• Registered: 2017-05-06
  • Posts: 73

Topic: Veins of the Earth Loot

Reading Veinscrawl and the section on motivations for surface dwellers to explore the Veins, there is is a section on Loot that says:

"Veins loot makes conventional dungeons look like a discount clothing warehouse after a fire sale, in a hyper- inflationary economy, right before the coldest winter on record. Your gold crowns and polished gems and magic wands are bent clothes hangers and ragged Snoopy t-shirts compared to the stuff in the Veins. It will get to the point where gold is too heavy and too pointless to transport."

Looking at the loot in Deep Carbon Observatory, if you don't adjust it for the silver standard, It fits this pattern.

So here is a challenge:
What kind of loot would you put in your Veins campaign? These should be things so valuable that you throw gold away in favour of this treasure.

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2016-10-20
  • Posts: 132

Re: Veins of the Earth Loot

Disclaimer:
I do not own nor know Deep Carbon Observatory, nor am I found of the quoted statement from VotE: such super-duper statements never help a gameworld to life long and prosper.  But, back to topic:

Things so valuable that you throw gold away in favour of this treasure.

An Archean Bee Flute:
It looks like somebody would have made a mold out of the veins and ateria in your arm, only to fill it up with platinum to then hollow it out in order tu turn the result into a bizzare transverse flute. When played, it puts [Charisma of the flute player x25] Atomic Bees (VoTE p.29) within 50´feet into a peaceful trance that lasts for as long as it is played, plus 2d6 rounds thereafter. Humans and demi-humans cannot hear the song of the flute, but -feel- it in the teeth and behind the eyes.

Sadly, the instrument is highly radiactive: when not kept in a lead lined casket, it will deal 1 point of CON damage PER ROUND to every living being within 10´ of it. A Saving Throw vs. Death determines if this damage is all in all permanent or regenerates at a rate of 1 point per month. Anyway, most people that are after Atomic Honey still claim that this is worth it.

Last edited by Gregorius21778 (2018-09-17 13:06:14)

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  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2016-10-20
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Re: Veins of the Earth Loot

The Waters of Rejuvenation:

Deep in the Veins is a lake that holds waters that come up from a place that comes from a pocket of the Beginning, a remnant of the time when the creation of the universe was !NOW! and time itself was so young that it was still experimenting to find out what it wanted to be. This water is clean, drinkable, cool and refreshing, and carries the memento of this early days of time. Any living being that drinks a pint of it will immediately rejuvenate by 1d8 years and heal 1d8 hit points.

A quart is two pints, and a regular/small waterskin (one item; I guess 4 lbs) holds 2 quarts. How much will the rich and powerful above pay for their youth? 100 gp a year? More? One waterskin could easily fetch 400 – 3.000 gp, depending on who it is sold to.

Most Veinsdwellers cannot sustain themselves with this water, as it would turn them into helpless infants. Even healing oneself with it on a regular bases will turn into a problem after a time. But it still is sought after, so not as valuable down in the Veins as it is above (where food is plentiful that people rather die of old age than of hunger). A  Deep Janeen could have expanded its maze toward it, just so that I could have a special fountain to attract guests and petitioners. Or just because!

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  • Registered: 2017-05-06
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Re: Veins of the Earth Loot

Gregorius, I like your entries!
To explain: The quote is from VEINSCRAWL, a fan created hex crawl for use with VEINS OF THE EARTH that fills in some of the blanks in VOTE. One of them is a section on motivations. Why would a surface dweller go down there on purpose? And one of the possible reasons is treasure hunting.

DEEP CARBON OBSERVATORY was created by the same team as VOTE. It includes a horde that is not overly large for a dragon horde if you are on a gold standard. But is very large if you are on a silver standard. But it's not just a pile of gold. It is a wide variety of treasures, including a box of d100 ocultum coins, which are defined in VOTE. And there is an ocultum coin on the search the body table in VOTE. It is one of those things so valuable that you might throw gold away, in order to carry more ocultum. 

But I like you entries. They are the sort of things found in the DCO horde. The kinds of things you might throw gold away, in order to carry out of the caves.

Last edited by Andomedanaea (2018-09-26 09:45:26)

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2016-10-20
  • Posts: 132

Re: Veins of the Earth Loot

Thanks a lot, Andomedanaea.

Both for the patting on the head and for the explanation. smile On the by: would you recomment DCO for an adventure group that is not into "torture porn" and does not like to be massacred, but enjoys strange things if they at least have a hint of sense added to them? I have such a group, and look for some more fodder smile

Anyway, Back2Topic!


Dvargir Friezes
" They will cut cities from bare stone, (...)embellish every surface, then, when there is no unworked spot (...) they move on." (VotE; p.174)

The "art" of the Dvargir is soulless, but it is amazing in the grade of detail and its execution. When there are Dvargir somewhere, there is a wake of worked space behind them. When one is able to get past the Dvargir, past the area they are still WORKING in, they may find tunnels, caves, halls and cities with every surface worked into bas-relief and friezes. And ometimes, this friezes have been applied to the surface instead of "simply" BEING the surface.

The cravings are intricate, changes in depth are exact, minute and the overall work is extremly fine in detail. Truly great displays of skill and craftsmanship, but for nothing other than geometrical forms and hole patterns akin to punch cards. Still, when one is able to get them "up" undamaged, the very wealthy may want to cover the surfaces of their homes palaces with some of them. Just like Constantin of Byzantium had art of other places bought, stolen and robbed to enhance the glory of his own city.

A tile is an item. A single tile may sell for up to 1 gp to the right buyer. But when you bring enough to cover a larger surface, they become more valuable per item. The formular is: 1gp times [number of tiles ] times [number of tiles]

Selling a set of ten brings 100gp.
Selling a set of 20 will bring 400 gp.
A set of 25 will bring bring 625 gp.

How many will the characters try to howl along? What will they throw away for it? What if some end up broken due to a fall, or combat? When a character that carried 10 tiles dies, will the other encumber themselves even more?

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  • From: Germany
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Re: Veins of the Earth Loot

A rune engraved steel chisel, made by dwarfs in the old days of the height of their civilization. When placed against a stone surface (natural of artificial) and struck with a hammer one time... nothing will happen. After 3d6 turns a crack will form and suddenly spread into a web that will have a total of a cube with 3d6+2 feet at each side break apart into rubble and pebbles. May only be used once per hour.

What will be paid for an easier way to  drive tunnels through a mountain, or to have large parts of a citiy wall collapse with just one man from the inside over the course of a night? What will the Deep Janeen of the Veins pay to have it DESTROYED, so that its existence may threaten their mazes no longer?

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  • Registered: 2017-05-06
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Re: Veins of the Earth Loot

It depends on the level and skill of the players. I have heard of groups that ran DCO with 1st level players. I ran it with 4th level characters and only one player got eaten.