So, I was reading my hard copy the other day and I came across all the wonderful stuff you could do with Azoth. I noticed that the pricing chart pretty much listed them as 100gp an ounce for everything but unrefined Azoth.
However, the Pan…whatever its called (not near my book right now) the healing goop is… REMARKABLE. It’s far superior to ANY healing potion and most non-ritual healing magic. Yet it costs 1/10th the price of a potion of cure light wounds? That doesn’t seem right.
Reading through it, you do raise a good point. If you’ve either got control of Dwimmermount’s facilities or you have created the facilities yourself, you’d be well suited to sell the stuff at a price it’s worth - underselling it by that much does nothing more than draw attention to yourself…well, more attention, as anybody running around selling snake oil that actually works is going to get themselves into a heap of trouble.
I’d agree it’d make more sense if the differing versions of refined azoth had different prices, based on their utility, costs of the “traditional” methods, and how much it really costs to procure azoth and refine it.
The prices as listed, if I was compelled to deduce a reason, would be -
The machinery outputs a ‘random’ type of refined azoth, and when it was developed it stopped there and a value was decided on later and made the same…
Azoth is supposed to be a ‘disruptive technology’, and setting it low makes it inherently more interesting and desirable to get one’s hands on the source, thereby fueling adventure - a gamist choice rather than a simulationist one.
If I were to introduce azoth outside of Dwimmermount, I’d certainly raise the prices to something more market-appropriate, if I was to introduce it as something someone’s selling. Within Dwimmermount’s setting, if the PCs were to be offered it for sale, I might keep it at the low number to tempt them in.
If my PCs were to turn around and sell at that price, I’d sigh, shake my head, and proceed to implement consequences.
The table is not an error. Azoth is akin to the gunpowder and coal of the Industrial Revolution, and its pricing does not reflect the typical low-magic high-cost pricing of ACKS.
THAT SAID, please note that using panchrest requires the character to make a saving throw on the Side Effects of Refined Azoth table. Characters who use panchrest a lot can get pretty messed up… at the least they are likely to turn chaotic eventually.