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Old 02-13-2020, 12:25 AM   #41
Agemegos
 
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Default Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings

Jet was often used for funerary and mourning jewellery, as was so-called "marcasite".
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Old 02-13-2020, 12:40 AM   #42
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Default Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings

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Originally Posted by Agemegos View Post
Jet was often used for funerary and mourning jewellery, as was so-called "marcasite".
Excellent.

And I like the religious touch of jet rosaries, it sounds like something for Sister María Teresa. Fool's gold also has some excellent poetic connotations for cultists who consider clinging to this world a deluded vanity.
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Old 02-13-2020, 03:19 AM   #43
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Default Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings

Are you interested in objects of semi-precious stone that might be significant because of their crafting as distinct from their composition? Intaglios, cameos, seals, signets, and Mesopotamian cylinder-seals?
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Old 02-13-2020, 03:20 AM   #44
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Default Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings

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Originally Posted by Agemegos View Post
Are you interested in objects of semi-precious stone that might be significant because of their crafting as distinct from their composition? Intaglios, cameos, seals, signets, and Mesopotamian cylinder-seals?
Oh, certainly, no sense in overly restricting ourselves.
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Old 02-13-2020, 02:28 PM   #45
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Default Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings

Looking up some information about mourning jewelry (often made of the previously-mentioned jet), apparently pearls are used to signify that the deceased was a child, which seems to play strongly into the Last Waste's theme of despair and loss. White enamel is also apparently used in mourning jewelry to indicate the deceased was a woman who died unmarried and a virgin; while perhaps not as useful for the rituals, I could see Sister María Teresa having a rosary of jet with white enamel accents in remembrance of her friend and fellow nun who's loss pushed her over the edge (she might also be able to use it as something of a magical focus).

As for how precious stones might be used, I'd suggest making use of Decanic trappings. You don't have to use the Decans for this, just the system. That only breaks things into "expensive" and "inexpensive," with the former just being anything worth half a month's income or more (I think it's specifically that character's income, but making it match Average income for the campaign setting would probably be ok). Given that precious stones are going to be well beyond this, expanding it might be a good idea. TL8 Average monthly income is $1300, but we'll round this up to $1400 (so that half is $700). I'd be tempted to use something like the following:
Code:
$	DP
7	1
30	2
150	5
700	10
3k	20
15k	50
70k	100
300k	200
1.5M	500
7M	1000
30M	2000
150M	5000
700M	10000
This is for items consumed in the ritual; those that are simply used as foci, and thus are reusable, are treated as though they were worth 1 category less (if Sister María Teresa's mourning rosary is worth $3,000, that's 20 DP if she sacrifices it for a ritual, but only 10 if she uses it as a focus). This also assumes the object is an appropriate sacrifice; an extremely appropriate sacrifice might be worth +1 category (I'd be tempted to do something like +1/2 category, 100 DP becomes 150 DP, say), while an only marginally appropriate one might be worth -1 category. Using more than one expensive component treats the second as being worth one category lower, the third two categories lower, etc - if you had 3 gemstones worth $15,000 each, and you consumed all three in a single ritual, the first would be worth 50 DP, the second 20 DP, and the third 10 DP, for a total of 80 DP. The above monetary values are minimums - a $100,000 gemstone is worth 100 DP - although you could opt to allow for in-between values (that $100,000 gemstone is 13% of the way between $70k - 100 DP - and $300k - 200 DP - so 113 DP would be appropriate). Optionally, using the item as the "housing" for a Charm counts it as though it were worth more for purposes of Decanic trappings; probably not a whole category, but some boost may be appropriate. Because under the current rules 300 DP would be a 100% discount, that would need expansion as well. Something like this might work (note it's identical to what's in GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic up to 50%/100 DP):
Code:
%	DP
5	5
10	10
15	15
20	20
25	30
30	40
35	50
40	60
45	80
50	100
55	150
60	250
65	500
70	1,000
75	2,000
80	5,000
85	10,000
90	20,000
95	50,000
This should be easy to extrapolate in-between values, and note 95% is the greatest possible discount, it doesn't continue beyond this. Getting to that point would require sacrificing a single object worth $7 billion or more (or using a $15 billion object as a focus). That's around 5 million months - over 400,000 years - of Average income, so one would certainly expect a pretty serious ritual.
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Old 02-13-2020, 02:56 PM   #46
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Default Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings

Actually, it occurs to me that using ivory from some endangered - or better yet, extinct - animal for the white enamel would make the rosary an even better focus. It would also boost the price - an article on the white rhino that was poached in a British zoo back in 2017 notes its horn could have gone for €30,000 to €40,000, roughly $23,000-$30,000 GURPS. Now, I imagine you could accent several rosaries with a single horn, but if hers used the highest-quality of the harvested ivory, that could potentially make her rosary worth $15,000, for 20 DP as a focus using my table (meaning all her Path of Nonexistence rituals get at least a 20% discount).
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Old 02-13-2020, 08:48 PM   #47
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Default Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings

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Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
Actually, it occurs to me that using ivory from some endangered - or better yet, extinct - animal for the white enamel would make the rosary an even better focus. It would also boost the price - an article on the white rhino that was poached in a British zoo back in 2017 notes its horn could have gone for €30,000 to €40,000, roughly $23,000-$30,000 GURPS. Now, I imagine you could accent several rosaries with a single horn, but if hers used the highest-quality of the harvested ivory, that could potentially make her rosary worth $15,000, for 20 DP as a focus using my table (meaning all her Path of Nonexistence rituals get at least a 20% discount).
Ivory is a very good suggestion, but considering how many the cultists are, perhaps more suitable for someone else among them.

In any case, Sister María Teresa and her friends were mostly quick consecrating a casting space to reduce the -5 penalty to -1 before activating Conditional Spells stored in Charms (and one Herb Lore elixir).* Given the -10 Mana at the rental car office in the middle of the day (at least they were lucky enough so that it wasn't No Mana in the daytime), gathering energy would have taken forever and likely been full of Quirks.

*Yes, I require rolls for casting Conditional Spells, modified by the Mana where they take effect and whether you have a censecrated ritual space. That means that creating a Charm in a Place of Power can allow you to prepare a high energy working ahead of time, but it won't guarantee it will work in a lower Mana area.
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Last edited by Icelander; 02-13-2020 at 09:26 PM.
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Old 02-13-2020, 08:54 PM   #48
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Default Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings

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Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
Actually, it occurs to me that using ivory from some endangered - or better yet, extinct - animal for the white enamel would make the rosary an even better focus.
Ivory isn't enamel, though. It isn't even tooth enamel, and tooth enamel isn't even a little bit the same as the enamel used in jewellery (which is a kind of glass or glaze).
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Old 02-13-2020, 09:00 PM   #49
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Default Re: Gemstones Useful for Evil Cultists

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Does anyone have any ideas as to which minerals or precious stones might be useful for rituals cast by the Keepers of the Last Hearth, an apocalyptic cult using a specialized loss-based version of the Path of Nonexistance and worshiping the Lords of the Last Waste (or the Cold Ones), vast, cool and unsympathetic intelligences existing Outside of this universe, associated with the end of everything, cold, dark, death and loss?
How about ice?. You can make it matter where the water comes from - say ice formed floating in a cenote used for human sacrifices, which being in the tropics would never naturally freeze and therefore seems perhaps an even better fit for the Path of Nonexistence.
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Old 02-13-2020, 09:21 PM   #50
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Default Re: [RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings

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Originally Posted by Agemegos View Post
Ivory isn't enamel, though. It isn't even tooth enamel, and tooth enamel isn't even a little bit the same as the enamel used in jewellery (which is a kind of glass or glaze).
I meant to use the ivory in place of the white enamel; I assumed they would be visually similar enough that you could replace one with the other, and it gave an excuse to boost the worth of her rosary while keeping within theme. It sounds like Icelander has already decided on the design and functionality of that, however. Reading the behind-the-scenes mechanics for the vignette from the other thread was interesting, however.
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