Magnus Greenbottom: Merchant Prince

Ship Name Update: Based on a combination of popular support and incredible appropriateness, your ship is now dubbed the ‘Swoose’. If you don’t know why, I suggest you read the comments on ‘Part II’ below.

This post will detail your NPC employer, Magnus Greenbottom. It will also provide a couple of miscellaneous house rules, so be sure to read at least those.

Magnus Greenbottom got his start with a single skyship and has traveled to more islands than most sailors twice his age. Where his tale begins is hazy; some say he was a mutineer, or stole the Swoose while her captain was sleeping off a hangover in port. Others report that he won her in a game of cards, or traded the location of an uncharted island for her. Magnus has little to say on the subject. What is known is that with that little ship, he built an empire.

Most merchant houses in the skies are groups of like-minded folk that specialize in a given commodity. Magnus Greenbottom is a solo opportunist; his business and personal funds are synonymous. His commodity is whatever is in demand. His business praxis has three key principles: trust, competition and retribution. He fosters trust with his employees through fair wages and free hands. His employees are among the best paid in the skies, often billeted in company buildings, and are encouraged to innovate while on company business if it appears profitable. Those who trade with him pay close attention to the fine print, but also know he delivers exactly that to which was agreed. A gifted economist, he’s made tens of thousands by inducing artificial shortages or glutting a competitor’s market with goods to grant himself more favorable trade conditions in the future. This has made him some enemies, but most find its better to work with Greenbottom than against him. A few captains and merchants have decided to cross Greenbottom; most of these are not heard from again. Rumors say his network of contacts spans an incredible distance. It is unlikely those who betray him will go unnoticed for long.

In his personal life, Magnus is known for flamboyance and excess. He loves technological gizmos, fine foods, and attractive women. He is constantly spending his sizable wealth on whatever he fancies, yet somehow always has enough to make payment when the creditors come knocking. He has become fat with age, but can muster some menace if needed. He has long mustachios tied with ribbons, like those common among the men of Bridgeways, and speaks with their halting manner. He rarely walks, instead preferring transport by sedan chair. He makes a show of most of his activities, including his “charitable” donations, which are of course just another method of cementing trade contacts with many of the temples and guilds.

Although the Trade Council often frowns upon his more dubious practices, action against him is rare. Between contraband, piracy, silent wars and other illegal activities rampant in the skies, there is little time to be spent worrying about Magnus’ less desirable activities. In addition, his fleet of ships and their cargos are always registered on time, a rarity in the skies, and one that provides considerable income to the Trade Council.

Each of your characters came to work for Magnus separately. You have entered into a contract to purchase shares on the Swoose, 1 share each. In addition, the captain receives an additional share of the profits. Many of you may have been working for him for some time, others might be relatively new additions to his employees. While it does not need to be a major portion of your character history, I will require some reason that you came to work for this man, and your opinions of him (and him of you, if you wish).

House Rules

Goons. Most of you know by now that the game defines 2 types of characters: extras (easily defeated enemies and minor npcs) and wild cards (major NPCs beginning at roughly equivalent to a PC and going way, way up). This is sufficient for most situations. However, one can imagine situations in which an intermediate enemy might be appropriate – particularly for combatant npcs. For instance, you might expect a Wild Card merchant to have a Goon Bodyguard and a number of Extra hirelings, or a Wild Card Pirate Captain, to have a Goon First Mate, and a number of Extra sailors. In mechanical terms, these Goons will have 2 or 3 wound levels but will not have the wild die. Be aware.

Knowledge skills and language points. In the interest of sanity, I’ve decided to do language skills in the following way: Unless you’ve taken a hindrance that negates this effect, each PC is expected to know his home language (e.g., elven, dwarvish, draconic, human – hereafter referred to as common, etc.), and speak it with the dialect of his choosing (based presumably on where he’s from). In addition, extra languages may be obtained, 1 per rank of smarts (i.e., d4 gives you 1, d6 gives you 2, etc.). All PCs are expected to know the common tongue; however, points in excess of this may be spent on knowledge skills (and only general, incidental-type knowledge skills) in the standard fashion. Feel free to modify your character sheets accordingly.

Example: Steve’s playing a drakin with a d8 in smarts who was trained by dwarven steampriests. He knows draconic with the dragon spine dialect. In addition, since his drakin is a pc, he knows common, taking one of his 3 language points (from his d8 in smarts), leaving him with 2. He decides his character also should know dwarven, based on his background, but other languages, don’t make much sense. He wants to put it into Knowledge (Pirates), but he already has a d8, and raising it to a d10 would cost 2 points. Instead, he puts his last point in Knowledge (voidology), bringing it up from d4 to d6.