Saturday, August 28, 2010

The Pearl Carpet of Baroda


Fit for a dragon's hoard. How many gold pieces would you make this worth in your campaign? Bidding starts at $5 million U.S.
"The carpet is traditionally believed to have been created as a gift for the tomb of the Prophet Mohammad in Medina and was commissioned by “Gaekwar” Kande Rao, the Maharaja of Baroda."
"This splendid carpet has a surface that is entirely embellished, created using an estimated two million natural seed pearls, . . . The design is picked out in coloured glass beads and the whole richly encrusted and embellished with gold set diamonds and precious stones in their hundreds. . . .Across the centre there are three large round ‘rosettes’ each made of table cut diamonds set in silvered gold. Further smaller diamond rosettes in the border, all of which are embellished with sapphires, rubies and emeralds set in gold."
via Neatorama

3 comments:

  1. Beautiful, ancient, famous and unique? Easily a x10^3 modifier on the auction value roll, possibly a x10^4.

    Heck, that's the kind of covetable plot hook over which intrigues are spun and wars are fought.

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  2. Thanks Chris! So, what gp range would that put it in your world? I'm actually curious to know how to convert something like this into game terms. 10,000gp, 50,000gp, 150,000gp, more?

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    Replies
    1. Funnily enough, gold is at $1680/troy ounce at the moment, so assuming a S&W gold coin (10 or 20 to the pound) this is worth right around 2500gp.

      The Keep is ripping you off, big-time.

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