Sharp-Tooth Pen

Brief

Communication underwater is an incredibly difficult task. Having long-form history and keeping important documents even moreso. That's where the sharp-tooth pen came in. Mermaids have their own sign language and also speak in telepathy, often using a very oral based route for sharing their history, or stories. If something is deemed particularly important, they will use the tooth of a shark, or more typically a water dragon, to scribe onto rock.

Materials & Components

Teeth

The most important component. Teeth are collected from water dragons that are friendly to the mermaid colony usually from teething pups, or from adults after the tooth has gotten stuck in prey.

Grip

The grip can be made of a few things; typically it is made of driftwood, due to the fact that iron rusts heavily in water. The wood is carved and whittled down to a suitable size for grip.

Binding

Typically a hemp rope, the tooth is tightly bound to the driftwood shaft in multiple ties to keep it at a consistent angle suitable for carving and to keep it secure after it is slotted into the handle.

Item type

Tool

Related ethnicities

• Wild Folk

Rarity

Uncommon to find one in one piece; the tooth is constantly being swapped out for sharpness.

Miranda used a rock to slowly carve a notch into the root of the water dragon tooth, settling on the ocean floor so she could leverage herself properly. With an exhalation of bubbles, she set the rock down, testing to see if the grip of the pen would slide in. It was rough--the grip was a little too long, and the notch too short. As her first sharp-tooth pen as an archivist's apprentice, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. She smiled weakly, and started to tie it into place.