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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quasqueton" data-source="post: 1844635" data-attributes="member: 3854">PC wizard wants to write a scroll. He studies up on what is required for the scroll: "feather of cockatrice, ink of giant squid, venom of wyvern." Gets his party together to go kill a cockatrice, giant squid, and wyvern.Once each creature is slain, the wizard thinks, "Hmm. You know, I only need one feather off this <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />'. Only an ounce of the squid ink and 'vern poison. Wonder if I could sell any of the extra to other wizards wanting to write their own scrolls?"Wizard makes a deal with a local shop to sell individual <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />' feathers, and special ink and poison by the ounce. As word gets around the small, tight mage community, the local shop gets some wizard patrons looking for special items for their scroll scribing. Few want to go to the trouble of hunting cockatrices just to scribe a single scroll. Heck, many wizards have died (or been petrified) trying to obtain such a quill.While the wizards are in the shop, they ask, "Do you have any blood of gorgon? I need a howler's quill. How about a mummified elf hand?" The shopkeeper realizes that he could make a lot of money if he could have more magical ingredients. The shopkeeper puts out word among the adventurous crowd, that he will pay money for odd bits and pieces of monsters. He pays 1gp per gallon of gorgon's blood; sure that's a hefty amount, and he needs to get some investors (maybe the local wizard guild) to help him out. Then he sells the blood for 1gp per ounce. He buys whole cockatrice carcases for 10gp, then sells the quills for 1gp each; the heart for 5gp; the beak for 2gp; etc.The shopkeeper, having proven the magical market to be lucrative even on the small scale, forms a guild with some other interested merchants. They open a few magical shops in other large cities and towns throughout the land.One day, a wizard wants to write a scroll. He studies up on what is required for the scroll: "feather of cockatrice, ink of giant squid, venom of wyvern." He knows of this little "curiosity shop" in Big Town. He stops by and buys the supplies he needs. A friend of his, an older, more experienced wizard, mocks him saying, "Back in my day, we actually had to go hunt the cockatrice, squid, and wyvern ourselves. This idea of just buying magical supplies 'over the counter' takes the excitement out of scribing scrolls."After a couple years, the shopkeeper has contacts all over the country among various adventurers, wizard's guilds, even the king's court wizard. When a warrior stops by his store inquiring about an enchanted weapon, well, the shopkeeper thinks, "Hmm. I wonder if I could work out a deal with some mage to embue an item for me?"Then in a few years, the guild is buying, selling, trading, and brokering magic *items* as well as components.After a couple decades, adventurers (or anyone with the need and cash) can buy magic components and items "over the counter". And the old timer adventurers moan. . .Quasqueton</blockquote>

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