As long as something has been valuable there has been someone willing to pass something lesser off to gain an illicit reward. In the big bucks world of the magical item this is hard but not impossible. Read below the latest scream sheet snagged from the Star DIPS, curtsy of yours truly, for a new trend in this lucrative field. Wizzers beware.

Jin


...(Sotheby's) of London experts have confirmed that there is now a new criminal enterprise we have to prevent in combination with our Fraud division. The evidence piece 55111225 has proven to be a well crafted forgery. Not just a physical replica, or shell load stone for a illusion spell.

This is a enchanted item with the express purpose of deception to gain profit and as yet no jurisdiction, outside of mega corp principalities, has a specific legal penalty for the crime.

The process, designated as a Dwoemer for this report and technical classification, is a lesser enchantment masquerading as another.

This creates a stable aura on the item of a true focus, which may be misinterpreted without practical testing or specific insight as an actual legitimate enchantment per section 16 of the Magical items and Vessels legislation UCAS 2016.

All undercover DIPS detectives are to make inquires to determine the nature and specifics of procedure, as long as it does not endanger their undercover status. This is secondary to the MAD primary investigation.

Research is to be conducted in .... files deleted.

"Contact me if you'd like the rest." Jin

Game states

The Dweomer fake take third of the time, karma and cost of an actual focus of the correct type.
It is half the TN to enchant.

But it is not actually, in any way, including dual nature-ed- magical. It has a magical aura and thats it.

A magical aura of a force four weapon focus for example that wont be discover until bonding unless...The assessor of the item beats the masking level of the Dweomered focus based on its actual force. Bonding cost are half the force x 1.

One final thing, as a enchanted focus- abiet one with no practical power- IMPS can inhabit them.

Sorry, just a quick spellcheck. The famous London auction house is Sotheby's, not Southerbies, and the word is spelled "dweomer," not "dwomer." Otherwise, neat idea, carry on.

Ta. Edited as requested.

Type A and Type B fakes.

Type A
A physical trinket often sold to a mundane collector, as an actual magical focus.

Type B
An astral illusion spell sustained on a sustaining focus, covering the actual aura of the focus and spell to appear as something different. This is typically used to appear as an anchoring focus with hanging spell to lend to credibility.

I hope the poor slot who sold these items has his life insurance paid up. You talking about defrauding someone who can cast a spell remotely using the item you just sold him.

Debatable. The item would, at best, be an "Oft-Handled Object" for the purposes of a ritual, imposing a -4 penalty; depending on the amount of work that went into it, it might only be (GM's discretion) a "Recently-Handled Object," imposing a -6 penalty. Then there's the fact that the forger must himself be a magician, probably knows Counterspelling, and has access to at least one warded location (his Lodge).

He'd best be planning to stay in it for the forseeable future. Something high cred enough to go through Sotheby's is going to have serious money on it, not to mention the lengths the House will go to for the sake of their reputation.

Shadowrunners work cheap, after all.

Shadowrunners generally use more expeditious techniques than ritual magic.

They give counterfeit magic items a quick look in vice, if you're interested.

If creation costs Karma wouldn't it act as more of a connection ritualistically speaking? Otherwise, I'd imagine the effect would be less permanent and fall apart shortly after being cast/set-up.

This sounds like a Quickened use of False Impression/Manascape.

Indeed, and hiring them to make a messy, messy example of whoever passed the fake is the sort of thing that a reputable house would do.


I may steal that for a run, actually.

You are, as always, free to houserule that, but it appears nowhere in the RAW.

It is a point I considered. Especially as I play SR3 where the creators astral sig is still on the focus but ideally the fraud is not discovered until the focus is bound and so the connection lost. the new owner is then free to target themselves if they wish.

In SR4 that is not a consideration I believe.

So as another enchantment it can't be used to make an existing focus appear at a different power level?

Example 1.
You couldn't take a force 1 weapon focus and use dweomer to make it appear as a force 4? And then when the person you sold it to tries to complain, claim that they just seriously messed up their assensing test? All merchandise sold as is, no refunds.

Example 2.
You couldn't use it to make a force 10 focus appear as a force 1 focus to keep away unwanted attention from spirits and other things that might want to steal it.

I like the idea, I just want to know how far you're planning on taking it.

I personally wouldn't take it any further than outlined as its essentially a unique enchantment item with reductions.

Layering a Dweomer with another focus would be your ref call.

In your examples I would see type B fakes with a dual focus sustaining/whatever to achieve your aim.

With example 1, good form would be that you return the level of cred between the difference between the two foci or your rep would be hit? Counter productive to making cash long term.

I imagine that part of Sotheby's verification process includes a Mana-Dead zone test. Drop the item in a Magic-dead area or a high background count area. If the enchantment still exists after that, chances are it's an actual enchanted object, not just something with an illusion stuck on it.

Perhaps they just pass it through a ward?

Most fakes fail in the face of prolonged expert investigation but tha'ts not how a con goes down is it. Misdirection and speed. Especially on the get away. Its the talismonger mark you have to fool per sa not the customer runner. And by the time it shakes down there's something wrong you have vanished (hopefully) from harms way.