Something that I haven't seen mentioned in any of walkthroughs I've read is that you can obtain this item easily without having a char with 30-40 pickpocket skill nick it off Deidre's assistant. What you need:
-A party that has 2 or more characters.
-A spellcaster that can cast an instant death spell. (I used the finger. :mischief
The way it works: have the caster stand next to the victim and at least 1 other character stand next to Oswald when you're ready to take the Airship out of town. Cast the deathspell, as soon as he's dead pause and have the caster pick up the loot pile. When you have the Knucky in your inventory pause again and switch view to the character(s) next to Oswald. At this point you have about 5 seconds before Oswald goes hostile to initiate the leave town dialog. Voila!
You might say this is cheating but I don't agree. If you kill someone in the trader's post it will realistically take Oswald longer to learn about it than the killer to get to Oswald. (FI by invisibility or hiding.)
It's a myth that you need 30-40 pickpocket skill to get Young Ned's Lucky Knucky, 12-13 (or even less) are sufficient. 16 dex character with 1 pickpocket skill + 1 potion of master thievery (Oswald sells even two of those and you won't need them later) works with a few reloads.
The easiest way I have found to get the knucky is:
i) Use a charm spell (or similar) to take control of the person that has the knucky (forgot her name - dont think it's actually young Ned in HOF mode). They will always fail their save if cast by a high level arcane caster (for example).
ii) Then pick pocket the characters pocket repeatedly until you get the knucky. As Kmonster says, only a lowish pick pocket ability is needed. If you fail the charmed character wont go hostile. Takes about 20-30 attempts.
iii) Once you get the knucky leave the shop immediately. The shop NPCs wont go hostile until the charm wears off.
iv) Now you just have to make sure you dont go back into the shop again after the charm wears off (e.g. after a rest). If you do you are stuffed! You can even now go and do other things before taking Oswalds airship. Just dont go back into the shop - so you can get the knucky early this way without repeated re-loads.
Is this cheating? Not really IMHO as charm spells are part of the game. It is certainly sneaky though (and cheesy - but the whole game is cheesy).
And how exactly is either method you suggested easier than just insta-killing him and picking up the Nucky, which happens to require a pick pocket skill of 0 and no repeat tries?
