Shopping & Tools

Not sure; poison is only detailed in the Ptolus Camapign guide, Page 427, to be sold at the Dark Market in the Undercity. Posion is not detailed in any other place of market in the city. By this logic, poison is banned from the city unless there is a need for an individual to have it (such as rat catchers). In such instances poison is allowed only by permit.

What conditions are there on reselling loot?

What about buying and selling magical items?

The only place you can buy or sell actual used magical items is Myraeth's Oddities in Delver's Square. Anyone else, business or individual, that tried to do so would risk invoking the wrath of the Dreaming Apocathary, and that's never pretty.

Popular items (and the book lists: ability boosting, offensive and defensive effects, healing, invisibility and teleportation effects as the most popular) are hard to find because they are

It should also be noted that you won't always get DMG listed price when selling to Myraeth. You can haggle for more if you are selling a ring of invisibility or a wand of fireballs. Or you are likely to get much less if its a Decanter of Endless Water. If he can't sell them, why would he buy want to them?

And note that Myraeth only intends to buy actual used and recovered magic. If you lie and sell him an item you made yourself, assuming you trick Myraeth into still buying the item, word is that somehow the Apocathary will find out what you did and whatever you made on the sale. Won't be worth it.

It should be noted the exceptions to this: Anyone can sell potions and scrolls (though only clients buy them; scribes and alchemists rarely buy them so these are easier to buy than sell). Churches can sell wands with Divine spells in them.

Buying Scrolls

As stated above, popular items are difficult to buy, and low level scrolls and potions fall into that catagory. As reiterated by Troy during a discussion about using familiars to purchase items:

Fireballs aren't generally available "off the rack" cause they get purchased as quickly as they get made, and "used" ones are almost never turned in. So unless you took the time to have one created, and of course the scribe accepted the purchase order from Vourd.

Commissioning Item Creation

The Dreaming Apocathary can be commissioned to create magic items, like wands. They can customize the item to the client's needs. Wands can be made with fewer charges in them (minimum 25 charges). Any request to make magic items usually has a commision fee on it, so purchasing new items through the Apocathary will always cost extra.

Can we buy a Fireball Scroll?

Probably not without 24 hrs notice. There's only two places to buy Arcane scrolls in Ptolus, Myreath's Oddities and the Scroll Scribe in the Undercity. Myreaath ONLY deals in "used" and "recovered" items, so you can imagine how often he gets a fireball scroll, or how long it stays in his shop. And how much he likely boosts the price by. But there IS a chance if you are lucky, but it would be like less than 5%.

The Scroll Scribe, Neridoc Bittersong, writes his own scrolls for sale, so there'd be a chance (higher than Myreath, but still less than 10% due to how fast they go) he'd have Fireball scroll on hand. Or you could have him scribe you one, but that would delay you further as he'd need at least 24 hrs, and even that would cost you a premium.

Purchasing Items via Familar Ordering

Of course. This is Ptolus. Merchants have to be used to dealing with "messenger familiars" all the time. In fact, you probably wouldn't even have to laden him down with coin or jewelry if you included a letter of credit with the family seal on it.

Note that's the merchants that would regularly deal with arcanists, like Myreath and the Scribe. And not Churches.

No. Churches will not deal with familiars, unless the animal is interpreted as an omen or something like that. I'm not sure Est would send Vourd into a Church anyway :)

Yes, under the right circumstances. Seeing a raven flying into or out of a scribe shop. Seeing a raven fly into or out of a manor that you are sieging.

So in this case, chances are low if they are just using regular sight - say 10% each time he flies in or out? Chance could go up if they have enhanced senses or magic.

Tools in Ptolus

Ok, I'm going to talk a bit more about how the various tools you might find in Ptolus differ from each other. Basically, there are 4 different kinds:

Each is different. Note that of the four, only Chaostech has a natural aura, and that is a aura of Chaos (because it is literally fueled by the hatred of the Galchutt - Raw Chaos). The other three CAN have aura (Chaos, Evil, Law, Good), but it is the default that they will NOT.

Wheels. Swords. Basically anything in our previous D&D campaigns that wasn't magical would fall into this category. Everyone trusts these, and in fact takes them for granted as being a part of their lives. Some mundane tools have or may fall to wayside due to technology or magic,but most still have a place. While not impossible for a mundane object tohave an alignment aura, it is very rare.

This is what the the Dwarves created and used to make the Empire great so many years ago. This is what the followers Teun and the Iron God believe their deity's have gifted them with and what they need to achieve greatness. This is what the Shuul create and promote. These devices are not magical, though some things may defy real-world physics as we know it (just as many non-magical things in D&D do), they are essentially scientific devices and are accepted as normal things, perhaps wondrous as many new scietific discoveries are, but their existence are rarely questionned. The flying dirigible type ships over head. Guns and gunpowder.

Clockwork devices. The telescope the Watcher of the Skies uses. The grappling gun that Olosus uses. And so on. Their biggest downfall is that there are so few that know how to make or repair these items. Like mundane items, while it is not impossible for these things to have an alignment aura, they very rarely do.

These are items that were created by Arcane or Divine magic, and sometimes could not exist without said magical enchantment, or are just a better-than-possible version of a mundane or technological item (a gun can have a +1 enchantment for an example of the latter). Unlike a traditional D&D campaign, magic is much more every day and common place in Ptolus. Magic is much more prevalent than Technology for example! They obviously have a magical aura. They only have a alignment aura if there's a reason - some strong connection to a being, force or cause of that alignment.

These appear to be some amalgamation of technology and magic, but are in fact neither. These are items, often devices, that could not be possible with technology alone, and use a different power than magic - raw Chaos. These items were created by the Galchutt, or the ability to create them were gifted to the favored of the Galchutt, but their hatred and desire to undo the world is what powers these devices. They are considered to be a corrupting force and will usually drive the user insane or simply Chaotic.

It's not common enough to be sure, and a lot of reactions to it is based on ancient writings and religious beliefs, but if these beliefs are right, its rarity is a very good thing.

Shopping in Ptolus