Serpentil Books & Folios

Serpentil Books & Folios was an expensive book shop located in Waterdeep during the 14th and 15th century DR. It was reputedly the best source of maps, charts and books in all the Realms.

Purpose / Function

The owner Dwitt dealt in maps, books, ink and other writing supplies, including rare papers such as the ones made from Sussur trees. A workshop in the back of the shop was used by the owner's son, Jym, to produce paper.

Architecture

Structure

The shop was located in an old sandstone building. The windows of this three-stories edifice were boarded over, with an old battered sign the only indication of the shop's existence.
The main door was richly carved and made of exotic dark wood. It was always closed: a small viewing panel on its upper part indicated whether the shop was open or not. At night, faintly glowing magical glyphs could be observed on both the door and windows, scaring most would-be thieves away.

Interior

The walls of this incredibly dusty shop were paneled with wood. The space was crammed with bookshelves overflowing with books, scrolls and other documents. As the windows were boarded over, the only light was provided by glowing globes obeying the owner's will. The only furniture beside the shelves were the owner's desk and a couple chairs for the customers.

Defenses

The shop was protected by almost a hundred magical glyphs designed against thievery. Every glyph could fire once a day and automatically refreshed after 24 hours.

• One third of those were glyphs of spell turning, reflecting hostile magic towards their caster.
• One third were charged with the spell Caligarde's claw, and would tear apart anyone trying to force or pick the lock of the main door, remove the boards from the windows, or damage the walls of the building.
• The last third contained enough magic missiles to blast away anyone trying to land on the roof or pass through walls.

In addition, a binding spell prevented anyone from leaving with wares they didn't pay for, and powerful magic prevented anything from igniting inside the shop.

History

14th century DR

The shop sold any sort of printed materials such as chapbooks, maps, nautical charts, and other books. While magical tomes and maps from The Sword Coast were the owner's specialties, he could proudly locate any kind of books such as collections of folktales or ballads for the right finder's fee.
Books sold in this place were quite expensive, with any useful non-magical book ranging from 15 to 50 gp in price. Magical books could sell for thousands of gold pieces, depending of the rarity and usefulness of the spells they contained. Due to the high cost of such wares, Jannaxil would sometimes accept to trade them against valuable magic items.
Jannaxil was willing to buy about any printed lore, accounting documents and letters. He also dealt in stolen goods if a prospective customer asked him in the right way.

Tourism

Secret tunnels

According to tavern talks, Jannaxil built hidden tunnels where he hid caches of powerful magic protected by monsters, including copies of every useful spells found in the books he sold over the years.

Black magic

Rumors said that Jannaxil's private apartments above the shop contained a large summoning chamber, which he used to conjure baatezu to work for him.

Type

Library

Parent Location

Dock Ward

Owner

Dwitt Serpentil

Characters in Location

• Dwitt Serpentil
• Jym Serpentil