Full Item Description
No more carrying all those keys, picks, incriminating tools, bottles of acid, and a healer for when all those things still leave you setting off whatever dastardly trap the GM came up with THIS time. The Skeleton Key is the Master master key, bespelled with a morphing spell and carved from precious ivory, able to unlock any door, chest, strongbox, and, occasionally, the manacles chaining you to the prison wall (and the cell door, and the gate, and the….). Only one thing, most DMs won’t let you have one, or at least not for a reasonable price. Not to mention the traps they’ll come up with when this gets out.
History
This item is history in the making, so either one of the players, or one of you ‘persons of limited destiny’ (NPCs), need to introduce it into the game.
Magic/Cursed Properties
The function is simple, it’s a key that fits any lock, but the uses are endless, unlawful activities, absent-minded fellows who hate carrying around dozens of keys that all look the same, et cetera. Like the description says, it fits anywhere.
April 23, 2007, 22:35
April 23, 2007, 23:48
April 24, 2007, 0:44
April 24, 2007, 3:36
April 24, 2007, 11:00
I've said in the past it is okay for the history of the item to be unknown in game, but the real history of the item still needs to be there, even only as a GM resource. The history need not describe it's use when created, but should include how it was created, by whom, and why.
One suggestion: if it were a special mineral-based life form that could sense the required shape to match a mechanical lock, morph to that shape and open it, this could be very useful - it may not require 'magic' at all to function.
I think this needs to be placed back 'in work' and other items reviewed for what is expected of posts. I think it has potential with work so I'm holding off voting for now.
April 24, 2007, 14:45
The item deserves a cool history: Who invented such a handy gadget? What did the Locksmiths' Guild do when they heard? What have wizards done to counter it? Once you have a sense of its history, you'll be able to tell what limits the Skeleton Key ought to have.
If it has virtually NO limits, such an item would become a potent magic indeed, the subject of intense interest from those who want locks opened and from those who want locks to remain closed...
"It has been found," hissed the Archlich. "The key to open the Tomb of the Elder God Hlithiss! Fetch it, my minions!"