Dr. Si's Curse of the Crimson Throne OOC

I've finished updating Dj'hân. Wow. I've never succeeded in playing through three level increases in a PBP before. It's rather amazing truth be told.

As a streetwise scavenger, following Edmond's return to sight-hood, Dj'hân's first concern is to secure he loot. To that end he'll unload all of the odds and ends he's collected in his liripoop during the group's recent foray.

• 4 suits of leather armour
• 4 shortswords
• 4 bucklers
• 4 repeating crossbows
• 4 spare bolt clips
• A few books on necromantic theory
• 4 vials of dark green liquid
• Spellbook

The latter two require some measure of investigation to determine what they contain exactly and how much they might be worth. Also, I believe Thorson collected a few items from the spell casting derro; Dj'hân can possibly identify the properties of the first two if the big half-orc is willing:

• Bone wand (faint necromantic)
• A copper ring (faint abjuration)
• Spell component pouch
• A finely crafted dagger

More pressing to Dj'hân and Majenko though is to return to the Grey District catacombs soon, the same day if possible, to secure the 100 book golem creation, necromancy and disease library. They'll do it by themselves if necessary, packing as many books as is possible into his liripoop (20 at a time by my reckoning) and making round trips to transport them all out. They must be worth a small fortune in these pre-printing press era. Others are welcome to come along and help out if they like.

Once we identify and price all this stuff we can look into selling it all off and splitting the proceeds. Sound good?

The books might be worth fortuene, but they should be destroyed. Or at least sequestered in some temple (the corruption of the temple that follows is the theme of next adventure )

Just in case you ever mention that to Edmond (who by the way has same thoughts regarding return of the books) - I admit to forgetfulness, I planned on reporting it to Marshal Kroft.

Edmond and Thorson, each bearing two large sacks and a cart waiting outside should be able to bring them out in one or two trips. With Brindom and Manachan helping we'll be done in no time...

Manachan willingly jumps in to help haul the books out, works around the house as needed, etc.

He has no 'in the background' projects going on at the moment, so he'll spend any extra time practicing his kata, sparring with willing partners, and learning his way about the city.

Please don't tell me what the next adventure is about.

There's no reason the books should be destroyed. Their isn't necessarily something evil about necromancy, disease or golems; it isn't blasphemous or diabolical literature. That knowledge can be put to good use if put in the hands of good people; it's what one does with that knowledge that matters. We can try selling the lot of em to one or more righteous temples if they're willing to pay for it. Otherwise we'll have to see who's in the market for it.

Also, if Edmond is looking to furnish his newly renovated house, I know where he can get an opulent four-poster bed, a writing desk and a large full-length mirror for free.

I reckon about one week of downtime until the next bit.

The dark green liquid carried by the derro is medium spider venom, one dose each. If you want to sell that it'll take a bit of searching and a Gather Info check to find a buyer of dubious moral character.

The spellbook contains all cantrips (except conjuration and illusion ones) plus the following spells: blindness/deafness, cause fear, chill touch, command undead, darkness, false life, feather fall, fly, gentle repose, magic missile, ray of enfeeblement, scare, scorching ray, shield, sleep, spectral hand, vampiric touch, water breathing. I don't know how to value these, but there is a shop in Eodred's Walk called Hedge Wizardry that would buy them (if the second-hand shops in campus at Theomenexes or the Acadamae don't want them).

The book collection is valued at 300gp total. Basha's Bookshop (again in Eodred's Walk) would take them, or again perhaps the magical colleges.

Of the derro's magic items, the wand is a wand of ghoul touch (44 charges remaining) and the ring is a ring of protection +1. The dagger is just a masterwork dagger.

As for buying stuff, I don't own Magic Item Compendium, but I'd be happy to consider items if you tell me what they do. Again, the shop Hedge Wizardry would supply minor magical items of all kinds.

Thanks for the info Doc. I'll price the lot of it as soon as possible; I assume the standard 50% resale value applies.

Regarding the library, it seems unlikely that there are actually 100 books in the collection if the lot of them are only worth 300 gp; a single blank book costs 15 gp alone. Even if the knowledge they contained were utterly worthless 20 books would cost 300 gp in materials alone. Considering that these esoteric books are probably hand-scribed, it seems likely to me that even the most common of reference books can't be worth much less than 50 gp; perhaps much more if it's a rare work. I'd hazard to say that the collection we found probably includes six or fewer distinct tomes; or possibly a few dozen scrolls at most. That's just my two cents though.

Stitching dead bodies together is not useful only sinister...I don't want to destroy books that can be put to good use (such as study of anatomy, human or otherwise)

As for spellbook: there is spellcaster enchanter that made dj'ahns liripoop - there are quite a few spells that Edmond could use in wands...

especially if DrSimon allows channeling of said spells Imagine: channel ghoul touch from weapon attached wand ...

Empty vs. filled books: empty book vs useless filled book is worth more since you can use it to scribe something.

Big bad bed I don't want, but mirror could be useful as focus or training area help...


How much time would it take to create:
- masterwork weapon
- ray of enfeeblement wand or rather any of duskblade spells from the book (chill touch, cause fear, scorching ray etc...) - is it same for PF as in 3.5 core?

I will be working on Brindom's room, and will have a post for it as soon as someone can let me know how much is his share. I think I will spend most off the gold on furnishing the room and maybe purchase a couple scrolls for back up. I almost ran out of spells there.

So Brindom for the in game week will help the others clean out the dungeon and locate a carpenter to make/sell him some furnishings. And then take one day to visit the temple.

HM

Neurotic said:

Empty vs. filled books: empty book vs useless filled book is worth more since you can use it to scribe something.

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Parchment pages can be scraped clean to allow re-use. Medieval books were often cleaned and re-used; which has led to the unfortunate loss of who knows how much invaluable lore...

The point I was trying to make was that books full of valuable lore are likely more valuable than their 15 gp blank counterparts.

Neurotic said:

Big bad bed I don't want

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Opulent doesn't mean bad; that is unless it's decorated with skulls or leering gargoyles or some such thing which Dr Simon neglected to mention. It might looks quite nice, you know, once it's been removed from the ancient tomb.

HolyMan said:

So Brindom for the in game week will help the others clean out the dungeon and locate a carpenter to make/sell him some furnishings.

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As it so happens, Dj'hân is holding a everything-must-go-dungeon-liquidation sale featuring a nice four-poster bed and desk set.

Re: the books, put that down to the dangers of working from a pre-published scenario. They say "two large free-standing bookshelves full of books" and then you check and they've got a value of 300gp. Not my fault, guv. Perhaps half of them have got "Property of Acadamae Library - Do Not Remove" stamped inside them and no buyer will touch them?

Re: Rolth's furnishings - they're quite tasteful. Just 'cause I guy's a necromancer he doesn't have to have skulls on everything.