"- I think if I took bets in Sothis they'd end up much higher than that."

:That's certainly one way to think about it! I mean, hmm, what's the average value of artifacts we've found per room - this one might be higher in expectation, if it was harder to clear out, though we have to adjust downward since maybe we can't get to it even by sending someone in...: 

"Ten thousand so far on average, for the throne rooms, more if those jade stones are a metamagic rod of something which I suspect they are though I don't know what. This one also might be higher in expectation because he was ninth circle, to have been able to pull this off at all, and I don't think all the others were..."

Vanyel is distracted midway through trying to formulate his thoughts about what a weird and uncomfortable way this is of deciding on what risks to take (though it's also very Leareth-reminiscent.) "What's a metamagic rod?" 

"It lets you modify spells as you cast them! Like you get to do anyway, for free."

"Hmm - are there more kinds in places we can see? If I could just go look at some other examples with mage-sight, maybe I could guess better at what that one does." 

"We'd probably have to go to Absalom. - I guess if we want a diamond and a chicken and to look at some fancy stuff then we might as well go to Absalom as Sothis."

:I've also been told that we have to see it at some point, and it sounds like it's the same number of teleports either way?: 

"It is, yeah, Absalom's not far from here. Van'll still have to Gate us to the surface to pick you up but then I can bring us over there."

Vanyel can do that!

And then they can have some wrangling around the cargo bag and Mahdi can drop them all -

- on an expansive ocean boardwalk lined with ships on one side and vendor tents on the other; people veer out of their way in the unbothered fashion of people who see a lot of teleporting wizards show up with a friend and a horse. The ground away from the ocean slopes steadily upwards and is covered with buildings, many of them very very tall, at least a few of them actually hovering in midair. 

Mahdi lets Fazil and Hagan out of the bag. A green-skinned child nearby stops to look curiously and her mother rolls her eyes, tugs her along. 

As promised about two thirds of the passersby are humans; many of the others are humanlike but taller and more lizardlike, or shorter and hairier. Skin tones range from ink-black to pale white to blue and green and purple. 

"Do you want to gawk at the Starstone," Mahdi says, "it's practically obligatory."

"Oh, sure," Vanyel says distractedly; he's busy gawking at everything already, but especially the floating buildings. 

The Starstone is on an island around which there is a moat which is, to a glance, infinitely deep; the island appears to contain a big stone castle, though the details are mostly obscured by mist. There are ropes and fences strung up to keep crowds well back of the moat. 

Vanyel is tempted to get a closer look with Farsight but figures he should ask. "Will I get in trouble for using magic to see closer?" 

"Nah. You won't get in trouble even if you go grab it, though I would really recommend you not."

Then he will dive in closer with Farsight and try to peek through the mist. "Why, what happens if you grab it?" 

The mist resists peeking through. 

"It makes you a god."

Hmm, is it a complete shield or can he push through by putting more power behind it? "Ack. I...can think of people who - might try for that, I suppose," cough he means Leareth, "but, just, ack." 

If he puts a fairly astonishing amount of power into it he can shove the mist away. It's a stone castle. It is the most powerfully magic stone castle he has ever seen.

"The last success was eight hundred years ago, and a lot of people try. Usually they die trying. It's supposed to be some sort of test of worth - and, obviously, of sheer ability - and we don't know that it still works at all, with Aroden dead."

"Well, I'm not even a little bit tempted to try." He shrugs and drops the Farsight, it's getting tiring. "What else is there worth gawking at?" 

"There are gladiator matches in the coliseum, there are chariot races and flying chariot races, there are sometimes staged high-level wizard duels but there's probably not one today, there's naval maneuvers that also might or might not be on today...and if we just head straight to the magic shops I'm sure there'll be plenty to gawk at there."

"I don't think I really want to see gladiator matches. We could go to the magic shops since we have to do that anyway." 

So they can wind their way towards where the magic shops are. Along the way there are elaborately bedecked shops selling lots of other things: jewelry and cloth and dyes and clockwork servant-creatures that move stiffly in their window display. There are brothels. There's a shop that advertises its HOURLONG ILLUSION STORIES WITH ACCOMPANYING SOUND, 5 silver pieces. 

A silver dragon barely bigger than Yfandes scampers along the ground past them, to no apparent consternation from anyone.

It's incredible at first and overwhelming five minutes later.