Valerians' Old Scroll Shop

From http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/images/spellcomp_gallery/92208.jpg

Not just scrolls but all sorts of books, tomes and grimoires can be found here. Handy for students at the University, the Old Scroll Shop also caters to travellers on the West Road and curious townsfolk.

PCs of average or above average intelligence - anyone who can read above a basic level - can find that this place is a source of a variety of types of information. However, being there for long periods is a bewildering process, as the shop is not very well organised and sorting and reading the texts takes its toll after a while. The maximum time anyone can search for a specific text is 100 minutes in one day; the maximum time for non-specific searches is 60 minutes. After this, PCs are starting to go blind from reading dusty titles and introductory paragraphs in bad light.

If any specific non-magical text is sought (eg 'I'm looking for a copy of History of the Troll Wars by Erien'), each 10 minutes spent searching will provide a 1% chance that it will be found, up to 100 minutes. Further searching that day will be ineffective, though a searcher can come back on any number of days. The chance is always the same however, up to 10% on any day. If an item is not found, a request can be left with either of the Valerians (both senior Magic Users) and this means that for the next 10 days the chance of the item appearing and being kept by the Valerians goes up by 1% per day. They will only do this if the PC has made a thorough search already. After 10 days, the chance of them having the text will be 20%. After this, they will forget about it, and the process must start again.

For texts where a subject or author is known but not a title (eg, 'do you have anything on the Troll Wars?' or 'do you have anything by Erien?'), the shop has texts on history, poetry, religion, legends, herblore, astronomy, planar science, geography, martial arts and many other subjects. Any searches conucted in this manner will produce d3 leads per hour in a similar way to a rumour table that could be of use to adventurers (such as 'It says here that the Trollhammer was never recovered and is thought to be lost somewhere in the Misty Marshes' - though 1-in-6 of these leads will prove to be false). Alternatively, searching a subject area linked to the PC's class (eg martial arts or miltary history for fighters, crime and detection for thieves, history and theology for clerics etc) can produce texts that might help with a greater understanding of techniques etc. Make a test against intelligence in the normal way once every 10 minutes; if this is passed, then a single text that looks helpful has been found, and can be purchased. Study of this text for a week (intensive study, no goofing off on adventures) requires another check against intelligence; if passed, this will produce the following results (roll a d6):

1 - the PC picks up some erroneous information which hinders their professional development (misleading or just out-of-date information - some of the texts are very old!); this results in a loss of 5% of their current experience
2 - the PC has assimilated the book, but there is little that was not already known - the PC has gained nothing from the research
3-5 - the PC understands some aspects of the subject more clearly now; the PC gains a 5% bonus to their current experience
6 - the text contains startling new information or methods of approaching the subject - the PC gains a 10% bonus to current experience.

For magical texts, roll on the general magic items subtable for each 10-minute period spent searching but not looking for a specific text. Ignore non-scroll results - they indicate that something was found that refers to the type magic item in question, but that is all. If a scroll is indicated by the roll, roll for the specific type. The character has found this specific scroll, and can attempt to purchase it from the Valerians. It  probably won't be cheap, but it probably won't be extremely expensive either, unless (10% chance) the Valerians dislike the subject matter, in which case they might put the price up to put people off buying it. No more than 6o minutes can be spent searching in this fashion, and no character will be able to find more than one scroll in a day. That's just how it works.

For a random book generator, there is Seventh Sanctum's 'Bookspinner' - set the category (General Fantasy, Oriental Magic, Fantasy History, Medieval Weaponry etc), tick the 'Include information on Quality' box, and set 'Chance of extras' to 50% and away you go. Sometimes the results need a little tweaking, but it's a great way to fill a fantasy library (or in this case bookshop). Also included on Seventh Sanctum is a page of name generators - here - that has listings for 'Extreme Fantasy', 'Elf', 'Dwarf', 'Goblin', 'Greek', 'Evil' and many other classes of names. If you can't find a few authors for the books on sale, then you're not trying hard enough.