Xorn dietary requirements?

[Brendanicus]

So, my players may end up with a magic item that allows them to summon a Xorn. However, the summoned Xorn is not necessarily under the control of the summoner, and will only fight or help the party if fed. How much would you think the Xorn would eat in gold and gems? 100 GP? 75? More? Less?

[WarrentheHero]

So, my players may end up with a magic item that allows them to summon a Xorn. However, the summoned Xorn is not necessarily under the control of the summoner, and will only fight or help the party if fed. How much would you think the Xorn would eat in gold and gems? 100 GP? 75? More? Less?

Without a book on-hand, I'd say it's based on how much the part has and their level. If they're low level and don't have much gold, but need the Xorn, it should be maybe 10 or 15/day. If they're medium level with some reserved, 50 or 60/day seems reasonable, and then up to 100 or 120/day for wealthy IR high level characters.

If the Xorn is important or you otherwise want the party to have it, the price should be affordable yet noticeable, and so should be dependent on level and more importantly, total party wealth.

Also, I believe that Xorn eat gems rather than actual gold, so the gold they spend should be in the form of them purchasing gems (uncut, price based on volume is most efficient) to feed it, rather than just throw coins at it. And if they go to a jeweler, the PCs need to ensure that the Xorn isn't aware of it, else it may just go and eat the jeweler's whole stock.

This also gets a lot easier if the PCs can actually communicate with the Xorn, meaning they need to know Terran or Primordial. Tongues/Comprehend languages is useful here. Or a Great Old One Warlock who has the Eyes of the Runekeeper Invocation so they can telepathically communicate to the thing and tell it to write it's words, and the Invo to read the words.

[quinron]

I would look at the Planar Ally spell as a frame of reference - it lists some basic "fees" that friendly extraplanar creatures charge for their help. Of course, this spell is first available to 11th-level casters, and - for example - the weakest angel you can call, a deva, is CR 10, where a xorn is only 5; I'd definitely reduce the prices across the board, but I wouldn't allow the cost to be waived or reduced as the spell recommends, since, after all, this thing is only working for you because you're feeding it. I'd compare the magic item cost and availability by level tables from the DMG to get an idea of how you should scale the xorn's fee compared to a creature called with Planar Ally - a creature of twice the CR is far more than twice the threat, so I'd argue the cost would probably be less than half.