Archivist’s Recall Cog

A small runebound brass cog set in a palm-sized iron frame, worn on a chain or mounted into a tool bracer.

This device was given to M.T. when he completed his studies under Maya. At first glance it looks like a simple artificer’s mnemonic tool: a rotating brass gear engraved with dwarven-inspired runebinding marks, fine Eberron-style calibration lines, and a single inset blue crystal no larger than a fingernail. When touched, the cog gives off a faint vibration, like a machine remembering it is alive.

Maya told M.T. that an artificer’s first duty is not to build, but to remember: remember what was lost, what was broken, and what must never be allowed to vanish. Officially, the device was presented as a practical tool for field research and artifact recovery. Unofficially, it is exactly the sort of harmless-seeming object that would pass through many hands without revealing how useful it can be to those who preserve forbidden knowledge.

Properties

While carrying the Archivist’s Recall Cog, the bearer gains the following benefits:

• The cog can be used as a spellcasting focus for artificer spells.
• Once per long rest, the bearer can touch a book, scroll, inscription, diagram, or object with writing on it and perfectly recall one page, one short passage, or one simple diagram they examined within the last 24 hours. This memory remains crystal clear for 1 hour.
• The cog can cast mending once per long rest, but only to repair a Small or smaller nonmagical scholarly or mechanical object such as a scroll case, spectacles, quill, lock, gear assembly, tool, or broken book clasp.
• When held near damaged writing or partially erased markings, the crystal emits a faint blue glow, enough to reveal that text or runes were once present, though not enough to fully restore or translate them.

Flavor text

“Steel remembers the shape it was forced into. Stone remembers the hand that cut it. Words deserve the same mercy.”
— Maya of Veir

Appearance

The frame is dark iron with softened edges from handling. The cog itself is warm brass, etched with tiny interlocking runes inspired by dwarven binding methods, but refined through guild artificer craft. The crystal glows brightest when held near lost knowledge, damaged diagrams, or old mechanisms. M.T. may have added one personal modification: a tiny maker’s mark for Balus hidden on the back, nearly invisible unless the cog is dismantled.