A thiefâ??s best friend.
Full Item Description
No more carrying all those keys, picks, incriminating tools, bottles of acid, and a healer for when all those things still leave you setting off whatever dastardly trap the GM came up with THIS time. The Skeleton Key is the Master master key, bespelled with a morphing spell and carved from precious ivory, able to unlock any door, chest, strongbox, and, occasionally, the manacles chaining you to the prison wall (and the cell door, and the gate, and the....). Only one thing, most DMs won't let you have one, or at least not for a reasonable price. Not to mention the traps they'll come up with when this gets out.
History
This item is history in the making, so either one of the players, or one of you ‘persons of limited destiny' (NPCs), need to introduce it into the game.
Magic/Cursed Properties
The function is simple, it's a key that fits any lock, but the uses are endless, unlawful activities, absent-minded fellows who hate carrying around dozens of keys that all look the same, et cetera. Like the description says, it fits anywhere.
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Bonds
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Oblivion/Morrowind influence much?
I've only played core D&D and looked into Bureau 13. None of the group I'm playing with really has time to learn any new modules.
I think Skeleton is appropriate since this submission is not much more than bare bones.
Unfortunately, this item is very simple - to be specific in D&D it is a 'Knock' spell on a key, and so needs more then it's powers to distinguish itself. The affect on a game is to eliminate a major role of certain player types/skills. It definately needs some limitations as it stands.
I've said in the past it is okay for the history of the item to be unknown in game, but the real history of the item still needs to be there, even only as a GM resource. The history need not describe it's use when created, but should include how it was created, by whom, and why.
One suggestion: if it were a special mineral-based life form that could sense the required shape to match a mechanical lock, morph to that shape and open it, this could be very useful - it may not require 'magic' at all to function.
I think this needs to be placed back 'in work' and other items reviewed for what is expected of posts. I think it has potential with work so I'm holding off voting for now.
An item of this nature is bound to have some limits. Perhaps it risks breakage if it's used too often, or perhaps the user needs to understand how the lock is built to make the key assume the appropriate shape, so some lockpicking experience would be needed to make it work.
The item deserves a cool history: Who invented such a handy gadget? What did the Locksmiths' Guild do when they heard? What have wizards done to counter it? Once you have a sense of its history, you'll be able to tell what limits the Skeleton Key ought to have.
If it has virtually NO limits, such an item would become a potent magic indeed, the subject of intense interest from those who want locks opened and from those who want locks to remain closed...
'It has been found,' hissed the Archlich. 'The key to open the Tomb of the Elder God Hlithiss! Fetch it, my minions!'