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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 5637283" data-attributes="member: 54707">Sorta similar to Squareknot and sorta  different.   I had a magic user (he was my Character) back when  I played AD&D who created money and gems and other valuables to be used for  specific purposes.   My favorite use was this: there was a local guild  who my party knew was backed by an influential and important individual or  individuals. We also believed he had a secret lair or base, and that this base  of operations was where the guild was funneling stolen items off  victims.   So we had different reasons for wanting to  infiltrate this Guild and whoever was behind them. We believed they were running  a fencing operation that led to their base, we believed their hidden base was a  base of operations for various other evil activities, and we believed that  whoever was behind the Guild could eventually be made by locating this  base.   So my magic-user created coins and gems that would  eventually disappear. But until that time they looked and seemed like real coins  and gems. We started buying things off locals who we knew would frequent local  taverns and stores that were connected with the Guild. (By getting others to  pass the coins and items we had less chance of being directly traced if anyone  ever tried to trace the coins back to us.) Then once every couple of days, after  dark and from our own stronghold and keep, my magic-user would use the coins to  scry and spy upon whoever had them. In time the coins and items got circulated  and we just followed the leads up the food chain until we learned of the  location of the secret lair, and by this time we were pretty sure we knew who  the individuals were behind the operation.   It wasn't quite true as something much larger was  going on that we found out about later, that involved an artifact. But we were  able to make our initial infiltrations by this simulacoinage, without  endangering ourselves or having to run infiltration missions against various red  herring targets. We used the "simulacoinage" like modern day bugging devices  which would give us Intel and information on those we wanted to gather on. To my  knowledge our targets never understood that we were tapping their operations or  their money networks in this way.    But several times our characters overheard stories  about the "vanishing gold" or "disappearing coins." Because after a few weeks  the coins I had created would evaporate. And that is apparently what they set  about investigating, not that the coins might be scrying devices, and that's  what we hoped would happen.    So it all worked like a golden charm (pun  intended).   so although we didn't create money for the sake of  circulating the money, we did create money for the sake of circulating it among  our enemies. And since few people ever stop to think about the money itself  being a problem, it was a good disguise for our real aims. And we recouped very  well (the costs for the money creation spell and materials was costly) because  we took a good haul from the lair, the local noblemen also aped us well for the  bust up on the Guild and the men behind it, and we had a good future method for  infiltrating enemy networks.   By the way, later in life I got a real life  reinvention outta this too. Ubiquitous items make good monitoring devices and  few people ever think to check what they use every day.</blockquote>

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