Friday, February 20, 2009

Enchanted tattoos ink





This magic item can be used to create tattoos that can spring into existence when willed by the wearer. Both living creatures and inanimate objects may be created in this fashion.

Once the tattoo is willed into reality, the tattoo is consumed in the process of being willed into reality, leaving only a pale silhouette of the tattoo is left behind on the wearers skin.

Created objects are non-magical and can not be dispelled. Such objects have all the characteristics of the corresponding object or creature. A tattoo of a gold coin will become a real gold coin that can be spent, melted down, and so on. A tattoo of a knife would become a real knife that could be wielded and do damage. A tattoo of a burning torch would be become a real torch with real flame and could be used to set a blaze or be extinguished in a downpour. A tattoo of a cobra will become a real cobra, that can bite and poison an opponent, mate and reproduce, and so on.

It is not possible to produce a tattoo that will cause the creation of an enchanted or masterwork item. All tools, weapons, clothing, and such rendered as tattoos will become an ordinary example of the item represented. Non-magical effects can be accomplished, however. It is possible to create a tattoo of a flaming sword that would become a sword with enveloped with flames, for example. However, these flames would be just like those that would occur if the weapon had been dipped in oil and set ablaze (i.e. it will burn for 2-5 rounds before going out). The sword would not be an enchanted fire sword. Likewise, a tattoo with a convincing rendering of a poison-dipped dagger would produce just such a non- magical but otherwise deadly dagger.

A tattoo made using the enchanted ink is not automatically magical. The artist must capture the essence of the subject being represented in order for the creation magic to be imbued into the artwork. Thus, it takes a skilled artist with personal observational experience of the item or creature being rendered to create an enchanted tattoo using the ink. Crude or incomplete tattoos will simply be poor quality body art and not something that the wearer can will into reality. Likewise, tattoos of objects or creatures that the artist has never seen will be inert works of art. The artist will need to make a Tattooing skill roll with difficulty class that increases with the size of the tattoo. The Painting skill can be used in place of Tattooing but causes the difficulty class to adjusted by +4.

The object created by activation of the tattoo is the same size as the tattoo. Thus a six inch high tattoo of a horse would result in a six inch high horse being created. Larger tattoos require more ink and time to create than smaller tattoos. One ounce of ink is required to create each square inch of tattoo.

Larger tattoos are more difficult to create than smaller ones, and thus a tattoo has a base DC of 6 plus 1 DC for each 5 inches of area above 1 square inch (rounded up). Thus, a 6 square inch representation of a dagger would require a Tattooing roll of 7 by the artist. A 12 square inch coiled cobra would require a roll of 9.

While objects and creatures can be rendered from a profile and with perspective that minimizes the tattoo's physical area (and thus the ink required and DC of the artwork) while maintaining a useful size, this only works within reason since the sense of the object must still be captured. Thus a sword represented as though viewed from its point would not convey the sense of a sword (as distinct from the same view of a dagger). Instead a lengthwise profile of the blade would be required. However, a tiger shown from the front only (as though leaping directly at the viewer) would capture the essense of the beast.


Source : http://www.sloboda.bc.ca/zekeypedia/Enchanted_tattoo_ink