also shoddy timber is £2.5 per ton, superior fuel is ₤3 per ton, so converting shoddy 2.5 tons of shoddy timber (₤6.25) to 40% charcoal (1 ton=₤3) means you have to make up ₤3.25 with the other products...
tar yeild appears to range from about 8% to 12% of the original weight, however the price (assuming oil as a close product on the charts from city and guild) is at least more promising- ₤2 ₤10 ₤20 or ₤100 depending on quality equivalency to oil. not that at 8% production at ₤100 per ton you are only getting ₤8 per ton, and at lower values the profit margin disappears quickly.
Day 12: Magic baths
Normally, baths use a lot of fuel or require handy geothermal hot springs. However, magic can do this at quite a low level, allowing magi with a bit of ignem and aquam to provide a useful place that makes money.
Magic baths – CrIg base 2 (warm to touch) +1 touch +2 sun is level 5, with Aq casting requisite to heat 1 base individual (or small swimming pool). A steam room can be provided by CrIg making red hot rocks to pour water over.
If you're worried about cleanliness, maybe CrAq the water into existence and then CrIg the heat, so at sunset it all disappears and you can brush the swimming pool out?
You probably want base 3 CrIg (hot to the touch) for the bath instead of 2 (warm to the touch).
By baths I am guessing you mean the Roman style baths (a thermae or balneae) or some other version of public bathing (such as the Greek) which would be closer to a spa in modern thinking. The Roman style saw a boom in popularity across Europe during the 11th and 12th century.
Different base heats would be appropriate for different parts of the baths, depending on the style chosen. For example the Greek style would require cleansing sands, hot water bath, a steam room, and a cooling plunge/shower. So for daily spells you would need a CrTe to produce the fine scrubbing sand, CrIg base 3 to heat the baths, CrIg to heat the underfloor element in the steam room (with a drain bringing the condensing water back to it), and a ReAq to move the water up into a holding tank for the showers.
The Roman style has examples by Vitruvius in De architectura. I will skip over things like the Atrium (with possible Oecus or Exedra) and Apodyterium. For the baths you need a Tepidarium (warm bath, CrIg base 2), a Caldarium (hot bath, CrIg base 3), and a Frigidarium (cold bath, PeIg effect). Additional possible rooms are the Sudatorium (steam bath, CrIg base 4) and Laconicum (dry sweat/sauna, CrIg base 4).
The Tepidarium would be the largest and central, with the other two to four rooms connecting off of it. This is the center and most important room of the baths, so additional minor magics would be helpful. You want the whole room to have a pleasant warmth (CrIg base 2), with sunlight coming in at roughly a 45 degree angle (construction or CrIg), and things like 'Chamber of Spring Breezes' would fit. An other options include CrIm for soothing background music/sound.
For income, you are looking at roughly a quarter penny per visitor per day before expenses (labor being the big one, especially since magic reduces the other cost). So if you are getting an average of 1000 visitors a day, you are looking at 365 pounds per year before expenses. That sounds like a lot, but remember that without magic a large chunk of it went to fuel, water, and labor. You would also most likely not be opened every day so 260 a year per 1000 daily visitors would be a better base. We can ignore cost of water and fuel since you are doing it with magic. Labor would be 1 pound per 20 daily visitors (based on Servant requirements in Covenants), so 50 pounds a year, leaving you with 210 a year per 1000 visitors. Other odd and end cost should knock that down to ~200.
So 1 pound per year for every 5 daily visitors. Figure half the population of the location (Church doesn't like mixed gender baths) for the max and you can work out how popular the bath is to get a % of that. I would start low (~10%). But even that low rate in a city of 5000 people would generate 50 pounds per year.
All of this makes me want to do a write up on my groups Covenant. One of the buildings we have is a large Roman style baths powered by enchanted items.
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There were also Scandinavian saunas that this method works for, though those tended to be less commercial and more communal.
Continuing my earlier post, I dug up the files. Our baths have 11 enchantments.
Sun Stone (CrIg 34: base 4 light, +1 Heat, T/S/S, and Constant Effect) This fills the whole baths with light as bright as a cloudy day and maintains a stable warmth.
Stone of Spring Breezes (CrAu 24, as the spell modified to T/S/S, and Constant Effect) Creates fresh circling air in every room of the baths. Sigil makes it smell of roses.
Purity of the Baths Stone (MuAq 24, base 2, T/S/S, and Constant Effect) Continuously changes all water in the building to crystal clear water.
The Warm Bath Stone (CrIg 19, base 2, T/S/R and Constant Effect) Makes all water in the room warm
The Hot Bath Stone (CrIg 24, base 3, T/S/R and Constant Effect) Makes all water in the room hot
The Cold Bath Stone (PeIg 19, base 4, T/S/I and Constant Effect) Chills water it is in contact with
The Steam Bath Stone (CrIg 19, base 4, T/S/I and Constant Effect) Boils water it is in contact with, located in drain basin in room.
The Baths Everfull Wand (CrAq 15, base 2 create water, T/S/I, Unlimited Usage) Creates enough water to fill the Cold Bath and individual baths in the Warm and Hot Bath rooms. More than capable of filling Steam Bath drain basin.
The Drying Ring (PeAq 15, base 4 dry, T/M/C, Unlimited Usage) Drys everything in the ring when the command is spoken. Sigil makes everything dried smell of roses.
Soothing Tones of the Relaxing Bather (CrIm 10, Apollo's Lyre effect from HoH, P/C/I, 3/day, Maintains Concentration) There are three of these, created in a single season. One is a calm lyre song, one is gentle rolling waves, and the last is light rain. They can be played individually or in combination.
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It's January again, so time to try and finish it this year.
DAY 13: WHALING
Whales in period are hunted by Basque and Scandinavian sailors (Wikipedia claims 1059 as first record of Basque whaling, and Faroe Islands from the 9th century).
However, whales can be gathered for oil and meat (which counts as fish for purposes of eating fish and abstaining from meat on Holy days) and their bone. Ambergris from sperm whales was also used medicinally.
How to gather them? Well, the magical way is a killing spear (PeAn 30 base +1 touch +3 for size up to +10) which is coincidentally useful if you want to go monster hunting and have put some penetration in. I would also recommend fixing an Arcane Connection to it so you can find it again or magic it back after use. For non-magical whales, an effect like The Invisible Sling would work to automatically hit the target. Butchering it and gathering the parts would be labour intensive and time consuming, so magic effects to speed up the harvesting would be very useful.
This is useful for coastal or ship-based covenants.
Useful, but InAn to find them first is probably a bigger help.
I decided I couldn't improve upon the little-used spell from ArM5 p118 "Hunter's Sense", although maybe a vision target version would be even better.
Since this is a wealth creating scheme a day not a spell a day it would have been worthwhile to note that.
DAY 14:GLASS
To create glass from sand (and it needs to be the right sort - nicely smoothed alluvial sand, not coarse desert sand) - “Prepare the raw glass” - ReTe base 2 “treat dirt as if a craftsman had worked it” +1 glass +1 touch for level 4, turns a pile of sand into glass without requiring a kiln.
This then forms the raw materials to use “The invisible glassworker” (covenants p51) on it. Also a ReTe of same level with a group target to take alchemical salts/dyes and use them to colour glass. Maybe you could turn out fake gemstones (2000/ton according to City & Guild – but how much can you realistically sell though?)
DAY 15: SALT
City & Guild gives a price of 120 mythic pounds/ton. In historical Europe, cost varies wildly depending on tax and location (distance from the sea and distance from salt producing areas increase the cost).
You could magic up rock salt (it’s a base rock – CrTe level 3 + 1 touch, so to get level 20 minimum ritual is 10,000 cubic paces – best of luck making somewhere waterproof to store it all!).
You can evaporate it like the Romans did. The Salt Association has a page on how salt was extracted in England historically, and mentions Roman lead pan usage. To evaporate the water, you can heat it - yes, it's a chance to make money using Creo ignem! You can use CrIg(Aq) on salt water directly (base 4 "Heat an item enough to boil water", so CrIg(Aq) 4 + 2 voice range +2 sun duration for total 20 will cause water to boil all day and you can scrape it out. Alternatively you could use CrIg(Te) with the base 5 "heat an item to be red hot" on the container - you can safely drop the range to touch for the same level of 20.
Alternatively, use ReAq(Au) base 3 to turn water to vapor and leave the salt behind (base 3, +1 touch, concentration duration should be enough so a total level 5).
The coastal method where it is warm is to dig out evaporating pools, let the sun create water vapour, and you slowly concentrate the water until you can get salt out. You can ReTe to dig channels and pools to fill up with seawater and let the sun do its work, but you will need labour to harvest the salt and keep the rain off.
Methods of mining work where you have large underground salt deposits. When Munich is founded in 1158, it becomes the centre of the Holy Roman Empire’s salt trade. Pliny mentions salt mines. Halstatt in Austria, Arc-et-Senans in France, Wieliczka in Poland all have mines at some point in the 13th century.
Transforming Mythic Europe p119 contains another method - turn salt water into salt and water through rego craft, claiming ReAq 4 is enough at touch range but the Finesse total is 12 as you are doing a month's work in a day.
Salt itself varies in taste and quality depending on where it's from and all the trace minerals, so sea salt has one taste, but rock salts vary greatly - I read that the Romans had many terms for salt depending on the type. Those trying to use salt in the lab (whether magically or for natural philosophy) may find the extra ingredients affect results.
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my personal quibble with TME, the spell should have a Te requisite.
DAY 16: ANIMAL PELTS
Bear pelts – according to internet forums populated by hunters, bear pelts can be anywhere from 20-50 lbs, so 40-100 to the ton. (An internet trader says a bundle of 100 rabbit skins weighs around 11-12 pounds for regular rabbits, so you’d need 2000 to get 1 ton of fur). 1 ton of fur will fetch 50 mythic pounds (standard quality) or 100 for superior, according to City & Guild.
Creating these ritually - "Conjuring the beast's hide" CrAn Base 5 +1 touch + 2 group for level 20 gets 10 skins, or a variant for 10 tusks, as elephants, rhinos and walruses all have fine sources of ivory. Maybe it is worth travelling to Africa to see elephants or rhinos in the wild or seeing their tusks freshly harvested?. Ritually creating them will require adding magnitudes to get many more created to get the amounts needed for bulk trade.
Actually trapping requires clean kills, so instead of using PeAn 30 base +1 touch (+ maybe size modifiers for large creatures) for a level 35 minimum effect , it would be easier to use ReAn to lure animals in to regular strangulation traps. You certainly can't use Pilum of Fire based traps!
Of course, you could just have a large amount of hunting land and enough skilled grogs, as the example of typical and greater Forestry income in Covenants (page 60) assumes. A great choice for frontiers like Novgorod, Scandinavia, Iceland or Greenland.
DAY 17: HEALING SERVICES
Your covenant could provide a secular alternative to the monastically provided hospitals. Items with The Physician's Keen Eye would be very low level InCo and provide a great help, allowing Intellego specialists a chance to help earn.
Against the Dark has a chapter mentioning the Tremere's special healing sanctuaries called Zenodochium - page 98-99 of that book contain The Hippocratic Staff which has enchantments to help, and also casting tablets.
Note that disease recovery and wound recovery require separate spells (see Creo Corpus guidelines box in the main rules).
As a base level effect CrCo base 1 for +1 to recovery rolls, +1 touch, +3 structure +2 sun duration for a level of 15 - enchanted into an item with 2 charges a day and sunrise/sunset trigger for a constant effect means a CrCo 19 item can give a whole hospital building a slight bonus, and the effect increased with each extra magnitude. Alternatively a moon duration spell could be cast by a magus, but if that magus is absent from the facility at renewal time (new or full moon for maximum effect) then the hospital will suffer.
As a facility, this allows a lot of use for grogs or companions with Chirurgy or Profession:Apothecary, and for Doctors of Medicine from Art & Academe. Also, seeing that having a pallet as a feature in a lab allows for a bonus to corpus or mentem, and having extra people adds a bonus of +1 to Co or Me at the cost of a point of safety, you could hide a Corpus specialist lab in plain sight as "the experimental physic lab" where a magus uses apparatus to create fresh medicines and draws horoscopes to determine treatments (which looks perfectly respectable but expensive to patients, while the wizard actually studies their bodies).
DAY 18: TOLL COLLECTING
To collect a toll, you need to offer a path of transport that speeds people's journeys in a way that encourages them to pay for it, and have a point where you can collect your money (so destroying a couple of mountains to create a huge mountain pass might be counter-productive, as there is too wide an area to try and collect tolls from).
Using vis: CrTe base 3 (create stone) + 1 touch with up to 4 magnitudes for size gives you the minimul ritual level of 20. As an example "Wall of protecting stone" with 2 magnitudes creates a wall 25 paces wide, 4 paces high and 1 pace thick - put that on its side and you have a modest bridge, so an extra level of size and maybe 1 for complexity to create supports or to arch it neatly gives you a major bridge.
Alternatively, a ritual version of "Bridge of Wood" from Arm5 p 135 will work if Herbam is your strength.
You could enchant items for sun duration spells and have them cast twice a day with "constant effect", this gives a bridge that looks permanent but you can dispel it in an emergency and also you can reposition the item and hence the bridge in case of war or in case someone stops your toll collecting and you want to take your toys home.
You can use PeTe or ReTe to dig canals (a suggestion for an epic one linking the Rhine and Danube is mentioned in City & Guilds, or maybe you create the Suez canal centuries early and make trade with East Africa and Asia much easier). You can also tunnel through hills and mountains, if people will trust your toll tunnel, but you probably want to use InTe effects to check your work is secure. As mentioned at the start, you can always try digging a pass through tunnels and then making a path or road, but it needs to be narrow enough to be taxable.
You could also use MuAq (reduce the size of a river), ReAq (redirect the flow or slow the flow), or PeAq (just forcibly drop the water level) to create a ford that might be taxable.
Just flying people over with rego effects is a blatantly magical solution and likely to get you in trouble, but you may find it fun.
DAY 19: TO DYE FOR
so on day 4 I mentioned Rego magic to apply dyes without needing extra chemicals, and day 5 mentioned creating Alum for fix dyes. Now on to sources of dyes for mythic Europe for you to try and make.
RED – madder is a red dye from rubia tinctorum, this is the red of the Danish flag. You take the roots and harvest them. Mentioned in Hildegard of Bingen’s herbal, Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica, Pliny’s De Re Natura; kermes (kermes vermilio insect provides scarlet or crimson. To show how expensive this is, in 1182 the Sheriff of Lincoln bought Scarlet at 6s8d/ell, Green 3s/ell, Blanchet 3s/ell, Gray 1s8d/ell), the ell being a standard measure -in England it's 45 inches for cloth.
Armenian cochineal (or kirmiz in Persian/ vordan kamir in Armenian) produces a red dye – half a million porphyrophora insects are needed to dye one kilogram of silk crimson. Lac is from kerria lacca – India and Vietnam produce this, the dye is red and used for wood, silk and as a cosmetic. This resin can be turned into shellac – used for lacquer, and the resin can be made into tribal bangles. Carmine is from other species like polish cochineal.
Vermillion is ground up mineral cinnabar (mercury sulphide) – would this count as a base rock? Cinnabar is found in Almaden in Spain, Idrija in Slovenia (started 1490 in real-world history), Moschellandsberg near Obermoschel, La Ripa and Mount Amiata in Italy, Mt Avala in Serbia. Not to be confused with vegetable cinnabar, a red resin mentioned in the Socotra section of Rival magics.
BLUE - Indian indigo has a high concentration of indigo, woad contains the same blue pigment and is easily grown in northern europe.
YELLOW - weld (Eurasian plant which prefers waste places) provides a bright yellow dye, which when dyed over woad forms greens like Lincoln Green; also dyers' broom is a plant that provides a yellow dye. Old fustic from india and Africa is a yellow dye.
GREEN - Lincoln Green is cloth dyed with woad and then overdyed with weld or dyers’ broom. Coventry blue and Kendal Green are also English ethnic dyes.
BROWN - Dyewoods – brazilwood, catechu/cutch from acacia wood produces dark brown dye. Tanner's sumac (also known as Sicilian sumac - native to southern europe and west asia) has leaves
that are very rich in tannins and so provides brown dye (and apparently yellow, red and black from other parts of the plant) and the ground fruit is used as a spice in the middle east. Chestnut bark is also tannin-rich.
RED/ORANGE/YELLOW (depending on chemistry) - brazilwood.OK, in medieval Europe they used sappanwood powder imported from Asia, but the modern country of Brazil gets its name from paubrasil, wood used as this sort of dye – the Brazilwood tree was such a major export it became the nickname of the country that was formery known as Ilha de Vera Cruz. It’s a red pigment. Powder the wood into sawdust, soak in lye for a deep purplish red or in hot alum solution for an orange-red, then add alum to lye or lye to alum to fix the color. Using different Ph changes this – yellow in acid, red in alkali.
PURPLE - produced from sea snails, the wikipedia page tyrian purple mentions that 12000 snails provide enough for 1.4 grams, or enough to dye the trim of one garment.
C&G prices - Plant and mineral dyes £50/ton (average), £10,000/ton expensive for insect/shellfish dyes like purple and crimson. Can you use CrAq to create liquid dyes – would they count as processed (1/100th of water individual) or corrosive/dangerous (1/1000th)? Otherwise you would need the plants, minerals or vermin (as insects and shellfish are regarded like all invertebrates as) and then to extract the dye.
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keep in mind that a lot of period dyes used minute amounts of precious materials- gold was used for red coloration, while copper was used for blue and green.
The question of Mercury sulfide gets into one of the fundamental flaws of AM- because while it claims to be about what people believed in medieval europe the fact is that people at the time had conflicting theories- the same Egyptian based school of alchemy which held that diamonds reproduce sexually, which is canonically part of the game, also held that metals were a combination of mercury and sulfur with different qualities- mercury and sulfur being elements of their own and not earth in their model. Thus mercury sulfide - which is a salt. should be considered, based on alchemical theory, as a metal.
DAY 20: GETTING WITH THE HERD
To ritually create mammals – CrAn base 10 for corpse +1 touch +1 size – get a full cow or auroch for meat. However, magically creating meat only gets you so much, actual breeding stock is better if you have the land. CrAn base 15 if you’re creating living ones – so level 20 gets 1 sheep or pig, 30 gets 10, 35 gets 100 – at this point you’re getting enough to stock farms. Typical livestock income is 1000 pigs, so level 40 ritual to set up and you need enough land and farmers. Therefore the ritual Stock the Farm CrAn 40 creates 1000 pigs, and a version Stock the Fields exists for 1000 sheep. Cattle would need a size modifier.
Alternatively with a size modifier level 25 gets 1 horse, level 30 gets 10, 35 gets 100 horses - £2 each by C&G (2 per ton, £4 standard quality) so assuming you have a market big enough to sell that many horses you could make money.
As an out-there idea to test the limits of hermetic theory, you could make a touch-range item which does CrAn 15 create animal +1 touch +2 sun for level 30 and +4 levels for continuous effect (2 charges/day and sunrise/sunset trigger) for total level 34. This item conjures a sheep out of thin air. Feed the magical sheep grass and it will create droppings as normal. Over the course of 12 months it slowly turns grass into real sheep flesh. After 12 months, deactivate the device - suddenly your sheep dies, but as it's been eating real food for a year, I believe it leaves behind actual meat and hide. Ludicrously inefficent but allows you to test the limits of Creo magic.
I think technically you may have a different sheep every sunrise and sunset so that the food would not accumulate in this way- I'm not certain it would even if this was the same created sheep.