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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Warrior Poet" data-source="post: 2038718" data-attributes="member: 1057">1. Enough for a merchant to spend ten years without working.  Enough for a peasant family of seven to live out their days without working (though their days would probably be cut very short by the arrival of thieves or a local, or higher, magistrate to collect for "king and country, you understand").  Enough for a minor noble to raise a regiment of soldiers for a campaign and take command of them in the field for a year.2. All are tremendously valuable.  The first is so valuable that it adorns an emperor's crown which is only worn on special occasions (coronations, weddings, certain holidays), otherwise kept under guard in a vault.  Peasants never even see it, and if they do, they are blinded by orders of the emperor so that they may never find it again, or lead anyone to it.  Scenario 1 for the second and third: these are valuable only insofar as they can be cut into gems that are actually recognizable.  If a good cut yields numerous stones, they are valued at the total yield.  Scenario 2 is pure fantasy, which is what the game is anyway, and in that case the second stone is the centerpiece of a dragon's hoard (Arkenstone), and could keep a small kingdom in good financial stead for years or possibly a century, while the second is the soul container of a devil, demiurge, or other quasi-deific entity, and therefore has no real monetary value because it can't be afforded by anyone, but instead causes seas to boil, captures and stores the light of the sun, or has other equally amazing capabilities.3. In D&D terms, 1,000 gold pieces on common market, 4,000 for a collector or historical society.4. 100 gold to a collector or museum.  1 to someone who doesn't know what it is.5. To a horse afficionado with a taste for the rare, five good mares and a new foal that will grow to stud.6. Free beer for a competent blacksmith and carpenter for a year at the very inn for which they made the door.7. Five silver coins if it makes it there in 10 minutes.  Another five if the runner forgets the box exists once it's delivered.8. One of the following:  ten apples; a side of bacon; five mugs of beer; a skin of wine; a pound of salt; two small pelts, cured; a pouchful of tobacco; three eggs; a steel awl; 20' feet of sturdy rope; five silver coins; thirty figs; seven potatoes; a brief dental examination; one sign painted; a jar of oil; four lumps of coal; a bound stack of kindling.9. For 10 gold coins I'll paint a good likeness to hang in your hall.  For 100 gold coins I will make you look better than you really do.  For a small bag of cinnamon, a small bag of saffron, a small bag of sugar, and a silver bar, I'll risk painting your portrait better than that of the duke, and you'll never see me again after that . . . .10. Not expected to live long, probably not much of a pig: one scrawny chicken.</blockquote>

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