Candlekeep Forum

Candlekeep Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Forgotten Realms Journals

General Forgotten Realms Chat

Tome of the Silver Marches [magic item]

Note: You must be registered in order to post a reply.
To register, click here. Registration is FREE!

Screensize:

UserName:

Password:

Format Mode:

Format:

Message:

* HTML is OFF
* Forum Code is ON

Smilies

[quote][i]Originally posted by mauricio[/i]
[br]Well met, fellow scribes! [:D]

I've had the concept for this item in my mind for a while, so tonight I decided to play a bit with it. It's basically a version of Boccob's Blessed Book [DMG, page 249] re-designed for the Silver Marches, with new additions.

I've never done any serious design of magic items so I'm seeking some advice here... do you think I should make any changes on how it works? Is the price okay? Those are some of the questions I'd like some of you to answer me.

Alright, here it goes... and please, [i]please[/i] forgive my grammar mistakes. [;)] English is not a native language to me.

***************
[i]"Nice book, boy. Where did ye get it?" the dwarf asked, measuring the young man in front of him.
"Made it myself, Jolnar," said the wizard, the pride obvious in his tone, "as a tribute to my homeland, the Silver Marches."
"I never took ye for a patriot, Michael Beoulve. Not with ye bein' so far from yer homeland!"
"Patriot?", the young wizard asked in astonishment, chuckling lightly. "Nay, I'm not a patriot, at least not in the sense you're thinking of. I do not stand for the Silver Marches simply because I was born and raised there. I stand for the Marches because it is the symbol of the three things I believe in: freedom, knowledge and peaceful interaction between the goodly races. That is why I have made this book, and long to take it as a gift to the High Lady Alustriel..."
The dwarf was barely listening, too busy humming some bardic tune to make sure he would not fall asleep with the wizard's boring speech. Michael went on, nevertheless, not noticing his friend's lack of attention.
"But should the Marches ever lose the properties I mentioned to you and - Mystra forbid! - Alustriel's rule falter, then all my 'patriotism' will be long gone, and this won't be any more than an useful tool for some greedy ruler."
Jolnar shook his head, and then laughed his usual hearty laugh. "Boy, ye're talkin' too much to that paladin... Here, get yerself some beer. Highmoon Dark, it's called, the best ye're goin' to find in this cursed place!"[/i]

[b]Tome of the Silver Marches:[/b] This well-made tome is small in size - 10 inches tall, 6 inches wide and 1 inch thick. Its deep blue cover is made of leather, with many runes and symbols laid in silver on the surface. The front cover sports the holy symbol of the goddess Lurue, surround by nine stars and Espruar runes which read [i]"For the good of the goodly folk, and for the love of Mystra's supreme Art"[/i].
The book is very light, but once opened it shows a vast number of high-quality vellum pages that can be easily used to store spells. Each page is adorned with Espruar runes in the top and bottom margins, with the same inscription as the front cover.

The first thirty pages tell a brief history of the Silver Marches, and the following twenty have an in-depth description of how to create a copy of this book. A character making any knowledge [history] checks related to the Silver Marches receives a +2 circumstance bonus if the book is at hand.
A wizard can fill the remaining 950 pages with spells, paying only half the usual material cost [which means writing a spell in the Tome of the Silver Marches costs 50 gold pieces per page rather than 100]. In addition to this power, the book is very durable, waterproof and has fire resistance 20.
There is one more notable power in this tome: it is good aligned. Any evil creature trying to hold the book imediatelly takes 2d6 damage, and must make a fortitude saving throw [DC = 15 + damage taken]. If the saving throw fails, the book throws itself away from the creature holding it, to a distance of up to 40 feet. If it succeeds, the creature must make a new saving throw against DC 20 each 5 rounds, but take no further damage.

Moderate varied.
Caster level 7th.
Pre-requisites: Craft Wondrous Item, [i]disarm[/i] [see [url="http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20041020a"]this article[/url] ], [i]resist energy[/i], [i]secret page[/i], creator must be of good alignment.
Weight: 1 lb.
Market price: 16100 gp
Cost to create: 8050 gp + 644 XP

Explanation for the cost:
Base price was Boccob's Blessed Book [DMG, page 249] which is 12500 gp.
Resist Energy [at caster level 7] costs 2x7x2000 which is 28000 gp. I divided the cost by four since it doesn't affect the owner, which is basically the same that happened to Secret Page [it would cost 3x7x2000 to a total of 42000 but it's only 12500].
Disarm is 1x7x2000 which means 14000 gp. Dividing by four again [reason stated above] it gives a total cost of 3500 gp.
We get a market price of 23000 gp for the tome. Since it's alignment-restricted, cut off 30% out of the item's value and you get the final market price. Cost to create is 1/2 the market price and the XP cost is 1/25 the market price.
[/quote]

Check here to include your profile signature.
Check here to subscribe to this topic.

T O P I C R E V I E W
mauricio	Posted - 18 Nov 2004 : 03:43:51 Well met, fellow scribes! I've had the concept for this item in my mind for a while, so tonight I decided to play a bit with it. It's basically a version of Boccob's Blessed Book [DMG, page 249] re-designed for the Silver Marches, with new additions. I've never done any serious design of magic items so I'm seeking some advice here... do you think I should make any changes on how it works? Is the price okay? Those are some of the questions I'd like some of you to answer me. Alright, here it goes... and please, please forgive my grammar mistakes. English is not a native language to me. ************* "Nice book, boy. Where did ye get it?" the dwarf asked, measuring the young man in front of him. "Made it myself, Jolnar," said the wizard, the pride obvious in his tone, "as a tribute to my homeland, the Silver Marches." "I never took ye for a patriot, Michael Beoulve. Not with ye bein' so far from yer homeland!" "Patriot?", the young wizard asked in astonishment, chuckling lightly. "Nay, I'm not a patriot, at least not in the sense you're thinking of. I do not stand for the Silver Marches simply because I was born and raised there. I stand for the Marches because it is the symbol of the three things I believe in: freedom, knowledge and peaceful interaction between the goodly races. That is why I have made this book, and long to take it as a gift to the High Lady Alustriel..." The dwarf was barely listening, too busy humming some bardic tune to make sure he would not fall asleep with the wizard's boring speech. Michael went on, nevertheless, not noticing his friend's lack of attention. "But should the Marches ever lose the properties I mentioned to you and - Mystra forbid! - Alustriel's rule falter, then all my 'patriotism' will be long gone, and this won't be any more than an useful tool for some greedy ruler." Jolnar shook his head, and then laughed his usual hearty laugh. "Boy, ye're talkin' too much to that paladin... Here, get yerself some beer. Highmoon Dark, it's called, the best ye're goin' to find in this cursed place!" Tome of the Silver Marches:** This well-made tome is small in size - 10 inches tall, 6 inches wide and 1 inch thick. Its deep blue cover is made of leather, with many runes and symbols laid in silver on the surface. The front cover sports the holy symbol of the goddess Lurue, surround by nine stars and Espruar runes which read "For the good of the goodly folk, and for the love of Mystra's supreme Art". The book is very light, but once opened it shows a vast number of high-quality vellum pages that can be easily used to store spells. Each page is adorned with Espruar runes in the top and bottom margins, with the same inscription as the front cover. The first thirty pages tell a brief history of the Silver Marches, and the following twenty have an in-depth description of how to create a copy of this book. A character making any knowledge [history] checks related to the Silver Marches receives a +2 circumstance bonus if the book is at hand. A wizard can fill the remaining 950 pages with spells, paying only half the usual material cost [which means writing a spell in the Tome of the Silver Marches costs 50 gold pieces per page rather than 100]. In addition to this power, the book is very durable, waterproof and has fire resistance 20. There is one more notable power in this tome: it is good aligned. Any evil creature trying to hold the book imediatelly takes 2d6 damage, and must make a fortitude saving throw [DC = 15 + damage taken]. If the saving throw fails, the book throws itself away from the creature holding it, to a distance of up to 40 feet. If it succeeds, the creature must make a new saving throw against DC 20 each 5 rounds, but take no further damage. Moderate varied. Caster level 7th. Pre-requisites: Craft Wondrous Item, disarm [see this article ], resist energy, secret page, creator must be of good alignment. Weight: 1 lb. Market price: 16100 gp Cost to create: 8050 gp + 644 XP Explanation for the cost: Base price was Boccob's Blessed Book [DMG, page 249] which is 12500 gp. Resist Energy [at caster level 7] costs 2x7x2000 which is 28000 gp. I divided the cost by four since it doesn't affect the owner, which is basically the same that happened to Secret Page [it would cost 3x7x2000 to a total of 42000 but it's only 12500]. Disarm is 1x7x2000 which means 14000 gp. Dividing by four again [reason stated above] it gives a total cost of 3500 gp. We get a market price of 23000 gp for the tome. Since it's alignment-restricted, cut off 30% out of the item's value and you get the final market price. Cost to create is 1/2 the market price and the XP cost is 1/25 the market price.
7 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
mauricio	Posted - 20 Nov 2004 : 13:46:10 Not yet, Alaundo, not yet... I'm just beginning with this character and he's still first level... and my first wizard. This was something I had planned for a while so I decided to write it now and convince my DM to let me use it later... I do have some other magic items but nothing the scribes would be very pleased to read about... i.e. Renterskhan's irritating trumpet and stuff like that. But you can be sure I'll share whatever new items I might create, so long as they're related to the Realms of course. It'll be a pleasure to share them with you all. I do have a couple of spells on the way, I'll post them here as soon as I manage to translate them to English [or what passes for it].
Alaundo	Posted - 20 Nov 2004 : 10:16:01 quote: Originally posted by mauricio I've made the changes in the original post. Thanks again for the help, Bookwyrm! Anyone is free to use this, of course, even though I find it very unlikely that someone will want to. Well met Oh don't be so sure, mauricio. These scribes herein scramble for tomes of lore all the time! Thank ye for sharing this with us. Anymore in the pipeline?
mauricio	Posted - 19 Nov 2004 : 19:12:23 I've made the changes in the original post. Thanks again for the help, Bookwyrm! Anyone is free to use this, of course, even though I find it very unlikely that someone will want to.
Bookwyrm	Posted - 19 Nov 2004 : 06:34:29 Seems good to me. I'd say it works out fine that way.
mauricio	Posted - 19 Nov 2004 : 01:51:37 Thanks for the input, both of you, and thanks for the kind words Alaundo. Bookwyrm, the cost per page is a little tricky... If my memory serves me well, the cost to store a new spell in a spellbook is 100 gp per page... but the description given in the DMG for Boccob's Blessed Book says "...without paying the 25 gp per page material cost..." So I was kinda confused about that. My DM takes it that the cost to store a spell in Boccob's Blessed Book is 75 gp per page. That's what fooled me, I guess. But yes, I have the same interpretation as you. So, taking your suggestions to lower the price and make it seem a bit more attractive... I guess it could be done like this: Take out detect thoughts, which kicks out the restriction for neutral characters as well. Market price drops to 23000 gp, which means 16100 with the 30% "discount" for alignment restriction. I wouldn't want to lower the price any further since I do want it to be kinda "exclusive" - that's why I mentioned in the flavour text [lame, I know] that my character wants to offer it as a gift to the High Lady, someday. Yes, naming someone "Michael" in the Realms is pretty lame as well. I can drop out the material cost to store spells as well... Which leaves us with a book that costs 3600 gp more because of fire resistance and a certain relief in knowing that your spellbook won't be used by the average evil wizard. Since it has 50 pages less than the original book, I was thinking about granting a +2 circumstance bonus to knowledge [history] checks made with the book in hand, given the check is related to the Silver Marches. What do you think?
Alaundo	Posted - 18 Nov 2004 : 09:04:09 Well met, mauricio Very nice, I like it Good to see a nice introductory passage too, it adds that little extra flavor to the item. The only point I would raise, is that which Bookwyrm has also mentioned - the price. It is a little on the steep side, my, i'm not sure even the Candlekeep coffers would stretch to that Excellent work, I hope to see more from you in the future.
Bookwyrm	Posted - 18 Nov 2004 : 07:08:17 Well . . . I'd say it's expensive. Considering that the Blessed Book gives free spells (so long as you can find the spells in the first place), I'd say that the original is of more use to wizards. Really, if you stack "cost per page = 0gp" up against "more expensive book, cost per page = 50gp, fire resistance 20, and ability that only works if in the hands of an evil caster" then you can guess which would be used more often.

Candlekeep Forum

Snitz Forums 2000