One of my characters is from a rich, important family and has been handed down the family heirloom of a magical watch. It is small, golden in colour and with their family crest engraved on the back. It has been enchanted with several spells.
However I've only used it as plot device, and I've been avoiding saying what it actual does - because I don't know. Because it is set in a modern day fantasy setting, I'm struggling to find anything useful for it to do. For example, in a traditional fantasy setting it could be a communication device - however in this setting cell phones render it obsolete.
Any ideas?
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51,393 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 04 39
Is there a trade or skill for which the family is known, or was known at one time? Perhaps the watch was built off that. Or perhaps it was the most innovative thing of its time, but is know obsolete, but the family still values it because it is a familiy heirloom (as the case would be with it being a communication device). Or perpaps the family knows that the watch is magic, but they don't know what it does, either, and it turns out that there's a fairy or spirit or something trapped inside.
----------The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everyone else.
- Umberto Eco
2,952 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 07 16
Well, it is a watch, so perhaps it could turn back, stop or otherwise manipulate time?
50,119 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 11 46
Perhaps it's a compass of sorts? The term "compass" being used rather loosely for lack of a better word. For example, say if you were looking for someone. Perhaps if you said the name of the person aloud to the watch, the short hand would point to where he was/where he is, while the long hand would point to where they're going.
57,530 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 12 07
I was thinking something similar, that maybe the watch allowed the person who knew how to use it to travel through time.
50,675 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 13 08
Having time-altering powers is an obvious way to go. Too obvious? I'm not sure.
Regardless, if you want to go that route, you could do far worse than to read the delightful little book "The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything," which has a time-altering watch. It's a fast read, but it's an older book so you might have trouble laying hands on it.
A different way to go might be not to have the watch _influence_ time in a magical way, but rather to _measure_ it in a magical way. Perhaps if the watch has hands for seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, and years. Then, when you flip up the lid, hold it in the direction of whomever you want, and click the stem, the hands spin to measure the exact amount of time before that person dies. Who would you point it at? What would you do if you pointed it at someone you cared about and got a shockingly short answer? Would you have the guts to point it at yourself?
----------Crashdown (YA sci-fi / horror)
Stranded on an alien world, Ruve must deny his own humanity in order to survive. To get home, he'll need the help of someone back here on Earth. If, that is, he can convince anyone here that he's real.
50,227 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 16 06
@Nyxia Mara: His family is in somewhat of a duke situation - when they're rich, important, but not really for any particular reason.
Thanks for all your help. Changing time is probably a little too obvious and doesn't really fit into the story. The compass idea however, might! Thanks DISCO HADES.
80,250 / 50,000
Dec 4, 2008 - 09 38
what if you could set the watch back to clarify a memory of that moment?