He concentrates for a little while. "As far as I can tell, it's normal a ring of swimming. No curses, no special functions, no magic aura unless it was from a very powerful caster."

"Underwhelming... though I'm glad it's not some evil intelligent ring that eats the soul of it's wearer."

Abus chuckles. "One must always be on the lookout for those."

The ring is moved aside. He levitates an amulet out of a container and begins to study it.

Tomas thought this was an Amulet of Mighty Fists, which... she thinks uses more spellsilver than a similarly magic weapon? And druid spells always have something of an upcharge. It will still be less valuable than the gold, but it could fetch a notable price.

Study study study. "An amulet of mighty fists of the lowest power. No other properties."

Abus levitates a longsword up onto the table and begins to study it.

As expected. This was... keen on top of the standard enchantment? That should have a market.

"A keen longsword with standard enhancement power. Interesting. I wouldn't put keen on a longsword. Not that I really use swords much..."

"Why's that? I'm not really a sword person either."

"There are weapons it works better with. You see it more often on scimitars and rapiers for this reason."

"Keen weapons are better at hitting vital points, yes? What does it mean to work better?" She has not invested much in understanding the intricacies here. Tomas is good at hitting important places with a rapier, maybe he has an opinion?

"Keen makes you more likely to land especially damaging attacks, though not necessarily on a specific vital point, but how much more likely is dependent on the physical shape of the weapon. Longswords are certainly not the worst thing you could put keen on, that would be something like an axe, but they're not exactly optimal either."

"That matches my understanding of the subject, though I haven't studied weapon properties in as much detail as you have."

"Axes and scythes do hit much harder when you can line up such a blow, though, do they not? I suppose the enchantment efficacy is more worthwhile on blades? Interesting!" This she knows from lessons on finishing off the stunned targets of a Color Spray. No reason to keep that secret, so better to keep the conversation flowing as he goes to Identify the further items.

Abus identifies the rest of their magic items: a pair of lenses of detection, a crystal wand of acid arrow with twenty-five charges, a magic composite longbow and a magic earth breaker and a magic heavy mace all with standard power enhancements, an elixir of love, a dose of stone salve, ten doses of strange wax that defends against charms and linguistic compulsions, a nonmagical book preserved with unguent of timelessness, and a scroll of dream. He does not identify any of the items on their persons, nor the items on Julen's corpse (which is not in the room). He needs to recast identify once during this process.

Last but not least, he levitates a black tome and sets it on the table.

The magic weapons alone are worth... almost as much as the gold? Possibly more, depending on the premium for druid enchantments on the amulet. It's not the cult but it's a lot of money. The elixirs... will depend a lot on how much that wax goes for. Is it a new recipe? Is it actually useful? She has no idea how to value it, so ten doses could be anywhere from another weapon to a vast windfall from interested researchers. Those should probably go to auction.

And the book. She wants to know what he has to say about this. None of them had Identify, and it clearly needed something better than what they could manage.

He stares at the tome until his spell fizzles out. "I'm afraid I have no idea what properties the tome has. It's an artifact and identify doesn't help with those. Analyze dweomer won't work either. You'll have to find someone good enough innate spellcraft to make sense of it."

"How much would it cost to store? I would prefer not to carry an artifact around with us, especially one with unknown effects."

"Storing magic items with unknown effects will incur additional fees. How much will depend on what we know about this item. Where it's from, what effects it's likely to possess, et cetera. I am not sure if our facilities here are capable of storing it. If the artifact is intelligent or otherwise capable of taking independent action you would be better served in Absalom or Sothis."

Alright. What does she actually want here? What would a good resolution look like?

Morgethai's eyes on this? Yes, that seems correct. No other source that competent will be nearly as trustworthy. That means she needs it held safely long enough for her to request archmage intervention. Gem contract deadline has passed, so she should be receiving a Sending (or some other contact method) soon. A week of holding should be sufficient. Any options for that better than the Bank?

...Nothing she can think of has any advantages besides obscurity. Might someone have a way to steal from this branch which was not previously worth triggering? It's possible. From the Absalom branch? ...anyone who can manage that and notices this would probably be able to steal it from any other storage area. The Abadarans are capable of not leaking the fact that they're storing something new and interesting, so any detection would come from their perhaps-foolish lack of security while bringing this into the area. That means... this probably opens no new vulnerabilities.

"We have observed no signs of intelligence or independent action. For the rest... Yanor, I think it your choice how much to disclose?" Silently agreeing that storing it in the bank is ideal, and that they're just haggling over the price. If Yanor has a strong preference she'll assume he has a reason, but if he doesn't, the default option is now the one she wants.