Branding Boots
Description: A pair of plain but sturdy hiking boots made of dull green leather. Their soles are engraved with a mystic sigil. Like most magical footwear these boots will re-size themselves to fit any any biped from pixie to giant size. Magical senses will perceive a strong and enduring aura of alteration magic, with more advanced techniques revealing a hint of their creator's true nature.
Powers: These boots brand their unique magical sigil wherever they step. The brands are invisible to normal sight but the wearer can always see them clearly regardless of lighting or even magical darkness, although they don't illuminate their surroundings. The sigils last until the boots have walked about 100 miles, at which point the oldest begin to vanish as new ones appear. Sigil lifespan is based on the boots walking about, and doesn't reset if the wearer changes. If the boots aren't in use (such as when riding a horse or wagon, or if they're being carried rather than worn) there will be gaps (perhaps quite large ones) in the sigil trail but the distance travelled this way doesn't count toward the boots' limit.
Applying the sole of one's boot to a creature or object (usually by kicking it) will create a sigil, although the boots must be worn at the time.
Branding boots are, like many magical items, supernaturally durable and can last for centuries of hiking even over the roughest terrain.
Possible Origins: These boots were first enchanted by a petty wizard who wanted to ensure that he could always find his way back home after a night on the town. Their utility for those who travel the wilderness or explore ancient underground labyrinths ensured their popularity and made their creator a small fortune as a mystical cobbler. While the original creator long ago drank himself to death with his new-found wealth, many other artificers and hedge magicians have duplicated his formula and branding boots are, by the standards of enchanted items, relatively common.
Complications: None of the boots' magic functions unless both are worn at once, and if one of the pair is destroyed or disenchanted the other will disintegrate on the spot. Swimming in the boots is very difficult (a 25% greater chance of failure with each test taken) and being stealthy while wearing them is also a challenge (a 10% greater chance of being noticed).
Perhaps more importantly, anyone with the ability to detect magic can clearly see the boots' brands, just as though they were wearing them. This may be an advantage if you're trying to leave a trail for a friendly wizard, but it also makes you very easy to track if your enemies have the right resources. They may also give away your identity and activities if you're known to own the boots associated with a particular sigil, which often leads to ne'er-do-wells offering "hot" boots on the cheap to the unsuspecting and foolish.
Effects that dispel magic will remove brands easily enough, but only one at a time (or all in the area of effect, if there is one). It's hard to delete enough of them to make a trail impossible to follow this way, but you might be able to confuse things a bit. Imitating a brand with similar magic (like D&D's arcane/wizard mark) should require a stat or skill test to pull off the forgery well enough to match, and even then the mark won't be automatically visible to the boot's wearer the way the real ones are.
Design Commentary: These are mostly good for trailblazing or marking your route through a maze, although there are certainly other things you can do with them. Some of the more intriguing possibilities (tricking someone into wearing the boots so you can follow them, for ex) are difficult to pull off since the wearer can always see the brands they're leaving behind - but most people don't look back at their own footprints all that often, so you might be able to get away with it with some luck or clever distractions.
