Simonic's Scriptorium [S&W / Generic]

A break from fire and blood and pus and goo today. :-)

Simonic's Scriptorium is located in the market district of Vander's Post (which you can read about here), the "home base" city for PCs in the Borderlands campaign.

Simonic's Scriptorium

Simonic is a scribe, cartographer and bookseller. Over the door to his shop hangs a wood sign resembling an opened scroll; faded paint on the sign reads "Simonic: Sage, Scribe & Scrollkeep." His shop is little more than a tiny closet squeezed between two houses in the Market District. There is a strong musty odor in his shop and the walls are lined with shelves filled to overflowing with books, papers, maps and scrolls. Quills, vials of colored ink, and sheets of parchment are scattered all over the place too. Filling most of the floor space of Simonic's establishment is a large oak table that he uses to both scribe texts and draw maps. On the table rests Simonic's prized possession: a painted globe that spins on a finely wrought brass clamp and stand. Since Simonic is a bit eccentric and absent-minded, he has written random notes and equations on the table over the years. Simonic lives in a similarly tiny apartment just down the road from his scriptorium.

Most of Simonic's books and scrolls detail the banal -- cartographic techniques, methods of parchment preservation, and similar disciplines. However, he does possess a few rather rare and astonishingly accurate maps of the region from centuries long past. Some of these highlight the locations of lost strongholds, dungeons, and other interesting locales. How he acquired these treasures Simonic does not say, although he does get a twinkle in his eye when asked such a question. He sells any of these maps to interested adventurers -- his asking price is 200 gp but he can be bargained down to 150 gp (he's made copies anyway). Simonic has no magical scrolls or books (unless the referee chooses otherwise), but he can sell adventurers "learnin' tomes," which detail a variety of subjects like alchemy, local history, herbal poultices, and religious lore. Each of these books costs 25 gp. Furthermore, Simonic is always interested in acquiring new books and maps. If adventurers offer to sell him any he pays between 5 and 10 gp for each book, scroll, or map (more if it's particularly old or valuable, obviously).

Encounter Idea: Simonic steals a map from a rival bookseller, hoping to make a copy and return the original before his rival notices. Unfortunately, his plot is discovered. Simonic pawns the map off on the PCs dirt-cheap and tells his rival that the PCs hired him to steal the map in the first place. The offended bookseller then hires a band of thugs (or skilled warriors) to hunt down the PCs and retrieve his stolen property. Unknown to all, the map actually contains a magically hidden clue pointing to a lost treasure. Of course, when the authorities find Simonic dead in his shop, the rival bookseller has made sure that all signs point to the PCs as the culprits.

Simonic the Thief: AC 6 [13]; HD 2 (1d6-1), hp 7; Attack short sword 1d6-1; Save 14; Move 12; Special thief abilities; CL/XP: 2/30.
Possessions: +2 amulet of defence (+2 to AC, short sword, fancy brass globe (value 175 gp), and a belt purse with 5d6 gp.
Personality/Description: Simonic is a wily, absent-minded, middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair and a short cropped beard and moustache. He has bright blue eyes (the right one is lazy) and pearly white teeth. He typically wears well-worn scholarly robes, spectacles, sports a yellow cap with a blue feather, and keeps his short sword lashed to his waist in a rather frayed scabbard. Simonic was an adventurer for a short time in his early twenties, but a too-close-for-comfort encounter with an ogre's club left him dazed and suffering intermittent memory loss. To his credit, Simonic did bash some heads of his own while he traveled with the Blue Feather Bandits, so he's not afraid to use his weapon if pressed. However, he keeps the fact that he acquired his magical amulet from the dead body of a lone adventurer a close secret. Simonic killed the adventurer while he slept! While Simonic isn't the most altruistic scholar -- greed more than anything else motivates him -- he does have a talent and passion for scribing and map-making.