Once inside, Canary goes off to look at the various things on the shelves.
āWell, thatās good. ā¦But if you are a demon cultist, you know, the best thing to do would be to turn yourself in to the law, and hope that helps Pharasma look kindly on you. Worshipping demons might help you in this life, but not in the next one.ā
She pauses for a moment.
āOf course, if you arenāt a cultist, that shouldnāt be a problem. But it would be best to talk to the Watch if you want access ā it would seem awfully suspicious if you tried to break in to the scene of the crime.ā
Bennadettaās bookstore is also outside the walls, but on the other side of the walled area of the city from Janās. Like Janās, itās below her residence; unlike Janās, her bookstoreās sign is painted in several extremely bright colors. She greets you cheerfully as you enter. āHow can I help you today?ā
Bennadetta is a half-elven woman, dressed in a bright yellow tunic and a matching yellow skirt with beads sewn into the waistband. Her hair is mostly short, but sheās got a tiny braid extending much further down her back.
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Paprika pauses briefly as Canary wanders off.
āIām looking for a book on jewelry.ā She speaks up as soon as Canary seems to not be paying attention. āIād also like to see anything new you have in fiction: anything with a mystery, as usual.ā
Wanderer will ask for directions to the Watch, and will follow the directions when she replies.
āThank you.ā
Thereās quite a bit of variety! Hereās a bestiary specifically focused on the Lake of Mists and Veils, hereās a volume of Galtan revolutionary poetry with historical commentary, hereās a murder mystery set at the Egorian Academy of the Magical Arts in Cheliax, hereās a travelogue from someoneās purported trip to Iobaria, hereās a book about etiquetteā¦
Are you looking for anything in particular?
{ā¦Like the song.}
I pick up the book about etiquette and flip to a random pageā¦ which details that the entire 23 page chapter (written in small print) is dedicated on ways to sit.
I put the book back on the shelf.
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Lionel will flip through a few nearby books to see if he recognizes anything potentially dangerous
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Are there any books on sorcery?
āOf course! Let me see what we haveā¦ā
She looks through the shelves, largely performatively.
āWeāve got a book on the history of jewelry-making, if thatās what youāre interested in? And a few new mystery novels.ā
She indicates the aforementioned mystery at the Egorian Academy of the Magical Arts, as well as one set at the court of the Emperor of Taldor and the latest from a series about a natural philosopher specializing in the study of animals who somehow manages to keep encountering mysteries in which his niche knowledge happens to be the key to unravelling a murder plot.
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dangerous in the sense of ācould be used to harm others on purposeā or dangerous in the sense of āgiving bad medical adviceā or a third thing?
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the former
You are able to find the headquarters of the Watch! They are located just within the walled part of the city, but right by the primary entrance. The building, like most others, is wood, but itās surrounded by a fence (also wood).
āAre you here to report a crime?ā says the person who greets you at the fenceās gate, without any preamble.
āIām looking for something closer to a reference on jewelry value.ā Paprika scrunched up her face a bit. I suppose they might not have that. āAs for the mysteries, could I buy a copy of the academy mystery?ā
The latter sounds stupid. Relying on niche natural philosophy for your twists serves only to cheaply impress the reader with your characterās knowledge, not to challenge them.
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āNo. I would like to request access to the Old Pewter.ā
{ā¦}
Canary seems like she wants to say something. But she stays silent, her hand drifting across the shelving units.
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You can definitely find information that could be used to harm others ā it would be difficult to write a book of medicine that canāt be. Most obviously, the book of plants you just noticed includes several plants that are basically only useful as poisons and others that are poisons while also having other uses; it seems to be presenting this as a warning, rather than presenting instructions on how to poison people, but it includes enough description of the symptoms that a would-be poisoner could use it as a guide. Nearby, there are a couple similar books without the illustrations, which would be harder to use for this purpose but maybe not impossible. The book on surgical techniques could potentially be misused to botch a surgery and make it look like an accident, the book on alchemical remedies could be used to intentionally give someone an excessively large dose, some of the books on diseases include information about what causes them, which (if accurate) could theoretically be reversed to cause diseases on purposeā¦ the list goes on.
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Definitely! Quite a bit of fiction that involves sorcerers, this being a very easy way to give a character magical powers without having to write in a whole backstory where they apprentice as a wizard or something (with enough variety in how they work that itās hard for the audience to be confident a book is wrong ), but there are also a few nonfiction books related to the topic. Excluding more general books about magic that happen to incidentally mention sorcery, thereās a compendium of spells known (to the author, itās not representing itself as complete) to have ever been cast by a sorcerer, a discussion of some of the edge cases re: what qualifies as a sorcerer rather than some other type of magic, and a book discussing the lives of various draconic sorcerers throughout Brevoyās history (with each chapter devoted to a different individual).
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I pick up the spell compendium.
(Does the book say anything about bloodline spells/spell-likes/ā¦supernaturals from a quick skim?)
+8 craft skill with +2 from the masterwork artisan kit means Paprika can take 10 to make the dress in a week so she will do that whenever sheās back
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