Shifting Paint

Ultimate Equipment Guide II

Author Greg Lynch, J. C. Alvarez
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2005

Shifting paint is another alchemical creation of Roland Demeir, the famed artist and bard. It shares some properties with harmonic paint, but was not specifically designed to carry and convey a hidden message. Shifting paint is intended to be applied in layers, and comes in two varieties, one of which reacts to light while the other reacts to temperature. Using the light-reacting paint, an artist paints two separate scenes on the same canvas, one of which is visible when the painting is exposed to direct light, the other becoming visible when the painting is placed in shadow. Most often, it is used to create a day and a night scene of the same subject.

Shifting paint that reacts to temperature, on the other hand, responds to the ambient temperature in the room and is often used to paint the same scene in different seasons of the year, showing the leaves on a tree change or snow piling up in the winter scene where wildflowers bloomed in the summer scene. Such changes can be forced by placing a source of heat or cold near the painting. Shifting paint is sometimes used to convey a hidden message, but it is far less secure than harmonic paint, which requires a specific musical note as its trigger to change. Those using shifting paint to carry a message will often make the message very subtle, such as an
object appearing the background of the subject in one scene where it does not exist in the other scenes.

Shifting Paint (light-activated): 10 gp per oz.

Shifting Paint (temperature-activated): 15 gp per oz.