Replication Dust

Replication dust is a useful and a powerful tool for anyone with a sharp mind. It is commonly used by museum owners and collectors of rare items that was to display their prizes without putting said valuables out in the open.

It may not sound very impressive at first, but imagine this in the right (or wrong) hands... You have the Apocalypse Dagger and worshipers of Orcus want it. You were smart, you used the dust to make a perfect, non-magical copy... You "trip" and fall, purposefully leaving the fake dagger behind. The cultist find it, but then what? Clearly these guys wouldn't try to use it, they're scared. They bring it to their boss, a process that may take WEEKS. Then they try to use it... Only finding out in that moment that they were tricked!

Or, you're getting ready to pull a heist! A priceless, incredibly powerful tome rests gently on it's pillow, a column of purple flames surrounding your prize. You and your party have fought, fled, and stealthed your way through more traps and guardian beasts than you thought could fit down here, just to get in the door. But there is your prize, resting in a dispelled magic area thanks to your greedy wizard friend... What if you wanted to go one step further? Really stick it to these high and mighty noble types! You want these fools to never realize how much they've really lost... It's easy to see if a book is missing, and almost as easy to see a fake one... But a flawless replica? These guys aren't that good... You sprinkle some dust on it, leave that perfect yet worthless copy behind, maybe even sprinkle some blood on the ground for good measure! Let them think "the defenses were just too good, they ran away", and your DM's NPCs will never be able to catch you!

Now, DMs, wanna mess with your players? Wanna steal an item they love and replace it with an useless, perfect replica that will spawn a quest line to recover their favorite toy (Gee, hope it wasn't a weapon that shattered in the first battle of the day! *evil laugh*)? Well, you now have the item to make it all happen!

Disclaimer - Now, there are obviously limitations to this item. The replica is only the image of what's its sprinkled on. For example, if it in sprinkled on a book, it's only of the book, not the contents or wording in it. If the book is open and dust applied, it's of those exposed pages only, and the book can't close without being destroyed.

Regardless of how you use and abuse it, I hope this item makes it way to your table!