Keeper of the Page
While holding The Last Word, you can place it in a book, journal, spellbook, map, or other written work as a bonus action. The bookmark remembers the exact page, line, and position where it was placed. You can remove it from the object as a bonus action, and it immediately returns to your hand if it is within 60 feet of you.
Conversation Held
As an action, you can place The Last Word against a creature within 5 feet that is speaking a language you understand. The bookmark records the conversation from that moment onward, preserving the exact words, tone, and order of speech for up to 24 hours. You can replay any portion of the recording by holding the bookmark and speaking its command word; the replay is audible to creatures within 30 feet and lasts no longer than 10 minutes. The bookmark can hold only one conversation at a time.
A Place in the Dialogue
When you are interrupted while speaking, or when a creature attempts to change the subject before you finish making a point, you can use your reaction to mark the moment. Until the end of your next turn, you cannot be prevented from completing the sentence or statement you had begun, provided you remain conscious and capable of speech. Creatures can still attack you, impose conditions on you, or use magic to silence you.
Return to the Topic
Once per short or long rest, when a creature you can hear contradicts a statement you made earlier in the same conversation, you can use your reaction to produce a faint rustle and quote your earlier words exactly. The creature must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on the next ability check or attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn, distracted by the correction. A creature immune to being charmed is immune to this effect.
Editorial Judgment
The Last Word has an Intelligence of 14, a Wisdom of 18, and a Charisma of 12. It can communicate telepathically with its attuned wielder while within 60 feet, but only in brief written phrases that appear in the wielder's mind. The bookmark has strong opinions about interruptions, rambling, needless repetition, and poor grammar. Whenever its wielder uses it to mark a place in a book or conversation, it may silently approve, object, or suggest a more precise wording. Its opinions have no direct mechanical effect, though the DM may have it refuse to activate a property if the wielder is deliberately using it to falsify or maliciously distort a conversation.
The Proper Ending
Once per long rest, when you finish speaking a statement of no more than 25 words, you can declare it the final word. For the next minute, creatures within 30 feet that heard the statement cannot knowingly repeat those exact words or a direct paraphrase of them. A creature can ignore this effect by succeeding on a DC 17 Charisma saving throw, and a creature that succeeds is immune to this property for 24 hours. This property does not prevent a creature from writing the words, communicating them telepathically, or conveying the same information in a substantially different way.
Protective Margin
While The Last Word is placed in a written work you are holding or carrying, you have advantage on saving throws against effects that would alter, erase, or suppress your memories. In addition, you always know whether a written passage within 10 feet of the bookmark has been magically altered or forged, though you do not automatically learn the original text.
History
The bookmark was created in the Archive of Unfinished Arguments by the enchanter Meredin Vell, who bound a fragment of a sentient spellbook to a strip of vellum cut from the first draft of a peace treaty. It disappeared for three centuries after being used to expose a false confession during the Trial of Seven Bells. It resurfaced in the possession of a traveling storyteller, who claimed the bookmark had begun finishing his jokes before he could. Its current whereabouts are unknown, though it is said to seek a reader who knows when to listen.
