Memoriser Lens
Cost: 510 gc (capacitor not included)
Description: Ironically also known both as Angellia’s Funnel and Eye of Ekris, this device looks not dissimilar to a particularly fat, conduit-wrapped magnifying glass a little larger than a fist that is powered by an alchemical capacitor installed in the handle. Viewing any visual information through the device’s lens imprints it on the user’s memory, allowing perfect recall for a substantial period of time, though imprinting more than one set of facts simultaneously will have a cumulative negative impact on this retention.
Rune Points: 3
Special Rules: If a character with the Photographic Memory Intellectual archetype benefit (see IKRPG, p. 116) uses a powered memoriser lens, they can simply read extremely fast, and can, for example, perfectly recall a page from a book they looked at through the memoriser lens for one turn.
A character without this archetype benefit can also acquire visual information at the same speed with the aid of a memoriser lens and gains equally perfect recall, but this recall only lasts for a number of weeks equal to the sum of their INT and PER, plus 1d3. Additionally, each additional set of visual information imprinted in this manner before the first has faded reduces the time during which perfect recall is possible by one week for each additional set of information. This penalty is cumulative and applies to all imprinted sets of information, including those imprinted during previous sessions (This also means that eventually imprints begin to cancel each other out, effectively “freeing up” mental space again).
Furthermore, when a character without the Photographic Memory Intellectual archetype benefit imprints visual information with the aid of a memoriser lens, information they cannot understand counts as an additional set of imprints (e.g. if a character without any understanding of mechanika tries to memorise runeplate or conduit schematics). Imprinting pictographic information or unknown languages rather than texts written in a language the user understands also counts as an additional set of information. Last but not least, the GM has the final say as to whether visual information constitutes a coherent set (e.g. a novel would be considered a single set of visual information, as would the schematics of a piece of dedicated mechanika, but a standard weapon runeplate and the conduit configurations of a generic mechanikal weapon should be considered two sets of information, as they are not intrinsically linked).
Morgan’s Notes: Organisations with a lot of proprietary information are usually very leery of anybody using memoriser lenses, as these devices would allow easy theft of their intellectual property. Spies intending to use these devices have to get creative when hiding these devices for this very reason. Surprisingly, however, many academic institutions are less concerned with the device, as it only allows recall of information, not understanding, so individuals trying to use memoriser lenses to cheat on their exams are usually caught very quickly by their rote repetitions and inability to explain the material (also, the lens only allows retention of visual information, which limits its usefulness in academic settings that involve discussion and practical experiences as much as scholarship).
Fabrication: The material cost of the memoriser lens’s parts is 25 gc. It takes three weeks to construct the device. The pertinent Craft skill for construction is Craft (glassworking).
The memoriser lens’s runeplate takes three weeks to inscribe and requires a successful INT+Mechanikal engineering roll aga
inst a target number of 15.
Comments welcome, as usual.