Papers of Accreditation
A person is not admitted to a sale room for what he can do. He is admitted for what can be produced in writing by an office that is answerable for it.
— Chamber of Ordinances, Of the Accreditation of Persons in Sale Rooms, third clause
Interleaved at this place from the registry of this house: the schedule of papers, with a specimen of each as it is presented at the book, and such endorsements as were found upon the specimens. Nothing is copied out that is not on the paper.
Whoever may stand in this hall carries papers. That is put first because buyers from cities where a trade is proved by practising it are apt to be aggrieved at the door, and because the clerk of the sale room has been struck at twice in nine years, both times by gentlemen.
Eight papers of the trade are recognised at the book of this sale. Each names one thing a person was examined in, one office that examined him, a fee, a term, and a manner of being lost. Not one of them says what a person is. A certificate of sworn appraisal is evidence that a man was examined; that he is honest it does not touch, and this house has twice had to say so in writing to a buyer who had read the certificate and not the goods.
A paper is read at the book. It is not believed there. The clerk compares the hand of the issuing office against these specimens and the seal against the impression, enters the number of the form and the name of the bearer, and that is the end of the examination. Where a paper is another's, the bearer is told so once and quietly, and the paper goes to the registry and not back into his coat.
The fees are small; the meanest of the eight takes four years to come by. The loss of one is not small, and the forms provide for no hearing.
Your name. The house you serve, or the name of the person who sends you, which will be written and will not be printed. Your paper, and the office that gave it you. If you have no paper you may stand behind the last row and you may not raise your hand; the crier will not see it, and if he sees it he will not take it. If your paper is another's, you will leave by the Rope Street door, and the paper will not go with you.
The words used at the book by the clerk of the sale room, as set down for the boys to learn by.
Papers Not Recognised at the Book
A guild letter of another city without the countersign of the Chamber. A licence in a hand that is not the issuing clerk's, however good the seal upon it. A writ of another jurisdiction not endorsed at the Waterbailiff's shed. A paper lent, however honestly, by a holder who stands beside the borrower and says so aloud. A paper whose term has run out within the month, which this house may not accept, and which the Chamber will renew in an afternoon for two marks at the top of the Staple Quay, until four o'clock and not after.
The Eight Papers
The papers follow in the order of the offices that issue them and not in the order of their standing, which is disputed among the guilds and is no business of a sale room. The form numbers are the offices' own and do not run in sequence.
Form 3 · The Appraiser
Twelve pieces are set before the candidate unmarked and out of their cases. He must be right in all twelve as to the material and in nine as to the price, within a tenth part. The certificate says so and says nothing about the thirteenth piece. The bearer may value for a court, an estate, a bank or a house of sale, and may sign a schedule of movables that an office will accept without calling a second valuer; he may not value goods he means to buy. The fourth clause on the reverse permits suspension upon the representation of a house of this city, and does not require the house to name the officer who made it.
- 1609 · granted upon examination before the sworn weighers, fee of 4 marks paid
- 1613 · renewed at term
- 1616 · renewed at term, the bearer examined upon plate and stones only, at his own request
- · suspended upon the representation of a house of this city, no ground stated and no date entered
- · the paper lodged in the registry of this house, where it lies
Appraiser
Background
Ability Scores: Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma
Feat: Trained Eye
Skill Proficiencies: Insight and Investigation
Tool Proficiency: Jeweler's tools
Equipment: Choose A or B: (A) Jeweler's Tools, Ink, an Ink Pen, ten sheets of Parchment, a Pouch, Traveler's Clothes, and 5 gp 15 sp; or (B) 25 gp.
Valuations Endorsed on the Back of Your Certificate
| d8 | What you valued, and what it cost you |
|---|---|
| 1 | A widow's plate, at a third of what she had been told. She was right about the maker. |
| 2 | A cargo of pepper, valued wet. The insurer paid on your figure and the pepper was dry by Tuesday. |
| 3 | A sealed house, valued from the doorway. You signed as though you had walked the rooms. |
| 4 | A case of forgeries, valued as forgeries. The man who thanked you for it had made them. |
| 5 | A reliquary whose silver you priced and whose bone you did not. The buyer's family still write every spring. |
| 6 | A stone in a harbour wall you were told not to mention. You owe the mason who let you in. |
| 7 | A dead man's instruments, valued for his creditors. One is in your roll to this day, unused. |
| 8 | Your last valuation is unsigned, the fee having been laid down before the examination. You have not spent it. |
[in red ink] The certificate is not taken away at a hearing; it is taken away in a drawer. Read the fourth clause and see that no officer need be named, then ask this house who wrote to the Chamber about a man who had valued twelve out of twelve for it that same year. Mine went into a drawer in this building on a Tuesday afternoon, fifteen years ago, and I have been right about the material every week since, over a ropemaker's shop, for a tenth of the fee. C.O.
Form 7 · The Provenance Clerk
The letter certifies that the bearer writes a hand which can be read at a second remove, copies without improving, and knows the registers of this city, which are kept in seven places and agree in none of them. He may take extracts under seal, hold a register at the opening of a sealed house while another counts, and be heard as to what a paper says and not as to what it means. He is paid two stivers the folio, the folio being of thirty lines whether or not thirty are written. He may copy an entry, a stub, a cancellation. He may not write in a register, nor supply a date to an entry that wants one.
Provenance Clerk
Background
Ability Scores: Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity
Feat: Ledger Mind
Skill Proficiencies: History and Religion
Tool Proficiency: Calligrapher's supplies
Equipment: Choose A or B: (A) Calligrapher's Supplies, Ink, an Ink Pen, twenty sheets of Parchment, a Map or Scroll Case, Traveler's Clothes, and 12 gp 10 sp; or (B) 25 gp.
Entries You Have Copied and Not Forgotten
| d6 | The entry |
|---|---|
| 1 | Two drownings on one page, fifty-one years apart, at the same gate and the same hour of the tide. |
| 2 | A birth register with a second child struck through, the ink of the stroke younger than the entry by a generation. |
| 3 | A codicil in a hand you had copied that morning off another paper in another office. You were paid for both. |
| 4 | A charter in a lead case, for a town that stands in no atlas you have been given to copy from. |
| 5 | A pledge-book with one folio cut out clean and the stub still numbered. You entered the stub number. |
| 6 | Nine letters, posted after the funeral of the man they were addressed to, entered as received and never opened. |
Form 11 · The House Porter
The ticket certifies that the bearer is entered in the porters' book of a hall licensed for sale, is answerable under the hall's bond and the hall answerable for him, and has learned the order of the shelves, which he keeps in the same order on every night whether or not the book agrees with him. He may carry, crate, sling, crane and stow as far as the loading door. He shall refuse a buyer's hand upon a thing and fetch a second porter instead. He may be woken at any hour. He may not count alone. A porter who cannot read is entered upon his mark, and this house has never refused a man on that ground and has had some of its best on it.
House Porter
Background
Ability Scores: Strength, Constitution, Wisdom
Feat: Porter's Grip
Skill Proficiencies: Athletics and Perception
Tool Proficiency: Carpenter's tools
Equipment: Choose A or B: (A) Carpenter's Tools, a Crowbar, a Hammer, fifty feet of Hempen Rope, a Hooded Lantern, two flasks of Oil, a Blanket, Traveler's Clothes, and 15 gp; or (B) 25 gp.
Carriage Endorsed on Your Ticket
| d8 | What you have carried, and what you owe for it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Eleven years, four barrows, and one thing you carried twice in one night. The second time it was on another shelf. |
| 2 | A porter who was in that hall in 1629 and is not in it now taught you the bays. You still count in his order. |
| 3 | A seven-branched candlestick, out of the hall and back into it more than once. You say a lot goes back to the room. |
| 4 | A crate you were told to leave standing on the strongroom floor, against the order that nothing stands on the floor. |
| 5 | You dropped a lot once. It did not break and the crier never turned round. You bought the beer anyway. |
| 6 | A buyer's man offered you two marks to turn a paddle over and read it. You did neither, and you know his face. |
| 7 | You owe the cook, who was woken for you when your second was sick, and who does not mean to let it go. |
| 8 | The Waterbailiff's stamp is on your ticket for a load carried out of the city at four in the morning. There is no entry for it. |
[in red ink] The ticket is a bond in the porter's own name and no porter in this hall has ever read one. The head porter matches his tickets by shape and has done so for eleven years, which is why a six comes back a nine on this floor and always in the same direction; the house knows it, prices it at nothing, and keeps him, because a man who cannot read a ticket cannot read a schedule either. They call that a custom of the house. C.O.
Form 5 · The Restorer
The candidate shows six pieces taken down and set up again, of which the company retains two and does not say which two. The bearer may clean, consolidate, re-join, re-line, re-sew, gild and set up again. Clause three permits the taking down and setting up of a seal, band, mount or fitting where the work cannot otherwise be done, the owner's written instruction being had first and kept seven years. Clause four forbids the lifting of a ground, a layer, a lining or an overpainting without that instruction, and forbids absolutely any work whose effect is to make a thing appear other, older or better than it is.
Restorer
Background
Ability Scores: Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom
Feat: Restorer's Hands
Skill Proficiencies: Arcana and Sleight of Hand
Tool Proficiency: Woodcarver's tools
Equipment: Choose A or B: (A) Woodcarver's Tools, Leatherworker's Tools, a pot of size and a bag of whiting, twelve leaves of gold in a paper book, Sealing Wax, a Pouch, Traveler's Clothes, and 20 gp; or (B) 25 gp.
Work Done, and What Was Under It
| d6 | The commission |
|---|---|
| 1 | A painted face you cleaned down to the ground beneath, and stopped, the ground beneath being newer than the face above. |
| 2 | A candlestick regilded six times for six owners. You have never charged for the seventh. |
| 3 | A binding taken apart for a house that would not say why. One sheet in it was younger than the book by a lifetime. |
| 4 | A lock you were asked to make look untouched, which is not repair. You were paid in a thing and have it still. |
| 5 | A drowned man's coat, dried on your own board, with a name inside the collar that you did not copy out. |
| 6 | A wax seal re-set from an impression, for a client who stood over you and took the impression away. It had a burr at the rim. |
Form 9 · The Sealed-Lot Courier
The passport certifies that the bearer may carry sealed goods under the customs of the port; that the bond in forty marks answers for what he carries and not for what he was told about it; and that his seal-box is numbered, the number his alone and entered against his name in the shed. He may travel by night, pass a closed gate upon the printed form of words, and require a receipt at delivery. He may not open a consignment, weigh it, sound it, or declare its contents at a gate; the form of answer is printed on the passport and no other answer is permitted him. A consignment refused at a gate lies at the courier's charge, and the courier sleeps beside it.
Sealed-Lot Courier
Background
Ability Scores: Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma
Feat: Courier's Discretion
Skill Proficiencies: Stealth and Survival
Tool Proficiency: Cartographer's tools
Equipment: Choose A or B: (A) Cartographer's Tools, a numbered seal-box of lead, a Map or Scroll Case, fifty feet of Hempen Rope, a Signal Whistle, Sealing Wax, Traveler's Clothes, and 15 gp; or (B) 25 gp.
Consignments Carried Under Seal
| d8 | The consignment |
|---|---|
| 1 | A lead case, cold in a warm room, carried two days inland to a town not on the stage-bill that was expecting it. |
| 2 | A nest of boxes, of which you were told to carry only the ninth. The ninth was empty at the delivery. |
| 3 | A bell in straw that sounded once on the road. No hand was within a hundred yards of it. |
| 4 | A press you were told not to lay on its side. You laid it down, and something inside slid once and settled differently. |
| 5 | A packet paid for twice: by the sender, and by a man at the toll who wanted only the weight of it. |
| 6 | A consignment refused for want of a stamp. You slept beside it in the shed, and it was warm in the morning. |
| 7 | You owe the night man at the sluice for a crossing at the wrong tide. He will not take coin. |
| 8 | A bond stands in your name against a lot never delivered and never reported missing. Nobody has claimed on it yet. |
Form 1 · The Estate Executor
The commission appoints the bearer to seal, gather, count, keep, sell where directed and render an estate, and requires of him a little of every trade and mastery of none. He may seal a house and set a watch upon it, break a lock upon a written order of the court and not otherwise, admit certificates of death for the purposes of the estate only, and require the attendance of a household and the answers of its servants. He may not buy from the estate, by himself or by another, at any price. The commission allows him the seal-cutter's box, that he may recognise the work of it; the Chamber has twice been asked to strike out that allowance and twice declined, and the second refusal stands on the same folio as the first.
Estate Executor
Background
Ability Scores: Charisma, Intelligence, Wisdom
Feat: Skilled
Skill Proficiencies: Persuasion and Medicine
Tool Proficiency: Forgery kit
Equipment: Choose A or B: (A) a Forgery Kit, Fine Clothes, Ink, an Ink Pen, ten sheets of Parchment, a Chest, and 2 gp; or (B) 25 gp.
Estates Wound Up, and What Remained
| d6 | The estate |
|---|---|
| 1 | A house sealed with six servants inside it, none of whom would answer the door, all of whom opened it, and none of whom spoke. |
| 2 | A count of the movables that came out twice and differently. You entered both, and were asked afterwards to enter one. |
| 3 | A doctor's certificate you admitted, and a harbour certificate for the same man that you saw only after the fee was paid. |
| 4 | A mourning ring made for a living man upon his own name, the date field blank. You had to describe it and could not. |
| 5 | A legacy of a candlestick for life only, which you read as a gift outright. The family have had counsel on it since. |
| 6 | Your fee for the last estate is unpaid, and the man who owes it is a partner in a house that is selling this week. |
Form 12 · The Repossession Bailiff
The writ authorises the bearer to levy upon goods for a debt of record; to enter by the door named in the writ and by no other door, window, roof or yard; to distrain, mark, hold, and carry away to the sheds; and, being of three years' standing, to open a lock that stands in his way, for which the tools are allowed to him and to no other bearer in this schedule. He is answerable for the goods from the moment they are marked. Nothing in the writ authorises the levy of a person, of a bed, of the tools by which a debtor keeps his trade, or of anything sealed by another office; and nothing in it excuses the bearer from being struck at, which the offices regard as included in the fee.
- granted with a staff of office, upon a bond of 20 marks
- endorsed by the Waterbailiff for execution upon vessels and upon goods lying in the sheds
- 1631 · endorsed a second time, the first staff not returned and not accounted for
- 1636 · the bond raised to 40 marks after a levy at a door not named in the writ
Repossession Bailiff
Background
Ability Scores: Strength, Constitution, Charisma
Feat: Tough
Skill Proficiencies: Intimidation and Athletics
Tool Proficiency: Thieves' tools
Equipment: Choose A or B: (A) Thieves' Tools, Manacles, a Quarterstaff, fifty feet of Hempen Rope, a Hooded Lantern, Traveler's Clothes, and 7 gp 10 sp; or (B) 25 gp.
Executions Levied, and What Was Levied on You
| d8 | The levy |
|---|---|
| 1 | A forge in the Wolfsgat, levied on a widow who went on working the bellows while you carried the anvil out. |
| 2 | A cuirass polished bright enough for a man to count his creditors in. You were one of them, and you levied it. |
| 3 | A door you opened by writ and closed by hand, because what stood behind it was not on the schedule. |
| 4 | Manacles levied without a key, which opened on the stairs when somebody behind you said the debt aloud. |
| 5 | A dealer over a ropemaker's shop, three times, for the same twelve marks. He always offers you the chair. |
| 6 | You took a chair from a schoolmaster and put it back out of your own wages. Your clerk wrote it up as recovered. |
| 7 | You owe your staff and your writ to a man in an office who expects to be told things. You have told him one thing already. |
| 8 | A levy on a pledge-house at its dissolution, at which three pieces left the strongroom before the inventory. You held the door. |
Form 8 · The Catalogue Illustrator
The note certifies that the bearer draws to the measure and not to the effect; that the plates are the property of the engaging house from the moment the pencil leaves the paper; that captions are set from the catalogue text and not from the plate, the engraver's register being made up in the house and not in the studio; and that the bearer keeps her own tools, colours and glasses and is charged for their carriage. She may have the run of a presentation gallery in the hours of view and out of them, may require a lot to be set at the height of a standing person and turned to any of three views, and may not be required to draw a thing she has not seen. The engagement of the draughtswoman of this present catalogue is endorsed to the hundred-and-first plate and is not discharged. The paper has not been called in.
Catalogue Illustrator
Background
Ability Scores: Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom
Feat: Crafter
Skill Proficiencies: Perception and Insight
Tool Proficiency: Painter's supplies
Equipment: Choose A or B: (A) Painter's Supplies, Ink, an Ink Pen, twenty sheets of Parchment, a Map or Scroll Case, Traveler's Clothes, and 12 gp 10 sp; or (B) 25 gp.
Plates Drawn, and What Was in the Room
| d6 | The plate |
|---|---|
| 1 | A dial you drew at rest that was not at rest. Your caption is correct and agrees with the text and not with your plate. |
| 2 | Ninety-eight plates for a house that contracted for a hundred. You have never asked for the difference. |
| 3 | A polished breastplate in which your reflection came out with more standing behind it than the room had space for. |
| 4 | A commission from a family to draw a thing they mean to claim: paid in advance, delivered, never acknowledged. |
| 5 | Twice you have been asked to draw what is written instead of what is there. Once you did, and that fee is unspent. |
| 6 | A gallery you were shut into at the last candle. You drew two hours by one lamp, and it is your best work. |
Allowances Endorsed Upon the Papers
An allowance is an endorsement upon the reverse of a paper, granted upon a showing and not upon a fee, and the offices grant them at about the rate at which the trade loses people. Five are of the first sort and are entered at the same hour as the paper itself, being brought into the trade by the person and not conferred upon him. Five are not endorsed before the fourth year of a bearer's standing, and no fee, reference or representation has ever been known to hurry one of those. The trade calls all ten by shorter names than the forms use, and the shorter names are set down here because they are what is said in the room.
Trained Eye
In the forms it is allowance to value upon sight. In the room it is the trained eye, and the twelve unmarked pieces are set before the bearer again at ten years' remove, in a different order, to see whether he has kept it.
Trained Eye
Origin Feat
You gain the following benefits.
Sworn Examination. When you spend 1 minute handling an object, you learn what it is made of, how old it is to within a decade, and what it would fetch at a fair sale in a city that trades in such things, to within a tenth part of the price. If the object is magical, you learn instead that its value is not in its materials, and nothing further.
Copies and Alterations. You have advantage on Intelligence (Investigation) checks made to determine whether writing, a seal, a stamp, a maker's mark, or a made object has been altered, copied, or falsely signed.
New Work in Old Places. Looking at a building or any made structure, you can tell which parts are original to it and which are later, and roughly how much later. Mortar, tool marks, re-hung doors, and repairs are as plain to you as a signature.
Restorer's Hands
Endorsed upon a licence to repair in the fourth year, upon the showing of six pieces taken down and set up again, of which the company keeps two and does not say which two.
Restorer's Hands
Origin Feat
You gain the following benefits.
Made to Hold. With the tools of your trade and 10 minutes, you can repair a broken or torn nonmagical object no larger than 1 foot in any dimension. The join holds and cannot be seen at arm's length. It will not carry the load the whole thing carried.
Under the Glass. You have advantage on Dexterity checks made with artisan's tools while you are not hurried, not in combat, and can work seated at a table in good light.
What Is Beneath. Once per Short or Long Rest you can spend 10 minutes taking apart, lifting, unpicking, or cleaning one object. You find without a check whatever has been hidden in it, under it, or sewn into it by ordinary craft: a false bottom, a lining, a scraped-out layer, a paper behind a panel. What is hidden by magic stays hidden.
Hammer Nerves
The rostrum endorses nothing. The criers of this city nevertheless have a word for the person who can stand under a burning candle with a room's money in his mouth and close the thing at the notch, and the word has got into the forms by way of the crier's letter.
Hammer Nerves
General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+)
You gain the following benefits.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Charisma or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Nerve. You have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the Frightened condition.
The Candle Does Not Wait. Once per Short or Long Rest, as an action, you can call for a decision on a bargain, price, offer, or demand already before one creature you can see within 30 feet that can hear and understand you. It makes a Wisdom saving throw (DC 8 plus your Proficiency Bonus plus your Charisma modifier). On a failed save, before the end of its next turn it must accept, refuse outright, or withdraw from the matter altogether, and until then it cannot stall, defer, take advice, or turn the conversation. It chooses freely which of the three it does. This compels a decision and never an answer, and it has no effect on a creature that is Charmed or Frightened, or under orders it cannot vary.
Provenance Recall
Granted to a clerk who has been right about a chain of ownership in a matter where the office was wrong, and entered with the number of the matter, which is why clerks who hold it can always tell you the number.
Provenance Recall
General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+)
You gain the following benefits.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Intelligence or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
The Chain. Once per Short or Long Rest you can handle an object for 1 minute and learn how many times it has changed hands, whether the last change was by gift, purchase, inheritance, seizure, or theft, and how long ago that was to within a year. You learn no names and no places. There is a manuscript that gives the names. This is not it.
At the Book. You recall exactly the name, price, date, and number of any sale, entry, or transfer you have yourself witnessed or written down. You have advantage on Intelligence (History) checks made to establish who owned a thing, who held an office, or who lived in a house within the last hundred years, where the answer is a matter of record somewhere.
Porter's Grip
Entered upon a porter's ticket at the same hour as the ticket, upon the showing of a hundredweight lifted from the boards to the shoulder and set down again without a mark on the boards or on the load.
Porter's Grip
Origin Feat
You gain the following benefits.
Carriage. You count as one size larger for the purpose of determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Both Hands and a Knee. You have advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks and on Strength and Dexterity saving throws made to keep hold of what you are carrying and to stay on your feet on wet, sloped, greased, or shifting ground.
Two Men to a Lot. While you and one willing creature carry the same object together, both of you move at your full Speed, and the object's weight counts as half for each of you.
Courier's Discretion
The Waterbailiff endorses this upon a passport when a courier has been questioned at a gate and has given the printed answer and nothing else, three times, in the hearing of a customs man who thought it worth reporting.
Courier's Discretion
Origin Feat
You gain the following benefits.
Carried Close. You have advantage on Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks made to conceal an object of 2 pounds or less on your person or in your baggage, and on Charisma (Deception) checks made to keep a straight face about it while it is being looked for.
The Hour and the Road. You know the hour without a clock and the state of the tide without sight of water. Any road, street, stair, or passage you have travelled once, you can travel again in fog, rain, or darkness without a Wisdom (Survival) check, and you know how long it will take you to within a quarter of an hour.
Not Your Errand. Once per Short or Long Rest, when a creature demands to know your errand, your principal, or what you carry, you can decline to say. It does not press the point at that time and takes no offence at the refusal, unless it holds orders that name you, has evidence of a crime, or already has you in custody.
Bailiff's Writ
The staff comes with the writ. This comes afterwards, upon a levy carried through against a house that had counsel, and it is endorsed in the clerk's hand with the words execution completed, no complaint upheld.
Bailiff's Writ
General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+)
You gain the following benefits.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Strength or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Colour of Office. While you are showing a paper that appears to give you authority, whether or not it does, you have advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks made to obtain compliance with a demand the paper appears to support.
Distraint. Once per Short or Long Rest, as an action, you can name one object within 30 feet that you can see, in the possession of one creature that can see and hear you, and declare it seized. That creature makes a Wisdom saving throw (DC 8 plus your Proficiency Bonus plus your Charisma modifier). On a failed save, for 1 minute it cannot willingly carry that object out of your sight, conceal it, break it, or hand it to another creature; it may fight, flee, or leave the object where it lies. The effect ends early if you attack the creature, if you move more than 60 feet from the object, or if the creature can no longer see or hear you.
Forger's Confidence
There is no allowance of this name in any schedule of this city. It is what the trade calls the thing that two lawful allowances make possible between them, and it is set down here because it is said in the room, and because a buyer who is not told cannot be said to have bought with his eyes open.
Forger's Confidence
General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+)
You gain the following benefits.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Dexterity or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
The Box. You gain proficiency with a Forgery Kit. If you already have that proficiency, your Proficiency Bonus is doubled for any check you make with it.
A Paper That Passes. With a Forgery Kit, 10 minutes, and a specimen of the hand, seal, or form you mean to copy, you can produce one document, ticket, licence, receipt, or mark. A creature that reads it in the ordinary way of business is satisfied. Only a creature that examines it closely, with reason to doubt it, may make an Intelligence (Investigation) check against DC 8 plus your Proficiency Bonus plus your Dexterity modifier to find it out. You can have no more than three such papers in existence at one time; when you make a fourth, the oldest becomes plainly what it is, wherever it now lies.
Magic that examines documents reads a forged paper as forged and says so. A forgery set beside the genuine article is found out without a check. Nothing made by this allowance has ever passed the Weighhouse, where the paper is not read at all and the wax is weighed.
Curse-Wise
The Chamber grants nothing under this head. The guilds endorse it as allowance to decline work, upon a showing of what has happened to the bearer's hands, or to another's hands in the bearer's sight, and the showing is made in private.
Curse-Wise
General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+)
You gain the following benefits.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Wisdom or Intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
The Signs. A number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, regaining all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest, you can spend 1 minute handling or closely examining an object. You learn whether it lies under a curse, a lien, a ward, a compulsion, or a binding of any kind, and whether harm has come to those who carried it. You learn nothing of what it does, nothing of what it wants, and nothing of what would lift it.
Not With the Bare Hand. You have advantage on saving throws against effects created by an object you touch, open, read, wear, or carry.
Ledger Mind
Entered upon a clerk's letter at the hour of its granting: that the bearer counts, and that the bearer's tally is taken as the office's own and is not re-cast.
Ledger Mind
Origin Feat
You gain the following benefits.
The Count. You always know the number of separate things you have counted once, and while they remain in your sight or in your keeping you know at once when that number changes, though not how it changed or by whose hand.
One Page. You can hold in mind, exactly, one page of writing you have read or one minute of speech you have heard, and repeat it or set it down word for word. Taking in a new page or a new minute lets the old one go.
No Discrepancy. You have advantage on Intelligence checks made to find the error, omission, or alteration in an account, a list, a schedule, a tally, or a set of records, and you can do such work in a tenth of the time it usually takes.
[in red ink] There is no allowance for forgery in this schedule and there are two of them. Clause three of the licence to repair permits the taking down and setting up again of a seal where the work requires it, and the commission of administration allows the seal-cutter's box outright, that the holder may recognise the work of it; I have seen a wax re-set from an impression, in this city, by a man holding nothing but a licence to repair, and the impression had a burr at the rim, and the paper under that wax was good afterwards and is good now. Call it restoration when the house pays and forgery when I am paid: it is the same file-stroke, filed in the same direction. C.O.
Allowances Applied For and Not Granted
An allowance to bid upon one's own goods: applied for twice by the same vendor in one year, refused twice, the second refusal in the words of the first.
An allowance to carry a paid lot out of a hall after the last candle: refused, and refused again the same week to the same gentleman, who had travelled far and said so.
An allowance to open a lot before the hammer: applied for by a dealer of the Wolfsgat, the application written in red ink upon its own margin, refused.
An allowance to be entered at the book without a name: refused as often as it is asked, and it is asked at every sale in this city.
An allowance to count a hall alone: applied for by a head porter of eleven years' standing, refused, the ground stated being the bond and not the man.
End of the third schedule. The papers of the bearers of this sale are entered at the book from the first day of view; the schedule itself lies at the pay table, and a buyer who wishes to see a specimen may ask the clerk for it, and will be given it, and will be watched while he holds it.