Copyist's Quill

This is a quill fashioned from an enormous couatl feather, with gold and silver wire twined around the nib. It has the power to copy any non-magical writing in full, without chance of error. It can even copy a wizard's spellbook.

To copy any body of writing, you must have a sheet of blank paper or similar material. It must have a minimum dimensions of eight inches by eleven inches. The item is activated by sweeping the vane of the feather across the book, scroll, or other non-magical writing to be copied, then setting the nib upon the sheet of blank paper. It will immediately begin writing an exact copy of the book, scroll, or other body of writing. Diagrams, sketches, drawings, and so forth are copied as well with the same accuracy as writing. Any errors in the original will also exist in the new work. The quill will create new paper as needed, and will bind the end result in the same form as the original work. In short, you get an exact copy of the book, scroll, or other body of writing. Although a wizard's spellbook can be copied, the copy is still effectively that wizard's spellbook. Once the copy is made, there is no correlation between the original and the copy; alterations could be made to either without affecting the other.

If copying a book, the quill can copy one page per minute, assuming a book of average size; creating the binding takes an additional 5 minutes once all the copying is done. Pages with a lot of non-textual content may take longer to copy.

If copying a scroll, the quill can copy about one foot per minute, assuming a standard width of around eight inches; creating the binding takes an additional minute if it is leather (generally for scrolls less than three feet long), or two minutes if it consists of wooden rods (typical of scrolls longer than three feet).

If copying a document that is a single sheet of paper, the quill can copy an area about eight inches by eleven inches each minute, or any equivalent (88 square inch) area.

The quill can also copy an inscription from a wall or object onto a sheet of paper. In this case, the quill copies about 250 words per minute (non-textual content may take longer), and usually produces a scroll containing a copy of the inscription.

If used on a document that has a Secret Page spell on it, it copies the apparent content, not the real content; if you speak the secret page's command word as you sweep the vane across the book, however, it will copy both the real content and the illusory content. The quill can copy writing produced by Illusory Script if you cast True Seeing on the quill; this is also an alternate way to copy the true contents of a secret page.

The quill can be used as an ordinary quill, and does not require ink for this purpose (it generates its ink), though if you want coloured ink you need to use it just as with a normal quill. Using it in this way also does not generate additional paper as needed. It can be used to scribe scrolls even if you do not have the Scribe Scroll feat, and if you do have the feat it halves the monetary cost of scribing the scroll.

The quill cannot duplicate a magical document, such as a blessed book, a manual of bodily health, a spell scroll, or any similar magic item. However, it may be able to copy the writing into another format. Treat this as similar to copying an inscription, although if the form of the original is a book, then the form of the copy will also be a book. See below for some specific cases. The quill cannot be used to copy a spell from one spellbook to another, or from a scroll to a spellbook; it can only copy complete documents.

The quill can copy no more than five books per day. Scrolls count as one-half towards this limit, and single-page documents count as one-tenth towards this limit. If the limit has not been reached, the quill can copy another book, scroll, or other document even if that would bring it above the limit. Once the limit is exceeded, the quill's powers are effectively suppressed for 24 hours.

Strong conjuration; CL 20th; Weight 0lb.

Blessed Books

A Blessed Book can be copied like any other spellbook; however, the copy is twice as wide and high as a normal spellbook and has 250 pages; each page holds the equivalent of four pages in a normal spellbook. You can continue to scribe spells in the resulting book (treating it as though it has 1000 pages for this purpose), but you must expend the normal requisite costs for the scribing. The book weighs ten times as much as a standard spellbook, ie 30lb.

Golem Manuals

The Copyist's Quill can produce a tome from the Golem Manual describing how to create a golem along with the spells required for the process, but the resultant tome has no special properties. The spells cannot be used via spell trigger activation, and the book does not temporarily grant the Craft Construct feat or a bonus to their caster level.

The resulting tome can be used to aid in the creation of a golem, however. The instructions are still excellent instructions and as such grant a competence bonus on skill checks made to craft the golem's body; however, this bonus is only +2, rather than +5. The builder must possess the Craft Construct feat and the minimum caster level for crafting the golem, and they must expend the XP. If they are a spontaneous spellcaster, they do not have to know the required spells since the book contains them; if they prepare spells, they do need to have the spells prepared, but a wizard can do so from the tome as if preparing a spell from another wizard's spellbook, even if they do not have the spell in their own spellbook.

Alternatively, the resulting tome can be enchanted to be a true Golem Manual. This is identical to creating the book from scratch, except that the spells do not need to be known or prepared since they're already scribed into the book (however, you do need to expend spell slots of equivalent or higher levels).

Manuals of Bodily Health, Gainful Exercise, Quickness of Action; Tomes of Clear Thought, Leadership and Influence, Understanding

If a Copyist's Quill is used to copy any of these books, the copy is as if it had been expended, ie just a normal book.

Vacuous Grimoires

The Copyist's Quill is incapable of copying this book. If the attempt is made, the quill must make two Will saves as a character would when opening the book. If it fails the first save, its powers are suppressed for 1d6 days. If it fails the second save, its powers are suppressed for 1d6 minutes. If it fails both saves, however, it permanently loses all magical powers as if touched by a rod of cancellation. The quill can use its possessor's Will save in place of its own, if it is better. The possessor in this situation is whoever activated it.

Book of Infinite Spells

If asked to copy a Book of Infinite Spells, the attempt produces a scroll that looks at first glance to describe the spell on the current page of the book, but is in fact gibberish. In addition, it forces the spell to activate using the book's owner as the spell's target (if it has one). This carries the standard potential of page turns.

Librams of Gainful Conjuration, Ineffable Damnation, Silver Magic; Manuals of Puissant Skill at Arms, Stealthy Pilfering; Sutra of Tranquil Thought

These can be copied, but the copies are just ordinary books with no special powers. In addition, the copier must succeed on a DC 20 Will save or suffer from insanity.

Adventurer Colouring Book

The quill can copy the current state of the colouring book, but the book must first be opened, with the risk that entails. The copy produced has no magical properties. Since the book is entirely free of text, the quill is slower at copying; it takes five minutes per non-blank page, plus an additional minute if there are blank pages and 5 minutes to create the binding.

Codex of the Infinite Planes

Any attempt to copy this book results in the complete and utter destruction of the Copyist's Quill. There is no save, and the quill is not recoverable by any means, including wish or miracle. The person attempting to use the quill also suffers backlash damage from the destruction (10d6 damage, Fortitude DC 30 halves).