I think it makes sense for your characters to know this, as I'm not sure if it's setting cannon or something I decided. I make such decisions often, especially in absence of clues in the book, or if there are clues that I don't find when I'm looking for them. My attitude, backed by the Talislanta GM's guide, is that the GM's views on the setting always takes precedence.<br/><br/><br/>So, Astromancy is not really popular around here. Finding an astromancer depends on your Knowledge skills and connections. The price he will claim depends on the deal you make, putting it honestly ;) . It's not like having market with fixed prices. Saristas are good hagglers, but so are mages with uncommon schools - they get a circumstance bonus for their deals.<br/>Probably another 100 golden lumens would make it, but the real problem is travelling to find one. There are some in Zandu, probably, but this is not the most popular school, to put it mildly. To a Sarista, it means either the whole clan moving, or someone risking robbers and thieves.<br/><br/>Of course, the above statement of "GM's decision" does not preclude your input, being players, provided it's logical and based on true information. If you have some idea that is a logical consequence of what you already know, don't, and I repeat,<strong>don't hesitate to step forward and ask me if it's true!</strong>It might be something I missed, a single person is not omniscient, GM or not!<br/><br/>By the way, the reason a GM's decisions take precedence over the setting is just that we need someone to enforce setting's consistency with what happens in the story. Make no mistake - the setting is pre-determined, and not "built on the fly". If something contradicts information you receive during the game, either your logic is wrong, your sources didn't have the freshest or sufficient info, they lied to you for some reason, or there is a building conflict that might escalate in a trade war, war of ideas, or just plain old war, probably in less than a quarter century >:)!<br/><br/>I think that became a long OOC post. Time to post the IC. Also, a tl'dr version means - astromancers are hard to find, their school is not too popular in Zandu.