Talk:The Maltese Falcon/@comment-5782071-20170130181024/@comment-1674153-20190122060127

So, there is a reason the Maltese Falcon is plain black - and it's precisely because it's made of gold and jewels. The statue was covered in black enamel at some point in history to hide its tremendous worth from would-be thieves. And, honestly, that could also be a lie, given the readers aren't ever told where the real Maltese Falcon is. This is, of course, ideal, given that we just saw a bunch of people let their greed fatally consume them over what was in reality nothing but a fake.

With that in mind, I'm certainly inspired to offer up an alternative effect - that it turns people's skins sticky, allowing them to steal and horde treasures like a dragon until they eventually become encased in a tomb of their own greed.