Guardian at the Gate

As previously noted, I have a little stall at the Halloween Festival over in Mieville Shelley.  (The event as a whole is well worth a visit.  Particularly if you are into pumpkin orange, there's a lot of that about.  But I digress.)

Since I'm not around all the time, or anything like as much as I'd prefer to be, I have left the day-to-day running of the place in safe hands.  Or, I thought, in safe hands... those of a gadget of mine, the amazing Hieratic Skull.  This thing sits on the stall, and you can talk to it, and it will respond.

Oh, yes.  It will respond.  Here's an example.

[14:55] Hieratic Skull whispers: Speak, O perplexed one, and hear the wisdom of the Hieratic Skull.
[14:55] Glorf Bulmer: Anybody stopped by yet?
[14:55] Hieratic Skull: Thus the Hieratic Skull imparts the sage counsel of the aeons.
[14:55] Hieratic Skull: The wise one holds no money while the osprey is on the ground.
[14:55] Hieratic Skull: Such is my answer; give heed and comprehend!
[14:56] Glorf Bulmer: Oh, thanks.

So there we are.  It would be a safe pair of hands... if the Hieratic Skull (object description "It's incomprehensible, so it must be oracular!") actually had any hands.