Palimpsest & Sons, The Red Margin
Est. 2026 • Human Bookseller and document restorer
Palimpsest & Sons, The Red Margin
Shop name suggestions include Palimpsest & Sons, The Red Margin, and House of Second Pages. The proprietor, Ilyra Venn, publicly condemns theft with theatrical ...
IL
Shopkeeper
Ilyra Venn, a Human Bookseller and document restorer
Keeper's Species
Human
3 Misc9 Misc1 Misc2 Misc1 MiscEst. 63 gp
Shop Inventory
(16)Miscellaneous3
Binder's Awl
6 cp
A practical bookbinder's awl for making sewing holes, prying stubborn clasps, or marking page positions.
Can puncture leather, wax, or thin wood. Not designed as a combat weapon.
Traveling Bookbinder's Kit
2 gp
A compact restoration kit wrapped in oilcloth, suitable for minor tears, loose signatures, and warped covers.
Grants a sensible edge when repairing ordinary books or preparing documents.
Archive Handling Set
1 gp
A beginner's document-handling set sold to apprentices and amateur genealogists.
Prevents oils from hands from damaging ordinary paper and helps identify tears, stains, and overwritten text.
Miscellaneous9
Good Blank Parchment
8 sp
Fine rag paper treated with sizing, sold to scribes, couriers, and nervous students.
Absorbs spilled ink and protects documents from damp for several hours.
Palimpsest Black Ink
1 gp
A stoppered ceramic vial of dense black writing ink, made from soot, gall, and a proprietary binder.
Produces dark, clean lines and dries quickly without feathering.
Red Margin Correction Ink
7 sp
A rich vermilion ink used for annotations, corrections, warnings, and the famous red margins of the shop's copied texts.
Stands out clearly in copied documents and is difficult to imitate without the correct pigment.
Contractor's Quire★ PRIZED
1 gp 5 sp
Durable legal paper with a subtle watermark of an open book beneath a sword.
Useful for contracts, petitions, receipts, and courier manifests.
Custody Receipt Seal
3 gp
A modest receipt seal for merchants, archivists, and couriers who need to mark a document's custody.
Creates a plain house seal reading 'Received and Recorded.' It has no official legal authority by itself.
Courier's Page Tube
9 sp
A discreet document tube favored by couriers who do not trust satchels.
Keeps a single letter, page, or narrow scroll dry and concealed in a sleeve or boot.
Rented Drawer Key
5 gp
A duplicate key for a rented document drawer, issued after a deposit and a tedious written agreement.
Does not open the proprietor's private cabinets, hidden lift, or archive-room locks.
Gentle Restoration Wash
1 gp 2 sp
A cautious cleaning solution for minor stains, sold with an alarming list of warnings.
Can lift light surface grime from sturdy paper, but careless use may smear ink or damage fragile pages.
Manuscript Mending Packet
8 sp
A simple repair packet for damaged manuscripts, including instructions written in an overbearing hand.
Repairs minor tears and reinforces weak folds when used with patience.
Miscellaneous1
Candlelit Archive District Map
2 gp
A carefully copied district map, updated by couriers and scholars who prefer not to ask official cartographers questions.
Folded into a leather sleeve with a string tie and revision date written in the margin.
Miscellaneous2
Second-Page Ledger
3 gp
A high-quality blank ledger for inventories, debts, coded observations, or more respectable secrets.
The paper is unusually smooth and takes correction ink cleanly.
The Surveyor's Missing Foundation
12 gp
A discreetly acquired text sold as antiquarian gossip. The proprietor insists it is harmless, though its provenance is suspicious.
The excerpt is incomplete and includes several deliberate omissions. It is not visibly magical.
Miscellaneous1
Archivist's False-Bottom Box
4 gp
A presentation box for valuable letters, seals, or fragments of old texts.
The inner compartment holds a single folded page. The box itself is mundane but built to look more important than it is.
Lootable Stash
(7)Where The Take Sits
The shop's real stash is divided between the cluttered back room and an upper archive room reached by a concealed hand-operated lift, an old dumbwaiter built into the leaning annex wall. Daily coin remains under the counter, while the most incriminating records and rare pages are hidden among respectable legal forms and damaged books. Through the shared wall, tavern patrons can hear scraping quills at night, especially when Ilyra is updating her ledger or preparing a discreet sale.
1 Money On Hand1 Personal Item1 Valuable Document1 Illicit Record1 Valuable Paper Fragment1 Personal And Practical Item1 Valuable Curio
Security Check
Dexterity using thieves' tools, or Intelligence using Investigation to identify the false shelves and alarm cords
DC 13
On Failure
A failed theft attempt disturbs a string of brass bells attached to the private cabinet and hidden lift. The proprietor, Ilyra Venn, arrives with a cudgel and loudly accuses the party of attacking respectable commerce. If the alarm is not contained, the tavern across the lane hears the commotion, a courier bolts for the watch, and the shop's illicit records are moved through the dumbwaiter before authorities arrive. A second failure reveals that one of the tavern's regulars has been paid to watch the shop's rear door.
Estimated haul
196.34 gp
Money On HandLoot target #1
Day's Receipts
18 gp, 11 sp, and 24 cp
Under the counter inside a false stack of unsold almanacs
A leather purse containing mixed coin from ordinary sales, restoration deposits, and small courier fees. The purse is kept beneath the counter because Ilyra refuses to trust a strongbox for daily business.
Personal ItemLoot target #2
Ilyra's Spectacles Case
7 gp
The proprietor's writing desk in the cluttered back room
A silver spectacles case engraved with Ilyra Venn's initials. It contains spare lenses, a tiny polishing cloth, and a folded note reminding her to collect a repaired manuscript from one of the named NPCs.
Valuable DocumentLoot target #3
The Damaged Manuscript
25 gp to a scholar, more if returned to its owner
Inside a linen-wrapped folio beneath the restoration table
A damaged manuscript brought in for repair by one of the two connected NPCs. Several pages are water-stained, but the intact sections contain names, dates, and references to a sealed archive collection.
Illicit RecordLoot target #4
The Red Ledger
40 gp to a rival bookseller, investigator, or blackmailer
Behind a loose rear panel of the tall cabinet marked 'Municipal Forms'
A suspicious customer ledger listing scholars, couriers, collectors, and intermediaries who purchased or sold discreetly acquired texts. Several entries use initials, coded prices, and tavern table numbers.
Valuable Paper FragmentLoot target #5
The Missing Page
75 gp to the interested NPC, 10 gp to an ordinary antiquarian
Stitched beneath the lining of a cracked legal codex on the upper archive-room shelf
A single missing page for which another NPC has offered an extravagant price. Ilyra has not sold it, but she has hidden it inside a discarded book cover while deciding whether to accept the offer.
Personal And Practical ItemLoot target #6
Ilyra's Archive Keys
5 gp as keys, considerably more as evidence of access
On a chain tucked into the proprietor's waistcoat
A ring of keys including the front door, storage cabinets, the dumbwaiter lock, and the rented drawer system. One key is a false lead, stamped with a sinister symbol that suggests it opens the dangerous text's vault, though it actually opens only a coal cupboard.
Valuable CurioLoot target #7
The Sleeping Fox Page Weight
15 gp
On the proprietor's desk beside the red correction ink
A miniature ivory page weight carved as a sleeping fox. Its base contains a hollow compartment with a pawn ticket from a private collector. The curio is not magical, but it proves Ilyra has traded with someone who prefers anonymity.
IL
Ilyra Venn
Human•Bookseller and document restorer•Lvl ?
Shop Atmosphere
“Shop name suggestions include Palimpsest & Sons, The Red Margin, and House of Second Pages. The proprietor, Ilyra Venn, publicly condemns theft with theatrical disgust while privately purchasing pages removed from sealed archives. She is a meticulous, status-conscious bookseller who corrects customers' grammar, dusts her cuffs after touching tavern patrons, and insists that every sale be recorded even when the description is deliberately vague. Her signature product is the Second-Page Ledger, a handsome blank book with exceptionally smooth paper and an indexed rear section. The shop is directly across the lane from a busy tavern and occupies the lower floor of a leaning archive annex. It is cramped, candlelit, and fragrant with ink, paste, old leather, and dry dust. Shelves sag beneath blank books, copied maps, legal seals, restoration tools, and discreetly acquired texts. The back room is a maze of stacked folios, drying racks, broken cabinets, and one concealed dumbwaiter connecting to an upper archive room. The dumbwaiter is operated by a counterweight and groans whenever used. The tavern and shop maintain a tense alliance because both depend on scholars and couriers, but Ilyra blames the tavern for attracting thieves. Through their shared wall, tavern patrons can hear scraping quills late into the night. One connected NPC has brought in a damaged manuscript for repair, while another has offered an extravagant price for a missing page. Ilyra claims the page is merely a worthless scrap, though her refusal to discuss it suggests otherwise. The obvious false lead is a key stamped with a sinister-looking archive symbol. It appears to open the dangerous or stolen text's vault, but actually opens only a coal cupboard. The real evidence is hidden in the suspicious customer ledger and in the altered binding of a cracked legal codex. The shop's respectable front barely conceals an illicit archival trade, and its carefully maintained records could expose scholars, couriers, collectors, tavern regulars, and perhaps the archive officials themselves.”
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