's head stamped on both sides. It was held with leather straps; there was a hinged portion for the jaw.

Powers
The Mask of Shum granted continuous true seeing to the full range of the wearer's vision. It also granted the ability to comprehend languages, save that the wearer needed not touch the target whose language they meant to comprehend. Finally, they got the ability to cast, five times a day, their choice of detect thoughts, true strike, clairaudience/clairvoyance, discern lies, discern location,identify,legend lore, and foresight.

However, every time the mask was donned, the wearer was assaulted with visions of the past and the future. This could freeze the wearer for 30 seconds if they did not have the willpower not to try and make sense of that information; it could cause a permanent loss of insight and willpower, which could be thwarted with a timely remove curse or break enchantment. Those who failed to resist the effect more than once were often fooled into believing they knew the future.