I am going to be running a Seafaring campaign soon that will focus on the old Azlant Empire. The PCs will be Pathfinders from the Shackles who will soon find that the seemingly random missions their Venture-Captain sends them on actually get them closer and closer to recovering a powerful Old Azlanti artifact. I have read through the Seeker of Secrets book and one of the things that really intrigues me are the Ioun stones. If the PCs are going to be poking around ruins in the sunken continent of Azlant, I am sure they will find Ioun stones here and there, but there are a few things I am not clear on that I would love to know before I try to bring them into the campaign (without finding myself contradicted in an future sourcebook) :
1. How common would they be in the untouched Azlanti ruins?
2. What is the common method of their discovery. Basically, where would they be found? In a chest? As jewels on a statue? Just lying around on the ground? In a gillman's pocket?
3. How overall rare are they in the Pathfinder's world? Basically, if the PCs discover some, will they be required to hand them over immediately for research by the local lodge, would other Pathfinders perhaps attempt to "borrow without permission" these stones, etc, etc?
Thanks!
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Seems a lot would depend upon circumstances...
1. How common would they be in the untouched Azlanti ruins?depends upon the ruins. If it is an old magical shrine, probably very likely. An old impoverished farmer's hut not likely...
2. What is the common method of their discovery. Basically, where would they be found? In a chest? As jewels on a statue? Just lying around on the ground? In a gillman's pocket? Again depends upon circumstances. Is it a shrine, wizard's tower, magic college? Then possibly in chests sounds good. I doubt they would take and "glue" Ioun Stones onto statues, but they could be found as parts of necklaces or other jewelry I suppose. In a farmer's hut, not likely but possible if the gillman was there as a trader and just happened to have one in his pocket. Stranger things have occurred.
3. How overall rare are they in the Pathfinder's world? Basically, if the PCs discover some, will they be required to hand them over immediately for research by the local lodge, would other Pathfinders perhaps attempt to "borrow without permission" these stones, etc, etc?Ioun Stones have never been an exceptionally rare item in the game, that they would be confiscated. Any magic item elicits greed so ANY item could be stolen, but Ioun Stones have never been so intrinsically rare as to inspire theft. BUT that doesn't mean someone can't try. Sounds like a good side trek to me.
Just my opinion and but heck they can be rare if you want them to be.
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1. How common would they be in the untouched Azlanti ruins?
They are extremely portable, which makes them very easy to loot, very small, which makes them both very likely to get missed or left behind by even a tiny covering of sand, or just as likely to get swallowed up by a curious fish and carried far away. Pretty much as common as you want them to be.
It's possible that a particular Azlanti ruin might have dull gray ioun stones lit by continual flame as a form of light source, programmed to orbit around some central point in a great chamber (or around the heads of statues or busts set in the walls, or contained in glass spheres or metal-wire 'cages', floating around within their tiny prisons), unless they are seized, in which case they can be released to orbit around their holder (unless released in that chamber, in which case whatever magic causes them to orbit around the center of that room would remain in force). Perhaps that room is an astrological observatory of sorts, a mobile orrery, with continual flame-lit dull gray ioun stones (of various cuts, colors and sizes) moving in a sped-up dance, representing constellations, planets, etc.
2. What is the common method of their discovery. Basically, where would they be found? In a chest? As jewels on a statue? Just lying around on the ground? In a gillman's pocket?
On the ground, under a layer of silt, near the skull of a long dead spellcaster, I'd expect, if undisturbed. Otherwise, they could have ended up anywhere, depending on the actions of aquatic creatures that may have disturbed them, perhaps in the course of predating upon the unfortunate former owner.
In my imagination, the process of creating an ioun stone involves suspending the gem in a special geode and letting it 'bake' for a certain amount of time, the crystals surrounding the gem focusing the spells cast by its creator into the stone. One way to find the stones might be in dull spherical rocks, slightly larger than fist size, which would radiate only the faintest magic. If broken open, there is a glow of released magical energy, and the crystals inside fade from a bright glow to dull and gray, cracking and tarnishing as they do, as the empowered ioun stone floats out and takes up orbit around the head of its new master. The process of 'hatching' the stone might actually confer a similar buff to the 'hatcher,' so that someone hatching a +2 enhancement bonus to Dex stone might gain the benefits of Cat's Grace at CL 10 or whatever (which would supercede the ioun stone bonus for those 10 minutes), as the magic that has been 'soaking into' the stone is released in a wash of magical energy.
Alternately, the laboratory / hatchery of a mage who crafts ioun stones might be protected by animated swarms of dull gray ioun stones (which, despite their name, are all different shapes and colors, although possessed of no other powers, being 'burned out' or failed creations), swooping in by the dozens to slash and batter at intruders with sharp crystalline edges, with the stats of a locust swarm, but with construct traits and DR 5/- or something, to represent how bloody hard they are to destroy.
3. How overall rare are they in the Pathfinder's world? Basically, if the PCs discover some, will they be required to hand them over immediately for research by the local lodge, would other Pathfinders perhaps attempt to "borrow without permission" these stones, etc, etc?
They seem to be fairly common, as magic items go, among the Pathfinders, since they have special techniques for using them / implanting them / placing them in Wayfinders. If the PCs find some during a Pathfinder sponsored mission, I would expect that any loot distribution rules would already be determined at the start of the mission, and that other loot would be 'fair game.' (In other words, if the party is sent to find the canopic jars of the mummy-princess Ankerifet, and happen to find some ioun stones near the corpse of a previous failed tomb-raider, that's a happy bit of 'finder's keepers,' but if the party is specifically sent to bring back particular ioun stones, they aren't going to get to keep the items they've been sent to retrieve.) Naturally, if a Pathfinder finds a *unique* spell or item, ioun stone or otherwise, of historical, magical or other nature, they will probably be strongly encouraged to allow their fellow Pathfinders to at least study the new discoveries (assuming that they do not publish their own exciting new find under their own names!), since that's kind of the purpose of the organization, to discover stuff like this.
But if Bob finds a deep red sphere ioun stone that gives a +2 enhancement bonus to Dex, the average Pathfinder is going to be like, 'Whatever. Seen that one already.' If it's in some way unusual, say a gold-flecked jade teardrop that gives a +2 *insight* bonus to Dex, that's gonna draw attention and people are going to ask to have a closer look with divinatory magic and research to find out who made it, when, how, etc.
Thanks both of you. You gave me some good insight and ideas for introducing and using Ioun stones in my campaign.