The Royal Artificery Society - OOC

[DeTess]

Yes, Shandara has done experiments and taken notes.. She was mainly focused on helping make the water cooling system for the SCORP, however.

So I do think she'd need to set up some more experiment time to finish exploring and filling in any other holes. Cause otherwise, don't the extra qualities to the water sound like really specific things that are a bit too fancy?

You've got enough info to work out what you'd need to do in theory to get those effects, though you might want to schedule some experimentation time to test those theories out (or go easier on the theoretical work and muck about with experiments to get the same result).

[MrAbdiel]

I'm glad to see there's an update! And now I think everyone is free!

Don't want to just immediately run off to start another project and leave you all by yourself again MrAbdiel! Although solo projects/gameplay isn't all that bad.~

..well anyway, I feel like we've kept promising to do something with you for like.. months now. So, uh. Shall our characters meet up somewhere?

Perhaps milling around the announcement board?

Say no more, fam. Part of the joy of playing this human Labrador is that I barely need to justify meetings at all. I'll do a quick set-up right now.

[WindStruck]

Was trying very hard to remember when Aiden and Shandara had last met. It was here.

It hasn't been months. It's been nearly a year! My how time flies.

[MrAbdiel]

Ever since COVID, time has become an undulating soup; its passage thick, and bewilderingly brothy; full of hazardous croutons...

Fly, it does!

[Prehysterical]

@Windstruck, do you just want to split the 16,000 down the middle and call it a day?

@DeTess, how much would it cost for Bolten to get a secured lockbox at the Goldrow Bank?

[WindStruck]

@Windstruck, do you just want to split the 16,000 down the middle and call it a day?

@DeTess, how much would it cost for Bolten to get a secured lockbox at the Goldrow Bank?

Yeah I was thinking that's fair.

[DeTess]

@Windstruck, do you just want to split the 16,000 down the middle and call it a day?

@DeTess, how much would it cost for Bolten to get a secured lockbox at the Goldrow Bank?

Let's say 20 gold/year for the kind of security you'd want.

[DeTess]

@prehysterical, which commission did you think the greylance one was? Because I don't think any of you have been involved with that one yet.

[WindStruck]

I was reminded of the clockwork legs for the Esterwald noble. But had to go back and actually check the names to confirm they're not the same people.

So yeah, I'm not sure what Bolten is muttering about either.

[DeTess]

For those looking at the wolf commission, feel free to roll a knowledge geography and/or knowledge nobility to see what you know of the viscount and the lands under his control.

[WindStruck]

Well I don't think I was interested in taking the job, but for the sake of uncovering more lore...

geography: (1d20+8)[25]

nobility: (1d20+8)[16]

[Prehysterical]

@prehysterical, which commission did you think the greylance one was? Because I don't think any of you have been involved with that one yet.

Like Windstruck speculated, I read that as being exactly the same as the one with the Esterwald's request. I remember the younger Esterwald being somewhat resentful that Bolten's leg chassis did not cure his father's failing motor functions, so it wouldn't have surprised me if they were still looking for a more direct solution.

Oh well, it fits in well with the scene, anyway. Too many wires crossing in Bolten's head.

Also, not going to go for the wolf commission, but just for the sake of it:

Knowledge (Geography): (1d20+7)[25]
Knowledge (Nobility): (1d2+7)[9]

[MrAbdiel]

Well, I have a Bard’s basic spread of knowledge capability. Might as well roll!

Geography - (1d20+4)[16]
Nobility - (1d20+8)[13]

[DeTess]

You all know that the viscounts domain is in the far north of the empire. This is a rough and uncivilized area characterized by rocky hills and deep and largely unmapped forests.

Shandara also knows that the Viscount has been put in charge of this area fairly recently (about three years ago). The previous noble in charge spend very little time in his domain, leading to many issues going unresolved and gradually worsening to the point that the area was a part of the empire in name only.

[WindStruck]

Ah, good info then. So, given how far away it is, I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with how the bear attacked us. Since Bolten will also know the geographic difference, I'll leave the suggestion open to change if you'd like.

[Prehysterical]

Hey all, very sorry about my silence the last few days, but I have been extremely unwell. Today is the first day that I feel halfway functional, but I can't guarantee that I will find the energy to post today. I will be paying a visit to the doctor tomorrow, so I hope that I can get back to things later this week.

[WindStruck]

Sorry to hear that. Get well soon!

[DeTess]

Get well soon!

[MrAbdiel]

Hey all, very sorry about my silence the last few days, but I have been extremely unwell. Today is the first day that I feel halfway functional, but I can't guarantee that I will find the energy to post today. I will be paying a visit to the doctor tomorrow, so I hope that I can get back to things later this week.

Sorry to hear it, man. Hit that bug with some rest and med'cin, see you when you get back.

[WindStruck]

And now I've got to think back to when we made that sword.. I think I recall permanent enchantments to increase the hardness of an item increased quadratically.

Was it +1 hardness = 100 gp, +2 hardness = 400 gp, +3 hardness = 900 gp? And so on?

Then there's the issues of energy resistance. For just one energy type, making a permanent resist energy effect on an item would cost how much? For reference, it's a level 2 sor/wiz spell and lasts 10 min per level.

I recall when it came to a permanent Magic Aura effect, you let me get away with that for cheap, but it was a day/level spell, and only level 1.

I am thinking that this will get very expensive, and we won't be able to cover all five of the normal energy types. Probably need to get creative.

[DeTess]

And now I've got to think back to when we made that sword.. I think I recall permanent enchantments to increase the hardness of an item increased quadratically.

Was it +1 hardness = 100 gp, +2 hardness = 400 gp, +3 hardness = 900 gp? And so on?

Then there's the issues of energy resistance. For just one energy type, making a permanent resist energy effect on an item would cost how much? For reference, it's a level 2 sor/wiz spell and lasts 10 min per level.

I recall when it came to a permanent Magic Aura effect, you let me get away with that for cheap, but it was a day/level spell, and only level 1.

I am thinking that this will get very expensive, and we won't be able to cover all five of the normal energy types. Probably need to get creative.

had to dig a bit, here's the relevant post:

Yeah, enchanting an object to be stronger than it normally is is actually a fairly common enchantment and is used with some regularity in the more ambitious construction projects. I'll just put the cost for the sword at (0.5*hardness)^2*200 (so adding a single point of hardness is only 50 gp, 2 points is 200 gp, 4 points is 800 gp, etc.).

This might be undercosted when compared to a similar official effects, but I'd expect 'how do we use magic to make things sturdier' to be one of the first things the artificers of the Society figured out, as it makes so many other things possible.

As for the protection, a better spell to compare it to might be book ward. I also did some digging, and though I can't find a pf equivalent, DnD has a resistant to energy (minor) and resistant to energy (major) effect that gives all energy resist 5 or resist 12 for 1000 and 3000 gp to spellbooks, and something like that could be used for an instrument as well.

If we want to base it around book ward, I think a reasonable price would be around 3-400 gp x caster level for a 'permanent' book ward effect (would still discharge after eating up a certain amount of damage). That's a lot cheaper than it would normally be by magic item pricing guidelines, but it feels reasonable for the actual effect.

[WindStruck]

SO.. how does book ward work if it's "permanent" but still discharges after a certain amount of damage? Does the damage absorption come back slowly over the days, or once it reaches however much damage it would have absorbed from a single normal casting, it's just permanently gone?

edit: come to think of it, Book Ward only protects from acid and fire, (and makes it waterproof). Frost and lightning are also hazards they may come across.. maybe even sonic?

Either way, I don't think it would be a great idea if they're adventuring around and one day it just suddenly stops and gets destroyed.

[MrAbdiel]

While we're OOC'ing the ideas, Aiden has a few thoughts on the composition. Two, particularly.

The first is the wood in question. Using a special wood is a pretty small cost add, and can significantly increase the value of the item. The SRD rules have four wood options, some of which are not useful to us. Wyrwood is for ki users, Whipwood is for making sunder-resistant staves and such, and Darkwood is for making very light items (and a 3lbs musical instrument doesn't really need it.)

Idea 1: But Greenwood is a fascinating option. Greenwood is basically consensually cut from a dryad's tree and enchanted to carry on living. Cliff notes: Needs watering and rest on fertile soil once a month. But the tradeoff is that when damaged or even broken, you can put it on fertile soil and spritz it with water and in an hour, it self repairs completely. Also, it inherently only takes 1/4 damage from fire!

Idea 2: Ironwood spell. It's a level 6 druid spell and it can't be made permenant, but it makes a wooden item as resistant to damage as steel. The duration is Caster Level in Days, but that's still an expensive habit to maintain.

Unfortunately, the value of a companion item to the violin that can cast Ironwood once a day costs, by the standard rules, 23760 gold - pretty prohibitive as a cost. Unless we're allowed to make items that have fractional uses per day - a jar of enchanted Bow Rosin of Ironwood that permitted the spell to be cast at the minumum CL11 once every twenty days would cost a mere 1180gp. And if Ironwood is cast on a Greenwood item, the duration is doubled to 22 days, so that would work. But that's a lot of ifs. Might just be a case of making it out of greenwood and commending Luge to have a druid friend who is able to cast Ironwood on his violin once every twenty or so days!

[WindStruck]

Those options.. uh, I don't know. I think, funnily enough, increasing the hardness in the way I already asked about is probably more effective and cheaper.

Another option we could explore is asking about other kinds of woods in this setting. Are there any special trees/woods with a hardness greater than 5 around here?

[MrAbdiel]

Yeah, the Ironwood spell is mad expensive.

But using Greenwood only increases the value of the base product from 100gp to 250gp, or 1/3rd of that in raw materials for the creation. So I'm leaning towards Greenwood just because it's cool. But if there's alternatives...

[DeTess]

Mrabdiel, could you roll me a knowledge nature or woodworking to see what other woods you might know about?

[MrAbdiel]

Why yes, I am woodworking.

(1d20+20)[23] for woodworking!

...Why you gotta be like this, dice

[DeTess]

Given the requirements of the job, one other wood comes to mind. It is something you might have come across while looking into your ship-projects, known as tundra-oak. It is a tree that grows in the far far north, and is known both for its hardness, sometimes compared to iron or stone (effectively about hardness 8), and its ability to resist both extreme cold and heat (immunity to cold damage, fire resistance 25). It is however mostly used for rougher construction like shipbuilding, as its hardness makes fine detailwork very tricky. You also haven't heard of any instruments being made with it, so it'd likely take quite a bit of work to get the acoustics right.

[MrAbdiel]

Sounds rare and interesting. Other exotic woods tend to be a surcharge on top of the normal item value of, for example, 50gp per pound of the object; which might well be interpreted as 50gp per 'product pound' of material.

Is Tundra Oak so exotic it will require considerable specialist searching, or just a price at my wood dealer?

[DeTess]

Sounds rare and interesting. Other exotic woods tend to be a surcharge on top of the normal item value of, for example, 50gp per pound of the object; which might well be interpreted as 50gp per 'product pound' of material.

Is Tundra Oak so exotic it will require considerable specialist searching, or just a price at my wood dealer?

Tundra oak isn't that rare, as it is used in bulk for shipbuilding mostly. You'd probably have to drop by a specialist dealer and hand pick the wood you'd want to use for your project though, as not every length suitable for a ship could make an instrument. Material would add about a gp per pound, but you'd likely need about four times the usual amount for testing and practicing purposes.