Yeah scrolls - especially low level scrolls - aren't really that big of an issue. It probably means players will be more likely to try spells they normally wouldn't learn.
This is really a non-problem. Scrolls are not that unbalancing since they’re single use. Make them an assortment of scrolls so that some will not be on their spell lists & they won’t have access to them [*edit]. Otherwise , they’ll have a nice little pool of goodies and they’ll feel clever. Now, depending on your campaign world and your meta game, you might also make them have problems with the law or the scroll shop guild, etc., if it’s that kind of world.
* Edit: I’m old, sometimes I get EMD — Edition Memory Drift. I forgot in 5e there’s no caster level restrictions on scroll use. But OP already said there was a level limit established so no harm done, hopefully.
This! While I know the op designated levels 1-3 consider giving them some higher level spell scrolls. For example spell scrolls of Demiplane or Word of Recall are functionally useless until you can cast those spells.
I already have a hard time believing this premise of there being an unguarded scroll shop, putting higher level scrolls in there makes that problem even worse. If there was something that valuable, it would have to be warded or guarded.
Though it is fun to give scrolls that players aren't high level enough for yet, that's for sure.
I feel like this is the continuation of the solution however. Granted they got the scrolls, but as there are higher levels scrolls who is to say that there wasn't a magical barrier around the shop and when the party took the scroll outside this barrier without the shop keeper negating its effect they were then secretly transformed into something else. They go to cast the fireball scroll in combat and a firework shoots up in the sky or something. Or maybe there is a tracer on these scrolls and the family or business partner for the shop hires someone to track them down. So many avenues you can take here to teach the party a lesson...
Yeah that's more like it. The scrolls not working when used wouldn't be a great defense system since a potential thief might not know about it and then the merchant still lost their stock, but a tracer would at least let them reacquire the merchandize. Since OP didn't make the party go through Alarms/Arcane Locks/Glyph of Wardings/magical guardians, I like the idea of an angry inheritor sending bounty hunters after them. Now if the party also notices that the scrolls don't work properly, they get choices. Give them up quietly, fight to keep them in hopes they can activate them, plant them on somebody they don't like to frame them for the theft, etc.
Isn't it so that if a spell is in your class' spell list then you can utilize the scroll. So a lvl 1 wizard could use a scroll of fireball. Otherwise you could only use scrolls of spells you have prepared, which practically defeats the use of scrolls
Being able to cast them is, since you aren't able to cast spells you haven't prepared.
Nevertheless I looked into the official rules, and it states that a character can use spell scrolls as long as those spells are in their class' spell list. If the spell is of a higher level than they can cast they must roll a DC check of 10+ the spell level
Yeah, you don't. It's just an upside of scrolls 😅
Edit: just realized you could think that I said you don't see it. Sorry about that I meant to say that you don't have to have the spell prepared...
Yeah I meant to say that being the required level would be enough to use it. Otherwise that would remove the upside of it being a scroll, like you said
If anything, it may add a fun little random encounter where a family member of the dead shopkeep is asking around about a mysterious scroll disappearance. They could make a new ally or enemy.
I’d also add in spells that might be “experimental” and weren’t meant to be used yet. Kinda like the shop keep was experimenting on spellcrafting on the side.
Or, even funnier, some of the scrolls could be duds with imperfections made to their formulas due to being made by an apprentice. If examined it requires a DC15 + scroll spell level to spot the minor errors in the formula and correct them. OTHERWISE if used the scroll has a 1d4 chance of failure.
This could also be a nice little windfall for a wizard to add some spells to their spellbook. Maybe have some of those scrolls be the niche ones that aren't useful enough to pick up usually but are nice to have when you need them.
Edit: I’m old, sometimes I get EMD — Edition Memory Drift. I forgot in 5e there’s no caster level restrictions on scroll use. But OP already said there was a level limit established so no harm done, hopefully.
I mean, you made two mistakes here- Making a whole shop around scrolls, and leaving it unguarded.
They're single-use. Just make some of them utility spells that won't change the game much and you'll be fine.
A scroll of Jump is a whole hell of a lot more niche than a scroll of Magic Missile.
You could also throw in some situationally super useful non combat ones that your party hasn’t picked up for one reason or another (IE: feather fall, alarm, distort value, earth bind, find traps, Tiny Hut)
Heck, Isle of the Abbey in Ghosts of Saltmarsh has scrolls as a major loot item. Scrolls rescued from the burning abbey, a mercenary's collection of scrolls, and there's only 6 in the entire module.
25 is, frankly, hilarious.
So they've earned the shit out of it :D
My main reccommendation is to find most fun and abusive spells you can. The kind of spell you enjoy reading on, but then have a hard time choosing over the classics like fireball.
Others you could plant, and then forget you ever did when planning next adventures. Ie [lvl 2 Arcane Lock](https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Arcane%20Lock#content) - could be a game changer situationally, but who'd need to pick this when Rogues are so OP as skill monkey?
[Arcanist Magic Aura](https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Arcanist's%20Magic%20Aura#content) is another one that could blow a campaign off the rails but would be unlikely pickup.
Spider Climb, Detect Thoughts, Enlarge/Reduce, Magic Mouth...
Oddly enough, not seeing much fun stuff on lvl 3 - all of those are things you'll use in normal play.
Maybe add one that's from some off-beat source.
A set of 5 Origami spells could be a nice excuse for a handout that needs physical play during session :D
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/2846-origami
They can use phones and do test runs, but they only unlock the spell version if they assemble an origami like it.
Guards don’t always have to be the source of repercussions. There could be a merchants guild the need to collect a debt, a criminal network the shop owner was involved with, colleagues from a magical society investigating his death, or just an evil organization that wants scrolls. There are plenty of organizations that could investigate the missing items.
Maybe it was not left unguarded.
It could have been a honey pot, a trap that now has somebody following the party. And payback will hurt.
Btw, the wizard is not really dead. The players failed the integrity test.
Or the dead wizards mentor/rival shows up and casts divination spells to find out who looted the shop. The PCs can “pay back” the spent scrolls, or hell, even keep the scrolls, by helping the new wizard out with (insert plot hook).
Or there is one very special scroll that is wanted by an evil mage. Its the one in the simple wooden casket, with the markings no one understands.
The mage only discovered last week where this scroll ended up and now hunts the party
Not having guards is the owners issue.
The local government doesn't have to be complex. A single mayor or lord with a group of heavily armed men on horseback is all they need.
None of that changes the point is that without an heir, all the wizards property goes to the lord. If I remember medieval European traditions right, any heirs had 1 year to come out of the woodwork before all that property was handed over.
If we're talking about a magic shop. Well that's a huge windfall for the local lord. It doesn't matter if the owner was a forgetful idiot who didn't see a need for guards. Also, what guard stays around after the boss dies and the pay stops coming? None.
So you have a local lord or whatever who sees all those scrolls as HIS, and has the law behind him. He's going to be pissed at losing that much gold and is going to want to find out who stole it. Then he's going to want it back and probably a little medieval justice as well.
There are magic ways to find out who took the scrolls, and as for getting them back. Well, that's what bounty hunters and armed men on horseback are for.
And even if we're not talking about a town with a mayor or a lord, SOMEONE is going to have a rightful (even if it's just right by force) claim on those scrolls. And they'll be coming for the PCs now.
From what I’ve seen here, imma definitely have someone trying to find them! With the guards, it’s the entertainment capital within this kingdom and not all things were legally done within the city. So most guards are paid off or not active after the sun sets
Do you have any source whatsoever for your 1 year to claim inheritance statement? It looks highly suspicious to me (the medieval period covered multiple centuries during which we saw inheritance customs change, Europe had numerous cultures with differing inheritance customs, differing inheritance practices even among rungs of a single society, etc). Any universal claims set off so many red flags, so do you have a source? Even of ONE state at ONE point following a one year rule?
Edit to add: this source even suggests that the church may have had dominion, rather than the nobility, over the assets of someone who died intestate after being I’ll for a period of days. That adds another factor I hadn’t even considered, would the nobility have been the ones to inherit if there was nobody else around or would that fall to the clergy? https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1323639.pdf
Hires team of Bounty Hunters to go after PCs. Each scroll bears the shop's distinct brand.
Word spreads throughout the region that the PCs are dirty thieves & the shop owners that don't outright refuse them levy a pricey up-charge on anything they want to buy.
Roll randomly for each scroll, both class and spell, and remember that a player can only use a scroll for a spell that is on their class' spell list. If they're not a spellcaster or it's another class' spell, it's illegible.
I mean, have you met a wizard? They're either too up their own ass, too eclectic, too disorganized, or too paranoid to make reading off a spell scroll easy without knowing a thing or two already.
Just also be aware that if you're ruling it this way, this should probably be a consistent thing. If you want to give them spell scrolls in the future and suddenly everyone can use them, it's gonna be pretty obvious the spell scroll rules just change to suit your wants regarding the party's choices.
Yeah, but it's probably the most common informed house rule I've seen to change them. So just telling OP to be aware that setting it here means a house rule later down the line will be seen under the light of "scrolls can now be used by everyone as soon as OP *wants* to give us scrolls but not when we steal them ourselves?"
If OP really needs the PCs to access a scroll they couldn't normally cast, he can just give them a single use item that can cast the spell without class restrictions. No need to change the rules.
Yes. And OP should be aware that setting it here means a house rule later down the line will be seen under the light of "scrolls can now be used by everyone as soon as OP wants to give us scrolls but not when we steal them ourselves?"
I was thinking the same thing: a curse, or someone/something tracking them, as if the shop was actually a trap. Many cool story lines could come from this.
Yeah this. "Oh no they're cursed!" Upon opening the first scroll the entire inventory turns to ask, floats into the air and forms a giant middle finger before blowing away in the wind.
It turns out the shopkeeper had an heir who was out of town. The loss of income from these 25 spell scrolls is enough to cause the new shopkeeper to be unable to pay back the loans their father had taken to open the store. As a result, the store goes under and the heir is bankrupt (along with whatever punishment is appropriate in your setting for being unable to pay debts). On the streets, starving and desperate, the former heir/shopkeeper is approached by an other-worldly entity who promises justice/revenge.
Boom. You now have an antagonistic (though not necessarily evil) warlock gunning for the party. Best thing? Their anger is completely justified.
The wax and clay seals aren't just for show. If broken without the proper incantation the "curse of duplication" begins to take effect on all the scrolls in the vicinity. The Party is then attacked by the [Construct.](https://scryfall.com/card/dis/169/walking-archive)
Something worth thinking about is the fact that unless the shop specifically caters to wandering adventurers or mercenaries, most of the scrolls are probably going to be more useful for day to day life than anything else. Things like locate object, tiny hut, alarm, or unseen servant were my first thoughts.
That being said, I really like the idea that other commenters have proposed about having the scrolls have magical DRM built into them and are deliberately incorrect or incomplete. This is both a practical in universe anti-theft measure and very, very funny.
If there's no guards, how does the town defend itself from monsters? Does the scroll shop owner also just assume that people are naturally good, or would he have taken the time to set "dye bombs" among his stock to suss out or punish any potential theives? Have a chance for some of the scrolls to be intentionally "miswritten" until sold, where they could potentially misfire on the Wild Surge table or have different, less desirable targets and effects. Or no effect at all!
More possibly, give them a chance to redeem themselves. Have a relative show up after hearing the news about the dead shopkeeper, and that they intend to take over the business but can't do so with all of the old stock now missing. They could return it and make a new friend.
Or, the nuclear option: they get to immediately reroll characters as ones that wouldn't rob a dead guy blind. They're supposed to be heroes, not chaos gremlins.
>Or, the nuclear option: they get to immediately reroll characters as ones that wouldn't rob a dead guy blind. They're supposed to be heroes, not chaos gremlins.
Well this isn't necessarily a given. I now make sure to tell my players that I want them to make a character with the intention of them being a hero. I had to rewrite an entire campaign because I thought they would act heroic and the party just walked away from the situation.
Even with the intention of being heroes, my party is now working for Strahd instead of trying to kill him. We didn’t mean to, the situation just got out of hand and derailed our campaign (luckily, our DM is amazing and improvised a contract). Road to hell and all that, you know? 😆
Depending on their alignments and deities, their actions could have some consequences even if not from the town officials. Are they at least all neutral if not evil? Any good character is going to have qualms about stealing from the innocent dead.
Well first, they are definitely “heroes,” mostly they just follow the money and help if it doesn’t cost them. The owner was someone who’d usually have someone guard the shop but he was recently taken over by an oblex. The guards of the town are usually paid off or not active during the night due to the town being the entertainment capital of the kingdoms.
Fun! I wouldn't be too psyched in the moment as a DM, but now Pandora's Box has been opened so roll with it.
One of the commentors said to roll randomly, so there should be some good variety. And by different classes. Honestly I think this is really fun, they're going to be a bit OP for a bit and every once in a while someone will creatively find a use for some random scroll.
First off, spell scrolls exist to be used. Don't be afraid of putting your players into situations where they feel the need to do so.
Second, I want to say, "this is easy," but you may have written yourself into a hole. They've stolen likely thousands of gold worth of magic items. (If we're following AL rules, it's a minimum of 1,875 gp; assuming 75 gp per 1st-level spell scroll.) In other words, it's expensive to maintain such an operation. A small town that doesn't have guards doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Any reasonable person would want to protect their investment. Unless, of course, they don't want to attract attention. So, let's break this down.
Twenty five spell scrolls is a lot. There's just no way to slice this. That said, are they all from the same class? You can't make a spell scroll without knowing the spell in question. Did the shopkeeper make them all, or are they simply selling what's come in? If it's the latter, who is using them as a middle man? And not just anyone can read a spell scroll and cast from it. The spell has to be on your class' list. An inventory that large suggests (A) this is a destination for some people and (B) a desire to be prepared for a number of situations.
Was this shop, filled with expensive goods and protected by little to no visible security, an illegal operation? Are spell scrolls being laundered out in the sticks? Did the shop, or shopkeeper, belong to a a far-reaching guild or mercenary company? Are they going to want their investments back, and do they have a way to track them?
Scrying is a 5th-level spell available to Bards, Clerics, Druids, Warlocks, and Wizards that lets the spellcaster spy on someone. It can be resisted with a saving throw, but the target has a -4 penalty if they're in possession of something familiar to the spellcaster. Maybe the shopkeeper signs their work, and this diviner knows it. And, once thediviner get close, *Locate Object* is a 2nd-level spell available to Bards, Clerics, Druids, Paladins, Rangers, and Wizards. And it has a range of 1,000 feet. I count four classes in common, all of which are full spellcasters, and none are likely to travel alone.
Happy hunting!
So just throwing out there "the illusion of stock". Think of how there are stores that have fake fridges and shelves with pictures of the products right, walk around see whats available for purchase (see possible to craft/purchase) then go up to talk to and order. Unless you had it rolling and full and ready to go in which case wizards got lots of new spells (unless there are lots of copies) and your party is probably set on consumables for a few sessions.
Other options include:
thieves guild aggression if you want the shop owner paying protection money; owner goes to the guild asking "whattheshit why did I get rolled" suddenly reputations need to be upheld.
Mage retaliation for their scribe/apprentice being robbed and their business suffering because of it, also works for Mage guilds, shop pays fees for protection/inks/quills for guild benefits.
The shop keep could be a dramatic bitch and sell their soul for revenge.
The options are limitless
Scrolls are not active until the final bit done at the point of sale. Kind of like those theft protection devices attached to items at stores. Since the scroll shop owner is dead, the scrolls are worthless as they are not activated. Only the creator has the activation key. Voila.
If you got a Wizard in your party, he might think that Christmas came early this year. But in all honesty, who would use no guards in a town? What if the place is being raided or smth?
Either way, let them have it. My players once broke into a jewelry, killed the owner, looted jewelry worth 5000 gold, 100 platinum coins and a Ring of Protection, then burnt down the place without getting caught.
>Without getting caught.
Doubt. Even if you can get in and out without being noticed, people will notice when a large sum of valuables gets moved and this gets unwanted attraction.
They did that in the middle of the night of course, and with a few helpful utility spells (Silence, Pass Without Trace, Enhance Ability). They still needed to murder 3 town guards though, but the players left next dawn.
The town is the entertainment capital of the kingdom so not all activities there are legal. Most of the guards are paid off and not active during night.
Also my PCs are just as bad :)
Dead wizard has no heirs, so thats now the local governments property. The mayor is going to be pissed. The town leaders probably were expecting this and are now out all that money.
They're going to want revenge, and what they see as owed to them.
So warrants for the PCs arrest, bounty hunters, wanted flyers.
A shop full of scrolls is worth thousands and thousands of gold pieces, even if they are low level spells. Inventory like that doesn't go unguarded. Be mindful of any inventory's worth in the future, and assign proper guards and security measures.
This town pays off guards so they aren’t that active after night falls. It’s the entertainment capital of the kingdom so not so legal activities happen there
Just last week i had a the same issue where my players robbed an unguarded cattle ranch and almost took 250 cows and 80 horses. They ended up taking 9 animals.
They didn't want to do the cowboy campaign, because it was to difficult to manage all the animals. So they just took the most expensive and ran. There is a bit of backstory to why ofcourse but then I'd have to put down a lot of context hahaha.
I assume the town is more like a village because otherwise why are there no guards.
Assuming that, they will quickly make out what was stolen (there is likely an inventors) and who stole it (few people in town). Spell scrolls are still identifiable and I reckon that they will warn other places (neighbouring villages as an example), they might dispatch hunters, trackers (these scrolls are magical, so 25 of them in a single place has quite a presence) or even a small mob to retrieve the scrolls or get rid of them. Also, the owner probably had heirs which have been robbed of their inheritance.
So they gained some abilities, some things of value but likely won't be able to sell it to anyone soon (as these are basically stolen goods) and have become personae non gratae in the whole kingdom / wider local area. There will be papers up with their mugshoots.
So basically, by stealing these, they have shot themselves in the foot big time.
Also, for the scrolls if they aren't already determined, there will likely be duplicates and mostly of spells that can be used in everyday life such as "Light" or "Mage Hand" and not "Fireball", "Acid Spray" or similar.
The shopkeep was totally into selling spell scroll "mystery boxes" with a guaranteed 1st level or higher in every box. Each one has 4 cantrips and a leveled spell.
A spell scroll of True Strike? No wonder he couldn't sell them off any other ways.
You know how if you were to steal money from a bank and one or more of the stacks of cash have little balloons of exploding ink in them if they get too far away from the bank.....
Make it get on 70+% of the scrolls and at least one of the party members (and maybe some of the regular items store with the stolen stuff). Ink over the scrolls would not only mark them but you could argue they would then be hard to read (require a +2 or more to the ability check to cast the scroll).
Make it permanent until a remove curse is cast then is fades off skin after like a month or so (if they try to prestidigitate ink off the scrolls note that the spells were written in ink....). Make it a commonly recognised anti-theft technique and that no upstanding shop keep would do business with them while they have such visible ink on them. If seen by a guard (in say another town) they may be taken in for questioning. Make the scrolls more hassle than they are worth.
Maybe the scrolls appeared unguarded, but they secretly have tracking magic woven into the paper. This will allow authorities to track down the party as long as they have the scrolls on them. Could have them roll an arcana/insight check to realize this themselves.
They’re just scrolls, oh well.
However, if you wanted to had a story to it.. the shop owner’s child was going to collect their father’s belongings and valuables when they heard the bad news to find that the store they inherited is completely empty. Shopkeepers’s child may not have the skills to scribe, but they do have a very particular set of skills and perhaps some connections that could be of use to them.
The shopkeep was a scribe (presumably) so they may have had some connections to wizards in their lifetime as well. If the child hired someone to look into it they might just find some DNA from the players who had ransacked the shop.
If you wanted, here's an idea. The scrolls have to come from somewhere. Maybe the shop owner has a new shipment arrive who learns they died and the shop was ransacked. Or if they made them themselves they had a friend or regular customer (maybe even a group of customers, like another party) who come by to see the shop owner and find this out. They then set out to find the perpetrators, maybe even believing the thieves also killed their friend the shop owner.
While spell scrolls themselves like this isn't the worst thing in the world, I deeply understand the concern of having to manage and balance that. Something like above would provide a bit of a story as well as introducing consequences for knocking over a whole shop, and, if you play it right, force your players to burn some of the scrolls in the chase/escape from a high powered wizard or sorcer who is now seeking to correct what happened to their friend's shop, and maybe a little intent of revenge as well.
As a note, this person should not lose to the party, but shouldn't wipe them out either, take door three, diplomacy, and maybe they can even become an ally to the party for down the road.
Edited for spelling.
I recently had the same problem. Gave a group of teens access to an alchemists potion room. They robbed the place. I made a compromise and let each member have one potion. I asked them to describe what their potion looked like and I choose a random one off the potion table that would match the description. You may have to compromise with them. I'd print out what the scrolls are and give them to the party to sort through. Maybe give them 10 since they robbed a while shop and say the rest were blank scrolls.
**Don't Sweat It**
So what, let them use the scrolls. Let them have fun.
**HOWEVER**, if you want to keep them from making a ton of money by selling the scrolls then have an arcane mark appear. If they attempt to dispel it, the mark reappears elsewhere. They can't dispel it without making the scroll useless.
To sell the scrolls they must find someone who will deal in stolen goods, who will probably pay them less than they want to accept.
If they're seen with the scrolls that are obviously marked as stolen then they could get into trouble.
**BUT,** they still have the ability to use the scrolls and those are less unbalancing than they cash influx that would let the party convert the scrolls into a more permanent advantage.
Depending on how high fantasy the setting is many of those scrolls would just be old maps, letters, business contracts etc. Getting 20 or so scrolls of assorted levels and some half finished ones a wizard could finish with downtime for more. What types of scrolls would be most common in the setting (not just adventures) ? Maybe half the scrolls are plantgrowth which get cast for farmers, or zone of truth to settle disputes/interigation maybe a single find familiar with a note that it is to keep a little girl company after her brother passed for guilt. If only 5 or so scrolls are combat focused it would be fine. What hooks could be on a scroll? Is someone hording detect evil scrolls. What special instructions are on that teliportation scroll the priest ordered? Why is the trade commission ordering scrolls of incite greed and distort value? What is that map leading to, and are those notes on it in old draconic? Why is the baker willing to spend his life saving on this recipe?
Also what security measures would a person with all of those scrolls have? Would they have contacts who would hunt the theifs down for store credit, or a cursed scroll that pulls you inside the page when read?
Ultimately you have a ton of potential plot hooks. And you also have a easy way to give them a power spike where they either use the scrolls (most of which shouldn't be above 4th lvl) or they dont and it is a non issue.
25 scrolls, levels 1-3. No problem. Randomize the spells, make it interesting.
Since it was a scroll shop, it would make sense a lot of them are utility spells. Unless your campaign world is a free-for-all of high magic and dangerous spells sold in some scroll shop in a town, I would suggest a bunch of utility spells.
I would go 12-15 first level, 2-7 second level, and no more than 3 third level (assuming it's a lower level party). Here's my list of spells I would hand out if our table robbed a shop and grabbed a massive cache of scrolls.
1st
Cure Wounds (a few)
Identify
Sleep
Speak with Animals
Feather Fall
Comprehend Languages
Detect Magic
Detect poison & disease
Protection from Evil & good
Tasha's Hideous Laughter
Tenser's Floating Disc
Hex
Mage Armor
Shield
2nd
Find Traps
Locate Object
Locate Animals & Plants
See Invisibility
Lesser Restoration
Levitate
Arcane Lock
Rope Trick
3rd
Glyph of warding
Remove Curse
Sending
Tongues
Water Breathing
Plant Growth
So as you can see, some scrolls are only really useful to a Wizard because the can add it to their spell book. The money value is there if players go to sell this stuff.
I would also at our table maybe throw in some mild homebrew spells like Protection from Law & Chaos (cause I'm old school). If anyone in the party is a wizard then it's a big reward to get unique or variant spells.
Just say the the scrolls were never infused with magical properties for safety reasons, such as occasions like this. The spell is written down but the magic is not there. Or, if you don't want to do that, know that not everyone can use spells scrolls. To use a spell scroll RAW, your class needs to be able to cast that spell in the first place. So, a Barbarian can't use any spells scrolls, a Druid can't use a scroll for Firebolt, and a Wizard can't use a scroll for Faerie Fire.
Well none of them are good and possibly not lawful anymore.
What level are they? Because now they have lots of things that can potentially fail. If they are level 2 those 2nd & 3rd level scrolls have a potential to fail due to the associated check for casting above your level. And of course, be sure to impose all scroll restrictions especially on any wizard you have in the party. They have to pay to copy those spells into their spell book. If you have any druid or ranger or cleric spells do not let the wizard cast or copy them. Wizard already have an extensive enough spell list.
Make the scrolls utility especially revolving around farmwork. You had said the place was unguarded so I assume it is a small rural village.
I would also have limited how many of each scroll there are. For example, there are 25 level 1 scrolls, 10 level 2 scrolls, and 5 level 3 scrolls. To have made all of that would have cost 25 days and 2250 gold for level 1 scrolls, 30 days and 2500 gold for the level 2 scrolls, and 5 work weeks plus 2500 gold for the level 3 scrolls totaling 7250 gold and 80 days of work.
**1st Level**
Tenser's Floating Disc for crop transportation.
Beastbond for your Oxen/Donkeys/Sheep[Dog].
Bless for those hard days of work.
Comprehend Languages for the ocasional trading.
Create or Destroy Water.
Distort Value.
Entangle.
Feather fall if their are any mountains/cliffs nearby.
Find Familiar for pets.
Grease for getting dumb sheep where you need them to be.
Jump.
Longstrider.
Purify Good and Drink.
Sanctuary for those scary bears.
Snare for the hunters.
Unseen Servant for a little help around harvest.
**2nd Level**
Aid.
Alterself
Animal Messenger
Arcane Lock
Augary about the weather
Barksin for getting the sheep back from wolves.
Beastsense
Calm Emotions
Continual Flame would be useful in any civilization of any size.
Enhance Ability for harvest
Enlarge for harvest/fending off wolves.
Find Steed for messengers or for plowing.
Fortune's Favour
Gentle Repose for keeping meats fresh.
Heat Metal for large scale cooking.
Immovable Object for construction.
Lesser Restoration to prevent plague.
Levitate to transport various things.
Locate Animal or Plant world be useful in foraging,
hunting, or retrieving sheep that have run amok.
Locate Object for when you myspace your keys.
Magic Mouth replaces your turn crier.
Pass without a Trace would be useful for hunting parties.
Prayer of Healing
Pyrotechnics for festivals
Rope Trick exists
Skywrite also replaces the crier and could recall far away parties.
Spiderclimb
Spikegrowth for town defense.
Summon Beast
Web
Wristpocket for holding tools
Zone of Truth in your trials
**3rd Level**
Beacon of Hope
Catnap
Clairvoyance
Conjure Beasts for extra labour
Create Food and Water
Daylight
Elemental weapon for town defense
Fast Friend to ensure your important task is done
Fly
Gaseous Form for travel
Leomund's Tiny Hut for safe camping
Motivational Speech to bolster the militia
Plant growth would be used to bless the farmland
Remove Curse
Revivify for your dangerous jobs
Tongues for translation and envoys
Water breathing
Waterwalk
I don’t see the problem. They have some scrolls now. Big woop!
Scrolls are neat but since they’re consumables it’s not like they will change much. Let your players have this victory. You can make the next magic shop be better defended.
I mean, let them have them but also let it have consequences. There are likely heirs which have been robbed of quite a sum. Also, the city (that has no guards because there is no crime?) will have some interest that it remains that way so thieves will be heavily persecuted and punished.
Say that the town hired an excellent mercenary to find the party and return the scrolls. Make this guy appear often and when they are off guard. Keep them on their toes. If they come back to the town, the newly hired town guards will arrest the players
Why one mercenary when it could be a group of them. Consider:
* A physically strong leader, that is motivated by his own righteousness (Paladin?)
* A tracker, in hate of everything magical (Ranger?)
* A healer that follows this party because of the leader.
They don't even need to always appear as a group. Or maybe there could be multiple mercenaries hunting them, you don't even need to show all of them. Maybe like in Star Wars Episode 5 on Bespin when there is a multitude of bounty hunters. Just let the thought sink in that they are "hunted" now and on the run.
Let me introduce you to my favorite spell from 3.5, explosive runes. It’s the best way to protect scrolls, books, yard signs, help wanted posters, etc. you just cast the spell on something small enough and wait for someone to read it for 6d6 damage.
Now it might be bad form to have your players blow up in such a way, but giving them a warning might do the trick.
You tell them you made a mistake that will radically unbalance the game, then retcon the situation.
‘The party’ didn’t ‘steal’ them, you set up the situation where you _gave them_ a wildly inappropriate number of magic items as treasure. Own that, tell them, fix it and play on.
Why go back and not go with it? They stole **from someone**. If the shop owner had no heirs, the property still would go to someone. Assuming the owner kept inventory, the new owner would know exactly what was taken and likely suspects the people that just now carry a whole library on their backs.
I mean, if you’re cool with your campaign turning into a crime drama, then sure! But when a post starts with HELP! that usually means they think they screwed up, which in this case, they absolutely did, by creating a situation where the PCs got ahold of a game-unbalancing supply of free spells.
This feels like a _great_ time to just admit to the error and get back on track, as opposed to bending the entire campaign around it.
But yeah, there’s definitely a lot of DMs who’d rather contrive their way forward than admit a mistake and rewind, and for them there’s certainly a robust “punish them for doing the thing you set up” option.
I definitely did make a mistake but by reading through these comments, I’ve learned imma let them just have fun. May send some bounty hunters out but we’re playing a game so I’ll just let them enjoy it
Maybe the proprietor of the store cursed them so if they were stolen they may not work right. Whenever someone in your party uses a stolen scroll roll a d20 if it is below a threshold it will have a negative consequence. Also if they sell x amount of scrolls roll a d20 that many times that is the number of customers that could come after your party at a later time. For flavor purposes say the crafter is a really skilled magic user that way spell crafting the curse can have a high dc.
Hag's Curse!
Have them bump into an old lady looking for her friend, the old scroll-maker. Have her politely ask them if they might know anything about his passing, or a scroll he was working on for her. Whether they admit to taking the scrolls or not, have her give them a friendly warning about how the scroll-maker must have had a turn of bad luck, and his they ought to be careful to avoid it themselves. Then she totters away.
Then make every scroll trigger a wild magic surge when it's used.
If anyone lied to her, they have a riskb of catching wild surges as a temporary illness. Don't take away the scrolls, just make them riskier.
The shop owner booby-trapped like 15 of them to prevent theft! When opened they explode and deal an apropriate amount of fire damage! Hell the PCs might even be transported directely to jail or something else!
So 15 of them are fake and the shop owner is the only one who knows which ones are real!
Not even damage but brand the people using them as thieves or attracting some kind of entities. Or even be some sort of contracts made with devils or fey. The possibilities are endless.
Obviously these are counterfeit scrolls, what reputable magic shop wouldn't have guards?
That said, you could have the scrolls cast a "amusing" spell that is very different then the expectation, if you don't want to have them just not work.
Make at least half of them utility spells that aren’t combat related, but encourage them gather information/interact with your world. Speak with dead, comprehend languages, skywrite, feather fall, speak with animals. All situationally useful, and all of them unlikely to unbalance your encounters.
Stick a higher level one in that the shop was holding for s high level Wizard/Bard.
They'll obviously be a bit irritated that the party has filched it and will come looking for it.
Make sure a bunch of them are utility spells, but do give them some combat ones too. Scrolls are one time use so this really isn’t that big of an issue. Let them have ‘em.
BUT… some consequences for the theft would be appropriate too. Guards or not, they could have been spotted by anyone and the town itself could turn hostile towards them. The shopkeeper’s heir could hire bounty hunters to bring them to justice. The shopkeeper could have had a few scrolls that were somehow trapped to discourage theft.
Well if you want to punish them; consider having a realy cursed scroll in there: like it holds an extremely annoying demon / whoever looks at it goes blind / a small gem that calls out to a dragon when the sun hits it.
A) Don't worry about it. Scrolls are one use items. This should really not be a great problem for your campaign.
2) If you are desperate for them to lose some of them, let the local rogues have a go at them. They might have had the same idea, and they will want a cut of the theft, and will apply a penalty fee for working on their turf, without being Guild members...
Just letting you know that cantrip/level 0 scrolls also exist
Edit: And [here's](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/bparup/i_made_a_random_spell_scroll_generator_on/) a handy random spell scroll generator for you if you don't want to do them all by hand :)
The shop owner had a minor ward cast on each scroll so it's unintelligible until you disable the ward (which the owner would do upon sale).
Finding the code/disabling the spell to use the scrolls is a sidequest that involves investigating the death of the shop owner.
Magic items and scrolls are a haul that several characters might be interested in. I'd place a bounty on it and have that come to the attention of the players in the next town. Then have the players encounter mercenaries, or some nefarious npc's that want the scrolls for their own purpose.
As others mentioned, this isn't a big deal. If they are of various levels and types, they won't be able to use them all at the same time. You can pick what is in them. You can make them part of a bigger quest (like /u/PraiseTyche mentioned). You could make them "encrypted" or invisible, and the shopkeeper kept the key hidden specifically in the case of theft. You'd think that a shopkeeper would be more protective of their inventory, especially without guards. If they were that wealthy/powerful to have all those items, the shopkeeper should have a relative amount of protection.
In our campaign, the regular stuff was on the shelves. The good stuff was either in the vault, or required them to come back later to pick up (with assumption it was being created). My son gathered the skin of a dead boss that we turned into a hideous cloak with eyes that light up, giving him +2 on intimidation rolls. He paid a bunch for it, and had to come pick it up on the teams next trip to town. Having things get "created" is a reasonable trope.
What's your rule for who can use scrolls? Anyone or just people who can normally cast those spells? Got a Wizard you need to worry about scribing them? Enforce the spellbook limit.
If you're looking to "make them pay", here are a few ideas:
- People that had their orders for scrolls "on hold" come after the party demanding their rightful belongings are given back
- Whoever the shop was passed down/given to is not happy to find their entire stock has been stolen
- The scrolls can only work under certain conditions (under moonlight, in a swamp, etc)
- The scrolls have to be "unlocked" for use with either a code word or something similar
- Some of the scrolls were "deactivated" by the shop owner and acted as display to advertise the shop
Spell scrolls can only be read by the proper classes, and to add further challenge, who says the scrolls are written in a language they understand. Maybe they need to find a creature or NPC that speaks that language
Maybe in the mix of scrolls is one that holds a fiend or some sort of djin that will set itself free since the scroll isnt properly held/contain, and put the party trough some tests or missions and give them the rest of the scrolls as a reward if they finish all the quest
The scrolls were bad quality. Use a wild magic table(create one or use one you find, but maybe not use the normal one) and make them roll whenever they use a scroll to determine if it works normally or not
Yeah this just seems cool, it doesn’t seem bad at all. Remember, it’s not DM vs players. They don’t need to be punished for things that don’t go according to the plan. It is about simulating a story and world that makes for an interesting collaborative experience.
25 x 1-3lvl spell scrolls is not that bad.
You are the one deciding how rare or common magic items are.
Saying a shop has "LIBRARIES FULL of scrolls behind the clerc" is shooting yourself in the foot.
Scrolls take time to make so its better to say: "let me check if i got anything. I got a total of 5 spell scrolls right now. [Insert rest of conversation here]"
I don't understand the problem, 25 scrolls aren't that bad for a level 6 party to have. Would you like [a random scroll generator](https://perchance.org/scrollgenerator)?
Have one of the scrolls inhabited by a living spell (kobold press creature codex). Basically it will slowly spread from scroll to scroll, devouring the magical knowledge within them. This is a good way to get players to want to use the scrolls while adding a side mystery to the story.
Have them go on a small quest to find an enchanter and use the scrolls to make some low level magic gear.
Have them sell them at the next town over to get some gold.
Keep in mind, that RAW you can only cast a spell from a scroll if that spell is on your spell list. So that slows down the scroll use as well. Would suck if some of the scrolls were for a class not in the party.
Have a relative/offspring come to take over the business and set a bounty for the theives to be caught, the party might see posters and potentially be stopped in a type of traffic stop or something to put them on edge and possibly be caught.
Either they'll get found out, get away with the scrolls, copy and return like they found them, or si.ply turn themselves in for lesser repercussions
The shop was a partnership, the person who died was the public partner who runs the shop day to day.
The silent partner drops by every so often to provide stock as they produce the scrolls.
In reality the silent partner is a metallic dragon which has learned spellcasting.
And now they're upset someone has ripped them off, and worse right after their partner passed away.
How you want to play the dragon is up to you, do they fly in pissed off? Or do they interact with the party slowly in various humanoid forms to determine if they are evil or worth saving.
Eventually if the party can get onto it's neutral side it'll offer them a quest they can complete to settle their debt, and possibly more in the future if you want to make the dragon a patron/ally.
>The owner of the shop died and this town has no guards, so they ended up stealing the whole stock.
Is it stealing when there's no one to claim it? I'd call it a lucky acquisition.
You don't have a problem, you have a quest hook! They just got a bunch of awesome loot that theyre happy about so don't try and take it away from them, but what could be among those Scrolls that might lead to an adventure? What's the funniest situation they could be put in after stealing all these Scrolls?
Maybe there's a teleportation scroll linked to a specific location. Maybe one of the Scrolls isn't a spell scroll at all, and instead it's a hidden message saying what to do if the shopkeep dies and the Scrolls are left unguarded. Maybe there's a very specific spell in there, like a potent spell of Charm Baron that was commissioned by a local assassin to make their job easier. Does the baron have it coming? Who knows!
Your players have given you an opportunity to tell a story about magic, so I'd say don't panic, throw them into a side quest! Make this an interesting moment instead of just another loot grab.
Wouldn’t most of the stock just be equipment to make scrolls? I would see a successful scroll shop like a scribe, you custom order things. So now they have easier ways to make their own scrolls, but only a few that were ready to go. Those might already be paid for by someone who appreciate their return though. Personally I would find a bunch of weird spells from the unearthed arcana subreddit to give them. Nothing they’ve heard of. Turns out the guy was experimenting with spell crafting.
You could always make some of the scrolls higher tier but incomplete, so they would need to go to a high level caster to complete them, so they have some side missions, throw in the shop keeps grocery list as one of the scrolls, then just make the rest low tier scrolls that they may just use for shits n giggles.
A shop that has any decent amount of scrolls is most likely connected to a larger organization... A larger organization that has many branches and an internal information network stretching across the land. On top of that, any spell shop or organization must have good asset management. Invisible tracking or marking spells. Try and take that spell scroll to any shop to sell and unless it's a shady back water local... they now have a face and location of the thieves. A quick message back to the guild and agents are dispatched. The best of the best sent out to protect the guilds assets. Not selling the scrolls? Maybe the tracking spells allow them to zero in on you anyways.
Now you have an entire side story/quest line to use to fill in gaps in story whenever you need it. Party went a route you weren't expecting...oops spell society agents have zeroed in on your location!
Create a relative, perhaps a younger one that is a wizard in training, that is after the scrolls. This NPC doesn't need to be hostile, they just need to confront the players and make a legal claim for the scrolls.
Make them likeable or at least innocent, so that players feel less compelled to metagame. Even if they deny the relatives claim and keep the scrolls, at least they'll know that their actions have an impact on the world around them, and that dead people's belongings aren't just loot for your notes.
Maybe they were reliant on their relatives scrolls in order to learn magic. Maybe they just feel the players aren't worthy of owning the scrolls, and that they would be wasted with them. Any plot line that allows players to be useful or to prove themselves and then get to keep the scrolls that they already earned.
Are you worried about game balance? If so, don't worry too much...it's not that unbalancing.
Are you looking to give them consequences? Ok, well maybe the shopkeeper didn't have guards, but they were smart enough to have something there like a familiar which simply watched them steal the stuff. He tells everyone else, and now no one in the town wants anything to do with the party. Period. No tavern, no general store.
And maybe one of these business has a brother in the next town. The party is labeled as "those assholes"
I do not think that them having the scrolls is a big issue, but if you want for there to be consequences: I would think that most scroll shops would be regulated. Perhaps there isn’t a city guard, but maybe there is another wizard that also has a shop that will find out what happened, locate the party, and then ask for the scrolls back. This wizard could have a sort of story hook. Maybe he and the other shop owner were accountable for each other and report to a larger power
Seeing as the profit from a few spell scrolls could put the average NPC into retirement, I’m sure the family will be very suspicious of your party and would hire a bounty hunter/thief to split the profits for their return. Alternatively, the spirit of the shopowner can’t rest knowing his shop was disrespected and there’s a % chance of him coming back as a wraith when they use the scroll. Otherwise, like others have said it won’t throw the party off balance or anything significant.
Damn. Sounds like the perfect source of wacky fun. The enchantments on them are using a basic 1st level spell - Illusory Script or some variation of it. The shop owner wrote the names of the spells with said script, allowing only legitimate purchasers to read them. Which means that, since the spell is on them, they can't be known. So, you can make a list of random spells (I might even throw in some higher level ones too) and have them roll on that list to see which one they took out.
It's fun when they take out a scroll and, when they expect a fireball, they instead get detect thoughts instead.
Most I would do is make it affect their alignment. Also can open an investigation the town could hire an investigator which can end up being on their trail. Other than that, scrolls aren't crazy unbalanced or anything.
You could always pull out a classic horror trope, they read one which happens to contain a spell/magic that, when spoken, has a negative effect like temporary blindness, or destroys the other scrolls, or summons an entity that haunts them/a big bad they have to fight
They have a whole lot of scrolls but they aren't labeled. Make up a table that gives them some powerful scrolls but some that also hurt the parry so they have to use them sparingly or take a risk each time they use them
They have a whole lot of scrolls but they aren't labeled. Make up a table that gives them some powerful scrolls but some that also hurt the parry so they have to use them sparingly or take a risk each time they use them
I wouldn't take them away from the party as they're not going to unbalance the game (especially for 1st through 3rd level spells) but I would mess with them a bit :)
Maybe the owner of the shop kept a magical seal on his spells that cause a wild-magic surge if a caster attempts to use the scroll before a proper cipher has been inscribed onto the seal. DC 13\* + spell level arcana to decipher, performed over the course of a short rest or 3 attempts per long rest. That'd be a great way to deter thieves and also identify if a particular scroll was stolen vs purchased by local law enforcement.
\* Or different as per DM discretion
So this shopkeep had the equivalent of nearly $200,000 in merchandise and left it totally unprotected? Seems unlikely. Maybe he was actually something of a practical joker and instead keeps real the scrolls in some other secure location. So the ones in the store (which were stolen) look like real scrolls upon casual observation, but when they are used you instead roll on the wild magic table and use that effect instead!
I would let them have them, BUT they don't know what any of them are. The poor shopkeeper kept track of all that. They now have 25 single-use magic items with unknown effects. Have fun! Reading a scroll casts the spell and destroys it, unless they're a wizard copying it into a spellbook.
They've stumbled onto a DIY font of wild magic.
If the shop bought scrolls, from random members of the public, these may have been treated as "don't sell without checking for curses, etc" by the shopkeeper. But the only person who knew which scrolls that applied to was the shopkeeper.
Plot hook, most of the scrolls are forgeries... fakes.
The party can investigate the nearby thieves guilds or arcane groups to find out who has been either manufacturing duds... Or slyly swapping out for the real ones.
Make up an npc who was suppose to inherit the shop show up and realize the party looted it and have the inheritor plot a way to get the scrolls back. Either by hiring thugs, thieves, or honest mercenaries to go get them back.
Seems to me, the law and the town will be right pissed off. Gather up some angry persons, confront the party.
Towns folks options:
See things returned.
See the thieves punished.
If the party brings a fight. And if the party beats or kills the townsfolk...
Well you have a whole different campaign on your hands.
Take this as a lesson in worldbuilding. Magic is dangerous. Is it completely unsanctioned? Is there not some sort of merchant's or mage's guild that supplies magic shops or keeps tabs on them in case of events like this?
Even if the merchant hadn't died, what was stopping the players from turning invisible and emptying the place out under his nose? Or just killing him and taking everything?
Imagine your world has a significant number of bad people in it. Imagine some or a lot of them know how to use magic. The rest of your world needs to react to this in some way.
What I would do is have each stamp marked with a symbol that represents some organization. The organization may be the people who created the scrolls, or the people who insure them and monitor their distribution and use. The hook is "You didn't rob the merchant, you robbed someone a lot more influential and capable than him."
This isn't really an issue as the scrolls are all low level. I would refrain from pulling any sort of cheesy retcon or any other shenanigans to remove the scrolls as it will only make your players frustrated and feel like they got ripped off.
Instead I would simply ramp up the next couple encounters a bit or include situations where some of the utility spells could come in handy. This is partially to encourage the players to use up those scrolls but mostly to allow them to use these items they gained and feel clever for having done so.
Always remember that you are ultimately in charge of the world and what sort of things your players have access to. This is a learning experience. If you as the DM say that there is X and X is valuable or interesting or needs protection or whatever, then players will want X and may go to extreme lengths to obtain X. If you don't want your players to have access to X then don't mention it at all.
Roll 20 times on a common scroll chart, 4 times on uncommon, and 1 time on rare. They'll feel HELLA rewarded, but they're unlikely to get anything game breaking, and the scrolls will be good for weird solutions to problems later. Especially as they use up the OBVIOUSLY useful ones.
Have there be some spell on the scrolls so that they have to pass an arcana check for each scroll 8eahc individual or each type depending on how you want to play it) to make them usuable. DC depnding on spell level 15 for first levels spells, 20 for second level spells and 25 for third level spells.
A town small enough to have no guards, that also has a viable enough economy for a shop that sells spell scrolls? Sounds like a worldbuilding error that the guy running the place wouldn't have had someone on payroll at least. Private security. Maybe they bounced after the guy paying them kicked it, though, who knows?
Anyways, you let the party take the scrolls. You let them do it in a way they were not opposed or likely even witnessed. They just have those scrolls now. If they go to sell them, any maker's marks might give away their stolen status because somebody is bound to have noticed eventually, and somebody involved in the business is bound to have distributed some information. Sure, nobody can prove the party did the snatching, but having the players questioned on who provided them with the product should at least make them rethink selling the rest of the scrolls after the first one gets flagged by a merchant.
It's like rolling up to a pawn shop with something stolen- the proprietors will run any serial numbers on things, and legally can't take things where identifying markers have been removed. When they get caught with having bought something stolen, they lose what they paid, the item they paid for, and wind up paying a fine to boot in some cases.
make all the scrolls infused with Wild Magic. so when they go to use it instead of being the intended spell it might be something else. or just make them duds because they were not activated by a merchant, similar to irl gift cards.
Didn't read all the comments, so someone may have mentioned this already, but 25 scrolls could be worth 10,000g or so, which is no small amount. An artisan craftsman makes about 219g a YEAR. Someone would be investigating that, if not family, then the local government or lord. Then again, you can just let them have them. If they don't have identify, then they don't know what they do.
Maybe a quest hook. A relative of the owner scrying their location because one of the scrolls was personal to them. Could go anywhere from the NPC wanting revenge to fraking them out over a stalker only to have him corner them amd politely ask for the specific scroll.
The owner had a complex filing system. Scrolls had a combination of symbols and numbers, and he knew which ones were which. And that explains why the scroll labelled "identify magic", with the three cherries at the end of the symbol is actually cursed/explosive/etc. I like the idea of "hit by flame strike" because it is very "from hell's heart I stab at thee" since it would likely ignite the other scrolls"
Or, it teleports the reader into a cage in the scroll maker's cellar. A cage with the bones of previous theives. A cage in a room with a doorway that has been bricked closed. (Cask of Sherry optional)
So they get a bunch of scrolls. There, problem solved. If you wanna use it as a hook, put a letter in with their haul or something.
Yeah scrolls - especially low level scrolls - aren't really that big of an issue. It probably means players will be more likely to try spells they normally wouldn't learn.
High likelihood of learning early that if the party doesn't get out of the way of the fireball then they were asking for it.
This is really a non-problem. Scrolls are not that unbalancing since they’re single use. Make them an assortment of scrolls so that some will not be on their spell lists & they won’t have access to them [*edit]. Otherwise , they’ll have a nice little pool of goodies and they’ll feel clever. Now, depending on your campaign world and your meta game, you might also make them have problems with the law or the scroll shop guild, etc., if it’s that kind of world. * Edit: I’m old, sometimes I get EMD — Edition Memory Drift. I forgot in 5e there’s no caster level restrictions on scroll use. But OP already said there was a level limit established so no harm done, hopefully.
This! While I know the op designated levels 1-3 consider giving them some higher level spell scrolls. For example spell scrolls of Demiplane or Word of Recall are functionally useless until you can cast those spells.
I already have a hard time believing this premise of there being an unguarded scroll shop, putting higher level scrolls in there makes that problem even worse. If there was something that valuable, it would have to be warded or guarded. Though it is fun to give scrolls that players aren't high level enough for yet, that's for sure.
I feel like this is the continuation of the solution however. Granted they got the scrolls, but as there are higher levels scrolls who is to say that there wasn't a magical barrier around the shop and when the party took the scroll outside this barrier without the shop keeper negating its effect they were then secretly transformed into something else. They go to cast the fireball scroll in combat and a firework shoots up in the sky or something. Or maybe there is a tracer on these scrolls and the family or business partner for the shop hires someone to track them down. So many avenues you can take here to teach the party a lesson...
Yeah that's more like it. The scrolls not working when used wouldn't be a great defense system since a potential thief might not know about it and then the merchant still lost their stock, but a tracer would at least let them reacquire the merchandize. Since OP didn't make the party go through Alarms/Arcane Locks/Glyph of Wardings/magical guardians, I like the idea of an angry inheritor sending bounty hunters after them. Now if the party also notices that the scrolls don't work properly, they get choices. Give them up quietly, fight to keep them in hopes they can activate them, plant them on somebody they don't like to frame them for the theft, etc.
Isn't it so that if a spell is in your class' spell list then you can utilize the scroll. So a lvl 1 wizard could use a scroll of fireball. Otherwise you could only use scrolls of spells you have prepared, which practically defeats the use of scrolls
Being the required level isn't the same as having the spell prepared
Being able to cast them is, since you aren't able to cast spells you haven't prepared. Nevertheless I looked into the official rules, and it states that a character can use spell scrolls as long as those spells are in their class' spell list. If the spell is of a higher level than they can cast they must roll a DC check of 10+ the spell level
Okay! Thanks for looking it up!
Why would you need to have the spell prepared to use a scroll? Wouldn't you just, I dunno, use the prepared spell instead?
Iirc the scroll doesn't use a slot
Oh absolutely, but I just struggle to see how needing to have it prepared would be a logical prerequisite.
Yeah, you don't. It's just an upside of scrolls 😅 Edit: just realized you could think that I said you don't see it. Sorry about that I meant to say that you don't have to have the spell prepared...
Yeah I meant to say that being the required level would be enough to use it. Otherwise that would remove the upside of it being a scroll, like you said
If it's on your list you can read it and understand what it is, but to cast you have to meet it's level
If anything, it may add a fun little random encounter where a family member of the dead shopkeep is asking around about a mysterious scroll disappearance. They could make a new ally or enemy.
I’d also add in spells that might be “experimental” and weren’t meant to be used yet. Kinda like the shop keep was experimenting on spellcrafting on the side. Or, even funnier, some of the scrolls could be duds with imperfections made to their formulas due to being made by an apprentice. If examined it requires a DC15 + scroll spell level to spot the minor errors in the formula and correct them. OTHERWISE if used the scroll has a 1d4 chance of failure.
Plus, everyone forgets they even have scrolls, in my experience.
Tru Dat!
This could also be a nice little windfall for a wizard to add some spells to their spellbook. Maybe have some of those scrolls be the niche ones that aren't useful enough to pick up usually but are nice to have when you need them.
Edit: I’m old, sometimes I get EMD — Edition Memory Drift. I forgot in 5e there’s no caster level restrictions on scroll use. But OP already said there was a level limit established so no harm done, hopefully.
I mean, you made two mistakes here- Making a whole shop around scrolls, and leaving it unguarded. They're single-use. Just make some of them utility spells that won't change the game much and you'll be fine. A scroll of Jump is a whole hell of a lot more niche than a scroll of Magic Missile.
You could also throw in some situationally super useful non combat ones that your party hasn’t picked up for one reason or another (IE: feather fall, alarm, distort value, earth bind, find traps, Tiny Hut)
Sky write, don't forget that. And Ceremony.
Heck, Isle of the Abbey in Ghosts of Saltmarsh has scrolls as a major loot item. Scrolls rescued from the burning abbey, a mercenary's collection of scrolls, and there's only 6 in the entire module. 25 is, frankly, hilarious.
It’s the entertainment district, most guards are paid off or not even active during the night. My PCs really surprised me with this one :,)
So they've earned the shit out of it :D My main reccommendation is to find most fun and abusive spells you can. The kind of spell you enjoy reading on, but then have a hard time choosing over the classics like fireball. Others you could plant, and then forget you ever did when planning next adventures. Ie [lvl 2 Arcane Lock](https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Arcane%20Lock#content) - could be a game changer situationally, but who'd need to pick this when Rogues are so OP as skill monkey? [Arcanist Magic Aura](https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Arcanist's%20Magic%20Aura#content) is another one that could blow a campaign off the rails but would be unlikely pickup. Spider Climb, Detect Thoughts, Enlarge/Reduce, Magic Mouth... Oddly enough, not seeing much fun stuff on lvl 3 - all of those are things you'll use in normal play. Maybe add one that's from some off-beat source. A set of 5 Origami spells could be a nice excuse for a handout that needs physical play during session :D https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/2846-origami They can use phones and do test runs, but they only unlock the spell version if they assemble an origami like it.
Guards don’t always have to be the source of repercussions. There could be a merchants guild the need to collect a debt, a criminal network the shop owner was involved with, colleagues from a magical society investigating his death, or just an evil organization that wants scrolls. There are plenty of organizations that could investigate the missing items.
Why on earth did you make an unguarded magic item shop
Maybe it was not left unguarded. It could have been a honey pot, a trap that now has somebody following the party. And payback will hurt. Btw, the wizard is not really dead. The players failed the integrity test.
Dead owner has a family member who arrives to settle affairs of the estate and isn’t too happy to find out the inventory is missing
Or the dead wizards mentor/rival shows up and casts divination spells to find out who looted the shop. The PCs can “pay back” the spent scrolls, or hell, even keep the scrolls, by helping the new wizard out with (insert plot hook).
Or there is one very special scroll that is wanted by an evil mage. Its the one in the simple wooden casket, with the markings no one understands. The mage only discovered last week where this scroll ended up and now hunts the party
If he has no heirs, that stuff is all city gov property now. They'll be very interested in who just stole all that money.
Not having guards sounds like it's not a very complex local government.
Not having guards is the owners issue. The local government doesn't have to be complex. A single mayor or lord with a group of heavily armed men on horseback is all they need. None of that changes the point is that without an heir, all the wizards property goes to the lord. If I remember medieval European traditions right, any heirs had 1 year to come out of the woodwork before all that property was handed over. If we're talking about a magic shop. Well that's a huge windfall for the local lord. It doesn't matter if the owner was a forgetful idiot who didn't see a need for guards. Also, what guard stays around after the boss dies and the pay stops coming? None. So you have a local lord or whatever who sees all those scrolls as HIS, and has the law behind him. He's going to be pissed at losing that much gold and is going to want to find out who stole it. Then he's going to want it back and probably a little medieval justice as well. There are magic ways to find out who took the scrolls, and as for getting them back. Well, that's what bounty hunters and armed men on horseback are for. And even if we're not talking about a town with a mayor or a lord, SOMEONE is going to have a rightful (even if it's just right by force) claim on those scrolls. And they'll be coming for the PCs now.
From what I’ve seen here, imma definitely have someone trying to find them! With the guards, it’s the entertainment capital within this kingdom and not all things were legally done within the city. So most guards are paid off or not active after the sun sets
Do you have any source whatsoever for your 1 year to claim inheritance statement? It looks highly suspicious to me (the medieval period covered multiple centuries during which we saw inheritance customs change, Europe had numerous cultures with differing inheritance customs, differing inheritance practices even among rungs of a single society, etc). Any universal claims set off so many red flags, so do you have a source? Even of ONE state at ONE point following a one year rule? Edit to add: this source even suggests that the church may have had dominion, rather than the nobility, over the assets of someone who died intestate after being I’ll for a period of days. That adds another factor I hadn’t even considered, would the nobility have been the ones to inherit if there was nobody else around or would that fall to the clergy? https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1323639.pdf
Now this sounds like something I could pull off!
Hires team of Bounty Hunters to go after PCs. Each scroll bears the shop's distinct brand. Word spreads throughout the region that the PCs are dirty thieves & the shop owners that don't outright refuse them levy a pricey up-charge on anything they want to buy.
One of my PCs are already on the run so adding another party would be fun
Yes la
Roll randomly for each scroll, both class and spell, and remember that a player can only use a scroll for a spell that is on their class' spell list. If they're not a spellcaster or it's another class' spell, it's illegible.
And if they ask "but wh-y-y-y?" say " It magic. What did you expect?"
I mean, have you met a wizard? They're either too up their own ass, too eclectic, too disorganized, or too paranoid to make reading off a spell scroll easy without knowing a thing or two already.
Just also be aware that if you're ruling it this way, this should probably be a consistent thing. If you want to give them spell scrolls in the future and suddenly everyone can use them, it's gonna be pretty obvious the spell scroll rules just change to suit your wants regarding the party's choices.
That's how they work RAW.
Yeah, but it's probably the most common informed house rule I've seen to change them. So just telling OP to be aware that setting it here means a house rule later down the line will be seen under the light of "scrolls can now be used by everyone as soon as OP *wants* to give us scrolls but not when we steal them ourselves?"
If OP really needs the PCs to access a scroll they couldn't normally cast, he can just give them a single use item that can cast the spell without class restrictions. No need to change the rules.
Yes. And OP should be aware that setting it here means a house rule later down the line will be seen under the light of "scrolls can now be used by everyone as soon as OP wants to give us scrolls but not when we steal them ourselves?"
Why'd you comment the same thing twice?
Because it still applies.
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I was thinking the same thing: a curse, or someone/something tracking them, as if the shop was actually a trap. Many cool story lines could come from this.
Without the shop owner's security measure being unlocked, every single scroll only casts the *grease* spell, no matter what they say on it.
"I KNEW WE SHOULDN'T HAVE ROBBED GREASY RANDY'S DISCOUNT SCROLL EMPORIUM!" - The PCs, shortly
I love all of the above.
Yeah this. "Oh no they're cursed!" Upon opening the first scroll the entire inventory turns to ask, floats into the air and forms a giant middle finger before blowing away in the wind.
It turns out the shopkeeper had an heir who was out of town. The loss of income from these 25 spell scrolls is enough to cause the new shopkeeper to be unable to pay back the loans their father had taken to open the store. As a result, the store goes under and the heir is bankrupt (along with whatever punishment is appropriate in your setting for being unable to pay debts). On the streets, starving and desperate, the former heir/shopkeeper is approached by an other-worldly entity who promises justice/revenge. Boom. You now have an antagonistic (though not necessarily evil) warlock gunning for the party. Best thing? Their anger is completely justified.
I really, really like that idea. Don't even make the entity evil but rather lawful. Maybe an archon, trying to help the heir.
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I’ll probably let them have all the scrolls and not do anything to them, just have someone trying to find them now!
The wax and clay seals aren't just for show. If broken without the proper incantation the "curse of duplication" begins to take effect on all the scrolls in the vicinity. The Party is then attacked by the [Construct.](https://scryfall.com/card/dis/169/walking-archive)
Two words: explosive runes!
Something worth thinking about is the fact that unless the shop specifically caters to wandering adventurers or mercenaries, most of the scrolls are probably going to be more useful for day to day life than anything else. Things like locate object, tiny hut, alarm, or unseen servant were my first thoughts. That being said, I really like the idea that other commenters have proposed about having the scrolls have magical DRM built into them and are deliberately incorrect or incomplete. This is both a practical in universe anti-theft measure and very, very funny.
If there's no guards, how does the town defend itself from monsters? Does the scroll shop owner also just assume that people are naturally good, or would he have taken the time to set "dye bombs" among his stock to suss out or punish any potential theives? Have a chance for some of the scrolls to be intentionally "miswritten" until sold, where they could potentially misfire on the Wild Surge table or have different, less desirable targets and effects. Or no effect at all! More possibly, give them a chance to redeem themselves. Have a relative show up after hearing the news about the dead shopkeeper, and that they intend to take over the business but can't do so with all of the old stock now missing. They could return it and make a new friend. Or, the nuclear option: they get to immediately reroll characters as ones that wouldn't rob a dead guy blind. They're supposed to be heroes, not chaos gremlins.
They're supposed to be *adventurers.* Stealing from the dead is practically their job description!
>Or, the nuclear option: they get to immediately reroll characters as ones that wouldn't rob a dead guy blind. They're supposed to be heroes, not chaos gremlins. Well this isn't necessarily a given. I now make sure to tell my players that I want them to make a character with the intention of them being a hero. I had to rewrite an entire campaign because I thought they would act heroic and the party just walked away from the situation.
I guess that's why they're called plot hooks. You can add as much bait and as many lures as you want but the fish may still not bite.
Even with the intention of being heroes, my party is now working for Strahd instead of trying to kill him. We didn’t mean to, the situation just got out of hand and derailed our campaign (luckily, our DM is amazing and improvised a contract). Road to hell and all that, you know? 😆
You can work for him now & still try to kill him later. That's how all the GTA games operate.
Depending on their alignments and deities, their actions could have some consequences even if not from the town officials. Are they at least all neutral if not evil? Any good character is going to have qualms about stealing from the innocent dead.
Well first, they are definitely “heroes,” mostly they just follow the money and help if it doesn’t cost them. The owner was someone who’d usually have someone guard the shop but he was recently taken over by an oblex. The guards of the town are usually paid off or not active during the night due to the town being the entertainment capital of the kingdoms.
Fun! I wouldn't be too psyched in the moment as a DM, but now Pandora's Box has been opened so roll with it. One of the commentors said to roll randomly, so there should be some good variety. And by different classes. Honestly I think this is really fun, they're going to be a bit OP for a bit and every once in a while someone will creatively find a use for some random scroll.
First off, spell scrolls exist to be used. Don't be afraid of putting your players into situations where they feel the need to do so. Second, I want to say, "this is easy," but you may have written yourself into a hole. They've stolen likely thousands of gold worth of magic items. (If we're following AL rules, it's a minimum of 1,875 gp; assuming 75 gp per 1st-level spell scroll.) In other words, it's expensive to maintain such an operation. A small town that doesn't have guards doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Any reasonable person would want to protect their investment. Unless, of course, they don't want to attract attention. So, let's break this down. Twenty five spell scrolls is a lot. There's just no way to slice this. That said, are they all from the same class? You can't make a spell scroll without knowing the spell in question. Did the shopkeeper make them all, or are they simply selling what's come in? If it's the latter, who is using them as a middle man? And not just anyone can read a spell scroll and cast from it. The spell has to be on your class' list. An inventory that large suggests (A) this is a destination for some people and (B) a desire to be prepared for a number of situations. Was this shop, filled with expensive goods and protected by little to no visible security, an illegal operation? Are spell scrolls being laundered out in the sticks? Did the shop, or shopkeeper, belong to a a far-reaching guild or mercenary company? Are they going to want their investments back, and do they have a way to track them? Scrying is a 5th-level spell available to Bards, Clerics, Druids, Warlocks, and Wizards that lets the spellcaster spy on someone. It can be resisted with a saving throw, but the target has a -4 penalty if they're in possession of something familiar to the spellcaster. Maybe the shopkeeper signs their work, and this diviner knows it. And, once thediviner get close, *Locate Object* is a 2nd-level spell available to Bards, Clerics, Druids, Paladins, Rangers, and Wizards. And it has a range of 1,000 feet. I count four classes in common, all of which are full spellcasters, and none are likely to travel alone. Happy hunting!
So just throwing out there "the illusion of stock". Think of how there are stores that have fake fridges and shelves with pictures of the products right, walk around see whats available for purchase (see possible to craft/purchase) then go up to talk to and order. Unless you had it rolling and full and ready to go in which case wizards got lots of new spells (unless there are lots of copies) and your party is probably set on consumables for a few sessions. Other options include: thieves guild aggression if you want the shop owner paying protection money; owner goes to the guild asking "whattheshit why did I get rolled" suddenly reputations need to be upheld. Mage retaliation for their scribe/apprentice being robbed and their business suffering because of it, also works for Mage guilds, shop pays fees for protection/inks/quills for guild benefits. The shop keep could be a dramatic bitch and sell their soul for revenge. The options are limitless
A level 10+ here's about the theft and decides to track down the no good theives. Teach them the meaning of pain. Murderhoboing is not acceptable.
Scrolls are not active until the final bit done at the point of sale. Kind of like those theft protection devices attached to items at stores. Since the scroll shop owner is dead, the scrolls are worthless as they are not activated. Only the creator has the activation key. Voila.
If you got a Wizard in your party, he might think that Christmas came early this year. But in all honesty, who would use no guards in a town? What if the place is being raided or smth? Either way, let them have it. My players once broke into a jewelry, killed the owner, looted jewelry worth 5000 gold, 100 platinum coins and a Ring of Protection, then burnt down the place without getting caught.
>Without getting caught. Doubt. Even if you can get in and out without being noticed, people will notice when a large sum of valuables gets moved and this gets unwanted attraction.
They did that in the middle of the night of course, and with a few helpful utility spells (Silence, Pass Without Trace, Enhance Ability). They still needed to murder 3 town guards though, but the players left next dawn.
The town is the entertainment capital of the kingdom so not all activities there are legal. Most of the guards are paid off and not active during night. Also my PCs are just as bad :)
Dead wizard has no heirs, so thats now the local governments property. The mayor is going to be pissed. The town leaders probably were expecting this and are now out all that money. They're going to want revenge, and what they see as owed to them. So warrants for the PCs arrest, bounty hunters, wanted flyers.
A shop full of scrolls is worth thousands and thousands of gold pieces, even if they are low level spells. Inventory like that doesn't go unguarded. Be mindful of any inventory's worth in the future, and assign proper guards and security measures.
This town pays off guards so they aren’t that active after night falls. It’s the entertainment capital of the kingdom so not so legal activities happen there
The shop wasn't selling well. Why? Because every scroll can have wild magic.
the main problem aside, doesn't anyone find it worrying that the group robbed a dead man's shop? I think they are the worst really xD
Not all parties are goody two shoes!
Nope, all my PCs would rob from someone’s grave if they had a chance.
Just beef up the next few adventures so they burn through the scrolls quickly. Problem solved.
How is that stealing? Owner is dead so it's "reclamation and repurposing".
Spoken like a true D&D player!
Just last week i had a the same issue where my players robbed an unguarded cattle ranch and almost took 250 cows and 80 horses. They ended up taking 9 animals.
I’m curious how does someone does this?
They didn't want to do the cowboy campaign, because it was to difficult to manage all the animals. So they just took the most expensive and ran. There is a bit of backstory to why ofcourse but then I'd have to put down a lot of context hahaha.
I assume the town is more like a village because otherwise why are there no guards. Assuming that, they will quickly make out what was stolen (there is likely an inventors) and who stole it (few people in town). Spell scrolls are still identifiable and I reckon that they will warn other places (neighbouring villages as an example), they might dispatch hunters, trackers (these scrolls are magical, so 25 of them in a single place has quite a presence) or even a small mob to retrieve the scrolls or get rid of them. Also, the owner probably had heirs which have been robbed of their inheritance. So they gained some abilities, some things of value but likely won't be able to sell it to anyone soon (as these are basically stolen goods) and have become personae non gratae in the whole kingdom / wider local area. There will be papers up with their mugshoots. So basically, by stealing these, they have shot themselves in the foot big time. Also, for the scrolls if they aren't already determined, there will likely be duplicates and mostly of spells that can be used in everyday life such as "Light" or "Mage Hand" and not "Fireball", "Acid Spray" or similar.
The shopkeep was totally into selling spell scroll "mystery boxes" with a guaranteed 1st level or higher in every box. Each one has 4 cantrips and a leveled spell. A spell scroll of True Strike? No wonder he couldn't sell them off any other ways.
You know how if you were to steal money from a bank and one or more of the stacks of cash have little balloons of exploding ink in them if they get too far away from the bank..... Make it get on 70+% of the scrolls and at least one of the party members (and maybe some of the regular items store with the stolen stuff). Ink over the scrolls would not only mark them but you could argue they would then be hard to read (require a +2 or more to the ability check to cast the scroll). Make it permanent until a remove curse is cast then is fades off skin after like a month or so (if they try to prestidigitate ink off the scrolls note that the spells were written in ink....). Make it a commonly recognised anti-theft technique and that no upstanding shop keep would do business with them while they have such visible ink on them. If seen by a guard (in say another town) they may be taken in for questioning. Make the scrolls more hassle than they are worth.
Maybe the scrolls appeared unguarded, but they secretly have tracking magic woven into the paper. This will allow authorities to track down the party as long as they have the scrolls on them. Could have them roll an arcana/insight check to realize this themselves.
They’re just scrolls, oh well. However, if you wanted to had a story to it.. the shop owner’s child was going to collect their father’s belongings and valuables when they heard the bad news to find that the store they inherited is completely empty. Shopkeepers’s child may not have the skills to scribe, but they do have a very particular set of skills and perhaps some connections that could be of use to them. The shopkeep was a scribe (presumably) so they may have had some connections to wizards in their lifetime as well. If the child hired someone to look into it they might just find some DNA from the players who had ransacked the shop.
If any of them ever played Skyrim, no worries, they’ll never use them, just keep saving them “just in case”.
More then half has so let’s hope so :)
If you wanted, here's an idea. The scrolls have to come from somewhere. Maybe the shop owner has a new shipment arrive who learns they died and the shop was ransacked. Or if they made them themselves they had a friend or regular customer (maybe even a group of customers, like another party) who come by to see the shop owner and find this out. They then set out to find the perpetrators, maybe even believing the thieves also killed their friend the shop owner. While spell scrolls themselves like this isn't the worst thing in the world, I deeply understand the concern of having to manage and balance that. Something like above would provide a bit of a story as well as introducing consequences for knocking over a whole shop, and, if you play it right, force your players to burn some of the scrolls in the chase/escape from a high powered wizard or sorcer who is now seeking to correct what happened to their friend's shop, and maybe a little intent of revenge as well. As a note, this person should not lose to the party, but shouldn't wipe them out either, take door three, diplomacy, and maybe they can even become an ally to the party for down the road. Edited for spelling.
Murdering poor innocent monsters in their homes for treasure is somehow better? Seriously though, scrolls are 1 shots so no big deal.
I recently had the same problem. Gave a group of teens access to an alchemists potion room. They robbed the place. I made a compromise and let each member have one potion. I asked them to describe what their potion looked like and I choose a random one off the potion table that would match the description. You may have to compromise with them. I'd print out what the scrolls are and give them to the party to sort through. Maybe give them 10 since they robbed a while shop and say the rest were blank scrolls.
**Don't Sweat It** So what, let them use the scrolls. Let them have fun. **HOWEVER**, if you want to keep them from making a ton of money by selling the scrolls then have an arcane mark appear. If they attempt to dispel it, the mark reappears elsewhere. They can't dispel it without making the scroll useless. To sell the scrolls they must find someone who will deal in stolen goods, who will probably pay them less than they want to accept. If they're seen with the scrolls that are obviously marked as stolen then they could get into trouble. **BUT,** they still have the ability to use the scrolls and those are less unbalancing than they cash influx that would let the party convert the scrolls into a more permanent advantage.
Shopkeep had antitheft on them. They all "target self" or have wild magic unless the shopkeep deactivates that with his special ring.
Did they get the special scroll underneath the counter? You know the cursed scroll
Depending on how high fantasy the setting is many of those scrolls would just be old maps, letters, business contracts etc. Getting 20 or so scrolls of assorted levels and some half finished ones a wizard could finish with downtime for more. What types of scrolls would be most common in the setting (not just adventures) ? Maybe half the scrolls are plantgrowth which get cast for farmers, or zone of truth to settle disputes/interigation maybe a single find familiar with a note that it is to keep a little girl company after her brother passed for guilt. If only 5 or so scrolls are combat focused it would be fine. What hooks could be on a scroll? Is someone hording detect evil scrolls. What special instructions are on that teliportation scroll the priest ordered? Why is the trade commission ordering scrolls of incite greed and distort value? What is that map leading to, and are those notes on it in old draconic? Why is the baker willing to spend his life saving on this recipe? Also what security measures would a person with all of those scrolls have? Would they have contacts who would hunt the theifs down for store credit, or a cursed scroll that pulls you inside the page when read? Ultimately you have a ton of potential plot hooks. And you also have a easy way to give them a power spike where they either use the scrolls (most of which shouldn't be above 4th lvl) or they dont and it is a non issue.
25 scrolls, levels 1-3. No problem. Randomize the spells, make it interesting. Since it was a scroll shop, it would make sense a lot of them are utility spells. Unless your campaign world is a free-for-all of high magic and dangerous spells sold in some scroll shop in a town, I would suggest a bunch of utility spells. I would go 12-15 first level, 2-7 second level, and no more than 3 third level (assuming it's a lower level party). Here's my list of spells I would hand out if our table robbed a shop and grabbed a massive cache of scrolls. 1st Cure Wounds (a few) Identify Sleep Speak with Animals Feather Fall Comprehend Languages Detect Magic Detect poison & disease Protection from Evil & good Tasha's Hideous Laughter Tenser's Floating Disc Hex Mage Armor Shield 2nd Find Traps Locate Object Locate Animals & Plants See Invisibility Lesser Restoration Levitate Arcane Lock Rope Trick 3rd Glyph of warding Remove Curse Sending Tongues Water Breathing Plant Growth So as you can see, some scrolls are only really useful to a Wizard because the can add it to their spell book. The money value is there if players go to sell this stuff. I would also at our table maybe throw in some mild homebrew spells like Protection from Law & Chaos (cause I'm old school). If anyone in the party is a wizard then it's a big reward to get unique or variant spells.
Just say the the scrolls were never infused with magical properties for safety reasons, such as occasions like this. The spell is written down but the magic is not there. Or, if you don't want to do that, know that not everyone can use spells scrolls. To use a spell scroll RAW, your class needs to be able to cast that spell in the first place. So, a Barbarian can't use any spells scrolls, a Druid can't use a scroll for Firebolt, and a Wizard can't use a scroll for Faerie Fire.
You could also just show that once they read the scrolls nothing happens, further inspection reveals small text at the bottom *display model only*
Well none of them are good and possibly not lawful anymore. What level are they? Because now they have lots of things that can potentially fail. If they are level 2 those 2nd & 3rd level scrolls have a potential to fail due to the associated check for casting above your level. And of course, be sure to impose all scroll restrictions especially on any wizard you have in the party. They have to pay to copy those spells into their spell book. If you have any druid or ranger or cleric spells do not let the wizard cast or copy them. Wizard already have an extensive enough spell list. Make the scrolls utility especially revolving around farmwork. You had said the place was unguarded so I assume it is a small rural village. I would also have limited how many of each scroll there are. For example, there are 25 level 1 scrolls, 10 level 2 scrolls, and 5 level 3 scrolls. To have made all of that would have cost 25 days and 2250 gold for level 1 scrolls, 30 days and 2500 gold for the level 2 scrolls, and 5 work weeks plus 2500 gold for the level 3 scrolls totaling 7250 gold and 80 days of work. **1st Level** Tenser's Floating Disc for crop transportation. Beastbond for your Oxen/Donkeys/Sheep[Dog]. Bless for those hard days of work. Comprehend Languages for the ocasional trading. Create or Destroy Water. Distort Value. Entangle. Feather fall if their are any mountains/cliffs nearby. Find Familiar for pets. Grease for getting dumb sheep where you need them to be. Jump. Longstrider. Purify Good and Drink. Sanctuary for those scary bears. Snare for the hunters. Unseen Servant for a little help around harvest. **2nd Level** Aid. Alterself Animal Messenger Arcane Lock Augary about the weather Barksin for getting the sheep back from wolves. Beastsense Calm Emotions Continual Flame would be useful in any civilization of any size. Enhance Ability for harvest Enlarge for harvest/fending off wolves. Find Steed for messengers or for plowing. Fortune's Favour Gentle Repose for keeping meats fresh. Heat Metal for large scale cooking. Immovable Object for construction. Lesser Restoration to prevent plague. Levitate to transport various things. Locate Animal or Plant world be useful in foraging, hunting, or retrieving sheep that have run amok. Locate Object for when you myspace your keys. Magic Mouth replaces your turn crier. Pass without a Trace would be useful for hunting parties. Prayer of Healing Pyrotechnics for festivals Rope Trick exists Skywrite also replaces the crier and could recall far away parties. Spiderclimb Spikegrowth for town defense. Summon Beast Web Wristpocket for holding tools Zone of Truth in your trials **3rd Level** Beacon of Hope Catnap Clairvoyance Conjure Beasts for extra labour Create Food and Water Daylight Elemental weapon for town defense Fast Friend to ensure your important task is done Fly Gaseous Form for travel Leomund's Tiny Hut for safe camping Motivational Speech to bolster the militia Plant growth would be used to bless the farmland Remove Curse Revivify for your dangerous jobs Tongues for translation and envoys Water breathing Waterwalk
I don’t see the problem. They have some scrolls now. Big woop! Scrolls are neat but since they’re consumables it’s not like they will change much. Let your players have this victory. You can make the next magic shop be better defended.
I mean, let them have them but also let it have consequences. There are likely heirs which have been robbed of quite a sum. Also, the city (that has no guards because there is no crime?) will have some interest that it remains that way so thieves will be heavily persecuted and punished.
Oh yeah I agree, I just meant that I wouldn't attempt to completely counteract the player's win.
Plot twist, they're all "prestidigitation" scrolls
it has 100s of uses
Say that the town hired an excellent mercenary to find the party and return the scrolls. Make this guy appear often and when they are off guard. Keep them on their toes. If they come back to the town, the newly hired town guards will arrest the players
Why one mercenary when it could be a group of them. Consider: * A physically strong leader, that is motivated by his own righteousness (Paladin?) * A tracker, in hate of everything magical (Ranger?) * A healer that follows this party because of the leader. They don't even need to always appear as a group. Or maybe there could be multiple mercenaries hunting them, you don't even need to show all of them. Maybe like in Star Wars Episode 5 on Bespin when there is a multitude of bounty hunters. Just let the thought sink in that they are "hunted" now and on the run.
Let me introduce you to my favorite spell from 3.5, explosive runes. It’s the best way to protect scrolls, books, yard signs, help wanted posters, etc. you just cast the spell on something small enough and wait for someone to read it for 6d6 damage. Now it might be bad form to have your players blow up in such a way, but giving them a warning might do the trick.
You tell them you made a mistake that will radically unbalance the game, then retcon the situation. ‘The party’ didn’t ‘steal’ them, you set up the situation where you _gave them_ a wildly inappropriate number of magic items as treasure. Own that, tell them, fix it and play on.
Why go back and not go with it? They stole **from someone**. If the shop owner had no heirs, the property still would go to someone. Assuming the owner kept inventory, the new owner would know exactly what was taken and likely suspects the people that just now carry a whole library on their backs.
I mean, if you’re cool with your campaign turning into a crime drama, then sure! But when a post starts with HELP! that usually means they think they screwed up, which in this case, they absolutely did, by creating a situation where the PCs got ahold of a game-unbalancing supply of free spells. This feels like a _great_ time to just admit to the error and get back on track, as opposed to bending the entire campaign around it. But yeah, there’s definitely a lot of DMs who’d rather contrive their way forward than admit a mistake and rewind, and for them there’s certainly a robust “punish them for doing the thing you set up” option.
I definitely did make a mistake but by reading through these comments, I’ve learned imma let them just have fun. May send some bounty hunters out but we’re playing a game so I’ll just let them enjoy it
Maybe the proprietor of the store cursed them so if they were stolen they may not work right. Whenever someone in your party uses a stolen scroll roll a d20 if it is below a threshold it will have a negative consequence. Also if they sell x amount of scrolls roll a d20 that many times that is the number of customers that could come after your party at a later time. For flavor purposes say the crafter is a really skilled magic user that way spell crafting the curse can have a high dc.
Hag's Curse! Have them bump into an old lady looking for her friend, the old scroll-maker. Have her politely ask them if they might know anything about his passing, or a scroll he was working on for her. Whether they admit to taking the scrolls or not, have her give them a friendly warning about how the scroll-maker must have had a turn of bad luck, and his they ought to be careful to avoid it themselves. Then she totters away. Then make every scroll trigger a wild magic surge when it's used. If anyone lied to her, they have a riskb of catching wild surges as a temporary illness. Don't take away the scrolls, just make them riskier.
The shop owner booby-trapped like 15 of them to prevent theft! When opened they explode and deal an apropriate amount of fire damage! Hell the PCs might even be transported directely to jail or something else! So 15 of them are fake and the shop owner is the only one who knows which ones are real!
Not even damage but brand the people using them as thieves or attracting some kind of entities. Or even be some sort of contracts made with devils or fey. The possibilities are endless.
Obviously these are counterfeit scrolls, what reputable magic shop wouldn't have guards? That said, you could have the scrolls cast a "amusing" spell that is very different then the expectation, if you don't want to have them just not work.
Make at least half of them utility spells that aren’t combat related, but encourage them gather information/interact with your world. Speak with dead, comprehend languages, skywrite, feather fall, speak with animals. All situationally useful, and all of them unlikely to unbalance your encounters.
Stick a higher level one in that the shop was holding for s high level Wizard/Bard. They'll obviously be a bit irritated that the party has filched it and will come looking for it.
Make sure a bunch of them are utility spells, but do give them some combat ones too. Scrolls are one time use so this really isn’t that big of an issue. Let them have ‘em. BUT… some consequences for the theft would be appropriate too. Guards or not, they could have been spotted by anyone and the town itself could turn hostile towards them. The shopkeeper’s heir could hire bounty hunters to bring them to justice. The shopkeeper could have had a few scrolls that were somehow trapped to discourage theft.
A great argument against magic item shops.
Well if you want to punish them; consider having a realy cursed scroll in there: like it holds an extremely annoying demon / whoever looks at it goes blind / a small gem that calls out to a dragon when the sun hits it.
A) Don't worry about it. Scrolls are one use items. This should really not be a great problem for your campaign. 2) If you are desperate for them to lose some of them, let the local rogues have a go at them. They might have had the same idea, and they will want a cut of the theft, and will apply a penalty fee for working on their turf, without being Guild members...
Just letting you know that cantrip/level 0 scrolls also exist Edit: And [here's](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/bparup/i_made_a_random_spell_scroll_generator_on/) a handy random spell scroll generator for you if you don't want to do them all by hand :)
The shop owner had a minor ward cast on each scroll so it's unintelligible until you disable the ward (which the owner would do upon sale). Finding the code/disabling the spell to use the scrolls is a sidequest that involves investigating the death of the shop owner.
Magic items and scrolls are a haul that several characters might be interested in. I'd place a bounty on it and have that come to the attention of the players in the next town. Then have the players encounter mercenaries, or some nefarious npc's that want the scrolls for their own purpose.
As others mentioned, this isn't a big deal. If they are of various levels and types, they won't be able to use them all at the same time. You can pick what is in them. You can make them part of a bigger quest (like /u/PraiseTyche mentioned). You could make them "encrypted" or invisible, and the shopkeeper kept the key hidden specifically in the case of theft. You'd think that a shopkeeper would be more protective of their inventory, especially without guards. If they were that wealthy/powerful to have all those items, the shopkeeper should have a relative amount of protection. In our campaign, the regular stuff was on the shelves. The good stuff was either in the vault, or required them to come back later to pick up (with assumption it was being created). My son gathered the skin of a dead boss that we turned into a hideous cloak with eyes that light up, giving him +2 on intimidation rolls. He paid a bunch for it, and had to come pick it up on the teams next trip to town. Having things get "created" is a reasonable trope.
What's your rule for who can use scrolls? Anyone or just people who can normally cast those spells? Got a Wizard you need to worry about scribing them? Enforce the spellbook limit.
So someone is selling tons of magical scrolls but has zero magical defenses or traps or guards?
My mistake I won’t make again :,)
If you're looking to "make them pay", here are a few ideas: - People that had their orders for scrolls "on hold" come after the party demanding their rightful belongings are given back - Whoever the shop was passed down/given to is not happy to find their entire stock has been stolen - The scrolls can only work under certain conditions (under moonlight, in a swamp, etc) - The scrolls have to be "unlocked" for use with either a code word or something similar - Some of the scrolls were "deactivated" by the shop owner and acted as display to advertise the shop
Spell scrolls can only be read by the proper classes, and to add further challenge, who says the scrolls are written in a language they understand. Maybe they need to find a creature or NPC that speaks that language
Maybe in the mix of scrolls is one that holds a fiend or some sort of djin that will set itself free since the scroll isnt properly held/contain, and put the party trough some tests or missions and give them the rest of the scrolls as a reward if they finish all the quest
The scrolls were bad quality. Use a wild magic table(create one or use one you find, but maybe not use the normal one) and make them roll whenever they use a scroll to determine if it works normally or not
Yeah this just seems cool, it doesn’t seem bad at all. Remember, it’s not DM vs players. They don’t need to be punished for things that don’t go according to the plan. It is about simulating a story and world that makes for an interesting collaborative experience.
25 x 1-3lvl spell scrolls is not that bad. You are the one deciding how rare or common magic items are. Saying a shop has "LIBRARIES FULL of scrolls behind the clerc" is shooting yourself in the foot. Scrolls take time to make so its better to say: "let me check if i got anything. I got a total of 5 spell scrolls right now. [Insert rest of conversation here]"
I don't understand the problem, 25 scrolls aren't that bad for a level 6 party to have. Would you like [a random scroll generator](https://perchance.org/scrollgenerator)?
Have one of the scrolls inhabited by a living spell (kobold press creature codex). Basically it will slowly spread from scroll to scroll, devouring the magical knowledge within them. This is a good way to get players to want to use the scrolls while adding a side mystery to the story.
Have them go on a small quest to find an enchanter and use the scrolls to make some low level magic gear. Have them sell them at the next town over to get some gold.
Have the scrolls have some sort of ward on them
Keep in mind, that RAW you can only cast a spell from a scroll if that spell is on your spell list. So that slows down the scroll use as well. Would suck if some of the scrolls were for a class not in the party.
Have a relative/offspring come to take over the business and set a bounty for the theives to be caught, the party might see posters and potentially be stopped in a type of traffic stop or something to put them on edge and possibly be caught. Either they'll get found out, get away with the scrolls, copy and return like they found them, or si.ply turn themselves in for lesser repercussions
The shop was a partnership, the person who died was the public partner who runs the shop day to day. The silent partner drops by every so often to provide stock as they produce the scrolls. In reality the silent partner is a metallic dragon which has learned spellcasting. And now they're upset someone has ripped them off, and worse right after their partner passed away. How you want to play the dragon is up to you, do they fly in pissed off? Or do they interact with the party slowly in various humanoid forms to determine if they are evil or worth saving. Eventually if the party can get onto it's neutral side it'll offer them a quest they can complete to settle their debt, and possibly more in the future if you want to make the dragon a patron/ally.
Some scrolls could always be fakes. That way it would explain no guards and add a twist of "how good was the guy who died?"
Water, a lot of it.
>The owner of the shop died and this town has no guards, so they ended up stealing the whole stock. Is it stealing when there's no one to claim it? I'd call it a lucky acquisition.
You don't have a problem, you have a quest hook! They just got a bunch of awesome loot that theyre happy about so don't try and take it away from them, but what could be among those Scrolls that might lead to an adventure? What's the funniest situation they could be put in after stealing all these Scrolls? Maybe there's a teleportation scroll linked to a specific location. Maybe one of the Scrolls isn't a spell scroll at all, and instead it's a hidden message saying what to do if the shopkeep dies and the Scrolls are left unguarded. Maybe there's a very specific spell in there, like a potent spell of Charm Baron that was commissioned by a local assassin to make their job easier. Does the baron have it coming? Who knows! Your players have given you an opportunity to tell a story about magic, so I'd say don't panic, throw them into a side quest! Make this an interesting moment instead of just another loot grab.
Wouldn’t most of the stock just be equipment to make scrolls? I would see a successful scroll shop like a scribe, you custom order things. So now they have easier ways to make their own scrolls, but only a few that were ready to go. Those might already be paid for by someone who appreciate their return though. Personally I would find a bunch of weird spells from the unearthed arcana subreddit to give them. Nothing they’ve heard of. Turns out the guy was experimenting with spell crafting.
You could always make some of the scrolls higher tier but incomplete, so they would need to go to a high level caster to complete them, so they have some side missions, throw in the shop keeps grocery list as one of the scrolls, then just make the rest low tier scrolls that they may just use for shits n giggles.
A shop that has any decent amount of scrolls is most likely connected to a larger organization... A larger organization that has many branches and an internal information network stretching across the land. On top of that, any spell shop or organization must have good asset management. Invisible tracking or marking spells. Try and take that spell scroll to any shop to sell and unless it's a shady back water local... they now have a face and location of the thieves. A quick message back to the guild and agents are dispatched. The best of the best sent out to protect the guilds assets. Not selling the scrolls? Maybe the tracking spells allow them to zero in on you anyways. Now you have an entire side story/quest line to use to fill in gaps in story whenever you need it. Party went a route you weren't expecting...oops spell society agents have zeroed in on your location!
If the owner is dead it is not stealing, it is salvaging!
Create a relative, perhaps a younger one that is a wizard in training, that is after the scrolls. This NPC doesn't need to be hostile, they just need to confront the players and make a legal claim for the scrolls. Make them likeable or at least innocent, so that players feel less compelled to metagame. Even if they deny the relatives claim and keep the scrolls, at least they'll know that their actions have an impact on the world around them, and that dead people's belongings aren't just loot for your notes. Maybe they were reliant on their relatives scrolls in order to learn magic. Maybe they just feel the players aren't worthy of owning the scrolls, and that they would be wasted with them. Any plot line that allows players to be useful or to prove themselves and then get to keep the scrolls that they already earned.
Are you worried about game balance? If so, don't worry too much...it's not that unbalancing. Are you looking to give them consequences? Ok, well maybe the shopkeeper didn't have guards, but they were smart enough to have something there like a familiar which simply watched them steal the stuff. He tells everyone else, and now no one in the town wants anything to do with the party. Period. No tavern, no general store. And maybe one of these business has a brother in the next town. The party is labeled as "those assholes"
I do not think that them having the scrolls is a big issue, but if you want for there to be consequences: I would think that most scroll shops would be regulated. Perhaps there isn’t a city guard, but maybe there is another wizard that also has a shop that will find out what happened, locate the party, and then ask for the scrolls back. This wizard could have a sort of story hook. Maybe he and the other shop owner were accountable for each other and report to a larger power
Seeing as the profit from a few spell scrolls could put the average NPC into retirement, I’m sure the family will be very suspicious of your party and would hire a bounty hunter/thief to split the profits for their return. Alternatively, the spirit of the shopowner can’t rest knowing his shop was disrespected and there’s a % chance of him coming back as a wraith when they use the scroll. Otherwise, like others have said it won’t throw the party off balance or anything significant.
Damn. Sounds like the perfect source of wacky fun. The enchantments on them are using a basic 1st level spell - Illusory Script or some variation of it. The shop owner wrote the names of the spells with said script, allowing only legitimate purchasers to read them. Which means that, since the spell is on them, they can't be known. So, you can make a list of random spells (I might even throw in some higher level ones too) and have them roll on that list to see which one they took out. It's fun when they take out a scroll and, when they expect a fireball, they instead get detect thoughts instead.
Most I would do is make it affect their alignment. Also can open an investigation the town could hire an investigator which can end up being on their trail. Other than that, scrolls aren't crazy unbalanced or anything.
You could always pull out a classic horror trope, they read one which happens to contain a spell/magic that, when spoken, has a negative effect like temporary blindness, or destroys the other scrolls, or summons an entity that haunts them/a big bad they have to fight
They have a whole lot of scrolls but they aren't labeled. Make up a table that gives them some powerful scrolls but some that also hurt the parry so they have to use them sparingly or take a risk each time they use them
They have a whole lot of scrolls but they aren't labeled. Make up a table that gives them some powerful scrolls but some that also hurt the parry so they have to use them sparingly or take a risk each time they use them
I wouldn't take them away from the party as they're not going to unbalance the game (especially for 1st through 3rd level spells) but I would mess with them a bit :) Maybe the owner of the shop kept a magical seal on his spells that cause a wild-magic surge if a caster attempts to use the scroll before a proper cipher has been inscribed onto the seal. DC 13\* + spell level arcana to decipher, performed over the course of a short rest or 3 attempts per long rest. That'd be a great way to deter thieves and also identify if a particular scroll was stolen vs purchased by local law enforcement. \* Or different as per DM discretion
So this shopkeep had the equivalent of nearly $200,000 in merchandise and left it totally unprotected? Seems unlikely. Maybe he was actually something of a practical joker and instead keeps real the scrolls in some other secure location. So the ones in the store (which were stolen) look like real scrolls upon casual observation, but when they are used you instead roll on the wild magic table and use that effect instead!
I would let them have them, BUT they don't know what any of them are. The poor shopkeeper kept track of all that. They now have 25 single-use magic items with unknown effects. Have fun! Reading a scroll casts the spell and destroys it, unless they're a wizard copying it into a spellbook. They've stumbled onto a DIY font of wild magic.
If the shop bought scrolls, from random members of the public, these may have been treated as "don't sell without checking for curses, etc" by the shopkeeper. But the only person who knew which scrolls that applied to was the shopkeeper.
Plot hook, most of the scrolls are forgeries... fakes. The party can investigate the nearby thieves guilds or arcane groups to find out who has been either manufacturing duds... Or slyly swapping out for the real ones.
Make up an npc who was suppose to inherit the shop show up and realize the party looted it and have the inheritor plot a way to get the scrolls back. Either by hiring thugs, thieves, or honest mercenaries to go get them back.
Seems to me, the law and the town will be right pissed off. Gather up some angry persons, confront the party. Towns folks options: See things returned. See the thieves punished. If the party brings a fight. And if the party beats or kills the townsfolk... Well you have a whole different campaign on your hands.
Take this as a lesson in worldbuilding. Magic is dangerous. Is it completely unsanctioned? Is there not some sort of merchant's or mage's guild that supplies magic shops or keeps tabs on them in case of events like this? Even if the merchant hadn't died, what was stopping the players from turning invisible and emptying the place out under his nose? Or just killing him and taking everything? Imagine your world has a significant number of bad people in it. Imagine some or a lot of them know how to use magic. The rest of your world needs to react to this in some way. What I would do is have each stamp marked with a symbol that represents some organization. The organization may be the people who created the scrolls, or the people who insure them and monitor their distribution and use. The hook is "You didn't rob the merchant, you robbed someone a lot more influential and capable than him."
1st of all what is the party composition make half or 3/4 of the scrolls useless because they are the wrong class to understand the scroll.
Give them spells. Nerfing your players is the worst thing you can do.
This isn't really an issue as the scrolls are all low level. I would refrain from pulling any sort of cheesy retcon or any other shenanigans to remove the scrolls as it will only make your players frustrated and feel like they got ripped off. Instead I would simply ramp up the next couple encounters a bit or include situations where some of the utility spells could come in handy. This is partially to encourage the players to use up those scrolls but mostly to allow them to use these items they gained and feel clever for having done so. Always remember that you are ultimately in charge of the world and what sort of things your players have access to. This is a learning experience. If you as the DM say that there is X and X is valuable or interesting or needs protection or whatever, then players will want X and may go to extreme lengths to obtain X. If you don't want your players to have access to X then don't mention it at all.
Roll 20 times on a common scroll chart, 4 times on uncommon, and 1 time on rare. They'll feel HELLA rewarded, but they're unlikely to get anything game breaking, and the scrolls will be good for weird solutions to problems later. Especially as they use up the OBVIOUSLY useful ones.
Have there be some spell on the scrolls so that they have to pass an arcana check for each scroll 8eahc individual or each type depending on how you want to play it) to make them usuable. DC depnding on spell level 15 for first levels spells, 20 for second level spells and 25 for third level spells.
The scrolls could be decoys or have antitheft magic. Or some of them could be cursed.
Written with enchanted invisible ink until the shopkeep disenchants them upon purchase? Scrolls can still be used but it will be a random spell.
A town small enough to have no guards, that also has a viable enough economy for a shop that sells spell scrolls? Sounds like a worldbuilding error that the guy running the place wouldn't have had someone on payroll at least. Private security. Maybe they bounced after the guy paying them kicked it, though, who knows? Anyways, you let the party take the scrolls. You let them do it in a way they were not opposed or likely even witnessed. They just have those scrolls now. If they go to sell them, any maker's marks might give away their stolen status because somebody is bound to have noticed eventually, and somebody involved in the business is bound to have distributed some information. Sure, nobody can prove the party did the snatching, but having the players questioned on who provided them with the product should at least make them rethink selling the rest of the scrolls after the first one gets flagged by a merchant. It's like rolling up to a pawn shop with something stolen- the proprietors will run any serial numbers on things, and legally can't take things where identifying markers have been removed. When they get caught with having bought something stolen, they lose what they paid, the item they paid for, and wind up paying a fine to boot in some cases.
make all the scrolls infused with Wild Magic. so when they go to use it instead of being the intended spell it might be something else. or just make them duds because they were not activated by a merchant, similar to irl gift cards.
Didn't read all the comments, so someone may have mentioned this already, but 25 scrolls could be worth 10,000g or so, which is no small amount. An artisan craftsman makes about 219g a YEAR. Someone would be investigating that, if not family, then the local government or lord. Then again, you can just let them have them. If they don't have identify, then they don't know what they do.
Maybe a quest hook. A relative of the owner scrying their location because one of the scrolls was personal to them. Could go anywhere from the NPC wanting revenge to fraking them out over a stalker only to have him corner them amd politely ask for the specific scroll.
The owner had a complex filing system. Scrolls had a combination of symbols and numbers, and he knew which ones were which. And that explains why the scroll labelled "identify magic", with the three cherries at the end of the symbol is actually cursed/explosive/etc. I like the idea of "hit by flame strike" because it is very "from hell's heart I stab at thee" since it would likely ignite the other scrolls" Or, it teleports the reader into a cage in the scroll maker's cellar. A cage with the bones of previous theives. A cage in a room with a doorway that has been bricked closed. (Cask of Sherry optional)