@Azel if we do go to Axis we are not stealing their magic sand.

We're taking their paperwork!

And their clerk's! And writing utensils! We shall raid the offices of lower middle management!
 
[Electroshocks activated]
I want to see how Embra reacts!
She can't possibly like this...

Edit: And wow, this place has a crazily chaotic legal code. "Vigilante justice is totally allowed as long as you can prove it was good?"
Wow. Let's not do that please.
 
Last edited:
Part MMCCLXVI: Upon the Winds of Trade
Upon the Winds of Trade

Fourth Day of the Fifth Month 293 AC

Much to Embra's disappointment you decide not to pursue the chaos-monger for his misdeeds and instead trust the Sultan's guard to do their work. By contrast Ser Richard is obviously relieved, muttering something that sounds suspiciously like: "Thank the bloody gods I don't have to learn how to gut frogs." The locals give him confused looks, even more pronounced than when you had so handily produced Alvar.

Delivering said sell-spells into Teana's keeping does little to lessen their bemusement, but all of them prove remarkably amenable to the tasks you had assigned them, whether teaching at the Scholarum, enchanting, or working with the Legion's battle mages to help smooth out the transition between the lecture hall and the battlefield.

Thus it is that you can finally turn your eyes to trade, this time able to disclose the provenance of your wares, rather than play to the buyer's expectations, in guises more or less dissembling.

***​

Fifth Day of the Fifth Month 293 AC

"...That ain't no genuine Balance-wrought silk anymore than I'm a wart on the Sultan of Brass' sooty ass," one quarrelsome merchant proclaims, leaving you in equal measure amused as his colorful language and frustrated at his intransigence. To judge from Embra's giggling she is far less conflicted on the matter.

"Would you like to take a trip?" she asks slyly. "On the honor of my house you shan't be harmed and you will find it most elucidating."

Though the thought of the fellow being unceremoniously dropped into the ocean from Embra's inexact transitions is enough to make you to swallow a laugh that would hardly get your silk sold any quicker, so you present the writs of quality and provenance acquired from the Office of Trade. Unsurprisingly even that is put into question, requiring that you summon the increasingly ill-tempered elemental who had been assigned the generally little called upon task of verifying such documentation at need.

"One more damn time..." Some of the curses that rumble forth are remarkable enough to recall besides the invocation of the Sultan of the Efreeti's posterior.

So it goes with the rumors of your arrival racing ahead of you, allowing you to clear a prodigious volume of business simply by selling to intermediaries who hope to profit from the the novelty and wild rumors. You wish them all the joy of such a scheme, as your days as a swindler have made you all too aware of the perils such trickery can bring with it.

You gain 110,000 Gold from trade

You gain 100,000 Reagents


A return to Odd's tower sees the curious merchant give you some very pointed looks as he delivers onto you strange black tomes the likes of which you have never seen, explaining that though the magic upon them does not make one more knowledgeable in the secrets of the world when liked through a proper source of lore it can help one deliver said lore in a swift and timely manner.

You gain 2 Tomes of Knowledge (max bonus +10)

Lastly he offers scrolls containing spells and invocations of summoning and binding, one of the sixth and the other of the eight circle.

That the last seems to be writ upon the skin of fiends and locked with a silver chain rather than a simple seal does not escape your notice... or Ser Richard's.

"We've been attacked by stranger things," the knight points out at your curious look.

To that you have no counter for it is nothing but the truth, though thankfully the scroll remains still and quiet in your keeping.

You gain scrolls of Planar Binding and Greater Planar Binding

You lose 2930 Gold


In the meanwhile Vee and Waymar had not fared well in finding any beasts for a decent price, for some of the very rumors that had so aided in your trade had also fueled the notion that magic was far scarcer in your home than it truly was. Thus the kindliest things Waymar can call most of the merchantsthe spoke to are thieves and cheats, with the remainder being perhaps of less than the height of knightly courtesy. Hopefully by the time the storm of speculation settles you can make further purchases under more reasonable conditions.

If nothing else then at least they happened upon the survivors of a failed trading expedition with little save their skills to sell and thus quite willing to start off a new life elsewhere, even in so distant a place as another world.

Gained 30 Sylph and Human handlers with knowledge of Hippogriff Training

Lost 1500 Gold (Hiring Fee)


As you are about to leave a conundrum you have been expecting for weeks rears its head: What to do with Embra? While disappointed that she did not have the chance to hunt down the mad Slaad, she is still game for traveling father afield upon your world than Sorcerer's Deep or even aiding as best she can in the raids against the Efreeti.

What do you do with Embra?

[] Take her along on the raids in the Sea of Fire

[] Send her to fight the Ghiscari

[] Have her join the Sothoryos expedition

[] Write in


OOC: The rolls were very uneven this round of trading.
 
Last edited:
Why even have library bonuses if these times exist?
Well, I guess that they might stack...
The library bonuses exist for long study actions and general training in magic.

For a ritual, what's essentially cram-studying right before doesn't really fit.

"Crap, I know this. I read this five times! It was on page three!"
":facepalm:"

A simple enchanted item on the other hand works better for the ritual.
 
Considering the cost of enchanting the belt, including the 50% tax for adding additional effects, we would have to drop several smaller projects, or we could drop one larger project, such as the new Wayfinder or the Visor of See Invisibility for one of the Iron Archer Golems.
You don't have to pay tax for the six basic effects. Of which stat enhancements is one.
 
Even if we can ace it the ritual still bears improving.
For the future, definitely, but as we are now it's flat out dangerous to delay the Erinyes breaking away from Hell. The longer we wait the more time we have for Mammon to get clever and try to work through that connection.

Now that we have the competence-boosting tomes, we can 100% avoid that True Death penalty for the Erinyes when stacked with all our other methods of cheating.
 
They do... although thinking about it I think it might be more thematically appropriate to just let you guys just use your bonuses. Your planes and religious bonuses are actually more than good enough. Yeah that makes more fluff sense and makes all the book hunting more satisfying.
Holy crap. @DragonParadox, by this ruling, are you letting us use our library bonuses for all future rituals?

Library: 21/30: Jewel of Knowledge

Lore:

Knowledge (Arcana) +14
Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +7
Knowledge (Economics) +4
Knowledge (Geography) +13
Knowledge (History) +14
Knowledge (Law) +15
Knowledge (Nature) +6
Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) +10
Knowledge (Religion) +13
Knowledge (The Planes) +13
Knowledge (War) +6
Knowledge (Architecture) +3

Lesser Spellbooks:

6 Wizard Spellbooks (spell level 0 to 2)
2 Wizard Spellbooks (spell level 0 to 3)
2 Wizard Spellbooks (spell level 0 to 4)

Common Maps (Fine Quality):
Large Westeros Map
Map of the North
Map of the Vale
Map of the Riverlands
Map of the Westerlands
Map of the Crownlands
Map of the Stormlands
Map of the Iron Islands
Map of the Reach
Masterwork Map of Dorne
Map of King's Landing
Map of White Harbor
Map of Oldtown
Map of Lannisport
Map of Gulltown
Large Essos Map
Map of Braavos
Map of Lorath
Map of Myr
Map of Norvos
Map of Lys
Map of Pentos
Map of Qohor
Map of Tyrosh
Map of Volantis
Map of Volon Therys
Map of Valysar
Map of Selhorys
Map of Mantarys
Map of Tolos
Map of Elyria
Map of the former Rhoynish Kingdoms
Map of Slaver's Bay
Map of Yunkai
Map of Meereen
Map of Astapor
Map of New Ghis
Map of Morosh
Map of Vaes Dothrak
Map of the Port of Ibben
Map of New Ibbish
Map of Ib Nor
Map of Ib Sar
Map of Port Yhos
Map of Qarkash
Map of Qarth
Map of the former Kingdom of Sarnor
Map of the Valyrian Peninsula (Before the Doom)
Map of the Kingdom in the Stepstones
Map of the Summer Islands
Map of Yi Ti
Map of Yin

Rare Maps (Low to Mediocre Quality):
Map of the Basilisk Isles
Currents imprecisely drawn, old or deceptive information, much of the interior left blank, this map would make an unfortunate navigation aid by Menel's own admittance.

Map of Sothoryos
Sketch of the coastline and most of the prominent ruins, grows progressively imprecise and fanciful as one moves south, with rivers seeming to double back on themselves, Lost Cities that are not even given the courtesy of a name, and other marks of a mapmaker making excellent use of imagination over skill.

Map of Mossovy
Interior marked with complex and largely ornamental rune-work as well as strange beasts that make the scale of the map hard to properly judge, at least one peninsula is entirely in the wrong place.

Map of Nefer
Drawn with almost inhuman precision to reveal a city of stark lines and sharp angles that does that seems to have been built on at least three levels,, the map leaves obvious empty areas all marked as deathly peril in High Valyrian, Ibbish, and what you think is the Tongue of Yi Ti

Map of Leng
Beyond the coast this map seems to be mostly concerned with temples and roadside shrines offering exacting information on prayers and obeisance that must be offered to each one as well as repeated instructions not to leave the roads.

Map of Zamettar
The map though fine in make was obviously made long before the fall of the city, and so it does not mark the encroaching jungle that now shrouds the city, nor the said to be extended flooding.

Map of Gorosh
The lines are drawn in a hurried almost feverish hand, the scale and spacing of the streets seemingly erratic to one with any skill in architecture. Whether the madness lies with the mapmaker or the builders you cannot guess.

Map of the Realm of the Jhogwin
A land of wide valleys but also steep hills is depicted here in fine flowing lines. Alas the scale seems to have been added much later and clearly in a different hand.

Rare Books
A Meeting of Minds

A Meeting of Minds

Description:
A simple black tome with a stylized eye set in the center of the cover, this book in penned in a lopping almost artistic style that is nonetheless perfectly legible to most readers of the many dialects of Low Valyrian.

Content: Being a collection of eclectic subjects, from music and poetry to history and even anatomy, the reader might be forgiven for not grasping the point it is reaching towards at first, but by the time one turns the final page the tome's purpose becomes clear. It is nothing more or less than an introduction to the study and understanding of the human condition. It makes no claim for holding any true answers, or great and definitive insights, but rather it tries to offer new perspectives on the matter from which the reader may then construct his own conclusions. This final openness of vision bespeaks of openness and generosity of spirit no less than the many examples peppered throughout the text.

An immortal being with little or no understanding of human society reading this book over a period of one week gains +2 competence bonus to Diplomacy and Sense Motive rolls regarding mortals. Any reader can make untrained knowledge rolls relating to the cultures of Western Essos and Westeros up to a DC of 15 (rather than the usual 10).

Book of the Tides
Book of the Tides

Description:
Crafted of thousands of astonishingly thin plates of limestone that must have been wrought with some manner of sorcery, this book is written in Aquan, the primal tongue of water, its secrets hidden from all but those who have kinship with the seas or else the sorcery to decipher it.

Content: A reader who studies this book for a week and makes a DC 14 Wisdom check in the process can learn enough of the way and culture of the tritons to gain a +2 competence bonus on all Diplomacy, Bluff, and Sense Motive checks regarding them as well as +2 to all knowledge checks relating to their history and society. In addition, the book marks three Triton holy places that hold intermittent natural portals to the Endless Ocean.

Bronze Book of the Warg Kings
Bronze Book of the Warg Kings

Description: Written in the angular runic script of the First Men, this codex has been hidden for years uncounted beneath Castle Black where its last bearer used it to his own dark ends to steal a body and so escape the vows he had sworn.

Content: Lore regarding warging.

Canticle of Decay
Canticle of Decay

Description
: Canticle of Decay written in a trembling hand as he who set it down struggled against the chains of sorcery binding his mind, this tome speaks of the works of the Horsemen as only one mad enough to offer them his soul can. As a lover's touch are the foulest festering wounds described, and death as sweet release. Yet from among the twisted ramblings some insight may be gained not only in battling the foul scourges of Abaddon but on how best to shed light on hidden cabals.

Content: +3 on knowledge rolls regarding Daemons; +2 to gather information if one studies the book for one day before making a Gather Information or Diplomacy roll for the purposes of locating a cult [the bonus is permanent once read for those with perfect recall].

Coded Notes
Coded Notes

Description:
Several sheets of tightly-rolled vellum covered in some sort of coded script written in a narrow but elegant hand.

Content: Information on Illyrio Mopatis' business contacts and agents in Westeros and Essos.

Codex of the World Seed
Codex of the World Seed

Description:
Bound in heavy silver, set with bright sapphires that glow softly under a mage's touch, this book will not open under the hand of one not possessed of sufficient arcane power, and rightly so for the ever-changing lore held within could easily damage a mind not inured to magic's often twisting paths. It seems to possess some manner of rudimentary intelligence and an inherent connection to the ether winds.

Content: Arcane formulas relating to the current conditions of the ethereal plane, allowing a mage who studies it for an hour before casting a spell that creates an extra-dimensional space to work the magic as though affected by the Extend Spell metamagic feat.

Experimental Wingship Plans
Experimental Wingship Plans

Description:
Penned on ancient velum, kept from the ravages of time in what was once the tower of Mantarys, these plans are the magnum opus of a long-dead Valyrian Artificer.

Content: Incomplete plans for the creation of a wingship.

Hedge Mage's Spell Book
Hedge Mage's Spell Book (Qartheen/Mixed, partially decoded)

Description:
A battered leather-bound book written in the personal cipher of a hapless eastern mage who met a grisly end at the claws and fangs of the living dead. The almost haphazard arrangement of spell-lore, personal observations, and journal entries might be meant to further throw off any who would seek the dead sorcerer's secrets, or it might simply be a clue that perhaps the mage lost something of his clarity of mind on the path to power.

Content: The travels of Hyndar the Lame, gleamings of ancient lore about the lands that became the Red Waste, desert magic spells.

Heirs of the Green
Heirs of the Green

Description: Ancient compilations of legends including the Bloodline of Garth Greenhand. Notes added on some altered date hint at the writings having been declared proscribed in full or in part during the reign of 'Three Sage Kings'. What remain are tantalizing hints, ancient blood rites, and places of power described in rhyme and metaphor.

Content: Adds +5 to knowledge rolls relating to the ancient religious practices of the Reach, and a chance to find old places of power.

Illuminated Copy of the Seven-Pointed-Star
Illuminated Copy of the Seven-Pointed-Star

Description: Written in Oldtown by the hand of the Brothers of the Order of the Father, this book is a work of art illustrated with the deeds of Hugor of the Hill and the great Miracles of the Seven as well as testimonials of the saints of old.

Content: Adds +4 Knowledge (Religion) on checks relating to the Faith of the Seven.

Iron-bound Tome
Iron-bound Tome (Demon-caller's Spellbook)

Description: A book with covers wrought of thin sheets of black pitted iron marked with the sign of Abraxas. Though there is no lock binding the pages, the tome refuses to open. Even if with all the strength of your dragon-blooded form it feels like you are trying to move a mountain with your bare hands.

Contents: Unknown (Likely to include spells).

Journals of the Betrayed
Journals of the Betrayed

Description:
Written in the elegant hand of a calligraphy wyrm, this set of journals nonetheless seems outright drab at first sight, plain brown covers marked by nothing but a number indicating where they should lie among the library of Dragon's Roost. One could not guess to look at them that within these pages lies a history of war madness and treachery written by one most dreadfully betrayed, now turning her own hand against the enemies of life.

Content: +5 to all knowledge rolls relating to the Others, their magic, and their interactions with mortals, A reader who studies all the volumes for one week and makes a DC 12 Intelligence or Wisdom check at the end gains a permanent +1 to saves against cold spells and necromancy, increased to +2 against the magic of the Winter-Touched specifically.

Kaj's Notes
Kaj's Notes (Rakshasa Soul Lore)

Description:
Like the treacherous Rakshasa themselves, nothing about this collection of tightly-bound parchment belies its sinister nature, transcribed by one fiend from the work of her former master, some of the more esoteric words left in their original form with explanations ranging for several paragraphs.

Content: Row upon row of dreadful experiments beside which the slaver's lash seems a gentle caress, and the most excruciating torment that can be inflicted upon the flesh seems a mercy—the secrets of a flayed soul.

Legendary Map of the far North
Legendary Map of the far North

Description:
Burned into this long strip of seal-skin is a map of the far reaches of the north such as no mortal surveyor could even dream of making. Those trackless wild lands are shown upon it as the very roots and stones whispered at the behest of the Last Greenseer, and his also are the notes upon the margins speaking of places of peril and perhaps of gain: the barrows of forgotten kings, ancient forests into which spirits have slipped, and places where the long hand of Winter reaches south.

Content: Adds +20 to Knowledge (Geography) checks of the Far North; Knowledge of Ruins and Secrets.

Map of Qohor Flesh Forge
Map of Qohor Flesh Forge

Description:
A map likely written in secret by some heretic or malcontent, for the flesh-smiths of old had not use for such a tool to navigate their sanctums, having long since improved upon the workings of their minds as much as their bodies.

Content: Allows passage into the depths of the Flesh Forge, marking traps and guardians.

Meditations on the Infinite
Meditations on the Infinite

Description: A book of esoteric Leng meditations that promises insights into the deeper nature of the world, but whose preface written in a trembling hand by a Braavosi scribe makes it clear that the answers may fracture the mind likely as strengthening it.

Content: Grants +1 competence bonus to will saves if you succeed on a DC 15 wisdom check while studying it. Otherwise it applies a -2 malus to will saves.

Memories of Ghael the Bold
Memories of Ghael the Bold

Description:
A recent translation of the memories of of a great general from the early days of the Ghiscari empire, supposedly the great-grandson of Gazan the Great. It provides a fascinating look into both the military tactics and the mores of the early Ghiscari Empire.

Content: Adds +4 to Knowledge (History) and Knowledge (Warfare) related to the Ghiscari Empire.

Naga-Skin Bound Biography of Visenya Targaryen
Naga-Skin Bound Biography of Visenya Targaryen

Description: Written by Septon Barth, Hand of Jaehaerys Targaryen, this book tells of the life of Aegon's eldest sister-wife, rider of Vhagar. The book's tone can be described as distantly admiring, with none of the fawning that usually accompanies the lives of great men and women.

Contents: Adds +2 to Knowledge (History) relating to the age of the Conquest.

On the Passage of the Seasons
On the Passage of the Seasons

Description:
Hardly the most exciting of tomes in form of content, this enormous compilation contains historical information about the length of the seasons as well as near-obsessive details on the weather dating back some eight-hundred years, complementing a list of agricultural failures and successes that is just as long, detailing plants from the mundane to the vanishingly exotic.

Content: +5 to Knowledge (Nature) rolls which deal with predicting the weather or the growing of crops in climes roughly similar to the Tyroshi hinterlands. Potential basis for an agricultural college.

Pillars of Beauty
Pillars of Beauty

Description:
This codex is written in the the primal tongue of earth which few upon this world speak upon seemingly impossibly thin sheets of gold worked by magic. Yet the lore within it is more precious by far than gold or silver could ever hope to be: secrets of the working of stone and metal, the fruits of an age of experimentation by beings who can works stone as a potter works clay.

Content: +4 Knowledge (Architecture) relating to arcane constructions.

Reign of Madness
Reign of Madness

Description: Bold and perhaps foolish is he who writes of matters of the Far Realm, for even to guess the reasoning and acts of beings so alien might drive men... and even beings older and wiser, to stark madness. But in every battle the mantra stands: know thy foe. Thus this book bound in tarnished silver lays before you, an incomplete but tantalizing record of incursions of the malicious things you know as the Deep Ones.

Content: History of the Deep Ones Unlocked for research; +2 to rolls relating to the subject.

Rooted in Stone
Rooted in Stone

Description:
This codex is bound in sheets of finely-worked slate which was once adorned with beaten gold, long since pried off by the enterprising clansman who stole it from some hapless traveler or a poorly-defended holdfast.

Content: Supposedly written by Roland Arryn, fourth Andal King of Mountain and Vale and the man responsible for erecting the Erye, this text is far more likely to be a compilation of the writings of several maesters skilled in war and architecture. Nonetheless the lessons in constructing and tearing down keeps are of no less worth for its likely less exalted authorship. Adds +3 to Knowledge (Architecture) when attempting to construct defensive works and +3 to Knowledge (War) when besieging one.

Qartheen Warlock's Spellbook
Qartheen Warlock's Spellbook

Description: Bound in fine leather and locked with a Valyrian Steel chain, this book is ever shrouded subtle sickly sweet perfume, like some exotic flower rotted on the branch or some rare fruit grown over-ripe.

Contents: Unknown (Presumed Qartheen Spell and Ritual Lore).

Scrolls of the Lost Lineages
Scrolls of the Lost Lineages

Description:
A set of tightly-wrapped scrolls on the history of Valyria's ruling houses, though more valuable for the glimpse they grant into the lives and deportment of those long dead lords and ladies than the historical events described herein.

Content: A character who studies this book for seven days and makes a DC 12 Intelligence check during the process learns enough of the arcane courtesies of the Forty Families to gain +2 Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty) regarding the Forty Families of Valyria as well as +1 Bluff, Diplomacy, and Sense Motive when interacting with specters, constructs, or other time-lost survivors of the Doom.

Song of the Broken Spheres
Song of the Broken Spheres

Description:
Transcription of a fragmentary text found in the archives of a Lyseni temple of the Lord of Light. It speaks in archaic and often cryptic verse of some great calamity befalling the Spheres of Being, vaster and older by far than Valyria's Doom.

Ability: +2 to Knowledge (The Planes) relating to the ancient past.

The Bitter Cup
The Bitter Cup

Description: Wrapped in the rust-red scales of some strange beast of the Southlands, this book holds within many insights on physical and mental characteristics of the living dead. While one could not become a necromancer by studying this book, it would certainly improve one's chances of encountering the greater dead, be it peacefully or otherwise, and living to tell the tale. Scribbled among its last pages one can even find the formula for a mild poison that can harm the unliving.

Content:
  1. A character who studies this book over a period of one week and makes a DC 18 Intelligence check gains +2 Sense Motive and Diplomacy against sentient undead and +1 Competence bonus to hit against them with weapons and spells.
  2. Simple necro-poison formula (1d2 Charisma damage primary and secondary damage, two consecutive DC 13 Will negates).

The Golden Egg
The Golden Egg

Description: This tome is filed with a tight-packed string of words and syllables that seems to have sprang forth from a madman's quill, from macabre poetry and disjointed musical notion it more than often delves into sheer nonsense bereft of rhyme or reason. The only easily decipherable part of the codex is on the final page, a table entitled: The Elements of Nature.

Content: A list of very precise densities given for various elements, far too precise to obtain with mundane tools available.

The Light of Creation
The Light of Creation (R'hllorist Mystical Text)

Description:
No mortal quill has touched this fine velum. The symbols, more like abstractions of dancing flames were seared into existence, row upon row of arcane formulae and ritualistic courtesies revealing insights into the mind of spirits of flame.

Content: A mage of at least 4th level who spends thirty days studying this text can gain the following benefits if he or she passes the requisite Intelligence or Wisdom check:

Novice: -5% material cost of Conjuration (Calling) spells as long as the being called has the fire type; +1 insight bonus to diplomacy attempts with Outsiders with the fire type (DC 15)

Adept: -15% material cost of Conjuration (Calling) spells as long as the being called has the fire type; +3 insight bonus to diplomacy attempts with Outsiders with the fire type (DC 20)

Master: -35% material cost of Conjuration (Calling) spells as long as the being called has the fire type; +7 insight bonus to diplomacy attempts with Outsiders with the fire type; ??? (DC 30)

Undying Fire
Undying Fire

Description:
Written and illuminated in the tongue of dragons all but lost to the world upon pages of finest calf-skin bound in beaten gold and gleaming rubies, this book contains the musings of the ancient Red Dracolich Amrelath the Accursed. Herein one may find vision of the world from mortals to gods to the underpinnings of magic itself and through it gain insights on the nature of both dragon-kind and necromancy.

Content:
  1. +5 to knowledge rolls regarding the habits and character of Chromatic Dragons; +5 to necromancy related knowledge rolls; The bonuses stack if the topic of researched relates to both.
  2. Contains the ritual and alchemical preparations needed to create a Dracolich.
 
Back
Top