Magical Interlibrary Loans

[Palanan]

So, as a power user of ILLs at my local library, I have to wonder how you could set up a system like this in Faerûn or Golarion.

Say you have a number of libraries in major cities—Absalom and Magnimar, or Waterdeep and Silverymoon. Naturally the rarest and most dangerous tomes will stay locked away; but there should still be thousands of other innocuous titles which can be transferred back and forth.

So, what would be the best way to do this? And by “best” I mean a combination of speed and cost that’s feasible for patrons as well as the lending institutions. Ideally this is something that should only cost the patron 5-10 gp, and not much more than that for the libraries themselves.

Given a demand for the service, can this be done?

[ExLibrisMortis]

Teleportation circle will do it, and much more. As a 9th-level spell that costs 4500 XP to make permanent, it is expensive-ish, but very potent. Leads to the Tippyverse if not carefully controlled.

[Palanan]

That would certainly be a brute force solution, but probably not suitable in this situation. The cost would be more than a library would be able to manage, and I'm not sure if a high-level caster would want to spend his life force to underwrite the exchange of nonmagical books.

Is there a lower-level approach that a mid-range caster might be able to manage, perhaps a city or guild wizard under contract for municipal services?

[Psyren]

Does it have to be instant? The library could have summoned or called creatures contracted to ferry books around. In extreme cases, geased adventurers could do this to pay off late fees or other infractions.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Is there a lower-level approach that a mid-range caster might be able to manage, perhaps a city or guild wizard under contract for municipal services?
You could use (a 1/day magic item of) lesser planar ally to call a servant of Boccob, give them the books (get something with a high carrying capacity), then re-call the same servant elsewhere. Cost about 150 gp per calling in fees*, with a ten-minue casting time.


*100 gp per HD * 6 HD * 0.5 for nonhazardous task * 0.5 for task strongly aligned with Boccob.

[tyckspoon]

A Lantern Archon can Greater Teleport at will with up to 50 pounds of objects (the fact that it doesn't have hands is mitigated by the fact that Teleport only requires 'touched' objects, not carried - the library workers can pack a box of books to transfer and the Archon just rests on top of it and teleports.) As a mere CR 2 creature, there should be a number of ways to get one into your service for long enough to do what's needed; off the top of my head, Summon Monster 4 gets them, a Lawful Good exalted character can get one as a familiar with the Celestial Familiar feat, and Lesser Planar Binding/Planar Ally should provide ways to acquire them for longer-term service. There's probably a Sanctified spell/specific Bind Archon-type spell somewhere that will specifically call one for a day or something as well.

[Vogie]

Each branch has Ring Gates (http://archivesofnethys.com/MagicWondrousDisplay.aspx?FinalName=Ring Gates)that connect with the Main Library. Tomes are handed through, and a 5-10g charge is issued for borrowing a tome or scroll.

A library card is 1000g. All books in the network are branded by the library's arcane mark, and an overdue book is recalled after a small grace period using Instant Summons, and the loaner's library card is removed from the database. That loaner can re-apply for the card later on.

[Inevitability]

For 10000 GP of fine food, any creature can summon Dalmosh of the Infinite Maws (see MMV). This is explicitly always the same creature.

In addition, a low-level psion (or even a few commoners with Hidden Talent) can create thousands of GP of fine wine with Minor Creation.

You probably see where I'm going with this. Summon Dalmosh, incapacitate it somehow, tie a bunch of books to it and have the other branch perform the same ritual. There we go: free and instantaneous transportation!


A Lantern Archon can Greater Teleport at will with up to 50 pounds of objects (the fact that it doesn't have hands is mitigated by the fact that Teleport only requires 'touched' objects, not carried - the library workers can pack a box of books to transfer and the Archon just rests on top of it and teleports.) As a mere CR 2 creature, there should be a number of ways to get one into your service for long enough to do what's needed; off the top of my head, Summon Monster 4 gets them, a Lawful Good exalted character can get one as a familiar with the Celestial Familiar feat, and Lesser Planar Binding/Planar Ally should provide ways to acquire them for longer-term service. There's probably a Sanctified spell/specific Bind Archon-type spell somewhere that will specifically call one for a day or something as well.

You're thinking of Create Lantern Archon.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Psyren
The library could have summoned or called creatures contracted to ferry books around.


Originally Posted by tyckspoon
A Lantern Archon can Greater Teleport at will with up to 50 pounds of objects (the fact that it doesn't have hands is mitigated by the fact that Teleport only requires 'touched' objects, not carried - the library workers can pack a box of books to transfer and the Archon just rests on top of it and teleports.)

I really like this approach—flavorful without being extravagant.

I could easily see a librarian with the Celestial Familiar feat, especially one devoted to knowledge and the spread of learning. Flavorwise it works perfectly.

And Greater Teleport at will…certainly solves a lot of issues. If the library doesn’t need to pay for the transportation, they might actually make money on this service.


Originally Posted by Vogie
Each branch has Ring Gates….

I don’t think I knew about these.

Talk about a double-edged sword. The potential for a trading network is immense, essentially Tippyverse Light, but they also provide a first-strike option that might get them banned outright by local rulers.

Plus, hugely expensive, so not great in this situation.


Originally Posted by Inevitability
Summon Dalmosh, incapacitate it somehow….

Aye, there’s the rub.

:smalltongue:

[Inevitability]

Aye, there’s the rub.

:smalltongue:

Summon an Allip?

[unseenmage]

...

I don’t think I knew about these.

Talk about a double-edged sword. The potential for a trading network is immense, essentially Tippyverse Light, but they also provide a first-strike option that might get them banned outright by local rulers.

Plus, hugely expensive, so not great in this situation.

...
If you like those you'll love the Planar Ring Gates from the Planar Handbook.

I used them with literally millions of Crawling Claws (MC:MoF) with both strewn throughout a network of Bags of Holding, Portable Holes, Enveloping Pits, etc
to create a system by which a crawling hand could deliver things to me from my minions and the reverse almost at will.

Think Commoner Railgun but with animated severed left hands and through myriad extradimensional spaces.

[Telonius]

Am I the only one who's shuddering to think at what the late fees would be? :smalleek:

[Palanan]

I once had a two-thousand-dollar late fee.

Talked my way out of it. :smallcool:

[Psyren]

Am I the only one who's shuddering to think at what the late fees would be? :smalleek:

Can't be worse than Candlekeep!

[Morty_Jhones]

personally I think they would use an Animated object to ferry books between offices.

say a winged chest....

[haplot]

Or a box with legs :smalltongue:

[Vogie]

I don’t think I knew about these.

Talk about a double-edged sword. The potential for a trading network is immense, essentially Tippyverse Light, but they also provide a first-strike option that might get them banned outright by local rulers.

Plus, hugely expensive, so not great in this situation.


It depends on how many you need. If there's a single Main library, with all branches in range, you could include a pair for each new library, so the Main library acts as a switchboard type of thing. If it's an even number of libraries of roughly the same size, you need only half the number (6 libraries, 3 sets of rings; 18 libraries, 9 sets of rings)

And they're not grossly overpowered, as they're only 18 inches in diameter, with a 100 mile range. Yes, you can stuff a Halfling or other small creature through, but not much else. If your world is worried about tiny creature armies... then yeah, that may be a problem. You didn't say you were playing a Redwall campaign, though.

[Dimers]

Amanuensis would eliminate any worries about the loan getting returned late (or never at all). Yes, technically that's document delivery, not interlibrary loan. So sue me.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Amanuensis would eliminate any worries about the loan getting returned late (or never at all). Yes, technically that's document delivery, not interlibrary loan. So sue me.

While drastically faster than hand reprinting, it still takes time and spell power. Even a mid-level wizard using all slots would take a while to copy a good sized book.

[Dimers]

And it won't copy spellbooks, either. Still definitely a bonus in many cases (especially if only a portion of the work is needed).

[Inevitability]

While drastically faster than hand reprinting, it still takes time and spell power. Even a mid-level wizard using all slots would take a while to copy a good sized book.

Endless self-resetting trap? Or, if that's too cheesy, an item of at-will Amanuensis.