Cloaks and Daggers
Hello everyone, and welcome to Magic Market, where we bring you new and exciting magic items to improve your game each and every week. This week, as you will no doubt have heard by now, is Thief Week in honor of our latest release, Character Guide: the Gentleman Thief, a book all about playing as a gentleman thief. I’ve decided to denote this article to the two most iconic items associated with thieves, as well as anyone else who chooses to operate in the shadows, rather than in the light: the cloak and the dagger.
New Specific Weapons
Cutpurse’s Companion
This miniscule dagger fits easily in the palm of child’s hand, making it exceptionally easy to conceal. In place of a true handle, the dagger has an iron ring designed to be worn around the thumb of a creature wielding it. Despite the weapon’s diminutive stature, the thin iron blade delivers blows as though it were a 12-inch fighting knife.
A cutpurse’s companion is a popular weapon among street thieves and assassins alike. Functioning as a +1 dagger, a cutpurse’s companion is crafted to be exceptionally easy to conceal, granting its wielder an additional +2 bonus on all Sleight of Hand checks made to conceal the dagger. Additionally, the ring which serves as the blade’s handle makes the weapon exceptionally difficult to disarm, and any creature attempting to disarm the blade treats it as a one-handed weapon rather than a light weapon. In addition to the benefits of the dagger’s unusual construction, it bears an enchantment which improves the wielder’s ability to steal pouches and similar items with ease. This effectively grants a +6 bonus on all steal combat maneuver checks to take items fastened to a foe.
Dagger of Exceptional Use
This long dagger features a rectangular iron blade of unusual thickness, adorned with the small engraved image of a hammer and chisel at its base. The handle is solid oak carved heavily with magical sigils and strange pictograms, though they are obscured by a tight leather grip that expertly covers the whole of the blade’s handle. This heavy knife uses a small chunk of gneiss for a pommel stone and is magically enchanted to balance perfectly, no matter where the blade is gripped.
While it functions as a +3 dagger, the dagger of exceptional use bears a second enchantment which allows it to transform its shape when its wielder speaks a command word. The shapes the dagger can assume are: crowbar, grappling hook, and thieves’ tools. In each case the transmuted dagger grants a +3 enhancement bonus to all ability checks, attack rolls, and skill checks made with the item. The same command word can be used to return the item to its original form.
Knife of Subtlety
The blade and handle of this dagger are both black as night, and it is enchanted so that the area about 1 inch around the weapon is constantly shrouded in darkness. The blade is elegantly curved and engraved carefully with words of magic in the Elven script. Though the shadows surrounding the blade make it difficult to discern the careful lettering, the handle of the blade has been carved into the form of a nude woman with such precision that anyone gripping it can tell the details of the sculpture without trouble.
This wicked +2 dagger was considered so devious that only ten were made before the cleric enchanting the weapons was arrested and executed without trial. The item’s enchantment dulls the pain of any creature damaged by the dagger for a short time, delaying his reaction to the trauma for a few seconds. Any creature damaged by a knife of subtlety is unaware of the pain, failing to notice that he was struck. Since the enchantment is imperfect, the feelings of pain associated with the trauma of the injury return 1 full round after the target is damaged. Because creatures struck by this dagger are unaware they were attacked for 1 round, they may remain unaware of their attacker, should the attacker be concealed from the target at the time of the attack.
New Wondrous Items
Cloak of Elusiveness
This large cloak fits close to its wearer, allowing for little comfortable motion. The cloak’s silvery shimmering color gives it the appearance of being made from fluid, and this slick garment is held fast by chain made from interwoven links of electrum.
A cloak of elusiveness offers its wearer some ability to escape from dangerous situations. The cloak’s enchantment grants its wearer a constant +2 enhancement bonus on all Escape Artist checks. Additionally, once per day, by biting both of his cheeks (the equivalent of a command word, which can be performed even while pinned), the wearer can flee from any situation which could be escaped with a successful Escape Artist check. This ability functions identically to the spell dimension door,except that it affects the wearer only.
Cloak of True Darkness
Cut from a dark cloth and dyed with an assortment of dark hues, the color of this cloak is hard to discern with any certainty. The fiber, though incredibly thin, remains perfectly opaque even when a bright light is shone upon it. The whole thing is fastened with a chain somehow crafted from black volcanic stone.
A cloak of true darkness is a valued commodity of many thieves who delve the world’s depths to find their ill-gotten fortunes. Any creature wearing a cloak of true darkness is warded against darkvision, causing the special senses that allow such creatures to see in the dark to simply fail to detect the wearer. As a result of this, a creature with darkvision cannot see someone wearing a cloak of true darkness,unless he would be able to see the wearer with another form of visual sense, such as ordinary vision or blindsight. Additionally, the wearer gains a +2 bonus on Stealth checks made in areas of dim light and a +4 bonus on Stealth checks made in areas of no light.