The Pen of the Fox
A pen? Yes, a pen. It has long been a treasured item for forgers who would like to have their hands on it...
Made about 200 years ago, Falik Helix was a simple tribal leader of a simple tribal group in the Swamp of the East. He was one of the few people in the Swamp who could read and write and was sought out all over the continent. He then decided to make something. Enlisting the help of an ogre magician, he made the Pen of the Fox.
The pen is solid black and made from a special wood from the Swamp of the East. The ink used is a secret, no one knowing how it is made, since opening it would destroy the ink. Pubis taking it to his grave.
The Pen of the Fox was able to forge any document and name without any trouble. This was Helix's greatest making with the help of the magician, who was called Pubis, and it led to the death of Felik, with a knife in his back for making a love letter that wasn't true.
Some ten years after its making, the pen came to a hand of the King of Melborn, where he was jealous of the power of a rival duke. He wrote a fake love letter that seemed to come from the rival King. The princess of Haellion recieved it and fell in love with the person who sent it and from then on the King of Melborn who was thought to be the King of Skaldia wrote back and forth, and after a month of this sent a letter to the King of Haellion who was enraged for he treasured his daughter the greatest of his treasures and let no one speak to her. The King of Haellion learning of this secret love, sent his army to Skaldia and a terrible war broke out. Haellion, with surprise, won and a secret alliance made between Melborn and Haelion.
From then on, the pen has been handed down from the Kings of Melborn and used for spies, they made a secret code in which couldn't be cracked, now making the Melborn gathering of information the best at this.
Magical Properties:
Able to forge a document easily and make it look original to that, able to forge anything.
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? Responses (8)
a, it is too powerful an item... even today, the war between forgers and mints/banks goes on and on - perhaps it should make forging easier, or have you acquire a large sample of writing or something else from the person whose writing you have to forge. So, it falls in the same category as 'Boots of Ultimate Stealth' or 'Nipple Ring of Total Invulnerability'.
b, It was made by a magician. Okay, it happens to a lot of items, but ... ther'e nothing special to its creation process.
c, It has got no quirks, and thus is not different from all those other 'Pens of Perfect Forgery'
With this item the PCs could discredit anyone, purchase anything and destabilize your entire campaign. The pen is indeed mightier than the sword, which is bad in this case.
I have no issues with items made by magicians, but I do have issues with items without sufficient explanation and background. You tell us about Falik Helix and just say 'He then decided to make something'...
WHY did he decide he wanted to make something? Did he want to forge the unintelligible scribbling of the illiterate swamp folk?
It seems by your description as if the ink is soon used up, that is at least something. (Ref: 'The ink used is a secret...(etc)')
The tale about the Kings and their feud is ok I guess, but instead of including it you could have told the tale of the items original making with alot more detail.
Including the Kings' feud tale is ok, but only as a spice to the original tale. (Which is the tale we really want)
2/5
Btw., did you name the mage 'Pubis' on purpose? You know it means 'genitals' in latin...?
Yea, I knew it meant that, just a little quirk. And I wanted to make something new, but didn't know there was a lot of 'Pens of Forgery' floating around out there
I think it's a good start. The grammer throughout the post is a little iffy, making it harder to read than it should be. And it's powers need to be toned down, sure. But I like that he gave some background, which doesnt always happen. It's not as bad as people are making it out to be.
Yes, it was a good start. It did have some flaws and our, or at least my, comments were meant to help him improve those. The background was, and still is, illogical and the powers too great. That was the essence of my comment and I still stand for that, though I might have phrased it more carefully nowadays.
Way too overpowered in my opinion.
A good effort nonetheless.
Um, a mage called Pubis?
Quite powerful item with a utilitarian origin. I could see it existing, but with a more involved origin. Having a faultless forgery tool certainly falls in the wish-fulfilment magic item category akin to invisibility rings and flying items.
A solid 2.0 - OK idea but flawed. It certainly can be used, especially in the hands of a formidable enemy.