You will likely want to consider cooler-sounding names, but these are items that have proven useful and fun in previous sagas:
Enchanted Bookshelf (ReIg/ReAn/et al.): Enchanted bookshelf that resists fire, vermin, water damage (ReAq), mold (ReHe), etc. Could come in very useful, a favorite of the paranoid and/or clumsy.
Faithful Cup (PeAn/He/Te): Goblet that destroys poison whenever liquid is poured into it (obviously needs to have unlimited use, or a high # of uses/day).
Magic Harness (ReAn): Horse bridle w/ Gentle Beast for Magi who want to ride and lack the appropriate Arts to tame animals.
Poseidon's Horseshoes (Re/An/Aq): Horseshoes allow your mount to walk/run on water; some "breaking in" may be required.
Magic Pants (MuCo/An): Transform wearer's legs into satyr/goat legs for nimble mountain climbing (probably better form bonus with jewelry or others, but I get a kick out of magic pants--just say it out loud: "magic pants", LOL)
Since it costs a pawn of vis, I say it has a limit of the number of pawns of vis you can handle in a season, minus the vis cost of whatever else you are doing that season.
Sorry, had to comment. I've seen this argument before, and it doesn't wash with me. The consequences of a created thing persist beyond the duration of the spell. The footsteps of a magically-created horse do not vanish when the spell ends, so neither should the hangover. The heavy, malign humours caused by overindulgence still occupy the channels of the nerves long after the alcohol has vanished.
I would say however that it is a simple ReCo to purge yourself of those humours, much like the A&A spell Gift of the Tortured Bowels (based on a level 5 guideline, so it can usually be sponted at R:Per by magi even with low Rego and/or Corpus)
I have a player whose magus is planning to fix a bunch of Arcane Connections in the near future. We had thought that you could only fix one per season, and there seems to be nothing in the main rulebook (or errata) saying otherwise...
Is there a reference anywhere to the fact that you can fix multiple ACs in a single season?
It definitely takes a season to do this, to the exclusion of other activities. I was confusing this with the rules on vis transfer, which follow this section.
As far as pricing goes-- I think I would suggest something similar to another poster: the investment cost of the item plus the amount of vim (or its trade equivalent) vis the caster could make in a season.
It's also worthwhile to give the vendors quirks-- perhaps one really likes magical beast trophies, another is looking for a specific Hermetic text, while another likes different copies of the Bible. These nonstandard currencies could be substituted in place of the vis, even directly traded. Magi might also be willing to sell the item for an agreed upon task, like Conjuring the Mystic Tower, or the acquisition of a particular element from a person or place the vendor isn't permitted to visit or doesn't dare go because of an old deal or lost certamen. The "arcane connection" insurance mentioned before can even be used to keep tricksy players honest, as an item might deactivate if not the vendor isn't "paid" in time. Failure to complete the payment would probably affect the reputation of a magus, providing further incentive. Heck, even completing such a task might earn the magus a reputation as "the vendor's toady," depending its nature.
As for other items, consider ones that have a bit of a price, too. A goad that grows animals huge and warlike, but they die at the end of the effect. A hammer that shatters stone, but inflicts a light wound on those around the wielder. A bell that wakes everyone in a building, but resounds for miles and draws attention.
A couple of nonHermetic items might be fun-- something egyptian, greek, or levantine might be a cool way to slip a little Ancient Magic into your game without making it a focus. A statue that aids with longevity rituals when bathed in olive oil, an ivory dagger that creates a circular ward effective only when the wielder sleeps within the circle, or an ancient clay tablet that makes the incorporeal visible when they come within 30 paces. Treat them as an Art tractatus that cannot be copied or allow them to be studied for Insights.
There is an interesting, meandering, extremely exhaustive (and possibly exhausting) thread on this topic, and if you can bear to dig through it all there are a number of interesting alternative ideas to the RAW. But if you're intent on sticking to the RAW then yeah, it's one per season. The discussion in question is at:
[url]Ideas welcome: City model as AC]
We just scratched the surface of the Tribunal Market and then did a flash-forward to start "Fall and Rise" from Tales of Mythic Europe.
The obese Quaesitor was VERY interested in Magic Pants of Comfort, but was distracted by legal issues and has not yet managed to go down and purchase them. I'm figuring they're worth 2-3 pawns of vis based on my construction of said pants.
The Lady Pellegrina asked of a vendor how she might get a bird, trained to delivery spoken messages. I posited a magical cage of some kind, and told her the vendor would get back to her, as I didn't want to work out specifics at the time.
Any thoughts on how that might be made? I'll crack my books and give it a gander after I return home for the evening.
I'm looking forward to seeing the group return to peruse the various wares, both exceptional and flawed.
Ability to move to the desired destinaton faultlessly, deliver the message and come back. With or without an answer depends on you. (ReAn? InAn?)
Moon duration for them all That would be how I would start working on this, at least. Fall and rise is specially cool if you take the "further developments" into account. If not it is quite a linear (mostly bashing) story. I found higly rewarding to have my players read the story before running it. It is a dramatic story, so they knowing when the drama is unfolding is cool.
Hrm... I'm wondering if there's any way to do a waiting ward to do something like this, keyed to a specific person? Perhaps make it an item? And then a ReAn effect to make the animal go to the point specificed by an Arcane connection?
Given the (feasibly) limited number of seasons a magus has in his lifetime to work on projects, I can't see these as something one would invest the time or vis to complete.
Hm, good point and potentially interesting. Might give the relatively new players some insight into how to make money through middle men in the Normandy Tribunal.
My Verdi will buy all your busted/screwed up items... I'll give you 10% of the combined magnitudes....of all the "junk"...
I will even throw in a couple of pawns if you include the lab texts for each...
Double that(or at least add double of the vis the caster could draw in a season). Otherwise its too close to zero profit to be worth it. And for something that is either rare or unusually powerful(or convenient/useful) make it triple or more because its going to be in high demand.
Approaching a Verdi like this at Tribunal would likely get a raised eyebrow and sweep of the goods into a sack, I would think-- as you trigger some aspect of his hubris. "Why does he want them all? What is he going to do with my handiwork? I certainly won't allow my things to be broken down for vis. What does he know about this that I don't know? No sale, go away!"
The non-Verditius might be ok with it, but then again, I don't think a Verditius would put out a flawed item for sale at all-- there's too much pride in their effort to offer anything less than their best.
I don't think they'd be functional arcane connections-- those would only last for days or weeks, and so I'd anticipate those connections would have expired by the time tribunal rolls around.
...otherwise, I'm missing your point. Are you suggesting that your Verdi would smelt them all down for vis? In which case, yes, trying to pick them all up for 10% of their vis value and then smelt them would provide a limited return over the course of a few seasons, but I would think you'd have easier ways of gathering vis-- unless you were dead in the heart of the Roman Tribunal or the Normandy Tribunal... places where the resources are very tightly controlled.
IN that case remember NOT to tell the buyer that the invisibility cloak make his footsteps glow brightly for Diameter duration from dusk to dawn, and that the POF wand requires you shooting at yourself with it to activate its magical properties.
