The Black Mage Brias of Chald was infamous for his intrigues even in a city of intrigues. He is said to have come close to single-handedly overthrowing the Council of the Winds and enslaving the entire city under his sole rule. When his coup failed the Council of the time ordered that he be torn apart by Crdlu, and his various body parts displayed around the lands of Chald as a warning to others.
For reasons best known to themselves some of Brias' followers stole their leader's tongue from where it was nailed and made off with it. Stories tell that the tongue turned black when exposed to the sun, and has been passed down from follower to follower within a cult of Brias ever since.
The Tongue resembles a shrivelled piece of black leather or ancient flesh in the shape of a long pointed tongue. Outside a Keldian body it does nothing, its powers are revealed only if it is touched to the stump of a severed tongue inside a living person's mouth (not a situation most people are keen to manufacture). When this happens the Tongue bonds to the flesh of its new host and takes over as their tongue, though it does not lose its colour or pointed shape. The only way to remove the Tongue at this point is the obvious, cutting it from its new owner's flesh.
Once the tongue has been implanted the deceitful powers of Brias are bestowed upon the owner. Words spoken by the tongue are beguilingly persuasive. The speaker gains +6 Oratory whenever they speak their words in person, they can tell almost any lie and have it be believed. If they take one Spirit damage they may tell lies so damaging that they immediately inflict Social Damage equal to their Subterfuge to any target present. At the same time the tongue inflicts a terrible cost, the words of the Tongue are so twisted that they cannot correctly pronounce truth. Whenever the speaker tries to have a normal conversation they will always sound like they are lying or manipulating, and they suffer -2 Status. The more important and urgent the information they are trying to convey the worse the side effect is. Eventually even the words of others start to sound like lies, and the speaker loses all ability to tell real words from falsehoods. They gain 1 Insanity point each month that the Tongue is part of them.