sdg wrote:
Squirt wrote:
ooh, @sdg, a rules / world question - under my
Book of Ancient Secrets Invocation , it says I can copy spells to my spellbook requiring "2 hours and 50 gp for the rare inks needed to inscribe it". How rare are these rare inks? Am I likely to find them in a nearby costermongers? How fancy are these inks anyway, that it costs a month's wages just to copy down a spell?
The inks are very rare, but I'm willing to open it to the group to all decide how we handle this in world. We could handwave it, say subtract 50gp and you can copy the spell. We could require you to find someone willing to sell you rare ink, which you are unlikely to come across in Phandalin and would probably have to go to one of the big metro areas to find, or maybe come across a wizard tower or other spellcaster somewhere. I think I fall somewhere in between. I don't want your abilities being restricted by the path of your adventure not bringing you to a suitable seller so instead I'd be willing to say that you create a rare ink by expending 50gp and ending up with an ink and then letting you flavour how that happens. Do you simply melt down the gold over the course of one hour, then use it to write the spell into your book in the second hour? Do you buy materials and supplies for 50gp and combine them into some sort of reagent that becomes your ink? If you and the rest of the party are happy with that as a solution, I say let's wait until it comes up in game and then you describe what you do that costs 50gp and results in you having a rare ink of your creation.
I think there should be some "effort" involved in this - adding a spell to your spellbook is quite a big deal, gameplay wise ( especially since poor old Shuu and Zardoth can't do it, the rubes ). I think it's a bit of a religious ceremony for Ivo. There's incense and dried herbs burnt in a silver brazier to purify the air, a glass of sacremental wine drunk from a crystal chalice, a new quill pen must be used and then burnt so that it is never sullied by a lesser task, and, for some reason, a glass jar full of needles, rats teeth and pigs blood must be buried at a crossroads at midnight. Maybe it might need some time for the costermongers to get a shipment from Neverwinter, or paying a local to forage for the herbs in the woods.
I think it also affects Myp, so he might have some ideas.