Treasure

Some Holiday Magic for the Season

/ jstater / 1 Comment

Here’s a little preview of an article appearing in NOD #6 (any time now – almost there).

Bag of Goodies
The bag of goodies works in much the same manner as a bag of tricks, save instead of producing small animals (other than kittens and puppies), it produces small, simple toys. The prospective recipient of a gift must reach into the bag while making a wish, pulling out either a small toy made of wood or tin or, if they are chaotic or evil, a lump of coal. Wishes for swords will produce wooden swords, which can be used as clubs in combat. The bag operates once per year per person.

Chimney Charm (Spell, MU Level 2)
By touching one’s finger to one’s nose (but not placing it inside – different charm), they ascend through any chimney-like tube or hole, regardless of size and unharmed no matter what other material (smoke, water, acid) might be coursing through said concourse.

Dreidel of Fortune
This clay top can only be made by a lawful cleric of at least 3rd level. The dreidel is inscribed with the glyphs that mean “Nothing”, “Half”, “All” and “Put In”. When a gold piece is offered (it disappears when the top is spun) and the top is spun while chanting a charming ditty, the dreidel has the following effects (roll 1d4):

1. Nothing – Nothing happens to the spinner
2. Half – All spells and powers used by the spinner work at 50% efficacy for the next 24 hours
3. All – All spells and powers used by the spinner work at double efficacy for the next 24 hours
4. Put In – The spinner loses 1d6 x 100 XP to the top

And a petty god for the season …

Saint Nick (Demigod)
Saint Nick is the fey demigod of just desserts. He appears as a jolly gnome, dwarf or human (as he chooses) with white hair, a long white mustache and beard, a large, red nose and twinkling eyes, dressed in red robes and wearing a pointed red cap. Saint Nick carries a large, green bag from which he can pull any desire of a good creature who petitions him with a sacrifice of milk and cookies (per limited wish), but for wicked creatures he instead pulls out a large whipping stick and beats them to within an inch of their life (i.e. 1 hit point). Saint Nick is as strong as a frost giant and as nimble as a sprite. He can use the following spells at will: Animal Summoning (8 reindeer), Charm Monster, Chimney Charm, Detect Evil, ESP, Know Alignment, Magic Snow Ball and Uncontrollable Laughter.

Saint Nick’s clerics dress like their patron, with red robes over their armor and a whipping stick at the ready. They can learn the spells Chimney Charm and Magic Snow Ball when they learn to cast cleric spells of the equivalent level. Saint Nick’s clerics must pass on 50% of all treasure they collect to the poor and needy. At 9th level, they build fortified orphanages and hospices, conducting waifs and the sick from cities via caravan to their palaces of generosity.

Pars Fortuna Preview – 12 Magic Armors

/ jstater / 4 Comments

For PARS FORTUNATM, I wanted to do something slightly different with magic items. To that end, I kept the concept of potions and scrolls (in a slightly tweaked format), but I decided to make all other magic items unique. I’ve used the treasure system in Swords and Wizardry quite a bit in producing my NODTM sandboxes, and so I knew that magic items in Swords and Wizardry are, by the rules, rare enough that unique magic items should work. After all, if the magic items in PARS FORTUNATM were not unique, it would have been pretty tricky to randomize them. Here, then, is the master magic item table, and the items in the Armor category.

TABLE 44: OTHER MAGIC ITEMS

1 Armor
2 Bauble
3 Cube
4 Raiment
5 Shield
6 Staff
7 Sword
8 Weapon – Melee
9 Weapon – Missile
10 Miscellaneous

Armor
Most magical armor carries an enchantment of +1 to +3. This bonus applies to the wearer’s AC, thus +1 light armor would give one a +3 bonus to AC rather than the usual +2 bonus. Magical armor resizes itself to fit its owner perfectly.

TABLE 45: MAGIC ARMOR

1 Hospitaler’s Helm
2 Ymbrym’s Bulwark
3 Champion’s Cuirass
4 Armor of Orth
5 Sollerets of ESP
6 Scales of Faduz
7 Hoden’s Mail
8 Crusader’s Breastplate
9 Gauntlets of Kriusaichon
10 Ruby Scales
11 Zena’s Robe of Spells
12 Emperor’s Armor

Armor of Orth: Orth was a kyssai scoundrel who have his life protecting a village from raiders. His armor was blessed by his heroism, and has long been lost by the champion of that forgotten village. Orth’s armor is a suit of leather armor (+1 light armor), the breastplate being stamped with a cornucopia. When the right fist is held aloft, the armor glows with light as bright as a torch. When the left fist is held aloft, the wearer and his comrades are immune to mind effects.

Champion’s Cuirass: Forged by the ilel and then lost during one of their many wars, this blue-steel cuirass is +1 medium armor and creates a 10-ft radius zone of magic resistance (10%) around the wearer.

Crusader’s Breastplate: This breastplate is washed in gold and has crimson leather straps. It counts as +2 medium armor and allows the wearer to control flames, making them brighter, snuffing them out, or causing them to leap at targets (treat as missile attack, 1d6 damage). The wearer gains a +2 bonus to save vs. fire.

Emperor’s Armor: This suit of plate armor is made of silvered steel, and the breastplate is marked with a noble crest of a hhai rampant. Owned by an ancient emperor of Vex, it was lost during the coup of the ilel, and it is prophesied that the person who will overthrow the ilel will come wearing this armor. Volzaar’s armor allows the wearer to fly (movement of 12), and the owner of the armor does not age. In daylight, it can be commanded to dazzle all in sight (saving throw allowed to negate the effect) once per day.

Gauntlets of Kriusaichon: These black boiled leather gauntlets allow the wearer to make a level drain attack with their touch. Treat this as a normal melee attack. Each time a level (or Hit Dice) is drained, the wearer permanently loses 1 point of charisma, their appearance becoming more ghoulish and unwholesome.

Hoden’s Mail: The famed olvugai adventurer Hoden wore this expansive coat of mail. The mail acts as +2 heavy armor and, on the wearer’s command, casts the spell Invulnerability.

Hospitaler’s Helm: This conical steel helm gives its wearer the ability to heal 2d6 points of damage with a touch once per day. The wearer, unfortunately, is struck with deafness while wearing the helm.

Mail of Ymbrym: Ymbrym was an olvugai smith of the highest order and arrogance. The coat of mail that reaches to the ankles and shines with an inner fire. It is +1 heavy armor and grants the wearer immunity to magical ranged attacks of level 1 to 3 (i.e. cantraps). Unfortunately, the wearer becomes an overbearing know-it-all while in the mail.

Ruby Scales: This +3 medium armor is composed of crimson-tinged scales of metal on a leather backing. On the chest, the armor is bejeweled with three perfect rubies that blaze with an inner fire. These rubies enable the wearer of the armor to cast three Maledictions. As Malediction is cast, a ruby loses its sheen. When all three have been cast, the armor disappears.

Scales of Faduz: Forged by the infamous osk smith Faduz, this +2 medium armor of lacquered black metal with gilded edges allows the owner to shape shift into the form of a beast. The chosen form cannot have more Hit Dice than the wearer of the armor. It has the side effect of making the wearer look more bestial.

Sollerets of ESP: Sollerets are, basically, armored shoes. This pair is made of steel and has long, pointed toes. The wearer of the sollerets gains the ability to read people’s minds, but each time this power is invoked, they develop a painful, ugly boil on their face. These boils effectively lower the wearer’s charisma by 2, and last for 1d6 days.

Zena’s Robe of Spells: Zena was a magician of olden times, claimed by all the magical races as one of their own. Her robe is made of thick leather, and acts as +3 light armor. Once per day, the wearer can cast any spell of a level equal to or lower than their Hit Dice.

Mines and Mining – Part Five

/ jstater

The Finale! Previous posts are as follows:

Part One: Mining and Smelting
Part Two: Alabaster to Corundum
Part Three: Diamond to Lodestone
Part Four: Marble to Rhodochrosite

—

Salt
Natron (5 sp / lb): Art, Preservation
Salt (5 gp / lb): Alchemy, Cooking

Salt occurs as a white, pink or reddish mineral in rock salt form. Rock salt occurs in vast beds of sedimentary minerals resulting from the drying of enclosed lakes and seas. These salt beds may by up to 350 meters thick and cover many square miles. Salt is also extracted from sea water.

Salt can be extracted from rock salt deposits by mining it. This was traditionally a very dangerous profession, and thus left to slaves and convicts. The salt occurs in the form of irregular salt domes, and may be transparent, white, pink, reddish or red in alternating bands. Some salt mines still in operation today are very ancient, including famous mines in the Punjab and Poland. These mines cover many square miles, run up to 10 levels deep, and have hundreds of miles of passages and thousands of chambers. In other words, they would make perfect dungeons.

Salt can also be collected from salt water from the sea or from brine springs. When extracted from water, the salt is either evaporated from the water using salt pans (pots made from a crude ceramic material called briquetage) or by boiling it down over a fire. Even when boiling is used, the brine is usually allowed to evaporate in salterns in order to concentrate it before the boiling occurs.

Salt is a useful material on its own, primarily as a food additive and an alchemical ingredient. At some points in time it was almost as valuable as gold. Alchemists can make spirit of salt, or hydrochloric acid, by mixing salt with vitriol (sulfuric acid). Spirit of salt was mixed with aqua fortis (see Urine) to produce aqua regia, the gold dissolving acid. Alchemists also used salt to produce sal mirabilis, or miraculous salt, a popular laxative.

Another product of dry sea beds is natron. Natron was used as a grease-cutting cleaning agent, a mouthwash, and tooth paste. When blended with olive oil, it made soap. Natron was an ingredient in antiseptics and it was used to dry and preserve fish and meat, kill insects, make leather and bleach clothing. The Egyptians used it in the mummi-fication process because it absorbs water. When added to castor oil, it made a smokeless fuel, allowing artists to pain in tombs without staining them with soot. The Romans combined natron with sand and lime in their glass and ceramic production, and it was used as a flux in soldering precious metals and as an ingredient in blue paint.

Sandstone
Sandstone (8 sp / lb): Architecture

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed of sand-sized minerals. Most is comprised of quartz and feldspar, the most common minerals in the Earth’s crust. Sandstone is usually colored tan, brown, yellow, red, gray and white. It is a common building material because it is easy to work and often resistant to weathering.

Serpentine
Serpentine (1 gp / lb): Architecture, Art

Serpentine is a group of many different minerals. The Romans called them “serpent rock”. They come in colors ranging from white to grey, yellow to green, brown to black and they are usually splotchy or veined. Serpentine is plentiful in sea beds. In the soil, it is toxic to plant life, and thus deposits often underlie strips of grassland in wooded areas. Serpentine marble (lizardite) ranges from red to green and weathers very well. Serpentine is a common stone in hardcarving. It can be carved into art objects or used as an architectural facing.

Silver
Silver (100 sp / lb): Art, Coins, Equipment

Silver, or argentum, is a whitish metal that is harder than gold, but still easily worked. This made it an excellent material for making coins, and in fact most coins through history were minted from silver. There are three main sources of silver: Quartz, galena and acanthite. For more information on quartz, see the entry for Gold & Quartz. For information on galena, see the entry for Lead. Acanthite is a blackish-grey mineral with a metallic luster.

Silver is most often used to make coins. Historically, silver coins were far more common than gold and copper (or bronze, brass, billon or potin) coins. In fantasy games, silver is also used on weapons, probably in the form of silver plate, because of its effect on lycanthropes. Silvering a weapon would probably involve the use of mercury, and would be performed by an alchemist rather than a smith.

Lunar Caustic, or lapis infernalis, was made by dissolving silver in aqua fortis and evaporating the substance. Sticks of lunar caustic were used in surgery because of its antiseptic properties. It blackens the hands. Argentum fulminans, or fulminating silver, is a silver compound that explodes readily, though the charge is fairly harmless in small amounts.

In mythology and folklore, silver is associated with the moon, thus lycanthrope’s vulnerability to silver.

Slate
Slate (5 cp / lb): Architecture

Slate is a grey stone formed from shale. The most common use for the stone is roof shingles, though high quality slate can be used for grave markers and other monuments.

Soapstone
Soapstone (1 cp / lb): Art

Soapstone is rock composed of talc and rich in magnesium. Soapstone has been a medium for carving for thousands of years. Native Americans used it to create bowls, cooking slabs and smoking pipes, the Indians for temple carvings and the Chinese for official seals. It is highly heat resistant, making it a good material for cooking slabs, seals that are to be dipped in hot wax and as a mold for soft metals.

Spinel
Spinel: Medium Gem

Spinel is a class of minerals found in gemstone bearing gravel, limestone and marble. Spinels range from blue to mauve or dark green, brown or black in color.

Sulfur
Black Powder (3 gp / lb): Equipment (Guns)
Sulfur (1 sp / lb): Alchemy, Laundry, Medicine
Vitriol (10 gp / vial): Acid

Sulfur is a soft, yellow mineral that can be found near volcanoes and hot springs and in salt domes. It can also be extracted from pyrite (iron + sulfur), cinnabar (mercury + sulfur), galena (lead + sulfur), sphalerite (zinc + sulfur), stibnite (antimony + sulfur) and the sulfates, gypsum, alunite and barite.

Sulfur is extracted by stacking deposits in brick kilns built on sloping hillsides, making sure to leave airspace between them. Powdered sulfur is then placed on top of these piles and ignited. As the elemental sulfur burns, the heat melts the sulfur in the deposits, causing molten sulfur to flow down the hillside. It is then collected in wooden buckets.

Sulfur was used by the Egyptians to treat granular eyelids, and the Greeks used it for fumigation and bleaching cloth. Sulfur was also used, along with phosphorus, by Robert Boyle in a forerunner to modern matches. Sulfur is odorless. The odors associated with it come from hydrogen sulfide in rotten eggs and sulfur dioxide in burnt matches.

Alchemists could turn sulfur into a powerful acid called vitriol. Vitriol was, in fact, sulfuric acid. It was made by burning sulfur into sulfur dioxide, and then converting the sulfur dioxide into pure sulfuric acid.

The colors of Jupiter’s moon Io are from various forms of sulfur. The planet probably smells of brimstone, and could be an excellent haunt for demons and devils.

Terracotta
Clay (5 cp / lb): Art

Terracotta, from the Italian for “baked earth”, is a clay-based ceramic. Terracotta usually has a reddish-orange color. Terracotta could be glazed or unglazed. It could be used to make pottery, figurines, bricks and roof shingles. Perhaps the most famous use of terracotta was in the creation of Chinese Emperor Qin Shi-Huang’s terracotta army. Virtually all cultures made use of terracotta, from China to India to Greece and Western Africa. Terracotta could be dried in the sun or baked in kilns.

Tin
Tin (3 gp / lb): Alloys, Equipment

Tin, or stannum, is a silvery metal that is primarily found in an ore called casserite. Pure tin deposits are sometimes found near river and stream flows. Miners harvest this tin by digging a trench at the bottom of a deposit, loosening the gravel with a pick, and then running water over the gravel to remove unwanted material. This process creates gullies. Casserite occurs in quartz deposits. It is a black to reddish brown to yellow crystalline mineral. It is found with tourmaline, topaz and arsenopyrite (q.v.).

Tin was mostly used in the form of bronze or pewter. Bronze is an alloy of tin and copper (see Copper above). Pewter is an alloy of tin and lead (85:15) that might also contain portions of antimony or copper.

Tin ingot currency (see below), with each ingot weighing one pound, was used in Indo-china and the Malay Peninsula during the 14th and 15th century.

Alchemists created “butter of tin”, or tin chloride, which was used in the dyeing industry to fix colors.

Topaz
Topaz: Medium Gem

Topaz is a gem that occurs with granite or rhyolite lava flows. Pure topaz is colorless, but tinted wine, yellow, pale grey, reddish-orange or blue-brown from impurities. Precious topaz is orange and imperial topaz is yellow, pink or pink-orange. Blue topaz is the rarest. Folklore holds that topaz wards away evil spirits.

Tourmaline
Tourmaline: Medium Gem

Tourmaline is a semi-precious stone found compounded with such elements as aluminum, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium and potassium. It occurs with granite, marble and schist. There are several varieties of the gem. About 95% of all tourmalines are schorls, and colored bluish to brownish to black schorl. Dravite is a dark yellow to brownish-black, rubellite is rose or pink, indicolite is light blue to bluish-green, verdelite is green and achronite is a colorless tourmaline.

Turquoise
Turquoise: Minor Gem

Turquoise is blue-green mineral. It is a hydrous phosphate of aluminum and copper. Even the best turquoise is only a bit harder than glass. It forms from the action of acidic solutions on pre-existing minerals during weathering, often from such minerals as malachite and feldspar. Turquoise is often a by-product of copper mines. Turquoise has been valued as a precious stone for thousands of years. It was used by the ancient Aztecs, Chinese, Egyptians, Mesopotamians and Persians, for whom it was the national stone. The name derives from the French for a product derived from Persia imported through Turkey. It did not become a common ornamental stone in Europe until the 14th century. Common belief held that the stone had prophylactic qualities, and would change color to indicate the health of its owner. It was also supposed to aid horses.

Urine
Aqua Fortis (50 gp / vial): Acid
Black Powder (3 gp / lb): Equipment (Guns)
Saltpeter (2 gp / lb): Alchemy

Urine is not a mineral, but it contains minerals and it was an important material for Medieval industry. It was used as a source for both phosphorus (q.v.) and saltpeter, or potassium nitrate. Saltpeter is Latin for “stone salt”, and it was a critical ingredient in black powder and slow matches. Saltpeter was obtained by mixing manure with either mortar or wood ashes, common earth and straw into a compost heap 5 feet high by 5 feet wide by 15 feet wide. The heap was covered to protect it from the weather and kept moist with urine. This leached the water from the heap after one year, with the remaining liquid being mixed with wood ashes to produce saltpeter. The saltpeter crystals are added to sulfur and charcoal to produce black powder.

From saltpeter, the alchemist can produce aqua fortis, or strong water. Aqua fortis is nitric acid, a highly corrosive and toxic substance. Aqua fortis was used as a solvent to dissolve silver and most other metals, with the exception of gold and platinum. It was prepared by mixing sand, alum or vitriol with saltpeter and then distilling it by a hot fire. The gas that is produced condenses into aqua fortis. Refiners used this acid to separate silver from gold and copper, to mosaic workers for staining and coloring wood, and to other artists for coloring bone and ivory a fine purple color. Book binders used it to produce a marble effect on leather. Lapidaries use it to separate diamonds from metalline powders and to etch copper and brass. When mixed with oil of vitriol, it was used to stain canes with a tortoise shell effect.

Alchemists mixed aqua fortis with spirit of salt to create aqua regia, the gold dissolving acid and an important step in the creation of the philosopher’s stone.

Zinc
Zinc (7 gp / lb): Alloys

Zinc is a grey metal that is found in deposits of sphalerite. Sphalerite, which is also called zincblende, black-jack, and mock lead, is a yellow, brown or grey mineral.

Zinc is smelted by roasting in an oven. The zinc is placed in a clay retort shaped like a cylinder resting on a funnel. The retort is also packed with dolemite and a fuel like cow dung. The retort is then placed vertically into a furnace, which causes the zinc to become a vapor that condenses in the clay funnel and drips into a collection vessel. Such a furnace can separate 450 pounds of zinc in a day, producing sulfuric acid as a by-product.

Zinc is primarily used as an alloy with copper in brass. Flower of zinc, an alchemical compound also called zinc oxide, was used as a salve for the eyes, skin conditions and open wounds. It is still used in baby powder and creams that prevent or fight rash. The Romans used flower of zinc in paints and to make brass.

Zircon
Hyacinth: Medium Gem
Jacinth: Medium Gem
Jargoon: Medium Gem
Zircon: Medium Gem

Zircons occur in many kinds of rocks, but mostly granite. Zircons can be black, brown, hazel, pink, red, yellow or colorless. Light colored zircons are called jargoons, a corruption of the Persian zargun, or “golden colored”. Red zircons are called jacinths, and yellow zircons hyacinths.

Zircons were believed to decorate the lost city of Iram and the hilt of Excalibur. In the Roland cycles, Ganelon gave his wife Bramimunde two golden necklaces inlaid with jacinths and amethysts. According to the Book of Enoch, there is a mountain of jacinth in Hell. Jacinth was believed to be a good luck stone for travelers. It also wards off plague and protects one from fire.

Zarmon’s Hammer, a minor artifact

/ jstater / 1 Comment

This is a minor artifact I worked up for Jeff Rient’s open call.

Zarmon’s Hammer
Zarmon was a great smith, maybe the greatest smith in the world, or perhaps in all the Motherlands. This is a point of dispute among sages and was a point of honor to Zarmon when he yet drew breath. One winter, in the depths of the twilit season and in the throes of a pernicious melancholy, Zarmon resolved to seal his fame and forge a magical weapon, a sword. As a master smith in great demand, he had many opportunities to consult with great mages, and peppered each one who walked into his workshop with questions about the forging of magical things. While most had not the skill or knowledge to help him, a few truly learned men and women advised him that his endeavor must end in failure, for he had no command over things arcane. Finally, one archimage (possibly the magnificent Baloc) told him that, indeed, an enchanted weapon was not beyond his abilities if he was completely dedicated to the task. He would have to forge the weapon in the presence of raw elemental power and mingle his own blood, his own soul, with the weapon.

Following Baloc’s instructions, Zarmon moved his factory and household to the southern island of Taprobane, to a place where hot magma flowed into the pounding surf. There, on a windswept ridge, he constructed a forge and began working on his sword. For a year and a day he worked at refining the steel and folding it, pounding it every day with his trusty hammer, firing it in the flowing magma, quenching it in the pounding surf and anointing it with his very lifeblood. For a year and a day he poured his every waking moment into the sword, the great sword, the greatest sword forged by mortal man. And on the final day of his task, at the completion of his work, he laid his hammer on his anvil and held aloft the unadorned blade and watched it cut the wind and throw the sunlight off its back and a tremor shook Zarmon. He dropped to his knees, gasped a final breath, and toppled with his masterpiece into the flowing magma, and smith and sword ceased to be. All that was left of Zarmon the Smith was his old, trusty hammer, with which he had forged a thousand swords and known a thousand joys and sorrows and built for him a reputation as a worker of wonders.

Zarmon the Smith did not leave behind an enchanted sword for the ages, but he did leave an enchanted hammer that passed into the hands of his sons and made them almost as great as their father, and then passed into the mists of time when their workshop on the shores of Taprobane was sacked by pirates. The hammer exists to this day, looking for all the world like an old smith’s hammer and still working wonders in steel.

2 x I: ____________, ____________
1 x II: ____________
1 x III: ____________

Art: The Smithy by Martin Driscoll.

Mines and Mining – Part Four

/ jstater

This post covers minerals M through R.

Part One, Part Two, Part Three.

Marble
Marble (4 gp / lb); Architecture, Art

Marble is formed from the metamorphism of limestone. It is mostly comprised of crystals of aragonite and dolomite. The name derives from the Greek for “shining stone”. Pure white marble comes from very pure limestone. The swirls seen in most marble are impurities from clay, silt, sand, iron and other materials. Green coloration is usually from the presence of serpentine. Marble’s relative softness, resistance to shattering, and color made it a popular medium for sculpture and architecture.

Mercury
Cinnabar (3 gp / lb); Alchemy, Art
Mercury (10 gp / lb); Alchemy, Art
Vermillion (2 gp / oz); Pigment (Red)

Mercury, also called quicksilver or hydrargyrum, is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature. It is a silvery metal found in deposits of calomel, livingstonite, corderite and cinnabar. Cinnabar is a scarlet to brick red mineral that is found in alkali hot springs and near volcanoes, often with dolomite.

Mercury is separated from cinnabar and other minerals by roasting. The mercury condenses easily into a condensing column and then collected and shipped in iron flasks.

Alchemists would heat elemental mercury with aqua fortis to prepare mercuric oxide. The reaction produced a thick, red vapor over the surface of the solution, while the mercuric oxide fell out of solution as red crystals. The oxygen released from this solution was called “dephlogisticated air” by Joseph Priestley.

Cinnabar is a source of vermillion, an orange-red pigment that has been used since prehistoric times. To the Romans, who called it minium, It was the most valuable pigment. The imperial government fixed the price at 70 sesterces to the pound, ten times more expensive than red ochre, because of the incredible demand and the short supply of cinnabar. Like many ancient pigments, it was toxic. The Olmecs and Mayans relied on its toxic reputation to repel tomb robbers, putting it in burial chambers and inserting it into limestone sarcophagi. The Chinese used it in carved lacquer ware, the layer of lacquer protecting people from the toxicity of the cinnabar.

Mercury dissolved gold and silver, making it useful in plating those two metals over other materials. Alchemists combined mercury with tin, sal ammoniac and flowers of sulfur to make mosaic gold, a yellow, crystalline powder used as a pigment in bronzing and gilding wood and metal.

Obsidian
Obsidian; Equipment, Minor Gem

Obsidian is volcanic glass that occurs in obsidian flows near active or dead volcanoes. It is usually black, but impurities can make it dark green to brown and even colorless. Obsidian with fluffy white inclusions is called snowflake obsidian. Gas bubbles can produce obsidian with a golden or rainbow sheen. Obsidian has been used since prehistoric times to craft blades, tools and projectiles. It can also be cut as a gem and used in art objects and jewelry.

Olivine and Peridot
Olivine; Minor Gem
Peridot; Medium Gem

Olivine is a greenish mineral common on Earth, the Moon, Mars and in comets. Gem quality olivine is called peridot. Peridot occurs in lava rocks. It is a rare gem and always colored olive green. Peridot is the only gemstone found in meteorites. Olivine is supposed to provide protection from magic spells, while peridot wards off enchantments.

Opal
Fire Opal; Medium Gem
Opal; Medium Gem

Opals are a mineraloid gel commonly found in sandstone and basalt. The water content in opals can be quite high, up to 20%. Opals range from colorless, white, gray, red, orange, yellow, blue, green, magenta, rose, pink, slate, olive, brown and black. Opals that have red against black are the rarest, while white and green opals are the most common. Fire opals are translucent, transparent opals of warm colors, such as yellow, orange or red. Opals were believed to be lucky stones and to cause invisibility if wrapped in a bay leaf and held in the hand.

Pearl
Pearl; Minor Gem

Pearl is not a stone, though it does have a mineral base. Pearls are produced by a living, shelled mollusk. They are made from layers of nacre, or mother-of-pearl. The best pearls are produced by oysters, but they are quite rare. In a haul of 3 tons, only 3 or 4 oysters will produce perfect pearls. The largest pearl yet found came from a giant clam, and weighed 14 pounds. White and black pearls are the most common and popular pearls, but there are also pink, blue, champagne, green and purple pearls.

Phosphorus
Phosphorus (7 gp / oz); Alchemy
Proto-Match (1 gp); Equipment

Phosphorus does not occur free in nature, but can be found with many other minerals, especially apatite. White phosphorus was discovered in 1669, by German alchemist Hennig Brand. It was named for Phosphorus, the light-bearer, i.e. Lucifer.

The most common way of obtaining phosphorus was from human waste. The process involves boiling urine to produce a residue which was heated to produce phosphorus gas which would condense into a white powder. The powder is flammable and capable of blistering fingers and burning holes in cloth. It takes 2,000 gallons of urine to produce one pound of phosphorus.

Hennig Brand eventually sold the recipe for 200 thalers (approximately 80 gp) and others eventually figured out the recipe from clues left by Brand. In 1680, Robert Boyle made the forerunner to modern matches when he used phosphorus-coated paper to ignite a sulfur-tipped wooden splint that he rubbed across the paper.

Pitchblende (Uranium)
Pitchblende (100 gp / lb); Art, Magic Items

Pitchblende, or uraninite, is a black mineral that contains uranium, lead, thorium, rare earth minerals and radium. The radium and lead are due to the decay of the uranium. Pitchblende was usually found with silver deposits.

Refined uranium is a silvery white metal. The element was discovered in 1789 by the apothecary Martin Heinrich Klaproth, but the metal was not isolated until 1841 by chemist Eugene-Melchior Peligot, making it unlikely to have been discovered in most fantasy settings. Unrefined pitchblende, however, was added to glass and mosaic tiles to give them a yellow-green to orange-red color. This uranium glass was usually about 2% uranium. Given the composition of pitchblende, a Referee who is running a science-fantasy game might want to require it as an ingredient for making magical objects.

Platinum
Platinum (1,000 gp / lb); Coins, art objects

Platinum is a silvery metal that is resistant to corrosion and acid and malleable enough to work. It occurs with copper and nickel ores, often in the sands of rivers.

Like gold, platinum dissolves in aqua regia, and this substance was used to isolate pure platinum in the 18th century. More often, natural platinum, which is combined with other metals in the platinum family, is found and was worked by ancient peoples.

Platinum is harder than gold or silver, and with a much higher melting point. Platinum was unknown in Medieval Europe, but the peoples of pre-Columbian Central and South America were aware of a naturally occurring gold-platinum alloy and used it to make jewelry. Once the Europeans obtained platinum, they found they had no way of making a fire hot enough to melt it, which prevented them from minting the platinum coins sometimes seen in fantasy games. Such coins, had they existed, would have probably been made from the aforementioned alloy (and thus worth 5 gp each).

Porphyry
Porphyry (5 gp / lb); Architecture, Art

Imperial porphyry is a deep brownish-purple rock used to build monuments and buildings in ancient Rome and in hardcarving. It is an igneous rock that contains crystals of quartz (q.v.) and feldspar (q.v.). It came from a single quarry in the rocky wastes of Egypt’s eastern deserts.

Quartz
Amethyst; Major Gem, Protection from Drunkenness
Aventurine; Medium Gem
Banded Agate; Minor Gem, Sleep
Carnelian; Medium Gem, Protection from Evil
Chalcedony; Medium Gem, Protection from Undead
Chrysoprase; Medium Gem, Invisibility
Citrine; Medium Gem
Jasper; Minor Gem, Protection from Poison
Moss Agate; Minor Gem, Sleep
Onyx; Medium Gem, Cause Chaos
Rock Crystal; Minor Gem
Rose Quartz; Minor Gem
Sard; Medium Gem
Sardonyx; Medium Gem
Smoky Quartz; Minor Gem
Tiger’s Eye; Minor Gem, Protection from Ethereal Creatures

Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth’s crust after feldspar. It occurs with granite, shale, schist, sandstone, and gneiss. Pliny believed it was permanently frozen ice because it was often found near glaciers, but not volcanoes, and in spherical form would cool the hands and act as a prism. Quartz deposits often contain gold (q.v.).

Many forms of quartz are precious stones. Pure quartz is rock crystal, citrine is pale yellow, rose quartz is pink, amethyst purple, smoky quartz gray, milky quartz (the most common) white, jasper reddish brown, tiger’s eye is gold and red-brown and hawk’s eye is blue.

Agate, a form of quartz, comes in many varieties, including banded agate and moss agate. Onyx is a black agate with bands every color but blue and purple. Sardonyx replaces the black of onyx with brown. Both are cut into cabochons and used for intaglios (i.e. engraved gems).

Chalcedony is a white or lightly colored quartz. It can also be banded. Aventurine is translucent chalcedony with shimmering inclusions. Carnelian is translucent orange-red, while sard is a brown carnelian. Chrysoprase is gemstone quality chalcedony that is apple green to deep green.

The native Americans called quartz geodes that contained agate, jasper or opal “thunder eggs”. They believed that they were thrown by thunder spirits at one another.

Rhodochrosite
Rhodochrosite; Medium Gem

Rhodochrosite is a precious stone that varies in color from rose red to pink or pale brown. The purest form of the stone is rose red in color. Rhodochrosite occurs in hydro-thermal veins in silver ore deposits. The Incas believed it to be the hardened blood of their ancient kings. As a soft mineral with perfect cleavage, it is difficult to facet.

Mines and Mining – Part Three

/ jstater / 4 Comments

Entries D-L. Click for Part One and Part Two.

Diamond
Diamond; Major Gem

Diamonds are the hardest known minerals. Perfect diamonds are clear and colorless, while other diamonds contain impurities that lend them a tint. These colors, in order of their rarity, are yellow, brown, blue, green, black, translucent white, pink, violet, orange, purple and red. Diamonds are the product of deep, volcanic eruptions and thus appear in volcanic areas, often in river deposits. Diamonds can also be formed by meteor impacts. The name is derived from the Greek for “un-breakable”. Indians venerated them as religious icons. The undead are vulnerable to diamonds.

Feldspar, Moonstone and Sunstone
Moonstone; Minor Gem
Sunstone; Medium Gem

Feldspar is an igneous rock formed from magma flows. It is one of the most common rocks in the Earth’s crust. The name derives from the German for “field” and “a rock that does not contain ore”. It is a common ingredient in the production of ceramics and it is used as an abrasive.

There are two forms of feldspar that are considered precious stones. Moonstone is a feldspar with a pearly, luminescent luster. Moonstones were believed to cause lycanthropy. Sunstones are a transparent, reddish feldspar with a spangled appearance. Sunstone is believed to ward spells, evil spirits and poison.

FlintFlint (7 cp / lb); Architecture, Equipment

Flint has been mined since prehistoric times. It is a form of quartz known for its hardness. Flint occurs as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks such as chalk and limestone. Inside the nodule, it is a dark grey, black, white, green or brown in color, and usually glossy. When struck, flint splits into sharp flakes or blades. This process is called knapping, and was used during the stone age to made tools and weapons. When struck against steel, flint produces sparks. This alone makes it useful to adventurers. Because of its ability to create sparks, flint was used in flintlock firearms. Flint was also used a building material. Nodules of flint will explode if heated by fire.

Garnet
Garnet; Medium Gem

Garnet is a group of minerals that has been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. Among their number are carbuncles (almandine), a deep red stone that occurs in mica schists. Carbuncle was believed to have been present in the Garden of Evil. Pyrope (“fire eyed) is a transparent garnet colored deep red to nearly black. Uvarovite is a bright green garnet that occurs in crystalline marbles and schists, but it too small to facet. Carbuncles are supposed to give one the keen sight of a dragon.

Glass
Faience (5 gp / lb); Art
Glass (3 sp / lb); Art

Glass is made from silica and other compounds, typically soda, lime, lead and even pitchblende. The impurities might make the glass easier to work, glossier or tinted. Naturally occurring glass, like obsidian, were used by primitive people to make tools and weapons. The first true glass was made in the Middle East. The earliest glass products are beads, but by the Bronze Age people were making colored glass ingots and vessels. By the Middle Ages, most of the glass items we are used to today, such as windows, dining ware and mirrors, were in production.

Faience is an early ceramic invented by the Egyptians. Faience contains no clay. Rather, it is composed of crushed quartz or sand, with small amounts of lime and other ingredients. In the early days, it was given a blue-green glaze and used as a substitute for precious stones of that color, such as turquoise or lapis lazuli.

Gold
Electrum (50 gp / lb); Art, Coins
Gold (100 gp / lb); Art, Coins

Gold, or aurum, is a shiny, yellow mineral that has been valued by humans since ancient times. It is found in quartz deposits, usually with silver, sometimes in the form of electrum. The Romans uncovered gold deposits by unleashing pent up water to wash away the top soil. The quartz was then mined with picks and shovels, crushed, and washed in placers to separate the gold.

Gold is inert and malleable, making it an excellent material for coins and other art objects. Gold was alloyed with copper to create orichalcum and hepatizon. In quartz deposits, It was found as a natural alloy with silver called electrum. Electrum is harder and more durable than gold, so it was used as an early coinage. Unfortunately, the difficulty in determining the exact ratio of gold to silver in electrum meant it was impossible to determine the true value of an electrum coin. For this reason, silver soon replaced electrum as the metal of choice for coinage. Most electrum is 75% gold and 25% silver and copper. For fantasy coinage, it is simple enough to assign electrum coins a value between gold and silver.

Gold was associated with the Sun. It was believed to be the perfect, most noble metal because it is inert and only dissolved in aqua regia. The secret of turning base metals into gold was not merely a quest for wealth. Rather, the mystic alchemist was attempting to reach perfect spiritual purity, transforming his mortal form into a divine form.

GraniteGranite (3 gp / lb); Architecture

Granite is an igneous rock formed from magma. It has a coarse texture and can be pink to dark grey to black. Outcrops of granite tend to form tors or rounded massifs, and sometimes occur as round depressions surrounded by hills. The name is derived from the Latin for “crystalline rock”. Granite is hard, tough and heavy, and thus favored as a building material. Some of the pyramids were built of granite blocks, or a combination of granite and limestone.

Hematite
Hematite; Minor Gem
Ochre (6 sp / oz); Pigment
Tomb Dust (100 gp / lb); Trap

Hematite is black to reddish brown to red mineral found in bodies of water or near volcanoes. It usually occurs in banded iron deposits, which are found in primordial sedimentary rocks, usually with thin bands of shale and chert. Hematite is an iron-bearing ore (see Iron), but has many uses in its own right.

Hematite gives ochre clay its color. Ochre was a common cosmetic in ancient and medieval times, being used by Egyptian women to color their lips and Pict warriors to color their bodies for war. In powdered form, it is used as a trap in tombs. The powdered hematite is scattered thickly on the floor to be stirred up by tomb robbers. Once airborne, it irritates the skin, eyes and nose, eventually causing siderosis, a lung disease. Hematite is used as a gemstone in jewelry, especially as an engraved gem.

Hematite is believed to have the power to heal wounds and can aid fighters in combat. It is also supposed to be good for ailments of the blood.

Iron
Copperas (5 sp / lb); Equipment (Ink)
Iron (8 sp / lb); Equipment
Iron Pyrite (2 sp / oz); Equipment (Guns)
Steel (5 gp / lb); Equipment

Iron, or ferrum, occurs in the mineral iron pyrite and in banded iron deposits. Iron pyrite, also called brazzle or fool’s gold, looks vaguely like gold ore. Iron pyrite creates sparks when struck with steel, and is thus useful for starting fires and igniting guns. Banded iron deposits are found in primordial sedimentary rocks with thin layers of shale and chert. Banded iron deposits also contain hematite and lodestone.

Iron was first gathered by humans from meteors. This meteoric iron had a high nickel content, and was used to make tools and weapons. Iron was harder and more durable than bronze, and thus highly valued. The Hittites traded silver for it at 40 times the weight of the iron. Bog iron was used by the Celts and Vikings, and in Colonial America. Bog iron occurs where iron is eroded from stone by a river and then settles in a bog.

Iron is smelted from iron pyrite using bloomeries, blast furnaces and fineries. Most processes create either wrought iron or bar iron, which can be used to make cast iron objects. There are various methods for refining iron into steel by removing carbon impurity.

Iron pyrite is used in wheel-lock firearms. It was also used to make copperas (see below). This was done by heaping it up and allowing it to weather, the acidic runoff being boiled with iron to produce copperas. Copperas, in turn, was an ingredient in vitriol, or sulfuric acid (see Sulfur).

Alchemists used iron in the production of copperas, which they nicknamed the green lion. Copperas is iron-sulphate, a blue-green powder. It was used in the manufacture of gall iron ink and in wool dyeing. Gall iron ink was the standard writing ink of Medieval Europe. It was made by mixing copperas with gallotannic acid and gum arabic. Gallotannic acid is extracted from oak galls and fermented. Gum arabic is the sap of the acacia tree. The result of the mixture was a pale grey solution which darkens to a purple-black color when put on vellum or paper. It cannot be erased or washed away, only scraped, making it a good ink to use in spellbooks and important documents. Gall iron ink must be stored in a stoppered bottle and becomes unusable after a time. Its high acid content eventually destroys the paper and vellum it is put on.

Folklore often held that fairy-folk had an aversion to iron, or were in fact harmed by it. A Referee might want to allow iron or steel weapons to do +1d6 points of damage to fairy creatures, and maybe +1 damage to elves. This would leave elves using bronze weapons.

Jade
Jade; Minor Gem, Muscial Skill

Jade is actually two metamorphic stones called nephrite and jadeite. Nephrite is white or a variety of greens, while jadeite might be blue, lavender, mauve, pink or emerald green. Translucent green jade is the most valuable.

Jade has been carved since prehistoric times. It has the same toughness as quartz and has been carved into beads, buttons, axe heads, knives and all manner of art objects. Jade is usually worked with quartz or garnet sand and polished with bamboo or ground jade.

Jade’s name is derived from the Spanish for “loin stone”, as it was reputed to cure ailments of the loins and kidneys. It was the imperial stone of China and considered more valuable than gold or silver. It was the favored medium for carving scholarly items and opium pipes, because inhaling the fumes through jade would insure long life.

Jet
Jet; Minor Gem

Jet is a black or dark brown mineraloid that forms from decaying wood under extreme pressure. In essence, jet is a precious form of coal. Jet has been used in jewelry since 17,000 BC. Hard jet is the result of carbon compression and salt water, while soft jet results from fresh water.

Lapis Lazuli
Lapis Lazuli; Minor Gem

Lapis lazuli is a rock, not a mineral. It occurs in limestone deposits in Badakhshan province in Afghanistan. The rock has been mined, and valued, for 6,000 years. Lapis lazuli is made into jewelry, carvings, boxes, mosaics, ornaments and vases and is also used to clad the walls and columns of palaces and temples. Lapis lazuli is also ground into a powder to make ultramarine pigment for painting. It was used by the Assyrians and Babylonians for making seals and favored by the Egyptians for making amulets.

Lead
Lead (1 gp / lb); Alloy, Coins, Forgeries

Lead, or plumbum, is a bluish-grey metal that is very soft. It tarnishes very quickly, taking on a dark grey color. Lead is found in a mineral called galena. Galena is a silver-grey mineral that contains lead, silver, sulfur and arsenic.

Galena was initially mined from surface deposits using the fire-setting technique. It was then followed into veins that usually followed vertical fissures. Surface deposits are found in blighted areas, as lead is poisonous.

Lead was originally smelted from galena in boles, large fires built on a hill that used wind to stoke the flames. This required two days of strong wind and left a large heap of ore. Later, water mills powered bellows that stoked furnaces fueled by “white coal” (dried branches). The ore would be washed and smashed into bits and then smelted in these furnaces and cast into ingots. By-products of this smelting included silver and arsenic.

Galena was used in its own right as kohl, an Egyptian cosmetic for the eyes that was used to reduce the glare of the desert sun and to repel flies. Kohl was also used into Elizabethan times to give the skin a noble pallor.

Lead was most famously used by the Romans to cast pipes for their water and sewage systems. The Romans also used it to make terrerae, tokens distributed by the emperor that entitled the holder to food or money, and as a food preservative. The Chinese used lead to mint coins. Lead is part of the copper alloy called potin, which was also used to make coins. Geishas in Japan used lead carbonate for face-whitening make-up. Lead was also used in forgeries by plating it with gold.

Alchemists once made “sugar of lead”, or lead acetate. The substance has a sweet taste, and was used as a reagent to make other lead compounds, a fixitive for many dyes and as a sugar substitute. The Romans would produce it by boiling grape juice in lead pots. This would yield a sugar syrup called defrutum, which was further concentrated into sapa. The syrups were used to sweeten wine and to sweeten and preserve fruits. One possible result of using this syrup is, of course, lead poisoning.

Limestone
Limestone (1 sp / lb); Architecture
Quicklime (2 sp / lb); Alchemy
Travertine (2 gp / lb); Architecture

Limestone is a sedimentary rock comprised of calcite with measures of chert, flint, clay, silt and sand. Limestone makes up about 10% of the world’s sedimentary rocks, and is a common building material. The Great Pyramid at Giza is made entirely of limestone blocks. The English used a variety called beer stone in their churches. Crushed, lime-stone makes a solid base for road construction. Limestone can also be roasted down to create quicklime. The English once used quicklime as a weapon against a French fleet, throwing it in the eyes of their opponents. Quicklime was also an ingredient in Greek Fire, for when combined with water it increases its temperature to above 150-degrees and ignites the fuel.

Lodestone
Lodestone (25 gp); Magnet

Lodestone, or magnetite, is the most magnetic of the minerals. It can be found in the form of black sand on beaches and in banded iron deposits with hematite (q.v.) and iron (q.v.). Lodestones are black minerals.

Mines and Mining – Part Two

/ jstater / 1 Comment

This post includes minerals A-C. My original document, made as it was for personal use, was adorned with many photo references of metals, gems and old alchemical symbols. If any of the text refers to a picture that is not there, just google it and I’m sure you will find a usable reference.

With each material, I give a value in parentheses and then a quick list of its general uses. Art usually refers to jewelry (as in stuff that shows up on treasure lists). Minor, medium and major gems refers to the treasure generation system in Swords and Wizardry and do not give values, since such values are randomly determined. I should also note that in my NOD campaign, I used a measure of 100 coins to the pound, rather than the 10 coins to the pound that appears in games like OSRIC and Swords and Wizardry – adjust values of metal accordingly. The rest is, I’m sure, self explanatory.

—

Alabaster
Alabaster (6 sp / lb); Art

The alabaster that was used in ancient times was a carbonate of calcium. Alabaster occurs as a deposit on the floors and walls of limestone caves. Alabaster was a common stone used for hardcarving. The Egyptians used it to make perfume bottles, ointment vases and canopic jars. Small vessels used to hold perfume and precious oils were called alabastrons. There is even a record of an entire sarcophagus carved from a block of alabaster. When cut thin, alabaster could be used as a window, a technique used in many Medieval churches.

Amber
Amber; Minor Gem

Amber is fossilized tree resin (sap). It has been valued since prehistoric times. Amber is usually yellow-orange-brown, but can range from whitish to pale lemon yellow to brown and almost black. There is even red, green and blue amber, the blue being very rare and highly sought after. Oltu stone is a black amber found in Asia Minor. It is formed from fossilized resin and clay or lignite, and is used to make beads and jewelry. Amber can often be collected after it washes up on sea shores. Amber is supposed to have the power to ward off disease.

Antimony
Butter of Antimony (300 gp); Poison

Antimony, or stibnum, is a blue-white metal that is very brittle and thus easily crushed or powdered. It is most often found in the mineral stibnite, a soft, grey crystalline substance.

Antimony has a low melting point and is thus easy to cast. It is used to alloy tin, copper or lead.

Alchemists once prepared a substance called butter of antimony, or antimony trichloride. It was so called because of its waxy appearance. Butter of antimony is a soft, colorless solid with a pungent odor. Paracelsus called it Mercury of Life, and used it as a medicine. Unfortunately, butter of antimony is quite poisonous, and all Paracelsus managed to do with it was commit suicide. Butter of antimony was used to make powder of Algaroth, also known as spirits of philosophical vitriol. This was a white powder that was a powerful emetic.

Glass of antimony was also an emetic. It was prepared by putting ground antimony in an earthen crucible over a vigorous fire until it no longer fumed. The remaining substance, called calx, was then vitrified in a wind furnace, creating a transparent, reddish glass.

Antimony was symbolized by the wolf, as it was linked with man’s free spirit or animal nature.

Arsenic
Arsenic (1 gp / lb); Poison, Alloy
Orpiment (2 cp / oz); Pigment, Poison
Realgar (2 cp / oz); Pigment, Poison

Arsenic’s name is derived from the Persian for “yellow orpiment”. It is a metallic grey in color as a metal. Mispickel, realgar and orpiment are the most common arsenic-bearing ores. Mispickel, or arsenopyrite, is a hard, heavy steel grey to silver white mineral. It is found in hydrothermal vents and volcanic areas. Mispickel is also an indicator of gold-bearing ores, especially in reefs.

Realgar, called sandarach by Aristotle, is a soft, orange-red mineral with a sub-metallic luster. The name comes from the Arabic “rahj al-gar”, or “powder of the mine”. In India it was called manseel. Its decayed form, a yellow powder, is called pararealgar.

Orpiment is a yellow to orange mineral found near volcanoes, hydrothermal vents, hot springs and from the decay of realgar. Its name is Latin for “yellow pigment”, and it is also called “King’s Yellow” and hartal.

Dissolved in nitric acid, mispickel produces arsenic fumes and elemental sulfur. As a metal, arsenic was refined from realgar. The realgar was roasted, creating “cloud of arsenic”, or arsenius oxide. This vapor was then reduced to obtain the metal arsenic.

Arsenic’s main use was for murder, especially among nobles. It was called “Poison of Kings” or “King of Poisons” for this reason. The infamous Aqua Tofana was a poison made by a Giulia Tofana in Palermo for 50 years. It was sold both as a cosmetic and as a devotionary object in vials with pictures of St. Nicholas (as “Manna of St. Nicholas of Bari”) to women who wanted to kill their husbands. Aqua Tofana contained arsenic, lead and belladonna, and was colorless and tasteless, and thus easily mixed into drinks.

Arsenic was also alloyed with bronze to make a harder bronze called arsenical bronze. Orpiment and realgar were used as pigments in painting. The Chinese used both as an ingredient in medicines, and the Chinese also incorporated realgar into household ornaments (wine pots, wine cups, and paperweights) to ward off disease. The highly toxic nature of both pigments made them useful as fly poisons and as a poison (Type I) applied to arrows.

Alchemists turned arsenic into a substance they called flowers of antimony, or arsenic trioxide. This substance was obtained by roasting orpiment or realgar. The Chinese used flowers of antimony to treat cancer and other medical conditions, although it is really quite toxic.

Barium
Glowstone (2 gp); Equipment, Poison (Weak)

Although not isolated during the Middle Ages, barium was known through the mineral barite. Large deposits of barite in pebble form were found around the city of Bologna, and thus the pebbles were called Bologna stones. Apparently, Bologna stones, if exposed to light, would glow for years, making them attractive to alchemists and witches, and, in a fantasy setting, to dungeon delvers. In a fantasy milieu, they might be called glowstone. Glowstones produce as much light as a candle, but they are quite poisonous.

Beryl
Aquamarine; Medium Gem
Beryl; Medium Gem, Protection from Evil
Emerald; Major Gem

Beryl is a precious stone named by the Greeks for a blue-green color. It is found in granite called pegmatite and in mica schists. It can be found in a variety of colors including green-yellow, pure yellow and pink. Blue-green beryls are called aquamarines and pure green and pure red beryls are called emeralds and scarlet emeralds. Some emeralds, called trapiche, have a six-pointed grey star pattern. Beryl deposits are also a source of tin (q.v.).

Chalk
Chalk (8 cp / lb); Equipment

Chalk is a form of limestone composed of calcite. It is formed under deep marine conditions from the accumulation of tiny shelled creatures. Because it is more resistant to weathering than the clays that surround it, chalk often forms tall columns or cliffs. Chalk is white and soft, and thus useful for writing.

Chrysoberyl
Alexandrite; Medium Gem, Divination
Chrysoberyl; Medium Gem, Protection from Possession
Cymophane; Medium Gem

Chrysoberyl is a precious stone that bears no relationship to beryl. It occurs in granite and mica schists, near dolomitic marble and in sands and gravel from river deposits along with corundum (q.v.), garnet (q.v.) and topaz (q.v.). Chrysoberyl is the third hardest gemstone, ranking between corundum and topaz. It develops into twinned crystals in three varieties: ordinary chrysoberyl is yellow-green in color, cymophane is light green with a band of light, and alexandrite is emerald green, red and orange-yellow in coloration.

Cobalt
Smalt (3 gp / lb) Blue pigment

Cobalt is a hard, gray metal named for kobolds. It got the name because early attempts to smelt the metal failed, but managed to produce a toxic arsenic gas. Cobalt is found in a grey mineral called cobaltite. Cobaltite contains cobalt, arsenic, sulfur and iron (10%). It is found with magnetite and sphalerite in metamorphic rocks. Another source of cobalt, and more useful in ancient times, was smaltite. Smaltite is a grey mineral that contains cobalt, iron, nickel and arsenide.

Cobalt, the metal, was not isolated until 1735 by chemist Georg Brandt. The metal was used in ancient times, however, as blue pigment. A mixture of smaltite, quartz and potassium carbonate was roasted, yielding a dark blue glass which was ground into a powder and used as a pigment in glass, ceramics, glazes and paint.

Copper and Malachite
Billon (5 gp / lb); Coins
Bronze (1 gp / lb); Art, Coins, Equipment
Brass (2 gp / lb); Art, Coins
Copper (1 gp / lb); Art, Coins
Hepatizon (2 gp / lb); Art, Equipment
Malachite; Minor Gem
Orichalcum (10 gp / lb); Art
Potin (5 sp / lb); Coins
Speculum (6 sp / lb); Mirrors
Verdigris (3 cp / oz); Pigment (Green)

Malachite is a green stone that is often found with azurite, a blue stone. Malachite occurs in limestone deposits. It is the principal ore containing copper. Copper can also be found in bornite, or peacock copper, and chalcocite, also called copper-glance and vitreous copper. Bornite is a brown to copper red mineral that tarnishes to blue and purple. Chalcopyrite is a brassy to golden yellow color. Bornite occurs in porphyry (q.v.) deposits. Chalcopyrite occurs in granite, diorite and porphyry deposits.

Malachite is valued in its own right as a fancy stone. It is carved into vessels and statuary and is used in green paint.

Copper is a reddish ore that is harder than silver and gold, but softer than iron. Copper can be used to make jewelry and other ornaments. It was once used to make weapons and tools, but was replaced by its many alloys.

Copper is a component in several alloys. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin (80:20). Bronze is harder than copper, but softer than iron. For thousands of years, bronze was used to make tools, weapon and armor, eventually being replaced in that capacity by iron and later steel. Even after this, it was used to make art objects and coins. Bronze does not corrode easily, making it a useful material for tools and fasteners to be used aboard ships or near the shore. Most copper coins were made from bronze or brass.

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc (90:10). Brass is harder than copper and softer than bronze. It can be polished to be as shiny as gold, and is thus primarily used as a cheaper alternative to gold in art objects. As mentioned above, many copper coins were really made of brass. Brass has the same value as copper and bronze.

Billon is an alloy of copper and silver, with copper making up more than 50% of the alloy. It was a common material for coins. In a fantasy game, a billon piece (bp) could be placed between a copper piece and silver piece in value. Potin is an alloy that combines copper, lead, tin and zinc. It was primarily used for minting coins. In a fantasy economy, a potin coin could be worth half a copper piece.

Orichalcum was an alloy of copper, gold and silver (50:33:12). By fantasy game standards, orichalcum is worth the same as silver. Hepatizon, or shakudo in Japan, is an alloy of copper, gold and silver (84:8:8). Used in art objects, hepatizon takes on a purple-black patina as it ages. One pound of hepatizon is worth about 20 sp. Speculum was an alloy of bronze and tin (66:33). It is a brittle, white metal that can be polished to a high shine, and is thus used to make superior mirrors.

Copper was also used to produce verdigris. Verdigris was used as a green paint or pigment. It was made by hanging copper plates over hot vinegar in a sealed pot until a green crust formed, or by attaching copper strips to a wooden block with acetic acid and then burying the block in dung. Either process took a few weeks.

The Greeks believed that Demeter’s throne was fashioned from malachite and decorated with gold images of swine and ears of barley. Malachite was believed to provide protection from falling. Copper was associated with Venus.

Coral
Coral; Minor Gem

Coral is not a mineral, but rather the skeletons of thousands of tiny aquatic creatures that form a colony. Coral under the sea is alive, but coral that has emerged from the sea is dead. The Greeks believed that coral was seaweed that had been doused by the blood of Medusa as Perseus flew over the sea with her severed head. It usually grows on rocky sea bottoms with low sedimentation and usually in dark environments like the depths or inside caves. Deposits of precious coral can grow at depths of 25 to 800 feet.

Coral can be polished to a glassy shine. It is red to pink in color and is usually cut cabochon or used to make beads. The people of India believed it to be highly magical, and a brisk coral trade developed between the Mediterranean and India. Gauls decorated their arms and armor with it.

Romans would hang coral around the necks of children to ward off danger. They also believed it cured poison from snakes and serpents and diagnosed disease by changing color. Poseidon’s palace is made of coral and gems.

Corundum (Ruby and Sapphire)
Ruby; Major Gem
Sapphire; Major Gem

Corundum is a mineral found in schist, gneiss and some marbles. It is mined from alluvial deposits or underground workings. When it is red, it is called a ruby. All other colors of corundum, blue, brown, green, orange, pink, yellow and colorless, are called sapphires. Some rubies and sapphires have a white, star-shaped inclusion in them, and are thus called star rubies and star sapphires. These stones were highly valued by the ancient Greeks. The rarest stones are called color change sapphires, which show different colors when placed in different lights.

It was believed that rubies brought good luck, and that sapphires aided in understanding problems, boosting magical abilities and killing spiders.

Weapon Art

/ jstater / 7 Comments

I’ve been working on some simple illustrations for an article on weapons in NOD #2. Not the greatest stuff in the world, but I’m pretty happy with it.

Clubs, Staves and Maces

Axes, Picks and Chopping Blades