How much for circle magic?

[Reagren Wright]

Okay folk at some point I might address this in a sourcebook but right now desperate times calls for asking the those who might know more about
Palladium Fantasy than myself. Let's assume in the Western Empire (perhaps Land of the South Winds) Summoners/Alchemist enjoy the privilege of having
a shop on the corner just like other mages do. So you go to the mage and ask him how much to use a Circle of Teleport to cut the time needed to travel to
a destination. How much do you think they will ask for? For those who've read the Raw Edition of Lopan you might have read about a place in the Lopan
capital city Thane Ennore called #8 Destination where a mage does this sort of thing. He charges 1000 gold. Does that sound about right, not per
person just 1000 gold regardless how many need to use it?

[Hotrod]

Okay folk at some point I might address this in a sourcebook but right now desperate times calls for asking the those who might know more about
Palladium Fantasy than myself. Let's assume in the Western Empire (perhaps Land of the South Winds) Summoners/Alchemist enjoy the privilege of having
a shop on the corner just like other mages do. So you go to the mage and ask him how much to use a Circle of Teleport to cut the time needed to travel to
a destination. How much do you think they will ask for? For those who've read the Raw Edition of Lopan you might have read about a place in the Lopan
capital city Thane Ennore called #8 Destination where a mage does this sort of thing. He charges 1000 gold. Does that sound about right, not per
person just 1000 gold regardless how many need to use it?

The sacrifice for the Teleportation circle is a pair of faerie wings, if I recall correctly. Anyone providing such a network would have to cover the cost of that ingredient, plus the cost of owning/securing the teleportation circles at each destination. Then there would be the opportunity cost of expending the P.P.E. and the general "I spent XX years and XXXXX gold to get to where I can do this, so I'm gonna charge XXX because I'm just worth it." The last factor is likely to be a lot if there aren't other viable options (monopoly, baby!) or a little if there's stiff competition. There's also the "how desperate are they and what can I get away with charging" factor.

The fact that there's no person/mass/size limit for a teleportation circle opens up interesting possibilities for instantaneous, long-distance, bulk shipping/transportation that have never really been explored in published works. You could:
+pick a site for a colony a thousand miles away, clear and level it, draw a teleportation circle, and then flawlessly teleport in a pre-built colony of people with their houses, livestock, valuables, equipment stored food, and a curtain wall. Boom. Insta-town.
+Send a summoner covertly behind enemy lines to draw a huge teleportation circle, then teleport a thousand troops into a vulnerable and vital strategic area and set them loose to rampage, pillage, and burn unopposed.
+Teleport entire warehouses of perishable goods to far-off cities where those goods can't be produced naturally and can't otherwise get there without extraordinary expense (fresh fish in the desert, snow/ice in the jungle, tropical fruit in Ophid's Grasslands).

Considering the cost of buying, supplying, and manning ships, I have to wonder why this isn't more common, especially in the Western Empire.

[Kraynic]

As Hotrod brought up, you have to burn a pair of faerie wings to activate the circle. You also (unless this changed in 2E) still have a chance of mishaps if you aren't teleporting directly to another teleport circle. So, for perfect teleportation, you want 2 circles with 2 pairs of faerie wings. The cost of a pair of faerie wings is 20,000. Unless you can truly make them permanent/indestructible, then I expect you would need to do that any time you need to touch up the circles due to wear from traffic, so even linked ones probably aren't without upkeep cost.

To be honest, I always thought the Mystic Portal spell made more sense for people that didn't want to gamble. You still have the same mishap chances, but you can simply look through it to see if it is going to spit you out into a solid object, way up in the air, or whatever. I could certainly see someone charging 1k per person for teleportation spells, because of knowledge. "I have studied places around the following areas, and know them nearly as well as I do my home." Each transportation specialist mage might have a certain area of the country/world that they have focused on for reliable travel. If you have read any of the Vlad Taltos novels by Brust, that comes up in that setting.

[kiralon]

Circle of teleport, isn't really worth it, 1800 miles, have to burn some faire wings. Teleport superior is better as a lvl 10 wizard can get you from one side of the world to the other pretty much, for only 600ppe, so the 1000gp seems 12x too small.

If you are a follower of certain churches however paying for a prayer of interventions teleport is often a good way to do it as well.

[Soldier of Od]

There is a travel agency in Caer Itom that charges 450 gold to use mystic portals, teleportation spells or circles to transport customers. But this does seem very cheap. Perhaps due to the high prevalence of magic in Caer Itom driving the price down?

Faerie wings are ridiculously overpriced, at 20,000 gold each (35,000 gold a pair). Trying to explain this in-game, perhaps alchemists charge through the nose for these items because they would rather keep them for their own use rather than give independent summoners an opportunity to take business away from them?

According to the Western Empire book, most Western magic shops will pay 4,000-8,000 gold for a pair of faerie wings. (Faerie hunters in the Verequell Woodlands get 2,000 gold for a pair of wings from the local noble house, who may sell them for 2-3 times that price, or export them to foreign lands for 6-8 times what they paid (so 12,000-16,000 gold).)
Compare that to the guide price for alchemist purchasing "booty" from outsiders: 10-30% is typical, which would be 3,500-10,500 gold for something worth 35,000.

A scroll of the 15th level spell teleport superior would cost 20,000-30,000 gold. Paying a wizard to cast the teleport superior spell for you would cost 9,000 gold.

Note that it would be relatively simple for most summoners/alchemists who are wiling to do so, to summon a faerie, kill it and take their wings for the teleport circle. All for the cost of a lamb and some honey.

I guess as the market for selling faerie wings is limited to summoners (who else has any use for them?), alchemists might charge less than the selling price to use the wings themselves to teleport customers, as that opens up the potential market dramatically - anyone with enough cash can request a teleport, but the only person who would likely purchase faerie wings from an alchemist is a summoner (a rarity to begin with) who is unable or unwilling to summon and murder a faerie of their own.

Still, 450 or 1000 gold seems too cheap. At the very least, the charge should be more than the purchase price for the wings (2,000-8,000 gold), and probably more than the 9,000 gold they would charge for teleport: superior (if they know that spell), as the ritual involves components and has a greater chance of success. 10,000 gold? Maybe 5,000 gold rock-bottom sale price in an area with high competition and flush with cheap faerie wings?

[Franko Tyrador]

I thought the wings were used during 'creation', but activation afterwards, is just the small PPE (plus the blood or true name being used in the circle).

[kiralon]

I think the book says that its just the burning of the faerie wings each time you teleport and the ppe isnt needed unless you want to change the location it teleports to.

[Kraynic]

No, it requires the burning of faerie wings to power it.

From the 2E main book on pg 153:

A new location can be indicated by rubbing out the old destination and writing the new one. This is one of the few circles that can be used by someone who did not create the circle and does not require additional PPE to evoke its magic, only the burning of faerie wings.

That part of the description is pretty close to what is in the original version as well. The 1E version says that you also need to use the power words when activating a previously made/used teleport circle.