Monday, December 06, 2010

Semiprecious Stones, base 50gp value

Bloodstone, a.k.a. Heliotrope

According to wikipedia when the inclusions are primarily yellow instead of red the stone is sometimes called a Plasma.  But if I told my players they found a Plasma Stone they would assume it could shoot beams of ionic energy or something.


Cairngorm

Cairngorm is a specifically Scottish variety of Smoky Quartz and is normally listed under that category in the charts.  It's a cool name with a specific look, so I gave them their own category here.


Carnelian

Darker, harder carnelians are often called Sard (see below).








Citrine






Moonstone

The bluer varieties tend to be the most valuable.


Morion

Morion is a particular dark or even opaque variant of Smoky Quartz (see below).



Onyx comes in a variety of colors but black is common.


Rock Crystal

I could see a scenario where folks not well versed in gemstones could be tricked into thinking a cut rock crystal was actually a diamond.


Sard

A darker, harder variant of carnelian.


Sardonyx

Sardonyx is literally layers of sard and onyx.


Smoky Quartz




 
Star Rose Quartz

This is just plain cool.


6 comments:

  1. Carnelians look good enough to eat. Posting these is a great idea.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The power of suggestion, Kent, I keep wanting to run out and buy a bag of cherry sours now. Thanks a lot.

    I must be more of a visual learner than I thought. I have read descriptions of some of these stones and not really been able to picture them as well as seeing the photos put together like this.

    Thanks for this series, Jeff, in other words.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I used to go to the occasional gem show and buy inexpensive stones that caught my eye in order to make jewelry as gifts. I was always surprised at how different the same type of stone might look in a faceted vs. cabochon cut or the varieties of color a single stone might come in.
    I particularly like (but can never afford) a ruby they call a 'pigeon blood' or emeralds... but have contented myself with different varieties of quartz (rutilated quartz are really cool), jasper, "parrot rock," amber and petrified dinosaur bone.
    I like when the dealers offer different samples of quartz uncut.
    I haven't ben to a gem show in years... I ought to go again. It's just fun to look.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Those Bloodstones might make some cool eggs.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You know, this really helps me visualize some of the stuff I have been digging up in Dwarf Fortress.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Strike the earth!

    ReplyDelete