Hi, I would ask some explanations about the silver dagger found in Vancaskerkin room.
If the party try a spellcraft check, they understand that it's magic. But spellcraft check, the spell Identify from Zellara deck of cards, or the help of some NPCs (sellers or merchants) don't help them to discover anything else about it.
It's correct? They could sell it as a silver dagger?
Some advice on how to continue this side story?
Thanks
From the AP:
"It radiates magic if detect magic is used, although an attempt to identify it reveals no powers. The raktavarna remains with the PCs as long as possible—it can be sold as a normal silver dagger"
I had it radiate a Transmutation aura, but not one that is recognisable as a specific spell or magic item.
The abilities of the Raktavarna are Supernatural (Su), which are neither spells nor spell-like. So there's really no fixed rules about how you GM them: it's up to you. Supernatural abilities are very varied and difficult to generalise about. Which makes them handy for storytelling, I find.
Personally I have plenty of Supernatural abilities have no magical auras (eg: that Gloria and Meliya don't radiate transmutation auras due to being shapechangers). And I don't have Sermignatto's Domination ability have an aura either. But if you want to you can.
In our campaign, the party arcanist really wanted to figure out what was up with the aura of the dagger. So after experimenting on it for a while I had it turn into a snake and try to bite him. The party ended up killing it.
For the side-story, it's intended to be about Melilya Arkona using it to observe the party using the Master's Eyes ability. But how you run that is entirely up to you.
All the points Yossarian made are great, to add a little of my thinking to it as well I figured that it would also radiate as transmutation but that’s it. I have the party roll their spell craft checks but always fail. I have ruled that detect thoughts can hear the surface thoughts of the rakshasa or legend lore will divine the creature for what it is.
My party spent almost a whole session trying to figure out what the magic dagger was. Going from place to place for information until the only thing stopping them was the cost of having an NPC cast more powerful divinations. They are convinced it is something great though.
They are running into the same issue with the second chapter and the tainted coins radiating faintly of necromancy but not being able to figure out what they are.
I made it a Bleeding dagger (mainly to make them want to keep it) and told them they could tell that it had Transmutation, Divination, and Enchantment auras, but no matter what they rolled for Spellcraft, they couldn't identify the additional spells/powers. They're convinced its some sort of artifact that will be important later in the story. They're currently in the Vivified Labyrinth, about to meet Vimanda - boy will they be surprised!