Make a charlatan rogue and sell powdered water- just add water!
Chess Pwn wrote: The goal is to profiteer off of water. We've already gone through the city to have a permit to sell. Currently it's just limited temporary water, but if we could get larger permanent volumes of water then we can sell more and at a higher price. But this is a side-story to our main plot, so that's why I can't really use any option that takes a lot of time. Hirelings are surprisingly cheap. Find an expert (buy one at the slave market if necessary) study and scan him to make sure he won't be a problem later, maybe drag him along on an adventure to level him up, then put him in charge of using a long-term solution (decanter) to make long-term profits. Have him slowly take over the city by expanding into farming (he can irrigate), trade, etc.
Freed slaves given middle-man positions of power are often loyal...
Teleport plus a treasure stitching allows you to move 7750 gallons in one trip. 100 castings of purify food and water for 10th level caster will do the same.
Lessor planar binding gets a great 5 gallons a teleport. If it takes and action to load and unload then that is 5 gallons every 18 seconds. This is about 4800 gallons a day. Wow that was less then I thought.
Purify food and water even at first level can get you 14400 gallons a day. This assumes that you can cast all day every day.
Heavy lift belt 4k
Mule back cords 2k
Belt of str 64k
Prices are doubles to make slotless
Find a Diplodocus and kill it. Then animate it 750 GP.
This gives you a zombie with a str 42. That goes to 48 with the belt. 56 for carrying capacity witch is tripled. This beast can carry and iceburg weighing 2100 tons or 33.6 million gallons.
Rounding slightly for the density and we have 7.5 gallons per cubic foot. Roughly 4.5 million cubic feet. A block of ice 165 feet to side would cover it.
A beast this big requires a caster level of 48 to teleport so that is not practical but plane shift gets you within 500 miles and shadow walk allows speeds of 50mph.
For 75k you can get wayfinder of the stars witch allows for 1 teleport a day so you would need 2.
Mathius wrote: Heavy lift belt 4k
Mule back cords 2k
Belt of str 64k
Prices are doubles to make slotless
Find a Diplodocus and kill it. Then animate it 750 GP.
This gives you a zombie with a str 42. That goes to 48 with the belt. 56 for carrying capacity witch is tripled. This beast can carry and iceburg weighing 2100 tons or 33.6 million gallons.
Rounding slightly for the density and we have 7.5 gallons per cubic foot. Roughly 4.5 million cubic feet. A block of ice 165 feet to side would cover it.
A beast this big requires a caster level of 48 to teleport so that is not practical but plane shift gets you within 500 miles and shadow walk allows speeds of 50mph.
For 75k you can get wayfinder of the stars witch allows for 1 teleport a day so you would need 2.
So 70,750 gold plus 2 wayfinders at 75,000 each brings you to 220,750. That would buy you 24 decanters of endless water bringing 432,000 gallons a day each. Or 10,368,000 gallons with 24 of them a day. Sure, the iceberg beats that at 33.6million gallons, but this is in the city, all day every day, while your method has you waiting for the undead diplodocus shipment daily.
It can be done without the wayfinders but that route takes at least 2 spells and maybe 4. Plane shift and shadow walk. How many blocks this size would the city need. Maybe 1 a year?
Custom item:
Solid ring of metal that purifies any food and drink that goes through it.
Turns seawater into drinkable by passing though it. Set up a cistern/pump system to run that water through the item.
You can make the ring really big and produce more than enough water to do whatever you want.
You're only limited by how much water you can get through it.
Perhaps make it encompass a man-made river coming off of the sea. You now have a river of fresh water for drinking and irrigation.
I'm sure one of our engineer posters can break the math down for you if you like.
Okay, just did some calculations. That block would support 600 Americans for 1 year. If the city uses water like the UK it is 2300 and if it is more similar to world average then is 7000 souls to a block.
Guess 1 block a month would work to support 30 to 70 thousand people.
This much added water would destabilize the market.
As more practical solution teleport in block of ice with treasure sticking. Sell ice for huge markup over water. Market it as straight from the poles and good for your health. It has to easier to sell 7750 gallons to the rich instead 432000 to anyone. No need for a cistern or large distribution networks.
The biggest markup make ice sculptures. Imagine how much it would be worth to the ruler to host a party feed by water that has been ice for the thousands of years that is carved into the likeness of the lady he likes. Also the local water cartel will not try and kill you.
Tarantula wrote: decanterdecanterdecanter Yes, that's the best option. I think at this point we're just stretching our creativity muscles by asking the question, "Well what else is there if the DM nixes a Decanter because reasons?"
As for ice, while I think murderhobos are A-okay with destabilizing markets and irrigating vast farms, selling ice for a sun-burned city-state to consume as a luxury is definitely an option as well. Probably easier to just manufacture the ice directly with Rays of Frost and/or a cold-damage dealing weapon, though.
Attracting the ire of a water cartel is what we call, "setting out bait for your assassin trap."
Found something even stronger.
1. Construct a colossal centaur (allows better slots): ? GP
2. Animate object: 60K GP 46 str
3. Increase HD by 8: 24k GP 48 str
4. Increase str +2: 5K GP 50 str
5. Belt of str +6: 36K GP 56 str
6. Muleback cords: 1k GP 64 str
7. Cast anthaul: free 3x carrying capacity
8. Headband of int +6: 36K Can use command work items
9. Helm of teleport: 73.5 K 3 teleports a day.
You will have to ride in a portable hole or have some way of following.
240K GP and it can carry 6300 tons or slightly over 100 million gallons.
Edit: I totally got pounds to gallons wrong somehow. 6300 tons times 2000/8 = 1.6 million gallons. Not sure how I got 33.5 million gallons.
The decanters are better in every way.
If you could get 9th level spell access, then create a demiplane filled with water, and open a gate to it.
Then again, its only up to a 20' diameter hole, held for CL rounds, I think a decanter still gets your more water in a day.
For reference the cube of ice is now only 60 feet to a side.
Wow water is really heavy. This much water is barely enough to make a pond.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Decanters of endless water only costs 1,125gp to craft when you use downtime magic capital with the Focused Overseer feat. Just craft a bunch of them and sell your infinite water for whatever price people will pay you for it.
Ravingdork wrote: Decanters of endless water only costs 1,125gp to craft when you use downtime magic capital with the Focused Overseer feat. Just craft a bunch of them and sell your infinite water for whatever price people will pay you for it. I've got this overwhelming urge to tell you not to flood the market ...
Sorry :p
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Do you really want a rousing game of Accountants and Actuaries playing the adventure path: Water Market Capitalization and Monopoly Pricing? Or are you more interested in breaking into some dungeons and killing some big bads for their stuff?
If it is the latter, enjoy the flavor the DM has given you about the desert city and water merchants. Make a few bucks now and then, but don't try and break the economy or otherwise ruin the game.
If it is the former, you have plenty of good advice above.
Tarantula wrote: If you could get 9th level spell access, then create a demiplane filled with water, and open a gate to it.
Then again, its only up to a 20' diameter hole, held for CL rounds, I think a decanter still gets your more water in a day.
Assuming endless flow at the speed of gravity (~9.8 m/s) and some very quick and dirty math involving this equation you get 452 thousand gallons per round for a demiplane that lasts days per level with a gate to it as part of the create demiplane spell.
That's a lot of assumptions though, including but not limited to "does the plane keep making water as it empties out" and "what about airflow back up the 'pipe' of the gate" and "does the water continue to be water after it leaves the demiplane?"
I don't know where I got the idea, but I tend to assume any time I try to abuse a demiplane's functions a wild House Rule will appear saying that foodstuffs and water and such that come from a life-bearing paradise demiplane spoil, vitrefy, turn into aether, or become otherwise toxic/useless a few hours after being removed from the demiplane.
Come to think; taken to a logical extreme this gels well with the fae/fairy realms' "Eat anything in their world and be trapped forever" trope. You digest materials made out of aether, and when you leave it starts to turn back into aether even if it's now a part of your body.
But this is all a bit tangential.
Dave Justus wrote: Do you really want a rousing game of Accountants and Actuaries playing the adventure path: Water Market Capitalization and Monopoly Pricing? Or are you more interested in breaking into some dungeons and killing some big bads for their stuff?
If it is the latter, enjoy the flavor the DM has given you about the desert city and water merchants. Make a few bucks now and then, but don't try and break the economy or otherwise ruin the game.
If it is the former, you have plenty of good advice above.
We're already playing A&A right here in this thread. I think we all made 2nd level.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
The issue with the beloved Decanter of Endless Water is the cost. It easily exceeds the total net wealth of most communities, certainly when we're talking about typical farming hamlets. That said a DoEW would be a highly valued treasure and resource for any desert-based community.
So assuming no water available at all via wells, windtraps or oasis or other natural means...
Create water at 12 gallons per minute for a 1st level cleric or druid is almost practical. 1 minute is enough drinking water for 24 people for 1 day. Granted you need a few of them in each community.
Recycling and re-use would be critical in severe conditions.
Having enough water for agriculture...that's another critical issue as well.
Some numbers:
Yeah it takes a lot of water, I mean those numbers seem kind of low, really...
But the idea with using a decanter is the PCs sell a bunch of water and drain the town treasury while putting all the other water-merchants out of business. Destabilize the local economy, and leave with the decanter just before the civil war starts while feeling like they did a good deed.
Or they use Ultimate Campaign, and are basically treating it like lordship in 1st or 2nd edition.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
@OP ChessPwn
Re-read the post and saw that there is a supply of water nearby, albeit salted.
That makes things much simpler.
Low-tech condensors, depending on the size of the salt water supply and the needs of the community would be able to suffice. Use copper tubing (or similar) coiled for the condensor. Assuming desert climes, concentrated ambient heat, or with the use of reflectors (polished metal curved mirrors) would be sufficient source of evaporation. Immerse and run the tubing through a cooling medium to a large catch basin, tank, or barrel to act as a reservoir. If cooling medium not available, use an arc in the tubing.
Very low-tech solution is a giant tarp over the salt water. Evaporation condenses on the tarp and from there you collect the run-off. Same method is used to reclaim water from trash and wastes. The compost heap is then used for fertilizer. Very condensed wastes can be used for fertilizer, alchemical reagents, or simple fuel.
Step 1) Find isolated exotic place, preferably one avoided by the public and until recently full of monsters (you killed the monsters and took the loot).
Step 2) Dig a shallow but wide hole, line it with stone (Create water on the sand then mud->stone). Fill with best water you can find.
Step 3) Find a rich water merchant and tell him you have found a huge magical water basin. tell him monsters were using it as drinking water. Lead him to exotic isolated water pool.
Step 4) Before he arrives, cast major image on it to make it look like it reaches a vast depth, something believable though. Add control water for extra fleur and water pumping excitement.
Step 5) Convince merchant to pay anything from 3-6000 gold for the great water supply you just found. Make him think hes getting a bargain cause you adventurer types are such gullible fools.
Step 6) Go as far as holding a party close to water basin, enjoy free food and entertainment, put the face-less players in front of isolated place to prevent naysayers from interrupting.
Step 7) Jiggy down with merchant's post-18 offspring, or possibly the merchant him/herself.
Step 8) Watch from distance when merchant wakes up in the morning to find the tiny pool of water.
Step 9) Profit.
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