Snakerope - Magical

The Snake Rope is a comparatively rare magical item - it looks like an ordinary rope, “standard” size is 5m length and 2.5 cm thickness.
This looks like a perfectly ordinary rope, except that it has two aglets, usually of mundane metal, and one of the two has two small semi-precious stones (agate in the picture above) embedded in it.

The stones represent the “eyes” and the aglet sporting the eyes is the “head” of the rope.

Rope activation: TN: 18
Duration: Concentration

Range: Touch (the caster must touch the rope to animate it)

Resisted: None (when acquired for the first time the caster must spend some time attuning the rope to him or herself, though).

Animated Snake Rope: Might: 2D+2 Wit: 0D(1) Agility: 3D+1 Charm: 1D Scale: 0D (1) In case a Resist Roll requires using Wit use half the Wit value of the current rope user, halved down, minimum value: 1. Note that the rope is not a living organism so it will not be affected by Slumber or similar spells. Skills: Brawling 4D, Stealth 5D Static: Dodge 12, Soak 7

Usage notes:
Once animated the rope can follow simple orders and has almost no will by itself - the most common usage is to hold it on the owner’s body and throw it to the ground (or towards a foe) while activating the spell.

Combat
You can for example throw it, still coiled, towards an opponent (requires Throw roll, can be done together with the spell casting at no penalties) - it will uncoil in midair and immediately try to grapple with the target. When used in this way it does not need the caster to actually maintain active concentration, it will either fight until the target stops being an active threat, be destroyed or just lie down as an inanimate rope if, for example, the original target gets away or is killed by someone else.
It will also become inanimate if the caster dies or becomes unconscious.
In combat the rope will try to trip the opponent and/or tie their arms up. It can be pretty effective as long as it has to deal with humanoid opponents. Other kind of creatures (even normal animals like dogs) give it a -1d6 to Brawling due to their different physiology.
Note that “normal” snakeropes do not try to strangle or constrict their target. They either go straight for the arms or attempt to make the opponent trip by ensnaring their legs (once the target is down the rope will usually attempt to go for the arms, unless the victim is lying face down and cannot attempt to get free).

There are rumours about “different” kinds of snakeropes, some much bigger (thicker, and with higher Might stats), some who will attempt to kill by strangling, some with pointed aglets that can pierce skin, and even more intelligent snakeropes that can follow more complex command and act by themselves (these may have some flaw like being afraid of fire or of being destroyed by cutting).

Severing in two a snakerope will “kill” it immediately and permanently. If damaged they will slowly regenerate back to normal (they have a weaker version of regeneration and “heal” 1 wound level every 2 hours).

Non-Combat
The caster can also use the rope to fetch stuff to him, or push/pull levers, or as an aid to his own movements (for example, you can cast the spell, holing the “tail” and make the other extremity coil around something on the ceiling to swing around like Indiana Jones with his whip).
The DM may impose penalties or declare some actions impossible, of course. For example if you want your rope to move across a floor hoping it will trigger traps, keep in mind it has the weight/mass of a rope, so it will probably not work at all, other stuff that require the user to use their body mass will probably require a higher difficulty roll for the rope.
Also: the rope cannot really “swim” - if it enters waters it will sink. It can still move on the floor, though, albeit slowly, and it will have -2d6 for any actions until it gets dry again.

Keep in mind that a Snake Rope has no way to communicate back to the user and outside of combat it has very little capacity for initiative. So you cannot really send one to scout an area and get a report when it comes back. In fact, if you cannot maintain line of sight the rope will become almost immediately inert (again, this does not apply to combat situations).
This is why it needs concentration to be used for anything outside of combat: the user may either actually see it or it has to build a mental image of the environment and think actively how the rope should navigate it.
Example: if you are in your Sancta Sanctorum and want your rope to go fetch your staff for you in the basement you can concentrate and “guide” it down the ladder, up to the table where your staff is, grab it and make it come back.
If you want to do the same inside someone else’s house (using it to steal stuff without having to actually enter) you would need to use Clairvoyance at the same time, and take a -1D penalty for the Clairvoyance roll.

Other notes

It is rumoured that some magicians have been able to create similar items with different physical characteristic (changes in size, material).
It is also said that in some rare case the rope can be more intelligent (Wit: 1-3 pips) and in that case it acts more like a snake familiar, albeit its communication capabilities are very limited.
More intelligent ropes can also manifest some form of mental handicap, like being pyrophobic (to the point of refusing to attack or even go close to someone holding a torch) or hydrophobic (will not enter water in its animated state).