Mask of the Cat Queen

Wondrous item, legendary (requires attunement)

Bearing the countenance of a grinning feline, this mask appears to be made from fire-blackened scrap wood that has been scratched by the claws of a hundred cats. The curving claws of a great cat, possibly a sabre tooth tiger, decorate its edge.

While wearing a mask of the cat queen to which you are attuned you have darkvision out to 90 feet and advantage on Dexterity (acrobatics and stealth) skill checks, Dexterity saves, and attack rolls made against rodents, avians, and vermin. This legendary mask also grants you a feline’s mythical nine lives. While wearing a mask to which you are attuned, if you are reduced to 0 hit points you are immediately teleported to a random - but safe - location within 100 feet and regain 1d6 hit points. If there is no safe space within 100 feet, you teleport to the least dangerous space within that area. When you are teleported by the mask, it leaves one of its claws behind. If no claws remain, you immediately die instead of teleporting and cannot be returned to life by anything short of divine intervention. If found or stolen, the mask has 1d10-1 claws. If bestowed by a feline divinity, the mask has all 9 claws.

It is said the first Mask of the Cat Queen was created by a goddess of cats as a gift for her human lover, who’s antics amused her greatly. Legends say this goddess ofttimes forges new masks and gifts them to promising mortals, while others claim each mask is scratched into existence from a hunk of wood by the claws of divinely inspired cats. Folktales claim those who perform a great service to a cat of legend are granted a new claw for the mask, thus extending its usefulness. Such tales go on to say those who die while wearing the mask join the cat goddess in the afterlife where they remain her playthings forevermore.

A Mask of the Cat Queen can only be destroyed by being knocked off of a high shelf by a house cat.