I always think it’s a letdown when an adventure module describes a cool wizard’s workroom but then punts on the books and spell components. Either they’re all rotted and useless, or they’re actually mundane and valueless, or they’re incomprehensible even to other wizards, or they’re worth a modest sum to “the right buyer” with no guidance on how to find one. That’s a waste of a good image. Instead of treating that stuff like set dressing, dungeon delvers should be treating it like Storage Wars, or bulk-buying Magic cards. It might take an expert to figure out which volumes and knick-knacks are truly valuable, but any given explorer is likely to think that all that crap on Wizard Howl’s desk is worth something.
Therefore, a repeat of the flavor text from my previous Treasure Tables post:
"Old tombs and ruined towers dot the Periphery and the Stonelands, the former domains of petty wizard-lords. There is a brisk market in the books, papers, potion ingredients, and assorted sorcerous bric-a-brac that accumulates in wizards’ homes. Some merchants specialize in the contents of wizard’s workrooms. Most of these traders are either coming to or from the town of Bookmarket, which sprang up when the serfs and servants of a vanished wizard-lord finally decided to break into their master’s tower and sell the contents. In the years since then a thriving trade of specialty shops has sprung up in the shadow of the empty tower."
When a wizard’s tower is ransacked, the adventurers typically pick out the choicest items for individual sale – spellbooks, famous volumes, obviously magical items, crystal balls, dragon-claw paperweights, golden telescopes, and so on. The rest of the workroom contents are sold by lot. Most of this material will consist of books and papers, but it can also include spell components
A lot will be composed of books, scrolls, loose papers, drawings, and a sweeping of gewgaws, knickknacks, and medieval office supplies that the adventurer or purchasing agent who procured the lot thought looked atmospheric.
Lots are sold by size:
Small: 1d10 x 100 gp
Medium: 2d10 x 100 gp
Large: 3d10 x 100 gp
The buyer may be provided with a description and provenance, but is not allowed to examine the contents in detail before purchasing or to make individual selections.
A lot’s true value always differs from the purchase price and is determined by a 2d6 roll.
Lot Value – 2d6
2) Worthless Junk: 1% of the sale value
3-5) Curios & Marginalia: 10% of the sale value
6-8) The Usual Rubbish: 50% of the sale value
9-11) A Bargain: roll another lot value and add the two together. Small +1d10 x 100, etc.
12) A Treasure: worth 10x the sale value
A spellcaster can make a check while scanning the lot at the merchant’s stall. On a success you get an indication of whether the lot is more or less valuable than the current price (in OSE, use the Thief's "Hear Noise" chance).
A spellcaster with a few hours of leisure to study will learn the lot’s true value, and may make another saving throw. Any magical writings will be detected on a success. A character who spends a week studying the lot will automatically detect all magical writing without the need for a roll.
Magical Writing
Each lot has a chance of containing a previously undetected magic scroll. Use the original xd10 roll as the percentage chance.
Example: Eldred the Enchanter buys a medium lot of papers for 900 gp. The contents turn out to be mostly curiosities, and the true value is only 450 gp. There is a 9% chance of magical writing, and Eldred gets lucky. He rolls a d00 on the OSE table for Magic Scrolls and Maps and gets a scroll with 2 spells. After taking the time to identify the writings, Eldred discovers one 1st level spell and one 6th level spell.
There is a 1-in-6 chance for any book lot to have a complication. Until the complication has been resolved, the lot is worthless.
Complications may be entirely out of proportion to the lot’s value — perhaps a worthless lot with a fiendishly difficult word-lock contains the wizard’s diary, and he wanted to make sure his friends couldn’t read him gossiping about them.
Locked
Trapped
Stuck
Cyphered
Word-Locked
Warded
Locked
A physical lock protects the book or box, requiring the use of a Knock spell or the ability to pick locks. There is a 2-in-6 chance that the seller also has the key and will part with it for a mere 50% of the original purchase price.
Trapped
A trapped lot has a 50% chance to also be locked. If the seller has the key then the key is magical and allows the user to bypass the trap. Whether or not they have a key, the seller has a 90% chance of knowing about the trap.
Traps – 1d6
Magic Mouth: the book screams, signs, or proclaims loudly each time it is opened. If opened in a dungeon, the noise lasts for 1d3 rounds. Each round of the noise, there is a 50% chance of a wandering monster being attracted (will arrive in 2d6 rounds).
Shocking Grasp: Whenever anyone other than the book’s owner touches it they receive a magical shock for 1d8+3 damage. Inscribing your wizard mark on the bookplate makes you the owner.
Sleep Gas: Opening the book trips an inscribed spell – all creatures within a 20 ft radius must save vs spells or fall into magical slumber for 4d4 rounds. Activates once.
Stinking Cloud: Opening the book trips an inscribed spell – all creatures within a 30 ft radius must save vs poison or be overcome by nausea and unable to act. Those who save are sickened and act at -2 on all rolls. The cloud lasts for 1d4 rounds and the effects persist for 1d4+1 rounds after leaving the cloud. Activates once.
Poison Gas: Opening the book trips an inscribed spell – all creatures within a 30 ft radius suffer 1 damage per round. The gas remains for 6 turns. Activates once.
Exploding Runes: these runes explode when read by anyone other than the caster, destroying the surface that the book was on and dealing 4d6 damage to the reader. A magic-user has a 10% chance per level of detecting the runes before triggering them. If detected, the character may either stop reading or attempt to disable the runes with a 75% chance of success.
Stuck
An old shutting-spell has been placed on the book. It must be prised open using the character’s chance to open doors (the Knock spell will also open it).
Ciphered
The book is written in a magical code that requires the Read Languages spell or the ability to unravel the cipher. There is a 1-in-6 chance that the seller also has the key to the cipher and will part with it for an amount equal to the original purchase price.
Word-Locked
A valuable book or scroll-case is sealed with a Wizard Lock spell and requires a command word to open. Roll 1d12 to determine the original caster’s level.
Command Words – 1d6
1-2) The command word is an answer to a riddle, which is written on the work.
3-4) Some clue exists.
5) The word has been lost but the author’s name is known.
6) The word has been lost.
Warded
The book is protected by a highly visible summoning spell. Attempting to open it without the proper key activates the spell and conjures the guardian creature(s). Roll an random encounter from the Dungeon Encounter Tables of level 1d8. Some clue as to the nature of the guardian beast will always appear on the warded object, and the more dangerous the encounter, the more elaborate the summoning seal will be.
Ward-Key – 1d6
1-2) The seller has the key and will part with it for 200% of the original purchase price
3) There's an obvious lock, but no key. Failing the open locks roll triggers the spell.
4-5) The command word is an answer to a riddle, which is written on the work.
6) The word has been lost.
Wizards are the primary market for works of magical theory.
Chance for interest: d00%, +/-10% per difference in level between the buyer and the author. Roll 1d12 for the author’s level. Lower-level wizards will usually be interested in purchasing works by more powerful wizards, but higher-level ones may have already read the work, or have practiced enough to disagree with the author’s theories.
Scholars have a 50% chance of being interested in a work.
Members of the nobility have a 30% chance of being interested..
What Do They Want This Stuff For Anyway?
Works of magical theory can be cashed in at a 2-for-1 rate when paying the gold piece cost when researching spells of a level that the work’s author could cast. For example, a paper worth 150 gp by a 3rd-level wizard would reduce the cost to research spells of 1st or 2nd level by 300 gp.
Magical Theory As Treasure
When calculating the value of a wizard’s library in a dungeon, go through the same process as if you were buying a book lot: roll for size, then apply the modifier and roll for any scrolls and complications. The difference is that PCs who recover book lots from dungeons don’t need to gamble on buying them. An especially large library might contain multiple lots.
How Much Stuff Are We Talking?
My setting assumes that books are expensive and relatively rare, since they all have to be made by hand through specialist labor. A small lot is about a drawer’s worth of stuff, a medium is a desk’s worth, and a large one is about a shelf’s worth.
