Deuxhero, if used in the old way. the latter would not be in an envelope. it would be folded and then sealed(think three way fold) or rolled like a scroll and then sealed. so to read the whole latter (the part that lay untop an other part) the seal must be broken.
the question is , can mending (or mkae whole) fix the seal?
edit - ah ninjad. that what's happen when i delay to make sure i don't mispell too much
(as side note, in older times. say the Babelonian area, before the wax seal. they would use needle and thread to sew a scroll and make sure that it is noticed if anyone opened it. if you have some cunning npc in the game they might implay means like that even in a sealed latter)
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The other thing to remember is that the spells available are the adventurer ones I imagine ones exist to deal with these problems that aren't in the book because PCs wouldn't want them. For example a spell on a seal that causes it to melt into a pool of wax if a spell us cast on it.I always treat mending as restoring an object to its original produced form it doesn't distinguish between stains and writing unless the writing is produced at the stat printed book vs diary.
If your having mending be actual mending like that maybe have the quality of the repairs depend on the Mage's skill. If they don't have it you have a crude obvious repair that works. If they have the skill they can make a repair check to make it less obvious it was repaired fine stitching the pants closed as opposed to patches?
Or you could invent an item:
Alchemical security wax (10gp) Once this red wax has solidified, it becomes mildly unstable. Breaking the wax triggers a chemical reaction which heats it to melting point, losing its shape entirely. A melted wax seal cannot be restored to its previous form with anything less than a Limited Wish.
Alchemical paper (10gp) If torn, this paper bursts into flame.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yeah, it's a rather easy way to get at the letter. However, let's put it in perspective;
- It lets you read the sealed letter. To actually change the contents you'd need the Linguistics skills.
- Linguistics already lets you do this kind of stuff and more. So Mending is a nice trick for some people who get Mending but not Linguistics; but there's no entirely new capability added.
- Linguistics requires a skill check, Mending doesn't. They pair nicely, for example for wizard-spymasters.
- To a large degree, the letter was already compromised as soon as it was diverted from its intended messenger.
- Intercepting and reading letters, then re-sealing and sending them on their way isn't all that unusual; historically this was done quite a lot. People who had something to hide rarely relied on seals alone to protect their information. Rather, they used cryptography and/or stenography.
|
|
In addition, let me direct your attention to:
Type Price Weight
Simple 2 gp —
Average 10 gp —
Good 25 gp —
Superior 75 gp —Invisible ink is a staple of spies, rebels, and secret societies everywhere. Messages written with invisible ink only become visible under specific circumstances. Revealing the secret message with the proper triggering agent is a full-round action per page of text. A successful Craft (alchemy) check reveals the message without the proper trigger and takes 1 hour (the DC varies by ink quality).
Simple: This ink is keyed to a single, fairly common trigger, such as heat or vinegar (DC 20 to reveal without the trigger).
Average: This ink is keyed to either two common triggers or one uncommon trigger, such as blood or acid (DC 25 to reveal without the trigger).
Good: This ink is keyed to either two uncommon triggers or one rare trigger, such as a specific vintage of wine or a specific kind of monster's blood (DC 30 to reveal without the trigger).
Superior: This ink is keyed to either two rare triggers or one unique trigger, such as the blood of a specific person (DC 35 to reveal without the trigger).
Write a normal message, and then using invisible ink write another message between the lines. Some amateur trying to sucker punch you with Mending will only be reading the text you want him to read.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Alchemical paper (10gp) If torn, this paper bursts into flame.
I just realized, something like this actually exists:
Price 40 gp; Weight —
This alchemically infused ink ensures secret messages destroy themselves after being read. If light strikes the ink after it has dried, chemicals cause it to spontaneously combust within about a minute. The combustion is small—not significant enough to ignite anything but paper. Ink used on other materials such as stone or wood simply vanishes, leaving no trace of the writing. A vial of this ink holds enough to write 10 brief messages of no more than 50 words each.
However, Mending implies that it can repair even destroyed objects. Specifically, it talks about repairing even destroyed magical objects, implying that it can probably also repair destroyed nonmagical objects. So this approach wouldn't work.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
|
Yeah, the seal goes on the letter, not the envelope.
Of course, the mending plan still works, maybe, depending on whether or not mending repairs text written on a mended page.
Consider, you've got a piece of paper folded into an envelope with writing on the inside face. The thief must cut one or more edges of the envelope to open the letter without breaking the seal. If the writing on the inside face extends across the fold, the thief ends up cutting across that writing as he opens the letter. When he mends it back together, the cut in the paper is repaired, but the ink letters on the inside of the paper are not.
The result: faint white lines through the text where the fold was cut. Not enough to impair a reader's ability to make out the letters, but enough to show that the letter was tampered with.
Secret letters might even incorporate elaborate designs around the fold points to prevent just this sort of tampering. And a skilled forger might apply his expertise to predict where such traps are located and cut the envelope open in such a way as to avoid them.
Just one possibility, of course.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Use your arcane mark as a watermark and on the seal. If any part of the mark is broken, it stops being a magical mark. The recipient can see if any marks are missing.
Arcane marks cannot be forged, as far as I am aware.
If mending works no matter the level of destruction, that implies that protecting your data would be a nightmare in Pathfinder-world. You could shred and burn all your secret documents, and the servant disposing of the ashes could just hand them over to a low-level caster for complete restoration with a cantrip.
|
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
|
Alchemical paper (10gp) If torn, this paper bursts into flame.I just realized, something like this actually exists:
However, Mending implies that it can repair even destroyed objects. Specifically, it talks about repairing even destroyed magical objects, implying that it can probably also repair destroyed nonmagical objects. So this approach wouldn't work.Price 40 gp; Weight —
This alchemically infused ink ensures secret messages destroy themselves after being read. If light strikes the ink after it has dried, chemicals cause it to spontaneously combust within about a minute. The combustion is small—not significant enough to ignite anything but paper. Ink used on other materials such as stone or wood simply vanishes, leaving no trace of the writing. A vial of this ink holds enough to write 10 brief messages of no more than 50 words each.
All the pieces of the object must be present, though, and when you burn paper the pieces are transformed into ash and smoke.
All the pieces of the object must be present, though, and when you burn paper the pieces are transformed into ash and smoke.
Suppose my quarterstaff got reduced to 0 hit points by fire damage. Would that be repairable by magic?
|
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
|
All the pieces of the object must be present, though, and when you burn paper the pieces are transformed into ash and smoke.Suppose my quarterstaff got reduced to 0 hit points by fire damage. Would that be repairable by magic?
How much do you like the staff? :)
Seriously though, if your staff was reduced to ashes, I'd say mending was a no go--same as if it got disintegrated and gust-of-wind-ed. If it was mostly hacked to pieces and took a d6 or two of fire damage in the process, I'd probably allowing a mending on the grounds that it only got scorched.
|
|
Use two sheets of paper and a message spell. Write one letter on the inside of one piece of paper in visible ink, one on the back of that sheet in invisible ink then do the same on the other sheet of paper. Without both visible messages, both invisible message and the magical message plus the key it's impossible to decrypt the true message.
If said seal is actually an arcane mark, breaking the wax seal would also remove the arcane mark (mending doesnt repair the magic effect) and whoever reads it would realize it.
|
|
Yeah, I don't think there's any canonical way to forge or repair an Arcane Mark. Interesting catch.
Whether Mending/Make Whole can cope with an object that's been reduced to ash and smoke is a bit tricky. It's mainly the smoke that's hard to contain. Maybe if you did the whole thing in a sealed room, so that the smoke can't get far?
But I do think Mending is going to work well enough against most normal sealed letters. The seal is meant to keep the thing closed; break the seal, read the letter, fold it up again and Mend the seal.
This gets you around the issues with damaging the text; the letter is meant to be unsealed without damaging the text.
Use a double-cylinder of glass with black pudding inbetween and the letter on the inside. Sealed letters was never the most secure method but it is most likely in the spirit of the rules to use somthing like linguistics(forgery) with mending to trick some one using sealed letters. But easy counter mesure is to have small damages on the paper and seal damages that mending will fix. Like the spelling "mistakes" on allied papers in WWII.
|
Cover the paper with something mundane that shows if it was touched.
Send encoded messages.
Hide the actual message somewhere else on the letter. Like under the seal.
or the letter is just a means for divining the recipient at a designated time and place. Where they write on the same letter and then burn the letter.
|
Like the spelling "mistakes" on allied papers in WWII.
The Germans were undone by a spelling error. The USA documents had a spelling error. The German forger, per typical German attention to detail, corrected the spelling error. This was eventually discovered, and several German special forces soldiers were caught and executed because their papers lacked the spelling error. Most of the German commandos actually survived and crossed back over to German lines.
I think probably the most important thing, is that if you really need to contact someone and keep the information discrete, there is always Sending. Depending on the type of communication and its importance you can probably figure out a way to get it to the needed person. Sure this is a short limit on the words you can use, but there are always multiple castings over multiple days. Only requires a 7th level cleric to be familiar with someone.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So casters can easily snoop on mundane communications, and non-casters can't do anything to snoop on magical communications. It's almost as if there's some kind of disparity here...
Almost as if a cellular phone is vastly superior to a messenger with a piece of paper.
Not if the government has anything to say about it. They're more likely to listen to your cell phone conversation (illegaly) than they are to read your mail.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As Claxon says, a cell phone is deeply and utterly less secure than a messenger with a piece of paper. Cell phone 'security' is easily broken 27 different ways. Even an amateur can listen in on cell phone calls, and governments are expert at it. The Five Eyes governments routinely intercept, record, and transcribe all (yes, 100%!) cellphone calls. A messenger with a piece of paper is an excellent tool for good operational security. The starting point for real world OPSEC is to not carry any electronic device.
A cell phone might be a useful tool to fool your kid sister, but anyone more sophisticated will have an easy time of it. Not only are your messages vulnerable to interception, but a cellphone is also a tracking device that constantly broadcasts your real location. Note that a typical cell phone broadcasts its real location even when turned OFF. The only way to prevent this is to remove the primary and backup battery. This is one reason the iPhone series has no way to remove the battery.
There are all sorts of clever ways to establish secure communications. Wax-sealed letters work decently well, in the absence of magic, but totally fail in a magical world. Magic seems useful to crack some methods, but not others. I saw mention of steganography above. It's impossible to crack a steganographic message until you have figured out it's there.
Some historical examples that would be hard to crack with magic:
* Get several slaves. Shave them bald. Tattoo specific code words on their scalps. Keep them isolated until their hair grows back. Establish a military code that associates the code words with particular battle plans. When it's time to give battle orders, choose the slave with the appropriate tattooed code word as the messenger. Give this slave a written message with (false!) battle orders. Your generals know to ignore the written orders, and to instead shave the slave's head and follow the battle plan associated with that code word. Then kill the slave, to keep the secret. If the messenger is intercepted (or betrays you!) the enemy gets false and misleading orders.
* Send a messenger with (false!) written orders. Write the real orders on a ratty leather belt, using a scytale cipher based on holes punched in the belt. The messenger wears the leather belt. Keep the messenger ignorant of this cipher. The officer receiving the orders knows to order the messenger seized and stripped of clothing. Read the real message off the belt, using your staff-key.
* Use a Vigenere Cipher. I'm unaware of any magical tools able to crack something like this. A mage's best bet might be to summon some hyper-intelligent outsider and ask it to solve the riddle, putting the solution strictly in the realm of GM fiat.
|
|
..that implies that protecting your data would be a nightmare in Pathfinder-world...It is, and it always has been. The entire Divination school is full of spells that would put James Bond out of work. There are a couple of work-arounds such as illusory script, but in most cases physical letters would only be sent with 'unclassified' information on them. Hired clerics or mages are expensive, but not as expensive as losing a key battle due to message interception.
To steal a notion from real world cryptography, an NPC who wants to send coded information could choose to send the book of codes physically, but the actual message via magical means. (If one word signifies an entire sentence in the code book, it also helps deal with the 25-word-limit problem of sending.)
The weird thing is that outside of security work there's not a lot of jobs for arcane mages. Healing you want a cleric to beg their God for a miracle, crops you want a druid to commune with nature.
Like the spelling "mistakes" on allied papers in WWII.** spoiler omitted **
Something similar is on the back of Texas Driver's Licenses. The first "i" in "Directive" is missing its dot on the official ones.