When discovered, this item appears to be a moderately ornate inkwell, filled with a silvery liquid. The inkwell itself appears only slightly valuable, and the liquid inside can easily be mistaken for quicksilver. Altogether, a merchant would pay perhaps 50 gold pieces for it.
If the silvery liquid is used as ink (any quill will do) whatever is written with it takes on magical properties which affect whoever reads them.
A statement of fact, however ridiculous it may be, will be believed. A command, even a command to kill oneself, will be followed. And a question, no matter how personal, will be answered. A successful saving throw against magic can be made to negate this effect. However, unlike many similar effects, a successful save will not alert the subject to the fact that someone has attempted to affect their mind, unless they are a magic user of 10th level or higher.
It should be noted that addressing a note with something to the effect of “To the King of Gorpagop” will cause whoever reads it to immediately stop reading it, and make every effort to deliver the note to the king of Gorpagop.
When found, the inkwell contains enough ink for 100 words.
I really like this concept for a magical item, and am strongly concidering using it in my campaign, but it is a very… social campaign (?) with lots of NPC interaction and little combat. Because of this I feel like such a item could potentially be very powerful… Do you know of any ways I could curse it or make it less powerfull but without totally discuraging the playeres from using it.
The easiest way would be that after the person completes the task they’re instructed to perform, they immediately know they’ve been manipulated by the note.
So anytime the players use the note, they make an enemy of the person they give it to.
interesting… I like this 🙂