Hat of Disguise
| Hat of Disguise | |||||||||||||||
| top hat · the disguise hat · Phil's hat | |||||||||||||||
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The Hat of Disguise was a wondrous-item top hat recovered from a water-warded crate in Phil Flowerforge’s hidden stash beneath the Eldwythe sewers in session 16. The crate was magically sealed against water; tipping it broke the seal and revealed the hat [7]. Althea Stormsoro ritual-cast Identify over ten in-fiction minutes — “your identify magic item spell finishes and you realize in your hand you hold a hat of disguise that allows the attuned preacher to cast the disguise self spell” [11]. Vasquez attuned to it during the subsequent boat trip [20], test-disguised himself as a dwarf, and was configured for Aurelia infiltration. The hat was destroyed off-screen as part of the s16 retcon clarified in session 17 [5]: when Vasquez and Althea split off from the party at the end of session 16 and were captured by Aurelians, the hat “frigging exploded … it’s just bits and pieces” during the escape [14], L136). Confirmed destroyed in [6] — Mike asked who had the disguise hat, Terry replied “that’s gone we lost it that was left in the [he] must not be named”. Status flipped from active to destroyed.
Overview
The Hat of Disguise is the standard 5e wondrous-item top hat that lets the attuned wearer cast Disguise Self at will while wearing it. The party heard about it first in s15, in passing, when Phil Flowerforge told the group during the smoke flight from Eldwythe that he kept a stash with a hat of disguise in it (“I had a hat of disguise that I had somewhere in one of the crates” — [1]. They reached the stash in s16 inside the Eldwythe sewers beneath the city.
Recovery
The recovery sequence is one of s16’s running comedies. The crate was magically sealed against water and standing in the sewer wash; Caelumn and Terry tipped the crate to break the seal, the contents splashed out, and a top hat was the most prominent object [7]. Terry recognised it on sight and Caelumn — having spent two weeks at sea with nothing to do — promptly attempted to slap the hat directly onto Vasquez’s head as a test:
“i’m not gonna wear it i’m turning around and i look at vasquez without any warning i slam it on his head just praying that it’s not a cursed item” — Caelumn, [8]
Vasquez intercepted Caelumn’s wrist on a contested Dex check [9]. Althea Stormsoro then offered to ritual-cast Identify — “actually if you want I could just identify it” [10] — and ten in-fiction minutes (and several minutes of Terry-rambling table chatter) later confirmed the item:
“Althea, your identify magic item spell finishes and you realize in your hand you hold a hat of disguise that allows the attuned preacher to cast the disguise self spell.” — DM, [11]
Mechanics
Standard 5e Hat of Disguise:
- Wondrous item, uncommon.
- Requires attunement.
- While attuned and worn, the wearer can cast Disguise Self at will. The disguise persists until ended or until the hat is removed.
The s16 attunement happened during the boat trip away from Eldwythe [12]; Vasquez tested the disguise and successfully appeared as a dwarf, complete with discord-shared portrait reference [13].
Strategic role
Combined with Vasquez’s Aurelian plate (which silences his arcane-casting tells but also blocks his own casting and rage) and his re-engraved dwarf-family chest sigil, the Hat of Disguise rounds out a deliberate Aurelia infiltration kit: a half-demon-elf with horns, ember eyes, and a known mask becomes a dwarf in plate carrying paperwork that matches. The party’s stated s16-end objective is to head north toward Maestrand, then Aurelia, to recover The Egg, and Vasquez is the lead infiltrator.
Destruction (s16 retcon clarified s17)
At the start of session 17, the DM laid out the framing of the s16 cliffhanger: Vasquez and Althea had split off from the rest of the party at the end of s16, the Aurelians closed in, and the party had to choose between fleeing and going back for them. The party chose to flee. Vasquez and Althea were captured. As part of the same retcon, the Hat of Disguise was destroyed in the escape:
“sorry man that that you did yeah i’m sorry the hat uh friggin exploded it’s gone” — Nick (DM), [14]
“in the river now or the ocean it’s just uh bits and pieces it is” — Steven, [15]
Terry objected at the table — “I object to that retcon. I want a different retcon. I want one where he keeps the fucking hat” [16] — but the change stood. Later in s17, when Mike asked the party who had the disguise hat (he was making infiltration plans), Terry confirmed the loss: “that’s gone we lost it that was left in the [he] must not be named” [17]. Hugo added the blame: “Yeah, you can blame Nick” [18]. Terry: “i tried to get the retcon read rewritten” [19].
Status as of session 17
Destroyed. No longer in play. The party’s Aurelia infiltration plan now lacks the half-tiefling disguise tool that the s16 attunement was designed to provide. Vasquez was wearing the hat when he and Althea were taken; the chain of custody ends here. Per Chris’s post-s17 clarification, Vasquez is a departed PC (in the same category as Cholmondeley, Harvo, and Ruin), not a captured-and-rescuable one - the hat is gone and is not coming back through a rescue arc.
See also
References
- ^ Session 15, line 693 — Phil mentions "I had a hat of disguise that I had somewhere in one of the crates".
- ^ Session 16, line 65-72 — Crate seal breaks; Caelumn pulls out a top hat; Terry recognises it.
- ^ Session 16, line 89-160 — Althea ritual-casts Identify; confirms Hat of Disguise / Disguise Self.
- ^ Session 16, line 1670-1676 — Vasquez attunes during the boat trip; tests as a dwarf.
- ^ Session 17, line 134-136 — "the hat uh friggin exploded it's gone" — destroyed in the s16-retcon-clarified escape after Vasquez and Althea were captured.
- ^ Session 17, line 1563-1567 — Mike asks who has the disguise hat; Terry confirms it is lost ("that's gone we lost it that was left in the [he] must not be named").
- ^ Session 16, line 65-66 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 16, line 72 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 16, line 78-86 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 16, line 89 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 16, line 159 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 16, line 1671-1676 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 16, line 1674 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 17, line 134 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 17, line 136 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 17, line 137 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 17, line 1563 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 17, line 1566 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 17, line 1567 — Inline citation.
- ^ Session 16, line 1671-1673 — Inline citation.