For when you're on the road, homebrew a Figurine of Wondrous Power that is a little house. When the Command Word is spoken, it becomes a cabin similar to the spell Secure Shelter.
Folding boat!
I guess that kind of has combat potential...
If it were me, I'd be spending the money on flavour and fluff that complements the gold mine. The golem guards is a good idea, and if there's a town (carvern?) nearby you could start improving its infrastructure to make the lives of your miners better.
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As an aside:
Isn't the new book: Ultimate Campaign supposed to cover material like this? How to manage characters in game assets, holdings, etc...
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Evil lair? I presume then the group is not good...
Okay... gat an NPC to start recruiting area orcs and hobgoblins. Equip them to a MUCH higher standard than usual. Send them out to fight the humans and try to take over the world.
Okay, so now you have your NPCs fighting other NPCs and you can get on with being heroes (or villains) instead of merchants. :)
Otherwise spend the money on fortifications around the mine. If you have it now and go adventuring, when you get back the area orcs will have overrun your kobolds and claimed it.
Use the money for flavor and fun. Assure the GM you are playing Dungeons and Dragons (or Pathfinder) and not Merchants and Accountants.
If you abuse the fluff, the GM should feel justified in taking it away.
My suggestion would be to have your GM look into the Kingmaker Adventure Path community-building rules. That type of stuff can be tons of fun, provides awesome role-playing opportunities, and is a great gold sink.
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Two words: spyglass collection.
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no?
Personally, I'd start buying politicians.
More gold into the local economy means each gold piece is worth less.
It's why monetary systems based on physical objects of value aren't very good.
One "boom" of that resource and your whole economy turns itself upside down.
It'd be like if we switched back to a gold standard in the modern world. The first time we mine an asteroid full of gold (and they're common), our entire economy farts.
Gold works in PF/D&D only because rules don't exist to accurately portray economic fluctuation based on amount.
For example, in real life, if a party looted a dragon's horde they would DESTROY the local economy.
So if your DM starts to get a little nervous, just remind him that your gold is probably not worth as much as it would be due to the sheer amount you are infusing into the local economy.
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I guess I don't understand why this lucrative gold mine replete with a cowardly work force who would kowtow to the most powerful being around hasn't been attacked by a big dragon looking for a hoard/lair yet.
But then, as a PC in that group, I'd be readying my Ballistas and spear chuckers and magical protections against such a thing.
Still, im sure that somewhere among the Kobold-y minions is a smarter/cunning little bloke who is fomenting a revolution.
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I guess I don't understand why this lucrative gold mine replete with a cowardly work force who would kowtow to the most powerful being around hasn't been attacked by a big dragon looking for a hoard/lair yet.
But then, as a PC in that group, I'd be readying my Ballistas and spear chuckers and magical protections against such a thing.
Still, im sure that somewhere among the Kobold-y minions is a smarter/cunning little bloke who is fomenting a revolution.
OoOoOOoOOoo very true...
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1) Spend your gold expanding the mine into a labyrinthine complex of maze-like corridors connecting a series of tombs, temples, and treasuries.
2) Then stock the place with guardian monsters which gradually become tougher and more capable the further into the complex you delve.
3) Seal yourselves into lowest, most dangerous chamber of the mine.
4) Slowly transform into immortal undead abominations of your former selves.
5) Wait 1000 years.
6) Profit!
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As an aside to the whole economics thing, take a gander at some of the other equipment lists and things that you can do with a relatively small amount of gold.
Setting yourself up as a caravan master/master merchant is simple and easy to do. Same with a cattle baron, or a horse baron, or some similar kind of thing.
Some of the PFS modules by 5th level are giving out 1500ish GP per adventure....thats a veritable fortune!
Adventuring to finance a "store" or something, it becomes a lot more feasible to understand why you see so many low level guys, but not quite as many high level adventurers.
More gold into the local economy means each gold piece is worth less.
It takes a LOT of gold to do this. We're talking on the level of the Spanish taking the central americans for all their gold. The default setting is basically already ridiculously gold-abundant, so the capacity to absorb currency fluctuation will be robust.
We're running into a similar situation in our campaign. Early on we helped clear a salt mine of goblin occupants so mining could begin. Then war happened, and the mine sits idle. We brokered a deal with the merchant owning the mine (my character has a small share in the mine) to use Stone Shape to extract a ton of salt and deliver it to a nearby city (thanks to Shrink Item and Phantom Steed). Salt is 5gp per pound (or roughly as valuable as silver).
We were very worried about devaluing salt, so our GM looked up average salt consumption in the Middle Ages. Turns out it was in the order of several pounds of salt per person per annum (as salting food was one of the only ways to preserve it). That city was pretty big, with 70,000 people, so it needed somewhere in the order of 200,000lbs of salt every year. Our one ton of salt was a little over 1% of its annual needs.
The point I'm trying to make here is that economies are bigger than you might think. No, a village can't absorb 10,000gp. But, when you're talking about a gold mine, you're not going to really affect the economy of the country it's in - other than a slight increase in general affluence. The economy grows, so do imports because of it, and slowly the gold gets bled out of the country.
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Well, in Bloodsworn Vale there are up to 24k/yr Adamantine mines... Its amazing what a Lyre of Building can do in a 16 hour spree of playing... Who needs minions? Who needs Rebellion? Make a once a week journey to the mine and play until your endurance runs out. CHA-CHING! Of course, after about the first time doing this the guardians are going to notice (wether that be the competition, monsters, or the King who you are essentially stealing from). All in all, in my party's instance, the deal was one day of playing in return for setting up the roads to it (and subsequent bridges) so it could be turned over to the king as a "set up mine site." Replete with out buildings for workers.
buy a village perhaps, or corrupt politicians of a city.
Invest it, the riskier the better.
I would try to get make more money, and take things from there.
Making more money isn't the way to achieve your goals, it is your goal.
More gold into the local economy means each gold piece is worth less.It takes a LOT of gold to do this. We're talking on the level of the Spanish taking the central americans for all their gold. The default setting is basically already ridiculously gold-abundant, so the capacity to absorb currency fluctuation will be robust.
It doesn't take as much as you'd think. Mansa Musa, an old emperor of Mali, was notorious for destroying local economies every time he did a pilgrimage to Mecca. He even had enough gold to mess up the Venician economy.
That was one ruler with access to the gold mines from one region.
Start looking for ways to buy immortality.
That doesn't "break" the game, and should be awfully expensive.
I respect your groups out of character commitment to game balance, but it begins from a premise that is metagaming. You have the money that really should be the GM's problem.
First guards, wages, materials needed to keep the mine going, issues among the kobold tribes, fleeing Kobolds returning as informants for much beefier foes, getting the gold to foundry and then to where it functions in the economy all cost money. A huge bit of any gold that comes out is going to be needed to keep it opperational.
Second, becareful I am not sure worshiping Tiamat equals dragons won't be after you. Especially being that even religious Kobolds are slaves and or snack foods.
Third, I would recommend a cause or endeavor that would require ridiculous money to fund. Let them bank roll something far away, a war, building a temple or whatever but make it far enough away that it is not able to be turned into tremendous power or wealth in the scope of the campaign.
I'd use the city building rules for the King Make Adventure Path. It covers Gold Mines and tracks wealth in build points that use to expand you operation like building a Castle and town.
It doesn't take as much as you'd think. Mansa Musa, an old emperor of Mali, was notorious for destroying local economies every time he did a pilgrimage to Mecca. He even had enough gold to mess up the Venician economy.
Having just wiki'd said king, yeah, that guy WAS in the level of the Spanish taking the gold from the Central Americans. 12,000 4lb bars of gold (12,000 x 4 x 50 = 2,400,000gp) plus 80 camels with 50-300lbs of gold each. Let's assume 150lbs of gold per camel, that's 80x150x50 = 600,000gp. So this guy was walking in with 3,000,000gp and blowing it all on the spot (or rather, along the route).
I guess it really depends how much gold per year they can get out of the mine. One ton (2200lbs) is 110,000gp worth.
Your first priority should be to keep the mine going. Don't skimp on operating costs. Make sure you pay your kobold workers handsomely. And get some g&@@*$n guards there so another bunch of adventurers doesn't wipe out your workforce.
In fact, I would agree with the others and turn the mine into your stronghold. Build a fortress above ground. Have every party member take Leadership. And invest in scrolls of teleport so you can get back there in a hurry.
After that... I don't actually see any reason why you shouldn't spend some money on stat-boosting items. When my group ran Kingmaker (where we actually did end up getting a kobold-operated gold mine), we were able to strike a balance between keeping our nation going and equipping the party. We ended up a fairly well-equipped party ruling a fantastically wealthy nation. Remember, those magic items directly impact your ability to fight, win, and acquire MORE income.
Since it's supposed to stay secret, my suggestion isn't much good, but for the record...
_I_ would build a town around the mine, replace the kobold workers with normal humanoid workers who are paid a low wage (I would keep kissing up to the kobold priest of Tiamat and treat his people well, not use them as free labor), and start treating the whole mine as a source of industry. It doesn't have to be a big town, but one that houses the labor, is defensible, and can attract other people to come and trade and be further sources of revenue. Use the further gold earned to buy more land and local industries, until anyone in the nation trying to piss you off will find themselves having little to no power to deal with you. Saving some gold for dragon bribes also a good idea.
OTOH, playing Medieval Corporate Overlord might be boring, but I kind of like the idea.
Drop some money with the Assassin's Guild as a pre-payment to avenge anyone who comes along to kill you and take your stuff.
Ditto with some friendly temples far, far away for ressurection / true ressurection purposes for if / when you need it. Maybe some body parts & regeneration casting so that that it's cheaper when the time comes.
Map the area very well and stash some of the gold so that when you're forced to give up the area by a big bad later you can sell the map and evidence to some other idiot adventurers or a Thieves' Guild.
Finance bolt holes & security for them all over the place so that if you're ever on the run, you have somewhere relatively safe to hole up. If you have truly dumb amounts of money, make sure about 1 in 3 is a horrific trap that will let you keep the stuff of whatever tripped it (because as the WBL tables clearly show us, PCs have the best loot). :)
-TimD
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gold mines are a long term source of wealth, short term, not so much! Even if your kobolds are slave labor, there's food, security, overseers, cart repair, monster elimination, nobles who want their share, claim jumpers, economic inflation, minting process and smelting charges, hangers on, and crooked accountants.
Better to be VERY safe on this matter and invest in mine security more than anything else, and leave it the heck alone.
On the bright side, it'll have several quests attached to it, most likely.
Why do you need the kobold miners in the first place. THe thing is have you ever heard ofn hydraulic mining you could wash away an entire hillside with the decanter of endless water Although this will likely lead to conflict with druids.
Basicly, invest in stuff your DM can use for further stories. A flying carpet is one idea, but I'd go a step further: why not build an airship, complete with cabins and crew so you have a mobile home to adventure from? Sky pirates has always been one of my personal D&D fantasies :p. Not sure if there are rules specifically for this though, it might be up to GM discretion...
Portals and wondrous items might be a good place to skim too. A lot of them have very little to do with combat.
Claim the land and give the titles to yourself?