Working on planning my talisman, and I am trying to figure out how to create a staff talisman optimal for creo/rego terram/ignem, so far, I have figured out I should have white Jade (aquam, auram), brass (demons, devils, angels, music, ignem) Mercury (alter complex matter, aquam, terram, muto, arts and sciences) and make it out of oak wood (protection from storms), but I also want to incorporate hydra teeth (creo, regeneration). Most of these are fairly easy to come across and I can just send them to a verditius to assemble them into something worthy of a magi's talismans, but the hydra tooth is more difficult, any suggestions on how to acquire and shape it for my staff?
A couple of things:
- Assembling it, I hope you don't mean letting the Verditius open it for enchantment, because you have to open it yourself to be able to bind it as talisman.
- As you yourself noted, most of the materials aren't difficult to come by.
- Hydra teeth, you'll have to either go on adventure to kill one, or pay through the nose to someone who has them.
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- by assembly I mean my character lacks the skills to properly embed gems into metal sockets, properly embellish wood and stuff like that
- How likely do you think would it be that someone even has a hydra tooth. also, even if they have it they would know how valuable these teeth are for enchanting
In our current campaign, we deemed "cinnamon wood" (imaginem) to be too rare to be readily available in the south of Italy where our covenant is. Even tho it is a mundane item. So we waited a few years until Tribunal where we travelled to Venice. There some of our more talkative companions were able to find a merchant who could provide cinnamon wood.
Later at the actual tribunal, we procured more mythical resources from magical beasts by trading Flambeau monster hunters Vis for the items. They knew the worth of these items and their shapes and material bonuses, which is why they kept them to begin with, and brought them to Tribunal.
Planning and executing a more advanced talisman thusly took years of questing, travel, intermediaries and trading, but that made it all so much more worth it. The talismans now have great background storys on how they became.
Also, it made it more realistic that you would create a lesser talisman first, and then start collecting the rare resources for a greater talisman. Otherwise all magi would only ever create one talisman.
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Some Magi might start with a lesser Talisman, and later absndon it. I have a Bjornaer whose first Talisman is a glass ring. Simple unadorned glass ring.
His future Talisman, was to be much more complex, but looks like that game is winding down.
Other Magi might go for their dream Talisman from the get go. A forum game am in, I play a Merinita , who is looking for the skull of a great general (hopefully Hannibal) to form the basis of her Talisman. She is a mentem specialist, and wants to use the skull as an arcane connection to the general, and his army's ghosts.
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That depends on the genre you want for your saga.
If you want to play a power orgy, you can probably find it listed in the latest catalogue from the RMOS (Redcap Mail Order Service) with asking price in vis.
I prefer a style where this kind of items take multiple stories to acquire, first to research and find clues to possible sources, and then the quest to actually find the source. Note that the quest might not be to hunt down the hydra. It could also be to get an item to trade with someone who happens to have the tooth.
Thinking of trade, I would say that prices would start at a copy of a Branch of the Arts and go upwards from there. YSMV.
At the bottom line, this is not a question of likelihoods, but what makes a good story for you.
Speaking for our particular current saga, it is very likely. We played the Tempest (2ed) which culminated in an attack on the covenant by a hydra 10-15 years into the saga, and I am sure a tooth or two were salvaged. Nobody has wanted to use it yet.