Each of these thickly bound books contains a wealth of knowledge related to a particular subject area: Appraise, a single Knowledge, Linguistics, Spellcraft, or Survival. By consulting the tome, a process that takes at least 5 minutes but may take longer for particularly difficult questions, the user gains a +5 competence bonus on related skill checks with respect to a specific question or task. Furthermore, consulting the relevant tome allows the user to retry a previously failed knowledge check, as it may contain knowledge that even the most educated do not know.
Known tomes:
Stop Getting Ripped Off: A Practical Guide to Assessing the Value of Things (Appraise)
The Rarer the Better: Collected Arcana (Arcana)
Aberrations and Oozes: A Field Guide to Dungeoneering (Dungeoneering)
Building Things: Theory and Practise (Engineering)
The Tribes of Golarion: People and Places (Geography)
A Brief History of Time: Thassilon, Earthfall, and More (History)
Philosophiæ Naturalis: A Short Guide to the Natural World (Nature)
The Pocket Guide to Heraldry (Nobility)
Angels and Demons: Outsiders and the Planes (Planes)
Comparative Religion: Understanding the Heretics Around You (Religion)
Metasyntactic Analysis: An Introduction (Linguistics)
What was that? A Beginner’s Guide to Identifying Magical Effects (Spellcraft)
Shelter, Water, Food: Surviving in the Wilderness (Survival)
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Divination or Legend Lore, creator must have 5 ranks in the relevant skill; Cost 1,250gp
Hirati wakes up, gets dressed, and walks down to the post office. Like everyday, she grabs hold of the reins of two large workhorses, each loaded down with heavy packs. She concentrates on the stables of the Post Office in Absalom. There’s a brief flash and she’s gone. A second later she arrives in Absalom, exchanges her horses for two fresh ones likewise loaded down with heavy packs, and returns to Katapesh. On her way out, she collects her day’s pay: 5000 crowns, and heads to the Satin Kiss to make her favorite harlot very happy, and very rich.
A level 14 wizard can cast Greater Teleport twice per day, taking two horses each loaded down with up to 2100 pounds of gear. That means that she can move 4200 pounds of gear back and forth between any two cities on the planet before breakfast, spend the rest of her day as she pleases and sleep in her own bed that night. Now she’s going to want about 5,000gp to do it, which works out to about 0.65gp/lb, or 4cp for a letter.
... now that’s not the kind of price you’re going to use to move potatoes or grain, but there are things for which it’s worthwhile. For quality manufactured goods, exotic substances, magic items, and information the timeliness and availability may more than make up for the cost:
Postal service: Letters are collected locally, transported to a hub city where they are routed to the closest post office, and then delivered by horse. Letters might cost as little as 1sp to send, and deliveries between major centers could happen as often as daily. While an unskilled labourer may balk at spending a day’s wages on sending a letter, such a cost would be easily within reach of any skilled craftsman, and not even worth thinking about for a merchant or aristocrat.
Mail order magic items: Wouldn’t the member’s of the Arcanist’s Circle love to have access to the markets in Absalom or Katapesh? Wouldn’t your average adventurer love to be able to procure exactly the item they need, for a fair price, in a reasonable amount of time without having to trek half-way across the continent?
Auctions: Selling something rare, and expensive? Hema’s Auction House will list it for you in Art and Oddities Monthly (delivered to thousands of discerning buyers around the world) as well as handle the bidding by post for a reasonable fee. Looking to buy, a subscription costs a mere 10gp per month, and gives you the opportunity to bid on some of the most beautiful, powerful, and rare objects in existence.
A variety of enchantments that allow your characters to wield impractically large weapons:
Light
A light weapon is treated as one size category smaller than it actually is for purposes of determining whether or not a given character can wield it effectively.
A massive weapon both deals damage as if it were one size category larger that it actually is and is treated as one size category larger than it actually is for purposes of determining whether or not a given character can wield it effectively.
Developed by Yuan-Ti clerics of Merrshaulk, lifeblood is an elixir used by the Yuan-Ti to heal wounds in battle. It is created using the fresh blood of a humanoid, strong alcohol and dark magic.
A creature that drinks 250 ml of lifeblood must make a fortitude save of DC 20, upon success that creature gains 1D8 + 5 hitpoints and heals 1 point of ability damage; however, should they fail, they suffer 2 points of Constitution damage. Creatures that are accustomed to the taste and texture of fresh blood (e.g. carnivores) gain a +10 bonus to this save. Additionally, undead such as vampires which feed on blood or flesh are healed by lifeblood rather than damaged by it and automatically succeed their fortitude save. Lifeblood has the intoxicating effect of a strong drink.
I kind of like the idea of providing a healing fountain in a dungeon; however, it would be completely silly to give a party 100 litres of healing potion and it seems kind of hackish to say that the fountain is magical rather than the water. Lifeblood represents a solution by introducing healing potion with drawbacks.
Drawbacks
Danger
The use of lifeblood carries a risk of suffering ability damage. This is particularly dangerous as the loss of Constitution may result in the death of the creature being healed.
Density
A cure light wounds potion occupies 30 ml whereas a dose of lifeblood occupies 250ml, cure light wounds potion is approximately 8 times as effective per millilitre. Consequently, lifeblood is far less portable due to the sheer volume that must be transported.
Evil
Possessing flasks of humanoid blood that emits an aura of evil may be considered objectionable in some societies.
Intoxicating
Due to alcoholic content, lifeblood caries the risk that the imbiber may get drunk if sufficient quantities are consumed.
Advantages
Cost
Creating lifeblood is a relatively cheap way to heal creatures, provided the creator or their deity has no ethical difficulties with killing humanoids to produce it.
Power
A single dose of lifeblood is strictly more powerful than a potion of cure light wounds (provided the user succeeds in their saving throw).
Scenic Effect
Blood flowing through the fountains of a dungeon has a very powerful scenic effect.
Technical Notes
Alcohol acts as an anticoagulant and an antiseptic in lifeblood. This provides the benefit that the blood should not congeal and thus can be made to flow through fountains and should minimize the amount of bacterial, viral or parasite growth.