The New Year’s Hourglass
Wondrous Item, Very Rare
The New Year’s Hourglass is a slender, crystalline instrument framed in silver-gold metal shaped like braided laurels. Its sand glows with a pale moonlit shimmer snd falls impossibly slow. On the stroke of midnight each New Year’s Day, the hourglass magically resets itself and fills with arcane power.
Its origin and creator are unknown but regardless of origin, the artifact embodies the promise of a fresh start… and the power to undo a moment of failure.
Item Description
The hourglass is cold to the touch, though never uncomfortable. Creatures with proficiency in Arcana or Insight may catch a faint vision or fleeting glimpses of choices they didn’t make, paths they didn’t take, and outcomes that might yet be rewritten in the shifting sand of the hourglass.
Mechanics
Chronologic Reset (1/Year)
Once per year, when a creature within 30 feet that you can see makes an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw and fails, you may use your reaction to flip the hourglass. As the sand begins falling:
The failed roll is immediately replaced with a Natural 20.
Once activated, the hourglass dims, its sand turning dull and lifeless until the next January 1st at exactly midnight, at which point it regains its magic.
Curses & Limitations
The New Year’s Hourglass is extremely powerful, so it carries built-in constraints:
▪ Only one creature can benefit from the Chronologic Reset each year.
▪ The reset cannot prevent death that has already occurred.
▪ If the hourglass is broken, the sand spills out and freezes midair, drifting like stardust. The item re-forms itself the next New Year’s Day in a random location on the same plain of existence.
